Taking Stock

Here I am nearly one week into my Summer Phase. I'm still futzin' around the DaveCave, knocking out chores and finding more in need of my attention. The weather has finally taken a turn for the better...save for the forecast winds out of the north...still they play havoc with my sturgeon fishing plans.

In the minutes and hours where I'm between chores or rewarding myself for a chore well done by lazing about, I've been taking stock of the season just ended...weighing the pluses and minuses, the highs and lows...on my way to filing the season into my pantheon of Seasons Past.

The verdict is still out...it's still too soon to make an honest judgment. Eventually 2009/2010 will drift into it's place. Today, I'm leaning towards remembering 09/10 when I remember "The Good Old Days". I haven't found many negatives that matter. Don't get me wrong, there's a passel of little negatives...that's why it's called work. If you have a Work Ethic, these are minor annoyances taken in stride, forgotten by the time next season rolls around.

There is one thing...it's my own fault, but it still irks me. I broke the LCD screen on my digital camera. Thursday night, while lazing about with the internet, I won an eBay auction to replace the camera! Last summer at the Ancestral Digs, I finally made the quantum leap that enabled me to wield the Canon Point and Shoot with the facility of a Real Camera. I learned to control the flash. In photography, using natural light and properly controlling artificial light is everything.

This pocket-sized shooter has a half dozen flash modes, but doesn't accept filters because the lens retracts fully into the body when it shuts down. This camera came out in 2003, I bought mine in the Spring of 2004 for $260 online. It's taken thousands of photos, several good ones too. Still, I was beginning to entertain the idea of splurging on a Nikon Digital SLR when I hit upon the secret to the little Canon's flash.

I was taking a series of "Obscured Self Portraits" for Facebook and Twitter profile use, featuring my unshaven mug half hidden behind different 22oz bottles of Commemorative Craft Brewed Ales and Beers. All this fuss began when Facebook added that facial recognition "feature" that was "ON" by default! The dang flash was too hot, held at arm's length, so trying to salvage my idea, I took a white PostIt©, and held it over the flash, and Voilà instant, cheap Flash Diffuser! The reflection of the flash on the bottles and my sunglasses didn't jump out of the photo anymore!

This little epiphany turned the Point & Shoot into a bona fide tool to express myself with, though I do have to wonder about my creative side when I named one of my photo files, "Snarky One 2009"

Back to the eBay deal, if the replacement camera works as advertised, I will have replaced my original $260 camera with a used, $37 duplicate, while still lusting for the Nikon DSLR...not bad...rearmed I can play the wait-it-out game on the DSLR...the price will come to me, it always has.

Now, back to the Post Season Ledger...the broken camera cost me $37 in real world funds...but it cost way more in my way of thinking. I broke the screen just as we were getting the season under control. I'd been cataloging a number of photos I wanted to make for CorduroyPlanet once I could get ahead of the nightly grind's demands. I bought a dozen of the Beachballs to photo in every possible grooming context I could think of..either .as Logos, or just props.

Modern Groomers are a wonderland of angles, textures, colors and shapes. I could spend hours snapping pictures of just nuts and bolts...then there's the hoses, hydraulics, combs, mirrors, rams, tracks, blades, tillers...and on and on...next year.

Not having the LCD makes just about everything about making photos four times the trouble. This week's series of Beachball Logo pix would have been impossible if I had to adhere to Bedtime and Work Nights.

So this Summer I'll be snapping away with the CorduroyPlanet Beachballs in tow...I'm already wondering if they still sell kid's kites in toy stores anymore...I'm gonna need some aerial shots!