11. Dodge & Burn

043008_2847, originally uploaded by steve_kurth.

Time: 6:20
Location: Salisbury
Mood: Hopeful

I ordered a new Wacom tablet. I'm looking forward to using it to do some photo retouching. I haven't done much if anything to most of these sky shots. Photoshopping seems dishonest somehow.

But the more stuff I see on-line, the more I think some PS is OK. In fact, I think you need to do some to look your best. Kind of a steroids argument there, but there you have it.

The philosophy on these that I'm taking is that if I could do it in a traditional studio, it's ok to do a little in Photoshop. So, I've dodged and burned and adjusted exposure, but I avoid cloning things or moving around content.

That said, I didn't bother doing much to this at all. The sky is too generous. But I am looking forward to that tablet...

10. Not Much to Say

043008_2844, originally uploaded by steve_kurth.

Time: 5:30
Location: Salisbury
Mood: Good

I wonder if these shots are too same-same. Oh, well. I like clouds and don't really care what you think. I do think I should get out more, though. See some different skies. Too much of the same thing, even if it's a good thing, is no good. I need to put myself out there more in general.

9. Rain's Over

042908_2822, originally uploaded by steve_kurth.

Time: 8pm
Location: Salisbury
Mood: Ok

The long nonsense at work sometimes gets to me. It did today and I found myself feeling unduly tired. I have some choices to make and I've been postponing them.

It rained for like two days. Several times today it threatened to break sunny. Every time though, it would switch back and rain some more. Even half an hour ago it was thumping hard. But just like that it broke and there was this sunset. Maybe change is as simple as just deciding.

8. Visitors

sunset cloud, originally uploaded by steve_kurth.

Time: 7:10pm
Location: back deck
Mood: happy, grateful

I had company tonight. If you had asked me a few weeks ago if people came to the house, I'd be like "yeah- sure." But as I cleaned up today, I realized: It's probably been 6 months since I've had anyone else in my place. Now, I've been travelling and I go out, so I'm not a total loser, but damn.

You get too used to things.

I was getting some art paper and on the cover of the pad I had written "Expect Poison From Standing Water." The drawings inside were four years old.

We stood on the deck tonight, snapping away and I was grateful and recharged.

7. Sky 7

042008_2539, originally uploaded by steve_kurth.

Time: 7pm
Location: Over marsh in Salisbury
Mood: itchy-eyed

I had two beers during the Sox game. Apparently, that is enough to knock me out these days. I woke up in time to see their late-inning heroics but now I feel like ass.

I can't get out of my own way now. My place is a mess and for some reason, I'm not doing anything about it right now.

But, there was the sky. Here it is.

6. Marsh Morning

042008_2463, originally uploaded by steve_kurth.

Time: 8am
Location: State Park in Salisbury
Mood: delighted

I got up this morning and took so,e shots of the marsh. The tide was very low and I had hopes to get some shots of the drainage tracts they cut through the marsh. I did get some, but it wasn't satisfying.

I drove off vowing that I would stop if I saw anything else that interested me. Sometimes I do that and chicken out. I feel very self-conscious taking photos. But today I found my way over at the park. They have these tall wheat-looking numbers there.

I walked into the muddy field and started shooting. Watching the auto focus zoom in and out and the wheat waving back and forth through the viewfinder was a great show. The wheat would fall into focus and out then lazily wander out as the camera whirred furiously, finding new focus points. Funny contrast of paces and directions. THe show was more fun than the photos, though. This one I held the camera at about waist-high and just shot up.

5. RootC

041608_2231, originally uploaded by steve_kurth.

Time: 8pm
Location: home
Mood: groggy

This is RootC. Right Out Of The Camera.
It's tempting to improve or change these colors in Photoshop. Especially after I see it one way on the Mac and then it looks duller and worse on the PC. But usually I don't do very much to these. Didn't do anything at all to this.
I guess I left it because as the shots from my deck add up I want there to be no question that this isn't a cool view. I'm not manufacturing it. There has just been a rash of nice sunsets. I'm curious if it's the time of the year and if it will last through summer.

4. Too Slow

041308_2068, originally uploaded by steve_kurth.

Tim: 7am
Location: back porch
Mood: excited

I took this in my underwear. It was the first thing I did this morning. Great light that only got part of here.

Across the bridge behind the house in this shot there's a larger chunk of marsh. In it there's this large, cool rock that I'm always thinking about. It often has a small, windswept tidal pool in front of it. So I pell-mell into clothes and haul ass over there.

Too late.

This shot was taken at 6:59am. By 7:10 the whole thing had changed, flattened and fell apart. Of course I shot anyway, but there's nothing to report.

This is the second time this has happened like this. Last time it was my drive home. Crazy, tiny squalls brewing and collapsing all the way home. Once again, by the time I had my gear in the car it had passed.

It's like the sky is camera-shy. I gotta be quicker.

3. April 9

040908_2031, originally uploaded by steve_kurth.

Time: 8 pm
Location: my back porch in northern MA
Mood: slightly tired, slightly irritated

My sister called. Her vacation plans changed and she's thinking of coming this way. We talked about seeing a Sox game, which would be great.

Of course, you can't get any tickets through the official site so you have to go to resellers. These thieves are charging $75 for an $18 grandstand seat. I've always wanted to sit close to the field. Cheapest tickets on a Monday nothing daytime game close to the dugout were $200 apiece. It really pisses me off. Still, my finger was hovering over the buy button a long time before I talked myself down. I might not even be able to go that day.

Still somewhat pissed I walked away and noticed how the sky was looking.

I'm really lucky to have this view.

2. April 9th

Time: 5:20

Location: my back porch in northern MA

Mood: committed

I was abut to post a previous sky pic I had taken. I just got prints of it back and there was a pretty good story involved about a girl I had a fling with. Plus, it was a pretty good picture and substantially different from the last one. 

But I said hold on there. New rule- no old pictures. This is a current blog- not a rehash. So I went out and shot the above while cooking brats on the grill. I tell you, these brats are Heaven on a Bun. Again, I under-exposed about 3 on the meter. Looks like a little bird flew by.

April 7th

040708_2012, originally uploaded by steve_kurth.

Time: about 6:30pm est
Location: my back porch in northern MA

Mood: mostly grateful

The sunsets has been great here lately, especially after having been in Texas for two weeks. The skies there were dull and flat. Usually I like a blank gray expanse, but the Dallas sky just left my listless.

Opening the blinds to my deck after work I was psyched to see the sunbeams busting through the clouds like they do in Jesus postcards. It always seems like there should a pot of gold at the end of the beam. So I snapped off a couple (okay 32) shots. I underexposed a few steps to get the drama going and keep the sun in the picture. Then I made a sandwich.

35 Skies

A few years ago, my friend Matt had a blog project called 100 Cups of Coffee. Each time had a cup of the stuff, he blogged about where he was, his overall mood, stuff like that. He did it 100 times, documenting each cup with a picture and story about his slice of life at that moment. Very interesting. I believe that the way to the universal is through the specific, so I liked reading Matt's tiny truths and such.

I'm not as ambitious or clever as Matt, so I'm only going to do it 35 times. And I don't drink that much joe. But I do take pictures of clouds every now and then, so I'm going to try that. We'll see how it goes...