What? What is this? An update? Can't be. That's just crazy.

1. This image is like 12 times more saturated in Photoshop. I even bumped up the saturation as far as I could without getting pixellated artifacts, and it's still too dull. Part of the reason I stopped editing photos in iPhoto and started editing them in GIMP was because the color was much more true-to-export; I find it ridiculous that Photoshop CS4 is lagging behind my 2005 version of GIMP in this respect. Maybe there's a setting somewhere that I need to tweak, but I shouldn't have to!

2. The image in the pill was SO SHARP to my myopic eyes. I tried every permutation and combination of shutter speed, distance between my lens and the subject, and macro settings that I could think of. Still no luck.

On the bright side, the Chicago weather is requiring coats less and less frequently!



Date: March 2009
Where/What: OMEGA-3'S ARE GOOD FOR YOU. Moreso in Chicago. omg.
Camera: Fuji S700
Shutter: 1/60
Aperture: 5.0
ISO: 200

Listening to: Ladyboy (Chip Pope)
Thankful for: in-between seasons

I hate to post this so close to the opening of the movie of the same name (which is in absolutely no way related to this photo), but so it goes.



Date: December 2008
Where/What: a clementine
Camera: Fuji S700
Shutter: 1/350
Aperture: f 6.3
ISO: 64

Listening to: Sleigh Ride (Leroy Anderson)
Thankful for: dogs that fit on your lap :)

Man oh man. I had my first gross anatomy exam last Wednesday. It was 60% of our grade. Holy shit.

But I passed! I didn't rock it, but it's gross anatomy. I'll take what I can get.

I wish I could spend a while defrying my brain, but I need to work on a few big art-type projects that I was putting off 'til the exam was over. Rrrrrrgh.

Welllllllllllll, nobody said this would be easy, right? :)



Date: May 2008
Where/What: my bloodshot eyes (courtesy of contact lenses) + a photo of a dissected sheep's brain
Camera: Fuji S700


Listening to: Windchester [not, apparently, 'Winchester'] Cathedral (New Vaudeville Band)
Thankful for: support, no matter how unearned it may be

This is really old, but it is AWESOME. If you ask my very humble opinion.
(It's one of my homages to Joost Elffers & Saxton Freyman.)



Things I learned this week:
1. The consensus, among a group of midwesterners and southerners, is that I have a Jersey accent! I thought I talked the same as everyone else here. I've been trying to compare my dialect to a "normal" accent--or at least a Chicago-area-midwestern accent--and all I can figure is that everyone else here talks a bit like a bunch of valley girls.

2. This photoblog looked horrible in IE 6. When I'd previously checked the compatibility on a Windows computer, everything seemed fine... but apparently that computer was running Internet Explorer 7, and there's actually a difference between IE 6 and IE 7. I think I've added some hacks to the layout, so it should read semi-normally now, but please please please let me know if anything looks funky.

2a. This photoblog looks horrible on a really bright monitor.

Can you see 11 different shades of gray?


How 'bout 11 different shades of dark gray?...


...and 11 shades of light gray?


If one end of the spectrum or another is blending together for you (meaning, if you can make out fewer than 11 different shades of gray in each bar--especially the light grays, 'cos I know the dark grays kind of blend into my whole page background), I'd suggest looking into recalibrating your monitor. It takes about 5 minutes, and it will probably make your overall internet experience much more pleasurable.

3. About 40% of people don't have a psoas minor, and about 14% don't have a palmaris longus.

Just throwin' it out there.



Date: August 2006
Where/What: playing with fruit (and clay)
Camera: Nikon Coolpix 3200
Shutter: 2/61
Aperture: f 2.8
ISO: 50

Listening to: Short Skirt, Long Jacket (Cake)
Thankful for: internet access

For Macroday: Logo.

This is SUPER-esoteric, so in case you're wondering what company has a pixelated triangle on a black background, read this.



Date: August 2008
Where/What: Logo turtle
Camera: Fuji S700
Shutter: 1/50
Aperture: f 3.5
ISO: 200

Listening to: Istanbul (Not Constantinople) (They Might Be Giants cover)
Thankful for: having all the wonderful and completely unwarranted opportunities I've had in my life

"She looked at the colored panes.... She moved to the window.

"Through the pink pane the world was roseate below, and warm. The neighborhood, poised like a squalorous avalanche on the brink of a cliff, took on tones of the rose and a sunset.

"She looked through a yellow pane. And the world was the sun, all bright and luminous and fresh.

"She looked through a purple glass. The world was covered with cloud, the world was infected and sick, and people moving in that world were leprous, lost, and abandoned. The houses were black and monstrous. Everything seemed bruised.

"She returned to the yellow pane. The sun was back. The smallest dog looked clever and bright. The dirtiest child looked washed. The rusty houses were seemingly painted afresh."

-Ray Bradbury, "The House"

(This image is also available as a desktop wallpaper.)


Date: February 2008
Camera: Fuji S700
Shutter: 1/160
Aperture: f 13.6
ISO: 100

Listening to: Orange-Colored Sky (Nat King Cole)
Thankful for: the marvels of the modern produce industry. Not only do modern shipping methods ensure that all corners of the country are able to eat fresh Florida oranges, California strawberries, and Georgia peaches... but we can eat these fruits out of season. Think about that.

Money doesn't grow on trees. But sometimes spatulas do.




Date: July 2007
Camera: Canon Rebel 2000
Film: T-Max 400

Listening to: Song Sung Blue (Neil Diamond)
Thankful for: the rain!

O Chicago. How your days do go by.



Date: April 2008
Where/What: Chicago by sunset, nighttime, and sunrise
Camera: Fuji S700

Listening to: L-O-V-E (Nat King Cole)
Thankful for: Toilets that work. I may have said this before, but seriously, man, every time I don't have to plunge a toilet I am SUPER-THANKFUL.

(This is not real food.)


(This is also an inverted photograph of a negative, because I have no scanner; as with all of my 35mm shots, the quality of the image you see here is imperfect [and not as good as the original]... but hey, if you wanted PERFECT QUALITY, you wouldn't be reading THIS photoblog, would you? ;) )



Date: July 2007
Where/What: a concept
Camera: Canon Rebel 2000
Film: T-Max 400

Listening to: Bye Bye Blackbird (Nina Simone)
Thankful for: Loc-Tite. Who invented that stuff?

This is the, let's see, one, two, three, four, FIFTH time I have featured my hands on this photoblog. Out of 38 photos total. That's 13% of all my photos. Man. For having such ugly hands, I sure do seem to like 'em.

(This image is also available as a desktop wallpaper.)



Date: July 2008
Where/What: I have collected little bouncy balls for as long as I can remember. I usually end up getting those ugly multicolored swirl balls from the vending machines, but I keep trying. Sometimes I do get lucky and get a ball like this. (And sometimes I just find them. I found a green one in the street last week.)
Camera: Fuji S700
Shutter: 1/80
Aperture: f 4.5
ISO: 200

Listening to: Lucky Ball and Chain (They Might Be Giants)
Thankful for: bouncy balls!

This stupid contraption is why I rarely get to bed before 2AM--even though I fall asleep around midnight. I'm looking forward to not having a TV next year.

...okay, honestly, not wanting to move the cute little dog that's fallen asleep on my lap is the REAL reason I don't get to bed before 2AM. But it's easier to blame TV.



Date: July 2007
Where/What: watchin' television
Camera: Fuji S700
Shutter: 2 sec.
Aperture: f 6.3
ISO: 100

Listening to: Money for Nothing (Dire Straits)
Thankful for: having the time to watch this stupid contraption (tho' I wish I spent that time more wisely)

35mm fun.

Side note: Crayola washable markers don't wash off as easily as you'd think.



Date: August 2007
Where/What: Photograph I people/portraits assignment
Camera: Canon Rebel 2000
Film: Kodak T-Max 400

Listening to: Model (Balanescu Quartet cover of the Kraftwerk original)
Thankful for: family (...sometimes)

(Be sure to scroll down all the way)

I don't really understand all this hullabaloo about saying "I love you." Lying is easy, especially when it's A) subjective, B) difficult to prove, and C) gets you what you need. I dunno about you, but I find it much more difficult to tell the truth--especially when it's not so poetic.



Date: June 2008
Where/What: for Macroday "handwriting" prompt
Camera: Fuji S700
Shutter: 1/125 and 1/160
Aperture: f 5.0 and 5.6
ISO: 100

Listening to: Paradise by the Dashboard Light (Meat Loaf)
Thankful for: my right hand

Original plan: "Ceci n'est pas un nez"

Unfortunately, that would've created all kinds of conundrums--after all, even though it wouldn't be a nose from YOUR perspective (as it would instead be a PHOTOGRAPH of a nose), it would be a total lie on my end, as the words would be WRITTEN ACROSS MY ACTUAL FACE.

So I went with Plan B NOT because my writing implement was TOO DAMN BIG but rather because I wanted to spare you from such a metaphysical dilemma.



Date: June 2008
Where/What: no comment. c'mon, guys.
Camera: Fuji S700
Shutter: 1/160
Aperture: f 6.8
ISO: 100

Man do they look pissed. That is one army of ninja turtles I wouldn't want to cross.



Date: June 2008
Where/What: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles marching through tall grass, of course
Camera: Fuji S700
Shutter: 1/200
Aperture: f 5.6
ISO: 100