Karma Ledger +1 (maybe, depends who's keeping score)

Mixed bag of a day. Mostly positive. I briefly stopped obsessing over America’s embarrassing handling of the coronavirus. Went for a (COVID-era) long walk, took some photos, (COVID-era) saw some people I care about, bought my first ever graphic novel, got some Thai takeout, processed some film, and may have saved a rabbit’s life.

It wasn’t all good, though. Learned that my sister tore her ACL and however you spell meniscus thingmajig. Because 2020. If there’s a silver lining, she’s in Phoenix. COVID epicenter, 115 degrees – what better time to focus on rehab. She’s got a few teenagers in the house, awesome younger folks who will help her out.

I walked west until I hit the street overlooking I5. I can’t remember the name. I walked north to the mountain bike park and then took the stairs east. It wasn’t pretty. I stopped a couple of times…umm, you know, to express my bewilderment at the heat. There was a park/garden – Streissguth Gardens. I learned some Seattle history and saw the artwork of a 15 year old who was trying to capture the black community’s pain with respect to George Floyd (and others) and the coronavirus. I think the artist did a great job.

I made it to 10th and headed south. Sorry if this upsets you – Saint Mark’s is ugly.

Over to Pike/Pine. Homeward bound. Stopped at Morfire for Thai. They are so friendly. I bought one of their masks. Made by family in Thailand. I broke my rule about the importance of not engaging in frivolous conversation with workers who are already stuck indoors. Where’s your family? Bangkok.

I tried to get reacquainted with off camera flash. When this all started I knew we’d be at home a lot more, with fewer opportunities to shoot photos of people, so I bought a mannequin. True to my nature, I’m good with ideas, bad at execution. The mannequin sat unassembled in a corner for months. I finally put it together and worked on lighting. Lighting is hard. I can’t figure out why my fill light looks bright as hell to my eye, insignificant to the camera.

If lighting is something that interests you, I recommend visiting Zack Arias’s DEDPXL site. He has a great “one light” tutorial. I need to watch it again. David Hobby’s The Strobist is also a great resource.

Got crazy and ordered takeout and a nightcap from Corvus. Dates. I love dates. But they remind me that I wish I’d taken photos in Libya and Tunisia. Sabratha is one of the most beautiful places I’ve been. Speaking of dates – bumped into Kate’s Blind Dates with a Used Book. I’m going to start sending her marketing invoices. I bet she’d just ignore them, though. Rude.

I was going to post some of the photos I developed. This is getting a little long-winded, though. I’ll just put those in a separate post. Some of them turned out ok.

I’ll close with my heroic efforts to save a bunny. I was walking home from Corvus, and when I turned that last corner before home, a bunny raced out into the street and stopped. I stopped, too, and said hello bunny. Stood there a bit longer, because hey, it’s a bunny. Saw out of the corner of my eye this jet black cat lay down next to me, intently studying the bunny.

I said, bunny, you should get going. The bunny didn’t move. The cat wanted that bunny. I walked towards the bunny and it hopped off across the street. I thought my work was done. I turned around and sure enough, there was that black cat silently stalking both of us. The cat looked like a panther…a fierce panther, save for the diamondy collar.

I turned to once again scare the bunny into making a run for it. It crossed another street and went into some bushes. I turned around….whooooosh…that panther was flying into the bushes after the bunny. The bunny raced out of those bushes and crossed the street. I hope it got away. I stayed there for a minute, ridiculously trying to stay between the cat and the rabbit. The cat seemed chill…but there’s one thing everyone should know about cats – you can never really trust them.