well, that was weird...
so i left the house with plenty of time to make it to berkeley in time for the google plus photo stroll meetup. i fixed my hair. i wore a cool t-shirt. i was in the mood to hang out with new people and do something different. but i left early enough to grab a sandwich and stop off in my cemetery for a short bit first. the cemetery is on the way to berkeley, so it was a good plan, i thought.
i ate my sandwich. shot some video for a friend who is thinking of visiting the area later this month for a photo shoot. realized that there were actually some leaves in the trees turning colors... got the camera out and took some photos of them for my mom. then realized that i did not know how to use the macro function on my lens settings. weird. so i got the manual out and read up on it really quick. apparently, each different lens has different focal length capabilities and have different macro nearness settings. i did not know this. i think i had only ever tried to shoot macro with my 50mm lens before, figuring since it was the fastest of my lenses that it would be able to shoot the closest. test shots did not seem macro close at all to me. and in the manual it said something about "if you use your zoom lens to shoot macro, shoot in maximum zoom". huh.
so i did a test of all three of my lenses. the 50mm, the 35-70mm and the 100-300mm. turns out that the 35-70mm(?) is the best for macro. it actually gets REALLY close. never knew that before. huh. well, in the time i was doing this testing i ended up being in the cemetery for about 30 minutes. still plenty of time to get to downtown berkeley in time for the meetup. no problem. but wow, it was so pretty there. and it was so quiet. and i felt so peaceful.
and then it hit me. stupid man. this is where you belong. this is your place. and today of all days. you just took a huge spiritual step in quitting facebook and your first inclination is to run out the door to meet a bunch of people that are glommer-ons for another social-soul-suck-network. am i an idiot? google plus has already failed at doing what i joined it for. it was supposed to be a place to help you grow closer to your friends by developing close, tight knit circles of focused attention on specific topics of interest. i have no one of shared interest there that participates this way with me. i have set up circles for cemetery study, music focus groups, writing (writer circles established by other people, strangers to me may in the long run be the only reason i continue to use google plus)... but none of the people i have known in facebook understand the power google plus has to help us become more focused and share knowledge better here. so in my overall social network burnout, i'm going to give up on this before the rest of the people i know get it...
back to the cemetery... i had a flash realization that despite the good that could have come out of going to the photo stroll today; seeing real people, talking to real people... it would have ended up being a backwards experience for me. i'm not moving in the same direction those people are. i AM moving backwards anyway, but i don't want to move backwards against my own backwards motion. so i decided to stay in the cemetery. the light was turning magic, and i had this new discovery of how to shoot macro with the camera.
i found my way to a favorite section and saw some statues that i have photographed many, many times before... but something different happened today. something that i have never, ever had happen in this cemetery... and maybe any cemetery ever before. i felt the presence. of the spirit inside the statue. she looked right out at me and said, "why haven't you seen me before?", almost with a chuckle in her voice. she made me blush. i moved right up close to her and rested my cheek against hers and said, "wow... i'm so embarassed! i'm always so distracted by the other people that i come here with. i never slow down enough, or get quiet enough to see you..." and i fell into a quasi-trance of mingling-adoration of her and her twin sister... and took sooo many new style photos of them. i can't show anyone these photos either. no one sees any of my new work until it gets published in book or magazine format. that is the new rule.
so i spent the rest of the evening until it became too dark visiting all of the angel statues that i could, talking to them all, adoring them all, apologizing to them all for being so ignorant of their spirits all these years and told them how thankful i was for all their service and love and devotion to me and my work with them over the years. and yes, i gave them all kisses too. i got a little sad during this visit today, not having any person to share today with, but if there had been anyone with me i would not have been able to descend/arise to this new level of consciousness.
i ate my sandwich. shot some video for a friend who is thinking of visiting the area later this month for a photo shoot. realized that there were actually some leaves in the trees turning colors... got the camera out and took some photos of them for my mom. then realized that i did not know how to use the macro function on my lens settings. weird. so i got the manual out and read up on it really quick. apparently, each different lens has different focal length capabilities and have different macro nearness settings. i did not know this. i think i had only ever tried to shoot macro with my 50mm lens before, figuring since it was the fastest of my lenses that it would be able to shoot the closest. test shots did not seem macro close at all to me. and in the manual it said something about "if you use your zoom lens to shoot macro, shoot in maximum zoom". huh.
so i did a test of all three of my lenses. the 50mm, the 35-70mm and the 100-300mm. turns out that the 35-70mm(?) is the best for macro. it actually gets REALLY close. never knew that before. huh. well, in the time i was doing this testing i ended up being in the cemetery for about 30 minutes. still plenty of time to get to downtown berkeley in time for the meetup. no problem. but wow, it was so pretty there. and it was so quiet. and i felt so peaceful.
and then it hit me. stupid man. this is where you belong. this is your place. and today of all days. you just took a huge spiritual step in quitting facebook and your first inclination is to run out the door to meet a bunch of people that are glommer-ons for another social-soul-suck-network. am i an idiot? google plus has already failed at doing what i joined it for. it was supposed to be a place to help you grow closer to your friends by developing close, tight knit circles of focused attention on specific topics of interest. i have no one of shared interest there that participates this way with me. i have set up circles for cemetery study, music focus groups, writing (writer circles established by other people, strangers to me may in the long run be the only reason i continue to use google plus)... but none of the people i have known in facebook understand the power google plus has to help us become more focused and share knowledge better here. so in my overall social network burnout, i'm going to give up on this before the rest of the people i know get it...
back to the cemetery... i had a flash realization that despite the good that could have come out of going to the photo stroll today; seeing real people, talking to real people... it would have ended up being a backwards experience for me. i'm not moving in the same direction those people are. i AM moving backwards anyway, but i don't want to move backwards against my own backwards motion. so i decided to stay in the cemetery. the light was turning magic, and i had this new discovery of how to shoot macro with the camera.
i found my way to a favorite section and saw some statues that i have photographed many, many times before... but something different happened today. something that i have never, ever had happen in this cemetery... and maybe any cemetery ever before. i felt the presence. of the spirit inside the statue. she looked right out at me and said, "why haven't you seen me before?", almost with a chuckle in her voice. she made me blush. i moved right up close to her and rested my cheek against hers and said, "wow... i'm so embarassed! i'm always so distracted by the other people that i come here with. i never slow down enough, or get quiet enough to see you..." and i fell into a quasi-trance of mingling-adoration of her and her twin sister... and took sooo many new style photos of them. i can't show anyone these photos either. no one sees any of my new work until it gets published in book or magazine format. that is the new rule.
so i spent the rest of the evening until it became too dark visiting all of the angel statues that i could, talking to them all, adoring them all, apologizing to them all for being so ignorant of their spirits all these years and told them how thankful i was for all their service and love and devotion to me and my work with them over the years. and yes, i gave them all kisses too. i got a little sad during this visit today, not having any person to share today with, but if there had been anyone with me i would not have been able to descend/arise to this new level of consciousness.
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