It’s not far, just close by, through an open door, by and © monkeytime.

Going home, going home,
I’m a-going home.
Quiet-like, some still day,
I’m just going home.

It’s not far, just close by,
through an open door.
Work all done, care laid by,
going to fear no more.

Mother’s there expecting me,
Father’s waiting too.
Lots of folk gathered there,
all the friends I knew,
all the friends I knew

Morning star lights the way,
Restless dreams all done.
Shadows gone, break of day,
real life just begun.

There’s no break, there’s no end,
just a living on.
Wide awake, with a smile,
going on and on.

Going home, going home,
I’m just going home.
It’s not far just close by,
through an open door.
I’m just going home.

Tannhäuser Gate, by and © monkeytime. ]]> http://www.michaelzara.net/blog/archives/176/feed 0 http://www.michaelzara.net/blog/archives/168 http://www.michaelzara.net/blog/archives/168#comments Sun, 12 Oct 2008 20:08:22 +0000 Mike Zara http://www.michaelzara.net/blog/archives/168

For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth, by and © monkeytime.

I seem to have decent luck shooting pelicans. Perhaps this makes me a crypto-Catholic. The pelican figures prominently in some branches of Catholic mythology as a model for Christ, piercing her side and feeding or resurrecting her young with blood from the wound. This lore of the pelican apparently predates Christianity.

Interestingly enough, the pelican also appears in Christian writing (and perhaps Jewish writing) as a metaphor for isolation and desolation. Psalms 102 says (verses 3-7, King James Version):

For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth.

My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread.

By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin.

I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert.

I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top.

It is not clear that the original writing actually referred to the sea-bird we know as the pelican, but most English translations seem to use the word pelican (notably, the New International Version does not). The Vulgate appears to use the Latin equivalent, and the Septuagint the Greek.

Telegraph Hill and Tower, by and © monkeytime.

The 5D kit did not lend itself well to traipsing around San Francisco this month – or maybe I just didn’t lend myself well to carrying the load. At times I wished I had only my little Powershot, but, then, there would have been shots I couldn’t have gotten, like this one. I shot this just a few minutes short of Noon, against significant glare, which was compounded by shooting through an office building window.

In addition to shooting with the polarizing filter I made the following major adjustments in Lightroom:

• Preset: Punch (which, among other things, pushes Clarity to 50),
• Increased Contrast and Point Curve set to Strong Contrast,
• Increased Color Saturation, and
• Blue channel Luminance set to zero.

Beyond general improvement of the image, the primary reason for these adjustments was to bring out the blue/gray of the sky and the contrasting whites of the clouds. Of course, I could have held a polarizing filter in front of the point-and-shoot, but mine shoots only JPG, and I suspect that only in RAW could I have so easily drawn down blue luminance.