Photography, knees and stuff
I have *not* been doing the PT exercises for my knee, kind of on purpose, for the last four days. It's really interesting because it is feeling much, much better. For a while there, the muscles in my thigh, especially down by the knee, were feeling really rubbery and I wondered if that meant they'd been overworked rather than weak. It's still stiff when I first get up in the morning, but I've also been wearing my brace to bed, so I suppose that's expected. But after about ten minutes of walking around doing morning things, it feels much more fluid. I might do some squats this morning because, well, my legs *are* weak and I still have hopes for skiing this winter.
This weekend was pretty full and pretty fun. On Saturday, I drove up to meet up with a friend in Beverly, MA. We chatted for a bit, I got to meet her cat (possible hilarious pictures to come), and then we drove the three miles it takes to get to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. She has a membership there and goes quite often, and a couple of months ago, after noticing how interested I was in photography, mentioned that there was going to be an Ansel Adams exhibit and would I like to see it. I would and I did! My friend got me in as a guest with her pass, so it was free! And I got to see an extra exhibit, too: the Yin Yu Tang house! My friend had mentioned it and waxed poetic and such, and I really honestly thought it would have the same ho-hum feel or that sense of over-whelming amounts of information that I've experienced with other exhibits, but no. It was just awesome. So interesting! The only problem is that there's a 30 minute time limit to the tour - it's self-guided, which is fine with me, and the guard can answer lots of questions, but the information available takes far longer to listen to than 30 minutes. Oh, and you're not allowed to take any pictures. Still, I must go back again.
Then, after a short sitting break (bless her, she has bad knees as well, so we shuffled along and sat a lot, grateful that the other went as slowly), we went into the Ansel Adams exhibit. I really thought it was just going to be a little room of black and white photos - nope. Wrong again. There are three rooms and the photographs go in more or less chronological order, so it starts with his very early work - one of which he took when he was 13. That kid already knew how to frame a shot. It was really interesting to see the evolution of how he framed his shots, and how he printed the photos - they were all original prints. And the place was crowded! Many people seemed ho hum about it, but I think they didn't realize that before digital and 35mm, Adams had to haul this great huge camera with him through the wilderness, set up, gauge light, etc., take the shot, then haul everything back to process the film and print it. I loved every minute of the exhibit, but especially his later work after he'd come up with his zone method for printing. I looked for a reproduction to buy at the gifty shop later, but for some reason, the prints they had (only eight different photos) were horrible reproductions, with no detail and they all looked greenish.
Fortunately, I found out later that it is very easy to order much nicer prints online, some made with the original negative. I may have to do that. There's quite a bit of OT available at work. Hmm.
I am so inspired to shoot in black and white now, which I suspect has a whole different set of things the photographer has to look for. More experimentation and research, obviously.
Anyway, we had a great time, saw a few of the Dutch master paintings there on loan, and eventually went out for dinner. Being so near the coast, I suggested Legal Seafoods (how could I not? Oysters, duh.), so off we went. Despite not having a huge lunch, I was strangely not too hungry and got away with some bisque and six oysters. I'm still ascribing this lack of appetite to not moving. Hopefully, I'll be moving again soon.
I got home fairly late, but the drive was surprisingly easy. I always get a bit twitchy when I go up to eastern MA, but my friend really does live about 5 minutes from 128, so it was super easy.
Sunday, I slept in a bit, checked email, puttered around doing morning things and eventually got my butt to work. There is overtime again. Lots of it. I've got to work out how to schedule my days so I don't go insane again. I worked a couple of hours in the office getting done what needed to get done (after getting to the office, realizing that I had left my key on the kitchen table, driving home to get it, then back to work - ugh), then continued on to the grocery store. Got my shopping done (with a list! I stuck to a list!), spent too much, so I'll go two weeks before I go shopping again. While I was there, I picked up a few things I thought would work for another stab at a Dutch master wannabe photo, and because I knew that there would be enough light later in the afternoon, decided it was okay to spend a little extra on them.
I also picked up the world's cutest orchid (teacup orchid - pictures to come). This irks me some because I am trying not to buy *stuff*, but it's a plant and it makes my apartment look elegant and makes me want to get rid of more stuff to make it look more elegant. So.
After I'd put all the groceries away and started cooking for the week (I put together seven meals!! Yeah!), I set up a little still life and shot it. I may have to buy Lightroom after all and keep saving for Photoshop. Here is one of them:
I love this one to bits. And was all set to send this to the printer, until I noticed that there were additional dust spots on the backdrop that need to be removed. The backdrop is brown velvet, which does a kickass job of absorbing light, but I didn't shake it out before I set it up, and while I noticed that it was dusty, I stupidly assumed that it wouldn't show up in the final picture. Stupid me. I'm going to get one of those sticky roller lint remover thingies.
I'm also trying to figure out where I can get a different 'table top'. The one in that picture is a marble pastry board I have set atop a pile of cookbooks that are cleverly hidden with my black velvet blazer (also covered in dust, dammit). I want wood, but don't have a suitable table at the moment. Hmm. I still have vague ideas about seeing if I could sell any of my pictures - at the very least to afford Photoshop. This is hugely fun, but I don't consider myself an artist (I'm copying a genre, sheesh!), just a doodler.
I searched around last night online to see if I could find information on how to set up a still life in terms of light and reflection etc, and found, weirdly, very little. (frozenrhino, any directions you could point me in?) It seems like most people are using natural light and some way of narrowing it as if the window were very small. I dislike having to do so much post processing tweaking - I've seen photos of still lifes that were really amazing and clearly did not have much post processing, it was all about the light. More experimentation.
I'm thinking about setting up a still life of one meal a week. Seems like it would be fun. I can tailor the meal to the still life and the still life to my meal. Also, I was thinking about doing some clearly silly still lifes in the same Dutch master wannabe style using things like a Miller Lite can, etc.
Oh, drat. Time to get ready for work.
This weekend was pretty full and pretty fun. On Saturday, I drove up to meet up with a friend in Beverly, MA. We chatted for a bit, I got to meet her cat (possible hilarious pictures to come), and then we drove the three miles it takes to get to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. She has a membership there and goes quite often, and a couple of months ago, after noticing how interested I was in photography, mentioned that there was going to be an Ansel Adams exhibit and would I like to see it. I would and I did! My friend got me in as a guest with her pass, so it was free! And I got to see an extra exhibit, too: the Yin Yu Tang house! My friend had mentioned it and waxed poetic and such, and I really honestly thought it would have the same ho-hum feel or that sense of over-whelming amounts of information that I've experienced with other exhibits, but no. It was just awesome. So interesting! The only problem is that there's a 30 minute time limit to the tour - it's self-guided, which is fine with me, and the guard can answer lots of questions, but the information available takes far longer to listen to than 30 minutes. Oh, and you're not allowed to take any pictures. Still, I must go back again.
Then, after a short sitting break (bless her, she has bad knees as well, so we shuffled along and sat a lot, grateful that the other went as slowly), we went into the Ansel Adams exhibit. I really thought it was just going to be a little room of black and white photos - nope. Wrong again. There are three rooms and the photographs go in more or less chronological order, so it starts with his very early work - one of which he took when he was 13. That kid already knew how to frame a shot. It was really interesting to see the evolution of how he framed his shots, and how he printed the photos - they were all original prints. And the place was crowded! Many people seemed ho hum about it, but I think they didn't realize that before digital and 35mm, Adams had to haul this great huge camera with him through the wilderness, set up, gauge light, etc., take the shot, then haul everything back to process the film and print it. I loved every minute of the exhibit, but especially his later work after he'd come up with his zone method for printing. I looked for a reproduction to buy at the gifty shop later, but for some reason, the prints they had (only eight different photos) were horrible reproductions, with no detail and they all looked greenish.
Fortunately, I found out later that it is very easy to order much nicer prints online, some made with the original negative. I may have to do that. There's quite a bit of OT available at work. Hmm.
I am so inspired to shoot in black and white now, which I suspect has a whole different set of things the photographer has to look for. More experimentation and research, obviously.
Anyway, we had a great time, saw a few of the Dutch master paintings there on loan, and eventually went out for dinner. Being so near the coast, I suggested Legal Seafoods (how could I not? Oysters, duh.), so off we went. Despite not having a huge lunch, I was strangely not too hungry and got away with some bisque and six oysters. I'm still ascribing this lack of appetite to not moving. Hopefully, I'll be moving again soon.
I got home fairly late, but the drive was surprisingly easy. I always get a bit twitchy when I go up to eastern MA, but my friend really does live about 5 minutes from 128, so it was super easy.
Sunday, I slept in a bit, checked email, puttered around doing morning things and eventually got my butt to work. There is overtime again. Lots of it. I've got to work out how to schedule my days so I don't go insane again. I worked a couple of hours in the office getting done what needed to get done (after getting to the office, realizing that I had left my key on the kitchen table, driving home to get it, then back to work - ugh), then continued on to the grocery store. Got my shopping done (with a list! I stuck to a list!), spent too much, so I'll go two weeks before I go shopping again. While I was there, I picked up a few things I thought would work for another stab at a Dutch master wannabe photo, and because I knew that there would be enough light later in the afternoon, decided it was okay to spend a little extra on them.
I also picked up the world's cutest orchid (teacup orchid - pictures to come). This irks me some because I am trying not to buy *stuff*, but it's a plant and it makes my apartment look elegant and makes me want to get rid of more stuff to make it look more elegant. So.
After I'd put all the groceries away and started cooking for the week (I put together seven meals!! Yeah!), I set up a little still life and shot it. I may have to buy Lightroom after all and keep saving for Photoshop. Here is one of them:
I love this one to bits. And was all set to send this to the printer, until I noticed that there were additional dust spots on the backdrop that need to be removed. The backdrop is brown velvet, which does a kickass job of absorbing light, but I didn't shake it out before I set it up, and while I noticed that it was dusty, I stupidly assumed that it wouldn't show up in the final picture. Stupid me. I'm going to get one of those sticky roller lint remover thingies.
I'm also trying to figure out where I can get a different 'table top'. The one in that picture is a marble pastry board I have set atop a pile of cookbooks that are cleverly hidden with my black velvet blazer (also covered in dust, dammit). I want wood, but don't have a suitable table at the moment. Hmm. I still have vague ideas about seeing if I could sell any of my pictures - at the very least to afford Photoshop. This is hugely fun, but I don't consider myself an artist (I'm copying a genre, sheesh!), just a doodler.
I searched around last night online to see if I could find information on how to set up a still life in terms of light and reflection etc, and found, weirdly, very little. (frozenrhino, any directions you could point me in?) It seems like most people are using natural light and some way of narrowing it as if the window were very small. I dislike having to do so much post processing tweaking - I've seen photos of still lifes that were really amazing and clearly did not have much post processing, it was all about the light. More experimentation.
I'm thinking about setting up a still life of one meal a week. Seems like it would be fun. I can tailor the meal to the still life and the still life to my meal. Also, I was thinking about doing some clearly silly still lifes in the same Dutch master wannabe style using things like a Miller Lite can, etc.
Oh, drat. Time to get ready for work.