Ordinary

Sometimes it's just this: light coming through a fogged window with a rusted metal frame, water beading on plastic, a hanging cord, a rounded bar of soap. The light washes across, refracts, illuminates. It's the simplest thing, really. I catch my breath at the beauty of the world.

A Strange Aesthetic

I'm not sure how to account for my fondness for such widely divergent images. What is it that tickles my aesthetic imagination about the view of the Flamingo's brassy glory from this dimly lit, beige elevator lobby at Harrah's? And what could it possibly have in common with my appreciation of this tumble of striped rock at Valley of Fire?

Disorientation

I continue to be wobbly and a little woozy. I've got some sort of ear infection, I think.

Arlington House

I spent several hours on Sunday wandering around Arlington Cemetary. The Custis-Lee Mansion is stuck partway through renovation, for lack of funds, which I find absolutely preposterous and shameful.

Brave New Mall

This is an image you simply could not create with a single conventional exposure.

It's a handheld HDR, this time using only two exposures: Photomatix HDR and tone-mapping based on two camera JPEGS, exported as TIFF, adjusted in Lightroom, exported as JPEG for the web. I tried to keep it looking 'real' this time, but if you snoop around in the image you'll see a few anomalies. I didn't take the trouble to bring it into Photoshop and fix everything properly.

Amazingly decent result considering the completely ad hoc nature of the entire enterprise.

Reader Quiz

Okay, so you've been following along as I explore the wonders of RAW format, right? Think you can tell a camera-produced JPEG from the RAW-processed JPEG?

OK, let's find out! Look for:

1) noise in shadows
2) color balance
3) sharpness with minimal graininess
4) appropriate contrast
5) highlight detail

So, which is the RAW-processed file? Is it...

A?



Or is it B?

Wires & Shadows

Believe me when I tell you that no camera JPEG is going to give you a result like this. RAW is beautiful (these uploaded files suffer from some meaningful loss of quality).

And here's a black & white version:

My New Joy-Toy

So there I was, at National Airport, to collect my holiday visitor. I had some time to kill before his plane arrived, and ~ whaddaya know ~ I just happened to have acquired a new camera the day before. I spent a happy half an hour wandering around the terminal, beginning to learn how to use it. What fun! Big, luscious images to work with, an expanded gamut, what a treat!

Blue Light Special

Having escaped, with the help of friend Deb, from my apartment and the slush of sidewalks, we found ourselves at Tara Thai on Massachusetts Avenue for lunch. Even more than the flavorful food, the company, the sunshine, and this splash of equatorial color were balm to the cabin-fevered soul.

Warm & Cosy

When it's chilly out, and the world seems more than usually harsh, it's nice to have a welcoming place to stop in at. Today, for me, it was Tryst in Adams Morgan. Free wifi, a good latte, and a nice salad in a comfortable chair. Just right.

Well-Divided Space

I had lunch in this restaurant today. I very much enjoyed how the interior was segmented in a light but definitive manner, and the variety of textures on vertical and horizontal surfaces.