Too Cool To Swim

I was devastated. Here I had psyched myself up and it was seventy degrees and cloudy... I went biking in the light mist, just me and the bike totally free of gear and exhilerated as a kid. Thirty minutes later, Coffee in hand, ice on knee (in case), I sketched for half an hour--mix of this,that and the other,(watercolor markers, colored pencil, acrylic). Honey made some sort of disgruntled remark as he passed through about me making the kitchen an extension of the studio and I should go back to where I belonged. Humph. Who's the main honcho in this room anyway,I thought. Then I played around with my camera.

I've owned the digital Konica Minolta for three years. You'd think I'd know what it can do. Not on your life. But somewhere during the weekend, I had an epiphany. A light bulb went off in my head as it occurred to me that those cute little pictures Minolta uses were the same as f stops. I thought if I set the shutter speed for sunsets, moonlight or people under the stars, I could freeze (in degrees) the action when photographing from the car traveling at 45mph. And if that was true, setting it for continuous shooting,I would,with a little practice, be able to catch interesting street scenes along with some interesting happenstance shots. I couldn't wait to go to lunch to try it out. (GF I should read the manual).



We were just going down the road a piece on Orchard Lake Road. Had it not been raining,I would have opened the window, which would have produced clearer images.I should have also waited for the strip malls to come up--more colorful--but I was anxious to try out my prediction,which was right on. I ended up with a strip of stills starting at the Foxpointe Condos and ending at the PNC Bank, the entire route between Lone Pine Road to just sort of Maple Road, about three miles plus or minus. As we drove, I tried each lowlight icon. The lower the light, the less the blur.

One of the first photos turned out to be the most interesting even though it wasn't taken in an uninteresting stretch. I liked the reflection of my skirt and purse in the glass against the blurred background of the tall grasses and ragweed. That photo was shot with the sunset/palm tree icon setting. I cropped it to play up the reflection, increased the exposure and punched up the vividness. I have no idea what the burgundy is, but the skirt's mine, so's the purse. Photo has good watercolor potential.