The Time Sink

Sunday Brad and I headed down the street to play around a bit with some new photography techniques; I needed a rose for Monday and I wanted to try some reflected light. We took along some cardboard backing material, a sheet of black packing plastic and a reflective piece of something that came out of a toy package from last Christmas (yeah, yeah, "pack rat"; I've heard it before)...

We did some of the obligatory 'black and white (and even blue)" background shots, but the most fun was with the reflective piece: we used that to direct the setting sun into some different angles on the roses we were shooting. We learned some decent tricks and decided we want to cut this sheet in half to make it more managable and to give us each a piece to work with. The shot that's up for today is lit by reflected light rather than direct sunlight...

...and then I tried working with the reflective piece behind a flower on the same plant. That seemed to work okay so I took a series of what I hoped would be workable shots, varying the depth of field and changing the focal point to see what would develop (sorry, old photography joke, one that's probaly passé now <g>). Two of those shots are up in the blog for Tuesday. I think they turned out okay...

Oh, yeah, a post! Well, heck. Not today. Nope, I was working on two pieces for Views (and managed to finish one), but that pretty much took up way too long into the early morning hours.

One of those nights where black lights and a fog machine and a strobe light and kids and cats playing in the living room seemed more important than many other things in life...

One liners from the last twenty four hours...

The oldest: "Hey! I get to test for my driver's license in just eighteen months!"
<silence from the afflicted parents>

The youngest: "That one kid at school is so irritating!"
<stunned silence from the parents re: pots and kettles>

The first line of the email at work today, the subject line touting a 'How to Manage a Software as a Service Business':
"Dear [FIRSTNAME] [LASTNAME], "
Dude, if you can't manage a mail merge...

Monday I mentioned the setups Brad and I were testing and someone asked to see them. We'll shoot the 'reflection of the rose' style this weekend, but I do have a shot of Brad showing the one-man version of light redirection:

Yep, a tripod could come in handy on those reflector shots, but the angles out in "the wild" pretty much preclude 'fixed setups' so we didn't carry ours along. ...and yes, we usually take turns working as a team, but this shot was taken for Daynotes to show the sunlight in the background and the shaded conditions we were working with. The picture on the blog yesterday is a good example of how we could 'feather' the reflections to send the light pretty much where we wanted it and could leave the background dark for contrast...

...and another day bites the dust <g>! Today was spent recovering from a night of not enough sleep and too much of too much of a week last week. ...but sometime around late afternoon the industrious part of my brain kicked in and I started working in the back yard a bit. I ended up trimming trees against the coming rains and winds (please?!) and was half thinking about extending the area I was working in when Daniel wandered out and decided to pitch in and help. Hey, that's all sorts of cool with me!

The short version of that is that I showed him how to handle the redwoods and I went back to the oak (with it overhanging the house we've been getting some branch-rubbing noises at night. Yeah, all sorts of fun for Shelley). In about two hours we had that entire area finished and ready for Brad and me (or Daniel and me?) to reset the drip system one of these days. ...and if the mild weather continues, we may get all sorts of things done before Winter sets in mild here (I don't dare say "hard" <g>).

...and then as a bit of a bonus for Daniel, he and I stayed up and watched "The Godfather II" until way too late in the evening. That was a bit of a different experience as I had read the book but hadn't seen the movie. ...and since the historical sideline was more or less factual I ended up giving a bit of a history lesson whenever he had questions about both of the eras shown in the film. ...but we did find a bit of a problem in that he hadn't seen the first film. I think we'll have to schedule that in during a three day weekend...

Today was a bit of a project day; everyone pitched in (some under protest) and did a few things to get us a little more organized. School has worked its way into a bit of a routine, and this year's routine appears to allow all of us a bit more time to spend some of it not so focused on 'nothing but school'. ...and that could be very good for all of us here!

Late this afternoon Brad and I headed out to a local church for lesson in musical culture. Yeah, yeah, but really: this place has a Casavent organ and an organist who can actually use use the thing to it's limits. It was Brad's first live exposure to a 'real organ' and it was quite a treat for both of us. I have to say that watching this gentleman play one melody on one keyboard, another on a second keyboard and yet a third on the pedals was just beyond my experience (yep, we got there in plenty of time to sit in the first row). Throughly enjoyable. ...and yes, I'll have a pic or two up this week.

Speaking of photos, I had a question as to how I managed the 'special effect' of the ghostly chairs in "Last call". I didn't use any in-computer techniques to achieve that; those are reflections off the glass of the door I'm taking my shot though. Yeah, very effective, and yes, very lucky...

Click image for larger version

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is
indistinguishable from magic."
Arthur C. Clarke, "Technology and the Future"

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