July 1995

It may seem strange to you that I should be writing about July at the end of December. I was prompted to do so by the photos from my father's Flickr account, which popped up when I was setting up my Flickr account on one of my Christmas gifts: a Kindle Fire tablet.

It may also seem strange to you that my father, who passed away well over a year ago, should still have a Flickr account. I know it seems strange to me. (It seems even stranger that Facebook still asks me if I would like to suggest friends for him. I know Dad would enjoy chatting with Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill, but they both refuse to respond to my friend requests.)

The pictures were from the end of June and the first week of July, 1995. Loretta and I had only been living in California for a few months when my father flew out to San Jose to celebrate his brother's 75th birthday. We drove up for my uncle's party, and Dad came back with us to spend the first week of July with us in Southern California.

We visited all the usual tourist spots. Here's a picture Loretta took of Dad and me at the Griffith Park Observatory:

Griffith Park

And here's one of the two of us at the beach:

Zuma Beach

We visited Dad's cousins and his aunt—my Great Aunt Louise—in Thousand Oaks. Aunt Louise lived to be over a hundred years old. I wish my father could have lived as long.

Dad and Aunt Louise

We took the ferry to Catalina. Here's a great picture Dad took of Loretta and me at the Blue Parrot in Avalon, where we had lunch:

Lunch at the Blue Parrot

And here's one he took of some fish we saw on the "submarine" tour:

Fish in Catalina

One day when Loretta was at work, I took my father to Universal Studios. He loved the backlot tour and behind-the-scenes stuff. I think my favorite—the Back to the Future ride—may have been a little too thrilling for his taste. But he was a good sport about it—as he nearly always was about nearly everything.

Universal Studios

We never got to "The Happiest Place on Earth." I wish we had. My father, who was as much a child at heart as I am, would have loved it.

And I would love to have a picture of him wearing mouse ears.

Cycling in Ile-de-France

This post has nothing to do with cycling in Ile-de-France, or, for that matter, cycling of any kind. "Cycling in Ile-de-France" is the title of an article on a web site called "Freewheeling France." Yesterday I received an e-mail from the site's webmaster, Lynette Eyb, requesting permission to use the following picture from my Flickr account to illustrate the article:

Château de La Roche-Guyon, Ile-de-France

I was honored, although I didn't have the heart to tell Ms. Eyb that I wasn't cycling when I took the picture. I was on a bus. Also, there's a good chance I didn't take the picture. Loretta might have taken it. I honestly don't remember. It was ten years ago. But I will be happy to take the credit.

The picture was taken (by either Loretta or me) on the road between Versailles and Giverny, on a day trip we took out of Paris on June 11, 2003. When we purchased the tickets for the tour, Loretta told the Parisian at the ticket counter that we wanted to visit "Versailles and Givenchy."

"Madame," the man replied in that wonderfully disdainful tone that can only be achieved with a good French accent, "Givenchy is the perfume. Giverny is the home of Claude Monet."

I'm pretty sure I'm the one who took this picture of Monet's water lily pond:

Le bassin aux nymphéas de Claude Monet

I thought there were too many tourists in the picture, so I removed them with Photoshop:

Le bassin aux nymphéas de Claude Monet (sans touristes)

Even with all of the tourists, it was a tranquil and incredibly beautiful place. If you're ever in Paris, make sure you visit it.

Just remember—it's "Giverny," not "Givenchy."

Pictures that Pop

I must have been only four or five years old when my grandparents gave me my first View-Master viewer, an old Bakelite "Model E." With it came a packet of picture reels from "Beautiful Rock City Gardens" in Tennessee—a souvenir from one of their vacations. Unfortunately, the viewer broke long ago (Bakelite is brittle and easily shattered), but I still have two of the picture reels, with photos of scenic mountain views, people with 1950's clothing and hairstyles, and weird statues of gnomes and fairytale characters. Nothing special.

Except that they're 3D.

I acquired more picture reels—most of them Easter or Christmas gifts from my parents—and, eventually, a lighted Model H viewer to replace my old broken Model E. Back then we didn't have DVDs or VCRs. The only way to re-experience a favorite movie or TV show was to purchase the paperback, comic book, or View-Master version. My chosen medium was View-Master, of course.

Because it was 3D.

Model H and Some Favorite Picture Reels

I loved 3D pictures. It didn't matter what the subject of the picture was. Some of my picture reels were pretty lame (Why do I even have a packet of pictures from Greece?), but I still loved to look at them, simply because they were 3D.

It never occurred to me that I could create my own 3D photos. I thought it must require special (not to mention incredibly expensive) equipment. Then, several years ago, we took a cruise to Alaska with Garrison Keillor and the cast and crew of A Prairie Home Companion. Aside from the many sightseeing excursions on land, there were plenty of activities to keep us entertained on board the ship: daily performances by the musicians and cast, lectures by naturalists, choir practice and story-telling sessions with Garrison, radio acting lessons from actors Sue Scott and Tim Russell—

And a class in 3D photography taught by Fred Newman, the show's "touring SFX guy."

It turns out that Fred, aside from being a master of funny voices and sound effects, is also a very good amateur 3D photographer. And he taught me that anyone can be a 3D photographer. No special equipment is needed. All you need is a digital camera. Take a picture, take a step to the left (or right), and take another picture.

I took my first 3D photos when we got to Glacier Bay. I didn't need to take a step to the left or right—I simply let the motion of the ship move my point of view. The great thing about digital cameras is that you don't have to worry about wasting film. With a high capacity memory card, you can afford to take lots of pictures, and I did.

When we got back from the trip, I found a company on the Internet (PokeScope) that sells software that makes it easy to line up pairs of 3D photos, as well as a viewer to make it easier to view them. (It's possible to "free view" them without a viewer; if you're good at those "Magic Eye" pictures, you may be able to do it.)

Of course, many of my experiments in 3D photography didn't turn out well at all. I found that anything moving—birds, waves, falling chunks of ice, etc.—ruins the 3D effect. I posted some of the best ones in a set on Flickr, and I've added several more since then. If you'd like to take a look at them, here's the link.

Now if I could just figure out how to get them into View-Master reels...

My Best Shot

I do a fairly good job taking pictures of things that don't move—buildings, flowers, cats, etc. However, I will be the first to tell you that I am not a good wildlife photographer. For example, here's a picture I took of a bird in our back yard last summer:

See what I mean? It looks like a fuzzy pear with a face.

In July of 2006, Loretta and I took the Prairie Home Companion cruise to Alaska. It was the vacation of a lifetime. When we weren't admiring the spectacular Alaska scenery, we were enjoying the shipboard entertainment provided by Garrison Keillor and the many talented actors, singers, and musicians from our favorite radio program. As usual, Loretta, took most of the pictures. However, at a salmon bake near Juneau, I grabbed the camera from her to take this photo of a conspicuous pile of bear scat that we nearly stepped in:

Last November, I received the following e-mail from Kristy Sholly, Chief of Interpretation at Kenai Fjords National Park:

Kenai Fjords National Park, located in Seward, Alaska, is in the process of developing exhibits for the Exit Glacier Nature Center. We are interested in using your bear scat photo for use in an exhibit about "Life In, On, and Around Exit Glacier".

Please let me know if it would be possible to have permission to use your photo.

My photo on display at a national park! How cool is that? I mean, sure, it's crap—but it's good crap! And in case, like me, you were wondering just how many pictures of bear scat could be on the Internet, Kristy added:

FYI - I chose your image out of the 1,157 images labeled as "bear scat" on Flickr!

By the way, here's a picture of the bear that produced the scat. Loretta got this shot of him cleaning out the barbecue pit after our salmon bake:

If you want to see more pictures from our trip, here's a link to the album on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jrlogue/sets/72157602743376786/

And if you're interested in reading more about the cruise, here's a link to The Ballast, the cruise newsletter written by APHC staff members, with contributions from some of the passengers (including yours truly): http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/features/cruise/2006/ballast.shtml