Wait you did WHAT?

I often have to wait for hubby to do something. 

He says I'm going to: ___________ fill in the blank. It is something he needs assistance with because he can no longer do it.

He then will sit down for a bit while I get the ___________ ready. His next move is to proclaim that he is tired and he needs a nap before ___________ing. I'm stuck. He needs to get this done and he puts things off and off and off and ... off. Ask him to get moving and the petulant child rises up and he trundles off to the bedroom and lays down. Another tactic is to ask for a cup of coffee and then sit with the cup for a half hour and not say a word.

I'm not going to get into what _________ was. Just know that it can refer to everything...EXCEPT eating. If it is something regarding eating, he gets to the table OR asks loudly from the other room. *What's for supper, what's for lunch?* You get the idea. Meals? Right now please as if I am a short order cook. 

Meh. Calling me a Cook is really quite the fallacy. I'd rather be a princess.

So during my time periods where I have to sit and wait for him, I generally do some research into something like flowers. What kind of flowers would I like to plant? What kind of flowers would I like to photograph? Which flowers attract butterflies?

And how on earth do some of those photographers get such incredible and ethereal shots? Some photographers use special lenses such as a Helios or a Lensbaby. There are also something called the Sigma Art lens. 

I look at tutorials and sigh at some of the incredible shots these pros take. I don't want to purchase any of those lenses. But I'd like to figure out how to do some of those incredible shots with just a regular lens.

One tutorial suggested some great tips. I know the tips she suggested, but it never hurts to review them after a long winter. Isolate the subject, find a spot of interest, watch the lighting, and a bit of cloud cover is helpful.

Then YouTube suggests another video with 'lens hacks'. I'm curious so I watch it. The guy suggests an interesting idea. Or a horrifying idea!

He suggests putting Vaseline on the lens. It creates a a soft vignette with a lot of bokeh on the edges of the photo.

OH no. Nope Nope Nope.

I watch another tutorial. This guy suggests putting a sandwich bag over the lens to create a soft focus. I try it and it just seems like I'm taking a soft shot. But it is pretty interesting and the photograph he takes looks like Orton Photography.

What if... I place Saran Wrap over the lens and use a hair tie to hold it in place?

And then? What if I use Vaseline on top of the Saran Wrap? 

I pulled the wrap tight and held it with a hair tie. I went outside to take any shot just to see what the results would be.

I couldn't find a flower to photograph but I did find an old Creeping Charlie leaf sticking up near the spring garden.

I was surprised by the circles of light that appeared. They were obviously from the Vaseline. Shooting into the light wasn't really the best thing to do.

So I tried something else.

The effect was pretty neat. The shot through the wrap and the Vaseline did provide a bit of glow around the subjects. This is exactly as I shot it without any touch ups. 

So now I'm wondering how I can use this trick again more effectively.

Another video showed a photographer using a plastic bag like the kind you get when you purchase groceries. She poked holes in the bag over the center of the lens and shot through it. The result was a milky soft looking vignette around her subject.

As I said this is what I am doing while waiting. Waiting for the other half to get ready to do you know...something. 

This isn't always the case. Sometimes the ___________ can be put off until another time. 

This behavior is in his DNA so to speak. Even when he didn't suffer from dementia, he would drag his feet if we had to do something on schedule. I am that person that shows up to a meeting 15 minutes ahead of time. He was that person that figured he'd just show up on 'whatever' time.

I finally gave up. I turned to my photo table and decided to just occupy myself with portraits of two Lego Gym Characters.

No Vaseline, no bags, nothing fancy. Just a piece of foggy plastic with a light under it and my CrossFit Viroqua water bottle behind them.

I thought about the Stud Shooters Challenge of Bad Weather and tried to figure out how to use Vaseline across the bottom of the lens to produce a foggy effect and Baking Soda to create snow.

It was a failure. I spread Vaseline on the bottom of the lens and then used Baking Soda smeared onto the Vaseline to create a fog effect. In retrospect, the Vaseline and the Baking Soda should have taken up most of the lower half of the lens.

However, one experiments and learns. Failure is part of learning.

So yeah. I am experimenting with Saran Wrap, Vaseline, and Baking Soda on a lens. 

Crazy, right?

Yep.

I had to quit because the other half got up and proclaimed that HE was not going to do _____________. And he'd wait until tomorrow.

Well. Tomorrow will come and I'll pull some more patience out of the air somewhere.

But now I have some cool ideas to try.

I can't wait for some spring flowers to appear so I can try these odd and weird methods on them.

The Nicest Little Girl

has become the nicest young lady. 

Her family was my 'upstairs' neighbor for about six years. I was pretty fortunate to get along with her mom and I enjoyed helping her out with her children once in a while if she needed it. 

They eventually sold the house and moved away and I've remained friends with mom and the kids.

Ambrosia is 18 now and is looking at journalism as a possible career and something to pursue in college. Currently she does assignments for a small local paper. Sometimes it is doing fact gathering and research and at other times she has to go to an event and take pictures along with her write up.

I gave her my old Nikon DSLR. She has been using it on auto and has really treated the camera well. She said it has come in very handy on assignments but she wanted to learn more because she was certain that she would be sent to cover sports events soon and wanted to have some guidance.

Our fun adventure today was to go find some ice formations and just walk and chat like we did when she was little. The conversation turned towards journalism, colleges, and careers.

We went to the look out first and I helped her do a run through on the Nikon. She took some photos from the look out and commented that her battery was really low. 

I had her remove the battery and stick it in her pants pocket next to her warm skin. She'd forgotten to bring her spare battery.

Outlook:

Every time I take this trail, I photograph this exact scene. It is amazing to go back through the past years and see how this view changes. The river was frozen over which is unusual this time of the year. Going out on the frozen river is not advised at all.

So Ambrosia learned a lesson in how to keep her battery warm in the cold weather.

We made it to the first ice falls and made our slippery way down the steep hillside.

When she could see the ice formation, I heard "Oh my. That is..."

I smiled. Yep. That. Is.

So we did a little photo lesson. We both had zoom lenses which would go from about 14mm to 200mm. We first shot the little ice formation at 14mm.

Then the 200mm zoom.

Ambrosia's comment was. "Look at the details!"

We moved further down the dry run near the Kickapoo River.

Again we did the same thing.

Zoomed in.

I pointed to the next section where there were two more ice formations and while we were looking at how to get to it, the wind picked up and started dropping snow on us.

I lifted the camera and said, "Shoot, shoot!"

We both marveled at the snow falling and blowing from the tree tops above.

Next up was an ice shelter and ice falls just to the south of the previous one.

I suggested she pick a composition and told her I was shooting for a black and white photo that showed off the zig zags and cascading ice falls.

We walked on and headed towards one more spot where the ice was forming.

Some fungi on a tree caught her eye and I told her to go for it.

I walked around behind her and took this:

Her battery was just about all done in, and we had to get back to her mom's house at a certain time.

She told me more about her journalism job and the schools she'd applied to and somehow we ended up talking about how to start a fire if we were lost with birch bark, birch wood, and chaga.

Her eyes brightened and she thought that would make a great story for her little local paper. "A story about winter camping!"

She paused, "And I could photograph the steps of doing it!"

"We have to do this more often," she said. She is a Senior now and going into her last semester. She said her class load will be a bit lighter and maybe...she ... we can get together more.

I hope so, she is one busy young lady, but still just as gentle and kind as ever. She juggles a lot of things, a part time job, school, and family obligations.

It was so much fun to see her discover things through the lens and then think up ideas of how she could use the camera. Spending time with her is always so enjoyable.

I'll go by the little bell on the blue yarn and ring it more often!