Tag: Covid19

Dining Al Fresco

The Gray Bull on February 9, 2021

Most of us have now experienced the various methods of dining on food prepared in restaurants, cafes, fast food places etc. In the past we would mostly enjoy this food inside the establishment in which we ordered our food and beverages. As many in Europe have done for ages, we sometimes dined al fresco or outside the restaurant on tables and chairs for that purpose. It is a treat to enjoy the fresh air as we dined, I think the food even tasted better.

In the age of Covid things have changed! A couple of days ago while on my morning walk, I passed a restaurant and stopped to take a couple of pictures of a current version of Covid dining al fresco. Bon Appetit!

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Finger of Fate

The Gray Bull on May 31, 2020

All the discussion about how our lives will be different after Covid19 and how we should get ready for the new normal is on every news show! It seems all we hear about is the future and what will likely change. The item that most disturbs me is the potential loss of privacy with “contact tracing”. Currently, the government of China is already advancing more measures to track their citizens, but I would expect that from a totalitarian regime! But what about our democratic forms of government? It seems more people are getting comfortable with the idea of doing the same thing in the U.S.A. That sounds more like 1984 by George Orwell than I like to think about. Okay, enough of my political rant!

This did give me an idea for a photograph. Here is a view of my take on contact tracing. Every time we use our index finger, it will send a signal to the “cloud” to trace our every move. Just a little Adobe Photoshop fun, but it could come to pass……hmmm!

Future Fate

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Fading City

The Gray Bull on May 6, 2020

The COVID19 Pandemic is keeping most of us from going out to continue our photography hobby. This means we need to find some other activities or get creative with photography outside of our tried and true routines. As I was watching a television show, and there are very few worth watching, a clip was run showing how deserted New York and other major cities looked. It was a very surreal scene, but it did give me an idea.

I proceeded to open my Adobe Lightroom catalog to find some cityscape photos I had done in the past along with some photos with trees and a few with clouds. These photos were then composited with Adobe Photoshop to create my version of a Fading City. Hopefully, our urban areas will come back to their former vibrancy but there is guarantee of that! We may all get used to an unexpected difference in urban life after COVID19.

Fading City

Hopefully, you are finding some creative outlets for practicing your photographic hobby. Please come back to visit www.cestlavie4me.com to see what shelter-in-place photography project I attempt next time. Stay healthy and keep shooting!

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Feathered Neighbors

The Gray Bull on March 24, 2020

Backyard photography can help us as we deal with Covid19 forced social distancing and the need to keep our minds occupied with something other than binge watching some streaming service. Many of you may not have a backyard or any yard at all, but you probably do have a window. Take your camera in hand and gaze into the yard or out of your apartment window and photograph something! If possible, go for a walk in your neighborhood for a little exercise and bring your camera along or just use your smartphone camera. Use your creativity and perhaps you may get lucky and photograph something interesting.

Being stuck at home can provide the opportunity to try photography techniques that are new to you, such as macro photography, using off camera flash, pet photography (if you have a handy animal), perhaps child photography is an option. Those of you living in urban areas might try some nighttime photography. The goal is to try something new and perhaps improve your photography skills. If nothing else remember “When you have lemons, make lemonade”!

Another opportunity that is available to you is that you can use these photos to improve your post-processing skills with Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop or other software programs. You can experiment with different techniques and tools.

I took my own advice a few days ago when my wife called me to see the two woodpeckers in the backyard. I am no wildlife photographer; I don’t even have a lens capable of photographing wildlife from a distance. The woodpeckers did get my attention as they furiously pecked away at a dead tree trunk on the ground, so I grabbed my camera. After firing off over 50 photos, my subjects decided to fly away. The photo below is the best one from this photo shoot.

Woodpeckers-0042

Now, the next challenge will be finding more backyard or indoor photography opportunities to keep me occupied. Please come back and visit www.cestlavie4me.com to see if I have found anything interesting. Now get off the couch and grab your camera and shoot!