I’ve submitted at least one similar shot for the 365, but I don’t really care.

I still have a problem getting everything lined up and square, but I think it’s not a problem of the camera, but of the architecture itself, which I sort of suspected already, due to the placement of the support at the top of the stairs: it’s off-center compared to the fountain and the light at the top. But today, when I drug a chair over, and clambered up onto it to get a different vantage point, I realized that the tree and planter on the right are closer than the one on the left. This is imperceptible at ground level, but readily apparent when standing on a chair.

I also tried something new with this ... Read More »]]> I count 5 different light sources here… and they play together so interestingly.

I’ve submitted at least one similar shot for the 365, but I don’t really care.

I still have a problem getting everything lined up and square, but I think it’s not a problem of the camera, but of the architecture itself, which I sort of suspected already, due to the placement of the support at the top of the stairs: it’s off-center compared to the fountain and the light at the top. But today, when I drug a chair over, and clambered up onto it to get a different vantage point, I realized that the tree and planter on the right are closer than the one on the left. This is imperceptible at ground level, but readily apparent when standing on a chair.

I also tried something new with this shot: I ran it through Topaz Labs DeNoise plugin for Aperture… Is it a bit too smooth? Yes. Is there some loss of detail? Yes, but it’s minor, and the picture is about the color first, and secondarily about the apartment owner’s view toward energy conservation, and there wasn’t a huge amount of detail in it anyway: it was shot with an iPhone 4 in low light.

I may yet get out and shoot some more today, but who knows. I may just take it easy. And I’ve been tapped to help momma with a bunch of chores, and have some of my own to do, so I’m glad I got this done earlier, rather than later.

iPhone 4. ProCamera App. Slight straightening in Aperture, and a trip through Topaz Labs DeNoise plugin.

Now the internet is back up, and I could avoid being lazy and make a nice macro shot or something with the d7000, but I can’t be bothered to today: I’m wiped out, the apartment is a wreck, and I’ve got to relate the story of getting the internet working again…

So I returned the modem that didn’t work ... Read More »]]> Yes, it’s another iPhone photo, taken while researching corporate locations at work via Gmaps. I spend quite a bit of time on Gmaps and the GSV (street view) every day, trying to track down known locations for various corporations. (Yes, my job is wildly exciting like that…) Whenever I see something neat, I snap 1-10 photos of it with Hipstamatic, and I usually randomize between shots, though lately I’ve been using some recipes I found in the great Hipstamatic shoot from last week.

Now the internet is back up, and I could avoid being lazy and make a nice macro shot or something with the d7000, but I can’t be bothered to today: I’m wiped out, the apartment is a wreck, and I’ve got to relate the story of getting the internet working again…

So I returned the modem that didn’t work yesterday, and traded it in for $60 off the $100 dollar modem the tier 2 tech guy told me would work.

I brought the new modem home, shot the guy an email, and unboxed the new modem.

I must say, it’s quite a bit uglier and more (bleak) futuristic than the previous model.

So I was unboxing, and I noticed that the included power supply was provided by a completely different manufacturer…

So I decided to try the new power supply with the old modem, just for grins while I was waiting for the tech guy to call me back. Lo and behold, it worked!

So now, I foresee a trip to RS, and yet another trip to giant electronics store in my future… or maybe I’ll just box up the fancy new modem and hold on to it for awhile… Naw. I’d rather have the credit at Fry’s, and I sorta like the RS, though I may order a proper replacement power supply and wait a bit before returning the new modem, since I have 30 days…. That’s probably what I’ll do, though I will be sleeping on it first: I’m wiped.

iPhone 4. Hipstamatic. Americana Lens, Blanko Film.

And if you like arial maps and crop formations as much as I do, run a Gmap search for “County Road QQ and County Road 31 near Yuma CO,” zoom out a bit, and start scrolling  West… Beauty awaits.

So I woke up this morning to find that last night’s electrical storm killed my modem. Oh well.

But the highway was beautiful and I got some neat shots of wobbling taillights and reflections. So win, maybe.

After work, I went to giant electronics store and purchased a modem from my interwebs provider’s approved devices list, brought it home, and got on the phone with tech support.

Level 1: unplug the modem and turn off your computer; plug the modem in and wait for all the lights to come on; turn your computer on and you’re ready to go! Did this work? [of course not, it's a new modem!]

Level 2: nice lady got the mac address and model number, ... Read More »]]> (originally posted to Google + via iPhone under the heading “this is not my 365 shot, but it’s the best I can do at present.”)

So I woke up this morning to find that last night’s electrical storm killed my modem. Oh well.

But the highway was beautiful and I got some neat shots of wobbling taillights and reflections. So win, maybe.

After work, I went to giant electronics store and purchased a modem from my interwebs provider’s approved devices list, brought it home, and got on the phone with tech support.

Level 1: unplug the modem and turn off your computer; plug the modem in and wait for all the lights to come on; turn your computer on and you’re ready to go! Did this work? [of course not, it's a new modem!]

Level 2: nice lady got the mac address and model number, hit some buttons, and expected everything would work.

Except it didn’t.

30 minutes later…

Level 3: very friendly gentleman had no idea what was going on, except that they always have huge problems with this particular modem (the one from the approved devices list) and if I wanted to roll down to the office, he’d hook me up with their modem for $2.50 per month, or I could hang in the line while he tried to get it hooked up.

I decided to wait.

2 hours later, I’ve been advised to return the modem (from the approved devices list) and get a different modem that they have no problems with (but is not on the approved devices list).

Hooray.

tl;dr due to technical issues, you get this iPhone pic instead of the groovy pic I made this morning.

iPhone 4, Hipstamatic. John S lens, Cano Cafenol film. Rephotographed from the GSV (Google Street View).

I shot the empty office at 5:35am when I arrived to work.

I shot (surreptitiously) coworkers, cubicle neighbors, and the big fancy bosses that occupied the conference room and boardroom all day.

I shot the roly poly that was scuttling around the mens room floor.

Every chance I got, I shot, with the goal of capturing a 365 shot before leaving work.

Alas, I don’t yet have much experience shooting nonchalantly with the phone while walking, and so the best shots came out blurry and the worst shots weren’t of anything.

So I decided to try the old shoot from the car window on the way home, and got this.

I’m not sure why I like this one. ... Read More »]]> From the time I woke up this morning—and even before, perhaps—I didn’t want to make another abstract picture for the 365, so I shot every chance I got today.

I shot the empty office at 5:35am when I arrived to work.

I shot (surreptitiously) coworkers, cubicle neighbors, and the big fancy bosses that occupied the conference room and boardroom all day.

I shot the roly poly that was scuttling around the mens room floor.

Every chance I got, I shot, with the goal of capturing a 365 shot before leaving work.

Alas, I don’t yet have much experience shooting nonchalantly with the phone while walking, and so the best shots came out blurry and the worst shots weren’t of anything.

So I decided to try the old shoot from the car window on the way home, and got this.

I’m not sure why I like this one. There’s some tension here, due to the frozen motion. There’s lots of repetition and plenty of stuff to lead the eye around. There’s just something… an ‘I know not what’ about this picture that made it the one.

And you wanna know something strange? I knew it when I tripped the shutter.

GoGo, I guess.

D7000. Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 ai. ISO100, 1/1600 (AP Mode), f/8, -1.33EV. Heavy-handed processing in Aperture, to bring out detail in the clouds and intensify the contrast everywhere else.

Comments and suggestions will be appreciated.

Oh well.

D7000. Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 ai, reversed, on 100mm extension. ISO100, .6 seconds (AP mode), f/2.8. Minor levels adjustment in Aperture.

Well, fast forward 57 days and guess where that former fishy-cracker container has been for all this time…

So I decided to spend a couple of hours doing what I said I was going to do, sort of.

5 or 6 hours and ~400 shots later, here we are.

First, I do quite like the light this mod gives off. It’s fairly warm, comes out in a tight, upside-down teardrop shape or in a narrow, open-topped strip, and is fairly well feathered, despite having very little in the way of modifications to it beyond opening the carton out flat and rolling one end around ... Read More »]]> Some weeks ago, I submitted a photo of unfolded interior of a gallon-sized fishy cracker container and claimed that I would be making an on-camera macro flash diffuser out of it. This would be 365-95, if you’d like to reminisce.

Well, fast forward 57 days and guess where that former fishy-cracker container has been for all this time…

So I decided to spend a couple of hours doing what I said I was going to do, sort of.

5 or 6 hours and ~400 shots later, here we are.

First, I do quite like the light this mod gives off. It’s fairly warm, comes out in a tight, upside-down teardrop shape or in a narrow, open-topped strip, and is fairly well feathered, despite having very little in the way of modifications to it beyond opening the carton out flat and rolling one end around the SB-700 and temporarily fixing it with some gaff tape.

Second, the convertible nature of the mod itself makes me thing that it might be useful for something, somewhere, sometime, but who knows.

Third, the D7000 is incapable of setting separate focus settings for the ML-L3 remote… This means that I ended up having to remove the back-button focus, change to area mode, and cross my fingers that it would focus on my eyes and not my ears (which it decided to do if I was in any way out of center, even at f/8, and I had intended to use the shot for my about.me page, which would require a mostly off-center me to leave room for the about text and links… I’ll have to resort to photoshop after all: thanks, Nikon… though I probably could’ve used single-point af and just tried to make sure my eyes were close to the point I set, though I had very little success with that early on).

So out of ~400 shots, fully 250 were out of focus thanks to the flaky af, which—to be honest—never gave me any problems before, so it’s likely I was just doing something wrong. Another 130 or so had me looking particularly goofy, as I am wont to do in photos. And many of the remaining usable ones captured me in full-on rage mode, or looking rather vacant.

But this one worked, sort of, after I converted it to black and white and cloned out most of the frizzy hairs on the back of my head.

And I think I look rather nice here, even though I’m deep in the throes of I-want-to-smash-the-&%$@$!-camera mode and taking a moment to chuckle at myself for getting so bothered by something of so little consequence, really.

tl;dr: this photo finds me amused at my frustration and trying to deep-breathe my way out of it.

D7000. Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G. ISO100, 1/250th, f/8. SB-700 at full power, fired into a modified (but not yet completed) gallon-sized fishy cracker container.

In case you’re curious, here’s the fishy-cracker light mod in its current state:

The top section can flip up, which cuts the intensity by at least two stops, and adds a tiny bit of ceiling-bounce to the whole operation. I think it’ll be pretty cool when I get it all finally assembled, if I ever get it all finally assembled…

The D7000 was zipped up in the camera bag, and Ivan would’ve run if I’d tried to take it out, but I had the iPhone close at hand, and have found a few new recipes, thanks to the several evenings I spent shooting the same scene over and over again with every possible lens & film combination (no flashes, though, and I may or may not post them for posterity…).

iPhone 4. Hipstamatic App. Watts lens, Blanko Noir film.

As a bonus, please enjoy the 9 best shots I snagged before the brilliant light moved on:

Recipes used:

The last three were provided by Dan Cristea (@konstruktivist on Instagram). Thanks!

“…[C]onsciousness flowed through and around her and into the darkness. She glimpsed the place dimly before her mind blanked itself away from the terror. Without knowing why, her whole being trembled at what she had seen—a region where a wind blew and sparks glared, where rings of light expanded and contracted, where rows of tumescent white shapes flowed over and under and around the lights, driven by darkness and a wind out of nowhere.”^

I don’t think I got there, and I will try again, but I was really excited when this appeared in the viewfinder, and I sort of knew that this—or one of its fraternal siblings—was the one, even though it didn’t quite make it.

Similarly, I read the quote a few nights ago, and knew that my current macro subject—the Collier Kaleidoscope—had the ... Read More »]]> I tried for many hours to capture this:

“…[C]onsciousness flowed through and around her and into the darkness. She glimpsed the place dimly before her mind blanked itself away from the terror. Without knowing why, her whole being trembled at what she had seen—a region where a wind blew and sparks glared, where rings of light expanded and contracted, where rows of tumescent white shapes flowed over and under and around the lights, driven by darkness and a wind out of nowhere.”^

I don’t think I got there, and I will try again, but I was really excited when this appeared in the viewfinder, and I sort of knew that this—or one of its fraternal siblings—was the one, even though it didn’t quite make it.

Similarly, I read the quote a few nights ago, and knew that my current macro subject—the Collier Kaleidoscope—had the potential to reveal the tumescence and flowing and wind out of nowhere, if I could somehow harness my limited skills and make the photograph appear.

Close, but not quite.

D7000. Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 ai, reversed on the Nikon 36-72mm f/3.5 E Series, at 72mm. ISO100, 5 seconds (AP mode), f/2.8 & f/3.5. Rather heavy processing in Aperture, but not particularly overblown, and not as much pixel torturing as I’ve done in the past few days (or as much as I put on the set of pictures that I tried to bend to an HDR version of the quote above, but they didn’t work, and I knew they wouldn’t, but knew this one would).

^Herbert, Frank. Dune. (Radnor, Pennsylvania: Chilton Book Company, 1965; Berkley Medalion Edition, Sixth Printing, 1977), 444.

But, being that I work in an anonymous office park in an anonymous section of an anonymous suburb of an anonymous urban metropolis, there was no one about to shoot, so I shot some cars in the parking lot, and practiced my exposure locking skills.

Boring.

But I kept the camera out and shot a bit on the way home, including this shot of some stationary overpass supports as I sped past.

After some cursing and slamming on brakes and friendly horn beeps and unfriendly hand gestures and the usual sorts of homeward bound holiday-weekend fun, I shot a ... Read More »]]> I snuck out of work a bit early today (actually, there was no need to sneak, and I didn’t particularly, as there were few people left by the time I left), and the early-afternoon light looked just about perfect for some high-contrast street shooting.

But, being that I work in an anonymous office park in an anonymous section of an anonymous suburb of an anonymous urban metropolis, there was no one about to shoot, so I shot some cars in the parking lot, and practiced my exposure locking skills.

Boring.

But I kept the camera out and shot a bit on the way home, including this shot of some stationary overpass supports as I sped past.

After some cursing and slamming on brakes and friendly horn beeps and unfriendly hand gestures and the usual sorts of homeward bound holiday-weekend fun, I shot a bit more, looking to capture a nice bit of Dune that I read last night (fail), but when I got home and loaded all the pictures in—as an aside, I’ve not been loading everything of late, but only those photos that had some chance of making it to 365 greatness or that might make for fun viewing later, and this has cut my import quotient by 60%—this one screamed at me.

So it got some heavy processing in Aperture, and a rather avant grade (for me) 16×9 crop before I realized that the drippy, smeary, splotch on the window was the reflection of my arm and hand and the camera, framed by my light-blue shirt…

Good times.

D7000. 24mm f/2.8 ai. ISO100, 1/15th (AP mode), f/2.8, and absolutely tortured in Aperture.

but I can’t, so I use a camera instead.

Fairly heavy on the post today, James… But I like it, so groovy. I didn’t leave Aperture, but I did pull out some of it’s hidden manipulation features… still nothing you couldn’t do in a darkroom, I don’t think, but far more than I usually do. But, like I said, it matters not.

I have a feeling that this would fairly well represent Paul-Muad’Dib’s becoming the Kwisatz Haderach, but I haven’t gotten to that part yet, so it doesn’t.

D7000. Nikon 36-72mm f/3.5 E Series, reversed, on 100mm extension. ISO100, 1/5th (AP Mode), f/3.5. Heavily processed in Aperture.