The 5 Minute Photos Weekend Digest #4

SNOW • RETIREMENT • ICLOUD • SUBSTACK APP

THE SNOWMAN COMETH

Pam grew up in Michigan and loves the snow. It’s a part of her DNA.

For me, a Seattle boy, snow usually meant an hour drive into the mountains. I learned to love snow the way senior citizens love grandchildren. You can go and have fun, then leave the parents to handle the aftermath.

So this winter has been a mixed bag for me of lovely snowfalls followed by the icy, gritty remnants piled waist high beside every road and sidewalk in town.

But in the spirit of a glass half full I’ve tried to capture the essence of our snow storms to share with family and friends who spend the winter in warmer climes. And surprisingly, for such a beautiful, all consuming event, getting good snow pictures is tricky.

Here are some tips:

Video is better - Snowflakes are tiny and white. They don’t show up very well in photos until you are approaching blizzard magnitude. Particularly against snow covered backdrops or white New England houses. But video changes the game. Even a short clip - 3 to 5 seconds - of falling snow is easy to see and appreciate.

Contrasting backgrounds - Obvious, I know, but oddly hard to find. The two best are office buildings painted barn red and nighttime photos of snow fall through the light of street lamps or lit windows.

Telephoto - If you have a 5x or 8x lens on your iPhone it enlarges and layers a photo of falling snow in a cool way. Don’t bother with a normal 1x or wide angle .5x in anything but heavy snow. Except for video.

Slow Mo - Slow motion video of snow is awesome. Turn so you are almost facing the oncoming snow. Pick a scenic backdrop. Get a 5-10 second clip.

FOCUS ON RETIREMENT/REDISCOVERY

I’m at that age where many people around me are retiring. And of those, many are looking for something to do. To fill the space that used to be reserved for work. More and more that includes getting a life long photo collection in order. Prints that need to be scanned. Films and video converted to digital. Scattered backup collections and drawers full of media.

And if you’re like me, a card carrying Baby Boomer, you might even have pictures you treasure from the 60’s and 70’s. I have boxes of old black and white negatives and color slides that I’m digging into and it’s a great exercise of rediscovery. Moments I’d forgotten about.

If that sounds like a fun project and you’d like some guidance, reach out to me. I can get you going, hold your hand, and help you recover the good times you’ve got sitting in a box or old hard drive.

Send me an email or book a free consultation.

ICLOUD DESERVES MORE RESPECT

I get it that iCloud is hard for many people to get their head around. It’s kind of the invisible player in the Apple ecosystem - a component that gets taken for granted except when the monthly subscription is due.

The thing is that it does a lot of heavy lifting in ways that really make the Apple experience as attractive and seamless as it is. We’ve come to expect all our data to be safe and at our fingertips, but it wasn’t always that way.

If you’ve always wondered what you get with iCloud, here’s an old blog post that may put it in perspective.

Enjoy.

Thank you for being here!

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