Over the last few months I started playing with closeups of plants and especially leaves. This one is quite close. I like that it's almost an abstract of lines and shapes, but not quite.
The leaves also have a constellation of tiny texture - lots of dots and sworls. I've been told it's reminscent of galaxies and stars, hence the title.
This is the first in a series of six. I know some of you want more variety, so just be forewarned that you ain’t gonna get it for a while. ;)
I posted this photo of an Eastern Collared Lizard a while back. It’s from the Ute Mountain Tribal Park that I visited last fall.
Earlier this week I was contacted by National Geographic Traveler magazine. They want to use my photo for an article on the park in their July/August issue.
Needless to say I’m pretty psyched about this whole thing. But don’t worry – I won’t let it go to my head. I’ll still only be charging $20 to autograph a copy of the magazine. :)
I took a long, wandering walk home from work today. Not far from Coors Field I passed a pay phone kiosk rooted to the sidewalk. The phone was ringing, so I picked it up.
I heard a voice, but couldn’t make out the words. My knit cap was still over my ears, muffling the sound from the receiver. The voice was female, old, weary, a bit throaty. She spoke slowly, distracted or maybe a touch senile. Perhaps an old woman who had tried to call her grandchild but pressed a wrong number.
I adjusted my hat, held the receiver to my ear, asked her to repeat. Hearing her voice again I adjusted my estimate. She was distracted, but not senile. Certainly old, but not in years.
She said “You want to get some head tonight?”
I hung up the phone and walked away.
(Note: If you don’t use Photoshop and Lightroom on Windows don’t read this. You’ll be really bored and annoyed that you wasted your time.)
I just solved a problem with Lightroom that’s been bugging the heck out of me for a couple of weeks. Maybe I can help someone else if they have the same problem – and there’s a good chance that’ll be me in about 6 months when I’ve forgotten about this.
The problem was that the colors I’d see in Lightroom and Photoshop just did not match. Not even close. I wandered around the web and tried many solutions, such as ensuring that they’re using the same color space (ProPhoto) and making sure the Proof Colors setting was turned off in Photoshop. I tried reprofiling the monitor a few times, even though that shouldn’t affect colors shown on the same computer and screen.
The solution was in my Windows Color Management control panel. I had a profile in there which had been created by my Huey color profiler – but it wasn’t being used. I used the first pane to set that profile as the default, and under the Advanced tab set that profile as the Device Profile. Restart Lightroom and voila – perfect match.
All I can figure is that Lightroom doesn’t pick up the profile for some reason, while Photoshop does. Go figure.
I didn’t know there was a Tea Party protest in Denver yesterday. Not until Nick & Glenn started asking if I was going to make a misspelled sign and start screaming about birth certificates. Even then I didn’t plan on it. There have been things done at them ranging from ridiculous to alarming, and they’re generally reported to be convocations of racist, militia crazies brandishing moronic, misspelled signs and assault weapons. That’s not my scene, and not something I want to be involved with. But after all was just a mall ride away, and I figured I could go in the spirit of amateur photojournalism. And when it comes to a controversial subject there’s no substitute for seeing it yourself.
I got there fashionably late, about 45 minutes after it started. Just in time to catch the bus pulling out to park elsewhere.
I’d guess there were about 400 people there. I’m not great at estimating crowds though. I heard estimates from other non-experts ranging up to 1500.
I actually came across the counterprotestors standing out by Lincoln before I reached the main crowd. There weren’t too many of them – just these four, a pair of girls with a “Yes We Can” sign, and another guy with a “Support Our President” sign. I think these guys stood out by the street for the entire time.
I later came back down, and the guy with the “I [heart] Nancy Pelosi” sign told me Nancy Pelosi was “hot.” I laughed at that – I thought it was a joke! I mean come on, really? Nancy Pelosi hot? But he wasn’t kidding. I said it was a matter of opinion – he got a little snippy and agreed with that.
I didn’t want to record the whole thing live, so instead I made a point of photographing every sign I could. I figured that would capture some of the overall tone. By far the most common “sign” was the flag, followed by variations of the “Don’t Tread On Me” flag, and then everything else.
I only spotted three signs with misspellings - the one above ("Ronald Reagen") and the two pictured below ("shreded", and, well, several).
For the most part the signs were concerned with taxes, big government, and “vote them out” themes. I expected more crazies – the Tea Party last April definitely had some. As it turns out, I saw two Birthers, and a one other crazy (shown above). If you want to check for more, I’ve posted at least one copy of every sign I shot on SmugMug.
I thought the tone generally was restrained for a political protest. There was a lot of cheering and such, but I didn’t hear anything violent, racist or otherwise out of line. Considering that protestors are by definition unhappy about something, I really expected more anger.
I spent a while talking to this vendor. He’s out of work, so he printed up some shirts and stickers and has been following the Tea Party Bus Tour around. I asked a few questions trying to compare this demonstration to the others he’s seen. It sounds like they’re generally comparable – about the same size and generally the same tone. Admittedly a limit sample, but still interesting I think. Since I wasted some of his time, I should at plug his website, LoseTheBluesBS.com. I figure about two of my readers might actually be interested.
The main takeaway for me was that by and large these people did not look or act like crazies. There was no frothing at the mouth, screaming, racism, or anything like that. Maybe that sort of thing was going on at some of the other protests, but I didn’t see anything like that here.
Obviously many people disagree with the political points these people are making. But based on my experience I’m going to be more skeptical about the negative reports about the Tea Partiers.
