Snow Today, Bat Guy Visit, Scanning Negatives

 

Began to snow at 4:00pm here in Chaumont, NY today.

Woke up this morning to 21 degrees outside. But it was reasonably pleasant. Eric the bat control guy came over about 9:00 and began sealing up some holes and gaps around the house. Just what he could get at without a ladder. He used some sort of clear sealant that's paintable when cured. He applied it with an electric caulking gun. I've never seen one in use before. It works great. May have to get one. 

I've had a trail cam mounted on a ladder pointed at the one way bat tube he installed by the chimney. March 9 at 8:11pm the camera picked up a bat. It was 50 degrees so I guess that was warm enough for the creature to venture outdoors. last video clip was at 8:14. No other activity before or after. Had the camera set up for a few days. 

Otherwise I have lately been scanning some of my black n white negatives from the 1980's. Preparing for a photo exhibit at Ava Smith Memorial Yellow Barn Gallery in Hammond, NY. 

`Bat approaching exclusion tube, keeps the creature from reentering the building.

I Play a Fingerstyle / Classical Guitar Style Version of Eleanor Rigby

This past week I video taped myself playing the Beatles song Eleanor Rigby. This wqs the first Beatles song I learned to play many years ago. This arrangement is by Nashville guitarist John Knowles. It was published in his book Sittin' Back Pickin'. It is also available from John Knowles in issue #38 of his Fingerstyle Quarterly news letter. The guitar is a Signature Series made by Alejandro Cervantes. Sound was recorded with a Zoom H2N handy recorder. Video shot with a Nikon D5000 camera.

State Fair Video

The New York State Fair takes place in Syracuse, NY. The daily paper is the Post-Standard. I work for them as a photographer in a part time capacity. So every year I am at the fair photographing for them. This year I had a Nikon D7000 camera that can shoot HD video. Always intrigued by the masses of people that attend I decided to try the video out on the crowd. I hand held everything as I did not have a tripod with me. The resulting video clips were jerky. So I decided to slow them down with a video editing app. The result was sort of dreamy. In recent days I had been learning & playing a short prelude by the great Spanish composer / guitarist Francisco Tarrega. It's often referred to as Prelude in D or Prelude Number 11. Anyhow, with that piece of music in mind I added the video clips. Here is the result: