Basking

Project 365

Project 365 = one photo a day.

Why do it? Because if you want to get better at something, a really good way to do that is to practice every day. That's it.

So far I haven't missed a day of shooting, although I am a couple of days behind in converting the RAW files and many days behind in posting the final photos to Flickr. [Still having motherboard issues with the Mac, which is not always ready when I am. Really frustrating.]

The photo above (Day 12 - Frozen) is my favorite so far. Several of them have surprised me, where I've been able to make something out of very little. A few didn't pan out that well. But that's how the individual days go. Some turn out better than you expect and other days are utterly forgettable.

Trio

Happy Friday, everyone.

Color Me Confused

I've had to give myself a crash course in color management for digital photography. Since I got the fancy new camera, I decided to take advantage of shooting in RAW format. I won't bore you with the technical details of why the RAW format is better. You can google it if you are curious. Anyway, the RAW images are "processed", the digital version of developing film, and then the results are saved into other formats. Things were going pretty well at first. Got some good images, prettied them up in the camera software, then finished them in Photoshop Elements. Everything looked great at the time. However, all of this was done on the desktop Mac, and Macs have had built-in color management for a long time. So imagine my horror when I looked at my Flickr photostream on a PC - and the images that looked so wonderful on the Mac were garishly oversaturated on the Windows browsers. And looked like they were taken with a magenta filter. Crap!

After several days of painful research and experimentation, I finally have a workflow that keeps the images looking roughly the same on all platforms. I now know way more than I wanted to know about ICC profiles, monitor calibration, color spaces, gamut, embedded color profiles, LCD monitor characteristics, gamma, color temperature, and so on. I also learned that all of my discoveries on this matter are just the tip of the iceberg. It would take years to get good at this. A lot of years. So hopefully I know just enough. No more pink and orange cats. Unless they were born that way.

The Moxy photo below is one of the photos I had to correct. Mac users will see no difference, but PC users should now see a photo with far more realistic colors.

Super Extra Bonus Holiday Catblogging

Just because.

CatBlogging 2.0 for 2010

Getting a late start. Got a new DSLR camera for Christmas, but having lots of hardware trouble with the Mac, which is what I use to "process" digital photos. But enough is enough. Bare bones version here. Friday CatBlogging is back, baby. And Zima deserves to headline this sucker. She's the oldest and puts up with the most crap.

Seasonal Vegetables?

It is January. Deep in the dead of winter last I checked. But did my local grocery store have any butternut squash - a winter vegetable?

No. No, they did not.

But they had watermelon. Wha?

I had to drive to Tucker to get the winter squash. And took two of the last sad three. Not really in the mood for watermelon... doesn't make good soup.

Heartburn

We eat tremendously spicy home cooked meals almost every night without any ill effects at all, but one carton of fast food fries slays me. *sigh*

No snow required

We southerners don't need any actual snow to have a "snow event". Like today. They started canceling flights, classes, and other events at the mere threat of snow. Half an inch, to be exact. But of course they never cancel anything where I work. I'll have to brave the mass freakoutery of Atlanta traffic on an icy morning and hope for the best.

Disappointed doesn't even begin to cover it.

What is with Georgia Tech and bowl games?!?

It is nearly midnight. I've got a wine/beer buzz that is sure to cause problems tomorrow morning and NOTHING TO SHOW FOR IT. Why can't my team win a frelling bowl game? Ever? I can't remember the last time that happened. Hell, we cannot even win a damn basketball game against an inferior opponent.

In the next few weeks all of our promising juniors will announce that they are going pro. Guaran-damn-teed. We'll be left with a 'rebuilding year'. Yup.

Damn, damn, damn.

I should be used to being disappointed, but somehow it still smarts.

Comically ill-fitting pants

One of the reasons that I don't enjoy shopping is because it is such an effort to find something I like. And when it comes to clothing, what I like is stuff that fits. The worse culprits are pants. [Bras are a close second, but I will spare you that particular rant.] I am a fairly small person with normal proportions -- about 5'4" and 125 pounds give or take. For some reason I cannot find a single pair of pants for work that comes remotely close to fitting right. For starters, all the pants are pretty much the same style (and in the same 3-4 colors). And it just doesn't work for me. I'm not sure exactly who looks good in wide-legged pants with a low-rise waist and huge waist band, but I know it ain't me. And I probably wouldn't look good in that style even if they weren't too tight or too loose (or both at once, in different spots) or too long or too short. I think I'm going to have to wait for the fashion pendulum to swing some other way. Maybe switch to skirts for the duration, or try to get away with wearing colored jeans. I just know I'm done with spending any more time in dressing rooms laughing at my reflection wearing comically ill-fitting pants. That is no fun at all.

Another One Bites the Dust

It is Friday night. Once again we find ourselves with nowhere in particular to go. After our little version of Cheers closed in 2008, it took a while, but we finally settled in to another Friday night haunt. Quite a few of the regulars from the old pub started showing up there, and one of the bartenders as well. The old familiar pattern was back.

It didn't last long.

The new place changed ownership a few months ago and by late fall the handwriting was on the wall. The last few Friday nights we were there, the place was nearly empty and they had nothing but Bud on tap. Our bartender friend showed up for her shift last week and found the doors locked.

Not really sure what we'll do in 2010. Some friends opened a pub recently, but it is not the easy drive we prefer and it's a smoking bar. Plus, we'd hate for our bad mojo to kill their pub and ruin their investment. The New Year is the traditional time for making resolutions and changes. Looks like we'll be making at least one change, ready or not.