Flower abstract

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

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

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

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

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.