Tilting at Windmills (30/52)

Jasper's Human
recent  |  interesting  |  random  |  favorites  |  contacts  |  sets  |  tags:  
Tilting at Windmills (30/52)
Tilting at Windmills (30/52)

Jasper fancies himself a knight-errant, chivalrously protecting his castle, and more specifically his queen, from would-be intruders. Sometimes, it’s a real person out there, like an Amazon delivery person. But as often, it’s an imaginary foe. So, for many years when Jasper starts barking at imaginary giants outside at the door, I’ll tell him, you’re tilting at windmills again, Dog Quixote. For a couple of years, I’ve thought I should do a shot with Jasper as Don Quixote de La Mancha with him tilting his lance at the monsters outside our door.

If you’re unfamiliar with Don Quixote, it is an epic Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes published in the early 1600s. It features a lower nobleman who went a bit whackadoodle and fancied himself a knight-errant, assuming the name Don Quixote de La Mancha. Don Quixote recruited a squire called Sancho Panza and they roamed the countryside in pursuit of adventure. At one point Don Quixote sees some windmills and imagines they’re attacking giants with great swinging arms. As any chivalrous knight would do, he tilts his lance at them and attacks. While the phrase “tilting at windmills” was never used in the novel, the scene did give way to the English idiom, “tilting at windmills” which means “attacking imaginary enemies” as Jasper is wont to do.

Jasper’s lance is an old mop handle which I wrapped in aluminum foil. The helmet is just a stainless-steel bowl to which I affixed a foil-covered cardboard rim. For his shoulder armor, I used the Photoshop generative AI fill feature. I selected an area around his shoulder and back and typed in “armor”. Seconds later I had three choices of armor on Jasper. Pretty amazing technology. Although at first, I typed in “chain mail” and was rewarded with 3 different versions of heavy chains around his neck and shoulders. I also tried to put a windmill behind him, but try as I might with different word combinations, I could only get it to insert a modern wind turbine type windmill or some other inappropriate type of windmill. See another post I did today to demonstrate AI technology. Amazing!

© All Rights Reserved
Taken on: July 29, 2023
Tags: Everybody's photos tagged with 52 Weeks for Dogs 52 Weeks for Dogs Everybody's photos tagged with Aussie Aussie Everybody's photos tagged with Australian Shepherd Australian Shepherd more » Everybody's photos tagged with tilting at windmills tilting at windmills Everybody's photos tagged with Don Quixote Don Quixote « less
Sets appears in:   • 52 Weeks 2023   
Groups appears in:   • 52 Weeks for Dogs   
Camera: Sony ILCE-1, f/1.4, 1/200 sec, 20mm, ISO 800 (more info) (hide info)
Camera: Sony ILCE-1
Lens: 20mm F1.4 DG HSM | Art 018
Aperture: f/1.4
Exposure Time: 0.005 sec (1/200)
Focal Length: 20mm
ISO: 800
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program: Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode: Auto
Metering Mode: Center-weighted average
White Balance: Auto
Color Space: sRGB
Software: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 12.4 (Windows)
Show full info
Stats: 1,761 views / 40 comments