David’s Blog
On Writing
It is much easier to begin not to write than it is to not write once you begin.
Super Wildflower bloom
Just in case you haven't heard there is a 'super-bloom' for wildflowers going on right now out in our western deserts. It is due to heavy El Nino rains this last fall and the reports I have seen are that there are flowers in places that haven't seen flowers in a decade. Death Valley National Park has been mentioned frequently as has Joshua Tree and the...
Time, Space and Waves
A) Is it only me or have you noticed that there are a lot of drivers out there who have taken a fancy to backing into parking spaces? What's with that? It is hard enough for most people to go forward and get between the yellow lines but backing in? It doesn't take Einstein to figure out that it is easier and faster to simply pull into a parking space. It's...
Frost!
It has been suddenly so cold here for the past three days that all the moisture that was in the ground from our unusually warm winter has turned into beautiful frost patterns where ever there is the smallest bit of water. I went out for a walk and found a small puddle near a spring that was wonderfully etched with frost. Once again without my camera (will...
Trying Again
One more time I ventured out into the cold to try to improve upon my last image with the contrasty light. I was really going out just for a scouting trip but once I got there I pulled out my phone and took some pics just for fun. I went back when it was -18 out with a -32 windchill but it turns out that my mind was as dysfunctional as my camera at that...
Looking for winter
It's been a very unusual winter here in Vermont. Despite what you may have heard or surmised northern New England has not been visited by winter this year. The big snow storm that hit Washington DC and New York City delivered not a flake here (we have plenty of our own) and the last one a week ago missed us as well. Looking out my window as I write this...
Back when I was a kid…
I walked into a Bed, Bath & Beyond yesterday and saw a curious display of colorful plastic items that looked like those protective plastic cases that some eggs come in but on a much larger scale. Each one had two hinged sides of six round indents the size of half a baseball that could close creating a six-pack of hollow ball-shaped spaces. And what was...
The New 50!
Strap in and buckle up, it's going to get bumpy! For the last few years it has become popular to say when someone is celebrating a significant birthday that "50 is the new 40" or "60 is the new 50." Have you ever noticed who was saying this nonsense? It is not 60 or 70 year-olds. They know that there is nothing 50ish about being 60 or 60ish about being...
A Major Movement!
I have come to a big turn in my photography life. I am moving away form the 'how it's always been' to 'try something different.' No, it's not anything you, my kind readers, are going to ever notice but it is still significant. I have started the process of casting out the old and unneeded and replacing it with the shiny and new and unneeded. Afters years...
Don’t be Intimidated
I received in the mail the other day the equipment catalog for Really Right Stuff. RRS makes everything from quick release plates to tripods to ball heads to every kind of photography related gadget you can possibly imagine. And in my case, far more than I can imagine. There is gear in that catalog- 100 pages long!- that I have no idea how or why I would...
Florida Then and Now
I have been going to Florida, especially South Florida for many, many years and yet it wasn't until recently that I saw what it was supposed to look like. I always knew that there were a lot of exotic plants and animals in southern Florida everything from South American birds to Caribbean plants. Today the exotics are even worse- boas in the Everglades,...