Time to Rehash

Before & After

2010-08-01T09:52:00.002-06:00

Microwave in, finally done stripping & finishing old cabinet interiors - still some liners to cut but things basically 'look' finished.

The New Doors

2010-06-10T17:30:00.001-06:00

Now we pretty much have to just sit and wait for countertop.

Refacing & New Cabinets - Days 1 & 3

2010-06-09T18:30:00.002-06:00

Next phase is underway. Countertop and sink are gone, cabinets being reborn.

Kitchen Progress So far...

2010-05-20T05:47:00.002-06:00

First sequence of shots for the kitchen re-do:

1) The 'Before' picture

2) After moving the fridge & putting in new range

3) New lights, new outlets in progress

Mira's Latest

2010-03-19T22:41:00.001-06:00

Day at the Dog Park

2010-02-27T16:39:00.002-06:00

We met Sparky's doppelganger today. Can you tell which is the real Sparky?

Flute Practice

2010-01-02T08:32:00.002-06:00

One of the last photos I took with my Yashica medium-format camera before the shutter mechanism broke. :-(

Mira's Latest

2009-12-25T16:49:00.003-06:00

So Mira got some manga-pens and colors kit for Christmas and already this morning sketched these up -

Today's Project

2009-12-20T19:31:00.002-06:00

We built a gingerbread house. :-)

Band Concert

2009-12-17T07:10:00.003-06:00

Mira's Latest Art Project!

2009-12-05T16:45:00.002-06:00

She just brought it home from her art class today, watercolor. Last one this year (there are maybe 2 or 3 finished per year, it's a tough class)

Solar Halo over St. Paul

2009-12-05T16:44:00.003-06:00

I took this shot about a year ago actually. Just got developed today.

Christmas Tree

2009-12-05T16:43:00.001-06:00

Thanksgiving 2009

2009-11-27T09:49:00.002-06:00

We have the men in the living room & the women in the kitchen -- yup, it's Thanksgiving!

Pages from Mira's Sketchbook II

2009-11-21T03:02:00.003-06:00

This scene is from the cover of 'The Girl Who Leapt Through Time' -- she was drawing the whole time we were watching the movie, though I didn't know at the time what she was sketching.

Pages from Mira's Sketchbook

2009-11-21T03:00:00.002-06:00

Halloween!

2009-10-31T23:01:00.005-06:00

A Day at Afton State Park

2009-10-19T06:48:00.002-06:00

We went walking for hours yesterday at Afton on the St. Croix River, to savor the warm weather while it lasts.

Fall Colors in the yard

2009-10-17T21:14:00.003-06:00

It's that time of year. Majority of the trees don't seem to have turned, or have already dropped -- it seems really uneven -- but the big tree by the driveway only looks like this for about a day so I wanted to catch it.

Time Lapse

2009-10-12T08:57:00.002-06:00

This morning just before school Mirs was standing in just the right spot for me to snap an update to an old photo sequence I'd nearly forgotten about. Hard to believe this is the same kid.

Another foggy sunrise

2009-10-05T22:07:00.012-06:00

I know, I'm a sucker for sun and fog. This was at Lake Como a few weeks ago.

in Concert!

2009-10-03T23:21:00.004-06:00

So today Mira had her first outdoor concert at the fall festival in St. Anthony Park, about 2 blocks up the hill from her school and about a block down the hill from where I work. It wasn't terribly pleasant weather for it, about 50 degrees and raining, so she was really feeling the cold metal of the flute.

Sports & Pain

2009-09-27T06:34:00.004-06:00

My shoulder hurts. I messed it up swinging a bat for the first time in about 25 years. A few nights ago played softball after work over at Midway Stadium with bank folks and chamber of commerce folks and it was a lot of fun, but wow this doesn't feel anything like when I was 18.

The oddly ironic thing is, while my body doesn't put up as well with all the hard throwing, swinging, sliding, etc... I seem to be better at it now than when I was a teenager. Maybe it just helps not to be at that 'awkward age' anymore. Maybe it's just easier and more fun when you're not all self-conscious and don't really care that much how you do.

Mira's back in her swim classes again on Thursdays. Yesterday the three of us played tennis again for the first time in a while and Mira and I both did a little bike riding later. The robot lady on the Wii continues to push Kris through her workouts and I'm still managing to run 2 or 3 times a week.

Facebook is a strange and scary thing

2009-09-26T21:54:00.003-06:00

Under the heading of 'everybody else is doing it' I checked out Facebook. When you first log into it, it suggests links to others on facebook you might be friends with. It's creepy what it comes up with -- how did it ever know that I ever KNEW these people? The ones it comes up with basically fall into these categories:

1) Actual friend

2) Former friends you've lost touch with

3) Casual Acquaintances

4) Former Enemies

5) Creepy people you've never actually met, but know of them and have made it a point to avoid

6) People whose names sound vaguely familiar but you can't figure out why

7) People you swear you've never heard of

State Fair

2009-09-25T16:40:00.002-06:00

Some shots from the State Fair a few weeks ago that I just got around to putting up. Top is inside the Space Tower as we were going up (fisheye is the only way to take a picture in there but it does look weird) and then blown glass and a quilt in the arts & crafts building.

Big and Bad

2009-09-19T17:41:00.002-06:00

Kris found this fellow on the back steps today. Big ol' spider, but very well behaved and poses nicely for photos. Saw a few woolly bear caterpillars today too.

Burnout

2009-09-13T15:40:00.005-06:00

So we did the Saint Paul Bike Classic today. The 30-mile Grand Round tour -- Kris and Mira were going to do the smaller 15-mile loop, but at the last minute Mirs decided she wanted to try the big one. She made it a full 26 miles with a smile on her face, when the route came within several blocks of our house and she and Kris took the short cut home. That was quite amazing for an 11-year old I thought, and it was a full 11 miles further than she'd ever ridden before. It's also a fun way to see the city.

The morning was nice but man it got HOT towards the end. And an annoying thing, they ran out of T-shirts. After Susie, Sal & I hit the finish, I ended up biking up and down Marshall Avenue a couple of times before remembering that I should be looking for the gold car not the blue car, and then went home and crashed on the couch.

We haven't done a lot else today.

Sunrise over Eagle Valley

2009-09-07T17:21:00.004-06:00

More shots from back home on the farm. :-) The top one has an almost unreal, painting-like quality about it -- it's an extreme wide-angle shot encompassing most of the valley. The other two are low-power telephoto.

Fog over Eagle Valley

2009-09-07T13:28:00.003-06:00

From this weekend visiting with Mom and the Kirschners. This is home, where I was raised. We tend to romanticize our past and I sometimes wonder if it was as cool as I remember, but sometimes this valley just sneaks up and reminds me how eerie and beautiful it really is. The misty landscape looks like a scene straight out of Mushi-Shi or something.

More Bug Pictures!

2009-09-07T06:48:00.003-06:00

I can't resist bug photography. Here we have 1) a butterfly sitting on flowers at the butterfly house at the State Fair; 2) a BIG black cricket on my mom's front lawn in Eagle Valley; 3) a very strange type of worm crawling up our doorway, appears to have clustered all sorts of garbage around its body -- anybody know what this thing is???

Facts vs Rumors

2009-09-05T13:56:00.003-06:00

Granted I usually don't post political, but the healthcare debate, town hall meetings, etc. have been fraught with misrepresentations, rumors, and flat-out lies. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion, but not their own version of the facts. It's unfortunate that time that could be used having a meaningful debate is wasted debunking myths instead. But I guess it's the way things are now in the age of blogs and spam emails. But I refuse to believe we can't get past this.
http://www.factcheck.org/2009/08/twenty-six-lies-about-hr-3200/

Things growing in the forest

2009-08-31T05:52:00.002-06:00

These are also from Father Hennepin State Park. All on fallen trees or rotting wood, one of those life-springing-from-death themes, or something.

Fisheye Forest

2009-08-31T05:41:00.002-06:00

Overhead shot at Father Hennepin State Park, where we stopped this weekend for a little hiking, just walking around really. Was windy and chilly down by the lakeshore, but was pretty nice back in these woods.

Extreme Close-Up

2009-08-30T14:19:00.004-06:00

Photographing tiny pets is hard. You have to get really close and they don't always sit still. Fortunately Lizzy was in a pretty sedate mood the other day and let me get a few close-ups of her while she was sitting in the palm of my hand. She's grown quite a bit, but is still a pet that fits in the palm of your hand. If it weren't for the scale of the hand she'd look like a dinosaur or something.

Play Hard

2009-08-24T06:15:00.003-06:00

Feels like we crammed as much activity as possible into one weekend.

Friday night we played tennis for a couple of hours, Saturday morning I ran 13 miles and then mowed the lawn, then we all played tennis for another 2-3 hours.

Sunday went out for breakfast, went to farmer's market, then we all 3 went biking up and down the river for 12 miles, then back home and after supper another couple of hours of tennis.

Monday morning at the office sounds almost relaxing now. :-)

Fisheye View at Lantern Festival

2009-08-19T22:11:00.003-06:00

Took this looking straight down onto the pond through a fisheye lens just for fun -- lack of visible landmarks makes the perspective hard to see, but lanterns out near the periphery of this view are halfway across the pond.

Japanese Drums

2009-08-18T20:30:00.004-06:00

These drummers at the Japanese Lantern Festival are always way cool. This alone is worth the price of admission.

Activity

2009-08-06T05:05:00.003-06:00

So we finally got Mira a serious tennis racket - 'serious' here meaning something better than the $19.95 fare you see at Target. Her skill has progressed to the point that it warranted it, her old racket was getting really pretty thrashed and she really wanted something better. She has a genuine love for the game.

And it's been good for us too. This is amazing exercise, and playing against Mira has made me actually a 'reasonably' good player too. In fact I've just about caught up to her now so our matches are typically 5 games to 4, or 4 to 3, etc.

Lately the pattern has been we play like crazy on the weekends that we're home. Mira rests and Kris and I do yardwork and other things, and maybe then we all do a bike ride. Last weekend we did about a 7-mile bike ride round trip to the Farmer's Market downtown (uphill all the way home!) -- then mowed the lawn, then played tennis for hours. The pedometer watch Kris & Mirs gave me registered over 30,000 steps that day, over 13 miles worth of walking(?!) Went in to work a little sore on Monday and was pretty well wiped out until Tuesday.

The Obsolete Man

2009-07-24T03:50:00.004-06:00

I don't use Twitter. Judging by the number of news articles about Twitter in the last 2 months, I'm guessing I'm the only one left. Six months or so ago Facebook was the big thing. About 6-12 months before that, it was MySpace. Right now it's Twitter that's the big thing. I'm sure 6 months from now it'll be something else. And look at me. I'm still on Blogger for heaven's sake. I'm sure people look at blogs now and think, 'Oh, that is SOOOO two years ago'.

I suppose it's another sign that I'm over 40: I'm not an early adopter anymore. I'm slow to change, stuck in my ways, out of trend and out of date. An obsolete man.

July 4th Weekend - Pt. 2

2009-07-06T23:32:00.001-06:00

More pics, these of the 'big' fireworks as Jack lit 'em off.

July 4th Weekend - Pt. 1

2009-07-06T23:26:00.002-06:00

So we went to Kris' sister's cabin by the lake for the 4th - very fun and relaxing, the girls had a big water balloon fight, Mirs got to try her hand at paddling a kayak and in the evening we were entertained by fireworks. Very fun.

Newest Member of the Family

2009-07-03T18:15:00.003-06:00

Meet Lizzy! Mira's new gecko. We picked her up at Twin City Reptiles this week. Now in addition to the dog, cat, and a bunch of fish, we now have a reptile. A predator reptile in fact, so we are also keeping bugs -- crickets actually. Which means we not only have to feed Lizzy, we also have to feed her food! Funny how complicated something so small can be. But worth it. I had lizards when I was a kid too. Great fun.

Getting old & falling apart

2009-06-13T08:54:00.003-06:00

My elbow's all messed up. Bursitis, don't remember if I smacked it, or if it's from lifting weights or playing tennis or typing too fast or what. It's gotten all big and squooshy so I gotta go in to orthopedics on Monday and get it fixed. It's annoying. And it sticks out all pointy-like, geez I could put an eye out with this thing! Never had to worry about stuff like this when I was under 40.

So Tuesday was the last day of school, Mira's been home enjoying the start of summer vacation. Next week tennis begins! It's good to have some kind of organized exercise program and tennis is really good for that.

Some random astrophotography

2009-05-31T06:48:00.007-06:00

An experiment trying to take fisheye shots of the entire sky when we were up in Brainerd. Big dipper can be seen upper left center, facing upside-down with bowl to the left and handle to the rignt.

My Kid is Chess Champ!

2009-05-27T06:11:00.003-06:00

OK, it's parental strutting time (strut, strut, strut): So yesterday Mira went up against this 5th-grader who's supposed to be, like, the Gary Kasparov of St. Anthony Park Elementary. And she beat him! I guess it was a close game too, she lost her queen first and at one point in the game each of them had just their king, a rook and a bunch of pawns. Mira remains totally undefeated in Chess club!

Putt putt

2009-05-25T18:24:00.002-06:00

More fisheye lens fun: a worms-eye shot of Mira sinking a putt at Pirate's Cove mini-golf up in Brainerd last weekend.

Mira's latest work

2009-05-24T11:37:00.003-06:00

This is Mira's recently completed water color from her Saturday art class. She's been working on this for quite a while.

Getting Whupped in Chess

2009-05-23T23:54:00.006-06:00

As a parent you eventually have a serious reality check, where you discover that your kid has reached a point where you're not 'letting' them win -- they really are truly outwitting you.

This happens when they reach about age 10 or so.

So Mira's in chess club now. Last few nights she's been playing chess against us for practice, and the last few games has been beating us... badly. I mean, we were playing tonight and she was in total control of the game the whole time, I was getting backed into corners at every turn.

So it's come to this: I'm sitting up late studying things like the Berlin Defense just so I can muster at least a respectable resistance the next few times we play. Of course, meanwhile she's been online studying the moves of Game Six of the Kasparov-DeepBlue match in 1997.

I'm doomed.

Blue Sky

2009-05-09T10:00:00.004-06:00

Just for fun, tried taking a fisheye picture of the whole sky.

Phenomena

2009-05-07T05:43:00.000-06:00

Double-rainbow over the backyard last night. Pretty cool.

Extreme Close-Up: Bugs

2009-05-03T19:05:00.003-06:00

Again at Central Park, some super-macro photo fun: a teeny-tiny spider (about 1/4 in. long max) and I don't know what the heck this grey armored worm thing is (about 1 in. long), we saw it on the paved walking path on the way back to the car. Anybody know what it is?

Gnarly, Dude!

2009-05-03T19:02:00.002-06:00

This has got to be just about the gnarliest tree I've ever seen. Another shot from Central Park in Roseville. Fisheye lens was the only way to shoot this thing, if you backed away there were too many other trees in the way.

Mother Goose

2009-05-03T18:57:00.003-06:00

So today in between running to church, getting groceries and several other things we managed to steal about an hour to kick around Central Park up in Roseville. Saw some Canada geese in the marsh, and even some little goslings. I didn't get near as close as this looks, this is extreme telephoto.

New Neighbors?!

2009-05-01T05:23:00.000-06:00

So there was a moving van at the house 2 doors over the other day. The house has been vacant for 2 years and for sale forever. Plus we haven't had a new neighbor in 5 years or so, so for nosy neighbors like Randy and myself this is a pretty big deal -- after peeking out the windows for a minute we came out of our houses and moseyed on over to say hi. That was our big excitement for the week.

The Promised Land

2009-04-19T10:47:00.005-06:00

So like I said, yesterday we went to Mall of America, the capital of consumerism -- I probably haven't been there for about 3 years. But Mira's been dying to make the pilgrimage to the American Girl Store, where she spent her entire past year or so of saved allowance yesterday.

Underwaterworld

2009-04-19T10:31:00.004-06:00

So yesterday we made a trip to the Mall of America to Underwaterworld, because they had a new exhibit of seahorses and Mira's been dying to see them. These ones that look like plants were really far out, very cool camouflage.

The Easter Puss

2009-04-18T08:16:00.000-06:00

The Old Stomping Grounds

2009-04-17T05:59:00.004-06:00

While we were home for the funeral I took Mirs down through the marsh and into the woods by Eagle Creek, where Mom and Dad used to tap trees for maple syrup when I was little. Fun trip down memory lane for me, and exploring fun for Mirs.

William R. Kammueller, 1938-2009

2009-04-10T06:29:00.003-06:00

This is Dad, at Christmas just over a year ago. On Tuesday he died from Hospital-Acquired Pneumonia. Sportsman, gardener, amazing craftsman, a great Dad and just a great fun guy to be around all the time. I'm really gonna miss the old man.

Finally

2009-03-26T19:11:00.002-06:00

After 12 solid days with the stomach flu, Mirs has finally snapped out of it. Back at school and happy to be 'normal' again! This was the worst, most stubborn bug ever, this was just nasty nasty stuff.

Foreverflu

2009-03-22T06:34:00.002-06:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but we've been a little distracted. Mira is now into Day 10 of the most stubborn stomach flu I've ever seen. Saturday was the first good day in a while and we were actually starting to think the worst was over but then this morning it started up again. No fun

Unorthodox Methods, Bizarre Results

2009-03-14T00:31:00.002-06:00

So just for fun I tried once to take a close-up digital macro-photo of a medium-format negative, held by hand in front of a light bulb, then used the computer to invert the black-and-white to see what a positive photo-print might look like.

The effect is bizarre, it looks like a hundred-year-old photo even though it was taken only a month ago.

Daylight Savings Time

2009-03-09T06:06:00.001-06:00

Zzzzzz... ugh. Why do we still do this to ourselves twice a year. Is there a reason we can't just pick a time system and stick to it?

One of Mira's Latest

2009-03-04T21:58:00.005-06:00

She drew this freehand (no tracing I swear) just from looking at a drawing in an art book that Kris had picked up. I thought it was pretty darned amazing.

Ski Weekend

2009-03-01T22:12:00.006-06:00

So Saturday we went down to Crosby to have a family skiing day. Tons of new snow, winter still going so just make the best of it!

Make ya dizzy?

2009-02-27T01:51:00.002-06:00

Just for fun. Slow shutter speed while rotating the camera, kinda cool effect.

Winter: Not quittin' yet

2009-02-22T23:54:00.007-06:00

Snuck in an hour or so of cross-country skiing during Mira's art class on Saturday, in the fresh snow down at Crosby Park in St. Paul. This park is huge. Yesterday afternoon we got some family sledding time in over at Como. :-)

Time's Arrow

2009-02-18T22:10:00.004-06:00

Sometimes you see things, the odd bits out of your past, and it hits you how permanently they've changed. When I think of home I still picture the barn being there that I used to play in as a kid and that Dad and everybody used to load up with those little square haybales every summer (I can still hear the elevator squeaking that they used to use), but now I take a picture of what's left of it and it's like, wow, it's gone and there really isn't any going back, the arrow of time has but one direction. Then sometimes it feels like it was all some kind of a dream to start with. Were we ever really kids?

The economic news kind of feels like that these days too. This feeling that things have REALLY changed and that life is going to be pretty 'different'. An econ teacher I had back in the mid-90's kept telling us that those were the 'good old days' we'd be wanting to go back to someday.

Things Out of Context

2009-02-16T22:29:00.009-06:00

I just thought this wagon looked cool for some reason, has just sort of a lonely look to it. I remember when this whole field used to be corn. I used to go sledding down that hill in the background, when it was much more treeless. My third roll of film and I think I finally got the developing process halfway decent.

Last week I ran into somebody who was in my geology field camp in Montana. First time I met and last time I saw this dude was 17 years ago and a thousand miles from here. Turns out he lives 3 blocks from my house. I just knew him as this goofy sewer-rat geologist, that is, a guy who is a fanatic about exploring caves. Now he's coming out with books, gets published in the professional journals, just an incredibly accomplished guy. Wild. A fun guy and very colorful personality, I think I'll probably have to check out his new book when it's released this spring.

On the Way to Fountain City

2009-02-16T08:00:00.006-06:00

Snapped a couple of these on the way to visiting Mom & Dad and Susie & Sal over the weekend. Fisheye view of frozen Lake Pepin, the smokestacks at the power plant in Alma, and telephoto of two eagles flying near Lake Pepin.

Depth of Field

2009-02-12T19:00:00.000-06:00

One of the fun things with medium format photography is how you can exaggerate depth effects at low f-stops. The chinese lady and the farther of 2 brass candlesticks are alone in the plane of focus, everything else is a blur. I do have to dust off my negatives better though, the scanner picks up every little piece of cat hair.

Feb.12th - Darwin Day!

2009-02-12T06:43:00.005-06:00

Charles Darwin is 200 years old today! Celebrate by visiting the monkeys at the zoo or curl up at home with a steaming hot bowl of primordial soup. I guess this is kind of a bigger deal in England, where Darwin was from. In the U.S. he's a little more controversial because Biblical literalism has a larger following here. People tend to wrongly believe that he invented evolution, actually as a concept it had been brewing for some time by his day, he just observed and deduced the mechanism by which it worked: that is, natural selection, which basically states that creatures better suited to their environment tend to live longer and thus reproduce more (basic cause-and-effect, a hard concept to swallow, I know). :-)

Today is also Lincoln's 200th birthday, but I figured he would be getting plenty of press today already, so I gotta plug for my lesser-sung scientific heroes. ;-)

Medium Format

2009-02-11T07:30:00.004-06:00

1st attempt scanning of a medium format photo. Been playing with a medium format camera and developing my own B&W film. Medium format allows you to get some extremely fine detail (once you get the developing process down, which I've only done twice now). Streaks to the upper left are a result of a light leak in the camera that I need to fix. The camera is older than I am. This shot was taken out on Lake Como - people in the background are heading out to go icefishing. I see now one of them is staring at me, I didn't realize that when I was taking the picture.

Lunar Halo

2009-02-09T04:03:00.003-06:00

Always a cool phenomenon, but it fills a huge piece of the sky and never had a lens with an angle wide enough to capture one until now.

Disembodied Head

2009-02-08T07:41:00.002-06:00

New Playthings

2009-02-07T08:24:00.002-06:00

Kris and Mirs got me a fisheye attachment for the digital camera for my birthday. Fun photography toy!

Skating Again on Sunday

2009-02-02T06:58:00.002-06:00

Went to visit Kris' folks in Shakopee yesterday, and Laura and Mirs went skating at the little park up the hill. Sparky got in on the fun this time too.

Relief at Last

2009-02-01T06:47:00.005-06:00

Oh man, FINALLY the weather cuts us a break! Got into the 30's today, Mira had her art class but was just dying to get outside afterward so I took her and Margaret (from across the street) with too and they had a great time, they didn't want to stop. You could tell everyone had been dying to get a breath of fresh air, there were people outside everywhere.

Cemetery Sunset

2009-01-21T19:03:00.003-06:00

OK, I know sunset photos are cliche from a photography standpoint. But sunsets in winter at the cemetery maybe a little less so -- that's what I'm banking on anyhow. So near the end of my walk in the cemetery, where I really just expected to get a few creepy tree pictures on a cloudy day, the clouds broke up just enough to get a few nice sunset photos. This was just sheer dumb luck.

A Few More

2009-01-20T07:24:00.002-06:00

Visiting the Neighbors

2009-01-20T07:10:00.005-06:00

So we live 2 blocks from a cemetery :-) There's about a hundred thousand dead people here. Cemeteries in winter have a kind of bleak beauty all their own, I think, especially with the trees: they make a creepy, dark jagged contrast with all the white gravestones on a white snow background. Great for shooting in B&W.

How to Mess Up Your Computer

2009-01-19T15:11:00.005-06:00

Leave it sitting around where the cat can come sit on it. Honestly, what is it about cats and computers? Once Doodoo sat on the keyboard and when she got off the Windows desktop was upside-down. Immediately after this picture was snapped she got off the thing and it was trying to sign us up for some Dell online multi-media god-knows-what. Naughty puss.

Sunset in January

2009-01-19T08:04:00.003-06:00

Taking pictures straight into the sun is always a challenge. But I liked this little bush/tree in the foreground, looks like it's trying to reach through the snow to get at the sun.

Went to a big lutefisk dinner at Kris' sister's church this weekend. First time trying that, so I can check that one off. Probably won't eat it again though.

Sun Dogs

2009-01-16T17:29:00.003-06:00

A 'sun dogs' apparition this frigid morning -- see the far right and left edges of the picture, behind the trees, where you see visual 'echoes' of the sun's image created by ice crystals in the upper atmosphere.

3 mornings ago saw a complete solar halo when I got to work, managed to snap a shot of that one with a small film camera I have, don't know how it'll turn out though.

Extreme Zoom Extreme Cold

2009-01-16T07:15:00.002-06:00

Another zoom shot with the camera, freehand. A 17 below zero, didn't waste a lit of time kibitzing with settings.

3D Pipes Maze

2009-01-13T22:40:00.004-06:00

Looks like a familiar screensaver, doesn't it? This is from our basement. Where piping from the water heater and outside hose intertwines with the piping for the new furnace to the radiators. Fiery glow from a pellet stove on the opposite wall creates an opportunity to play with light and shadow. 4 second exposure (hold very very still)

One More Sea Monkey Shot

2009-01-11T11:10:00.002-06:00

Probably my favorite so far. Something just hypnotically graceful about these translucent little creatures.

This was actually shot in Black and White, and tinted a little blue for a simulated color-filter effect, helps accentuate some details. It's also rotated 90 degrees, the 'wall' at right is actually the water's surface -- I find it 'easier' to look at in this orientation.

Fun with Color

2009-01-10T08:40:00.009-06:00

Sometimes it's fun to take some random old digital photo and just see what you can do with it. I also thought this far into a very cold and snowy winter it would be good for our viewers to see something lush and green again. :-) I took these at Marydale Park near our home 2 autumns ago, when the fall colors were starting to come into full swing. Supersaturating the color and other effects in the right context can turn your photos into a sort of canvas to splash paint onto. Great fun.

Cemeteries and Statues can be pretty cool too...

Work has been really incredibly busy the last 2 weeks -- was unable to take more than half a day off over the holidays as a result, but being busy in the current environment is a good problem to have. I've run into enough people now who seem to have the opposite problem.

Camera Fun at Maximum Zoom

2009-01-06T00:31:00.004-06:00

OK so I tried the full optical zoom to 10x and then ran the digital zoom all the way up on top of that for a total magnification of probably about 40-50x. And it was taken freehand out in the cold and I expected fairly comical results, but with some digital enhancement and messing with the light curves and running the image through an unsharp mask, it was possible to coax some craters and details out of the image. It it isn't anything like taking a picture through a real telescope, but for an unaided digital camera for under a hundred bucks, it's just dandy!

Establishing a Sense of Scale

2009-01-05T06:59:00.007-06:00

A near close-up of our little 'aquarium' where the sea monkeys are housed is the top photo, to give an impression of how tiny these creatures really are. One can be seen swimming near the surface, little more than a speck with legs at top center of the first picture. The massive steel object in the foreground is the front end of a teaspoon.

Getting better mastery of some of the manual settings on the camera so getting able to get better shots. I just can't get enough of these things. They're so TINY!

Extreme Close Up

2009-01-04T20:06:00.002-06:00

Doodoo is fairly curious about the camera and keeps trying to nose it up. She won't hold still long enough for me to get a close-up of her whole face though.

Mira had a sleepover at a friend's birthday party this weekend -- sounds like goofy girls stayed up until 2:30am, and guess who's tired now -- tomorrow school starts again, somebody's gonna sleep pretty good tonite!

Caught in the Act

2008-12-30T19:55:00.003-06:00

I think I figured out how this snail has been getting so big and fat. Here he is gorging himself on one of the fish food pellets that were tossed down for our bottom-feeder fish. Over the top of the shell you can see another (much smaller) snail riding piggyback. They do this all the time.

Another attempt

2008-12-28T12:10:00.003-06:00

I'm getting kind of obsessed with this whole macro-photography thing. But getting better at figuring out the camera's settings, with more light was able to get a much finer shot of these tiny beasts. They really don't look anything like those cartoon sea people advertised in the backs of comic books, do they?

A Very Tiny Face

2008-12-27T08:33:00.002-06:00

A new entry in our tiny creatures series -- a month or two ago our neighbors gave us a packet of 'Sea Monkeys' -- actually a species of tiny brine shrimp. These are quite easily the tiniest pets we've ever had and the tiniest living thing I've ever tried to photograph. They're positively microscopic at first, but now some of the biggest ones have grown to about the size of mosquitos. The top picture is a close-up I managed of one just as it turned to face me. This is probably about 100 or 200 times actual size.

Post-Christmas Crash

2008-12-26T07:26:00.006-06:00

I feel like this guy right now. We made it home from Susie's and then the farm, though in the snow we had to learn how to get out of Eagle Valley all over again. But even though it's been a few years, the technique for achieving escape velocity comes back to you. You pull out of the drive, start up the hill, and fail. You back up, trying not to back into the ditch, get a good running start at the hill, cross your fingers as you make the first bend, and (just barely) clear the top. Brings back old memories...

We did have a great time at Susie's with Mom & Dad and Les & Dan and more of the clan together in one place than we usually can muster -- and far more food and dessert than anyone can digest of course.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T09:12:00.003-06:00

I'm playing with the new digital camera Kris & Mirs got me for Christmas. It's got a million different little settings, way geeky cool.

Solstice Sledding Party

2008-12-21T16:39:00.007-06:00

Happy Winter Solstice! We had sort of a sledding party out at the Como golf course this afternoon. Great fun. Sam took a wicked ramp-jump at top speed coming from the top of the hill -- I wish I could have gotten a shot of this death-defying stunt, but he vowed never to do it again.

Sled cam!

Mira got pretty good range on this run:

Race!

Margaret and her dad (Randy) in a race to the bottom

Christmas Program

2008-12-21T16:32:00.004-06:00

This morning was Mira's Christmas program at church. The 4th grade girls got their own singing intro on one of the songs (Mira is on the far left).

More Christmas light stuff

2008-12-19T20:45:00.003-06:00

This is our light-up gnome / elf-type guy. Kris found him at a sale somewhere.

Psychadelic Tree

2008-12-19T20:38:00.003-06:00

This is a several-second time exposure of our mini-rotating tree. I just think it's cool.