Fireworks, Family, and Times Gone By

Last night I made a little video comparing fireworks and sunsets, posing the musical question, "Which is Better?" Here it is:



Since then, I've been thinking about my memories of past Independence Days. Here are the ones that came to mind:

Awesome fireworks, with shaped displays, on the boardwalk at Seaside Park, NJ with my cousins, circa 1964, while my mom was in the hospital.

Boring fireworks seen from the Suburban Park parking lot with my family, circa 1970.

Fireworks on the beach at Cape Canaveral with my mom, July 4, 1976.

Fireworks at Hi Corbett Field while John collects Tucson Toros autographs, circa 1994. I think I took my mom there one year.

Fireworks at Disneyland, July 4, 2003. Best part was when John took an interesting picture of a kid watching a popcorn cart.

Lots of years in which I tried to photograph distant fireworks that barely clear neighborhood trees, 1998-2018. The one above was a composite from 2006.

A fire-less picnic at Inspiration Rock with John and my dad, 2013.

Photographing A-Mountain fireworks from the car while waiting for my friend, 2017. I actually watched from the convention center once, but mostly we don't bother.

A mediocre sunset at Gates Pass, solo, July 4, 2018.

What I'm realizing is that the memorable part - except maybe Seaside Park - isn't the fireworks at all. It's about where I was, who I was with, and what I was trying to do. I've never managed great fireworks photos, and that's part of it, and also the fact that I find most fireworks pretty boring. But more important has been the human connections. Spending the Bicentennial with my mom. Disneyland with John. Even seeing Spiderman with John this afternoon, and hoping he's started the charcoal for tonight's dinner.

I'm going to post this now, and try to spend some more quality time with John. I hope that whatever you are doing this holiday, it's a) with someone you love, and b) interesting, fun and memorable.

Fireworks optional.

Karen

Round Robin: Lights, Camera, Inaction!

For the Round Robin Photo Challenge Lights! Camera, Action! I gave three choices on how to fulfill the topic. Considering that nobody else has signed up to do this Challenge so far, let's see whether I can cover all three ways myself!

1. "These are the classic words directors used to start filming a scene, with the lights lighting, the camera rolling and the actors acting! But it occurred to me the other day that the combination of lights, camera and action can be something else entirely. Think of the way the lights of moving cars can streak colors in a photo with a long exposure, or the excitement of lightning captured by a camera as it crosses the sky. Falling meteors, still lights photographed by a camera in motion - all of these combinations and more can lead to some interesting effects!"

This shot of the neighborhood Christmas house is from December 2012. I didn't use it last year, and nothing I've photographed this year illustrates what I meant so effectively.


2. Alternatively, you may prefer to make a little foray into the motion picture business yourself! Most digital camera and camera phones now have video capabilities, and you can put together simple short movies with all sorts of software and smartphone apps these days, such as Majisto, iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, and social media quickies such as Vine and Capture. Google+ will even make little almost-movies automatically from a series of related photos, although these can only be viewed on Google+ itself.

I'll add a little video later, but for now here is one of those Google motion things, if I can make it work!

 #AutoAwesomeMotion
The little train at Trail Dust Town!
 

3. Third option - I was only going for two options, but what the heck! - is to photograph (or find archived photos you already took) of people making movies or tv shows. If you filmed the filming, so much the better. If you filmed the filming of lights in action, then you're a triple threat!


Back in 1992 I was on the Universal lot as Scott Bakula and Max Wright (of ALF and Misfits of Science) shot a scene for Quantum Leap. This is my favorite shot from that day:

 

It's even an action shot!

Linking List

As of Saturday, December  28th at 3 PM

Karen - Posted!

Outpost Mavarin

http://outmavarin.blogspot.com

Carly - Posted!

Ellipsis
http://ellipsissuddenlycarly.blogspot.com

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Karen

The Red Dog and the Black Dog

For Steven's Feline & Furball Friday:

I'm still getting condolences here on Tuffy, both in email and in greeting cards John and I finally got around to opening yesterday. Thanks again to everyone for carrying about poor old Tuftuf, and the people she left behind. I don't think I mentioned this last night, but one of the reasons I posted so late was that I came across a video clip of Tuffy a few days before she died, with her wheezing and me trying to comfort and encourage her. I was trying to consolidate it with a few other clips and clean it up,but with little success. It's very dark, and I don't seem to have a program to lighten it. Can anyone help me out on this? Bea? Becky?

(Pathetic, ain't it?)

At least two of the cards - from vets, yet! - referenced the Rainbow Bridge concept. I'm tempted to call it a meme in the original sense of viral idea. It certainly seems ubiquitous among serious dog and cat people, especially in the dog show and cat show, vet and breeder world. My brother, a cat person, sent me an email with the subject line "Bridge Kid" not long ago. I didn't realize at first that it meant one of his cats had died, and consequently blew my window of opportunity to send my condolences. Now I'm embarrassed to tell him about Tuffy! No, I don't believe in the Rainbow Bridge, where pets supposedly wait for their humans so that everyone enters Heaven together. Tacking a Norse myth onto Christian sensibilities to assuage the grief of a pet owner doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I have enough trouble coping with my deliberately ill-defined concept of heaven. I don't need to have an opinion on whether pets have an afterlife as well. (And no, I don't want to discuss the subject. Emphatically not.)

Pepper meets a puppy even more hyper than Cayenne.

As for the new wrecking crew of Blocher dogs, I've been stepping up my attempts to train them, with little success. Yesterday I took them to the dog park, where they each hid under the picnic table part of the time, allowed a few humans to pet them (Cayenne was better about this than Pepper), wandered solo in the field, and spent just a little time meeting other dogs.

Pepper spent half the time hiding..

...and Cayenne, surprisingly, was almost as shy.

They did get in the thick of things occasionally, though...

...and briefly joined in a doggie parade.

Back at home, we're starting to collect up some of the rawhide we've scattered around the place. The high degree of rawhide availability doesn't stop the dogs from competing for the stuff - they just drive themselves and each other crazy trying to control and hide it all so the other dog doesn't get it. Pepper doesn't even like rawhide much, and has been retching a little bit. But she constantly tries to dig a hole in the bedclothes to bury what she doesn't want to chew. And Cayenne managed to grab the biggest rawhide bone of all out of the cupboard tonight, as John was getting out dog biscuits for them.

Their fave food of the moment: grass.

Then when I take them outside, they spend most of their time chewing on that universal doggie digestion remedy: grass.

Cayenne isn't great about posing for me.

Pepper is even worse about it.

I've also been trying to teach the command "Down," as in "lie down," since they both already know "Sit." It's tough going. Cayenne will eventually do it if I keep leading her forward and downward with the treat, but Pepper has no clue. On her own, her default response is to lie down, but if I ask her to do it in return for this yummy dog biscuit or bit of cheese, she actively resists. She'll even leave the room. But we'll get there.

Meanwhile they're inseparable - and ignore each other.

They've each picked up several nicknames already. Pepper is Pep, Pep Pep, Pepperpot, Pepperoni and The Black Dog. Cayenne is Cay Cay (pronounced Kie-Kie), Cay-annie, Cheyenne (the name of a dog we knew 20 years ago) and of course The Red Dog. If she ever manages to start a fire (not that I expect this!), she'll probably be Cuyahoga as well.

And all too frequently, Pepper gets called Tuffy, and Cayenne gets called Pepper. Clearly we're all still adjusting to the new arrangement.

Karen