I plunked the new Lensbaby on the Nikon and we went for a walk. It’s such a challenging lens to work with; it doesn’t communicate with the camera in any way, so everything is manual. I have to reach back into my brain and do the math – f-stop + shutter speed + ISO = …fucked that one up.
Try again.
It’s also strange to lean back into a time of “Want to zoom in?….then step closer. Want to zoom out? then step backwards.” No zoom ring on a prime lens.
And so that goes. Many lousy shots to be deleted every time I put this lens on the camera.
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I have been alternatively labeled as an optimist and a pessimist. I tend to lean towards pessimism, but could probably be better called a pessimistic optimist….
In other words, I hope for the best but tend to be prepared for the worst, usually.
Arguably, that just makes me a realist.
I photographed this tunnel months ago, though it doesn’t feel like months ago. Nothing feels like months ago. How is it already the end of the first term? I just went online yesterday to remember when the final exam for my course is and was flabbergast to see that December the 8th, the exam day, is less than two weeks away.
Where did that term go?
Anyway, when I last walked through this tunnel, in June, I was clearly in a mood. The future was obviously looking a bit bleak and I couldn’t see the figurative end of the tunnel, though I wasn’t only speaking to the pandemic.
Today I’m a bit more optimistic about a few things. There is some rationality returning to the government to the south of us, several vaccine candidates are providing heartening results and, even in the face of rising numbers as we enter the winter months, I think we will get COVID under control in the spring.
Things seem to have become a little bit more manageable with work; I wouldn’t say it’s slowed down, but it seems more manageable. I’ve truly missed my field season, which generally makes the desk work more tolerable, so that’s sucked a bit, but I also know it’s a blip on the radar and that a fall away from the sites is a small price to pay for social responsibility and doing what small bit I can do for managing health risks to others.
So, even though we are going into winter and the cases will get worse before they get better, the tunnel seems a little brighter now.
On a side note, when we walked past a local school there was this sign on the fence. Now I realize that it refers to managing traffic safely when dropping off and picking up children in a neighbourhood of single family homes…..in the current climate of COVID, it struck me as amusing.
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