Day 209 - My Camera is on Crack

Today Kerry and I slept in late and then rambled around the city eating delicious things (truffles, almond butter cookies, honey-lavender ice cream, almond croissants, and Ethiopian food). We stopped at Dolores Park for a bit so she could do her daily drawings and I could do my daily photo. Most of my shots turned out as expected, but when I took this shot of some buildings bordering the park, my camera decided to flip the fuck out. I have no idea how or why this happened—I hadn't changed any of my settings (which were all normal), the buildings look completely ordinary in real life (the colors are actually quite washed out), and the sky was a very overcast sunset. But somehow, for some reason, the photo came out looking like a cartoon drawing. I don't get it, but it's pretty cool.

Day 208 - Drums!

Today I spent about nine hours on Amtrak (first a train, then a bus). By the time I got to San Francisco, the sun was setting and I was more interested in dinner (mmmm Thai) than photo-taking. I ended up photographing Kerry's boyfriend Jesse playing Rock Band while she and I caught up. The lighting in their apartment is as bad (if not worse) than mine, so it didn't come out well. I do like the blur effect of his hand though—he was drumming really, really fast. The weird perspective (using a wide-angle lens from in between two of the cymbals) is also kind of fun.

Day 207 - Touch Lamp

I spent most of the evening scrambling around trying to do all the things I needed to get done before my trip to San Francisco. As a result, I ended up waiting until about 11:00 to take my photo. I grabbed a frosted glass touch lamp and took a few quick shots. The camera (and I) didn't really know how to deal with the weird lighting, but the pattern on the glass came out looking pretty neat.

Day 206 - Sophisticated Lady is Sophisticated!

Nicole randomly decided to drop by tonight, so we spent the evening chatting and drinking a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon. When I realized that I hadn't taken my photo for the day, I grabbed my camera and told her to "look sophisticated." As you can see, she had a hard time with this. Thanks to the shitty lighting in my living room, this shot didn't come out well at all. I swear to God, my next place will have fantastic lighting.

Day 205 - An Explosion of Flowers

It's been awhile since I took a flower shot. In the past, I've usually isolated an individual flower, but this clump of flowers really caught my eye as I was walking home. The lighting really highlights the beautiful color of the petals.

Day 204 - Bread!

I was very busy tonight, which means that I didn't take a photo until late. I had just finished baking a loaf of brioche, so I thought I'd take a photo of that. Unfortunately, I was so eager to try the bread that I didn't have any patience for photo-taking. As a result, this photo is pretty meh. But if you could smell or taste it instead of just see it, you'd think it was the best photo ever, because that bread was freaking amazing!

Day 203 - Cool Sand Pattern

While I was at Nell and Brian's, I tried to take a picture of the rats running around, but nothing was coming out clearly. Then I had the idea to take a shot of Nell's sand... thingie. One of those decorative things with sand and oil (I guess) that you can flip upside down to watch the sand fall in fun patterns. I backlit it with a colored lamp. Unfortunately, all the shots of the sand actually falling showed very large air bubbles. This one didn't turn out quite as exciting as I'd hoped, but at least it's something different.

Day 202 - My (Mostly Failed) Attempt at Fancy Lighting

Today was a "let's recover from last night" type of day, so needless to say I didn't have the energy to venture outside to find something to photograph. While taking a picture of Perdita on my windowsill, I had the bright (haha) idea to use my sunrise-simulating alarm clock to light her up from below. I like the effect, but it looks a little weird when combined with the light from the window. I think I'll try to use this technique in the future, though.

Day 201 - Where There's a Brian, There's a Way

I did it again! Since I knew I was going to a party tonight, I waited to take my photo until then, but when I got there I had absolutely no desire to fiddle with my camera. I was also horrified to discover that I'd left my SD card at home, but luckily Paul had one I could borrow. Joey (my usual subject in these situations) was being uncooperative, but luckily Brian was on hand to make this ridiculous face. Thanks for saving the day, Brian!

Day 200 - Oh Yay, More Weave Pattern

I was super busy tonight, so I didn't have much time to think of and take a photo. I ended up using a shot of the wicker top of my clothes hamper. And... that's basically all I have to say about this one.

Day 199 - Ratties!

Brian and Nell are taking care of a friend's rats for a little bit, so of course I had to play with them. They were, however, extremely hard to get a good picture of because I had to use my closeup filter and they moved around so much. This shot isn't super sharp, but I like the composition.

Day 198 - Mother's Little Helper

Before taking my photo for the day I decided to do a bit of cleaning. Elim decided to "help" me by getting into the trash can I had just emptied (I'm so thankful he doesn't do this when there's stuff in it). So of course I had to take a quick photo.

Day 197 - Words on the Pavement

Today I brought my camera to work but, as per the usual, I didn't take a picture until I was walking home. In a fit of randomness I decided to take a shot of the word "DRIVE" (part of "DMV DRIVE TEST"). I actually really like how this one turned out; it's a bit different, sort of has a theme, and I like the texture of the pavement.

Day 196 - OMG SNOW!!!!

Today was the Best. Day. Ever. It snowed in the mountains above Santa Barbara last night, so this morning Brian and I drove up East Camino Cielo to check it out. I was expecting a few little patches but was amazed to discover full-on, legit snow about six inches deep. Amid ridiculous amounts of gleeful squealing, I proceeded to throw snowballs, make and eviscerate a snowman, besiege a snow fort, make a snow angel, and go sledding (thanks random guy who let us borrow your sled four times in a row). Unfortunately, I was so entranced by the snow that I forgot to check my camera settings which, were completely out of whack (my ISO was set at freaking 1600 and my white balance was set to incandescent). And, since I didn't want to get my camera wet, I only took a few pictures before playing. Oh well, I regret nothing—I had a total blast. (Oh, and afterward I went to farmers' market and bought strawberries. Love you California!) The shot of Brian throwing a snowball at me is my favorite by far.

Day 195 - Joey to the Rescue

Despite the fact that I had a full weekend day at my disposal and a new lens, I didn't take a photo until about 11:00 pm after getting a bit inebriated (hey, it's St. Patrick's Day) and discovering that both camera batteries were dead and frantically charging one for an hour or so. Luckily, Carey's dog Joey once again proved to be quite photogenic (although a bit less cooperative than usual). Thanks JoJo, I owe you one!

Day 194 - Toothpicks

I'm so mad at myself. I finally had an awesome idea for a photo—a closeup of multicolored toothpicks—but because I waited until about 10:00 pm to take my photo, I didn't have the energy to do this shot justice (i.e., set up a tripod, fix the lighting, etc.). I'd like to pretend that the blur in this photo was intentional and artistic, but it's not. I might revisit this in the future when I have the time to do it the right way.

In other news, my new lens (14–45mm) arrived today. Yay! Now I have 14mm to 200mm covered.

Day 193 - Feather

Tonight I decided to take a closeup shot of a hawk feather I have. Unfortunately, the feather is very small (less than an inch across), so I had to use my closeup filters, which meant I couldn't get a very clear shot. Still kind of a fun photo though.

Day 192 - Black Cat

I am now officially feeding three outside/stray cats. This black one is the newest addition. I feel really sorry for it—black cats have a bad reputation and this one is huge and has a meow that makes it sound like it's the spawn of Satan. But it's such a friendly, sweet cat. Taking a picture of it was impossible though, because it was nighttime and it would not sit still. The quality of this picture is rally crappy, but I love the composition, with it looking up at me with those giant yellow eyes.

Day 191 - C'mon Mom, Go to Bed!

The plan tonight was to take a picture of my first attempt at basket weaving. By midnight, however, I still wasn't completely done with the basket, it looked like crap, I'd accidentally stabbed myself with an awl (okay, a bit of an exaggeration), and I just wanted to go to bed. And so did Perdita. I love her expression—you can tell how sleepy and fed up with my shenanigans she is.

Day 190 - Butter Dish

I made my first "real"ceramic piece—a butter dish with a fancy swirly handle! Even though it's a bit lopsided, I really like it. The glaze turned out awesome, but unfortunately you can't really tell from this photo. I was foiled, yet again, by small shiny objects in less-than-optimal lighting conditions. I should have waited to take a photo of this in the sunlight, but I was too impatient to share my "baby" with the world (by which I mean the handful of people who look at this thing).

Day 189 - El Capitan

Today Brian and I drove to El Capitan for a picnic and some photos. I really like the first shot, but, like a moron, I forgot to include something for scale. This little inlet of water among the rocks was only about a foot wide, but you can't tell that from the photo. I should have had Brian's feet in the shot for scale. The second shot is of some interesting texture in the sand. It sort of reminds me of a jellyfish.

Day 188 - Vulture

This morning I got up early(ish) to go with Brian and Carey to the bluffs to see if we could spot the leopard sharks that Carey had seen the day before. We found them, but unfortunately none of my photos came out clear enough to use. This shot of a vulture, however, is the best photo I've gotten to date of a bird in flight. Not amazing, but still pretty fun.

Day 187 - Hi Orange Kitty!

(I've taken a photo of her before, but considering how much she hangs around she was due for another.) Today I was feeling under the weather so I worked from home. While eating my lunch on the front step in the sun (yes, I realize that sounds a little weird), Orange Kitty decided to say hi. She looked really cute walking along the fence, so I ran in and grabbed my point-and-shoot to take a quick shot before she jumped down. Nothing too special about this shot—just another cute cat picture.

Day 186 - By the Ocean at Night

Tonight Brian and I went on a quest to take a cool moon shot. Unfortunately, it was way too hazy to take a photo of the moon over the city, so we went down to SBCC to try to take a photo of the moon reflecting off the ocean. But since it was a full moon, the light was way too bright for our cameras to handle correctly. Then we decided to forget the moon and just take a shot of the moonlit water with the other person standing silhouetted. I really like how this one turned out.

Day 185 - Interference!

Another busy evening, so I was planning on just taking a quick shot of Perdita. Luckily, she decided to be adorable and grabbed the camera strap (pulling it into the frame) and started gnawing on it. This shot isn't the best quality, but I think it really captures the impromptu antics of my little furball.

Day 184 - Beaded Vase

Tonight I decided to take a shot of a beaded vase my aunt (who's Apache) made for me a long time ago. That's.... pretty much all I have to say about this. Not one of my more creative shots.

Day 183 - The Final Countdown

(Unfortunately, not really.) Today I am officially halfway through this challenge, so I wanted to take a picture of a clock for symbolic reasons. My initial plan was to do a long enough exposure so that you could see the blur of the second hand as it traveled around the clock, but that proved a bit too difficult for almost-your-bedtime me. But I did try! I even broke out my neutral density filter to adjust exposure time and my polarizing filter to try to cut the glare from the glass surrounding the clock face. THis certainly could have come out better, but, thanks to heavily adjusting the contrast and saturation, I really like how antique the clock looks.

Day 182 - Succulent Pattern (Or, How I Gave up on the Butterflies)

Today I went back to Ellwood again—this time in the early morning. There were definitely a lot of butterflies, but none mating on the ground. That may have been because the place was crawling with the loudest, most obnoxious children imaginable. It made me want to sterilize all the adults there. Anyway, on the way back home I saw a bright green succulent lit up nicely by the sun, so I decided to take a closeup shot of one of th leaves.

I'm officially giving up on getting a butterfly shot. And I'm pretty tapped out on plants and flowers as well. Back to the cats, perhaps?

Day 181 - Damn Goleta, You Pretty

Today I walked over to Ellwood to see if the butterflies were on the ground getting it on. They were not. I walked around the bluffs for a bit looking for something else to photograph. Nothing really caught my eye, so I decided to take a somewhat generic "look at me, I live in a gorgeous place that most people would give their right arm to live in but I kind of take it for granted" shot of the ocean and the bluffs. I was kind of annoyed that there were some people in my shot, but they provide scale, I guess.

Day 180 - Foxtails at Sunrise

This morning, Brian and I went out to the bluffs to catch the sunrise. Unfortunately, the sunrise really wasn't worth catching. It turns out, though, that the light about an hour after sunrise is very, very pretty. It lit up this foxtail very nicely.

Day 179 - Spring is Coming

(Not that we're even really in winter here in sunny California...) While walking around work today, I noticed a tree covered in little buds, so I decided to take some photos. One section up near the top was lit up nicely by the sun, so I tried to focus on that, but my camera refused to cooperate. This shot could be a lot clearer, but I still like the lighting.