Studio

My multipurpose work area. Check it out on Flickr to see some annotations.

"Highly Suspect!"

Took this photo of myself with my cell phone at Starbucks today. Do you see a pattern to my days?

Powerfruit

Heather and I went to the Sprint store today to see about getting her phone in working order. Mike just got a new phone, so he bequeathed his old one to her. It just so happens that it's the same model as her old phone, so all she had to do was get the service transferred to Mike's old one. And would you believe it was free, at that?

There's a smoothie shop - I think it's a Juice Stop - between Starbucks and the Sprint store, which is where I noticed this rather amusing phrase. "Organic Powerfruit." I promptly took a photo of it and submitted it to the Fake Band Names group on Flickr. ;)

Concrete Scab

Went to Swami's down in Encinitas with Heather and Holly today around sunset. I got a bunch of cool photos; lots of rusty stuff. :D This is a rusty spot on the slab for a lifeguard tower. I think it looks like a scab from a serious abrasion.

Seating for Eight

A group of eight Djarum Specials seated at an ashtray. I like the sort of ritualistic look of the arrangement. It's better understood from the other two photos in my photostream. This was a tough one to get because the sun was so bright. I think I had my camera on the lowest ISO, fastest shutter speed, and narrowest aperture.

Hitchhikers

This is in our reef tank. It's some kind of algae or other, I think. What I do know is that they must have hitched a ride on something else, because we didn't put them there! We had a cable technician over today, and he was quite enamored with the tank. I can't really blame him, though; they're pretty freakin' sweet!

Cute Doggy

We went to Starbucks this morning and ran into this little cutie. She (he?) - well, her mom - is a regular, so we see her pretty often. I want a little dog like this! :-)

Children Can Be Pinned

This a sign in the garage, warning that children can become pinned under the automatic door as it closes. Yikes!

Uncapped

Four car photos in a row! Am I stuck in a rut, or what? You can check out my photo stream to see others I've taken in the past few days, though.

This is a valve stem on one of my tires. I used to have these nice GTI-logo caps on them, until they randomly "disappeared" one day. I figure one of the neighborhood kids has really nice valve stem caps on his bike now.

Emissions

I noticed today that I completely neglected to clean my car's exhaust tips during my detailing binge. As you can see, they really need it, too.

Interlagos

I spent the past two days getting my car squeaky-clean, inside and out. I plan on taking a whole series similar to my Xbox study, but I just haven't been able to bear more sunshine or heat yet. ;)

This is a close-up of the "Interlagos Plaid" seat fabric. The plaid fits the style of the car so well (especially in black or red) I couldn't imagine choosing the optional leather seats over it. I do miss the seat-heaters in Mom's Passat, though...

The seats are still in really good condition, considering how often I drive with passengers.

GTI Runner

I'm cheating a little bit again. There wasn't anything photo-worthy that happened today, so I had to get in my time machine and pull one from tomorrow. This is the driver's side runner from my car, a 2007 GTI Mark V. I <3 it a lot. Today's photo is another black-and-white!

Macro Mai

I bought a +10 diopter for close-up shots today. I'm not entirely sure if I like it yet; either I don't know how to use it well, or it's just not well-suited to my camera's zoom lens. It may also just be too powerful.

This photo demonstrates the effect of the lens on macro shots. The top version is with the diopter, the bottom without. The only thing that was changed between the two shots was the removal of the diopter lens and a focus adjustment. It was shot at a distance of about an inch and a half. Notice the more pronounced depth-of-field effect in the top photo. I think that effect alone may be worth the price of the lens.

I can't wait until I can get a super-nice digital SLR. I'll definitely buy a dedicated macro lens once I have one. Probably on the same day I buy the camera. ;-)

The character is Mai Kannazuki from the anime G-Taste, if you're wondering.

Dirty Bassline

It seems that my turntable's dustcover is doing a substandard job of keeping out the dust... I'm disappointed in myself for leaving a record on it for so long in the first place, though.

The only light in this scene is from the turntable's built-in lamp, if I remember right.

XYZ

I was sitting at Starbucks today with my camera, playing around. I'm fairly fascinated by zippers and other things like that, so perhaps it's no surprise that I eventually started taking pictures of them. This zipper is from one of the mid-thigh pockets on my most serious cargo pants.

Looks like I've been on a black-and-white kick lately.

Nocturnal Portrait

This is a photo of me at about 10:00 PM tonight. Taking an identifiable portrait at night is rather challenging—for the subject! It makes one appreciate the discipline required of portrait subjects in the early days of photography. This is a 20-second exposure; I think it probably could have gone longer.

I took a better one yesterday, but my memory card randomly cracked across the middle so I can't copy it to the computer. X( The upshot is that I got to buy a new card with twice the capacity!

Photography at Borders

We went to Borders today for no real reason; just to get out of the house, mostly. I've been needing that a lot lately. I'm starting to remember to carry my camera with me everywhere, and it seems to be paying off already. Maybe I'll meet some interesting people, or at least spark some conversation. You gotta have a hook, right? :P

My Flickr photostream also has a similar shot from the Barnes & Noble photography section.

Cooling Trend

Here's a retake of a spur-of-the-moment shot I originally did with my cell phone. Although the original has its charm, this one is definitely of a higher quality. It's the AC controls for my car.

HSS

I had to go to school yesterday to fill out withdrawal paperwork. I'm affiliated with Muir College at UCSD, and the academic advising office is in the Humanities & Social Sciences complex. This view, toward the main H&SS building, is coming from the Muir parking lot, so it's facing... south?

Last Call

When your glass of rum looks like this... it's time to put it down. ;-)

DS Feather Pen Stylus

Nintendo has a survey going right now for users who register The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. If you participate, you'll receive a nifty feather pen stylus as pictured above. Cool! This is what the stylus looks like with the crimson-and-black DS Lite.

No Bad Days

I went to the craft supply store to get some paperboard for a "poor man's" photo backdrop. Because I'm tired of my room and other things like that being in the background of my macro photos. I tested it out this evening after taking my medication; pills always make good photo subjects! So here's the result. You can see the fuzziness from the long exposure, and the crappy yellow tinge due to the color of my bedroom lights. I'll try again tomorrow and should get a better result.

Happy? At Night?

That doesn't seem to happen too often these days. Best not to question it, and hope it keeps up! Despite my jocund expression, I'm actually not feeling so well tonight. :-/

Unhooked

This is my life. Going to the mailbox was the most exciting thing I did today. But hey—it's Saturday! It's not supposed to be exciting!

Happy Birthday, Kevin!

Today was Kevin's birthday. He was more than a bit surprised, I think, that he finally got the Xbox 360 of his own that he's been after since last Christmas. But that's not what this photo's about. It's a long story, but the short version is this: There's a running gag in the house about Kevin getting kicked in the balls. Why? I doubt anyone knows any more; it's just a part of our rapport now. Anyway, Kevin's losing his composure here because Aaron drew a little picture in a card of him giving Kevin a birthday nut-shot. The faces on the characters are quite hilarious. I'll have to put up a scan or photo of the drawing, because it's not to be missed. :P

Xbox Study

I took a ton of photos of my Xbox 360 today. Some of them turned out really cool. :D So today I present to you "Standby." All the photos in this series are covered by the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license, so you can use them in your own visual projects as long as you give me credit. Nice!

Porchside

Here's another action-packed photo of myself, this time sitting on the porch. The astute among you may suspect that today's and yesterday's photos were, in fact, taken on the same day. You would be correct. I cheated a little bit. But now March will have no empty days, unlike January and February.

Dust in the Wind

A cigarette succumbing to the wind's destructive influence.

Lady Liberty

I had to go to Fry's to get some printer ink today. On the way there, there's a tax-preparation service, and they've always got a person in some kind of patriotic get-up working the corner. It's not uncommon to see Uncle Sam around as well.

I know it's a lean time for civil liberties, but I didn't think it was bad enough for Lady Liberty herself to become a "lady of the evening!"

Potted Pansy

This is a pansy that's in a pot on our front porch. Cute little guy, huh?

Gorillapod in Action

So I mentioned getting a Gorillapod recently. I thought I'd take a photo to demonstrate it. I'm enjoying it well already. :) Here it's mounted to a towel bar in my bathroom.

Since today is the beginning of a new month, I'm going to make March the month I seriously start to keep up on this and post a new photo every day, like I'd planned on doing all year.