365.178 oolala oo-laalalala oolala oo-laalalala laaa

Believe it or not, this wasn’t manipulated much. Sure, I pushed the saturation and blacks a bit, but most of the color here comes thanks to some man-made and in-camera trickery.

Lighting provided by overhead incandescent, hard led, and diffused sunlight, which led to the orange in the left half, the hard white and blue in the right third, and the green along the bottom.

And three in-camera exposures, each with slightly different focus points added the softness and lovely bokeh (though the Zomb-E series is no slouch in that department…).

And the title? Well, I’ll give you a hint: it’s the brilliantly tongue-in-cheek backing track to a cheerful, orchestrated, and repetitively saccharine Rolling Stones song from 1967, though I’m not quite sure I spelled it properly…

D7000. Nikon 75-150mm f/3.5 Zomb-E Series, extended by 100mm. In-camera triple exposure, each at ISO100, 1.3 seconds, f/4, with slightly different focus points for each. Moderate post-processing in Aperture.

365.177 like a Pipsta

Pip is a happy little pug who really doesn’t much like these particular biscuits, but she’s not about to let Puck have it, and so she carries it around for awhile and only eats it to spite Puck…

I think Pip looks quite gangster, here. Sort of a Pugsy Siegel, perhaps, though that’s a bit too punny even for me. But definitely like a Godfather like character, with whom you wouldn’t want to mess.

In reality, she’s quite sweet, if a bit insistent.

A neighbor buddy brought her by, thinking I might like to make a picture or two, and she was right! So thanks go to Erika, for sure!

D7000. Sigma 30mm f/1.4. ISO100, 1/160th (AP mode), f/1.4, -2EV. Minimal processing in Aperture.

365.176 some kind of spinning away

This is much more garish on the interwebs than it appears in Aperture. Apologies.

I may have mentioned this before, but I spend quite a bit of time on Google Street View at work, verifying business existence (at the time the GSV passed, at the very least), and keeping an eye out for interesting sights.

Like this.

I’m not quite sure what was going on with the cameras here, but it sure was groovy looking, like Warp Speed Mr. Sulu, or something. But whatever it is, the traffic is taking off!

And I’m glad it was, because I’m running a bit behind today, so it’s good that I made this picture earlier, since I’m whipped and really don’t feel up to shooting this evening.

I used 645Pro so I could get a tiff file with as much information as possible, and then played around in Topaz Labs DeNoise and Adjust 5, and Aperture, of course.

GSV and iPhone 4 with Jag.gr 645 PRO, on Night Mode. ISO100, 1/15th, f/2.8 (all picked by the app, of course). Absolutely crushed in post, and titled after, yes, Brian Eno and John Cale’s Spinning Away.

365.175 A Tipping Point

At first, I saw this as something disintegrating.
Then it appeared as a strange tide rolling in.
Then as coagulation or agglomeration.
And yet again as rushing and crushing.

Insofar as this picture looks like all of these, I think maybe it’s a tipping point, ready to go either way.

In other news, I discovered that the Collier Kaleidoscope has sprung a leak. I am somewhat saddened by this, as I’ll have to dispose of the source of 20 or so images for this project, and find a new muse.

D7000. Sigma 30mm f/1.4, reversed, and stacked on 100mm extension. ISO100, 1/25th, f/1.4. Moderate processing in Aperture.

365.174 Almost

Almost sunrise.
Almost everyone is still asleep.
Almost looks like rain, if you didn’t know better.
Almost got run over by someone who thought they were running late.
Almost got everything lined up.
Almost patient enough to wait out the fast-moving clouds.
Almost observant enough to line up the various markings better (especially the arrows).
Almost had to flip over into manual.
Almost dropped the camera (twice).
Almost got a shot I was completely happy with.

But not quite.

D7000. Sigma 30mm f/1.4. ISO1600, 1/25th (AP Mode), f/2.8. Minimal processing in Aperture, and a trip through Topaz Labs DeNoise 5.

365.173 Under the Gun

I had fun making this, but a heckuva time getting it uploaded and edited, and I’m not particularly pleased with the results so we’ll be trying again on the morrow, perhaps.

So I plugged the SD card into the new mbp, and after a few seconds, Aperture opened and offered to import the pictures for me. Thanks!

I switched the library over to referenced yesterday, and also forgot to set up my import name change scheme (or my export name scheme…), so I set that up and then imported to the referenced library.

Aperture claimed success, and so I went to start editing pictures.

FAIL. Unsupported file type. The RAW adjustments were created with a different version of Aperture, and can not be opened. Do you want to reprocess? Yes. FAIL. Unsupported file type.

I tried another picture, then another, then another. Same thing every time.

So I deleted them all, and imported again. Same thing.

Pictures made yesterday: same.

Pictures made last year: same.

%$@&6

Ok. Don’t panic.

I ejected the card, and pulled it from the computer. But the icon remained on the desktop.

Great.

Restart.

FAIL. Hard Reboot.

Wait 30 seconds…

Start. Wait 2 minutes while the 5400rpm drive spins up and gets its $#!7 together.

All applications greyed out. Mouse clicks unrecognized. Keyboard taps unrecognized.

$^%@ &^$)#

Ok. Hard reboot, and wait 5 minutes, then start up, wait 25 minutes while Spotlight re-scans everything before I can do anything with the computer (and this is a quad core machine…).

Start Aperture and check files. Everything seems to be in order, but it can’t find my last import… Ok, so I import the pics again. Success!

Please believe there will be some serious system checking going on very shortly, and maybe a trip to the “Genius” Bar in my future. Hooray.

D7000. Sigma 30mm f/1.4. ISO100, 3 seconds, f/8. Some cropping and mild manipulation in aperture.