Recap: 5/28 & 5/29

The absence of responsibilities lately has really left me with a bit too much time on my hands. At the same time, however, I like to think that it has accelerated my learning of photographic techniques and it's forced me to "dig deeper", so to speak, and to look beyond the obvious photo opportunity. That said, I'd kill for a trip to the zoo or something of that sort (if only New Hampshire had something to offer, Singapore Zoo here we come).

This recap reaches back to Monday night, when my dad's watching of a movie I'd seen too many times already instead of the Celtic's game drove me to try something new with a few tools:

- My camera (Olympus E-PL1)

- A flexible leg mini tripod

- A flashlight

See the description below this image for information on what I tried to do.

This was my first ever attempt at "Light Painting". To do this, I set the exposure to around 25 seconds and then used the flashlight to "paint" the car. The blurred light you see in the background is the moon (it's blurred because of clouds moving in front of it). This was definitely harder than I thought and I'll have to put much more time into it if I hope to really become good at it.

Here are two more attempts at "light painting" performed on much easier subjects. The car was simply too much area to cover for a beginner like me.

After exhausting myself with this activity, I called it a night and went inside to discover that the Celtics had lost (no thanks to the refs). 

The next day would have been thrilling if I were a meteorologist. You will see shots here in bright, beautiful sunlight, and you will see a shot taken not that long after these sunny shots that looks like it was taken out of an apocalypse film.

My mom and I took a walk around the neighborhood with Sadie around 2:30 and of course, I had to bring along my camera. I keep saying that one of these times something awesome is going to happen and I'll be able to capture it since my camera is always on me. As it turned out, nothing too eventful took place, but it's always great to spend time with mom and we did stumble upon these beautiful peonies.

Sadie also elected to escape from the brutal humidity by romping through the thick mud of a nearby creek. Mom was having none of this, though, and we gave her a pretty comprehensive hosedown before she was let anywhere near the inside of the house. Sadie actually put up with it pretty well, surprisingly, and put on a little smile for me here.

Sadie really is the easiest subject one could ask for. Always smiling, adorable, and never hard to find...I wish people were that easy.

I mentioned earlier that the weather took a quick turn for the worse. Between approximately 3:00 when this shot was taken, and Sadie's 4:00 vet appointment, the weather turned from what you see above, to what you see below.

A typical New England summer day, I suppose. 

That about sums up everything of recent note. Mom and I continue to pack (and argue about what to pack) - hard to believe I leave in only 5 days or so. 

For anyone who might have made it this far, I'd be happy to get feedback from you...What do you think of these posts? Too many pictures, not enough text? Too much text, not enough pictures? Too long/short? Let me know if you have any suggestions or thoughts on the blog. I apologize if my grammar isn't particularly impressive, I tend to write these entries after midnight, so I can't promise that my brain is functioning at its highest level.