Steampunk Vines

I'm not sure whether I'll be able to post while I'm away in Albuquerque. Please enjoy the nature-artifice combo of this image in the meantime.

What February Feels Like

I'm going to Albuquerque on Thursday evening (assuming the next snowstorm doesn't shut down DCA). I'm looking foward to seeing my sister and her husband, and Bob who will be joining me from Las Vegas. I'm hoping for sunshine, too.

Strange Light

Here's another example of reflected light illuminating the mundane in an unexpected way. Where is the sun in this picture? It's to the left and behind a building.

Felicitous Error

I had set my camera to its highest available ISO the other night, thinking I was going to try to photograph in a darkened room. I didn't. But I forget to set the ISO to something more normal.

So when I took the picture above, the 1600 ISO shot in normal daylight resulted in something I hadn't seen in quite a while: grain. Grain looks different from typical pixels. And I actually think THIS grain is beautiful. Have a look at the big version, which I've made bigger-than-usual.

Beautiful Trash

Some of us live among the stars, but I'm looking at the gutter.

Hydrant in Chains

I spent 45 blustery minutes wandering around outside this afternoon.

Have Mercy

Submitted without comment, because ~ really ~ what is there to say at this point?

I promise I will try to get somewhere and take pictures of something different and more interesting tomorrow.

Wonderful Photo Essay

I am utterly fed up with a) the snow and b) pictures of the snow.

I recommend you have a look at Days With My Father by photographer/artist Phillip Toledano, one of the most beautiful photo essays I've ever seen.

To those of us with either aging parents, or ones who have already died, this essay speaks especially eloquently. Toledano's other work is worth a look as well.

The Lion in Winter

…giving new meaning to the term "snowy mane."

Undaunted

There are some serious advantages to living across the street from a fabulous piece of art.

Thaw

I got out into the wide world, in my car even, twice in two days. I feel almost like a citizen of the universe again!

Just in time for more snow tomorrow.

Vine Gothic

Ghosts of Shopping Past

You know I like the old, the decayed, the abandoned. This photo essay from The Morning News tickles all my fancies. Photographer Brian Ulrich has done some splendid work.

Why nothing new from me? Because I spent a giant hunk of my afternoon on the ongoing project: Dig Out My Car. I did enough so that ~ if tomorrow is sufficiently sunny ~ meltage should make it possible for me to escape the back alley for the first time in two weeks.

Naturally, snow squalls are predicted for tonight. I believe the expression I'm looking for is FML.

Built for Speed…

…and going nowhere fast.

Bonus points if you can name the model from the snow outline!

Yeah. More Snow.

Enough already!

Even Sasquatch Is Tired of the Snow

Yup, it's snowing again. Supposedly all night tonight and all day tomorrow. I am trying to see the beautiful side in all this, but it's a struggle.

How I Feel

Snow: Awww, so pretty! Such fun, with the sledding and snowball fights and skiing and snow angels! A winter wonderland! An excuse to revisit childhood, since getting to work is impossible. What's not to love about snow!

Well, let's see.

How about: I just spent 3.5 hours digging out my car. I estimate I shifted over a ton of snow. By hand, people! Every muscle in my body is screaming bloody murder, and I know from grim experience that means tomorrow I WILL NOT BE ABLE TO HOLD SO MUCH AS A PEN IN MY HAND WITHOUT AGONY. Typing is already unpleasant.

And we are forecast to receive between 10 and 20 inches more snow beginning tomorrow afternoon.

See the expression on that kid in the picture? That's me, except times 1000.

Pan-Child Playing in the Snow

I love that this thoroughly heathen image is placed just outside the former baptistry (now a garden shop) at the National Cathedral.

Snowmaggedon 2010

Feeling lucky to have heat and power, but kicking myself for not getting some more groceries into the joint. I have enough pasta for a day or two, and milk for coffee, but that's about it.

Wish I'd bought those snowboots I couldn't be bothered with.

A Bend in the River

It's snowing here. A lot. The first blizzard was dubbed "Snowpocalypse." I'm calling this one "Snowmaggedon."

Since I wasn't able to set foot out of my place today (and tomorrow's not looking so good either), you'll have to make do with another picture from my last visit to Great Falls.

Quod Severis Metes

Blogger informed me that they are ceasing to support FTP publishing to my webserver in the next month or so. So now I'm scrambling to find an alternative. Looks like it's going to be WordPress.

Y'all don't need to do anything except keep coming back, and maybe update your RSS feed information when the change happens.

A Little Video

While I was at Great Falls I shot a few brief clips in the camera's AVHCD Lite video format. Of course I forgot that vertical is still basically verboten in video (although I think it makes for very interesting moving pictures). Here's what they look like cobbled together hastily in iMovie.

What's interesting to me is that the water appears to be moving much more quickly in these images than I perceived it at the time. Video artifact or trick of the mind?

They Flee From Me

Most of the time, to be honest, the deer in these parts just stand around and look at you as if to say, "Yeah, and then what?" But these were gals, and a couple of them looked to be young, so they were a little less inclined to hold still and pose properly. Hence the less-than-stellar image quality (well, that, and the light was disappearing).

River Ice

I went back to Great Falls, this time on the Maryland side. The river was roaring, even higher than my last visit. There were fantastic turned-lathe banisters of icicles everywhere. I've never seen anything like them before.

One of the great things about shooting digital, is that you can take as many images as your SD card will hold.

One of the problems with shooting digital, is that you can shoot as many pictures as your SD card will hold.

I came home with over 200 images, and have barely begun the process of sorting through them and applying post-processing. But here's one that just stuns me.