01-NOV-2008
Loading Dock
On our way back from my oldest's Marching Band Competition, we drove past a freight yard with a running pair of diesels. I found a spot to pull in and snap a few photos. On a whim, I decided to pull around and try and enter the rail yard to get a better shot of the train. I missed a turn and pulled into a parking area for some warehouses to turn around. I saw this pretty cool image of an old warehouse loading dock adjacent an abandoned section of siding. The sun was hitting it just right. So I am posting this for my PaD today and not the diesels. Oh yeah, we found the correct road later but the rail yard was marked "No Trespassing" so we never made it in for a closer shot (it would have been moot anyway as the two engines had left by the time I found the correct road).
31-OCT-2008
Freak me out
File this under snapshot.
Someone put this damn evil doll witch thing in our breakroom at work today. I saw her out of the corner of my eye when walking by on my way in. I initially thought that someone had a sick daughter and brought her into work, in costume. I had already walked by & was still processing what I'd seen (out of the corner of my eye). When I popped my head in to get a better look, I was a tad bit freaked out. The other part of my "Walking by" was that there was someone else that I noticed and heard as I was passing by. He was talking to someone, I assumed the girl at the table. I saw him. What I didn't see was another actual live, human in the breakroom.
So that was how my morning began. This evil doll thing kept freaking me out every time I went into the break room. I figured I needed to get a photo of this thing so almost at the end of the day I got a few shots. The next time I went back into the breakroom, the doll was gone. At least I have a photo of her. I'm posting this image as a historical artifact to help justify my sanity should anyone question her existence next week (I can just flip to my PaD and provide my proof).
30-OCT-2008
Halloween group
A group shot before heading out to gather some candy.
Our development gets a large number of Trick or Treaters due to the fact that it is the largest development (there are four interconnected developments) in the area (in a couple of surrounding communities too). We have a lot of houses that celebrate Trick or Treat as well as a ton of people who drive in (we live in Maine, there are times during the evening when we see nothing by New Hampshire license plates on vehicles that line the streets).
We had a few of our daughters' friends over to help gather candy. I normally impose a "Peanut Butter Cup Tax" on the kids, where I force each child to pay me at least one. For some reason, there was a mutiny tonight and I only collected one.
29-OCT-2008
Hanging Circle
While screwing around with the camera tonight, I took a few unaimed shots up at these paper circle things that my kids had conveniently taped to the ceiling. I kind of like it. The vignette was created by shooting a wider angle than the 580EX2 flash would allow for, shooting up into a white ceiling exasperates the vignette. I helped it a little in LR2 also.
28-OCT-2008
Caramel
What was my wife's project this evening suddenly became a family project after she had a meltdown. Here my 10-year-old is working on melting caramel for some brownies. This was taken after my wife's first meltdown and well before my daughter walked away from the stove, leaving this pot unattended for a relatively long period of time (for melting caramel, that is).
28-OCT-2008
Warm Fingers
I got home this evening and was very happy to find that my Heated gloves had arrived. I had originally intended to half-ass the installation of the controller so I could start using it immediately and then finalize the installation later. When I realized that I was going to spend a hell of a lot more time "half-assing" it, I decided to "full-ass" it and permanently mount the controller. Just above the middle of the gloves (to the left and below the odometer) is the controller, mounted on the fairing. There is a little LED that is part of the installation. The controller is a PWM controller, it applies full power at a rate that depends on the controller setting. The LED will blink to this rate, it will be full on when the power is at 100%. In playing with the gloves when I first opened the box, I found that a rather low setting was very noticeable (especially since I'd just got off the bike from my evening commute and my fingers were still cold).
This is going to make a huge difference on my commute. I will arrive with warm fingers now!!
26-OCT-2008
Drivethru
Sometimes the photo takes itself. . .
Stopping off at Wendy's in Rochester (NH) and saw this guy on a motorized tricycle in the drive thru lane. I went back to the car to grab the camera.
He had actually mounted a motor to the front tire.
25-OCT-2008
BW Fall Floral
Today was a pretty nice day out, which meant that I spent most of it catching up on projects around the house that need to get finished before winter. Evening rolled up and I realized I hadn't grabbed the camera (and missed some good opportunities with some leave raking and the kids). Luckily, my loving wife picked up these pumpkin looking flowers when she took the younger two out to pick up pumpkins. I grabbed my portable floral studio and went to work (the portable studio is my Cactus trigger, 508EX2 Flash, and black duck cloth background).
24-OCT-2008
Warming light
I had one of those "Oh crap" moments when I just now uploaded my shots from this morning. They were taken in a bit of haste as I had all three kids to take in this morning (my oldest finally overslept and missed the bus). I was shooting into the sun, but didn't detect any glare issues this morning. I think there were a few factors in my NOT detecting this, two of which were that I couldn't see the detail on the LCD due to the uhm...err.. glare from the sun and the other was the rushed sense I had (I'd pulled over to take the shots with all three kids looking on).
Just before I pitched all of these, I decided to mess around with one and I am glad I did. The glare actually adds to this shot. This turned out to be the last morning I could shoot this scene as tomorrow is the final day of fall soccer. The benches and goals will be gone this weekend (or at least, they should). The full morning frost and the glare from the warming sun help this a lot.
23-OCT-2008
Laid back skeleton
My wife and kids got pretty creative while I was gone last week. There is a pile of Loam left over in our front yard from a project this fall. This guy gets a lot of attention from all the passerby's in the neighborhood.
22-OCT-2008
Make an offer
On the way into work this morning, I saw this old car on a trailer with a big sign on its front that said "Make an offer". This was an ideal "Rusty Stuff" shot opportunity, so I pulled over and started taking photos. It didn't take long to determine that "Make an offer" might be a plee, perhaps the last sign before "I'll pay you xxx$ to take this" appears in front of this vehicle.
Someone else pulled over to look at it just as I was pulling over. He knew about cars (I just like to look at them) and started laughing immediately. There was not one square inch of non-rusted surface on or in this old car.
Offers and condition aside, it made for a great subject for today's PaD!
21-OCT-2008
Last Leaves (Sepia)
I hate being sick. While heading out to the grocery store/pharmacy, I stopped at the Willand Pond Park in Somersworth/Dover NH. I figured I would kill a couple of birds with the same stone (so to speak, there were ducks at the park but no ducks were harmed while I took this photo).
I actually got a few good ones, but this is the one that made the PaD.
Here are a few that didn't make today's PaD:
