observing the process will change it

So, I'm sure anyone who reads this and cares already knows, but what is the point of having a blog if not to post details of one's personal life for random dudes all over the world to see in the middle of the night while they sit naked, hunched over their computer, in between vigorous masturbatory sessions?  That is my question.  And the answer is, there is no point other than that.  I'm writing this for them.

So I got engaged on December 27th, to the most beautiful girl I have ever known, inside and out.  I couldn't be happier knowing that I will be spending the rest of my days waking up to this:

Granted, not outside, or with a slight breeze in her hair, or the late afternoon sun illuminating her face.  But, with a lot less clothing on.  So, all in all, I'm pretty lucky.

Yikes, I'm obviously not cut out to keep up with this at this point. So I'll stall by posting a kitty.

How quickly I fall off the wagon.  Here's a pretty clam.

This was my first try with the Orton technique, where you combine an out of focus layer with super-sharpened layer and get this sort of dreamy look.  This picture was not sharp at all to begin with and was kind of a lost cause, until I came across the Orton group on Flickr and thought that might be a way to rescue this picture.

This is the beautiful Hippeastrum given to us by our friends Monica and Seth.  It's a pretty amazing house plant because it requires almost no attention and then before you know it there are spectacular flowers shooting out of it. 

1/1/2007

I don't think I've done an HDR post on here before. It stands for high dynamic range and when done properly can yield stunning results.

This one isn't especially realistic, but it has a dreamy glow and looks like what the room might have looked like on some really sweet medication.

The wiki link above has all the linkage you'd need to get started with HDR yourself, but this is a pretty straightforward walkthrough for Photoshop.

This is Mango. I named him Mango because that is what I feed him. And because I like mangos.

I set up a ridiculously spiffy frog habitat last week, and it seemed like a shame to have Mango in a tiny little plastic enclosure when there was this veritable wonderland a good month or two away from ever seeing a frog tenant. So that's where he is in the picture. He. Or she. I don't really know yet.

This is a fun one from a wedding we went to on my birthday a couple weeks ago. 

Last one, it's my favorite.  It is such a clean picture, and I'm not shitting you, I saw the heart go off, I opened the shutter, and got exactly what I wanted.  I can't say that happens very often, even when shooting static images, let alone flames shooting through a pitch black sky.  So this one makes me happy.

And another.  Only one more of fireworks on the way.  I promise.