Mission Trails Regional Park « Geri Wilson's Room

I know I’ve been MIA with my blog, but today I did a first. I “hiked” with my large Canon SLR digital. It is too heavy to take it on the trail. Plus, I am afraid of dropping it, or falling and damaging it, or slipping in water (should I cross a creek) and damaging it. But today I made an exception.

Last Saturday I hiked with a friend to the So. Fortuna peak in Mission Trails Regional Park in San Diego, close to where I live. I saw many wildflowers and took many pictures, but did not have the time or the camera to take many close-ups. I wanted to come back with my Canon.

Today was that day.

I went with a friend who was aware I would be taking some extra time for photography. I made one mistake; I left without my hiking poles. We entered the Mission Trails Park from the Jackson Street trailhead. We went to the Suycott Wash via the San Diego River Crossing Trail. The name of that trail is literal. We had to cross over the San Diego River (a small creek at this time of year) and without my hiking poles, I could have easily slipped and damaged my camera in my back pack. But . . . I was lucky. I made it!

If we were to slip, we could slide down these rocks.

San Diego River Crossing – walking across the sometimes loose stones and wading through water 1 – 3″ deep.

It was a 75-degree day with a cool breeze. Perfect for hiking and photography.

Here is my attempt at macro photography with a camera that is still smarter than me.

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Haven’t we had enough of this, looking back at 2011? Sure if you want to get cynical, depressed or look at a half-filled glass. Enough is enough! But what about looking back to find a few happy spots, maybe twelve happy spots when the world at that moment was bright and happy and cheerful and the glass was half full? And besides, this is a photography blog.

Twelve happy moments make a calendar. It is not too late to make your 2012 calendar. Just look over your photos of the past year. This is easy for those of us with large hard drives that have stored our photos during the year. I saved all my photo files last year in a folder called “camera2011.” Every time I downloaded photos from my camera, I put them in a new folder within the camera2011 folder. I conveniently named the folder the date of the download. So all my photos are in chronological order in one place on my hard drive, making them easy to locate.

When I became a grandmother, I started making family calendars. I’d go through my photos and pick out twelve photos of the family, mostly of the grandchildren. I’d put a photo into the date on the calendar grid for everyone’s birthday. I used clip art or my own photos to illustrate the various holidays. It was fun and creative and easy for many years. I used Print Shop for the calendar grid, but for the photo of that month, I chose to print an 8 ½ by 11 borderless photo on my Epson Photo Printer. These photos take five to seven minutes each to print with a photo ink jet printer – time consuming but beautiful, worthy of framing when the year was over. It took days to print out all the calendars for the various family members. After all the printing and assembly, I would take them to Kinko’s to have them bound. As the children got older and wanted a say in their photos, it got complicated. It became a calendar designed by committee. This year, everything changed. My oldest granddaughter got a Mac and she and her father took over the calendar- making. I was astonished as I watched the process. Photo editing that I would painstakingly do in PhotoShop, she could do with two or three clicks, combining photos at various angles and compositions. Everyone had an opinion about which photos to use, but it was done so easily as the “committee” worked together and my granddaughter did the editing. When she was finished, she sent it to the Apple Store with a couple of clicks. About a week later, family members received their calendars in the mail. The laser printing from the Apple Store cannot compete with the quality of high- density ink-jet printing, but the calendar on my wall this year is beautiful and clear and “someone else did the work.” Apple, I am impressed!

The baton has been passed for the family calendar.

I’ve noticed various opportunities to order on-line calendars and have shrugged them off with snug superiority. My print job is better, more individualized, colors more vibrant, etc. No more! I can’t see I will never again spend the time and the money to print a calendar myself. Look anywhere and you’ll see an opportunity to make your own calendar, recapturing wonderful moments of 2011. You can use family photos, vacation photos, project photos. The year my father died, I made a calendar for my siblings with twelve photos of my father, beginning in childhood through his senior years. One year, I gave all my friends calendars made with photos from a trip to Paris.

You can upload your photos to various vendors; there are many choices: Kinkos, Walgreens, Walmart, Shutterfly, Kodak to name a few. If their work is anything like the Apple Store, you will be pleased with the result of the laser printing. Let’s have some fun!

Here is my personal calendar for 2012, looking back at 2011 (very similar to a slide show I did for my e-Christmas card for my friends, this one excluding family photos)

January