Joe B Real

Rug Shampoo

2008-07-24T18:35:00.002-04:00

About a week or so ago, I shampooed the living room rug. It got some of the dirt out and it looks a lot better, but there was still a good bit of ground in dirt that wouldn't come out.

New Speakers

2008-05-04T23:55:00.004-04:00

My brother and I put some new rear speakers in my car this weekend. It was an interesting challenge. We had to remove the entire rear seat to get to the speakers. Here are the new speakers going in. Thanks Matt.

Oh and I didn't end up doing that road race. It just had too many strikes against it for me. I did a short, fast run that morning instead; and my IT bands started bothering me. So maybe I should take easy a little.

Rhode Race

2008-04-30T17:52:00.003-04:00

This Sunday I'm running a half marathon in RI. Here's a course map. I'm pretty sure it ends downhill. New Bedford ends with an uphill, so maybe this one will go better. willow tree half marathon
Find more Runs in Providence, Rhode Island

forwho?

2008-04-29T00:51:00.002-04:00

I spotted a Smart Fortwo in the wild today. This is the first one I've seen in person. So here's my proof of its existence in MA—an appropriately blurry, bigfoot-eqsue photo.

Eastham Coast Guard Station

2008-04-22T15:33:00.003-04:00

Here's a photo of the Eastham Coast Guard Station on Cape Cod. I stayed there once, about a dozen years ago.

Tired Eye

2008-03-24T22:40:00.002-04:00

Here's a close up self portrait, highlighting a slightly bloodshot and blotchy eye. I took this one with my point and shoot and it came out better and more easily that some attempts using the DSLR. The P&S is easier to handle, but more importantly, the autofocus seems to work differently; more idiot-~~proof~~ resistant.

Ripples

2008-03-15T13:26:00.002-04:00

Bunny Dog!

2008-02-29T22:41:00.003-05:00

I took this photo a few weeks ago. Been pretty busy lately. Anyway, The sun was pretty low (camera left), giving a kind of rim light. Shooting through a small tree, there's a flash visible in the frame that provides maybe a little rim light on the other side. I'm not sure if this would have been better without the flash. There'd probably be less lens flare.

I'm Back!

2008-02-23T18:36:00.002-05:00

Hey, long time no see! Just thought I post a photo of the recent lunar eclipse.

Sunday Run

2007-12-31T00:05:00.002-05:00

I'm still trying out the nike+ kit so I haven't calibrated it yet. So I didn't actually do 11.58mi. It was closer to 9.4mi., but I like the way it graphs the speed over distance. Seeing that can help me learn where I might need to push a little harder.

Pooh!

2007-12-29T00:20:00.000-05:00

Here I'm trying out my new umbrella. You can shoot through it, or bounce off it. In this photo I'm shooting through it. A 28mm zoom setting on the flash seems to just about fill up the whole umbrella as shown below. I took this photo with the umbrella very close to the subject, and you can see the smooth transition from highlight to shadow that the large apparent light source gives.

Roast Beast

2007-12-29T00:17:00.000-05:00

"Roast beast is a feast I can't stand in the least" said the Grinch.

Here's a photo of Christmas dinner. No, I did not partake of the ham.

Sugar Cookie

2007-12-26T21:53:00.000-05:00

Here's a closeup of sprinkles on a decorated sugar cookie. I took this photo late on Christmas eve. I think it looks like an electron microscope image of bacteria—E. Coli maybe...

Christmas Tree

2007-12-22T17:25:00.001-05:00

We put the rest of the decorations on the tree a few days ago (instead of just lights). A small aperture (f/32) makes small points of light look like stars.

Snow Dog

2007-12-20T08:22:00.000-05:00

Leaping through the snow! I cropped this one and adjusted the tone curve a little, to reveal a little more texture in the snow. Helpful tip: overexpose snow. If there's anything in your camera that says "EV +/-", set that baby to at least +2/3. Play around with it, for some subjects you could probably get away with +2. (remember to set it back to normal after!) The more snow in the frame, the more you should bump up the exposure, but I wouldn't go much higher than +2. If you're not sure, chimp the histogram.

Night Ice

2007-12-11T20:15:00.000-05:00

While the snow flurries were falling in NH; MA must have been getting freezing rain, because when I got back from my trip, everything seemed to be covered with a shimmering layer of ice.

Crazy Squirrel

2007-12-11T20:12:00.000-05:00

Here's a brown squirrel screaming what I can only assume are a long string of squirrel obscenities. I took this photo in New Hampshire, near a bird feeder.

O Christmas Tree

2007-12-05T00:44:00.000-05:00

Here's another shutter drag photo. It's the Christmas tree, with lights, but no ornaments yet.

Goodbye

2007-12-02T15:54:00.000-05:00

My uncle died this past Thursday, after a lengthy illness. Here's a photo from a couple years ago.

LaSalette

2007-12-01T17:20:00.000-05:00

Here's a photo from the LaSalette Shrine, in Attleboro. LasSalette Shrine is best known locally for their spectacular Christmas lighting display. Photo here is of the reflecting pool.

Thanksgiving Dinner

2007-11-22T23:13:00.000-05:00

Here's what I had for Thanksgiving dinner. Pertty innit?

Turkey in the Hole

2007-11-22T22:58:00.000-05:00

My uncle resumed a family tradition this year, by cooking the turkey in a hole in the ground. Used some off camera flash for this one. WB is set for tungsten, which gives the flashes a cool blue look, to contrast with the warmth of the fire. It was pretty foggy that night, which helped to enhance the effect of the flash.

What's up?

2007-11-18T13:43:00.000-05:00

I've taken a bit of a break from shooting lately.
I've heard from a few different places that Ansel Adams said a negative is a score, but the print is the performance. I've mainly put only scores on this blog. Doing a little post production work can make a huge difference. So rather than just shooting, I've gone back into the archive and worked on some of my previous photos. Perhaps I'll post more "performances," here instead of just "scores." Yes I know it's another self portrait, what can I say? that's my most cooperative model, whose schedule fits mine perfectly.

Long Jacket

2007-10-25T23:12:00.001-04:00

Here's my niece wearing my new jacket. At the moment I think she's worn it longer than I have!

2007-10-24T00:19:00.001-04:00

Another Self Portrait

2007-10-19T20:21:00.000-04:00

Me again. Just getting ready for Halloween. ;-)

Thinking of a Green Blob

2007-10-19T02:00:00.000-04:00

Doing a little off camera lighting with one of my best models.

Bridge

2007-10-17T01:11:00.000-04:00

Took this photo in NH on a hike to a waterfall.

Lit Pumpkin

2007-10-16T21:41:00.000-04:00

I placed a speedlight behind this pumpkin to light up some fallen leaves. There's another flash higher up on the porch, but I don't think it contributed much, if any light to this part of the (cropped) photo. I lit the pumpkin itself with a flashlight. It had been sprinking for a while, but just before I took this photo it started raining harder. You can see rain drops lit by the flash.

Me Again

2007-10-12T09:28:00.000-04:00

Here's me again, trying out the new flash. Here, it's direct, on camera. I believe this lighting setup is considered broad light, since my face is turned slightly off to the side (not quite 3/4) and the brighter light is on the side facing the camera, or the "broad" side. I've heard short lighting is generally better, but of course it depends on the subject. I did one with short lighting, but the pose wasn't as good.

Flash Zoom

2007-10-11T22:56:00.000-04:00

Here's me, playing with the new flash. As hotshoe mounted flashes go, it's arguably the best around.. for now. I didn't think there'd be much difference between this fancy one, and a lesser 3rd party one I've owned for a while.
There's a big difference.

In this photo I zoomed the flash head in all the way and shot with a wide lens. It gives it a kind of rectangle flashlight/vignette effect.

We're gona have to use harpoons and tow cables...

2007-10-10T23:49:00.000-04:00

Here's some kinda super lifting/moving device. It's at, or very close to a dock in the Cranston area of Rhode Island. Laura thought it looked like an Imperial Walker, or AT-AT for the Lucasfilm geeks. I took this photo while on the East Bay Bike Path. I'd recommend it if you're a cyclist in the area.

Kitchen Skew

2007-10-09T23:16:00.000-04:00

Used the magic arm for this one. I created a (boring) late night sequence of images. This one happens not to have anyone in it.

Tilt!

2007-10-09T23:11:00.000-04:00

I haven't been posting as often as I'd like lately. Over the past few days though at least, I've been shooting more. Here's one I took a few days ago; nothing fancy, just playing with a tilt-shift or PCS lens. They're kinda cool, but I find myself not using it very much. It allows one to control the depth of field in interesting ways. It can do other things too.

Marthas Vineyard

2007-10-03T22:59:00.000-04:00

Went to the Marthas Vineyard on Sat and look lots of cool photos. In this one I'm using the sun as a rim light. I brought my flash, but the batteries only lasted a couple shots. I gotta keep that thing charged! In this one, the flash was supposed to fire, but it didn't. I kinda like it though. Fun Fact: the term silhouette was named after a guy. Etienne, I believe, was his first name. He was minister of finance during the French Revolution. His favorite hobby was making shadow pictures, where one traces the outline of someone's shadow onto black paper and cuts it out. Due to his harsh taxation policies, the (now starving) people started dressing all in black, saying they were but shadows, a la Silhouette! Look it up!

See my flickr feed for more MV photos! I even geotagged them!

From the Silver City

2007-09-30T20:01:00.000-04:00

Years ago on Mr. Wizard, he showed how to clean tarnished silver, using a very simple electro-chemical reaction. It requires little more than baking soda and aluminum foil. The other day I had a tarnished piece of silver and found that same method online. Apparently this method doesn't remove any of the silver—polishing does. Here are the before and after shots. I don't think this was originally highly polished, having more a of a smooth, matte finish. So I think it did a pretty good job, and it only took a few minutes.

Reflection

2007-09-24T22:57:00.000-04:00

Ok, yes I'm a little less dedicated lately to the cause of a-photo-a-day. I haven't abandoned it altogether though.

In this photo I wanted to keep the horizontals and vertical as square as possible (almost got it). The best way to do this, with or without tilt/shift capabilities, is to keep the film (or sensor) plane of the camera parallel to whatever it is you want to photograph. The problem with this is, if you point the camera at a skyscraper, you have to fill up half the frame with the ground, in order to make the building look straight.

1/500th

2007-09-18T22:20:00.000-04:00

This post is pretty technical, but I'll keep it short.
I did a little test a while back to see how my camera could wirelessly sync the flash, faster than the max sync speed—in my case 1/250th of a sec. Using PWs, 1/250th is safe. But 1/320th introduces a thin black line at the bottom of the (horizontal) frame. This should be fine, if you need that extra third of a stop. Increasing the shutter speed increased the black area. At 1/500th it was about half the frame, which makes sense, since it's twice as fast as 1/250th. 1/1000th leaves only a tiny light sliver at the top of the frame.

Creepy Lamp

2007-09-11T23:31:00.000-04:00

My once bright and cheerful desk lamp has turned creepy and ominous—not to mention a bit dusty.

Duh! Moment: Umbrella Bracket

2007-09-10T00:46:00.000-04:00

This should be of interest to Strobist readers. Some things are so obvious, you don't even think of them. This is pretty obvious to me—now, but I had to figure it out the hard way.

I had a "Duh!" moment a couple weeks ago when I figured out an alternate way of using umbrella brackets. Umbrella brackets are a good way to use flashes off camera, even if you're not using an umbrella. This little piece of equipment allows one to mount an umbrella and a small flash onto the top of a light stand. One end has a hotshoe mount for the flash, the other may have a brass stud, or it may just have an opening into which you can secure the light stand. Then you slide the shaft of the umbrella into the middle of the bracket (making sure the umbrella side points slightly upwards). In the middle of the bracket is a hinge with a rather large lever to tighten or loosen this hinge. The hinge allows one to adjust the angle of the flash so that it points into the center of the umbrella. In this configuration, you're stuck with the umbrella roughly horizontal, with a very slight angle upwards. But how often does anyone want to shoot with the umbrella horizontal? I usually prefer my light pointing at least slightly down onto the subject.

In order to be able to tilt the umbrella on the light stand, I screwed a ballhead onto the top of the light stand, and then screwed the umbrella bracket onto the ballhead. This worked the first time I did it, but not very well, and subsequent times I tried this method, it failed miserably. The ballhead is great, but it wasn't designed to take the kind of torsion this setup can generate. Just tap the umbrella and it becomes a giant lever, just dying to unscrew the bracket from the ballhead or the ballhead from the light stand. Then I realized, one need only switch the hotshoe mount to the other receptacle of the bracket, and you can easily tilt the umbrella! The flash might not line up perfectly, but at least you can tilt the umbrella. Alternately, the top of the umbrella bracket would be a much better place for a ballhead. Screw the hotshoe to the ballhead and screw the ball head to the brass stud. Then side the flash into the hotshoe mount and you can safely adjust the angle of the flash and the angle of the umbrella.

Hey Look! Another Photo of Me!

2007-09-09T00:36:00.000-04:00

My lovely assistant snapped this striking photo. Quite an accomplishment, considering the subject matter ;-) I cropped it—little bit. The original composition was pretty good, but I wanted to show a little more detail.

Joe in Motion

2007-09-03T23:39:00.000-04:00

Here's a pretty cool photo of me running. I'm just trying out a new toy I got. Thank you Laura! :-* It's called a Magic Arm (2929). It really is pretty magical. It's late and I'm sure I'll discuss it more in a later post, but for now I'll just leave you with this image. You can see the PW in my right hand that I used to trigger the camera. In some other shots I did a better job concealing it. I was quite literally taking this new gear out for a test run and I learned quite a bit about my gear and about my running.

La Gondola

2007-09-01T00:47:00.000-04:00

Took a Gondola ride in RI on Thurs. It was fun. The boat was very luxurious, as you can see in this photo. It was a bit expensive, but way cheaper than going to Venice, and probably very nearly as good. Our gondolier even sang to us.

End of Summer Crazies

2007-08-30T10:42:00.000-04:00

Not the end of the crazies, rather, the crazies that occur at the end of the summer.
You may have noticed I've missed a few days lately. I'm still here, and I plan to continue posting photos. I'll probably take a few photos this evening, which I'll get on here tonight or tomorrow. I've been meaning to post a little how to lighting technical tip that I discovered for myself the hard way. It has to do with using an umbrella bracket. Well, gotta get some stuff together and run it to the post office.

Stay tuned!

Nuked Green Tomatoes

2007-08-26T20:42:00.000-04:00

Here are some green tomatoes. I lit them from below by shooting a flash through a sheet of tracing paper. I used a direct flash above and slightly off to the side for fill.

Ahhhh....

2007-08-25T01:33:00.000-04:00

Man I've got a lot going on now. All summer it's been realtively chill, and now I've got a bunch of things going on at once. Not that I'm complaining. It's all pretty cool stuff, but one at a time would be nice. I do want to get back to updating this blog more often and maybe get a haircut. I'm already sporting my long haired hippie look! ;-) Well enough about me, what about you?

Another Desk Photo

2007-08-21T23:49:00.000-04:00

Been kinda busy lately. I'm working on getting a portfolio together. It seems tougher now to find the time to shoot. Here's a shot of my desk. I like the green reflection of the watch. Guess what time I took this photo. No that's not PM.

Tiny Bubbles

2007-08-19T23:55:00.000-04:00

Morning OJ

I've been retouching some of my photos. I quite enjoy it. I don't think I'd want to be a retoucher, but as a part of another job, like photographer, or designer that'd be cool. Anyway, about the image, I didn't notice the refection in the bubbles until I looked at them in the computer.

Noisy Squirrel

2007-08-18T00:22:00.000-04:00

I heard some strange noises outside my window. If you've never heard a squirrel yelling or barking, or singing or whatever you want to call it; it's very strange. It almost sounds like a pig. Anyway, here's the best one I got of this little guy.

Books and stuff

2007-08-16T20:34:00.000-04:00

Nothin much to say here. I used the camera's little popup flash to shed a little light on this one.

Lighthouse

2007-08-15T00:49:00.000-04:00

Here's a lighthouse in Mystic Seaport, Mystic, CT. One thing I noticed about this lighthouse is that the light is actually a CFL! Maybe at night that's plenty bright enough. Or maybe the whole lighthouse is now just for show, and no longer needed. One thing I do know, is if they're using a CFL to save energy, they'd do better to light it when it's not in direct competition with the sun.

Streaker

2007-08-14T09:47:00.000-04:00

This is the flying streak of the ipod. I plan on doing some more stuff like this later.

The Last Thing Food Sees

2007-08-12T23:09:00.001-04:00

I didn't take this photo, but I took plenty of others yesterday, so this will stand in their stead. It's the last thing a veggie burger sees. :-O

Oh and David, not you Dave, the other one, the one that likes sparklers, I haven't forgot about you, if you're reading this. I don't think I'll have access to sparklers for a while, but I've got another idea that I plan on trying soon, hopefully within the next week or so.

Zombie Shoes

2007-08-11T01:13:00.000-04:00

Here are my shoes heading towards "the light" under my bed. I'm starting to feel a bit like a zombie myself. It's all self inflicted. I've been seriously procrastinating working on my thesis. I have been getting some work done on it, but it's very slow. Almost done though... mostly.

Homage to Warhol

2007-08-10T19:54:00.000-04:00

Here's a quick homage to Andy Warhol. Oh I think this is the 30,000th exposure on my camera.

Textured Line

2007-08-09T16:33:00.000-04:00

Took a couple days off from shooting. It was weird after only maybe 2-3 days without picking up the camera, how different it felt. This photo is my leg, dramatically lit, making it somewhat abstract and a little dramatic.

Fine Art

2007-08-07T23:27:00.000-04:00

I've missed a day or two of photos. While part of the reason is just laziness, another part is a little project I'm working on. I saw an article in The FSTOP for which the main image, the photographer explains, is a composite image of about 20 other photos. Composite images are nothing new. I've made loads of them, and seen even more. We've all seen them every time we look at a magazine ad (that's not to say every magazine ad photo is a composite, but I'd bet at least one in every magazine is). I was planning on creating a composite image with some images I'd shot and some images I had planned to shoot in the future. However, after having taken some landscape photos in NH on a recent vacation, and then having seen the excellent composite image I mentioned earlier, I thought "hey! why don't I just use these!" I believe I've posted almost all of the component images on this blog already.

I've been working for a while on the image, and I'd say I'm about done. I'll leave you in suspense though, as I want to keep looking at it for a while—spend some quality time alone with it. I'll post it eventually and have a fairly detailed writeup about it. I'm thinking of printing it and entering it into a local art show. I almost never print any of my photos. And I've never printed any of my photos larger than 8x10. I'd like to print this one a bit larger. As I said though I want to spend some time with it first, then see how it prints before I decide what to do with it. Who knows, maybe I'll start doing more printing and more fine art-y stuff.

Pair o' Sneaks

2007-08-06T07:36:00.000-04:00

I think I'm seeing light more. Light coming from a low angle tends to look very nice. I tried to capture this as a patch of light shown on my sneakers. My first attempt was a tad disappointing. There was too wide a dynamic range. That is, the shadows too dark, and the brights too bright. The photo looked too harsh. Now, many photographers would make an HDR, or high dynamic range image by taking a series of exposures and then combining them using some program to create an image with a high dynamic range. I've done this before. It's fine and you have a lot of control and can get some great results. But in this case I just popped up the tiny built in flash, adjusted the FE compensation (set the flash to not be as bright) and fired off this shot. The flash threw just enough light into the shadows to brighten them up a bit, so they're not totally black. Thus compressing the tonal range.

Pretty Flower

2007-08-03T00:47:00.000-04:00

Don't over-think this one. It's a flower—a bouquet, actually. Took me all of about 2 seconds to shoot. I even shot the foreground flower dead centered too. That's generally considered a no-no. So with just a slight crop, it's much more interesting. I'm surprised at how bright the color looks mostly right out of the camera. Granted it could be brighter, but I'm just not used to seeing that come out of my camera. Though I probably haven't been shooting many vibrantly colored objects lately.

On Pulp, Paper and Taxes

2007-08-02T08:58:00.000-04:00

This craggy moonscape is actually an old tax form that I've had sitting under a window for at least a few months. Occasionally, a little rain would splatter in on it—eventually making the paper very textured. I lit this with a hard light at a steep angle to create a high contrast, highly textured image. You can see the edge of the paper in the bottom right corner area. I'd get rid of this if I was going to make a print or do something serious with it. I'm sure you can use your imagination here :-)

Warhol Web

2007-08-01T01:10:00.000-04:00

What is Andy Warhol's connection to web 2.0? Well I need to do some more research into web 2.0, but I'm pretty sure it's user generated content on the web (eg. myspace, youtube, blogging etc.) Some geek comes up with a catchy way to share some information online, sets it up and then gets the public to generate all the content. So the "creator" merely builds a framework in which everyone else can express themselves. So ideally, web 2.0, in my understanding, promotes free expression. People stay on your site for its content. Content is valuable to webmasters. Some clever webmasters have figured out how to get content for free, by making it easy for the public to express itself.
Warhol did a kind of analog version of this same thing. The Factory was his YouTube. The artists, addicts and other crazies that inhabited the factory provided the content and creative energy for most of Warhol's work, at least during the better part of the 60s anyway. Many of his movies were simply those crazy people just being themselves, acting on their desires. Kind of an early form of "reality" TV.
Ok I'm spent. More on this later.

The Uninvited Wasp

2007-08-01T00:54:00.000-04:00

I saw a pretty large wasp in between my open window and screen. I'm not sure if it's a mud wasp. It was after dark when she showed up. I wanted her to go away, as I'd be kept awake by the occasional buzzing; wondering if she'd get in. Somehow a good sized yellow jacket managed to get past the screen a while back, and I've been a bit leery of those things being in the window ever since. I tried a few things to get rid of her, but to no avail. So I figured it was time to take my daily blog photo. I guess she didn't like all the attention. She flew away—but not before I'd wrapped up my shoot.

Cereal Bowl Setup

2007-08-01T00:00:00.000-04:00

Here's the setup for the last post, Cereal Flasher II. Now, the gory, technical details. Vivitar 285 HV diffused through a paper napkin @ 1/16 power triggered by PW camera left. Sigma 500DG Super optically slaved, 28mm zoom, at I believe 1/32 power. The light from this flash points up at a white plastic cutting board I held at an angle above the subject, in order to light the reflective surface of the spoon.

Cereal Flasher II

2007-07-31T01:21:00.000-04:00

I'm pretty sure David Hobby has used that term (cereal flasher) before, but it fits, and I'm using it as a homage. Here's a more produced photo—probably my most produced one since my most recent set of water drops. I think this technically qualifies for the current Lighting 102: Assignment - Cooking Light. As far as his assignment goes, it's probably not that great, but that doesn't make it any less of a photo. I shot it more for myself than to impress other strobists. Which I think is really the point of the assignments anyway; to give yourself a challenge, and to exchange ideas with other photographers. To that end I'll post a setup photo a little later.

Ah, I knew I shot another cereal bowl for this blog, and looking back at it, these two posts share quite a bit of similarity, but they're also pretty different.

Uh, Something

2007-07-31T01:16:00.000-04:00

Here's another case of the last minute I've-got-to-shoot-something-before-I-go-to-sleep-itis. This is some junk on the bookcase just off the head of my bed.

Panoramas

2007-07-28T23:53:00.000-04:00

After a few unsuccessful attempts, I'm so far quite pleased with Photoshop CS3's updated Photomerge feature. It's probably the smartest panorama stitching software I've used (when it works). I didn't shoot any of these with a tripod, and most of them had a pretty wide focal length. Both of these factors tend to wreak havoc with stitching software. I did have one sequence that failed. When CS3 Photomerges fail, it just stops. If you start the process and then leave the room for a while, you wonder if it actually did anything. It goes seemingly through the whole process and then just closes the new window and that's it.
I took all these photos in the general vicinity of Lake of the Clouds.

More Vacation Photos

2007-07-28T23:43:00.000-04:00

Here's just a few of my top picks, to make up for falling behind a bit on shooting, and this blog. Laura and I hiked from the summit of Mount Washington (took the auto road) to the Lake of the Clouds Hut. Took all of these photos while in or around the hut.

GPS Games

2007-07-28T23:36:00.000-04:00

Here's my brother's friend Dave playing a GPS game at night in NH. Took quite a few good photos on my trip to NH, I'll post a few here, but I won't count them as photo of the day. Which means I still have to come up with another photo for today, Sat...

Updates

2007-07-27T18:41:00.000-04:00

Just Updated Cookies! with the photo. I was in a hurry and the program was running a little slow, so I didn't have time to post the photo with the blog post. Also I took this photo a while ago, but didn't have time to post it either. It's my new toy and part of the reason why I fell a little behind on my photography.

Mt Washington

2007-07-25T19:27:00.000-04:00

Took the Auto Road up Mount Washington then hiked to Lake of the Clouds. More Photos to come. Oh I've just been informed that Laura took this photo. I took plenty of others though, don't worry.

Couch

2007-07-24T19:48:00.000-04:00

Here's a couch and coffee table in the condo I'm staying at. I'll post more pictures soon. Hopefully.

Vacation

2007-07-24T10:22:00.000-04:00

Heading out to New Hampshire shortly. I can probably still post a few photos while I'm there, but not as easily.

The Talking Tree

2007-07-23T22:53:00.000-04:00

Saw this recently "landscaped" tree while walking on my lunch break. It looked like a face, so I whipped out the camera phone and snapped this quicky.

Cookies!

2007-07-23T22:52:00.000-04:00

Made some cookies on Sunday. They're pretty good, but I wouldn't use that recipe again.

Now That's Not Normal

2007-07-20T18:30:00.000-04:00

Point and shake. That's how I've been doing some of these abstract photos. So many things have LED indicator lights. The fan I shot for this photo has a ridiculous amount, for something that's supposed to help you sleep at night.

Uechi Tattoo

2007-07-19T00:17:00.000-04:00

I practice Uechi Ryu Karate. Uechi Ryu tends to have a reputation (warranted or not) amongst other martial artists as being a more physical, harder style. Some people think we beat each other up to "toughen up." That's not entirely true, but I'll not get into details here.
Anyway, I don't bruise very easily, at least not visibly. Tonight after class, I noticed a small bruise on my arm. It's not much, but I'll wear my new Uechi Tattoo proudly, until it fades away.

Touchy!

2007-07-19T00:05:00.000-04:00

Here's a lamp; a touch lamp. This is not how I saw this scene with the naked eye. I'm still surprised at the way a camera records differently than the eye. In this case it was mostly a dynamic range issue. I still think it looks pretty nice, considering. I bet photographers are the only ones that care about blown out highlights and blocked up shadows—and not even all photographers! That's not to say I don't care about it, but that's not the only thing that matters. It's the motive/intent/emotion of the image that matters.

Cool Bike

2007-07-17T09:20:00.000-04:00

"Laura is cool." If it says so on the side of a child's bike, it must be true.

More Light Streaks

2007-07-17T09:07:00.000-04:00

This one reminds me of Saturn, a little.

Eat Some Bugs

2007-07-15T21:10:00.000-04:00

Went to Borderland State Park for the first time this weekend. It's a pretty nice place. There's a mansion, lots of trails, even a Disc Golf course. This little guy was in a garden that had once been a swimming pool.

Freeze!

2007-07-15T17:03:00.001-04:00

Notice the title of this post isn't "my biggest fan," or "Fan-tastic!" Tryin to keep things classy, not cheesy around here. ;-)
Got a new fan. Just trying to freeze the blades in motion. Only using the built in flash though.

Heads Up!

2007-07-13T19:01:00.001-04:00

This is the back of my head. Something I can't normally see. I figured I'd use photography to enhance my powers of perception. I think I need to slightly touch up my haircut.

Carnival

2007-07-12T14:51:00.000-04:00

Here's some more abstract photography. I'm not sure what to call the technique. Reverse light painting? Dragging?

A-door-a Borealis

2007-07-12T11:50:00.000-04:00

Made this late last night. I've never seen an actual aurora borealis in person. So this isn't the real deal. I stumbled upon this look, almost by accident, just by playing around. I took a few others that looked more like I think what an actual aurora borealis looks like, but I figured this is more interesting. Why bother trying to duplicate nature exactly?

I did a little post processing, mainly just to get a nice color. Technically it's just a white balance adjustment—something I probably could have done in camera.

Winner!

2007-07-10T23:17:00.000-04:00

Finally won my second ever game of solitaire on the ipod. Ok, hopefully I'm over that obsession—at least for now.

Solitary Frustration

2007-07-10T00:25:00.000-04:00

Got an ipod nano the other day and I've gotten somewhat addicted to the solitaire game on it. I've never been a big fan of the game, but I dunno I just like playing it on this thing that I'm sure is totally straining my eyes. Anyway, the first game I played on it, I won! I had even forgotten how to play at first and still won. I haven't won since. Here's the closest I've come so far.

Giant Scary Bug!

2007-07-08T20:02:00.000-04:00

Time for another bug post. Arachnids and insects outnumber humans by some ridiculous amount. Just get used to it and accept them for who they are. Most of them are quite fascinating if you learn a thing or two about them—except mosquitoes.

Sparklers!

2007-07-07T00:51:00.000-04:00

Had a family cookout today and when it got dark, the sparklers came out! :-)

The sparkler light trails remind me a bit of Jackson Pollock's work, the way it captures arcs of both time and space.

Shallow, do not Swallow

2007-07-06T01:27:00.000-04:00

Here's an example of shallow depth of field, as if you needed one. A few times, I've left the 200mm prime on the camera and gone shooting somewhere with it. While not a versatile as a standard zoom, I find myself surprised by the results with a lens that would seem to be a tad restrictive in terms of available composition options. In restriction, however, there is freedom. Restrictions can make you think differently, find new and different solutions, and more importantly, see the world differently.

Good

2007-07-05T21:47:00.000-04:00

Just missed seeing this blimp land.

Cloth Mountains

2007-07-05T00:51:00.000-04:00

Macro photography breaks down a place into lots of tiny places. It lets you rediscover old, new places.

The Tissue at Hand

2007-07-04T00:57:00.000-04:00

Hey I like puns ok? If you don't, get over it. Actually I'm trying to cut back—not quit, mind you. The subject of this photo reminds me of a drawing exercise I did in college. We crumpled up a piece of tissue paper, and had to draw it. This is slightly less challenging to photograph. Though it would be interesting to do studies of light at different angles/distances, etc.

Tape Time

2007-07-04T00:50:00.000-04:00

Quick! Find something to photograph! This'll do I guess. Note the rapid light intensity falloff. The light source was very close to the subject. See Strobist: Lighting 102 - Position | Review

Taunton River

2007-06-30T15:05:00.000-04:00

Did a canoe trip today down the Taunton River. I'm heading out again now tho so this'll be a short post.

Mutant Orange Clouds

2007-06-29T22:38:00.000-04:00

I just had to run outside when I saw this sunset! The right kind of clouds can take an otherwise nice sunset and make it something special.
Tomorrow: canoe trip and fireworks :-)
stay tuned!

Quiet Photo

2007-06-29T22:25:00.000-04:00

Here's another late night/early morning photo. I thought this photo would convey a sense of stillness. I'm not sure that it does as much as being there. I could try this again tonight with a tripod. I had braced against a stool.

Happy Tripod

2007-06-28T12:00:00.000-04:00

Here's an accidentally anthropomorphized tripod. I've had this compact, lightweight tripod for so many years now. It's so banged up it can barely hold a flash. But it's still happy. Just deconstructing photography a bit. I, and probably many photographers and photo enthusiasts, seem to crave better quality, technically better images. I find myself drooling over high end cameras and expensive glass. I seriously consider buying them. But one doesn't need that high end stuff to make excellent images. Does it bother anyone that they can't see into the Mona Lisa's pores? No. Art rarely takes place at the pixel level. It's more important to capture a moment, an emotion, a feeling, a mood. Still with a new $4k camera, I could capture 10 moods per second ;-)

Bear With Me

2007-06-26T23:00:00.001-04:00

Took this photo today part of the Strobist Lighting 102 training. I find this exercise a little obvious, but it's fundamental and even though I knew about these principles, it's another thing to use them. Having actually gone through an exercise—having actually done it, now makes it more likely that I'll use it in the future. It becomes another tool at the ready, in my photo toolbox.

Poor Thing

2007-06-26T00:21:00.000-04:00

Here's my first camera phone post. The shadow to the right is the phone and me holding it. Saw this little bird on the ground during my lunch break at work. I'm not sure what kinda bird it is. Someone told me before... goldfinch perhaps? I've seen them around, they're fast. Sad to see this one go though.

Invasion!!

2007-06-26T00:14:00.000-04:00

No, that's not sensor dust. We had a bunch of tiny flies sneak into the house this night. They all went up to the ceiling. There's usually one night during the summer that a whole bunch of tiny bugs manage to get into the kitchen. Sometimes they all hang out on the ceiling, other times they chill out on the table.