Testing Vortex

Testing Vortex
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

I shot this at the end of a long morning of Advanced Placement testing yesterday.

I recently set my camera's "optimize image" setting to "more vivid." It makes my shots a little darker, but I like the way it makes the colors pop a little more. I cropped this to 5x5 and then applied a vortex blur, which I then erased from the student.

I have not done much shooting since I started the job, mainly because I haven't done any newspaper work since then either. I'm hoping to start doing more shooting for fun now that I don't feel compelled to work at home anymore. Today I am going to a church BBQ fundraiser to get some shots for the paper, though. I'm looking forward to that.

The patio project is nearing completion. Steve is coming today to do the mortar. I need to get out and take some shots of that, too.

Last night Taylor and I ate an odd supper and watched "Die Hard." He'd never seen it before. I asked him what he wanted for supper and he said wings. I knew I had a few. But wings take 90 minutes to bake so that they are crunchy. So I picked up sushi too. So we started grazing with sushi, then went to french fries, and then wings, topping it all off with movie candy. It was a fun night.

Tenth Avenue North - Love Is Here

My new favorite group. Their debut album is due for release in about 10 days.

Clematis

Clematis
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

I planted one clematis last fall next to the copper obelisk that Taylor and I made in cub scouts a few years ago. But really I knew it would want company...at least two more. So this spring I bought two nice, big plants from Lowe's Home Improvement for about $8 each. This is the first bloom from the three...it's one of the spring plants. I'm starting to see nearly daily changes in my garden now. It's pretty exciting!

Things are hopping around here as I ramp up prep for Nate's Open House June 1. Friend Steve is putting in the flagstones now that will extend our existing patio out slightly beyond the pergola. It looks much more finished back there now. I guess I'll need to shop for some furniture next.

I've also secured someone to do a deep cleaning of the entire house before the open house, and she'll come every week or every other week after to help out. That will help a lot. I can manage the cleaning, but it's a stress I really don't need, and if I'm doing it when Mensa Boy is here, he feels obligated to help.

So. that's all I know for now.

Cap&Gown

Cap&Gown1
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

This is from yesterday as well. The best, probably, of all 250 shots. I did pull a major novice boner. When I uploaded all the pix I noticed that I'd shot them all with the ISO set at 1600. That made them all much noisier. However, the colors are good and the lighting seems to be working well. It was about 6 or 7 o'clock last night when we did this.

My idea was to do this task this weekend while Mensa Boy is home is because I knew Nate would have a really bad attitude about it. My theory was that Dad would be able to make it a little more fun and try to josh him into enjoying himself.

That totally backfired. MB is so inside-out getting ready for his trip to China that his head wasn't really in the game either. I could have actually killed them both!

But we did get a few and I hope to have another run at this today. If I can't make it work out then I'll ask a friend from school, who was Nate's Biology teacher, to get together with us and help.