Day 151: Streetlight Manifesto

I glanced outside of my bedroom window today a little bit after sunset and saw this. Great color in the sky, and since I can't get away from streetlights and powerlines I decided to incorporate them into the photo. They're not too bad.

1/10 sec. exposure at F/5.6. ISO 400.
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1/10 sec. exposure at F/5.6. ISO 400.
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I didn't do anything to these in Aperture; it's all in camera for these. I particularly like the deep color of the top photo, but I also enjoy the "dark" cloud just above the telephone pole in the bottom one. Too bad I can't put them together...

Goodnight! Good morning? Whichever....

Day 150: Objects In Mirror

Went down to see a movie today (Bridesmaids; I really enjoyed it), and I snapped a couple of photos on the way back of/through Adam's rearview side mirror. They's okay. Nothing spectacular, but whatevs. Actually, I only have one to share, so I'm not sure why I'm pluralizing today...

1/100 sec. exposure at F/3.5. ISO 100.
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Hasta mañana.

Day 149: Jaeger Bomb

Spent the day at Ben and Ashlee's house watching the Cubs (finally) beat the Pirates, eating good food, and generally enjoying the company of friends. I snapped some shots (get it?) of their dog Jaeger while we were there. I'm really happy with how these came out, and I didn't even have to tweak them in Aperture!

1/60 sec. exposure at F/5.6. ISO 200.
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1/60 sec. exposure at F/5.6. ISO 200. Flash used.
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1/60 sec. exposure at F/3.5. ISO 200. Flash used.
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1/60 sec. exposure at F/3.5. ISO 200. Flash used.
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I think the last two are my favorite (with the last one being my most favorite). I like the depth of them, with the brightness in the foreground trailing into the darkness of under the coffee table. Sometimes I get lucky, I guess...

Day 148: Red Light District

What it is? I got creative at work today. Well, more creative than usual. Remember those bottles that we have in the back that I took pictures of forever ago? No? Well, I did. You'll just have to go through my whole blog to find it, because I don't feel like doing it for you to link it.

Anyway, I grabbed one of the bottles from the back and, after I shut off the lights for the day, used my phone's flashlight app and changed the color to red. I then put the bottle on my phone and started shooting.

1/4 sec. exposure at F/3.5. ISO 400.
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1/6 sec. exposure at F/3.5. ISO 400.
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Kind of cool, I guess. I messed with them in Aperture to completely blacken the background. In the original shots, you could still make out some of what was behind the bottles. Ah, the wonders of technology...

Day 147: Missile Command

Fairly uneventful post today. It could have been pretty awesome, but I wasn't quick enough. When I was just about to leave work it started to rain, so I put my bag and camera in my car through the back door so I didn't have to carry it around the building through the rain. As I was putting my bag in my car, I saw a rainbow. I ran back to the front of the store to lock up and ran around the building to get my camera from my car. When I was walking out of the front of the store, I noticed that the rainbow was arching perfectly over Philly St. So I ran to my car and grabbed my camera then ran back up to Philly St... just in time to see the rainbow fade away.

So instead you get to see a couple of pictures of Missile the Dragon as he modeled for me.

1/60 sec. exposure at F/5.6. ISO 100. Flash used.
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1/60 sec. exposure at F/5.6. ISO 100. Flash used.
Click image for larger version.

One more day of work, and then I have about fifty million off (which stinks monetarily, but hopefully means more time for shooting). Happy weekend!

Day 146: Putting a Wrench in the Works

Today I hung a wrench off of my wall and took some photos. Strange, I know, but it's (surprise, surprise) been raining again today. And I actually went for a run too. Between all of that and work it didn't leave too much time for anything else. So here, for your.... enjoyment? are some photos of a wrench.

1/6 sec. exposure at F/5.6. ISO 200.
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This next one I flipped to give it a strange perspective.

1/6 sec. exposure at F/5.6. ISO 200.
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Bed time. Sleeping well tonight for sure.

Day 145: The Reclamation of Nature

I've wanted to take this photo for quite some time now, but I'm glad that I waited until spring and the greenness of it. There is a construction vehicle of some sort that sits back off the road in front of some trees and such. It's been sitting there for quite some time now, and I always mean to pull off and take a few shots of it. Today I remembered.

This first one is just to give you an idea of what it is.

1/30 sec. exposure at F/9. ISO 100.
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As you can see, the greens are very dull and the sky is almost completely washed out at the normal exposure. Buh-buh-buh-BUUH! HDR to the rescue! I snapped a bunch of different exposures (I usually only do three to composite) to see what effect that might have, if any, on the resulting composite.

I didn't have my tripod, so this next one is a bit strange (when Photomatix composites the images together it aligns the different exposures together as best as it can, but if there is too much variance you get a little bit of ghosting or skewing of the image as seen below).

Photo composited in Aperture using Photomatix HDR Plug-In.
Click image for larger version.

The color in that one is still pretty dull, and if you notice at the top of the trees there is a little bit of a ghost-treeline. Also (and this is the part of the image that I think came out cool), the truck itself is a little smooshed and skewed looking. It's not major, but there's definitely something a little off with it.

This last one is my favorite of the day. The colors came out really nice (after some tweaking in Aperture), giving it a cartoony, painted quality.

Photo composited in Aperture using Photomatix HDR Plug-In.
Click image for larger version.

I really like the tones of the grass. I tried to make the truck a bit more yellow, but all that really did was give the grass a better color for some reason.

I want to find more things like this to photograph. I love the image of nature taking both taking back what it once had, as well as the image of nature domination a tool of man's destruction. Yeah, I know. I'm one of those people. I know there is a place south of me that I used to drive past when I picked up my CSA last summer. It's an old abandoned factory and it's full of trees and shrubs that have fought their way back through the concrete. It's striking to see. Maybe I'll have to make a drive down there soon. And now back to L.A. Noire...

Day 144: Our Biggest Fan

Today I took some photos of our biggest fan. It's the one hanging from the ceiling in our living room. Ba-dum-bum. I was trying to follow a single blade with the camera and keep the camera moving so that the blade was sharp (pun intended) and the ceiling looked blurred, similar to the car photos that I took a while back. This didn't work as well, but they still came out decently abstract.

1/10 sec. exposure at F/5. ISO 100.
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1/15 sec. exposure at F/5. ISO 100.
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The second one isn't too bad for what I was trying to do. Ah well. Worth a shot.

Day 143: Warped Perspective

Fun photos today from work. I found a metal bowl in the back and I played around with it a bit. You can check out the results below.

1/60 sec. exposure at F/5.6. ISO 800.
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1/60 sec. exposure at F/3.5. ISO 800.
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1/50 sec. exposure at F/5.6. ISO 800.
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I really like the last one. It reminds me of what it must be like to see the world through a water droplet. I think I want to find a metal bowl like for cheap that I can take out into the outside world with me for some photos.

Okay, I just had a ridiculous sneezing fit and I need to desperately blow my nose. See you toomahroh.

Day 142: Chair, Man

Once again I waited until the last minute to take some photototos. Which is another way of saying, "Hey Brandon, you better hurry up and figure out something to shoot." I figured something out, though it's not much. I sat straddled across my chair and took this.

1.6 sec. exposure at F/3.5. ISO 800.
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Though it's not much to look at, I'm still happy with two things about taking this photo. One, it was all done in-camera (no post-processing) and the color is pretty solid (at least as far as brown chairs go). Two, the framing of the chair (and the two posts that are in the shot) are pretty level and balanced. Not that those are anything major, but I'm glad that I am able to do them and see the results.

That is all. For now. Good. Night.

Day 141: Birthday Party Cheesecake Jelly Bean Boom

Well... for the end of the world, today sure was nice outside. Of course, I was stuck in work for most of it. But I stepped out when I could and actually took a few decent ones, I think.

The first one isn't anything that special, but I really like how blue the sky came out (and that it was all done in camera; no post-processing this one).

1/200 sec. exposure at F/8. ISO 100.
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This is of the same tree (outside of the Book Nook), but composited in HDR.

Photo composited in Aperture using Photomatix HDR Plug-In.
Click image for larger version.

That one isn't bad, except for that one bunch of leaves on the top right. But even still, I guess that gives it a certain strangeness quality too.

This next one is also an HDR composite. It's of some buildings that run across the street from the Book Nook.  I like this one the best of today's photos. It's not that it's great, but compared to a normal exposure of this same shot, it's much, much better.

Photo composited in Aperture using Photomatix HDR Plug-In.
Click image for larger version.

I had one more, but looking at it a little more closely it's a little blurrier than I originally thought. So I'm keeping it to myself. Neener neener. 'Night!

Day 140: House Abstractions

Do I sound like a broken record yet? While it didn't rain at all today, it was still overcast (and the few times the sun did come out I was at work). So boo to you, Mr. Weather. I took a couple of photos inside today when I got home from work that are a little abstract. Please to enjoy.

1/15 sec. exposure at F/5.6. ISO 400.
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1/25 sec. exposure at F/5.6. ISO 400.
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I guess that's a little better than I have been doing. But still a bit on the ol' lame side. Whatevs.

Day 139: A Little Bit of Sunshine In My Life (But Not Much)

Well, the sun came out off and on today. Hopefully it fights its way through and stays for awhile this time. I got this one of the sun behind some clouds and beaming. Sorry about the electrical wires...

1/100 sec. exposure at F/5.6. ISO 100.
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Sorry that my posts haven't been too exciting lately. Between working like crazy and the crappy weather it hasn't left too much time for getting out and taking anything better than this. Keep checking back, I promise it'll get better soon.

Day 138: Cabin Fever

It's a good thing that I have a new video game to play. This rain is absolutely ridiculous. This is in no way meant to lessen all the flooding that is happening elsewhere; I feel terrible that people are going through that right now. I'm just really sick of the rain.

1/80 sec. exposure at F/5. ISO 200.
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I took this out of the only window in our house with a screen on it. Mostly to show how sick I am of not being able to go out and take pictures. Hopefully it'll clear up in the next day or two.....

Day 137: Light Through the Cracks

Late post, and honestly, I almost forgot to take some pictures today. I spent most of the day playing L.A. Noire and then all of a sudden it was 10:30 p.m. (I did some other stuff too).

Scrambling here at home for photos is never fun, but here's what I came up with.

.8 sec. exposure at F/5. ISO 800.
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That was inside my bathroom with my bedroom light on. I had to leave the door open a crack to get the full three lines. Now I'm trying to debate if I should get some sleep or play some more of L.A. Noire. Decisions, decisions.

Day 136: Stir Crazy

Yes, that blog title is a pun. I'm really, really sick of it raining all the time. I was looking forward to summer break because I thought it would give me a chance to get outside and shoot more. Not so much so far. Instead, I take photos of my dinner... which was a stir fry, thus the pun.

1/8 sec. exposure at F/5.6. ISO 800.
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I really like how the rice that is actually stuck to the side of the stir fry skillet looks like it is falling into the pan, stuck in mid-air. I also like the green color of the asparagus (which was fresh and super delicious).

Okay, I'm off to play some more Final Fantasy XIII (which I started over a year ago and never got around to finishing; one of my goals this summer is to finish games that I never beat). Guten nacht.

Day 135: Snapping in the Rain

Gud eevinink. Just a couple of photos that I took while at work today. It was raining and I liked how the rain was hitting the puddle, so I tried to get something neat from it. Did I pull it off?

1/160 sec. exposure at F/7.1. ISO 200.
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1/160 sec. exposure at F/7.1. ISO 200.
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I wish that cigarette wasn't in that second one, but maybe it gives it character or something. I'm really sick of the rain. But it's okay, climate change isn't real.

Day 134: Dandy Lions

Here's a few photos of a dandelion from the front yard. The first one is untouched; the second and third were tweaked in Aperture. That is all. Sorry so short. Good night.

1/40 sec. exposure at F/5.6. ISO 800.
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1/6 sec. exposure at F/9. ISO 800.
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1/10 sec. exposure at F/7.1. ISO 800.
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Day 133: I Believe a Man Can Fly

Wow. Smallville, you will be missed greatly, but that was about as perfect of an ending as anyone could have hoped for. I teared up off and on for most of the first hour and a half, then just started bawling for the last half hour or so. If you haven't watched it yet, please don't read any further. The rest of my blog is full of spoilers/images that will ruin things for you.

All of the images were taken during the show of points of interest/highlights/awesomeness. And I know it's silly to take pictures of a TV show, but this was really important to me (I also realize how silly that is). But at least I tried to make them look kind of artsy.

First up is, yeppers, the first true flight of Clark Kent.

Next is Clark, post-outfit reception, flying above the earth after removing Apokolips.

And the rest are the last images of the series. With these shots being shown over the Superman theme music, I just lost it. Big, heaving sobs losing it.

I really can't wait to watch it again. Hopefully it posts online soon. I also really want to go through from the beginning (again). I figure by the time I get through the first nine seasons, season ten should be coming out on DVD. Did I mention that I love Superman?

Day 132: Look! Up In the Sky!

Sorry for the delayed post. Blogger has been down since last night and is just now back up and letting me post. I'm not sure what happened to it, but it must have been something major because it took a while for them to fix it. Not PlayStation Network long, but still pretty long.

Here is today's (yesterday's, technically) photo. Again, it's part of my few-day-long Tribute to Smallville. It's fun, but I'm not very happy with how part of the photo came out. Namely, the part with me in it.

Click image for larger version.

I shot myself and Superman on a green screen (I had Adam holding up the Superman), and then I cut us out and merged it together in Gimp with one of the photos I took of Pittsburgh. I had to shrink down the Superman; it was originally waaaay out of proportion.  All in all not a terrible composite.  The Superman part looks really good and crisp, but because I was out of focus in the original image, it looks a little weird and unnatural for me to be cropped in.

I'll have another post for you all tonight (provided Blogger doesn't decide to break again) after Smallville's series finale. I can't believe it's finally here. I'm both excited and sad at the same time. On the one hand it's going to be epic; on the other, well, it's the last episode ever. I'm gonna be sobbing like a wittle baby. See you then!

Day 131: There's Action In Them There Comics!

I'm splitting today's post. The first post is in honor of Smallville ending in a couple of days (as I pointed out yesterday).

1/8 sec. exposure at F/5. ISO 200.
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After work, I helped my friend Amy move some stuff into her new house. I was also meeting her and some other people for dinner later in the night, so I didn't want to come all the way home to drive all the way back into town. I decided to head over to Yellow Creek State Park and walk around a bit. I didn't really see too much that I felt like photographing until I was walking back towards my car. I noticed a bunch of green leaves that had fallen on the path. I snapped a few different exposures and merged them into this HDR image.

Photo composited in Aperture using Photomatix HDR Plug-In.
Click image for larger version.

I wish that I had used a larger aperture setting so that more of the background/top of the photo was in focus. But it's still an all right shot (or shots, because it's more than one), I guess.

Sleepy time now. Sleepy sleepy sleepy time.

Day 130: Countdown to Happy Tears

The Smallville finale is only a few days away now. That makes me really, really, really sad. So I've decided that in honor of one of my favorite television shows, which happens to be about my favorite superhero, I am going to spend the next few days doing Superman related posts. Today's use my Superman bobblehead.

1/4 sec. exposure at F/5.6. ISO 800.
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.3 sec. exposure at F/5.6. ISO 800.
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That second one reminds me of the opening credits from the Superman movies. I just watched last week's episode of Smallville online. It was the second to last and I was definitely getting both excited and teary eyed. I'm such a nerd....