Dialog with the Past

Heather and I went to Elliott's house today. Heather, to help Lisa with some work, and I to work on some tunage with Elliott. I think I got the better deal. ;) In their kitchen/breakfast-nook area there's an intercom for corresponding with visitors at the door. Apparently it doesn't function any more, and maybe it's no wonder: It looks like it's been there since the house was built.

Time Machine

One of Mom's old clocks. You can tell it's old because it says "Made in the U.S.A." on it. ;-)

I'm trying to get a photo good enough to enter into the Amateur Macros "time" competition. Still not quite there yet.

Hazard

I attempted to take a bunch more GTI photos today, but it was so damn hot I couldn't bear sitting in the car. So I only got this one and one other. I like the angle.

CCCP

I took this after class at school today, sitting under the trees at the Jacobs School. This is a closeup of my belt with a Red Army pin. I like the reflection of the sun on the star; it adds that much more pizazz to an already rather dramatic pin. What idealistic youngster doesn't go through a socialist phase, at least? Although I'm not convinced it's just a phase in my case.

As an aside, I don't, currently, advocate communism. And if you think the two are equivalent, the ruling class has you well trained, and you should do your own research on the subject. ;-)

Urban Accessories

I went exploring the "bear garden" outside the CSE building at school for a bit today. I thought this drainage grate might make a cool picture, and what do you know? It did!

Short Ouroboros

Some inconsiderate customer left this straw wrapper on the table for us. Or maybe they were being considerate; I probably wouldn't have thought to take a photo like this if it hadn't already been there!

Morning Wood

Catchy title, huh? ;) This is a chair outside - you guessed it! - Starbucks. The DoF isn't as shallow as I would have liked, but it still turned out pretty good.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Last Call

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

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.

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!

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!

Dust in the Wind

A cigarette succumbing to the wind's destructive influence.