Farewell, my trusty Wacom tablet

I discovered the world of amazing drawing tablets made by Wacom back many decades ago. I could never afford a decently-sized tablet, and always purchased their smallest tablet, overall about 5x7 inches but the true working area was even less. I've had three of them through these decades, starting with the ArtPad that had a cabled serial port, but worked great. I cannot remember my second Wacom tablet model, but it was powered by a USB cord (much better), and enjoyed it. One day it went bad....  it just got caught on a pixel and didn't move too well. I then purchased some tablet that was huge (at that time), but it never worked correctly. I think that's still in Rota, sitting unused and collecting dust. My present one I've had at least a decade: the Wacom Bamboo and is a wonderful extension of my mind and hand. 

While in the Navy, I had drawn a few sketches while off-duty, aboard my first aircraft carrier. In fact, till its last year of active duty, the Forrestal still had an annual art show! The very first art show was organized and coordinated by me, a lowly airman who then worked in the Photo Lab! I went around the ship searching for people who were artists in their own right, and got them committed to creating artwork to display in the show. They could use any medium they wanted. We were deployed at the time, and I picked our last portcall in Palma de Mallorca as the location of the very first Art Show, giving these artists of the USS Forrestal about three months to decide what, how and time to get it done! We had a good amount of sailors participating in the art display, and later I contacted and coordinated with the Palma USO to find me a place to show the show during our brief inport period. I practically did everything and the strange part about all that? 

I don't and cannot remember a thing about the actual show or anything!!

However, it was a big success, and the following year I departed the Forrestal, heading from the East Coast of the USA, to the West Coast where I joined the ship's company of the USS Constellation. In the next century, I was surprised to discover by chance while reading an article of the Forrestal's last year in active service, of their final art show to be held! I had NO idea the ship was still continuing the art show after all these years!

From then on the Constellation and other ships, I had no time at all, and stopped sketching. I never had any formal training in art, same as I have NO training or instruction in photography, but I liked seeing things and scenes then, and sketched them when I could. Heck, I remember drawing jets, tanks, and aircraft carriers while in grammar school in cold foggy San Francisco as a very young teen! 

Well, today I got a new and early birthday gift to myself: A Huion drawing tablet with a wireless battery-less pen, and with a working area measuring 10x6.25"!! 

With so many decades using Wacom and now this tablet, it was an easy conversion, but as I knew: Though the features of Wacom cannot be beat, this newest tablet is making me very happy and I haven't even had it a whole 24 hours! Granted it's not as flexible as my older three usable tablets, but I love the broad landscape this tablet has, and that is what I really needed and deserved! Granted, now I do not edit images as I once did decades ago, but I love using a pen and NOT a mouse!

I've already done two sketches, one just a quick sketch of a plane to include in my Amazon review of the tablet. I just finished another of a portrait of someone who is very near and dear to my heart, and I plan to try another sketch tomorrow once I have any ideas of WHAT to draw. 

Who knows? Perhaps this will be my incentive to QUiT cameras! I had done a pen and ink drawing before I joined the Navy, and that scene was that of the backside of Ghirardelli Square and the Golden Gate Bridge, as seen from the long and steep Hyde Street! I found that original sketch partially folded and rolled in San Francisco in a very dusty spot, and now have it (meThinks) in the Falls!

So farewell, my trusty Wacom tablets. I salute you, and am very grateful for your service. I am hoping this new Huion H1060P tablet will keep me happy and occupied in sketching as I expect it to serve me just as well in photography, during my remaining years on this Earth!

Sketched Dec of 1972 while the Forrestal was inport in Athens, Greece 

UPDATE: Sunday 9 December: After 24 hours of switching from my laptop's touchpad and the new Huion tablet, I've given up!! Granted, it is a huge working area for a pen as compared to my old Wacom which is soooo tiny, but in not even being able to do some quite basic and simple functions that is easy with my Wacom pen since day one, but nearly impossible with this newest tablet, I've decided to send it back! As I type this, my older Wacom (CTL-460) of over a decade is connected as usual!!

I DO have my eye on a Wacom Intuos though.....

UPDATE: I have already ordered and received the Wacom Intuos Medium Size Pen Tablet (PTH660). I tried it for two days before I contacted the company it was shipped from, regarding its return. My older wacom tablet works better and simply, and has more functions built-in, unlike both newer bigger tablets received and returned. It also works better as a "mouse" all day, doing many things taken for granted with a mouse, without the need to be "programmed"  :( 

Memories of Spanish Sunsets

I'm always sifting through something or another....  this time I shifted my attention to my virtual negatives. In fact, I saw one that I liked so much, and hasn't been posted ever, so now it is posted! 

Many say my images are darkish, but that's how I capture them. Sometimes I may lighten a little, but just enough to have that image display as when I first spotted it. I edit very little, and dislike working hours on an image. I rarely have time these days for anything, so why should I plant myself in front of a monitor even more?

Hoping you'll like this ~ if you've been to Rota, you'll recognize it's a sunset of the northern beaches of Rota, where the historic "corrales" are located. Built centuries ago when people had to use wit and wisdom to accomplish anything and survive, they used their hands and back to pick up rocks, building a corral from the beach and extending out some distance. When the tides came in, the waters brought in the fish. When those tides went out, the fish stayed. 

Good idea if I may say so!!

Click here to see this great Rota sunset - opens in a separate window
Above link now doesn't link as the image has been deleted.
You can click to see other images which has since been displayed

Again it's all White!

We woke this morning to a white wonderland again. It had snowed through the night, and all the remaining tiny streaks of whiteness still seen after two days after the rainfall, were all again repainted in white again. I know for many who live or have lived in those areas seeing regular snowfall, it may be a bit tiring to be lost in the white, but I have lived so few times in the snow that it still transforms me to a running crazy kid every time I see that stuff falling. As an adult, I know the complexities of snow and its origin, but still, it's better just to not think and just enjoy snow as one of Life's simple pleasures.

Yesterday we went searching once again for the Snowy Owl, but it wasn't around. We saw instead a few Bald Eagles and hawks, but no owls.

This immature Bald Eagle flew right over us!!

Then we saw what seemed to be a Merlin (falcon) perching on a tree branch holding with one claw a caught prey. Poor bird but it will make that Merlin very happy!

This female Merlin waits for dinner to be served
while hanging out with its guest

Still Looking back(wards)

Working on cleaning out my inbox of thousands of emails as I have been for many months now, I keep running into those sent emails with images! It's so thought-provoking to see these past moments of my Life now, and makes me sad yet proud of what I have seen and photographed. 

These are from 2015 and in San Francisco ~ where I was at the time ~ where "we" were to be one of the "lucky" areas of the USA to be able to see the Blood Moon eclipse then. We actually were not believing all that stuff about luck, as San Francisco gets a lot of clouds and fog, which was forecast for that day....  

I went to the piers that afternoon to await the sunset, and saw many with tripods and cameras, all waiting to see the eclipse. There was a huge cloud front that blocked the moon and any color of the blue sky, plus a bit of fog was present too. 

After the sunset, I turned around to see if there was anything I might be missing, and immediately noticed the cloud front had slipped away but still visible, and the moon had just popped out!! It was an eerie sight seeing a bloody moon, and I immediately started running to get a snap, while many other photographers were running around too, trying to get away from the many other photogs to get their unique shot!!

A September Blood Moon becomes visible in cloudy San Francisco!

Did YOU also see that Blood Moon of 2015?