Recent Flowers RichZ 26 May

Finally, flowers
All with MZ 12-100. None with supplementary light because I broke my arm. Drat! I broke my articulating arm which attaches to the shoe and reaches out to hold the light at the end of the lens zoom extension. It has to be at just high enough to keep the dark metal frame of the light out of the field at 12mm and must not sag. I tightened it too much and stripped the thread on one connecting bushing.

This one didn't do well because it was a precocious early April bloom, and it was the only one on the bush to come so early and it never fully opened.

Here we go, finally. Early May

That's all. Rich

Nice set Rich I thought for a moment u had broken ur real arm glad it was just an accessory that can be replaced without to much pain 😀Paul

Those are beautiful roses Rich, and well photographed, even if your broken arm left you in the dark.

Thanks, Paul. Just a replaceable bushing so you don't have to call me Lefty. 😁 Rich

Thanks, Jim. I use the light to brighten the flower and that darkens the background. Without the light I had to do it in PP. That's much more work. Rich

Your love of roses show in your photography of them Rich. Lovely flowers and images. Stop scaring me!

I tightened the pressure gauge too much on the sand filter when I installed it a couple of years ago. It cracked the plastic housing for the sand filter valve assembly. It leaked. After a while the gap sealed itself with crap out of the water. The gauge stopped working. I replaced it and did the same thing today. I should close the system down and fill the hole for the gauge with epoxy and be done with it. The gauge is not really necessary. Not sure I want to know what a new valve assembly costs but I can put up with a small leak. The big leak out the skimmer gasket which gave way had to be fixed and it cost me $7.00 for the new face plate because I bought the gasket last year then decided not to replace it because the pool was already full of water. I should have done it before I closed the pool for the season last year but I had forgotten about it.

Andrew

Thank you, Andrew, and I am sorry. That was juvenile of me. You were supposed to keep reading and not pause at 'Drat!'

Plastic instead of metal started to be prevalent years ago, but I am still outraged. A few years ago a friend told me he was about to buy a BMW 530 i with 90,000 miles on it for a very cheap price, considering what it cost new. I tried to talk him out of it and told him BMW has low resale due to not aging well and being expensive to fix. He bought it. It was fast, handled beautifully and was fun, even with the automatic transmission. In the next three years I watched and helped him replace water pump, alternator and other bits of electric system, power steering pump, and every replaceable part of both the front and rear suspension because it chewed up a set of expensive tires quickly. Anyhow, I was astonished at the amount of plastic parts in that Beemer. My friend got a bad attitude and sold it for around what he paid for it and took a large loss on all the parts and labor. Now he owns a late model Jetta turbo diesel and he just bought a very clean 2001 Corvette, not a roadster, with 92,000 miles for $8,000. It is sadly a HydraMatic, but it has the new all alloy 5.7 redone small block and it makes gobs of torque at low rpm and gobs of power at high rpm. It is much more luxurious than his BMW, it rides nicely and the seats are sublime. At idle, with the HydraMatic in gear the big V8 imperceptible, unless you open the bonnet and watch the fan turning. The dual exhaust is too quite at idle but makes a nice baritone bellow if you let it wind out under load.
My Kia has a plastic intake manifold. I imagine your Hyundai has one made from empty Kimchee cans.

I've been trying to remember to ask you if your Hyundai has an electronic key which is needed to start the car. Hyundais and Kias before 2018, or so, are being stolen as a fad. They break in, put something in the USB, rip the cladding off the steering column so they can unlock the steering. The USB allows them to tell the computer to start the car. It is happening here and mine has an old fashioned key, so I bought a Club to lock the steering. Rich

No mechanical keys of any type Rich. Not for doors, trunk or ignition. If the key fob goes TU, it is game over! I assume they have a battery inside that needs to be replaced on occasion but I was told nothing about that. A 2001 vette would be nice to own. Not sure how difficult it would be for me to get out but I imagine plenty! I have enough difficulty with ordinary chairs. Sofas and anything with soft arms are much more difficult.

Not a big fan of things made from plastic materials that have fasteners going into them. A recipe for disaster.

A friend of mine bought beemers all the time until about two years ago when he/they switched to Audis. No idea why.

Andrew

Really beautiful blooms well captured Rich. The light certainly banishes the unwanted shadows. Our roses are about done for the winter; time to give them a good prune.
Dicky.

I too thought you had broken your real arm until I read Paul's post. I tried to figure out which arm you guys might call your articulating arm.😂

I'm not sorry for you anymore, but I like your pictures!

The roses seem to be in full bloom, Rich ... and too bad about that arm!! You'll be working on a new technique, I assume, until that arm is mended ... Look forward to that evolution ... or the repaired arm ...

WhyNot

Thanks, Dicky. I do love to photograph roses. I always feel sad when the gardeners prune them back. Rich

Thanks, Charlotte. I put the explanation in the next sentence, dammit ! I should have remembered that your are ESL, but you haven't been around much. Rich

Some of the gardens are in bloom, WhyNot, but most aren't. At least I have a few to photograph. No new technique necessary. I had a spare bushing at home, so just that afternoon without the light. Rich

Beautiful.

Thanks, Dave. Rich