Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Bike Chain

Bike Chain

This chain has served me well for quite a while, but I took it off to clean it recently and, since I was thinking about it, I measured the wear. I'm afraid it was time to replace it, so this one has been retired.

Chain, we had some good times.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Domestic

Domestic

Our mop hides behind our vacuum, and both hide behind our pantry door.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Cooling Fan LEDs

Cooling Fan LEDs

The cooling fan atop my computer case has blue LEDs in it; these are the reflections on the underside of my desk.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Onion Tart

Onion Tart

This onion tart came from a recipe from Orangette. It turned out pretty well, though it's a bit sweeter than I like (even though there's no sugar added): I ended up salting my portion rather generously, which I felt improved the flavor quite a bit.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Chaos

Chaos

A friend very recently got me this book, and I look forward to reading it. I've only barely started it, but the cover art is fun: this takes up pretty much the entire cover (no author, no publisher, just the title).

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Night Flags

Night Flags

700 East and Center Street, in a strong wind. I liked how furiously the flags were flapping in the wind.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Pumping Concrete

Pumping Concrete

Concrete pumping trucks were a new concept to me a few months ago. I've seen them quite a bit since then, but I still liked seeing them reaching up and over this partially-completed building.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Bed Shelves

Bed Shelves

I'm finally mostly done with the shelves I built on Saturday! I can still use some more organization, and I'm debating adding some bracing (the shelves are fairly sturdy without it, but do sway a bit), but this is a pretty-much-done shot.

Still to do: add a hook to hang my bike from (probably the top 2x4, toward the foot of the bed). Also, I still need to make the shelves that will go atop the filing cabinet barely in the shot at camera right.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Magnet Toys

Magnet Toys

I got these oval magnetic toys as a small Christmas gift a little while ago. (They spin around each other if you toss them into the air, and they make a fun noise as they come together.)

Also, I promise they're actually in focus (look at the dust on the top one if you don't believe me). The reflections in them, however, are not in focus.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Shelves

Shelves

A close up of the shelves I built today. I'm already enjoying having a place to put things like these! (They're not totally done yet, and I've only barely begun to organize things, which is why there's no pull-back shot.)

Friday, March 18, 2011

Junk Statue Flag Holder

Junk Statue Flag Holder

I ran across this rather intriguing statue/flag holder built out of junk, behind one of the strips of buildings downtown.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Pie Weights

Pie Weights

Ceramic pie weights, to help keep a baked pie crust from bubbling up (they can do that due to air underneath the crust).

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Dusty Rain

Dusty Rain

The spots on my glasses shown here are almost entirely from riding home in a light rain for about five minutes. (The very tiniest specks aren't, but the rest are.) It had just started raining, and apparently there was still a lot of dust in the air...

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Dramatic Reading

Dramatic Reading

I felt like continuing my exploration of color, using only things I already had laying around my room (as opposed to normal gels (colored filters)). For this, I had four layers of a blue plastic bag over the head of one flash, aimed straight up at the ceiling (for the overall blue light), and I was shooting the other flash through a red nylon lunch box (thank you Red Cross!). That killed a lot of light, but I had enough to spare.

(The book is Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings, which I am not actually reading at the moment, but it is one of my favorite books, plus it was heavy enough to stay open.)

Monday, March 14, 2011

Shades of Blue

Shades of Blue

Fun with glue sticks. I was looking for something to take a photo of for today, saw the glue sticks on my desk, and had the idea to shoot through them. Then I had the idea to spice up the light by bouncing it off a bit of colored cardboard I had laying around (packaging from something). Finally, I used some black foam and a black shirt to get the background to go black (with just a little bit of cleanup in post).

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Classic VW

Classic VW

Who said parking garages couldn't be classy?

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Black Widow (not for arachnophobes)

Black Widow

I found this black widow spider in my laundry room. Fun, fun. The management will be getting this photo...

Friday, March 11, 2011

Pi Day

Pi Day

To celebrate Pi Day (a little bit early), I made this lemon meringue pie with a friend. It was her idea to sculpt pi into the meringue on top.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Night Doors

Night Doors

These doors to the Talmage building are probably nothing special, but I liked the feel of the light on them when I walked by tonight.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Oily Reflection

Oily Reflection

I guess this could be used to comment on modern industry and its potential for pollution, or something. I just thought it was a fun combination of elements.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Modern Office

Modern Office

I spotted this office building and liked the very modern look.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Umbrella

Umbrella

It rained today. I wasn't terribly enthused about that. And this was all I could come up with to shoot.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Ornamental Grass

Ornamental Grass

I only got my friends to stop the car for a minute so I could grab a really quick shot, but this was one of my favorites of the day (and I took a lot of fun photos on this trip to see ghost towns).

Friday, March 4, 2011

Watching You

Watching You

My friend's cat wasn't quite sure what to make of me and my camera. But he was generally tolerant.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Rain Spout

Rain Spout

I tried several different lenses to see how well I could blur out the background, and in so doing I realized something I should've realized before: when you use a long lens, you include much less of the background, so it becomes much easier to select only a small portion to be in the photo along with the foreground object. (Just outside of this framing were some other objects and colors that distracted from the rain spout, but I was able to eliminate them by shooting at 200mm, giving a field of view of just over 8°.)

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Sports Wheel

Sports Wheel

I frankly can't remember what car this came from, but I liked the chance to play with the framing.