Hi everyone or no one as it may be. I have no way of knowing if anyone even reads these posts, but they help me to sort my thoughts. I realized that i never really talked about photography in the last post. Yeah, I talked about the Milky Way but not about imaging it with all kinds of technical stuff. I know a bunch of technical stuff but I would rather talk about what I love and what intrigues me. Being nice. That intrigues me. Have you ever noticed that if you go through life with a frown, people avoid you? It’s like some kind of radar or something. It says ” stay away”. But, if you greet every person you meet as if you actually know them, the radar says “safe”? They react to you as if they know you too. They smile and maybe they exchange a thought or two. Interactions with others can either be positive or negative. If you say the first word, and i almost always do, I choose something to laugh about, or smile about. It cuts the ice. I have met more people in the grocery stores than almost anywhere else. It has been said that I never meet a stranger. I love people, but I don’t like people. I guess it’s that I like individuals, not the masses. I cannot impact the masses. I don’t have that kind of pull, but I can impact a person as an individual. Just one today and maybe another one tomorrow. The person you see sitting alone or maybe the person who seems irritated in the check out line. Just say something nice. Say something funny. Say anything to take that person’s mind off of whatever he or she may be dealing with. When you give a hug, give it freely and strongly. Don’t be afraid to hold on a bit longer than you should. Maybe that person at that moment needed you to hang on with all your might so that they had the strength to not give up. There is never a reason to be ugly even if you are angry. Smile. It’s contagious. Try it and you will see what I am talking about. So, say something nice. Add to the world today and it will give it back tomorrow. Just you wait and see. Thanks for visiting.
Let’s Talk Photography
I don’t want to talk about building a website today. I got so sidetracked with updates to the site yesterday that I never did get to plugins and widgets. My mind is on overload again, so I would prefer something that makes me smile. Photographing the night sky in all it’s glory. The Milky Way is leaving us for the year. She won’t be back until spring. Well, that’s sort of true but not completely. The Milky Way is there all year long, but the core goes beneath the horizon before the sun sets so it is not visible this time of year. It took me a long time to understand that. You see, the Milky Way is much like the sun and the moon except it does not lie within our solar system, we lie within it. We are on the outer edge looking inward. But much like the moon, there are times when it is above the horizon during the day. We can see the moon when it’s up during the day but we cannot see the Milky Way. It’s there all right, but the sun washes it out and blinds us to it. This cycle does not take 4 weeks like the moon does, It cycles month to month so that it is up during the day in the winter. That leaves us with the rest of the night sky which also cycles. During the summer, the southern skies are filled with stars, gathered in a long ribbon that stretches north to south and moves through the sky east to west. That’s the Milky Way. In the winter, the northern skies are filled with stars and there are fewer stars to the south. I find this fascinating. I am off in November to some of the darkest skies in the U.S. I plan to shoot north and create star trails. As soon as i figure out how to make a page with my images, I’ll show you what that looks like. In the mean time, just keep swimming. Whatever your journey is, know that with time you can reach your goal. Thanks for visiting.
Plugins, Widgets, Pages and Posts
I got the background changed. I even got my name on the image. What I didn’t realize was that it would crop my name off. I swear, every step I take is sometimes just a step backward. I had such a hard time getting the water mark on the image at all that I forgot to pay attention to the size. I read that somewhere. Something about 500×500. I decided that was good enough for now. It’s not that great of a shot of the Milky Way anyhow. It’s from when I first started my journey learning to shoot the night sky so nothing lost there. Today, I am learning the difference between pages and posts, and plugins and widgets. Who comes up with these names? I understand the difference between pages and posts, but widgets and plugins are a bit more involved. Which ones do you want and why. Do you just settle on a premium theme that already has the stuff you are looking for? I really don’t know, but I’m going to find out. Right after I go inside and clean house. It has been sadly neglected for the last 6 weeks while I tried to figure this stuff out. Don’t laugh, yeah it took me that long. Life must go on even when you wish you could just hang out here in the studio and read some more. Maybe watch a video on plugins and widgets. It’s a good thing I am retired and have all the time in the world, at least until I don’t. Hang in there. Whatever your journey may be, one step at a time. Thanks for visiting.
Today’s Adventure
Watermarking my images was thought to be a reasonably easy task to accomplish. It was not. There are so many choices to make. Do i use generic or do i search for something a bit more custom. Then you get into whether you can use it only for personal use or can you use it for business purpose without legal liability. More research. Blah, Blah, Blah. That’s what is in my head right now. All I want is a really cool watermark that is easy to apply to my images. Poof! Magic fairy makes it happen. Yeah right in someone else’s world. My world always seems to choose the most difficult path. If I were my 8 year old grandson, I would have been done days ago. My site would be up and running, a beautiful creation, for all to see. Awe, to be young like a sponge when all the information settles so easy in one’s mind. Alas, I am old and my mind does not absorb like it used to. I settled for something generic and safe. It gets the job done and i can tackle this another day. I just needed to be able to use one of my images as a background for my site. Now that i have the watermark in place, I can begin the task of learning how to upload it as the background. I’ll let you know how that went in my next post. Thanks for visiting.