Month: February 2007

Photography

The Occasional Lake

Shelly

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Behind my apartment is a low lying area that tends to flood whenever it rains. Which it has been doing all day. On top of all the snow that is, of course, melting. Our occasional lake has grown quite girthy. The layer of ice beneath the water makes it even more reflective than just plain water.

All this rain and the warmer temperature meant pea soup fog on the way home. That was kind of exciting. Everything was clear until I crossed the bypass and started out Hwy 45. Then, I hit a bank of fog and got a little disoriented. The road is a bit twisty and hilly in spots, which increased the excitement factor. Wheee!

Of course, I had to go outside and take pictures when I got home. The image at right is of trees reflected in the Occasional Lake. I increased the contrast and darkened it a bit in Photoshop, then flipped it upside down and cropped out everything but the trees.

Addendum: Oh my. The ghostly “face” that you (may or may not) see is not real. It’s just an optical illusion called pareidolia.

Art, Crankypantsing, Doodles, Meta

A New Doodle

Shelly

Stonehenge Journal: Doodle
Doodle
gel pen on 90lb Stonehenge paper
5 5/8 x 5 5/8 inches

I tried uploading this file to Flickr, and boy was that ever an adventure! Apparently, though I had to dig to find the information, they had a brain hemorrhage yesterday. Everyone’s photos are all kinds of jumbled up. What fun! I didn’t have any trouble uploading the file, but when I tried to add it to a set, I saw that there were other people’s images intermingled with mine. When I clicked on them, I was either taken to the correct photo or to yet another incorrect photo.

I thought someone had hacked into my account, but I thought I’d check the main page for information, just in case there was something wrong on their end. Bupkis. I checked the Flickr blog. Bupkis. I had to go to their “help via e-mail” page, which directed me to a discussion about the problem. According to Flickr’s official statement, the problem should have been resolved Saturday. Yeah, right. Their advice was to clear your browser cache, and all would magically be restored to its natural order. Uh-huh. Go on, pull the other one. Anyway, the first thing I did was clear my browser cache, ya’ assberets. And then I tried IE, Opera, and Netscape. And then, Flickr implodiated completely.

Oh, and now I see that they’ve finally decided to post about the problem on the Flickr blog. Heckuva job, guys.

Uncategorized

Collecting People

Shelly

My mom collects interesting and odd people. Years ago, Marilyn and Larry, an older, mentally disabled couple, started periodically dropping by her house to ask for a dollar or two for cigarette money. Or, as Marilyn says, “cigarex.” My mom usually gave them a little money, and would offer them coffee, make them an egg and toast, and let them use her telephone. This went on for years, with Marilyn and Larry showing up on the doorstep every month or so. Then, a few years ago, they stopped coming by altogether.

Well, I just got off the phone with my brother. While I was talking to him, he said someone was pounding on the door. As he put down the phone to answer it, I said, “Ha! I bet it’s Marilyn and Larry!” And it was! I gather, from the bit of the conversation I was able to overhear, that they’d moved out of the neighborhood, but are back now.

I’m not sure what’s up with Larry, besides the fact that he’s a little slow–mentally and physically. Marilyn once told my mom that she used to be smart, but that when she was a child she nearly drowned, and she’s not been right ever since. That always struck me as especially sad, to be aware that your mind was once able to do things that it can’t do now.

Photography

Look at the Bones…!

Shelly

I’m running out of old yard sale junk, and will need to buy some real, live stretcher bars soon. But, for now, I have a tacky woodworking project. Not mine, but something I picked up at a flea market. If the writing on the rear panel is to be believed, Pam Wheeling received a B+ for her masterpiece. I feel kind of bad about ruining something someone obviously spent hours creating, but it’s just too dreadful to salvage. It’s screaming out for a new life, I think.

But for now, look at the bones…!

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Jar of Cicada Shells, grey Holga SSFS filter

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Box Turtle Skeleton, grey Holga SSFS filter

I’m happy that I had the presence of mind to put my drafting table right under a (south facing!) window. Aside from providing the cat with a place to bask, the light there is great for taking photos. Flash ruins most pictures, so I really appreciate not having to use it. On cloudy days, all I have to do is open the blinds. On sunny days, like today, there’s plenty of light even with the blinds closed.

Pets, Photography

Sunday Dogblogging with Holga

Shelly

I spent a little bit of time this morning, playing with the filter set I bought. I only had a chance to try a couple of the colored soft focus filters, but already, I can tell that they are going to be lots of fun.

And, as always, Miss Brown is a patient model.

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Yellow Holga SSFS filter (mostly desaturated)

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Red Holga SSFS filter

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Yellow Holga SSFS filter (desaturated)

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Yellow Holga SSFS filter

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Yellow Holga SSFS filter

Photography

I learned something today, Kyle…

Shelly

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My package was, indeed, waiting on my doorstep yesterday when I got home. It contained a Sharan pinhole camera kit and a set of Holga filters for my digital camera. Yay! And, today, my Holga and the two AWOL books arrived.

I’m not a very good model builder. I just don’t have the spacial sense for puzzles. However, the pinhole kit had very thorough, easy to follow instructions with lots of diagrams. It took me about two hours to put it together, which I thought was pretty good, considering I suck a that sort of thing. If you ever buy a pinhole camera kit, I recommend a black Faber-Castell Pitt brush tip pen to darken the raw edges. It works much better than a Sharpie.

I was spectacularly lazy today–seriously, the only things I did besides read and watch teevee were to cook lunch and empty the dishwasher–so I haven’t had a chance to try out any of my new toys. BUT! I did stumble across something cool while I was putting the pinhole camera together. I held the little plastic sheet with the actual pinhole up to one eye, closed my other eye, then looked into the light. Oh my! When you do that, you can actually see the striations in your iris and even the tiny floaters that move across your pupil. It’s very, very cool. And, it works with any pinhole, so poke a tiny hole in a piece of card stock and give it a try. Go on! Do it!

That’s it for today. I promise that there’ll be art tomorrow, even if it kills me.

Photography

Indoor Outdoor Photos

Shelly

A few, final ice photos, taken this afternoon and evening:

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The top two were taken from my patio, and the rest were taken from the 3rd floor of the main campus library, overlooking the parking lot and Jordan Ave. I almost didn’t try to take any of the indoor-outdoor photos, thinking the window glass would muck them up. I’m glad I did, though, because I love the way the architecture frames the images.

Art, Paintings

Little Boat

Shelly

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Little Boat
acrylic on canvas with collage, buttons, beads, and cotton thread
24 x 24 inches

This is yet another bad photo of the (I think) finished painting. I’ll try to remember to get a better shot of it this weekend, when the light will hopefully be better. I ended up using flash, which does very unkind things to artwork. Well, flash is just unkind in general. It also doesn’t help that I had to take the photo from an angle, to avoid the worst of the flash glare. I unskewed everything in Photoshop, but that’s not a very good solution. Much better to try to take a square(ish) photo from the start!

And, now, I’m going to get off the computer and try to warm up.

Photography

Ice: Epilogue

Shelly

We lost power yesterday afternoon at about 3:00. It was out for just over 24 hours.

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Do you have any idea how cold it can get in 24 hours, with no heat? Yikes! Sleeping last night wasn’t so bad, because Harriet stayed tucked under the covers with me, and she’s a very good hot water bottle. Getting up this morning was kind of awful, though. I was actually looking forward to going to work, where it would be warm, but the university was closed until noon. Hrmf! Come to find out, the library was actually partially open, and I could have gone in and hung out in the cafeteria. Because in addition to no heat, there was no cooking.

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Thankfully, power came back on at about 4pm, or Miss Brown and I would have had to stay in a hotel tonight. It’s still c-c-c-cold in here, even though the heat’s been on for a couple of hours. I’m not sure I’ll ever warm back up again.

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This morning and afternoon, I decided to go out and take pictures. It was gorgeous outside, with all the trees and shrubs looking like crystal-encrusted chandeliers. I figured, since it was as cold outside as inside, I may as well have something to show for freezing my ever-loving butt off.

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The Bosslady waiting for me to come back inside.