Virtual negatives and moments of Another Life

Over the last months, though it seems an unending project, I've been going through my in and other boxes at my online webmail. It has a 15gig limit and I was then up to 12gigs of virtual newsletters, letters, conversations with friends new and old, and more. I've been wanting to do this forever, and finally put my mind to starting it, and continuing till it gets to a reasonable level. About the first of this month, I finally hit the LESS than 6gigs of virtual mail in my inbox! WoW!

I continue weeding it all out, archiving my newsletters as text files, and attached images all neatly organized into a folder named after the newsletter's subject theme. In the old days, I just deleted the newsletter (which I delightfully call Spams), after I had replied to any emailed comments.

These newsletters started way back in the old days of chunky huge heavy computers with hard drives heavier than a car, as I typed of events and activities I thought others would be interested in knowing about, then mailing it out to friends and family. It looked like a newspaper, complete with pictures and columns, a banner page and all!

I delighted in doing this, as I had been a navy journalist at one time. Of course, as I type more and more each day, I tired of the work and eventually began writing/typing all in lowercase. I never proofread anything and as it would be sent out, I'd see all sorts of errors and typos!

I remember while living in Germany and sending out delightful observations of my everyday Life in Bavaria, and when I went on a month-long trip from Spain to Sweden, I wrote daily of my scenes and sights captured by both my eyes and cameras!

I've enjoyed creating and sharing those newsletters, and though they may not be much in real content, I am hoping everyone enjoyed the images too!

When I recently remarried, I still sent out newsletters but now in a shared life with such a lovely lady, I have discovered there is little time to do some of the many things done previously, but then alone, I also stayed up to 2-3am each and every night, with a full daily schedule that kept me quite occupied from morning and till the wee hours of pre-dawn! Eventually, those newsletters went on pause mode as I maintained the everyday photography and its own daily work that devours a lot of hours, and every-week life.

These are images sent through a newsletter lost in my virtual shoe boxes of virtual dust and shadows, and I'll share these memories snapped years ago, forgotten but never archived, till now.

Hope you enjoy the memories, as much as I did in its creation waaay back then.

Seal Rock at sunset

Seal Rock and the Cliff House

Looking below and past the Golden Gate Bridge
to Point Bonita Lighthouse

Framed!!

Just wanted to share this image snapped with my Samsung S5 just a few minutes ago. It's amazing how far phones in general, and smartphones have progressed. Who needs a camera these days when one is carried in your purse or pocket practically every minute?

This is looking out a panel of a window, showing the Fall colors still very apparent in my little area of SW Michigan, though we have had two snowfalls within the past three days, and temps are in the 30s and lower during the night!!

Naturally framed by the window frame
and roof overhang, those yellows really pop out!

Great Lakes activities

It's been cold and windy, as can be expected in these Great Lake areas, and where we are presently. Back in western New York (WNY), it gets cold and windy also, but it's nothing like a visit to a Lake Michigan park beach, and to be slapped in the face with chilling cold that will really wake up anyone!!

We had just arrived and walked to the beach where there were some great waves!! Sheila mentioned that the waves at that beach reminded her of seeing the Atlantic Ocean waves, huge on a very windy day! It was indeed windy but since I have seen huge waves in my life near waters of the world, it seemed those waves were small but still, it always feels good to be near water.

It was just a few minutes later that Sheila shouted out "Eagles" and pointed north. I looked up to see two large birds, and snapped a few. We didn't have our monsters on the cameras, but one could easily see the white head and tail. We are having an eagle of a month, with over 10 eagles seen now within the past few weeks!

Here is an image link to my images at fineartamerica, which feature quite a few western NY scenes

We stayed and froze a little bit longer till the sunset. We snapped pixs to our heart's content with the chilled wind on our faces, and the waves crashing onto the shore. The intense color quickly faded but it was one of the nicest sunsets we've been able to enjoy in over a week! Just days ago we experienced the first snowfall of the area, and brushed off almost two inches of snow from the car. We drove looking for Fall colors and snowfall, but the high winds of last week had already stripped most of the leaves, and instead just found white expanses of snow....  except for a leaf-print in the snow. I've been to many areas where snow is the norm, and I have never seen these ice cube sights ever...  have you?


On the other hand, I am porting my cell number over to a company offering very lost cost data for those on the move. I still have my old number which I've had since 2009 at least, with its various groups of numbers originating from the area code of Oregon, the area code of Sevilla, and lastly, using a very easy-to-remember combination of keypad presses. I've never been one remembering all the previous numbers I've been assigned, but this I've had for too many years but never forgotten since it's so easy to remember! If you know it, you've still got a means to call me! If you don't, no sweat as I make very few calls but also receive even fewer calls!

The only exception to this newest company is that I now have - for the first time ever - data on my Samsung S5! We use digimobil while in Spain, and they have been offer rollover-data for their data users! Why can't we have that in the USA? Unfortunately DigiMobil is not in the USA!

UPDATE: As you probably know, the image links in this post doesn't take you anywhere since those linked images are gone; I change out the various images I have on fineart every week. I apologize but you can always see other imagery I have displayed at redbubble

It's Saturday morning outside

......and there's about an inch or so of the white stuff on the ground after a few hours of snowfall during the night. The Fall colors are still very apparent in some spots, and we are hoping these scenes will still be available by time we get out on the streets later today, or tomorrow. I usually do not get these chances of seeing such wondrous scenes, and now that we are here, we might as well try to see the sights, when not surrounded by the grandchildren! The change in the hour now puts the time of sunset as we are still with the kids, so we are missing a lot of sunsets since the time-change last weekend!

On the other hand, while in Michigan, I have been continuously checking for online sightings of Snowy Owls! Last winter, though we departed for two months in Spain, before we departed in December 2017, and after returning from Spain in late February 2018, we were darn lucky to see and snap a few pictures of Snowy Owls! Last winter's record was in seeing a total of eight Snowys!!!

Please click to see a collection of my Snowy Owl images posted at ebird

Interestingly enough, according to ebird.com, there have been Snowys reported all this summer throughout the Great Lakes areas! I am also surprised to see there have already been sightings of this gorgeous snow-white Arctic bird recently, both in western New York (WNY) area we call home, and within a few miles of where we are in SW Michigan!

We have been very fortunate recently in seeing Bald Eagles too!! Granted, those grand birds have been more than a mile usually, but we have been lucky to see some seemingly just a hair closer! As always in these situations, even though you think you have the longest lens around, oftentimes while shooting wildlife, it seems that even with what we have is way too short and inadequate! We are still hoping to see more of these majestic birds, and our last sighting was a week ago in a local park! 

Here's two memories from months previous when we were at a favorite WNY spot, and suddenly the perched eagles we were observing, suddenly went active and passed much closer! These images are cropped, but it still is a great moment for us!!!

Great Lakes Cold

We have been on call for babysitting duties in SW Michigan for the past two months, and though it's been known for a few days, as I type this, it's the first measurable snow falling outside!! It's supposed to snow for most of today, and again tomorrow. Perhaps we can get a break from our duties and shoot in the snow? We have our cleats so being careful walking in the white stuff won't be a problem....  hopefully...

To think just a few days ago, we were snapping the last of the Fall colors in our area! We were lucky to have a few clouds rolling through, which really made a pretty image!!

To think before in San Francisco, I used to drive

for hours and not see any "signs" of Autumn

These were snapped not even 

ten minutes from where we are staying!!

Here's a few images of the snow, shot through the window!!