Hipstamatic

This month after having Verizon as a wireless cell phone carrier for five years we decided to go to AT&T as our provider. The main draw was for the IPhone4. I have used a simple cell phone and a Blackberry smartphone. I must admit I do like all of the bells and whistles of the IPhone. The phone allows me to do several things at once and I can say that is something that many phones do not allow. Not to mention that it also has a feature called facetime( a true video phone call).  A dream growing up for many kids and adults was to be able to see the person you were calling now no longer science fiction. Applications now shortened to Apps has made the IPhone very popular. Apps are programs that run on the IPhone that can be purchased for use on the device.
One popular App is Hipstamatic. A program that uses the IPhone's camera and processes them with a vintage look that seems to be very hip (obvious pun) these days.Many consumers today want image manipulation to look like a seventies McCall's magazine.  As a child of the seventies, I know what my family album looks like and Hipstamatic is on the mark.   Being optimistic, I think the program pays homage to the craft itself. One aspect of programs like this is people are making images.  I have been using the Hipstamatic App for a couple of weeks now and not worrying about film speed, f-stops, and exposure is a nice for a change. Just letting the photography universe be.

Below are some images made with the App which allows the the use different effects( referred to as lenses and film)  within the program to manipulate the image being made.

   

This is Lucifer and may be the death of me.

Canning Day

This Labor Day weekend found Melissa and I, canning our bounty of garden tomatoes. Well, the first round anyway. The process is pretty straight forward. Scald the tomatoes first in boiling water. Then blanch them in cold water and remove the skins. The next step in our case was to half or quarter them and the place them into sterilized jars. We added lemon juice and salt to the tomatoes to help with the  preservation process. Once the jars were filled we put on the lids and boiled the for about 45 minutes in our large stock pot. We will be repeating the process again this week as the second round of tomatoes ripen.

Garden Results

This year we put out a vegetable garden. The first time in many years we have leased a property with the prospects for gardening. We started our garden roughly June 1st. Nothing fancy Tomatoes, Radishes, Lettuce Peppers, Green Beans, Peas, Yellow Squash, Cucumbers,  Pie Pumpkins, and Watermelon.

Here are a few Images from the last couple of months.

The garden started small but grew quickly in a couple of months.

Green beans

Cucumbers.

Pickling Cucumbers.

Today, I pickled these peppers and can't wait to use them.

Gentle Evening

Summer is in full swing in central Wisconsin. I have not posted anything for a couple of weeks due to nagging knee injury (Meniscus tear)  that I am finally getting resolved in a couple of weeks by the way of surgery.We had a storm roll through here several weeks ago that took out several beloved firs around the house. Eleven trees in total were damaged. Some snapped off several feet above the ground and others were blown over. Straight line winds were the cause. It was worst storm to hit this area in years. With things getting back to normal,  I have  taken a couple of pictures of our garden that we planted at the beginning of June and will post those at a later time. A break in the humidity, allowed for very pleasant weather today. I found myself out this evening making a few images. I try to push myself to always make better images than I have taken in the past. While flowers make easy targets because of their own natural beauty as I was preparing to go inside I noticed a couple of small flowers growing around a spruce in the backyard. These little wild flowers were very small and only standing a couple of inches off of the ground. 

Last year, the apple tree out in the backyard did not produce any fruit. This year it looks like we should have plenty. I should start thinking about a cider press. The apples are not very large and making cider out of them would be the best use for them.

This apple and others had already fallen from the wind.

A gentle evening breeze makes these Brown-eyed Susans flutter in the wind.

Cauliflower

Cauliflower Leaf.

Unplugged 2011.

Summertime means camping, fishing, and unplugging from technology. We made a list of items and wrote them down on a  blue college essay test booklet.  These items would make roughing it more comfortable. When I was younger, all I needed was a Rambo knife. Everybody wanted to camp like a reluctant hero that was on the lam. The survival knife had a compass on the butt of the knife that unscrewed revealing the fishing line with hook and some waterproof matches. Our list was complete, we loaded the bed of the truck like that hollow handled Rambo knife.  The Wisconsin northwoods was our destination.

The campground was great. Only a handful of other campers were seen during our visit. No water, no electricity, and a couple of miles of gravel road ensured a quiet time.

The only sounds at night under the tall red pines were the calls of  loons, a crackling fire, and whippoorwills.

Starrett Lake, Wisconsin

Starrett Lake Campground.

Megan and I out in the canoe.

Starrett Lake, located within the Northern Highland American Legion State Forest is a small lake and is perfect for canoeing.

This Smallmouth Bass fell for a buzzbait. Catch and release.

Another Smallmouth. 

Megan, my daughter, working a Zara Spook.

Everything unpacked and set up to find the tragedy of not having any sugar for my coffee! How could it have been missed from being packed. I bet Rambo wished he had a sugar cube in his knife to wash down the worms he ate for breakfast. Our front-country car campground breakfast included fried potatoes with onions, bacon,eggs, and strong black coffee.
The time we spent and the things we experienced was well worth every ounce of effort put forth on our expedition and memories that will last a lifetime.

The View From The Backseat

I normally do a lot of driving. So taking pictures sometimes takes a backseat to concentrating on driving. Yesterday, I had the privilege to be a passenger on a day trip with Melissa and some close friends to Green Bay and Door County, Wisconsin. The day started out nice and sunny but on the return trip home things became a bit gloomy and harrowing for a few moments. I post many pictures on Facebook. Some however, I feel need to be posted here.

Fox River and Green Bay.