Bought a 2020 Lugnuts Season Ticket

Posted on February 25, 2020 by joel

I’d been thinking about a Lansing season ticket for this year since sometime in December. So I bought one.

Big Lug

Dylan Meyer–the Lugnuts’ season ticket guy–gave me a call yesterday to ask whether I’d be interested to (re)purchase the 20-game package I bought a couple years back. I said no–but I’d be interested in buying a specific seat for the entire season. He checked, it was available, I bought it. So I’ll be sitting there all summer.

Section N, Row 4, Seat 8 was my seat at Oldsmobile Park during the Luggies’ 1996 inaugural season, and again in 2005 during their tenth. (In between I was a Battle Creek fan.) Somehow watching the team’s 25th season from that seat seems appropriate.

I kept sort of a blog during the 1996 season. Think I’ll do it again this year. This is the start.

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Did Someone Mention a Nuthatch?

Posted on December 31, 2017 by joel

Did Someone Mention a Nuthatch?

On This Date: Photo taken 12/31/2007

Done.

This was fun. Thanks for following along.

Number of pix taken on various December 31sts: 334
Year of oldest photo: 2007

How I Rated the Date’s Photographs:

  • 1 Star: 3
  • 2 Stars: 53
  • 3 Stars: 244
  • 4 Stars: 32
  • 5 Stars: 2
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Dessert

Posted on December 31, 2017 by joel

Dessert

On This Date: Photo taken 12/31/2007

Ten years ago Joan made this pretty cheesecake. It was beautiful, and it was delicious.

I’ve posted this photo before. Today’s version’s darker.

We don’t do anything on December 31. Judging by my photographs, we don’t even leave the village. Most years I photograph birds.

I spent 12/31/2007 playing with my new camera. I took it to the post office, where I photographed falling snow. We watched Joan as she cooked & cleaned up. I set up the tripod and snapped pix of finches. (I also photographed that setup, using my pocket cam.) I photographed cardinals, too. And a nuthatch.

And we ate the cheesecake. You’ve gotta have priorities.

Number of pix taken on various December 31sts: 334
Year of oldest photo: 2007

How I Rated the Date’s Photographs:

  • 1 Star: 3
  • 2 Stars: 53
  • 3 Stars: 244
  • 4 Stars: 32
  • 5 Stars: 2
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Framed

Posted on December 30, 2017 by joel

Framed

On This Date: Photo taken 12/30/2006

On the next-to-last day of 2006 Joan and I decided to find and explore Eaton County’s Lincoln Brick Park, on the northern edge of Grand Ledge. We found ruins, and trees, and the Grand River, and trails. A swimming hole, too. It’s an excellent park with truly great scenery. But the park’s heart’s the ruins.

These days the park’s rather more developed than it was in 2006. But it’s still a place with interesting ruins.

Rather oddly, neither the Eaton County nor the Pure Michigan pages about the park mention the ruins. Which seems to miss the point.

Number of pix taken on various December 30ths: 360
Year of oldest photo: 2006

How I Rated the Date’s Photographs:

  • 1 Star: 4
  • 2 Stars: 35
  • 3 Stars: 237
  • 4 Stars: 71
  • 5 Stars: 12
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Sunrise

Posted on December 29, 2017 by joel

Sunrise

On This Date: Photo taken 12/29/2014

This photograph’s the December image for the calendar I made for friends and family members this year, so they’ll find it familiar. Except my calendar’s printer added a whole bunch of orange to the mix.

I don’t object to their version, but it ain’t my version.

One of my dad’s coworkers did custom photo processing for customers of Kalamazoo’s camera shop, Norman Camera. Can’t say I understood the need until I started scanning negatives, and discovered how much control the photo lab has (had?) over the final print. For most photographs it doesn’t much matter, but I’ve learned that a lab tech can ruin–or save–an image by making decisions about cropping and exposure. The best lab staffers were very good about this; others seem to have treated the job as basically mechanical.

Obviously this is still true, though the media’s changed.

Number of pix taken on various December 29ths: 132
Year of oldest photo: 2007

How I Rated the Date’s Photographs:

  • 1 Star: 1
  • 2 Stars: 11
  • 3 Stars: 99
  • 4 Stars: 16
  • 5 Stars: 5
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Grapes

Posted on December 28, 2017 by joel

Grapes

On This Date: Photo taken 12/28/2007

Ten years ago today my Nikon D300 arrived. I shot the traditional photos of Joan and Taffy–Oreo, too. I got some (lousy) pictures of the Christmas tree ornaments. Then I wandered around the house taking images of things on shelves and walls.

I discovered my software couldn’t handle the D300’s RAW format. So I reset the camera to shoot TIFs and repeated the process.

Here’s one of the RAW photos I took after I unboxed the camera. I don’t think I’ve posted one of those before.

I forget what software I was using at the time–perhaps PhotoImpact. I could–maybe should–have switched to Photoshop, but I’ve an aversion to Adobe products. Finding suitable software that supported the newly-released camera soon led me to Bibble Pro, a product I learned to love. (It’s hard not to notice that Corel acquired both PhotoImpact and Bibble, and both times I went elsewhere. I’m not certain that’s significant. I did use Corel’s AfterShot Pro–Bibble’s successor–for a couple years. And long ago I owned a copy of PaintShop Pro.)

These days my main photo processing tools are made by DxO and Serif.

It’s not that I dislike Adobe. It’s more that Adobe controls enough of the infrastructure I use that I consider it important to support their competitors.

Number of pix taken on various December 28ths: 338
Year of oldest photo: 2003

How I Rated the Date’s Photographs:

  • 1 Star: 6
  • 2 Stars: 47
  • 3 Stars: 232
  • 4 Stars: 50
  • 5 Stars: 3
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Tracks

Posted on December 27, 2017 by joel

Tracks

On This Date: Photo taken 12/27/2012

Joan’s gone to work. Some cat’s come to visit.

Number of pix taken on various December 27ths: 357
Year of oldest photo: 2006

How I Rated the Date’s Photographs:

  • 1 Star: 0
  • 2 Stars: 25
  • 3 Stars: 285
  • 4 Stars: 43
  • 5 Stars: 4
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Sarah Reading Her Cards

Posted on December 26, 2017 by joel

Sarah Reading Her Cards

On This Date: Photo taken 12/26/2014

Joan’s niece, Sarah, was born on December 26. We generally help her celebrate her birthday.

That’s her mom, Pam, looking on.

Not sure why, but odd lighting is pretty common in my 12/26 set, regardless of where we hold Sarah’s party. I’m frankly amazed that this photo worked.

This is among the first photographs I took with a new lens, an 18.5 mm f/1.8 for my Nikon 1 V2–on that camera, equivalent to a 50 mm lens on a film SLR. It’s an excellent general-purpose lens, and was a Christmas gift from Joan.

Number of pix taken on various December 26ths: 553
Year of oldest photo: 2003

How I Rated the Date’s Photographs:

  • 1 Star: 2
  • 2 Stars: 82
  • 3 Stars: 367
  • 4 Stars: 89
  • 5 Stars: 13
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Christmas Dinner

Posted on December 25, 2017 by joel

Christmas Dinner

On This Date: Photo taken 12/25/2010

Wishing Christmas blessings on all my friends and family.

My Christmas pix are mainly photographs of members of our extended families, taken at gatherings in a variety of homes. The bulk of ’em are interesting mainly to those photographed. So today I’m posting a couple fairly generic holiday images.

In 2010 we spent Christmas with my brother and sister at their place in Kalamazoo. Debbie prepared this meal.

May Christmas bring you joy!

Number of pix taken on various December 25ths: 585 [includes four by my father]
Year of oldest photo: 1991 [1954 if you include Dad’s]

How I Rated the Date’s Photographs:

  • 1 Star: 2
  • 2 Stars: 102
  • 3 Stars: 370
  • 4 Stars: 93
  • 5 Stars: 18

Dad’s pix include the 1954 photo of “the kids” I posted yesterday and three taken in 1959.

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Joy!

Posted on December 25, 2017 by joel

Joy!

On This Date: Photo taken 12/25/2014

Wishing Christmas blessings on all my friends and family.

My Christmas pix are mainly photographs of members of our extended families, taken at gatherings in a variety of homes. The bulk of ’em are interesting mainly to those photographed. So today I’m posting a couple fairly generic holiday images.

This photo was taken at the Bennett family Christmas party, held at Sarah’s place in 2014.

May Christmas bring you joy!

Number of pix taken on various December 25ths: 585 [includes four by my father]
Year of oldest photo: 1991 [1954 if you include Dad’s]

How I Rated the Date’s Photographs:

  • 1 Star: 2
  • 2 Stars: 102
  • 3 Stars: 370
  • 4 Stars: 93
  • 5 Stars: 18

Dad’s pix include the 1954 photo of “the kids” I posted yesterday and three taken in 1959.

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