Scan City, Population: Me

May 19, 20202 Comments

It’s been a while, hasn’t it?

It’s not that I haven’t wanted to write. I have. It’s just that, well, I feel like I don’t have the words, or the brain power to form them. I could try to explain it, or you could just go read this post from Rarasaur, which says exactly how I’ve felt the past couple of weeks much better than I could.

So what have I been up to? Well, I’ve been scanning a lot of photos. I’m hoping that the process will be a little less time-intensive from here on out; I’ve finished scanning all the photo albums that my grandparents kept for me when I was growing up. My grandma wrote who was in each picture, the date it was taken, and what the event was (birthday, holiday, concert, etc.) on the back of every photo in those albums. I wanted to keep track of all that info, but…

Day 12: Light

April 12, 2020April 14, 20201 Comment

Light has become particularly important to me lately, especially good light. My house has a vaulted ceiling with recessed lights, which is great for atmosphere but hell for scanning photos. If I had an actual photo scanner, the quality of my light sources might not be such a big deal, but since that’s not in the budget right now, I have to make do with my phone and my CamScanner app (which I love, by the way).

I’ve been working on this project at my dining room table, which is surrounded by windows on one end, owing to the extra-large bay window on the front of the house. We get a lot of really nice light through that window most of the time, and I’ve found that indirect natural light seems to work best for trying to scan all of my many, many photos. Any time I turn on the overhead lights in the dining room, I get crazy glare off the top of the table. And whenever I turn on the living room lights, I get ridiculous shadows because then I’m backlit.

If I had a longer cord on my lamp, it might enable me to work longer into the night, which would be kind of nice, but then again, by the time I get finished with an afternoon of photo scanning, my neck is killing me. Again, an actual photo scanner would probably help with this (and it would have to be faster), but it’s just not in my budget right now.

How about you – do you have lots of old photos? What do you do with them all?

Day 7: Below

April 7, 2020April 9, 2020Leave a comment

Last March, I traveled to St. Louis to present a paper on John Milton. It was a lot of fun. But one of my favorite memories from the trip is the day my friend/co-pilot and I went sightseeing. Our hotel was a couple of blocks from the Gateway Arch, which I’d never seen in person, so we walked over to check it out.

Sadly, we did not get to go up inside it because all the tours were full.

But we did see the outside of it. We took a bunch of silly pictures, like you do when you get together with your oldest friends. And then, in the midst of our silliness, we changed our perspective. We lay down in the grass and looked up at the Arch.

It’s amazing how a simple change in perspective can change the way you see a thing. Whether it’s an iconic landmark, like the Gateway to the West, or just the unearthed roots of a tree that’s preparing to fall, changing one’s perspective, one’s relationship to the thing being viewed, can make a world of difference. The old is new again; the ordinary becomes something magical.

Kinda makes you think, doesn’t it?

Goals!

August 22, 2019August 22, 20192 Comments

Goals – I has ’em! One of my goals is to get back to a regular blogging habit. To do that, I’m thinking a post per week is gonna be doable.

The only trouble is that I’m already behind schedule. *sigh*

To make up for that, please enjoy this pretty, pretty picture:

We spent last Sunday out on a lake with the kids and the in-laws. We had a picnic at the scenic fish-cleaning station before setting out for an afternoon of tubing. The sun was bright, the temperature was perfect – we couldn’t have asked for better weather. Thank goodness for that, because we ended up rowing back to shore after some engine trouble left us stranded a good half-mile from the dock. Luckily, a passing boater towed us the last fifty yards in. It was a day full of adventures, and a great way to say goodbye to summer.

I can’t believe the kids are heading back to school tomorrow. Where has the time gone?

What about all of you – what have you been up to? What adventures did summer have in store for you?