Thursday 13: Angel Oak

I’ve written about the Angel Oak before, but it’s so beautiful it deserves multiple mentions.  We usually go visit it every year on vacation, and I always take lots of pictures. 

So, for Thursday13, here are pictures from our 2021 trip.

1.     The Angel Oak is huge.  You can read more about its dimensions here.

2.     Here’s a view with most of the tree to give you an idea of its size.

3.     Here’s another angle of the main trunk.

4.     And another angle of the main trunk.

5.     It has huge branches that sprawl in all directions.

6.     Some of the branches have so many of their own branches that they almost seem like their own mini forest.

7.     Many of the branches are bigger than some trees.

8.     I think the moss that grows on some of the shadier branches is beautiful.

9.     Some of the branches sprawl along the ground.

10.  Some of them are huge.

11.  Here’s a picture to give you an idea of how many branches the main trunk has.

12.  I love looking at all of the different directions that the branches twist and turn.

13.  I think some of the most beautiful views come from standing underneath and looking at the branches as they twist and turn across the sky. 

2021 So Far

 I can’t believe we’re already so far into 2021.  I think even in normal times, without a pandemic, January shouldn’t really count when it comes to goals, resolutions, etc.  It just seems like the weather is always truly awful, and a lot of it is filled with trying to re-set back to normal after the holidays.  

I took this picture on January 2nd, when we were out for a walk.  It seems fairly representative of 2021; bright spots of hope against a lot of gray. 

My best/brightest news for 2021 so far is that Nick and my sister have both received both doses of the vaccine.  My sister works in healthcare, and got her second dose two weeks ago.  Nick works in the emergency services, and got his second dose last week.  They both ended up with Moderna.  There doesn’t seem to be any pattern to which vaccine people are getting.  My sister’s boss got his vaccine a few days before her, and got Pfizer.  A friend of ours got hers at the same hospital Nick did, a week after he did, and got Pfizer.  

I don’t know about other states, but NC keeps changing the groups and priorities.  I think most of the changes have been for the better, so I’m hopeful that it will keep getting better.  Initially, they weren’t going to prioritize people in the emergency services, and said they’d get the vaccine based on age/medical conditions.  That meant most of them would have been in the last group.  How many 75 year old firefighters and police officers do you know?  I was very happy when they changed that, and put them in a higher priority group.  Last time I checked, teachers will be our next group.  My job might fall under the second part of Group Three, but no one seems to know for sure.  We’re still mostly working from home for the foreseeable future.  

South Carolina has started vaccinating people 65 and older.  My dad is over 65, but my mom won’t be 65 until July.  My dad is on a waiting list, but has no idea when he’ll get it.  

In non-COVID related news, we’ve had several days of high winds with wind advisories.  We lost a tree to one of them.  Nick has to go in to work really early every other Thursday, so it was still dark when he left, so he didn’t see the tree down.  It was how I started my day because I saw it as soon as I let Duke out.  And Duke barked at it, a lot, so once he saw it there was no missing it.  

I’m not sure how much you can tell from the pictures, but we were incredibly lucky it fell the way it did.  Most importantly, Duke was safely inside when it fell.  It destroyed the hammocks, which I’m very sad about, but we think at least the stands are okay.  And if it had fallen any other direction it would have hit one of the following: our house, our fence and our neighbors’ (on the right hand side) fence, our fence and our neighbors’ (on the left hand side) fence, or our back fence.  Any of those would have been worse than the hammocks!  And at least it happened when it’s too cold to want to spend time in the hammocks anyway.  

Our neighbors have a fire pit, so we asked them if they wanted the wood, which they did.  They were also nice enough to loan us a chainsaw, and help move the wood.  So the cleanup was a lot easier than it could have been.  

We’ve also had some snow.  Definitely not as much as other places have had, but I’m still hoping we won’t get anymore.  

I got a very sweet surprise from one of my chemo buddies in the middle of January.  I checked the mail and there was a package addressed to me from a business I didn’t recognize.  I thought it was a maybe a case of something I ordered from Amazon coming from an independent seller, but I usually pay fairly close to attention to that, so I was a little surprised.  This was what I found when I opened the package.  

And this is what it looks like all assembled.

It was totally unexpected.  You’re told, over and over again, not to expect to hear back from your chemo buddy.  The program isn’t supposed to put any pressure on them, so they have no obligation to write to you, let alone send you a surprise package.  I think mine are just extra nice because I’ve heard from all three of my current buddies.  My senior buddy sent me a sweet Christmas card, and my teenage buddy sent me a sweet New Year’s card.  I’ll be honest, it totally makes my day whenever I hear from them.  

So how has 2021 started off for you?  Are you working from home?  How is the vaccine distribution going where you are?  

Fun With Photo Editing

I freely admit to being one of the least technologically savvy people on the planet.  It’s also no secret that things sometimes go pretty wrong for me with my phone.  So it really shouldn’t surprise me that I just discovered a feature on the phone, three years after I got it.

Better late than never, right?

My big, happy discovery over the long weekend has been that I can edit pictures on my phone.  It’s actually pretty simple to do, and once the changes are made, it saves the edited photos in a separate album.

It has rained incessantly for the vast majority of the weekend.  There are lots of flood advisories, and a neighboring county even had a voluntary evacuation in some areas.  So I’ve spent most of my time inside over the weekend.  That gave me lots of time to play with some of the editing features on the phone.  I still have a lot to learn, but I’ve had fun trying different things on different pictures.

I love how much you can change a picture just by adjusting the lighting or color.

Here’s the original picture I took of a tree in a park about two months ago:

This is the tree in documentary style:

To begin with, I thought documentary style was just another name for black and white, but it does actually look a little different when you choose the black and white option.  Here it is in black and white:

Next  I played around with the saturation.  This is the tree with the saturation maxed out.  I like how bright and vivid it makes the colors.  I think the grass is absolutely gorgeous in this version of the picture.

While I was experimenting with maxing things out, I decided to play around with the warmth.  I think it makes the picture look like it was possibly taken during the fall rather than the spring.  It just has a very autumn look to me.

Next I played around with the fill light.  I adjusted the light to make it light and bright.  I think this version of the picture definitely looks like it was taken during the spring.   I think it makes it look like it was taken earlier in the day, and on a brighter day.

I tried the option to have the picture as a negative too.  It's usually not one of my favorite options, but it's nice to know I can do it if I want to.

Last of all, I decided to try the picture out in sepia.  I usually really like the sepia finish.  I like how it makes pictures look old.  I liked it for the tree, but it wasn't one of my favorites.  I think this particular picture just loses something when it's not in color.

I think my favorite version of this picture is the one with the saturation maxed out.  I like the vivid colors, and I think for this particular picture it really adds something.  The version with the fill light adjusted is a close second.  Again, I think that has a fair amount to do with this actual picture.  It makes the tree look bright and airy; very springy.

Even though I don't think they were the best versions for this particular picture, I love having the sepia, documentary, and black and white options.  I want to do some experimenting with some of my pictures from Charleston, SC in those finishes.

The negative and the one with the warmth maxed out were my least favorite versions of this picture.  The negative finish isn't usually one of my favorites, so that wasn't a surprise.  I did think I would like the warmer version better than I do though.  I think my biggest issue is that it took a spring picture and made it look like a fall picture.  I prefer spring to fall, so it makes sense that I wouldn't like the fall version as much.

Do you have a favorite version of the picture?  What about a least favorite?