I've been frustrated in recent weeks with the quality of my photos, from both my Canon compact digital camera and my Sony phone. I had been blaming poor light conditions — too much, too little — but have continued to try. I've been improving the results in Photoshop, sharpening focus, reducing what looked like shake, and improving colour. But I prefer to have better quality to start with.In addition, I've begun to collect photos of Dudo and how he creatively positions his tail. He was lying on the bed in the den this morning in the heavenly glow coming through the vertical blinds. I snapped a couple of shots. But the heavenly glow made the photo really unclear.
 |
The camera lenses on both my Canon and my phone had gotten covered in salty sea spray. As Homer Simpson would say, "D'oh!"
And speaking of "d'oh," the other night, I wasn't looking where I was going and I walked into the sharp branches of a low-hanging tree. I got a hard knock on the head and some scratches. I even took a selfie when I got home. The quality of the image seemed blurred to me. Maybe it was the knock on the head.
I'm sometimes slow, but I do eventually get there...
Check out Dudo before and after... (Click to enlarge.)
 |
| BEFORE... |
 |
| AND AFTER. |
I can see clearly now...
What a hoot! Just a bit of caution... that salt spray has tiny particles in it that can scratch your lens as it opens and closes automatically. (ask me how I know this....) so be careful to clean often and what you clean with.
ReplyDeleteSharon:
DeleteI brushed with a soft paintbrush, sprayed with lens cleaner, and wiped with a lens cloth. Very unusual for me. I clean my eye glasses with my bath towel. There doesn't appear to be any scratching damage. But, if there is, I'll be forced to buy a new (better) camera!
your cat is more handsome now
ReplyDeleteGosia:
DeleteI can't believe all the photos I have of him taken with my dirty lens!
Just discovered your blog, and am trolling through some previous posts. Love your sense of humour. My partner is camera-mad so he laughed when we read today's entry.
ReplyDeleteAlban:
DeleteThanks so much for finding me and for saying hello. I would love to have a higher-end camera, but I want something I can slip in a pocket and use quickly. Do you suppose they come without lenses. All that cleaning!
I don't know. The Dudo before-and-after shots look pretty much the way I feel when I first wake up in the morning and then how I feel when the cats finally rouse me to get up and feed them.
ReplyDeleteI suppose I could make some insightful remark about the need to cleanse my mental/spiritual lenses from time to time, but I will restrain myself.
Michael:
DeleteYesterday, the view from my left eye was blurry. I took off my glasses and cleaned them. I put them back on and my left eye was still blurry. It was my eye, not my glasses. Allergies! Like I said, I'm sometimes slow, but I do eventually get there.
Amazing what a clean lens will do! Dudo is so handsome. Hope your boo-boo feels better soon.
ReplyDeleteKnatolee:
DeleteKnock on the head is fine. So I scraped my forehead in my sleep last night! I'm a danger to myself. Dudo is so handsome and he loves to pose.
PS -- Your encounter with the low-hanging tree reminded me of a recent encounter at the gym. I was cooling down after the treadmill, walking around looking at my tablet and wandered into a weightlifting bar someone had left on a machine, set right at head height. It knocked my glasses off -- without doing any damage -- and a bloody scratch on my nose. I expected to have a black eye, but no. Nonetheless, I turned it into a much better story by telling people the mark between my eyes was the result of an unfortunate bar incident.
ReplyDeleteNote to self: Watch where you're going!
Michael:
DeleteI love your "bar accident" story -- not even a lie. I'd love to say this is the first time I walked into a tree. Before I met Jerry, I was walking home from work in Boston on a frigid winter's night. I walked so hard into a low hanging tree branch, I bled all over my sweater and scarf and I had a black eye the next day. No one believe me when I told them what happened. I wish you had been there for a non-lie lie.
Perky little Dudo deserves only the best treatment possible, imagewise, and I reckon that this pic does him full justice - while he's trying to convey his sympathies for your head encounter.
ReplyDeleteRay:
DeleteDudo is so cooperative and loves to model. Our niece thinks he looks like Kate Moss (the sucked-in cheeks).
I guess that is one hazard of living by the water - but what a big difference a cleaning makes. I wonder if you should start walking about town with a town on your head (like San Geraldo does when it's hot) to prevent further injuries? :)
ReplyDeleteCheapchick:
DeleteA motorcycle helmet might serve me better.
You have totally gone continental now--you are spelling color, "colour"!
ReplyDeleteMs. Sparrow:
DeleteAnyone who speaks English here speaks British English (of one sort or another). I'm helping a Spanish friend improve her English and don't want to confuse her with American, so I try when I can (and am aware) to be "Continental," as you put it. It's SO confusing!
LOL! This happened to us just the other day at the beach! Very windy and the ocean very upset and spray everywhere!
ReplyDeleteThere now, you can get back to producing those great photos once again.
OUCH! Don't you hate when you hit/bump into/slam into something you didn't see?! Been there, done that! Looking forward to more Dudo tail shots!
Jim:
DeleteI've got a great collection. Dudo's seems to give thought to tail placement. (As we all should.)
D'oh indeed! The salt spray wreaks havoc with everything! Dudo deserves, and I am demands, only the best treatment. Great version of the song. Bobby McFerrin is amazing.
ReplyDeleteWilma:
DeleteI'm glad (and so is he) Bobby McFerrin made a fortune on "Don't Worry, Be Happy," but most people therefore don't know what an incredible talent he really is.
I saw Bobby McFerrin in concert many years ago. What amazes me is that he can make so many sounds AT THE SAME TIME!
Deleteyour bad photos surpass my good photos by a country mile.
ReplyDeleteSpo:
DeleteThanks!
Thank you for this reminder to clean my camera lense. :) I needed that! ;)
ReplyDeleteSnoskred:
DeleteI really need to remember to do this regularly.
I walk into branches all the time. Our apple trees and some of our weeping birches all have it in for me. Or, they just droop when they get heavy with apples/leaves and I forget.
ReplyDeleteWalt the Fourth:
DeleteAnd isn't it amazing how we never seem to learn?!?
Perhaps rinsing the salt spray from your eyes would help? And moving right along...
ReplyDeleteJacqueline:
DeleteI mentioned to Michael Dodd in a response further up: "Yesterday, the view from my left eye was blurry. I took off my glasses and cleaned them. I put them back on and my left eye was still blurry. It was my eye, not my glasses. Allergies! Like I said, I'm sometimes slow, but I do eventually get there." So, yes, rinses my eyes would help!
A clean lens! Who knew!
ReplyDeleteDudo. That face. Oy, the punum on that puss!
Bob:
DeleteWho could resist that face?
I have experienced this conundrum a few times living on the coast. I have in some cases had some interesting results which I was pleased with. One example was a recent post about a headless lady wandering the halls at Jim's shop. The picture was blurred in all the right places. I do now carry my cleaning cloths with me and am at the lens all the time. Dudo's after photo is so clean and crisp just like Dudo is~!!
ReplyDeleteCheer!
Ron:
DeleteI loved that post about the headless lady!
I routinely bang my head against the hatchback of my car, when I open it to toss in my backpack, and when I'm practically looking directly at it, and when I'm slow, and short too. Doh. The difference between us, Mitchell, is that I wouldn't likely ever admit these things through - say - a blog comment, much less post photos. I'm too short to take a selfie of my head anyway. Somehow, I hope my disclosures have eased your pain, Mitchell.
ReplyDeleteRobyn:
DeleteI had no idea being vertically challenged carried over to selfies. How tragic. I have a hatchback story of my own -- 35 years ago and I still have a scar! Come to think of it, there was another incident about 10 years ago. Live and learn is NOT my motto. Maybe we're related. Three of my four grandparents were too short to take selfies of their heads!
I hope you're healing well :)
ReplyDeleteGreat job figuring out that you needed to clean off your lense - what a huge difference! I recently found that my phone photos were all washed out, and I was really kind of upset... I suspected that I had somehow switched to using some filter, but, even when I poked around in settings on my phone, and couldn't find any way to change anything. Thankfully, my students usually have some tidbit or two to offer, and one of them showed me where I must have unknowingly tapped to activate a "look like crap" filter LOL, and I was able to undo it. I found out, in fact, that I could even go back to any photo that I took using that filter, and edit it to put it back to normal! Amazing :)
Judy:
DeleteA "look like crap" filter. Of course. As if we couldn't do that ourselves. So glad to know there's an "unlook like crap filter." Wish I had one of those before I left the house every day.