My husband has been very encouraging about my love for taking pictures. He bought me a Canon Rebel EOS for our wedding and a very nice Sigma 18-200mm lens for our anniversary. I am beginning to think he should take up the hobby as well…he always manages to get awesome pictures from just his cell phone camera! For this daily prompt I’ll show you one such picture…tables turned…photographing the photographer!
This week’s photo challenge asked us to get nostalgic. What first came to mind was our trip last year to Gettysburg and Antietam. You can’t help but feel nostalgic visiting historic places and, in my opinion, you can feel the “weight” the land holds in memories. There were also a few unique things that happened to us while visiting. My camera had unexplained problems that looked like a thin black arching line through many of my pictures. It was a new camera and lens and the problem has never occurred again! We both sensed various energies while there including a heaviness walking up the stairs in the Jenny Wade house and a random name that popped into my head (Charles Collins) who I later found out was a turncoat from Pennsylvania. In any case, we found the trip so special that we cannot wait to return…maybe even in the next few weeks! I hope the trip is as special as the first.
I have taken pictures of several items while hiking that I have no idea what they are. Mainly they are weird-looking things I find growing on trees. Sometimes I take the picture because I think it looks cool, and other times it is so I can look up what it is when I get home. The problem I have found is that it takes forever to find what I am looking for and often I can’t get the answer at all. This frustration led me to wonder if there was a site (or if I had the next great million dollar idea for a site) that would “read” a photograph I uploaded and refer me to sites with similar pictures. I discovered two such sites TinEye (in Beta) and Google Images photo search. So much for my dreams of becoming a millionaire off the idea…but great that I potentially found what I was needing! But not so fast…
TinEye did not produce results on any of the photos I uploaded. Looks like they have some kinks to work out in the Beta phase.
Google Images Photo Search provided mixed results. You go to the regular Google Images tab and click on the photo icon in the search field. This allows you to upload or link to a photo.
Much like their app Google Goggles, this feature works great if you upload any photo that has some sort of logo. For example when I loaded this picture, it gave me the result that it was most likely the Jim Beam distillery – but I already knew that didn’t I?
For pictures like this one with an obvious large object in the frame it did what I wanted…gave me a similar picture with a link that named the object in question. I now know I have a nice photo of a tiger swallowtail and better still I could sell it as a poster for $29.95. 🙂
This picture produced results of numerous photos of purple and pink wildflowers, none of which were the same as the one I uploaded, and a host of purple and pink items that weren’t even flowers (My Little Ponies, etc.)
I can’t even begin to wonder what might show up when I upload this one!
So in the mean time, I will continue my fruitless searches and hopefully rely on your expertise out there to help me out! What kinds of strange things have you discovered on your adventures?
This weekly photo challenge was a no brainer! You can ask anyone who knows us well and they will tell you that our reason for blogging (our love for camping) is a direct result of our love for our dogs. Camping is a wonderful way of being able to travel affordably with our pets. Most places we camp are very pet friendly and we have even been able to find locations that have pet-friendly beaches. So far, our favorite such place has been Higgins Lake State Park in Michigan. We would love to hear about other pet-friendly places from all of you! I love this picture because it shows my three best buds doing what they love best – hanging out in the sun, having fun, and enjoying each other’s company. True companions!
The great-horned owl sitting in the tree in broad daylight along the bike trail. The red-winged blackbird fanning its wings atop a hay bale in the field. The blue butterfly that stopped for a mere second on atop a black-eyed Susan. The face of my dog mid-dream while I scrambled to get the camera. All these and more…photos that I would love to have but was unable to capture in the moment. Call it photographer’s remorse or a bad case of Sod’s law, it seems that I always manage to see the things best worth photographing when I have either left the camera at home, or it is not ready in time. And I am an amateur, I can only imagine what it feels like for a professional! It used to really bother me (and quite honestly, still does) but I have come to the realization that I can’t allow such missed opportunities to blind me from the “big picture”. If I am to be perfectly honest, some of the best moments I have encountered in nature have been somewhat obscured behind the camera lens. Whether it is trying to find the perfect angle, lighting etc. who knows what I may have missed just by watching. Recently, I have enjoyed taking walks in nature with my husband and two dogs, not attached to my camera waiting for the next photo-op. It is nice to observe, relax and enjoy all of God’s creation. Never mind the dozen or so birds that were posing perfectly for photos along the way. So I will continue to look for those moments I can capture that make me smile, appreciate God a little bit more, or even make me wonder…whether they be on the camera or just in my mind’s eye.
I liked the idea in this week’s photo challenge to see things from a different vantage point. We camped on Lake Leelanau at a campground that had a forest of pine trees. I snapped this pic while laying down on the forest floor. While it is not the best picture in terms of details and color, I like the unique pattern that the trees create. You have to look at it awhile to figure out what it is.
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