Category: Abstract

Kitty Sandwich

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The kitties really know how to take advantage of Fall Break, laying around on the chaise lounge all sandwiched together — or more like Diné sandwiched between Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.  The zipper spider is hanging in, but I don’t know if the cold slowed her down on her overnight web repairs, or that the wind already ripped holes in it before I got out to check on her this morning.  Stretch was laying on the fleece blanket on the edge of the couch when I went out to check on the zipper spider, giving me a pitiful “please don’t waterboard me” look. We waterboaded him, as usual, and while it’s five to seven minutes of torture for him, he feels so much better the rest of the day. Laurie reads the adventures of Tin Tin out loud to us in French to help us all endure giving Stretch his daily infusions of fluid. I finally ordered the complete set of Tin Tin books, so we won’t run out of adventures to read for quite a while.

Girls Dancing

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I got a new Canon 70-200 mm ƒ/4 lens today, and had to try it out in different conditions to see how it performs. So far the results are pretty impressive.  While Laurie as at choir practice, I walked over the UNM to try out some night shots. I heard loud music playing and followed it out to Johnson field where a DJ was playing pop music and students were dancing. The young woman in the blue/green top was a superb dancer and really put herself into it. The umbrellas were at UNM tonight as well. During lunch I walked around downtown and got the rest of the photos in today’s post. The last photo of the “Anasazi” building that was never finished on the corner of 6th and Central is a collage made up of nine photos stitched together. Here is an interesting article by a couple guys who broke into the Anasazi building http://alibi.com/feature/42225/Crimes-of-the-Anasazi.html. So for the first photos with the new lens I have streets scenes in shadow and contrasty light, and a collage shot at ISO 100, then night shots and action photos on a lighted field shot at ISO 3200.  I would say the new lens is very flexible.

A Rose, Rose & Stretch

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I had the first three photos of the rose, Rosencrantz and Stretch prepared for the blog, but I couldn’t remember the name of the rose. I went out to look at the label in the twilight, and there were two gas balloons floating by — lit up by the glow from the sun that had set some minutes before. I got the name of the rose, Cabana, then sat down on the bench in the middle of the circle garden and watched the balloons disappear behind the trees. Then I sat on the bench for several minutes and reflected on the sunset in the gazing ball.

Pass the Hat

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October is the birthday month for our family. We celebrated Laurie’s and her mom’s birthdays tonight, out on the the deck. Even though I had the outdoor heater running, it still got cold enough to pull out the jackets, fleece blankets and the hats. The nights have been cool enough for the vines to turn red and the cottonwoods to turn yellow. The long photo is of a volunteer cottonwood that came in with the ditch water, which is only about 8 years old. The fifth photo gives you one of our views of the layers of cottonwoods that we see from the house. A bee flew into the Zipper Spider’s web and the spider pounced on it and wrapped it in silk in seconds. The last two photos show the Zipper with her bee right after she wrapped in up and her in action fixing her web after the capturing the bee. She let it dangle on a strand of silk while she worked on her web, and then ate it for breakfast.

Beauties and Beasts

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We went to the 24th Old Church Fine Arts Show at the Old San Ysidro Church in Corrales this afternoon. The show runs through October 14th, but our good friend and fellow photographer, Susan,  has a wonderful photo of a lily in the show, so we went to the opening. While looking at the paintings and photos, we got on the subject of manipulating photographs. There are many purists who think you should use photos how ever they come out of the camera. I’m of the opinion that if it calls for manipulation, manipulate the heck out of it!  The post processing is where a lot of the art comes into photography, especially digital photography, with all the great software that’s available. One can argue that it has more to do with a person skill at using the software — but I say that’s part of the art. After spending years in the darkroom, manipulating images with chemicals and dies, dodging, burning and using exotic films and papers to get various effects, I view the digital darkroom as much safer, more environmentally friendly avenue for manipulating images, and a whole lot more fun. So to celebrate the art of manipulating photos, I manipulated some of the photos I took of some of the beauties and beasts I encountered downtown on my way to and from the Man’s Hat Shop at lunchtime today.

All Eyes Are On You

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A little jumping spider was sitting on a blanket between me and Guildenstern on the couch. It didn’t seem to mind me shining my flashlight in its eyes to get enough light to get really close shots with my macro lens. It was also nice enough to hold very still for me. The depth of field is almost nil, but I got a clear shot of its eyes and pedipalps.  Jumping spiders look very black to the naked eye, but as you can see they are quite colorful up lose and personal. It also has eyelashes, which you might not expect to see on a spider.