Photo Hibernation

     It's nearly May and I'm still in Outdoor Photography Hibernation.  April in this part of the U.S. can often be characterized as part of the Mud Season.  No outdoor friends I have like the mud season because it is just so drab and ... boring.  This year mud season is lasting longer than usual but finally I'm seeing some color start to emerge from below and above.  The first daffodils are popping up, the goldfinches are putting on their pastel jackets.  This morning I noticed for the first time that the salmon-pink buds of the big maple on the edge of the back garden are adding color to the emerging spring. What's missing?
     Looking at the metadata from warblers the past few years tells me that they should be here or at least on their way by now but no one wants to be the first to the party this year.  I should be preparing gear if I want to catch their arrival.  I have a new bit of gear to test on the birds of spring, a Cam-Ranger.  It helps photographers to use our cameras on remote by linking the view of a digital camera to a remote (like inside or up to 100 feet removed from the scene) computer or tablet.  Supposedly, it allows zoom, aperture, shutter-speed and focus to be controlled off-site.  If my description sounds tentative, that's because I've had it for months and haven't yet learned to use it.  So why am I blogging instead of learning and gearing up?  Good  question. Guess I should post this and start tending to color capture preparation.

  Later,  BP

It's mid-April,

     It's raining, it's chilly inside and out, so I thought I might start a blog; just to see what it feels like to be a "blogger".  So far, it's not unlike journaling, keeping a journal, which is something I've done almost continuously since my teens.  No one reads my journals - not even me - unless I'm looking for a bit or scrap of information that I might have written about or alluded to in the past.  For example, consider an ornithological bit, the great white heron.
     Among those who can distinguish a heron from a crane, I wonder how many people know there is such a thing as a great white heron and it's not just another name for a great (white) egret?  I did some research on the topic back in grad school in the early 1990's, so I can go back to my journal from the time frame and it will either have useful information or it will point me to a folder or binder where I would have kept the information.
     Understand that in the early 1990's we were just making the transition from paper reprints, hanging files, and the like; to Portable Document Files, scans, and JPEGs. Analog to digital.  As far as my journal, I did flirt with keeping a separate, digital "journal" on a floppy disk, but it didn't feel right, not tangible.  I needed something more palpable and besides, I kept going back to earlier entries and editing them.  I've always liked pens and papers for their own qualities, so I was still journaling my thoughts and notes in a physical notebook.  I still keep a personal journal and it is pen or pencil on paper.  As with my social stationary, the pen and paper get a little better, and the journals are standard refills that I pop in and out of a leather cover.  It's all very tactile.
     Now, here I am, "blogging".  The big difference is that the blog won't deal with thoughts on life & death, the tilt of the earth, or how I'm feeling a little older everyday when I roll out of bed.  This blog (journal) will deal with photography.  I'll write about preparation to make the right photo, taking the photo itself and what I do with the RAW file or exposed film that comes from my camera.  I'll praise some things (Nikon D800) and snub others (Nikon D800).  Today was just a matter of getting started.
     I hadn't planned to start a blog today, or on any other particular day in the near future.  But it's April - that cruel month - and somehow I got to this start page.  It felt like the right thing to do, so, Blaine Paul Photography now has a voice beyond images.  Business is slow so I hope to make the website, www.blainepaulphoto.com , and the blog a little better as the first flora of spring struggle in the garden to create the colorful backgrounds I'll use for Class of '15 Senior portraits.

Later,
BP