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I found two RAW 'negatives' that I took about 5 or 10 minutes earlier than the one I posted previously. This shot is of landscape orientation and closer to the tree. It's a different angle to the sun. The circular artifacts in the foreground are not from lens flare... they are the dew covered spiderwebs that were scattered like land mines in the field (hard to see at web res). Anyhoo, let me know which version you like the best.

My day yesterday started off well... early, but well. I had to go downtown before heading toward the morning shoot at Brazos. The moon was so brilliant in that wee hour that I pulled off the highway to shoot it. Yeah, the cops showed up. LMAO. They stopped with the bubblegum machines a'blazin' because they saw a car with hazards blinking (me), but when they saw my rig set up on the side of the road, they got an attitude... like I was wasting their time. "To serve and protect." Riiiight. I arrived at the Bend before sunrise, but the sky was splotchy pink as the first rays shot over the horizon. I visualized what I wanted to capture in this moment, but didn't have a means to expose the shot. Without graduated neutral density filters, no film, slide, or digital sensor has the dynamic range to capture contrast like that... so I improvised. I grabbed my 'pod and the 12-24 and hiked out into the tall grass that was weighed down with dense morning dew and way too many moisture jeweled cobwebs. Once I got setup, I shot two vertical exposures. The first was manually exposed for the sky to try and capture the subtle pinks bouncing off of the clouds and rich blues that faded into forever. The second was manually exposed for the foreground... which was very dark. So dark, in fact, that everything above the horizon was completely blown out... zero detail. After ensuring I RAW converted these at precisely the same color temperature (Kelvin), I merged the images using a gradient layer mask and some manual mask painting. The result is an image exposed for the entire scene, but consisting of a much greater dynamic range. Lemmie know what you think: The morning at Brazos was very cool. The gators were out growling so loudly that you could feel it in your chest... quite intimidating. Around noon, I grabbed a bite to eat and headed to Matt's for the Wide-o-Rama LAN party. I was really excited since these only happen at his place every 6 months or so, but that's where the day went south. Soon after I arrived and got set up, patched up, and connected to the dedicated server... *ring ring*... a buddy from work called. Our primary and secondary e-commerce firewalls cratered... hardware failure... down hard. It took me an hour to get downtown and I worked until 11:00 last night. We basically ended up having to Frankenstein a new PIX out of spare parts and reprogram everything from scratch. I was dead tired and my day at the LAN was gone. *poof* Oh well, there's always next time! Here are some more photos from yesterday morning...

Ugh! Can't sleep. Last night was a little stressful... Henry's first trip to the emergency room. He almost broke his foot in our back utility door. It gravity swings shut and when I went out back to put some chicken on the grill, he ran trying to beat the door closed (he had been playing out back). His right paw got caught under the bottom of the door as it swung. The whole thing happened in an instant. He was screaming. I was freaking out. EL was out picking up a couple bottles of wine at the store, so I grabbed the keys and started dialing on the cell as the little wounded man and I raced toward the vet. After all was said and done, he is ok. He didn't seem to break the bone, but he is bruised. He got some pain killers and his next installment of puppy meds... and a lot of extra TLC (if that is possible). He weighed in at the hospital at a whoppin' 4.05 pounds! He is growing like a weed! I'm headed downtown. I have to grab shit out of my office before going to the photo shoot. Have a great morning!

So it's still really wet outside... soggy... squishy... whatever. Basically, not nice to walk around in. Henry, Eclair, and I went out to play after the rain stopped and took a few snapshots in the back yard.

Henry decides to ham it up for dad's camera.

...and he's off!

sprinting in a dream

I'm still not feeling 100%, but being home has helped. Low stress and a bit of rest is just what I needed. I hope everyone has a pleasant weekend.

Sluuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurp! Mmmmmmmmn... coffee.

1/30sec, f/8.0, Spot +0 EC, ISO100, EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS @ 70mm

This was an old shot from the fall at Mercer's back pond. It's a short hike through overgrown wooded pine trail to get there, but very cool. It's hard to tell in this image, but in the back on the lefthand side, there is a bamboo forest. I got a call from Sean. He's not going to make it to Houston before heading back to LA. I suppose we'll have to plan a visit soon. I was really looking forward to seeing him. The weekend is almost here! update: DOH! I shot this in January, not last fall. I thought those trees looked a little brown. LOL. I had to go check the EXIF.

I've blogged before about a cool short story by Daniel Orozco called Orientation, here are a couple of readings... one narrated by a woman and one narrated by a man (50 minutes, 40 seconds in). Pretty cool fiction. It's printed in Best American Short Stories 1995.

What did the zen-master say to the New York City hotdog vendor? Make me one with everything. One of the guys I work with just took a job working for M$ out of Seattle. What a cool city... especially if you don't like seeing the Sun much. Heh. I've only been out there once, but it was a blast.

Sick this morning. I started getting a sore throat last evening and I'm feeling all grey today. The dreary weather doesn't help. Little Henry is all snug in my lap... snoozin' away. It's a pain to work on the laptop all day at home because I left my brick in the office. I wish I had some SSL VPN set up on my home PC to alleviate the need to run a dedicated VPN client on the laptop. Anyhoo, I have a pretty busy weekend planned, so I want to get better. Sean is supposed to be in town tomorrow. I shooting at Brazos this weekend and there is a huge LAN party at Matt's. I heard that Stanley (previous member of the Asylum Street Spankers) released a new CD. That's on my list. I missed the Guy Forsyth show at Mucky Duck last week. Damn. He's playing a benefit at Antone's in Austin tonight, but will be back in Houston on April 17th at the Rhythm Room.

It's a start. I need to go through my old stuff and select more content.

Excellent! My skyring fisheye shot received enough votes to win the Monthy Assignment over at Fred Miranda's site. The winner gets a one year hosting package for their photos. I just need to decide which to post in that 'portfolio'. Any suggestions?

It's funny how we lose track of time when preoccupied. You know those days when you are working and focused intensely on a problem or project and forget to eat? ...meaning you simply worked though lunch because you didn't realize the time... or you are out with friends and it gets late without your conscious recognition because you're in conversation and having a good time. Hence the adage "time flies when you're having fun." Yeah, well that was me last night. Happy "hour" for me has been happy many hours when I've attended. I got home at ten last night. I know that's no where near my old routine, but I can't party like a rock star on a work night anymore. I'm not that guy anymore. Maybe it's age or maybe it's priorities in life, but he's long gone. My definition of a perfect evening is cuddled up with my wife in front of our fireplace with Penny, Bianca, Éclair, and Henry actually behaving. I'm tired this morning. Tired and feeling stupid for acting like a teenager last night. I've found that my big stress relief now days is photography... my outlet. People that blow off steam in the bottom of a bottle or in illicit lucidity will eventually find their fortune cookie wisdom telling them that road leads to nowhere... or, it will end them... either way, there is no longevity or peace in it for me. It's healthy for the rest of us to be reminded every now and then... of either where we've been or where we should never go. It clarifies appreciation for what's more in life. The things that are truly important. Supersized perspective. Yeah. Speaking of supersized, I heard on NPR that the big Mc D was going to phase out the ability to supersize any of their meals under the pressure of the public eye. Apparently, regardless of what their official statement is, the media pressure concerning our factually obese society and the new Sundance film "Supersize Me" have become too much. The thing that I find ironic about this move with hopes toward public graces is that all the other major chains, admittedly smaller than the golden arches in geographic dispersion and revenue, offer a larger portion under different vernacular (Biggie Size, Whatasize, etc.), yet seem to share my opinion that Joe Public is responsible for what he jams in his mouth, not the restaurant where he chooses to dine. Let's take yet another weakness and blame it on someone else. Pass the buck... it's the American way. Kinda sucks to be lumped in with a stereotype, doesn't it? So, I'm sure today will be full of witch hunts and inquisition after yesterday's outage. I'm going to need some serious caffeine to prepare for the onslaught. Warmest wishes to all... this weeks pendulum is mid-swing.

Crazy day. We had a major network meltdown and one of my friends was robbed at gunpoint on his way back from lunch. Eclair came home from a $420.00 joyride to the vet... sans ovaries. She ended up needing some special meds after x-rays of her hips. She has degenerative arthritis. All that four-legged doctor shit adds up. Fortunately the day is winding to a close and I can almost taste the Crown Royal Special Reserve slip sexily past my tongue and down my throat. Mmmmmmn. Tick tock. I heard a cool birthday tribute to Dr. Suess on the way to work (via NPR): Oh the Birthday We'll Have! On the second of March in the hills of Na-Nupp Every Who who's a "who" down in Who-Ville shows up. The autograph seekers have lined up in clumps With the Sneetches and Snuvs and the Wockets and Wumps The Red Carpet is teeming with top paparazzi And the whole place is done up quite razz-a-ma-tazzi. Here comes the Lorax from forestry school With a fish that he'd caught in McElligot's pool Behind him, "Sam I am" steps through the chain With the green eggs and ham he refused on the train. Then the Grinch, with his world-famous great Grinchy sneer And Horton, the elephant with specs in each ear Then Marvin K. Mooney climbs down thru the trees In a suit by Armani with gold sequined fleas Then red fish and blue fish and not to be lazy Thidwick the Moose carries Daisy-Head Maisy. But the Cat -- where's the Cat? -- is he stuck in L.A.? With his agents and lawyers and pipers to pay? He's finished Cat One and is filming Cat Two But just then his limousine pulls into view. I am here, have no fear, says the Cat in the Hat. I was never not coming, it was never not that. I juggled appointments and came when I could Cause a birthday is fun and no fun is no good. Then the Cat in the Hat, with a wink of an eye Holds a glass of red Beezlenut juice to the sky May I say, says the cat, we are here, we are here To salute you dear Doctor, we hope you are near. On your one-hundredth birthday, we give thanks to you, "For your troubles in getting to Solla Sollew, "For the green Grickle-grass that is here for us all, "For 'a person's a person, no matter how small.' "For the fox and the Grox and the Grinch each December, "Oh, the places you took us! We'll always remember." We celebrate all of the stories we had, When the worst things we knew really weren't that bad. A hundred years later, a gift for all time When reason was lost, Doctor, you gave us rhyme.

Driving in this morning... 10 car accident northbound and simultaneous 6 car accident southbound. I-45 sux0r. Tuesday = happy hour. When does that start again?

Diggin' in the archive yesterday... I forgot over half the things I shot last summer. Some of the stuff is just painful to look at... terrible photography. I hope this year will be filled with improvement.