In which we start to plan our next adventure and Maddy tries to adjust her camera....

So, after our totally awesome trip to Woodstock - where to next?


















Something to ponder.....

We will definitely be visiting Woodstock again, though. Maybe even to stay someday....












In the meantime, Maddy Google-mapped Stockbridge, MA, just for the heck of it (for those who haven't heard, the Stockbridge Library is where our ancestor Hitty now lives) and found, to her surprise, that it's not much further than Woodstock. Turns out it's in the southwest corner of the state, almost at the NY border.


"We need to think about doing that trip soon, though, if we're going to. Like even next week," she cautioned. The (really) good news is that she's starting to get more and more job interviews now after a drought of almost two months - she has one for Monday again. However, this means that anything big we want to do in the meantime should probably happen soon...

Especially before we get behind one of these again. Two words you do not want to see on the back of anything with eighteen wheels - "Student Driver."

*Maddy's note - this was today on the way to the bookstore. I was stopped safely at a traffic light when I took this. Very stopped. By the time our intrepid student driver got the truck in gear and through the light, it was red again. Oh well...*





"We could also drive over to Beacon or do the Walkway over the Hudson for the blog," she said. "But not next week for the walkway." Part of next week is supposed to be hot and humid and the other part is supposed to be stormy.

"What's in Beacon?" I said.

"Paul Newman filmed a movie there in 1994," she said. "Nobody's Fool. It was actually filmed partly in Beacon and partly in Newburgh. I was working in Newburgh at a little weekly paper at the time and a woman from the crew stopped by the check out the building. They were thinking of using the upper floor for the construction company office, but the ceilings were too low for the lights they needed to use. But the little silver railroad-car diner in the movie is - or was - on Main Street in Beacon. And all the snow in the movie was totally real. We had seventeen ginormous snowstorms in eight weeks and two weeks straight when the temperature didn't get above zero, if I remember correctly. Not a fun winter. But a very good movie."

"Wasn't Beacon where they had the moose running around?" I said.

She nodded. "A friend of mine was living there at the time and said the police were all over the parking lot of her building looking for it."

~*~

Later....

"Okay, I really, really do not like the flash on this camera. Why can't it just show the room the way it is?" The room was quite nicely lit up from the sun at the moment - not that you can tell from this. It looks like twilight...









"What if we - no, not better..."

"What does that setting do? The little flash thingy in the circle?"

"I have no idea..."










"Okay, hold still, I - WAHCHOOOO!!!"

"Gesundheit..." Everyone tells Maddy she should take Claritan, but she insists it doesn't work for her. She needs longer-acting Benedryl.

"Thanks, I - oops. Well, it looks better, or would if I'd held the camera steady. Very Man Ray..."

Man Who?




~*~

 "Okay, places everyone. We're going to try a few settings. This is normal...."

"Vivid Color..."

Not really seeing a difference here, except that Maddy moved her hand....











"Black and White..."

















"Sepia..."

aka "Everything Turns The Same Color As Shel's Hair..."













And Cyanotype.

John-John: "More like Fifty Shades of Gray."

Maddy: "Cyan is blue, sweetie."

Shel: "That doesn't look blue...."








Maddy said the good thing about a digital camera is that you know right away if you screwed up the photo or not. She's still not sure about this flash setting. It does wonders for the overexposure problem, but it looks a little blurry.....











So until next time.....

John-John: "Caroline, quit hogging the frame..."