Zen Monday: #174

Zen Monday's the day you experience the photo and give us your thoughts rather than me telling you what I think the picture's about. There's no competition, no right or wrong. We're here to have fun. (Some Zen Mondays are more fun than others.)

I look for something worth contemplating or, failing that, something odd or silly. All of the above, if I'm lucky.



From the PIO:

A compilation of all information about last week’s windstorm and subsequent recovery can be found at this new page on the city of Pasadena website:

www.cityofpasadena.net/Windstorm_2011


Ann Erdman
Public Information Officer
City of Pasadena
Public Affairs Office
100 N. Garfield Ave., Room S228
Pasadena CA  91109
(626) 744-4755
Cell: (626) 375-2742
www.cityofpasadena.net/publicaffairs
Facebook:  Pasadena PIO
Twitter:  pasadenapio
 

Learning to See

I want to show you a couple more pictures I took during Ibarionex Perello's workshop. (I'm proud of this one.)

When you arrive at the workshop, which begins at Memorial Park and takes you trekking through Old Town, you'll be greeted by Ibarionex, his wife Cynthia, and probably a few of their friends. With smiles. And hot coffee. It sets the tone.

Then, like ducklings following your leader, you head out into Old Town in search of challenge, texture and, most of all, light. Ibarionex will give you some basics about using your digital SLR camera, then you're going to start chasing the light and learning to see in new ways.

For my first couple of years of blogging I worked with an Olympus SP350, a nice, purse-sized point-and-shoot that had some manual settings I never used. I still shoot with it sometimes (with the automatic settings) but not as much. I learned a lot and I was ready to move on to a better instrument.

I met Ibarionex at a local blogger event about two and a half years ago. We had already met online. Some time after that first meeting I bought a Canon 20D from him. It might have some of his mojo, but I'll never know unless I learn how to use it. I've been trying to teach myself and I've made progress, but I'm lazy about reading manuals. So when the chance came along to take a workshop with the man himself, I jumped at it. I'm going to jump again this Saturday. It's his last workshop of the year that isn't full yet.

(I'm proud of this one, too.)

I can recommend the class because I've taken it and I already see results. If you want to make the leap, go to the Candid Frame Workshops sign-up page, ignore the other discount codes and get the workshop for $50 by entering this code: perellovip.

I was out shooting today and got a few good pictures, although I admit several were overexposed. It's not like this stuff comes easy. With practice, though, it comes. I could set everything on automatic and let the camera make all the decisions, but in that case I might as well use a point-and-shoot.

Dorothea Lange said "A camera is a tool for learning how to see without a camera." I love wrapping my mind around the meaning of that statement.

Greening the Earth

Can you believe it's been forty years since the first Earth Day?

I suppose if you were born after about 1965, you can.

I like the way Pasadena celebrates. With love in our hearts we hail April 22nd as Earth Day, then when Saturday rolls around we celebrate Greening the Earth Day when everyone can come to the party no matter what year they were born.

This Saturday the free festivities at Memorial Park include something new: a "Free Market" swap meet.

Here's the gist: "As a community we have many more resources than we do as individuals. If we share our resources we won't need to buy as many new ones...The basic concept of our Free Market is this, bring items you don’t need or services you want to share, and leave with items you do need and maybe a service provided at no cost. No currency is exchanged, everything is free. Bringing items is not mandatory. If you see something you could use, feel free to take it and enjoy! There is always plenty for everyone."

(Even fresh produce is welcome.)

If you think it sounds like it's going to be hard to get in there and get what you want, keep in mind that set-up volunteers have first dibs on all pre-donated items during the preview hour from 10am-11am. And good stuff has already been donated. Read the Free Market link to get all the info.

When I read that press release I almost didn't make it past the swap meet. But other wonderful stuff will be available Saturday at Memorial Park: information about how you can be a "greener" citizen, artwork and workshops (across the street) at the Armory Center for the Arts, live music and dance--even a guided bicycle tour of green projects in Pasadena, organized by C.I.C.L.E., begins at 11am. There's so much I can't fit it all here. Contests! Prizes! Read the links!

I don't think they had all this stuff at the first Earth Day back in 1970. But frankly, I don't remember. I was way more concerned about summer's imminence and three months off to play outside in green forests, fresh air and sunshine. Just trying to keep it that way, is all.