greetings from pixelon-1

2010-03-05T19:46:00.001-05:00

2010-02-27T23:49:00.001-05:00

Flower abstract

2008-01-06T16:53:00.001-05:00

Originally uploaded by ChrissyJ

I got a Sigma macro lens for my camera for Christmas, and tried it out on my Christmas Cactus earlier this week. Lots of fun! Getting a new toy will be helpful to my creativity, I think.

Mummers parade

2008-01-02T18:36:00.001-05:00

Irishmen looking askance
Originally uploaded by ChrissyJ

Yesterday, Eric and I headed into Philly to watch part of the Mummer's Parade. It had been delayed until noon by weather. We got there around 12:30 and parked ourselves on Broad street between Chestnut and Sansom. This was very near the end of the parade route, so I think the Mummers were tired and/or drunk by the time they reached us. The amount of public drinking was astounding... I assume its not really legal, but the cops didn't seem to mind. We stayed till about 4:15, long enough to see lots of random "comic" brigades and the first two fancy brigades. Next time, we'll go later to watch the string band brigades, I think they are the coolest part.

At any rate, lots of good people watching and colorful philly culture. My photos aren't what I had hoped, as I had a hard time focusing with my telephoto lens, and the low light and fast shutter speeds necessitated using 1600 ISO, which introduced a lot of noise into my photos.

News

2007-03-14T09:59:00.001-04:00

Cactus
Originally uploaded by ChrissyJ.

We went to the flower show this past weekend, and this is, I think, my favorite photo from that event. It looks pretty cool at a larger size, where you can see the tiny spines along the edges of the leaves.

Photography was tricky at the show, because the lighting was quite low, no tripods were allowed, and I hate using flash. So I stuck with apertures around f/2 and most of my photos turned out a bit fuzzy that wide open. This one is sharp, although its depth of focus is pretty shallow - notice the out of focus outer leaves...

The other news is that I've changed the layout of my flickr home page, and will probably try a few different things until I decide what I like best. Let me know if you have any opinions about the size and number of photos on the front page, or the additions of "collection" mosaics on the right.

The persistence of signage

2007-03-06T19:21:00.001-05:00

The persistence of signage (redux)
Originally uploaded by ChrissyJ.

I went for a walk last week, before the arctic winds started up - it was really a beautiful day. I took my camera along, hoping to see something worth taking a picture of.

This crazy shot is real - not photomanipulated. It's the reflection in a warped storm door of a house around the corner. I love how it turned out so surreal, since it really is just a boring neighborhood location - nothing special.

(Oh yeah, I did do a minor manipulation, of course. The photo was reversed so that the stop sign wouldn't read backwards. But I promise - all the waviness is real!)

Contained

2006-11-05T17:30:00.000-05:00

Dining Room No. 4
Originally uploaded by ChrissyJ.

Another in my room series of photos. Strangely, my personal favorite part of this photo is the window frame. The colors are nice too, but I love the soft highlights on dark wood.

This photo is also special to me because it is the first one in a while (maybe a month?) that has gotten enough attention from Flickrites to appear on Explore. So once again my inner child feels validated and worthwhile. My outer adult knows that Explore shouldn't mean anything to me, especially since most photos on it are of dogs or kids or pretty women. But maybe that makes it even more cool that this still life, low on cuteness and high on subtlety (at least compared to many Explore photos), was included.

Five by five

2006-10-31T08:50:00.000-05:00

Bathroom No. 1
Originally uploaded by ChrissyJ.

Recently I presented myself with a photography challenge, and then immediately failed. I was intending to shoot 5 photos a day, each set of a different room in my house. Well, the "every day" part has fallen by the wayside, but I plan to end up with 25 photos of my house. I'm trying to come up with different themes/styles for each room, but that is harder than I thought it would be, too. Any ideas? Room 1 was my living room and room 2 was the bathroom... Not sure what will come next - maybe bedroom or guest/sewing room?

One of the reasons I'm doing this is to improve in my indoor, low light photography. I'm going completely manual (well, except for auto focus), and learning a lot about exposure.

Changes

2006-10-22T22:53:00.000-04:00

Downy
Originally uploaded by ChrissyJ.

Eric and I went out for a walk this afternoon, to catch the end of the fall colors and enjoy some relatively pleasant weather. Changing leaves signal the start of something new - the coming of fall and all the great stuff that goes with it: Halloween pumpkins, apple cider, and Thanksgiving dinner.

On a hillside meadow, the dried stalks of milkweed plants waved slightly in the breeze. The textures of the pods and downy seeds evoked the the brittle end of a season, rather than the start of another one. These fragile remnants that once fortified Monarchs put me in mind of what's been left behind. It will be many months until the next afternoon at the beach, or sweet corn with dinner.

But there's stew and hot tea in front of the fireplace...

Puzzle

2006-10-18T10:02:00.000-04:00

Sign shadow
Originally uploaded by ChrissyJ.

What do you think this sign said? Most creative answer wins a prize!

Autumnal

2006-10-17T09:25:00.000-04:00

Litchfield
Originally uploaded by ChrissyJ.

This is a nice picture. I like it. I like fall, and I like steeples. Maybe this picture gives you nice feelings as well. I don't expect you to tell me about them, though. So no pressure.

Closer

2006-10-07T01:08:00.000-04:00

Closer
Originally uploaded by ChrissyJ.

I have never been that into space. I never wanted to be an astronaut when I was little, I don't read much science fiction. My husband wants to take a space flight when such a trip becomes available, and I am dead set against it.

But looking at the moon like this, where you can see so many details...

It doesn't seem like something far away at all. More like our next-door neighbor, whose aquarium lights you can see glowing through the blinds at night. Not immediately accessible, but close enough to say hello to over the fence.

If you have a minute, look at this in the large size (click through and then click on "all sizes") and tell me how it makes YOU feel.

Our new tree

2006-10-02T16:15:00.000-04:00

Our new tree
Originally uploaded by ChrissyJ.

This weekend we continued working on the back yard. (Click on the photo for more details.)

I love our little tree! It is cute and soft and smells awesome.

Next up: preparing the rest of the flower beds and planting various bulbs for next spring.

What you don't see...

2006-09-28T11:35:00.000-04:00

Sandpiper
Originally uploaded by ChrissyJ.

This photo suggests that we spent a lovely peaceful day admiring shorebirds during our visit to Bombay Hook Wildlife Preserve.

What you don't see are the multitudes of truly ferocious mosquitos that swarmed me every time I left the safety of the car. They actually waited around the car door so that when it was opened they could rush inside.

We didn't do the planned hiking, instead driving through the preserve and swatting the invading mosquitos that made it into the car.

But the picture, at least, is lovely and peaceful.

Sod!

2006-09-25T09:53:00.000-04:00

Sod!
Originally uploaded by ChrissyJ.

We laid our sod on Saturday. Thus ends the era of the backyard mud puddle. There's still work to be done - we have to edge the grass, dig up the beds, plant some shrubs and mulch before it gets cold. But things are shaping up!

Pink Power

2006-09-18T09:03:00.000-04:00

Flamingos freaking out
Originally uploaded by ChrissyJ.

Yesterday, we went to the Philadelphia zoo. It was a beautiful day and there were tons of little kids running around, hitting each other, and exclaiming "Jesus God! That's just like on Kimpossible!" when they saw the naked mole rats.

The zoo was great - so big and interesting, that we didn't even see everything before our tired feet told us it was time to head home. I got some good pictures of lots of different animals, but I think I had the most fun watching the flamingos. They are so weird! And pink! We stood watching for a while, maybe 10 minutes. For most of that time, the flamingos were mostly either wading for food in their pond or standing quietly on the grass. But at one point, they suddenly got really... boisterous, is the best word I can think of to describe it. They made a lot of noice, they ran and jumped around, chased each other, flapped a lot. It was crazy! And then they stopped. And went back to lunch/nap. Like I said, weird animals.

Photos from the train

2006-09-13T10:02:00.000-04:00

Substation from the train
Originally uploaded by ChrissyJ.

I took my camera to work yesterday. (It sounds like a new holiday in the making!) It was fun - instead of reading or working on a sudoku, I got to take pictures of the industrial, smelly, urban decay that is the R2 commuter train corridor. The tough part is getting a window seat on the right side of the train and facing forward... and then you realize the window is all smudged with someone else's head grease. yuck!

I'm in the process of learning how to remove the reddish window glare at the top of the frame. Photoshop is phun!

Anyway, I love the yellow cast that was a result of the window tint. I could have adjusted it back to normal white balance, but I think it gives the image (and the other ones like in in my photostream) a nice industrial mood. Kind of like smog, but not.

Work in Progress

2006-09-06T09:13:00.000-04:00

Eric and I have a dream... That next spring and summer, our back yard will be a beautiful, weed-free place with a nice lawn and flowerbeds. Now that we're in late summer/early fall prime yard work time of year, we've gotten started on making those dreams come true.
Here's where we started:

The rows of bricks lining the lawn stuck up a few inches, making mowing very difficult. And the beds were too narrow to allow the kinds of things I'm envisioning. So the first step was to replace the bricks with inset pavers. We chose a more flowing border that goes all the way around the lawn.

Then we decided that the crabgrass and weed thing wasn't working for us, so on Labor Day we started ripping out the grass. I'm still sore. If budget allows, we will be laying sod in the next week or two. So midway through the revision process, here's where we are:

Watch this space for further updates!

Change of Phase

2006-09-03T10:04:00.000-04:00

In an ice cave
Originally uploaded by ChrissyJ.

This is an ice cave at the toe of Exit Glacier, near Seward. I love blue ice, and this cave in particular because you can see the ice melting in the sun.

Tourists were happily standing inside and having their picture snapped until the volunteer ranger noticed and scolded them like 2nd graders. Of course, the glacier could move and the cave could collapse at any time. But don't worry, no photographers were harmed in the making of this photograph!

What NOT to do when you go camping in Alaska

2006-09-01T19:16:00.000-04:00

Layers
Originally uploaded by ChrissyJ.

Our first night in Alaska was overcast and drizzly. We picked up groceries and camp fuel, had a quick dinner and then headed south from Anchorage. The campsite we were planning on staying in was closed to tent camping due to bear activity... Oh well, there were more further on.
When we got to Williwaw Campground (WILLIWAW!) it was getting dark and still drizzling. We succesfully set up our tent in the rain and threw our duffel in the tent to get set up for bed.

It wasn't until I finished pulling stuff out of the duffel that either of us realized that Eric's nice new sleeping bag was still sitting on our sofa back in Delaware.

Long story short(ish), this photo shows what Eric wore to bed that night, while huddling under my unzipped mummy bag with me. And you can't tell in this shot, but there's a pair of khakis under those jeans! (He didn't figure on needing long underwear.)

We bought a $17 sleeping bag and $65 long underwear the next day.

More Alaska photos and stories are on the way...

Awareness

2006-08-06T10:51:00.000-04:00

In my dream, I was walking a small dog on a retractable leash. I had to go to the bathroom very badly. The problem was, there were no trees or objects around to tie the leash to. I knew that if I woke up to go, the dream dog would run away. (Am I meta or what?)

PS - There's no picture to go with this entry, for the same reason - the camera, like the toilet, has an existance orthogonal to that of the dream dog. Or something like that.

Inversion

2006-08-05T10:26:00.000-04:00

Hanging out
Originally uploaded by ChrissyJ.

Sometimes looking at things from a different perspective is enough to make you smile.

Relief!

2006-07-30T16:21:00.000-04:00

Witch Hazel in January
Originally uploaded by ChrissyJ.

It is really hot today. It's been really hot for quite some time, actually. Air conditioning can only do so much! Looking at this photo cools me off, at least a little bit - I hope it works for you.

Energy

2006-07-27T18:26:00.000-04:00

Energy
Originally uploaded by ChrissyJ.

I am really envious of people with a natural tendency to Get Stuff Done. I aspire to be a woman of action, and I'm working on it, but it's an uphill battle.

Alone

2006-07-23T20:18:00.000-04:00

Alone
Originally uploaded by ChrissyJ.

This is so quiet. I chose it for today's entry because I wish I felt quiet and peaceful, but my body isn't agreeable.

(Tuscany 2005)

First

2006-07-22T22:53:00.000-04:00

Spiral
Originally uploaded by ChrissyJ.

The beginning, but spiraling back (forward?) to the end.