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August 9, 2011

Still Light, Maybe

Tuesday. What to say? The alarm, awake, up, to breakfast and back, the day overcast. A decent breakfast, a decent attitude given my ambivalent history with the subject. Have no idea what the day will bring, but it's now a Tuesday before a guitar lesson Wednesday and I need to go through the lesson a number of times to be sure I've made the wanted progress. But that's a given and there's plenty of day left to screw it up.

Later. I can't find even a small change in my reality of yesterday yet the thought of going downtown on the bus this morning now seemed a no brainer, go have a cup of coffee outside in the City Center or on the patio in front of Peet's. The bus arrived as I reached the stop and ten minutes later I was sitting in the City Center out in the sun in front of the Fountain Café with a small cup of coffee and a scone, the place reasonably empty after ten before the lunch crowd arrived.

A walk then back to the apartment taking a picture or two. Heading down Grand near my street this guy came out of an open drainage gate set in the gutter. Wish I'd gotten a better shot. Next time just shoot, don't wait for him to do something more interesting. The worst that can happen is you've got some unusable film files.

Another stop to sit out on the patio in front of Specialty's Café at a table near the Cathedral fountain, the shade under the umbrellas and trees I thought nice in the morning light. I didn't need any more coffee or scones, but the attitude was good even if the body was getting tired. Another photograph of roofers working across the street. I'd been wondering as I approached. What was that sound? Ah, a nail gun!

And that's the excitement for the day? A nail gun in the distance?

As I said, the attitude was different by what seemed the barest amount, yet, for some reason, I was now comfortable heading downtown where yesterday I wasn't willing to think about it. I even looked for the shuttle bus for Jack London Square. Another change in temperament, thinking of going on to the Square. Perhaps the capper was walking back the two miles to the apartment (a little more tired than I have been in the past - got to keep the walking up) thinking about getting out the big 200mm f 2.0 lens with a teleconverter and lugging it over to the lake, see what birds might be about. Seeing that raccoon may have sparked the thought. A radical thought, even more radical if I should actually go out and do it.

Later still. Got out the lens. Yes, it's every bit as heavy as I remember and maybe heavier, the result, no doubt, of efforts to put the memory of buying it without trying it out of my mind. Still, it is portable, sort of. I have a nice carbon fiber monopod to mount it on and, with the 2x teleconverter attached on the D2Xs it's a full 600mm f 4.0 equivalent piece of glass. Which is useless sitting here in the apartment. Need to get to the lake. If not today, then this week. Tomorrow. If the head is in decent shape. hup!

Evening. OK, feel better, I'd head out the door right now with the camera and lens if it were still afternoon. Let's see if the idea lasts through tomorrow. It's early in the evening, still light, maybe....

The photograph was taken at a gallery on 25th Street during the August Art Murmur with a Nikon D3 mounted with a 24-120mm f 4.0 Nikkor VR lens.


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