Dave's Journal, April2024
The Easter Bunny (also called the Easter Rabbit or Easter Hare) is a folkloric figure and symbol of Easter, depicted as a rabbit - sometimes dressed with clothes - bringing Easter eggs. Originating among German Lutherans, the "Easter Hare" originally played the role of a judge, evaluating whether children were good or disobedient in behavior at the start of the season of Eastertide, similar to the "naughty or nice" list made by Santa Claus.
As part of the legend, the creature carries colored eggs in its basket, as well as candy, and sometimes toys, to the homes of children. As such, the Easter Bunny again shows similarities to Santa (or the Christkind) and Christmas by bringing gifts to children on the night before a holiday. The custom was first mentioned in Georg Franck von Franckenau's De ovis paschalibus ("About Easter Eggs") in 1682, referring to a German tradition of an Easter Hare bringing eggs for the children.
Well, I sold off all my long lenses on Ebay because "I never use these", so I am left with a 1970's Minolta 135mm. Very nice lens for people portraits, but not for eclipses. Nonetheless, I stuck it on a tripod and popped shots about 5 minutes apart. (The eclipse here lasted about 2 hours, start to finish.)
Here's my quickie setup. Fuji XA1 with Minolta 135mm and 2 (!!) polarizers (turned 900 to each other to cut out almost all the light).
Aperture closed all the way to f22, shutter speed maxed out at 1/4000sec and ISO = 200.
Amazing how much the sun moves in 5minutes !!
If you are struggling with the astronomical definitions, here is a picture to help ....
Additonal Data from Mike ......
Mike has been pushing me to watch this movie for many months now, and last night he came over and made us sit and watch it. We were all pretty skeptical of a movie titled "Child of Deaf Adults" (C.O.D.A.)
Well .... we loved it !
Been a long while since I shot some scenics, and I want to practice with my setup for Ireland, so I trek'd to the wildlife sanctuary today.
I am always using the phrase "This BS has been going on for 100,000 years (referring to people's bad behaviour). So, I decided to fact-check myself about how long "people" have been around .....
Homo sapiens emerged in Africa around 300,000 years ago from a species commonly designated as either H. heidelbergensis or H. rhodesiensis, the descendants of H. erectus that remained in Africa. H. sapiens migrated out of the continent, gradually replacing or interbreeding with local populations of archaic humans. Humans began exhibiting behavioral modernity about 160,000 - 70,000 years ago, and possibly earlier.
So .... not a bad guess on my part !!!
Luka and I were in photographic moods this morning, and here is the very handsome baby boy....
You didn't ask, but I want this to jog my memory years from now:
Last night, I got in a vintage picture mood and opened this excellent book I've had for years. Did not expect to actually read it - just wanted to look at pictures. But... I did start reading and that went on for a long while, and I got re-educated about "the good old days" - a cruel hoax is what that myth is.
I tend to get lost in our immediate times and the sh#t going on in the US and around the world. Like "the world is coming to an end" ... well, maybe it is and maybe it ain't. But one thing for sure is this country has been through a lot worse stuff than we see around us today. Really bad, lawless, violent, hateful, corrupt stuff. Truth is, things aren't getting better and they're not getting worse - it's the same old story that goes 'round and 'round. We are overly sensitized to today's problems because we personally have to get through them all - the past was someone else's problem.
And yes ..... the pictures in the book were very nice.
Konica Hexar AF, 35mm film camera - I bought it in 1990-91 and it has always been my very ultimate most favorite camera. They don't make them anymore, in fact (after merging with Minolta) Konica stopped making cameras altogether. Nonethless, I love this thing dearly, and decided to get a battery and some film (in the little can there). And, yes, I plan to shoot 3 rolls of film (just delivered yesterday).
I am even fantasizing about taking it to Ireland as a second camera. Maybe.
