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| The cotton is ready for harvest. (click to enlarge) |
It's that time of the year to harvest the cotton fields here in the southern United States. The term "high cotton" originates pre-Civil Ware (1861-65) to mean the crops are good and the price for cotton is high. All over southern Virginia I see cotton fields that almost look as though it has snowed. I love the sight of the white fields each year. The image here was made this morning with my iPhone 8. I was running errands and stopped along a country road to make a few quick images. If you read on, you will understand why I wasn't out with my gear photographing.
Erratic Schedule of Posts To Come
Just a heads up to my regular readers. For the past several weeks, my wife and I have been preparing our home to sell. It has been a daunting task as, in our 45 years of marriage, we have accumulated way too much "stuff." "Stuff" that should have been discarded years ago. I had no idea I had that much "stuff" stored in the attic, closets, garage, storage shed, etc.
The first step was to get the house ready to be photographed, inside and out, for the real estate listing. That meant renting a temporary storage area, storing furniture that the real estate agent thought would better "open up" and "stage" the house if not in various rooms, then moving some tables, chairs, various decorations to the storage area. Fixing, painting, replacing every little thing that I had put off in the past was my next chore followed by a most thorough cleaning of the house. After the photo session, the next step was getting the house ready to be shown.
Luckily for us, we had 6 showings and four contract offers, all above our asking price (that was the strategy—price our home moderately to encourage multiple offers to encourage a bit of a process for the prospective buyers to bid up the price. It worked) on the very first day. Two more showings and another offer the second day. We accepted an offer we received on the first day so the house, in effect, was sold!
The upshot is that we have signed a contract to sell our home of 23 years as we intend to move to a small town nearby, build a smaller home that suits just the two of us better (our two adult children and three grandchildren still live in the area as well) and live out our lives in our new home. That means there is a multitude of tasks ahead (vetting and hiring a moving and storage company, donating or discarding things we don't want to take with us, packing, etc.) and more decisions than I care to imagine in building a new home with not much time for photography and posting on this blog.
So, I ask that you have patience if I am late or miss a post. I am still going to try to post regularly and even try to get out once in a while with my camera. These two activities are real stress relievers for me.
After being now retired for several years and at my age, I am very ready for a new adventure! All this is invigorating to me!
Thanks for looking. Enjoy!
Dennis A. Mook
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Let me be the first to congratulate you on the sale and pending new house project. My wife and I are within 2 months of being retired and are looking forward to moving a little north of where we live now in California. Slower country atmosphere, cooler weather and light snow are in our sights after living near the coast for almost 60 years. And with that a whole new world to photograph.
ReplyDeletePatience, yes I think we can accommodate considering all the wonderful content you bring us throughout the year. Take all the time you need, we will all be right here when your moving process slows down.
Thank you for your kindness. Good luck with retirement and future move. Remember there are no weekends, holidays nor days off when you are retired! Lol I grew up in a small town in western Pennsylvania and will now move to a small town here in SE Virginia. Slower pace, less noise and traffic and a more chances of better interactions with others. I love northern California. I’ve been there a few times and like the people, the topography, weather and the beautiful forests. Also, I hear there may be very large, hairy, bipedal human looking creatures in northern CA! I wish you the best.
DeleteCongratulations on the sale Dennis. I've heard all the reports about this being a seller's market, sounds like it was for you. I assume you did all the photography for whatever listing pieces that were done :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks Jim. I let the professionals handle photographing our home. Nikon guy. He used a D810 and a 16-35mm lens on a tripod. Additionally, he had a Nikon flash attached in the flash shoe and pointed straight up at the ceiling. I think he shot aperture priority with auto fill-in flash. It was a very simple setup. The only thing I probably would have done differently is have a sturdier tripod. On a related note, he would like to go mirrorless so I showed him my Z7 and I attached the 14-30mm f/4 lens. He played with it for a while then told me his wife may become mad at me as he was now thinking of buying a setup like mine. Lol
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