Up Close and Pedantic

In honor of Barb

Cheryl makes a pretty good Michelada

As is my habit lately, I am attempting to weave the bar conversation around Linda G. Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. Today, Linda is letting us off our chain, as it were:

“Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is ‘your favourite word.’ What’s your favourite word? Write about it, base your post on it, or just write about the concept of having one. Enjoy!”

If we were having a beer, you would be teetering on the edge of giving me a compliment.

“I notice that you’ve been back on the search for the macro mode on your camera.”

“Yeah, that feature has been bugging me.”

“Does the camera actually have a macro setting?”

“It has several macro-ish features.”

“Macro-ish? It’s never easy with you is it?”

“Never easy with Dan? What are you talking about? Dan, how would you like a nicely dressed Corona?”

“That sounds great, Cheryl.”

“See, easy-peasy. Now, what about you?”

“I can be easy too, Cheryl. I’ll have a glass of wine and a snifter of seltzer.”

“Done! Coming right up.”

“Can we start over? You apparently figured out how to take close-up photos – what’s the secret…RTFM?”

“Reading the…manual was involved, but it wasn’t that simple.”

“One Corona, one Meiomi and a snifter of seltzer. I hope it didn’t involve the standard male approach to problem solving.”

“Thanks Cheryl, for the beer, but what exactly is the standard approach?”

“Take it apart.”

“No, I didn’t take it apart. I did take a lot of pictures, though.”

“How hard can it be?”

“It shouldn’t be hard at all, but 90% of my close-up pictures were blurred.”

“Blurry.”

“Huh?”

“I think you wanted to say blurry, not blurred. I’m sorry for being pedantic; words are a thing with me. Please, continue.”

“OK then, as I was saying, most of my close-up attempts would end up – blurry – even though, it appeared that they would be nice images.”

“What does that mean? I mean, it’s a digital camera, right?”

“It is, and I would get the image looking good in the preview, but it would turn out to be blurry.”

“Oh, that makes a difference.”

“What are you talking about? What difference?”

“If the camera was doing something to the image, blurred was the right word.”

“What difference does it make? They mean the same thing.”

“Yes, but there are slight differences. You can usually use either one, but not in all cases.”

“Geeze, listen to you two, arguing over grammar. When does football start?”

“Three months, Cheryl. Say, you take wonderful close-up photos. Has it ever been a problem getting the focus right?”

“I love macro photography. You might be trying too hard with the focus, depending on what surrounds your subject, you’re going to have some blur – if I’m using that word correctly – but I love that effect. Anyway, I was just wondering if you boys want some food, or if you need another round. “

“If my young friend is interested, I would like a pizza today.”

“Pizza sounds pretty good.”

“Two smalls or do you think you can agree on one large today?”

“We can’t even agree on blurry or blurred. I don’t think there’s any hope for pizza toppings.”

“Give us a minute Cheryl. I think we can settle this.”

“The blurred thing…or the pizza?”

“The pizza.”

“While the old man figures this out, Cheryl, it seems I do need another beer.”

“Finally, a clear thought from one of you.”

“Speaking of clear…what’s the secret solution to your camera problems?”

“Apparently, the macro feature doesn’t work in all shooting modes.”

“Isn’t there a button, or an indicator?”

“There is a button and an indicator, but it doesn’t always work. Also, sometimes, the macro feature is turned on by default.”

“What, when the camera sees a bug or a water drop?”

“No, when you choose close-up mode, or one of the portrait modes.”

“So why do you even need a button?”

“The button works at – some – other times.”

“Here’s your beer. Did you guys decide on a pizza?”

“I suggest a large pie with just pepperoni.”

“That’s sounds good to me.”

“Wow, you guys actually agree on something. I’m going to put that order in now, so you can’t change your minds.”

“At the risk of setting off one of your long-winded explanations, if you know all of this about your camera, why has it taken you three years to get decent close-up pictures?”

“It’s complicated.”

“Duh.”

“Even if you’re in close-up mode, or have the macro button on, the feature is disabled at certain zoom levels, and it only focuses within a certain distance from the subject.”

“So if you move the zoom…”

“…or the camera.”

“Pizza’s in. This Corona has found a lime, and you need to set the AF Lock on your camera.”

“The what?”

“AF – Auto-Focus – tell it to stay focused on your subject.”

“How do I do that?”

“RTFM.”

“Thanks Cheryl. That may be the missing piece of this puzzle.”

“Well, I’m glad you figured that out.”

“I didn’t know you liked my close-up shots.”

“It’s not that.”

“What then?”

“If you’re taking close-ups, you aren’t taking pictures of Hartford from that boat dock.”

“Speaking of which, I got some great ones of Hartford in the fog yesterday.”

“Hartford? Blurry?”

“Yes, blurred by fog.”

“Correct! You catch on fast.”

Today’s gallery has a few more attempts at close-up photos and some of my old favorites. Be sure to check Cheryl’s site – she’s made those hush puppies and will be posting later today.

Hartford is trying to escape the fog.

Looks like everybody is fishing today.

I was able to get this image, without too many attempts.

Coming up out of the park, meeting the sunrise head-on.

It’s hard to see, but the parking lot is covered by a couple inches of mud.

They’ve hauled out the debris that caused much of the damage.

Looking south from the park.

They put the dock in the water, but it’s a little off target.

It’s hard to see, but the parking lot is covered by a couple inches of mud.

Now that they’re cleaning up the park, we’re seeing some of the damage Old Man Winter caused.

These blossoms are tucked in between levels of grass.

Here’s where it goes wrong. The camera’s focus shifted to the leaves.

If you look close, you can see one of the baby bunnies calling our back yard home. More of them in on Monday.

The white rhododendrons bloomed weeks ago – these are just starting.

The white rhododendrons bloomed weeks ago – these are just starting.

Trying to get some close-up shots of the rhododendrons.

The Korean Dogwoods are starting to bloom.

Maddie is curious about something, but I don’t see anything.

The first picture looked good, so I tried to get a little closer.

Dandelions have been a favorite close-up target of mine. Very few have turned out well.