ziparumpazoo

I've been playing around a bit with Lightroom - it's about as complicated a piece of software as I can handle for post-processing without getting frustrated and finding something better to do. The other night gave me some really good material to work with:
( low light, long exposures, and empty spaces... )

In other news... two things actually -
1. iOS7 seems to have killed wifi on my iPhone 4s. Which would be more annoying than anything if it weren't for the fact that some process or another is still running in the background that I can't kill and is draining my battery at an alarming rate. I've even gone so far as reset it to factory image, but no luck. We'll see what the Apple store people have to say about it today, even though it's off warranty. I feel naked without it at the moment.

2. Google's Photo is using Picasa as their in-browser photo editing tool now. This is probably old news, but new to me. I use the app and like it a lot for it's simplicity and control, as well as it not depending on a bunch of pre-set filters heavy on the retro look. (you can use those too, but they're not your only option)

*Eta: it's not iOS7 to blame, but one of the four hundred or so times I've dropped my phone that broke the antenna. Crud. Need Velcro fingers or something...

Excerpt from a recent email I sent regarding the bird situation in my yard:

Here the drama is unfolding this afternoon between a sparrow who wants the birdhouse on the play structures (and I can never figure out why such twitchy things like birds feel safe nesting where kids are climbing and yelling six inches from their eggs, but whatever), and the European Starlings that have already claimed the birdhouse and judging from how the noise has escalated from them this week, have eggs in waiting. The starlings sound like half-chewed squeaky dog toys. The robins, who are competing with the starlings over who has dominance over the choice branches in the willow, are upset with the killdeer next door, who are extra shrieky because the bunny has a nest of babies under the deck where the good rocks are and keeps chasing them off. And then in the midst of all this, there's some threesome flirtation going on between the little yellow finches, the female having forgiven the male last year from falling off the branch when he was courting her, or else she's found a new, less clumsy guy who can hold on to a branch in a strong wind, and last year's suitor is chasing them around the yard in a fit of either jealousy or woe.

I'm sure if I watched long enough, I'll see some interconnecting theme tying all these individual species' stories together like a Guillermo Arriaga movie.

The cast:

	...The Starling
	...Lady Killdeer
	...Bunny
	...Jilted Finch
	...Robin

We are under a winter storm warning.


( pleased with my cheap knock-off Cokin graduated NDR filter )

Also, not sure if I've linked this before, but I did pick up a very cheap circular polarizing filter to stack with my more expensive once to make a variable ND filter. Works as advertised, and an easy way to determine if you'd actually get use of a neutral density filter without shelling out a lot of money.

Because a_loquita, supplyship, and mrspollifax kept me up late last night (a real hardship, I know! ;), I was still awake while this very active storm cell passed overhead.



( will the last person out of Asgard please remember to turn off the bifrost? )
***
If anybody's interested, I'm thinking of putting together a post on how to photograph lightning and other bright night subjects. y/n?

Curious cat is curious:


( various and sundry from the last couple of weeks )

So I'm by no means an expert on photography. I don't even know half the terms I probably should. I learn by experimentaion. "If I adjust this dial, the pictures look like this." "Oooh! That button does that, but don't ever do that in broad daylight or you'll burn your eyes out fool!" Stuff like that. I dislike Photoshop, not because I'm a purist, but because I don't have the patience (or spare time!) to learn how to make it do what I want it to do. So, I hack and slash at it until I can figure out how to make the pictures I want to make with the least amount of special equipment. At the risk of sounding pompous, one of my favorite tricks demonstrated below the cut:

( Tricking the light (sensor), and other pictures )

I probably have the best-documented, 10 minute commute ever. Or else I need to get out and explore a little more...but there's only so much free time and good light at this time of year.


Something is afoot with these three. They've been frolicking and outright silly each time I passed their field in the last couple of days. They were a little camera shy this morning though.

( I am a curious thing, I am )