Day 178 - Joey! (Again)

Tonight I went to a watching-movies-in-your-PJs get-together and even Joey got comfortable in Brian's lap (and mine, and Carey's, and...). I can't decide which picture I like better—Joey's expression is cuter in the first one, but the whacky perspective looks a bit better in the second one.

Day 177 - Flowers (AND a Bench This TIme)

Another flower shot. But today, instead of focusing on just the flower, I decided to include some of the background. I think the bench makes for a nice composition, but I wish it was a bit more blurred and that there was a stronger center of focus in the foreground. I think I'll try this again later, though.

Day 176 - Bracelet

The amber pendant I took a picture of Friday reminded me of my favorite bracelet, the swirly lines of which I thought might make a nice photo. Unfortunately, this was yet another small, shiny object that turned out to be ridiculously hard to photograph. And, since I was too tired to set up my tripod, I had to hold the bracelet with one hand and the camera with the other, which made the shot even harder to take.

Day 175 - Weird Flower

Today I went by myself back to the butterflies, but those bastards still refused to provide me with good pictures. I did, however, notice this weird cylindrical flower thing on the way there. Perhaps someone who knows more about flowers than I do can tell me what it is. I took a few shots of just the flower, but I like the composition of this one—with bits of the leaves—better. Bonus: I also saw a few other non-flower things that I may take pictures of in the near future.

Day 174 - Ellwood Walk

This morning I went on a walk around Ellwood with Carey and Brian. The plan was to take photos of the mating monarch butterflies, but it was too overcast and cold for them. So instead we wandered around taking random shots. The ones of the mushroom and the closeup of the flower petals are okay, but my favorite is the one of Joey.

Day 173 - Amber

I really, really like amber jewelry, so tonight I decided to take a shot of my amber pendant, which has some insect wings in it. I don't really like the background color—I feel likei t doesn't highlight the amber that well—but there were only so many places I could suspend the necklace that also had good light.

Day 172 - Don't Let the Cat out of the Bag

Nell made me a super awesome bag, so of course I wanted to take a picture of it (like I did with the ceramic piece Brian made me). Unfortunately, this was a bit hard because of (surprise!) the shitty lighting in the house and the many different patterns of the fabric. Luckily, Elim decided to be cute and wiggle his way (partially) into the bag. Nell and I joked that putting the bag over someone's head would induce a seizure thanks to the psychedelic pattern of the liner, but Elim appears to have handled it quite well.

Day 171 - Timing is Everything

Before I went out carousing with friends, I decided to take a few quick shots of Perdita, and I just so happened to catch her in mid-mouthlick. The picture isn't very sharp, but I still really like it.

Day 170 - Books!

Tonight I decided to take a shot of some of my fancy leather-bound books. This proved harder than expected though because of the crappy lighting in my apartment and because of the light reflecting off the white page. I'm not super happy with this shot, so I may revisit this later on.

Day 169 - Inspiration Point (But Mostly Just Plants and Flowers)

Today I went with Brian on a hike to Inspiration Point. Unfortunately, it was quite hazy, so I wasn't particularly inspired. On the way back to the car, Brian wanted to take some pictures of succulents and flowers (big surprise). I actually really like the lines and color of my succulent shot and the brightness of the flower shot.

Day 168 - Red Flower

Today I tried to take a shot of these weird red flowers in my backyard. I like the composition, but I could not for the life of me get the little leaf parts properly in focus.

Day 167 - Cool Beach Shot

Today Brian and I rode the tandem over to Goleta Beach to take some shots of Paul slacklining. Unfortunately, none of mine came out that well (hopefully I'll have another chance soon), so we walked along the beach for a bit taking random photos. Brian noticed this green bottle sitting in the sand with a bunch of birds behind it and we both found it instantly compelling. This is definitely one of my favorite photos I've taken thus far—there's something about the colors and composition that seems very striking.

Day 166 - Mandolin and Stupid Human Tricks

Tonight was another fun get-together at... that place I go that has a lot of names. The first shot is of Jen being awesome and playing the mandolin. The second one is Brian and Nell doing one of their Stupid Human Tricks. It's a sort of human flag, but the way the shot came out, it looks like Nell's in the process of beating the shit out of Brian mortal kombat style.

Day 165 - Perfume Bottles

I have a small collection of decorative perfume bottles, so tonight I decided to line them up and take a photo. I like how the colors turned out, but the blur progression isn't quite how I wanted it to be. Also, I accidentally broke my favorite one (on the far left) while trying to rearrange the backdrop.

Day 164 - Woven Hat

Again, almost forgot to take my photo for the day! This is a closeup shot of a woven straw hat I bought in the Caribbean a few years ago. That's... pretty much all I have to say about this.

Day 163 - Hearts and Words and Stuff

Today being Valentine's Day and all, I decided to take a picture of some conversation hearts (which, by the way, have gotten way crasser over the years). This didn't turn out quite how I wanted because a) the text wasn't printed on them very clearly and b) I don't have the lens I need to do the composition I had in mind. but it's still bright and fun and occasion-appropriate.

Day 162 - Mortar and Pestle (Or, Let's Be Pretentious)

Tonight I scouted around for a random nicknack to take a picture of and decided on this marble mortar and pestle I've had for years. I really like it (it makes a great bookend), but I'll be the first to admit that owning a fancy mortar and pestle seems a bit pretentious. The really spartan composition of this shot—just the mortar and pestle on a wood countertop against a white wall—also seemed a bit pretentious, like something you'd see in some glossy "flavors of Tuscany" cookbook. So I made it extra pretentious and desaturated the image completely.

Day 161 - Oscar (Again)

I've been birdsitting Oscar for a few weeks, and tonight I decided it was time to take another picture of him. I like this action shot of him preening—it made for an interesting composition.

Day 160 - Move In Day

My new housemate Alex moved in today. He may think it's his room and his bed and his chair, but the cats have other ideas...

Day 159 - Somebody's Watching Me...

Tonight I decided to take a picture of Elim in one of his favorite spots—on top of the fridge. It could have come out a bit clearer (I wanted the color of his eyes to "pop" more) but I really like the weird perspective.

Day 158 - More Super Closeup Shit

Almost forgot to take my photo today. Like, drifting-off-to-sleep-then-jumping-out-of-bed almost forgot. So, needless to say, I didn't spend a lot of time on this one. I decided to take a closeup shot of a leaf-shaped plate I got in Spain a few years ago that has a lot of fun patterns in it. The picture is so-so, but at least I remembered.

Day 157 - Venetian Mask

Tonight I took a closeup shot of a ceramic cat mask from Venice that I actually got while in England. I love how bright and sparkly the colors are, and I'm happy with my decision to capture about (but not exactly) half the mask, creating an asymmetrical composition.

Day 156 - Wood Abstract

To my absolute horror, Nell and Brian are culling their herd of homemade arts and crafts, so I picked up (i.e., saved) a few pieces, including two awesome carved wood pictures. This is a closeup shot of part of one of them.

Day 155 - Marble on Mirror

Over the weekend I absconded with some of Nell's fun marbles, so tonight I tried to put them to use. As always, small shiny objects proved difficult to photograph well, and this was doubly true when I decided to photograph the marble on a mirror. I was too tired to really play around with it, so this is the best I ended up with.

Day 154 - Shadow on Stucco

Today as I was traipsing back and forth to the laundry room, I noticed the shadows the hedge by the front door was casting on the side of the house. I like the contrast of the soft shadow and the grittiness of the stucco wall.

Day 153 - Shells

Went on a bike ride with Nell and Brian from my house all the way downtown and back again (about 32 miles), with a stop for crepes in between. After gorging on homemade mac and cheese at their place, I realized I'd forgotten to take a picture, so I snapped this one of some neat shells they have. Definitely not my best, but I really like the background Nell's ironing board provides.

Day 152 - Bryant's Crazy Slow-Motion Handstand

Tonight I was over at Paul's house for another potluck. Since Brian and I hadn't taken our photos yet, I asked Bryant to do one of his ridiculously hard-looking yoga moves—a slow-motion handstand. Because of the bad lighting and the fact that he does it so slowly, I wasn't able to get a good "flip book" effect with this sequence. Also, once again I really, really wished I had that 14–45mm lens (soon, soon....). Oh well, these will just count as fun candid shots. I love Jeff's "I'll save you!" stance in the last one.

Day 151 - Gigantic Blackberry is Gigantic

Instead of going rock climbing tonight, I did the next best thing and bought a delicious mango mousse cake from the store. The blackberry on top was freaking enormous—definitely the biggest I've ever seen (it was also fantastically ripe). So of course I had to take this silly shot to document it. This isn't a great picture from a technical standpoint, but I find the subject matter amusing.

Day 150 - Fork

Tonight I noticed the fun shadows being cast by my fork on my plate, so I decided to use that as my picture. The shot could have come out a bit better (the blurriness wasn't of the intentional, artistic kind) but I still like the composition.