And the capstone

I'm not going to lie... I did the border treatment because I screwed up and didn't level the image in the viewfinder while I was taking this picture. Whatever.

This is the 156th three-a-week image, which means I successfully completed my goal from January 2. That time has seen me acquire these three lenses, the 25mm extension tube (not pictured or involved in this picture), and the off-camera flash cabling I needed to do the light this way. I took 5464 pictures between the first and last in this series. Not all of the pictures I've labeled three-a-week were technical masterpieces; most of them were little more than snapshots of things I found amusing. The important thing is that I ended up using my camera during the year, especially at times I might not have thought to otherwise.

I have yet to select a goal for next year, but I doubt it will be as formal as this year's resolution. I also doubt I'll need the formality - I seem to have gotten into a habit of taking more pictures regardless of my intent to post them online, and I actually haven't had a picture printed in quite some time. Maybe that should be a goal as well, regardless of what I set up for myself as far as tripping the shutter.

My walls are pretty barren, after all.

I guess, though, that's half the draw to working with digital anyway; I'm no longer bound by the delay, so I choose not to incorporate it at all. I do miss the experience, though, and I'm really looking forward to popping the 43 onto my MX and killing a couple rolls of black and white or color slide film with that.

He waits.

Sure is my cat. Thanks, new tripod and 50/4 macro!

Buck Rogers

This was in the space toys case at the Dulles thing. I liked it, but if you look real close at the way the picture looks, it almost has a film air about it. Shot in raw, for the record.

Nonproductivity

Sorry about the cat again... I tried to get out and take pictures downtown, but nobody else wanted to take the metro in Saturday night. Oh well.

waaah

The sunset today was shaping up to be really nice... until a large cloud developed for about 20 percent of the sky arc in the west. Boo. It was going to mean a quick side trip to Centennial to try to get a picture of nice red or orange clouds over the lake.

Instead, I came home to find my cat yelling about how I was home. Fine by me, of course, just a little harder to justify photographing.

Yardkitty

Jeff said it was chasing doves through the common area behind the house. I don't think that shot turned out very bad, considering that it was through glass with my 135 wide open (f3.5).

Here's a crop of the bird (unprocessed):

kitteh

He's too motion blur, but whatever. I needed a picture to even out the count, and he was being adorable, and I really like using my 24mm lens.

on Unattainable Goals

There's a Verizon Wireless building we drive past every day on the way to work... each year, at Christmas time, they deck the top side of the building with a pair of wreathes that are lighted and blinky. They're spaced out toward the ends of the building... and below them, in the center, is a cell antenna.

Two eyes and a mouth.

It looks like a giant robot surveying the road. I've speculated it would be fun to get a picture of it at sunset, with a red sky behind it while its eyes are aglow. Unfortunately, their parking lot is gated, which means there will be no good opportunity to take a picture of the building as such. The depression is further compounded by the fact that the only way I'm even going to be able to show you is by doing a shot from the car on the way in during a morning commute.

Oh well.

Holiday oddness

I'm not sure what's most different about this winter:

--Two days of work beyond the end of finals before the school closes
--Two days off after Christmas week
--Not having to go anywhere to see family for the first time in 8 years

I feel kind of weird about it, that's for sure.

Oh, that and spending three days at the zoo the weekend before New Year's...

Petparty

That's my cat, Spencer. He and the dog are best friends, as is evidenced by my cat's willingness to clean the dog's right rear leg.

Fanboy

I had to put away the little stack of accessory boxes on my desk, so I figured while I was at it, I might as well photograph all of the Pentax stuff I've bought since I turned 23.

Fanboy much?

Chibi Snowman

Portrait of Swedish Crap

Repair phase

Well, so to speak, anyway. I wasn't productive tonight photographically like I had hoped, but I did fix my nice bass earlier, then i played it for over an hour. Both of my hands even still work!

I figured out both why it was so quiet and why it was so hard to play - the strings were twice as far away from the neck at the 24th fret (second octave) as they are on my other bass. I had to let out a lot of neck tension, too - the neck was way too straight and needed relief. Basically, inverse squares being what they are, the output was a quarter as strong as it should have been, and it was taking twice a normal amount of effort at almost all frets to depress the string.

Second, as previously discussed here and here, I repaired my amplifier. This time, for real.

Want to know what the culprit really was?

Input jack was loose.

The moment I tightened that up, the horrible noises went away. I noticed this was a problem because as I was moving around while tethered to it, the sound would kick up again. "Hmm," I thought, and went over and felt the moving part. Ding! All better.

If not one artistic pursuit, then another.