Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 12:30 a.m. in "The City."

I guess I was tired last night, so I'm sticking to that as my reason/excuse for no blog. You might say that I've been busy the last two days, as I've been taking classes towards becoming an accomplished mediocre amateur photographer.

Friday afternoon and evening, the class covered urban landscape photography. Some of the time was spent in the classroom learning about how to frame shots, while another part of the time was spent in downtown Muskegon actually taking some pictures. I took many pix, some good, and some just average. However, the instructor, Aaron Norberg, of the Sigma Lens Corp., said that one way to get better as a photographer is to take a lot of pictures and then both share them and critique them for composition, perspective, etc. Unfortunately, in my dotage, I wasn't able to do all of the walk in the downtown area.

Since I am supposed to share, I'll do that now without much commentary, except to note why I chose the subject of each included shot. I'd also like to say that the majority of the pix were taken at the Monet Garden in Muskegon.

One thing that we were encouraged to try for was a long view that leads the viewers eye.

While this pic has some direct objects, I think that I captured some of the reflected beauty of the gardens too.

I was trying to capture the wispy clouds on the horizon.

This photo allowed me to capture many colors and textures, and especially, the cat in the window on the right.

Again, the idea was to lead the eye of the viewer.

A combination of man-made and natural objects.

I dunno, I just liked this one.

A nice mix of natural colors,

That's Aaron in the middle with some fellow students.

Downtown Muskegon is home to many restaurants that make use of the old buildings for new purposes.

Late Saturday afternoon, Aaron offered up another class with some information on how to take action pictures. It is not as easy as it sounds and so I have a lot of shots to take to improve my technique. I want to take pictures of the MMRR locomotives and their towed cars as they pass by the manse. In addition, I'd like to get some color pix of the Coast Guard Parade and the annual fireworks that close out the festival. With a little luck and perseverance, I plan to get some pix of the USCG cutters as they arrive in port early Monday afternoon. I may take a tour of the Escanaba, namesake of one of the cutters that used to call Coast Guard Station Grand Haven its home port. By way of note, the original Escanaba was lost with all hands serving in WWII.

Later today, there is the annual car show that accompanies the festival and also a flea market just around the corner. I suspect that Mary may take advantage of her macro lens for that, while I'll use the wide angle zoom lenses at the car show.

Tuesday, is the annual street dance that is part and parcel to the festival. Plus, at the Lynn Sherwood Waterfront Stadium over the course of the festival, there are several tribute bands that I'd like to see and photograph. This year, there are two such bands I'd like to see. One is called The System, a tribute to Detroit rocker, Bob Seeger, while the other is called Hotel California, a tribute to The Eagles. In short, there are so many things to take pictures of and so many interesting buildings in GH too.

I spent a lot of time in the kitchen yesterday, making more grind, a perfectly ordinary beest, and some imitation HP style sauce while Mary was taking a class and a tour that focused on macro photography, mostly at the busy Farmer's Market in Muskegon. In addition, I walked with STWD to The Bookman, and took Ginger for an extended walk around GH. I should be more tired now than I am. I'll make up for the loss of sleep tonight, I hope.

Baseball news yesterday was interesting, the Cubs lost, while my beloved Red Sox, the Tigers, and the Caps all won. All those teams play again today or tonight.

The current temperature is 64° and very comfortable. I watered last evening because we will be so busy today. In fact, we had considered going to the movies later and seeing the Flashback Cinema reprise of The Wrath of Kahn, AKA, Star Trek II. However while I was at class and one of the big-box home centers, Mary made an executive decision and ordered the movie beamed right into our media-room. I liked her idea along with the vegan chip-dip she made.

But once again, I digress. The sun will rise into mostly sunny skies today @ 6:32 a.m. and set later @ 9:09 p.m. There is s slight chance for T-storms Monday and showers Tuesday. Ciao.