Social distancing and whining!

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Okay people I have lost it with all the whining of how bad you have it because of social distancing!!! It is time that you GROW-UP. Seriously can people not act like they are adults and instead of constant complaining live with it. Really…… take a step back and look at what medical professionals are asking you. It is not that difficult to do. They are asking that for a few weeks you don’t hang out with others. If you do meet someone that you stay 6′ or only two meters away. When you do need to go out that you take as little time as possible to do nessaccary shopping and then go back home. They have not said that you cannot go outside (yes if you have just returned from out of country you have to stay inside), they are not saying stay off TV or computers. They are not saying to live on water and crackers. They are saying stay at home or if you are outside for a walk stay 6′ from others!!

social distancing

In the last 24 hours the number of people complaining about how bad they have it is CRAZY!!!! “Social distancing is so hard”, “Social distancing means I cannot see my grand kids”, “Social distancing means I cannot go to the restaurant”. WE ALL KNOW!!!!!!!

Be grateful that you only have to do it for a few weeks or a month. There are some people that live with this every year!!!! Myself for the last 15 years I have been dealing with a lung disease. The meds I need to take lower my immune system. So every fall to early summer I have to increase the distance I am from people. The rest of the year I have to take major precautions with everything that I do. So starting in November I cannot go to church till May or June. When I go to church the rest of the year I sit in the balcony away from the rest of the people. Year round I cannot go to concerts or movies as being that close to people even out of flu and cold season runs too many risks. Restaurants are a challenge as well. If I show up and someone close by is sneezing or coughing I need to leave. Visiting with my grandson is a HUGE challenge. If he has been sick or even around others I have to stay away and I LOVE being with him!! At work after each customer I need to wipe down my desk and door knobs. If a customer comes in that is sick I need to stay back as far as I can. When I go out shopping I have to be alert for people that are sneezing or coughing wherever I go!! I cannot travel like many people. I get to hear from people how they are heading to Mexico or how they are going here or there. But I cannot travel as traveling is a huge issue with germs. I am not the only one. There are lots of people that have to do the same thing. Some even have to be more cautious and we have been doing it for a long time!!!

Myself I have been doing this for 15 years. Not just a week!!! I have given up a lot to try and stay healthy. Many days it is a challenge. Someone will not wash their hands or wear gloves when preparing food or getting me some cold meat or bakery item so I cannot eat it. Someone will come into my business hacking away only to tell me “I have a cold but seeing I had to get an oil change decided I would stop in and order some prints”. All the while coughing and sneezing on me. So after they leave I have to sterilize everything and increase my vitamins for the next week.

I don’t spend the entire day whining about it I get on with life!! Do I miss some things? You bet I do!! I miss playing with my grandson the most!! I miss being able to forget about being sick when I am shopping! I miss going to the movie theater! I wish I didn’t have to wash my hands and sterilize things all day long. I miss being able to go on vacation wherever and whenever.

You have been asked to do this for a short time, it may be a month or even two but really it is not that long. Just do it!!! Don’t try and push the rules. Don’t try and get away with a little extra this or that. Just do what you are told and live with it. By doing what you are told maybe you will get to live a little longer, maybe your neighbor will get to live a little longer, maybe your grandparents will get to live a little longer. Then when you are told you get to do things that you want you can enjoy them. I know I will enjoy playing with my grandson, going camping, eating out. But when you are back enjoying I will still be required to be on the lookout for germs but I won’t be whining about it.

Winter blues

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Even with it being not a bad winter I still have the winter blues. I really have not minded this past winter for cold temperatures, so far only one really bad week of horrible temperatures. The problem has been the changes in the weather. One day it is cool and snowy and a day later the winds are shaking everything and the temperature is rising. If it just stayed cool with snow it would not be so bad.

I have been out shooting a few times in the past couple of months but overall shooting outside has not been that great. Only so many sunsets and bridge pictures with snow that one person can take and still be interested in it. Staying at the studio is only so much fun when most of my customers are staying at home to avoid the winds so I have made up some projects to do over the past couple of months to beat the winter blues!

First project!

First project was to run some tests on the printers to make sure that the colors were as good as they could be. Was happy to see that things were looking great and that the systems that I tested were no better then what I was doing. Always scary thinking that I may not be using the best printing settings, but after tests I am happy with what I am printing.

Beating the winter blues project 1, testing colors on the printers.

Beat the winter blues – Project 2

I grabbed my camera and big lens, put them in a backpack and went out for a hike. This would not seem like a big thing to most people but for someone that has been dealing with lung issues this was a HUGE event. I have not been able to hike for years. I took the wildlife camera just in case and found one cooperative subject.

Project 3

I have been working on this project for YEARS!!! I wanted to get some affordable postcards for not only my printing clients but for selling my own work as well. Problem has been either the price is crazy high or the quality s low. So this winter I tried some tests and I am happy to say that I now have a printing company to do my postcard printing for me!!

Postcard back - high level bridge Lethbridge
4″x6″ Post Card Template

I still have a few more projects but I am hoping that it gets nice so I can shelve the projects. Like I tell everyone “artists are the biggest procrastinators” and I would like to be able to put a few things off to enjoy some really warm and not windy weather!!

Morning Frost

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Morning Frost

I love frost on just about anything. When I went out for my late night walk last night the fog was slowly rolling into town. I figured that the next day would bring some morning frost and I was right. On my morning walk it was amazing. As soon as I got home I grabbed a camera and headed out to my front yard.

Just as I was starting to shoot the winds started to come up and the frost was starting to blow off the trees and plants. It stayed around long enough fr me to get my pictures. Four hundred pictures later and I am happy 🙂 Here are a few of the pictures. Has been a while since the weather and my schedule worked out.

Camera – Canon 5D MkIV, 100 2.8 Macro, 400 ISO – various shutter speeds and aperture

The morning frost was accenting these Wild Rose plants
The morning frost was accenting these Wild Rose plants
Dry leaves and morning frost
Dry leaves and morning frost

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Paterson Photography Changes

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People have been asking why the changes here at Paterson Photography? Well it is simple, I am trying to stay organized and that is a HUGE project in itself. Over the past years several of my businesses and hobbies have merged into one HUGE mess.

People that are looking for my nature prints find my woodworking or my teaching information but cannot find my nature prints. People that want to follow the happenings with my van find my nature prints, etc, etc.

So I have been slowly separating things to make it easier for me and for my friends and clients. Well to be blunt it is like separating an omelette, it has not been easy. I am glad that I am doing it but it will take a lot of work to clean things up.

So be patient and someday I may have things all organized. You may see posts overlapping for a while but slowly things will split completely, or at least that is how I plan it 🙂

So some of my sites if you are interested are below…

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Fall Trip

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I love fall camping, exploring and photography. This fall it went from summer to winter and I had to wait till fall came back. Even then it was not a big deal around here as there is snow and cold to deal with way too early this year. I decided that a trip to Banff and Yoho was in order. The weekend I choose was nice but cool, in fact during the night it got really cold!! I heard a number of RV’s heading out around 3 am as I don’t think they were prepared for the cold temperatures in the mountains.

This time of the year I love heading to Banff through Kananaskis. The drive is nice and the colors are amazing!!!

Fall drive through Kananaskis
Kananaskis Alberta

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Harvest moon

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Shine on Harvest moon……

The harvest moon is one of my least favorite full moons, it means that the warm weather is coming to an end. But with the nice weather I still went out and did some pictures of it last night. I first planned my shoot using The Photographer’s Ephemeris to see where the moon would rise. For some reason it was way off and I ended up in an area that did not work. Not a big deal as the clouds were covering the first part of the rise so I relocated to get the moon as it was coming out of the low clouds.

I have shot a lot of full moons and I get bored with the same old shots. So I knew that I wanted to play with this moon in a different way.

The first shot that I wanted to do would not work without some help from editing. I wanted to do a shot of the moon rising over a local grain terminal. I also wanted it to be a grainy shot, more like a painting then a photograph. So I shot the elevators 10 minutes before the moon rise. Then I shot the moon as it came up and put them together. I use to do this type of shot years ago with film and it was a pain!! With digital it is so much easier.

Harvest moon and elevators

The next set of shots I did not plan out. I wanted something out of the ordinary with the moon. After relocating to a second location I found what I wanted. I call these shots building a full moon as the moon was not completely full at this time. Plus it looks like a construction site.

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