365.365 and… Done!

Yep. That’s 365 in a row.

But that’s not what I’m done with… (I’ll keep this up through the end of 2012, at least.)

The new apartment is all put together and ready to be lived in! (Except for the desk, which is, as always, a bit of a mess, what with various receipts that need to be filed and the last five or so things that need to find their space in the new place.)

Hooray!

On to the shooting of this… I started out dirty and unshaven. I took a bunch of pictures from the same vantage point (the front door),^ and with me in various spots, but nothing worked. The two shots that were any good at all came near the end of the first 60 tries, after the battery on the remote release went kaput and I had to switch to self-timer mode and start running back and forth.

I got fed up, went and had a shower, pulled out the SB-700 and umbrella and started trying again, but try as I might, I couldn’t get the glare off both my glasses and the glossy photos on the right of the frame.

So, for a lark, I collapsed the umbrella halfway, and voila!

(I took four more after this, but they all had something going against them: hair was too unkempt; stuff was growing out of my back or my double chin was in full effect. This would’ve been better with me sitting on the sofa, but there’s no minimizing the double chin while reclining on a sofa, not that I’ve found anyway, so I went for the ‘king surveying his kingdom’ pose, which really doesn’t work for my personality much… or maybe it does…  Anyway.)

I was quite pleased with the half-collapsed umbrella, and plan to employ it more going forward.

So. My back is very sore, my brain is a bit fuzzy and I’m in a general state of near-exhaustion from lack of nourishment, but now I can relax and enjoy the rest of 2012, cause the last big project is DONE!

Woo!

D7000. Nikkor 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 G @12mm. ISO800 (leftover from yesterday: dumbass), 1/60th, f/3.8 (wide open at 12mm). SB700, SU-4’d, with its CTO panel in place, at 1/4 power, fired into a silver, half-collapsed umbrella at camera left, and triggered by the pop-up at 1/128th. Minimal post processing to get the colors corrected and bring out the shadows and highlights a bit in Aperture, all in all maybe a minute of post.

^In case you’re interested, the restroom is in that little hallway behind and to the right of me; that’s the bedroom behind. To the right of the green chair, there’s an opening into the dining area/office, and on to the kitchen with a little patio out back.

365.364 Ohne Titel

I was walking back from the first laundry run at the new apartment, looking for 365 possibilities, and I spotted the leaves on the left.

4 shots later, I was done, but for a title…

The heart shape of these leaves calls up some fairly obvious themes, methinks, but my limited imagination couldn’t do anything with it.

I say ‘limited’ largely due to the flurry of activity I’ve been involved in today, and the virtual fog that settled over the brain about an hour and a half ago.

Oh well. It’s a pretty enough picture anyway, and it has some nice compositional bits that sorta make it work for me, and I’m happy with it, so GoGo.

And may I say again how much I love the Vivitar 70-210 Series 1? Have I mentioned it before? This lens is insanely sharp, gives great bokeh, has good color rendition, and just shines all around, and I got it for $40. There’s a reason the first 3 models of this lens are legendary, after all, so I’m merely adding a few words to the chorus.

D7000. Vivitar 70-210mm f/3.5 Series 1 (Kiron, maybe), in Close Focus mode. ISO800, 1/640th (AP mode), f/3.5, -1EV. About 30 seconds of slider play in Aperture.

365.363 I need more practice

This snow stuff is hard to shoot! I need more practice… don’t expect to get much of it, though. This is Texas, after all.

But it’s Christmas Day, and we got what Bing dreamed of, so GoGo.

I shot about 40 shots off the back patio with the 50; swapped to the 30 and went out front for a few shots down the stairs and around the pool; swapped to the Zomb-E for some (failed) macro; and this was the best of a mediocre (at best) shot.

I’m tired of not having any identifiable subjects in my pictures, tired of making abstractions. This will be something I work on in next year’s project(s) what ever it/they is/are.

D7000. Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G. ISO800, 1/1000th (AP mode), f/3.5. About 45 seconds of slider play in Aperture.

365.362 another bad lanscape, this time with Ducks!

Well, at least I got the big camera out today.

I hit a sort of tipping point in the unpacking, and it’s (mostly) all downhill from here. I foresee a completed apartment come this time tomorrow, assuming my health holds.

I’m sore pretty much all over, and am half afraid that I got some sort of bacterial infection from one or another of the 8 bites I received from Ivan in trying to get him into the travel crate a couple of nights ago. Hopefully, though, the dragging arse feeling that I have is just due to dehydration and malnutrition, and hopefully the pedialyte and big effing salad, bowl of fruit, yoghurt and the soon-to-come usual nacho dinner will put me right again.

I’m not really feeling sick, but more feeling hungover, so I hope it’s just exhaustion and not something more serious, and so the unpacking is going a bit slower than it would otherwise.

Oh well.

This little park is just down the road from the new place. I found it when I tracked down a recycling drop-off bin, and took the camera with me in hopes of getting something nice to share.

There was good-enough light on the way there, but it changed about the time I parked and became that hazy afternoon blah that Texas (or Dallas, anyway) is so known for. Had I had a longer lens on me, I would’ve likely scored a better picture of the ducks, but I doubt I would’ve had the strength to hold it up…

If I was feeling better, I’d make another attempt today. Alas. I’m exhausted and feeling a bit beat down, so this will have to suffice.

D7000. Sigma 30mm f/1.4. ISO100, 1/8000th (AP mode), f/1.4, -1EV. About 90 seconds of slider play and a fairly radical crop in Aperture.

365.361 a state of utter disarray

Well, I made some progress today—got the last 2 loads of small things out of the old apartment and into the new; set up the entertainment center*; got the kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom in (mostly) good shape; and had a 3 hour nap (the cats played Marco Polo from 9pm to 1am, and I got maybe 4 hours of rest); and am now just about to cook the first meal of the day.

I’ve not been kind to myself today, and it’s catching up with me. Yuck.

So all that remains is the daunting task of rebuilding the bookshelves; shelving the books; hanging the art; taking out the recycling; and finding places for the rest of the detritus and the nicknacks; and getting the cats used to the new place.

Fingers crossed that I get some rest tonight. If the cats start up again, I might be getting it on the sofa.

iPhone 4. Hipstamatic app: Tinto 1884 lens; D-Type plate. No post processing.

*I’m going to use the 24″ monitor with the old 13″ lappy, add some external hd’s (when I get new ones for the main work machine, this one) for media storage and a record player, control the whole thing from wireless keyboard/mouse, and stop having a desk for the focal point of the entire living area: this apartment will have zones for work, for reading, for lounging and chatting, for eating, rather than just one area with a sofa and a cluttered desk.

365.360 all I really wanna do-oo

Well. Today was Moving day! Yay!

I’m worn out—and have been since about 11am, and if not then, then certainly by 1pm—and have really only one thing on my mind, and it’s not whatever Bob Dylan was singing about in whatever song that was…

I need rest. And then I need protein, vitamins, and salt.

When I was driving the truck back to the rental place, I caught my reflection in something or other… no, I reached up to scratch my forehead, and found salt crusted all over my forehead.

I think this is a sign of dehydration, maybe. Maybe. But I certainly feel dehydrated, and my lazy ways caught up to me today. Jeez. The buddy that helped me (1 of 2, which made things 2/3rds harder (1/3rd for each me and and a second 1/3rd for the one who showed), and made the whole thing take 1/3rd longer, or are my maths off?) worked about twice as hard as I did: he rides skateboards and walks most everywhere he goes. But I paid him well for it (gave him 90% of what I was going to whack up with the both of them, so everyone came out ahead: GoGo), and he looked at me funny every time I apologized for being so weak, stamina and fitness wise.

I did leave the broom at the truck rental place, and I did break the really awesome coffee cup that my step-niece and nephew gave me for Christmas some years ago. (It remains to be seen what else I broke…) That second one is really a shame… I loved that coffee cup, and it was the only one I use. I’ll have to use the travel mug until I find a suitable replacement…

Anyways, I’m phoning this one in. Apologies.

iPhone 4. Hipstamatic app, Tinto 1884 lens, D-Type film. No post processing. Make no mistake, this is not a good photo. I like the effect, and will play around to see if I can make some good pictures with it, but I really just want to lay down.

I should shower first, though…

Also: I’m in no way mad at the buddy who didn’t show. I’m a bit bothered, perhaps, but harbor no ill will, and sometimes wish I was the sort of person who could flake like that. I’m to serious much of the time, I think. Of course, now I’m just getting punchy…

Goodnight.

365.359 the solstice sky

Well, in some sense, the world is going to end today…

This is likely the last time I’ll take a picture of this particular sky.

I’m moving tomorrow! Just across town, but still a different sky.

And in the Heracleitian sense, the sky is never the same twice, as the clouds and winds and all the stuff that fills what we call ‘sky’ is constantly in motion, but I didn’t mean to open that particular can today.

My luck continues to hold… earlier today, the truck-rental place called to let me know that the truck I reserved 2 weeks ago wouldn’t be ready until some time tomorrow afternoon. I insisted that this was wholly unacceptable, and immediately cancelled my reservation.

30 minutes later, after much scrambling to set up other options (at which I had mostly succeeded, though in a very non-optimal manner), the nice lady called back and told me a magic truck had fallen from the sky and magically landed in their back parking lot, and that they could keep my reservation after all.

I should go buy a lottery ticket.

D7000. Sigma 30mm f/1.4. ISO125, 1/8000th (AP mode), f/1.4, -1EV. About 1 minute of slider play in Aperture.