365.309 late bloomer

I picked up a really tasty loaf of bread in Arkansas, and I’ve been having a couple of pieces of toast for an afternoon snack this week.

I haven’t eaten much bread of late, and I think the sudden addition of these sorts of carbs to my diet has had an effect on my mood, creative thinking, ability to communicate, and a host of other issues.

This explains, partly (I think), my inability to come up with interesting titles the past couple of days, and also why I didn’t think to shoot the Halloween 365 picture with the Zomb-E lens… Ich bin ein dummkopf.

It could also be the return to work and usual life.

It could be a combination of both.

It could also be the continued unspecified craving that continues to linger, though far less intensely than previous days.

Bad news: I don’t think I’ll be able to keep myself from enjoying the yummy toast again tomorrow.

Good news: there’s only enough left for one more snack.

What has this to do with today’s picture? I’m not sure.

D7000. Nikon 75-150mm f/3.5 Zomb-E Series. ISO800, 1/80th (APmode), f/3.5, -1EV. About 3 minutes of slider play, plus a bit of straightening in Aperture.

365.308 Ohne Titel (something appropriately spooky)

I made an HDR version of this, tweaked it heavily in Photoshop, and titled it “HDRifying,” but this one looked better to me: everything lines up better and more graphically.

I tweaked this a bunch, but ended up going with a rather simple cocktail: reduce saturation by 30% or so and pump vibrancy to bring the color back, plus some increased contrast and whatnot.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t come up with a decent title. “HDRifying” is witty and silly and just right. But this isn’t HDRified, didn’t even see the inside of Photoshop, and only got maybe 4 minutes of slider play, so it needs something else.

I thought about maybe continuing on with another part of the mystery story that I made one frame for some weeks ago (365.270), but couldn’t really come up with anything.

Anyways, I like the way the light bounces around the courtyard in the afternoon. I actually went out to shoot some spooky shadows on a neighbor’s window. The picture turned out ok, but I couldn’t get it processed properly, and ended up liking this one better.

Anyway: enough rambling.

D7000. Sigma 30mm f/1.4 (deliberately defocused). ISO100, 1/2000th (AP mode), f/1.4. About 4 minutes of slider play in Aperture.

365.307 wantwantwantwant needneedneedneed

Almost as soon as I pulled out of the driveway to start the 7 hour drive back to TX yesterday, I began to crave cigarettes something.

In Atoka, OK, I bummed a cigarette from a nice lady at a gas station where I stopped to get a bottle of water.

It was nasty, and I stubbed it out after only 2 drags. I thought maybe it was the brand, so I started looking for tobacconists.

Thankfully, I didn’t find any on the drive home, but the craving persisted through the rest of the drive and all evening yesterday. It seemed to lessen after dinner, and I was able to sleep reasonably well, but it was back with a vengeance today.

I have no idea what it is. I took a cigarette from one of the floor installers at the apartments just a little bit ago, and it was also incredibly nasty and only made the craving worse.

I’ve eaten chocolate, cheese, potato chips, and breads; drank water, coffee, and tea; gnawed fingernails; tried to nap; taken a cold shower; danced about the apartment like a fool; all to no avail.

I have no idea what I’m craving, but whatever it is, I wantwantwantwant needneedneedneed it.

Also: built a new macro rig today: found a 55-52 step up tube and used it and some step-down and coupler rings to reverse my Grandfather’s Montgomery Ward-branded 28mm f/2.8 on the end of the Vivitar 70-210mm f/3.5. I’m not sure what the reproduction ratio is, but it’s pretty high, probably close to 4:1.

D7000. Montgomery Ward 28mm f/2.8 (unknown manufacturer), reversed on the Vivitar 70-210mm f/3.5 Series 1 (Kiron). About 8 minutes of slider play to bring out some definition without destroying the softness.

365.306 Golden Hour on an Arkansas Farm (with Bonus Outtake!!!1!)

Well, today was the last day to wake up in the Arkansas mountains for awhile. I woke up early, finished packing, sipped coffee for awhile, said goodbye to Momma, and headed back home just as the sun crested the horizon.

The first hour or so of the drive was beautiful, and I snapped about 150 pictures—out the window, mostly while speeding through the winding mountain roads at largely reckless rates of speed—between Eureka Springs and Clifty.

If I was a different sort of person, I would’ve stopped to shoot the fog burning off of the valleys, or the mist rising off of the rivers.

But I’m James, and once I get started on a drive, I’m loathe to stop.

I thought about it a few times, though.

These two were shot within minutes of one another. The outtake is maybe 1/4 mile west of the 365 picture, and actually came first.

On the one hand, it’s good to be ‘home’ again. On the other hand, I’m back here again, with all that entails.

Rather than go into all that, let’s just enjoy these pictures, shall we?

D7000. Sigma 30mm f/1.4. ISO100, 1/3200th (365 pic)/1/500th (outtake) (both in AP mode), f/1.4, -1EV. Both received about 6 minutes of slider play in Aperture, and the outtake got an extra 10 minutes of cloning out power lines (btw: my favorite thing ever).

365.305 1976 called, it wants its postcard back.

Well, it took me a few thousand tries, but I think I captured the forest, maybe.

And I had plenty of battery power… just popped in the spare today, and still have ~75% charge after over 600 pictures.

And given the volume of shots this trip, it’ll be a bit before I get everything processed. If I find anything worth sharing, don’t worry: I’ll share it.

D7000. Sigma 30mm f/1.4, breath-fogged. ISO100, 1/2000th (AP mode), f/1.6 (finger slip). About 4 minutes of slider play in Aperture.

I’d probably have more to say, but I’m exhausted, and I need to get the last of the packing done so I can rock back home early tomorrow. Woo.

365.304 pretty lazy

So here I am, vacationing in the mountains of NW Arkansas, surrounded by colorful fall foliage, wide varieties of wildlife, and virtually limitless scenery, and I’m submitting a macro flower shot that could’ve been taken pretty much anywhere for the 365 picture?

Yep.

It’s not that I didn’t take any landscape pictures—rather, it’s not that I didn’t tryto make some landscape pictures—in fact, I shot 350+ pictures today, not including the roughly 50 that I deleted before importing, plus another 40 or 50 on the iPhone.

It’s just that I was in no way satisfied with any of the pictures I made, despite Mom walking by and proclaiming the sunrise captures ‘beautiful.’

And this picture is pretty. I like it. I think it would look ok printed fairly large and hanging above a sofa, so it goes up, and the landscape pictures—many of them HDR or pano and not yet manipulated—are nowhere near the sofa-worthy test. 😀

D7000. Vivitar 70-210mm f/3.5 Series 1 (Kiron), in Macro mode. ISO200, 1/80th (APmode), f/3.5, -1 EV. About 8 minutes of slider play in Aperture to really pour some candy on it, if you know what I mean.

365.303 forest for the trees

You know that saying “can’t see the forest for the trees?”

It’s true.

Shooting the forest—or wooded areas in general—is rather difficult: there are all those trees in the way.

There are a few options: shoot overview-type shots, which can be rather uninspiring; capture single elements that transmit the idea of the forest (as in this one), which really doesn’t quite get there either; keep practicing that ‘winding path through the spooky/moody/pretty trees’ picture until you nail it; and there are likely many many more that I’m too sleepy to contemplate just now…

I had this trouble when I was here last year, too, and I have another couple of days to work on it.

In other news, I spent most of the day worrying about my battery charger situation—to recap: I left the battery charger back home, but have a fully charged battery and a mostly charged battery; A full battery will last me about 10 days of general usage, 5 or 6 days if one of those is a 400-shot photowalk; I will be here for two full days, and will likely need to shoot the Monday picture before I get access to the charger again; therefore, I likely have plenty of juice, especially since the iPhone 4 is perfectly suitable…

Good thing about worrying about a battery charger all day: I didn’t shoot much, and so I still have plenty of power…

D7000. Vivitar 70-210mm f/3.5 Series 1 (Kiron) @210mm. ISO200, 1/60th, f/3.5. About 6 minutes of post work in Aperture.