365.358 too stressed

Ok. Adobe rant:

I installed Lightroom last week. I haven’t started using it, but it’s on the computer. Apparently, when I installed and activated it, it deactivated or corrupted CS6, so when I went to make this panorama of the source of my stress, it told me I had 30 days left on my trial.

But that’s not why I’m ranting. I reactivated, and I’ll call and curse out Adobe after the move.

So I made a 9 shot panorama of this pile of most of my stuff—it’s too much stuff—and loaded it into CS6.

After about 15 minutes of careful consideration, it spat out a very long vertical image with the 9 shots pretty much just spaced out top to bottom, as if it didn’t even try.

(If 15 minutes seems a long time to (not) stitch together 9 frames, consider that I’m attempting this on a 15″ macbook pro with a 2.6ghz i7 and 8GB of ram, with mail, iTunes, Chrome, and Aperture running, and maybe you’ll wonder what the effing eff is up like I do.)

So I looked, and realized I only had maybe 1/5th of each frame overlapping, and so maybe CS6 wants more.

(Meanwhile, I was engaged in tearing my desk setup apart: packing up printers and unused storage drives and etc.)

Ok. You want more? Fine.

I shot a 29 frame panorama. It went floor to ceiling.

I loaded 27 of 29 frames into CS6 after examining them in Aperture and finding that I had between 1/3 and 1/2 overlap for every image, top to bottom and left to right.

After 37 minutes, CS6 spat out a long vertical image with about 7 frames clumped together in the center, and the remaining 20 strung out top to bottom.

The neighbors in the apartments across the street probably heard the string of profanity that came from my mouth.

So you get the clump.

I didn’t merge the layers in hopes that the stitch lines would remain, but alas.

I’m (not very) seriously considering offering my license keys to the 9th caller.

For the record, I have made exactly 3 successful panoramas in CS6, vs about 300 in CS5. My process has not changed, and the engine was supposedly better in CS6. Pshaw.

Also: this is why I’m an amateur and not a pro.

D7000. Sigma 30mm f/1.4. ~7 of 27 frames, all shot at ISO800, 1/60th, f/1.4. Unsuccessfully merged in Photoshop CS6, and given about 25 seconds of slider play in Aperture.

365.357 a quick reminder

On the way home today, I remembered that my neighbor promised to bring the key to my apartment back this evening. She’s had it for 2+years, and uses it to look after the cats when I’m away, help herself to snack foods (when she’s not on a health kick), and examine the level of filth in and around my living spaces. I’m thankful for the first, she’s welcome to the second, and the third is plain to see for anyone, so she’s been welcome to the key.

Of course, now that I’m moving away, I’ll need to give the keys back to the landlords at some point, so I told myself to put her key with the other spares.

But wait… what did I do with the other spares?

I know I planned to put them somewhere where I wouldn’t lose them or forget where they were, but where?

They weren’t on the desk.

The weren’t in the camera bag.

They weren’t in the part of the desk box that contained their former drawer mates.

5#!7. What did I do with them?

I looked in the bathroom. I looked in the kitchen, around the coffee pot. I looked at the desk again. I looked in the bag again. I looked in the part of the box where the desk drawer mates are. No luck.

Crap.

I guess I’ll have to unpack and repack stuff until I find them.

(they were in the part of part of the desk box containing items from another drawer, and directly below the part of the box where the spare keys’ former mates are, and it only took an additional ~45 seconds to find them.)

So I dropped them in the camera bag and snapped this picture as a reminder.

The bag is now shouting at me: they’re in here, dummy!

D7000. Sigma 30mm f/1.4. ISO800, 1/60th, f/1.4, pop-up, in TTL mode. About 30 seconds of processing in Aperture.

365.356 work party abstraction

So the annual holiday White Elephant gift exchange happened this afternoon at work, and I had some errands and phone calls to make after work, so I went ahead and shot the 365 with the phone this morning. Ends up, the party got me out of work earlier than expected, the errands took no time, and the phone call was an absolute pleasure.

(Believe it or not, the main phone call was to set up moving internet service from the current place to the future place, and was completely painless! Time Warner have listened to their customers and stepped their game up somewhat in the customer service department, and I should have 1) no interwebs downtime; 2) faster speed; 3) a tiny increase in price for the much faster speed, all of which were completely unexpected! I should go buy a lottery ticket…)

I dropped most of the $10 maximum on wrapping supplies, as my gift for the White Elephant came to me in 2010’s White Elephant… (its third appearance in said gift exchange), and I therefore had the fanciest wrapping in the house. This is some of the plastic foil wrapping sheets that I used in place of tissue paper. It looked so interesting on the desk… it had to be shot, and so it was.

And now I have a few minutes to dust the empty bookshelves before dinner time! GoGo.

iPhone 4. Built-in Camera app, in HDR mode. 4 shots made at different exposure points, and combined/recombined in TrueHDR app, with a very minimal crop in Aperture.

365.355 Trumpets

About 2 months ago, I noticed that the plug end of the cord on my 2 year old Klipsch S4i headphones had split, leaving the wires all exposed.

I took some electrical tape to it and hoped for the best.

The best was about 6 weeks, I guess, because I started noticing a short or something about two weeks ago, and the controls became sporadic. I didn’t think much of it, but then last week the controls on the headset stopped controlling entirely.

So I started researching.

I was happy with the S4i’s, and planned to buy another pair, but thought I’d look around anyway.

I saw the Miles Davis Trumpet headphones from Monster, and was immediately struck by the design. I was further struck by the price ($349, list), but decided to read some reviews anyway…

Last Thursday, I decided to check around for prices, still planning to pick up another set of S4i’s…

I came across $299, $279, $249, all too rich for me, and I had planned a route home that would take me past the Big Electronics Store.

Later that day, I popped on Amazon to look for a gift, and decided to check the price there… $209.

Buy it Now was too easy.

And this was far and away the best sonic purchase I’ve made in my Adult life.

I went from some really good old Shure’s that I’d used with an iPod since 2003 or 4 into the S4i’s, and that was a big step up, for sure.

But the step from S4i’s to the Trumpets is more like a giant leap.

These headphones are flipping amazing: believe. I don’t think I did them justice here, but maybe I came close to capturing the rainbow of aural joy pouring into my cranium about now?

D7000. Vivitar 50mm f/1.8 (Cosina), reversed, on 40mm extension. ISO800, 1/60th, f/1.8. About 40 seconds of slider play in Aperture.

365.354 green growth, 16 December 2012

Is this what climate change looks like? It’s currently 74 degrees fahrenheit, and I’ve been in shorts and flip flops since I woke up this morning, because it was over 50 when I woke up.

For someone that likes it cold, this isn’t quite cutting it, and weather like this worries me.

Anyway, it’s a good thing I spotted this scene this morning, and an even better thing that I stopped what I was doing long enough to grab the camera, because I’m totally sapped of energy and enthusiasm already, and it’s only 3:45p.

D7000. Vivitar 70-210mm f/3.5 Series 1 (Kiron, maybe) @ 105mm. ISO400, 1/20th, f/3.5. About 4 minutes of slider play (some of which I regret, now, and may go back and redo: if so, I’ll post a second version later, but don’t hold your breath) in Aperture.

365.353 a popular post

I’ve been in full out expunging and packing mode all day today, and I lost the last bit of motivation and interest in just about anything about 2 hours ago.

So it’s a good thing I noticed this popular post on the way to Giant Electronics Store, quickly pulled out the phone and grabbed a couple of quick shots before the light changed. (I don’t buy presents for people for the holidays—I give a pile of cash to a charity or two and send cards around instead—and the thought of what a nightmare such a place might be the weekend before the weekend before Christmas never even crossed my mind. Never, that is, until I was in a 50 meter long line to check out with my $12 purchase that I could’ve easily ordered from the interwebs as it wasn’t a particularly urgent purchase, though it was necessary. Thankfully, there was a nice fellow in line behind me, and we had fun joking around about the 64 checkout stations—57 closed/7 operational—and various items for sale and how both of us were in such a line for things we didn’t really need right then (he was shopping for a new television: Giant Electronics Store didn’t have it, so he was picking up a stand for it and about to head to Big Electronics Store to find the one he wanted), and all sorts of other things whilst we hung around in line, so it wasn’t total hell, and I wasn’t swayed by any of the shiny things we crept by, though I was somewhat tempted by the LED flashlights…)

Now for some dinner and relaxing on the sofa. Woo.

iPhone 4. Built-in Camera app. ISO80, 1/511th, f/2.8, all fully automated. About 4 minutes of cropping and slider play and black & white conversion in Aperture.

365.352 a very welcome PITA

Apologies for the sorta halfarsed attempt today. I’m still worn out from activities and frustrations of previous days, and even more so after the hour it took me to travel home after work (vs the 25 or 30 it usually takes).

The delay was due to wet roads, which are something of a novelty around here, especially of late.

So the rain was a gift, indeed, and very welcome, but a huge PITA nonetheless.

Some things are like that, I’ve found.

D7000. Sigma 30mm f/1.4. ISO100, 1/1250th (AP mode), f/1.4. About 45 seconds worth of slider play and a slight crop in Aperture.