Photography

New lens

This is a paperweight that keeps my books from flying away. :)

I couldn’t help myself last week when the canon 50mm 1.4 went on sale. I had been looking at that lens for nearly two years and wondering if it was worth the purchase. I had settled for the $80 50mm 1.8 which served me well but with its cheap construction and tendency to have its blades get stuck, I wound up replacing it four times. The 1.4 usually sold for $400 or so and when I saw that it had dropped to $299 on Amazon, I couldn’t help myself. It was a total impulse purchase. I consoled myself by paying for $250 of it with my credit card rewards I’d been saving making the effective price $50. The Indian in me could be happy with that.

The bokeh on this thing is amazing. AMAZING. I am so in love with it. I also know its a great lens to have on a canon full frame for whenever I make that jump.

December 10, 2012 by
Photography

That was Quick

I was just thinking about how the past year flew by and dragged on at the same time. We forgot to celebrate the anniversary of our engagement. Does anyone actually do that? I have no idea but I still looooove my ring. I should probably get it cleaned again soon. It’s Christmas and everyone’s getting their jewelry shiny for all the Christmas party glam.

 

 

December 7, 2012 by
Photography

Kitty Christmas

IMG_6467 IMG_6462 IMG_6455 IMG_6442 IMG_6435 IMG_6430 IMG_6407 IMG_6405My cats have been acting pretty darn adorable this christmas. They love the boughs of pine, the tree and their early christmas gift, a new tall scratcher! :)

 

December 6, 2012 by
Photography

Mantis

Jeremy and I spent some time today at a couple of Gwinnett County parks.  Collins Hill Park has sprawling acreage, tons of trees, a long trail that goes up and down and up and down and… praying mantises! And their ladybug friends!

Jeremy spotted him on a fence and I got excited. Are they not adorable?

 

December 2, 2012 by
Life

Fitbit One

I had been thinking about getting a Fitbit for about 2 and a half years and now that Jeremy and I can compete, I went ahead and got us each a Fitbit One. Jeremy loves tracking and pursuing health improvements and I love some competition.  I’m excited to bring some movement awareness into our lives along with some food and exercise tracking. I like the idea of earning my calories to eat for the day and I’m much better (and this is probably true of most folks) at being moderate if I know where I stand for the day during exercise and food decision making moments.

I’ll report back in a couple weeks to let you guys know if it is helping me keep the extra holiday bulges at bay!

November 30, 2012 by
mobile, Photography

Grocery Textures

I get inspired at times during the most mundane of tasks. I was at Publix and noticed the textures of everything as I meandered past. All I had on me was my phone, which by the way is pretty much my favorite photography tool for on the fly editing.

The end result was high contrast black and whites with light leaks all cut to square format.
I like it! So much so that I think these will make it into print and as a wall piece.

Every photo was taken on the iPhone and editing on the iPhone using Snapseed and Pixlr Express Plus. Even this post was written and published from my phone using Poster.

 

November 30, 2012 by
Quotes

Quote

“All it takes is imagination and a little silence to make the world a better place.”
– Meet the Robinsons

November 25, 2012 by
Photography

Chilean Seadudes

As we passed through the Panama Canal, we were accompanied in the parallel canal by a Chilean container ship. Nothing about the ship itself was all that special, other than I had never seen such a massive ship up close.

But the guys on the ship were pretty awesome. There were three clearly Chilean men plus one guy that looked like he’d stepped off a dairy farm in Wisconsin.

Here they are a few hours into the crossing. We’ve been yelling things back and forth and waving.  One of them is begging to come aboard our cruise ship so he can eat the food. :)

I really enjoyed all the people we met, even briefly. It’s a far cry from America, where rarely anyone will even smile at you in the street as you walk by. It was nice. :)

November 25, 2012 by