Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Tag Archives: Photography


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Brain v.s. AI

Lately, not often, but once in awhile, I notice something in my periphery vision that looks like a person standing off in the distance. Down the road, across the lawn, far away. It’s just a moment, mostly a dark grey shadow, and when I look directly there’s nothing there. Once in awhile there’s a small tree or a mailbox but lots of times there’s nothing there at all.

I brought it up with my nurse practicioner at my annual physical and she asked me if I had told my ophthalmologist. I hadn’t but I had an appointment coming up, so I said I would. Today I sat in the chair with my eyes dialated and told him the story.

He started smiling and said he usually sees this in 90 year old people. And that it’s just my brain that sees something and fills in the rest to create, for a moment, something that makes sense. I had thought that was what was going on myself, so was relieved when he looked in my eyes and didn’t see anything to worry about.

But the whole experience reminded me of something that happened when I was processing photos from my night under the stars with a friend and her daughter. I processed one photo where the daughter’s phone was shining down near the bottom of the frame. I had been shooting the stars above her, but sometimes she ended up in the image.

On this particular photo, one of the first I worked on, I thought it was just her phone that was glowing. I used the ‘remove’ button in Lightroom to get rid of that glowing shape. I had never used that function before. I edited the rest of the image, knowing the whole bottom 1/3 of the picture was dark beach.

Turns out it was her face that was lit up, and when I erased her face I left the rest of her body intact. That is, if you read the instructions on how to use this button, a problem.

Witout knowing any of this I thought maybe I’d lighten up the dark beach just a touch and see how that looked beneath the Milky Way. And I got this:

Turns out I had only disappeared her face, and Lightroom, with it’s infinite AI wisdom knew there couldn’t be a person with no face, so it created one for me. If you look carefully you’ll see a guy sitting in a chair. The chair that was right there with us all night.

I actually thought for a couple minutes that some guy had joined us for the night of star gazing, even though I knew there was no guy there. And then I shared the new image with my friend and her daughter and they freaked out too.

No, no guy quietly came and sat in our chair. It’s just that AI completed the person I had left in the image. Just like my brain completes the image it thinks it sees out of the side of my eye.

No wonder it’s hard to know what the truth is anymore.


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Magical

Almost a week ago now we had clear skies, no moon, and moderate temperatures. It was all perfect for a Milky Way photo shoot. So a photographer friend and I along with her daughter took a run up to the thumb of Michigan to find somewhere to spend the night under the stars.

Best to know where you are.

There’s a special barn up there, and I’ve always thought it might make a good Milky Way foreground.

This barn is “in” the town of Pigion.

We checked it out, both sides. The owner of the barn must have a sense of humor.

Open to interpretation.

But physically it wasn’t really faced in the correct direction for a Milky Way shoot that night. Maybe earlier in the season when the Milky Way will be further to the east. I’m keeping it in mind So we headed up toward Port Austin, near the point of Michigan’s thumb. We found a little roadside park with a small sandy beach.

The last light illuminates the log resting on the beach.

We decided to watch the sunset from there and then decide what to do. While we were watching the sun a small flock of cedar waxwings showed up, sitting in the dead tree near us and then flying out to catch bugs. The light was low and they moved so fast it was hard to get a good image.

A cedar waxwing keeps watch for a tasty bug.

But they sure made me smile.

There seemed to be an unlimited source of very thin rocks, perfect for stone skipping. So my friend and her daughter skipped stones and I took pictures.

So fun!

It was so much fun.

Meanwhile the sun began to set. And, though we didn’t get a great sunset it was pretty enough for us.

A quiet sunset.

We went back to the car to get our real cameras and when we came out to the beach hundeds of lightening bugs rose from the beach grass. I tried so hard to get a picture of them, but it was hard.

See the yellow fireflies? Now multiply that by 100s.

Just imagine standing there with all these glowing lights flitting around you. It was magical.

And then it began to get dark and my friend told me there was an aurora alert and we should take a test shot to the north and see if anything was happening. And guess what.

A pink dome, supported by a green base with a couple pillars in for good measure.

There was!

So we spent a lot of time shooting the aurora. It wasn’t a spectacular show, but there was plenty of pink and green and light pillars.

Crazy beautiful.

Then we turned our cameras south to see if the dark horse was leaving the protection of the trees yet.

Hiding behind the trees.

It was still, unfortunately, partially behind the hill. We weren’t in a prime location for Milky Way, looking to the south it was behind the trees for much of the night. But the aurora made the site worthwhile.

The aurora was moving out further into the bay.

Across the way you can see retangles of golden light. I think, after studying a map, that must be Tawas, a large town on the other side of Saginaw Bay. I also wondered if there’s a bank of foggy mist out there.

We looked back to the south. The dark horse in the Milky Way was moving further out from behind the trees.

The dark horse is headed west.

So that’s how the night went. Shoot a little to the north, shoot a little to the south. There was something spectacular no matter where we looked.

It was hard to believe we’d gotten so lucky!

The whole night was so wonderful. Fireflies, aurora, Milky Way, stars, a slight breeze, warm temperatures, the lapping of a quiet lake. You can’t beat it. And I felt lucky that we were there.

Milky Way AND firefly!

We left the beach a little after 1 a.m. as the mist from the bay started to move over the Milky Way and the aurora had fadded.

Notice all the light pollution from Caseville.

We had a 2.5 hour drive back home. I smiled the whole way.

Nothing but stars and the tail end of the Milky Way overhead.


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Backyard shenanigans

A long time ago I promised to show you the shenanigans going on in my backyard. Or should I call it backyardigans?

Waiter! I need a napkin!

These are self explanatory, but if the participants had anything to say I’ll add that as comentary under the offender’s image.

My morning abdominal workout might be offset by my morning snacking.

You will note there is one pictured here that is not like the others. She knows who she is.

I have to ask the help to fill this feeder every single day.

Sometimes I wonder how I get anything done in the house, given all the entertainment just outside my window.

I emptied out that birdfeeder, now my tummy doesn’t feel so good.

Oh wait. I really don’t get much done inside. Please don’t look at the dust covering everything or the dog fur rolling across the floor.

Somebody come help me with these two hooligans!

But I ask you. Which would you rather do?

I’m just going to sit here and watch the crazy in real time.

I thought so.

Me too.

Me three.

Not me, I’m eating while I can. A mom gets so little time to herself around here!

You are so right! Eat while you can I always say!

I see you lady with the camera! Could you please leave us more peanuts?

She always puts the peanuts at the bottom. Good thing I have short legs.

Seriously, I’m going to go crazy in .2 seconds.


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But what about the pretty stuff up in Northport?

I know. It all seems quite a long time ago when I traveled over to the western side of the state to camp and watch for stars.

This seemed too perfect not to stop.

You all know the star thing didn’t work out. And that it rained a lot. And that my last day there I drove up to Northport to meet with friends about a new book.

One of my favorites, I park up the road on a side street and walk back down busy M-22.

But on the drive back to camp I did wander a bit, looking at pretty stuff. Of course.

On a random backroad that I took to turn around for another barn..

Because why be up there at all if you’re not enjoying all the pretty stuff!

It’s not always about the barns.

Many of these barns you’ve seen before, but I’d have to say it was a long time ago.

I hope to get the Milky Way over this barn someday.

And some of you are newcomers so this will be your first glimpse of the beautiful rural landscape that sits along Lake Michigan in the upper part of our lower peninsula.

I parked over by the house in a bike path access parking lot and walked the bike path to get this image.

I feel like I’m jabbering too much. Maybe I should just show you a few of the pretties and let you decide for yourself if they were worth me stopping to grab the image.

This is a famous barn on M 22. Lots of people have shot the Milky Way over it. Maybe someday I will too.

I kind of think you’ll be in agreement with me that it was worth turning around and even driving around a really big block to capture some of these.

Near the bike path parking lot. I liked the vintage car, the vintage house and the famous barn all together.

Enjoy.


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Searching for the stars. Again.

This time last week I was in northern Michigan at one of my favorite places (You may have noticed I have quite a few favorite places in northern Michigan) intent, once again, on getting the perfect Milky Way image.

Esch Beach, near Empire MI

I had a walk-in site at Platt River Campground, reserved weeks ago, and high hopes that at least one of the three nights would be clear.

My perfect camp site.

The site was beautiful. I knew it would be because I’d camped there once before a few years ago. It’s at the end of a trail, about 1/4 mile into the woods. Along the way are three other campsites, but mine was the last one.

This was my first camping trip of the season. It took me forever to get this tent up.

The good thing about a walk-in site is that there are no RVs near you running their air conditioning all night. (Though I wouldn’t have minded having air, it was 98 F inside my tent most of the first night.) The bad thing about a walk-in site is that you have to carry everything in. So I stayed pretty minimal.

Anyway. I had high hopes for Monday night, thinking it should be clear. And it was hot and sunny when I first arrived.

Before I even went to the campsite to set up the tent I drove the Pierce Stocking drive that provides a number of opportunities to stop and explore.

It’s almost mandatory that you take this image while you’re there.

But gradually, by late afternoon, clouds had moved in and that evening there were no stars to be seen. It even rained late Monday night, which brought the temperatures down. I was conflicted, grateful for the temperature relief but disappointed that I wasn’t out under the stars with my camera.

Looking toward Sleeping Bear dunes from Empire Beach on Tuesday.

Tuesday I explored a few beaches looking for possible places to shoot the Milky Way, if the sky ever cleared. But it didn’t clear that day.

Not very promising for star photography.

So I did the next best thing. I hiked a loop through the woods where there was the possibility of lots of birds. You know how I love taking photographs of birds. I had high hopes again of capturing something special.

Because I was covered in bug spray this was a fun hike.

About 2.5 miles, the trail was supposed to be filled with song birds, particularly warblers.

I took a close up picture of the map with my phone, and I’m glad I did. The trail wasn’t always obvious.

I heard lots of birds, none of them identified by my Merlin app as warblers, but I only saw one bird for a slight second, hidden in the trees, and I have no idea what it was.

I don’t suppose any of you know what this brownish bird is, hiding behind leaves and out of focus.

Tuesday night it rained again. I don’t mind a little rain on the tent, but it meant there was no star shooting that night either.

Wednesday was predicted to be overcast as well, so I made plans to drive about an hour north and meet a couple friends in Northport, another of my happy places. It was time to spend a little bit of time in civilization.

Scenic route through Pierce Stocking park.

That was definitely fun and had a lower mosquito to human ratio, but it deserves it’s own post, so stay tuned.

Taken Monday night, while standing in the rain.