Glossy

And one from the archives:



Been playing with the Intellisharpen and Velvia Vision PS plugins from Fred Miranda. It looks way better at full res, but this still gives you some idea. You want richer color and selective sharpening? This works as well as some of the Nik products that I've demoed, and for a lot less.

(Oh, that's a glossy ibis, by the way. Taken last summer at Assateague Island NWR.)

Cultural Ephemera

Haven't made many new music purchases lately. My last swag bag came from the Hastings store in Tullahoma, TN. I found a used copy of Quadrophenia and I've been wearing it out.

At least I was until I went to the Elvis Costello & The Imposters show last night.

Wowza. I believe I'm going to have to revise my list of Top Concerts now. Maybe I didn't have the proper appreciation for Elvis the C. last time I saw him play the Ryman, but nah... well, actually, I didn't, but being as objective as possible, the Imposters blew it out. I had already amassed most of the Rhino 2-disc reissues of the back catalog, but I think I'm looking down the barrel of dangerous monomania. I get this way sometimes when I see a live show I really connect with.

On TV: Mostly it's been standard TiVo fare. A couple of recent discoveries: The "Henry's Film Corner" on IFC. I hadn't pegged Rollins as a movie buff, but his half-hour dedicated to film reviews & entertainment industry agitprop is fun, if nothing else.

Nights before bed I've been winding down with Henry Rollins spoken word and Monty Python eps from the A&E box set. I need the humor and the oblique approach to a world otherwise swirling with much absurdity these days.

Photography: I'm booked to go to the Smokies this May for the Digital Landscape Workshop Series. I found it through Moose Peterson's website, which was a site that a friend of mine showed me when I was contemplating some photo equipment purchases.

Work: Please. Nothing to report.

Life events: This week, I was diagnosed with my first cavity. Dammit. My mouth hadn't been bothering me until I went to the dentist. During the exam, though, it was POKE POKE POKE on the ol' dental surfaces, and I was subjected to a sensation I'd never felt before -- a stainless steel pick poking a hole in the weakened enamel of one of my molars and a "zing" to the nerve beneath. The dental tech called it a zing, anyway. If that was a zing, I don't wanna EVER feel a "zang." Now my upper jaw just aches dully like it used to when I'd had orthodontics.

Otherwise, I'm kinda suffering from a potent combo of stultifying boredom and spring fever.

March Madness usually provides the cure.

Wheeling




Last weekend, I spent a good bit of time just watching the gulls at Centennial Park wheel around in the sky, trying my best to capture the action of birds in flight... just to get more of a feel, and to be out and about actually getting some time to myself with some new gear.

This one, I think I was following one gull along in the viewfinder and snapping shots in an arc, and the other birds happened into the frame.

Happy accident, I think.

(Hm. Let's look at the EXIF... this was a D2H, f12, 1/500, 105mm micro AF lens.)

Bad things are not the worst things that can happen to us.



"Nothing" is the worst thing that can happen to us.

--Richard Bach