Brown tomatoes. Sound like the name of a song? Nope, just what is happening to our little crop of tomatoe plants in the greenhouse. Since I am a surfing person I “Googled” Brown Tomatoes. The short answer is that the plants need calcium and the easiest way is to crush up Rolaids tablets with a mortar and pestle, sprinkle the powder on the earth, and water it in.
Today is day two of Rolaids treatment, no brown tomatoes..........yet. Can we talk? I have one more little tidbit for you. Last month we sold our incredible Aerostar pop-up Camp-mobile off of the Wal-Mart parking lot. Because it had been our only vehicle, we decided to replace it with a vehicle and a small trailer. Because it seemed that every car that was for sale in Port Alberni seemed to have been badly rock chipped, we decided to drive to Duncan. We explored every car lot in Duncan, kicked a lot of tires, learned a lot about towing trailers and almost got talked into a Dodge Nitro 4 WD. What a piece of macho testosterone plastic and metal. A day later back at home in lovely Port Alberni, we decide to have a look at the Ford dealers used car lot. Gerry served us and voila.....he found us a vehicle and gave excellent customer service. It always pays to shop at home.
Here are a few Photographic tips for you.
The next time that you have to shoot (photograph) a car, try crouching down and shoot from the front of the car showing the drivers side and front. Use a wide angle lens but be careful of distortion.
There are two filters that you should have if you are using a DSLR.
Filter number one should be a UV or Ultraviolet filter which would be almost permanently mounted on your lens. This filter is twofold, it will protect your lens should you happen to bash it into a doorknob the filter will also weed out unwanted UV rays. “Oh yes but what about the extra glass distorting the image” you say. “Buy the best that you can afford, the filter is still a lot cheaper than having to buy a new lens” is my answer.
Your next most important filter is the Polaroid filter. Yes it is quite expensive for a good filter but oh so versatile. This magical filter will give you that deep blue sky with white clouds, gets rid of reflection on glass and water, deepens colours and brings them to life. Make sure that the sun is at a 90 degree angle to the subject when you are looking for blue-blue skies and deep brilliant colours, then rotate the filter to get the full polarizing effect. Don’t worry, you will know when you have rotated to the right degree, the colours or the sky will snap out at you in 3D.
As for shooting reflector-free glass and having water so transparent that you are able to see right through it, make sure that your lens is at a 45 degree angle to the glass and rotate. Take off your sunglasses to see the image before you snap and Happy Shooting.
Any questions? Email me nsilverstone@telus.net.