March 16, 2010
Agile in Action
Recently I started a new Flickr set called Scrum in Practice, and I've been using it to collect photos of my team (and others at CIM) practicing, as the name suggests, Scrum....
January 1, 2010
Janus
Wow, it's hard to believe that we're 10 years away from Y2K now... and yet somehow I'm not sure that a century really gets rolling until about 20 years in. Perhaps because it's so awkward to refer to the 00s and the 10s? Much easier to point to the 20s, 30s, etc. (Speaking of which, I wonder if the 20s will be "roaring" this time around?)...
December 30, 2009
Short-Term Resolutions
It's not quite New Year's yet, but I already have a couple resolutions that I want to make. One is to spend the three days that I have off this weekend taking photos. It's been too long since I've just walked around, looking for the beauty in everyday things. And the women at the Walgreens photo counter are starting to miss me and my negatives only + CD orders, too....
October 6, 2009
One Of These Things Is Not Like The Others
August 5, 2009
Eastern State Penitentiary
I've got a bunch of half-written posts in "draft" status, including the next installment of the Disney trip (yes, a MONTH later), but I'm going to post a few random small things rather than letting the longer posts clog up the pipe....
June 3, 2009
Wednesday (Not Saturday)
Again I'm going to start this entry with mention of my fame (!), as I neglected to mention the conversation that followed the "I read your blog!" sighting last Sunday. Al suggested that it might be he and the Beaner that made me recognizable, and I think for the most part he's right. I have certainly been recognized on my own before, especially when my hair is pink or purple, but I think it's when people see all three...
May 18, 2009
Reflections of the Day
I'm entering a photo I took last month in this month's Greeblepix Contest because the photo captures today really well. I'm looking into a puddle of possibilities, hoping to see blue skies....
March 18, 2009
A Camera For the Beaner
The Beaner has his own film camera (a cheap-o model purchased at Walgreens for about $8, which includes a free film refill every time we bring in a roll from it for developing), and I've given him disposables to shoot with, too. As for digital cameras, he has two or three toy ones, all of which produce images of perfectly horrible quality (the ones I'm able to download off of, anyway; one refuses to connect to any computer we...
January 11, 2009
Passionate
Someone asked me recently, in a professional context, what I was passionate about. I know the answer that would have made the questioner most excited was probably "working on open-source software," or "changing the world with a single bugfix," or something along those lines, but what I said was, "honestly? Photography."...
December 29, 2008
Winter Garden
November 22, 2008
Bethlehem Steel
Last year when my women's hockey team drove up to Bethlehem to play the Lehigh Valley Wicked, I discovered on arrival that the rink at which we were to play was situated next to a derelict steel mill. The thing was gorgeous in its decay, with tall, rusty tubes and stacks contrasting beautifully with the blue sky, and blasted bricks and gaping windows framing empty innards. I made a mental note to bring the good camera with me next...
November 10, 2008
Puzzler
Can somebody tell me why this is my most-viewed Flickr photo of all time? It consistently gets 5-8 views a day, and almost all references to it are from within Flickr, not from outside sites or search engines. Is it coming up in Flickr photo searches? Do the members of the Graffiti group dive that deeply into the pool? I have no idea. Do you?...
September 2, 2008
Another Camera in the Family
I've been envying Heather's ability to create time-lapse movies and secretly coveting her Canon SD870. At the same time, I've been kinda disappointed with the picture quality produced by my Finepix F30. It's supposed to be a FINEpix, for cripes sake, not a muddy pix, which is what I usually get. The Finepix was kind of expensive for a point-and-shoot, though, and I do love it for video, so I resigned myself to waiting a while before acquiring another...
May 28, 2008
365 Days of My Life
I finally got the roll of film that was in the Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim back, and thus I was able to finish off my My Every Day set on Flickr last night. I then stayed up past midnight clicking through each and every photograph in the set, reading the copious notes under some of them, wondering at the choices I made to represent certain days when there were 20 or 30 or 100 photos to choose from,...
May 18, 2008
My Sunday in Photos
April 22, 2008
I Voted
I did it. I voted....
March 12, 2008
The Minox Is Vexing Me
Just before I left for the Tech Summit in San Jose last month, Apple Cider Slim sent me a Minox PL (and a Rollei flash!) that he'd picked up at a garage sale a while back and never got around to using. It was an incredibly generous gesture that I still haven't gotten around to thanking him properly for (that would be via actual hard-copy thank-you note). Sadly, neither the Minox nor I seem to be equal to this...
February 11, 2008
Scanning...
A big box arrived while I was in meetings earlier today, and I won't have time to unpack it until after hockey practice tonight, sadly. If it's what I think it is, my Flickr stream is about to be flooded with wedding photos from 2002 and black & white promo shots from bands that no longer exist (if I can find my notebooks of negatives, that is)....
January 31, 2008
366 Days of Self-Portraits
No, not mine. Lots of people are doing various 365 (or 366 in this leap year) projects, and most, unlike me, started on January 1st of this year. I'm sure there are many, many great ones out there, but the one that has me captivated is tilaneseven's. Please do go see—what he's been doing with a little camera and a timer is amazing. He puts my My Every Day set to shame....
January 22, 2008
A Little More Care in Processing, Please
I've been taking the film out of my Vivitar to the CVS on 19th & Chestnut for just about ever, and though I'm not always happy with the results, I always chalked it up to the camera or the film, not the processing. Plus, I love the woman who does the work, and I enjoy seeing her several times a week (and also not having to tell her what I want, and not having to endure the "there's still...
January 8, 2008
Renumbering
There's nothing quite like adding the last few photos of 2007 to your My Every Day set and discovering an off-by-one error that happened back in September. Yes, I forgot to add a photo for September 20, and all the Day and Photo numbers have been off by one since then. Renumbering, tediously, right now. /sigh/...
December 31, 2007
Guess Where Philly
In the tradition of other Guess Where? groups on Flickr (most notably Guess Where SF, to which my friend Kristin is an occasional contributor), I've started a group called Guess Where Philadelphia (Center City/West Philly). I'm sort of bummed about the long name, but Greater Philadelphia is rather large and encompasses places like Manayunk, Chestnut Hill, and NE Philly—places I'm not nearly as familiar with—and I wanted to limit the group to my stomping grounds. (I'm selfish that way.)...
December 14, 2007
Ugh, The Goo!
I've been really sick for the past few days with what I at first took for strep throat, but which I now think was probably a major sinus infection. The latter makes more sense, as the Beaner had all the same symptoms *except* for the sore throat, and the icky green goo was coming out of his nose instead of going down the back of his throat, as it was in my case....
November 28, 2007
All This Time, He's Had a Polaroid
Al swears up and down that he told me this a long time ago, but I don't remember it: He has a Polaroid. All this time it's been sitting in a dusty bin somewhere in the basement. All this time!...
November 2, 2007
NOT Expired
Several folks had commented here, in person, and in my Flickr stream about the neat photos I've been getting from the expired film in the Vivitar IC 101. As an experiment, I decided to try some non-expired (i.e., fresh) film in the Vivitar to see if the results were any different....
October 17, 2007
So... I'm In San Francisco
Yeah. Title says it all, really. I didn't explain in my last post that one of the things that cheered me up on Friday was the decision very late Thursday night, after the disastrous work day, to fly out to the SF office for a week. I used frequent flier miles, I was so desperate to get out here and see my colleagues. So far it's helping; I'll have a better idea of where I'm at when I return...
October 10, 2007
way out for the living
This photo is very compelling to me right now. I need to print it out and hang it on my wall....
September 19, 2007
Vivitar IC101
I've been admiring the photos Heather's been taking with her Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim for a while now, but I was really impressed with some of the shots she got with it on the latest leg of the Flickr World Tour. At the same time, epmd put the idea in my head to go looking for funky old film cameras....
June 11, 2007
My Every Day...At Night
I've been totally unsuccessful at blogging daily this year, as I endeavored to do after a positive experience with NaBloPoMo, and it's why I've been hesitant to join any of the "photo-a-day" groups that are so popular on Flickr....
May 17, 2007
On The Off-Chance That Someone *Does* Care What I Had For Lunch
I'm finding that I'm sort of blogging in my photo descriptions on Flickr rather than posting here with a link to the Flickr photo these days. The photo of what I had for lunch today is a case in point (though I've opted to link to the photo below as well because I'm really proud of how the croutons practically jump out of the screen), and so are the every-two-or-three-days ankle updates....
May 13, 2007
PsCS3
I never really considered myself a Photoshop person. Well, maybe for a brief time about 10 years ago, when I was using Ps2.5, but I never really got proficient at it because my scratch disk was always full....
May 1, 2007
Now Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Programming
Apologies to the non-sports fans who follow my Flickr stream for the barrage of lacrosse photos over the past couple days. I broke out the 70-200m f4/L and took nearly 500 shots of my nephew's game in nearby Lower Merion on Saturday. (My sister's family lives in Maryland, but my nephew plays on a travel team.) Lucky for all of us, I think, I only uploaded about half of them....
April 11, 2007
Photo Glut
I had this idea that I haven't been taking many photos lately, but I'm realizing as I page through iPhoto that the opposite is true. While I haven't been able to get out and Photograph, in an about town II kind of way, I've been taking gazillions of photos of individual events over the past couple weeks—like the exhibition game between the Red Sox and the Phillies that we went to on March 31st, Easter at my parents' house,...
February 9, 2007
Afternoon Tea, Alternate Universe
In an alternate universe 700 miles and one day away, I am also having afternoon tea....
January 25, 2007
Street Submission
I submitted a photo to JPG Magazine's issue 9, in the Street category, and they've suggested that I might want to "pimp" my submission on my site. I'm not much for pimping, but this *is* one of my favorite photos, so I'll present it for your consideration. If you think it's a good fit for the theme of "Street", please give it the thumbs up!...
January 4, 2007
It's Never Too Late for Resolutions
Or at least, that's what I'm telling myself: That just because I've waited until January 4 to make any resolutions at all doesn't make them invalid. Not allowing myself a resolution would sort of be like eating the whole bag of cookies because what the hell? you've already eaten four of them!, only the opposite... or something....
November 5, 2006
A Brief Review of My New Finepix F30
The day before I left for MAX, after dropping The Beaner off at sharecare, I went to the local CBOP Photo store and asked to look at point-and-shoot cameras that were small enough to carry in a pocket, that had image stabilization, and had the shortest shutter delay possible. I was shown three cameras: the Nikon Coolpix S7c, I think one from Casio, and the Fujifilm Finepix F30. I had also wanted to look at the Sony DSC-T9, but...
October 12, 2006
A Weekend in Napa
Al, The Beaner, and I had a lovely weekend in California... and I'm still a bit heart-heavy about it. Truly, we had a wonderful, wonderful time: We got to see friends we don't see often, The Beaner got to play with new friends P and S, the weather was wonderful, my dress worked out great, The Beaner was more talkative than ever and used several new phrases, we got to eat great food, a good friend finally met and...
September 14, 2006
What's Going On
I have a little list of things I've been wanting to write about, but which I haven't had time to address as of yet (and yes, I'm still behind on my e-mail—if I owe you one, hopefully you'll hear from me soon). Part of the problem—which isn't really a problem at all, given that usually we're homebodies who don't do much of anything—is that we're too busy DOING THINGS and HAVING FUN for me to keep up with, well,...
August 23, 2006
Sisters
Al took this photo of my sister and me with his cameraphone a couple weekends ago. Even though it's not the most flattering snap of either of us, I love it. Maybe it's the way we're interacting, or the fact that we're looking at the photos she took earlier that day, or that you can kinda see the resemblence between us. Whatever it is, I'm so glad he captured it....
June 6, 2006
Windfall
My mother-in-law was kind enough to give each of her daughters-in-law a bit of walking around money this weekend, and I've been trying to decide what to do with it. I need to decide soon, before the extra cash burns a hole in my pocket and encourages me to blow it all on extra decaf short lattes at Starbucks....
May 8, 2006
More Parental and Neighborhood-y Miscellany
Austen is getting his molars. We noticed the little white prongs sticking up when he opened his mouth (probably to laugh) about a week ago, and they've been coming in fast ever since. At least one on either side of his mouth is totally above the surface now. We don't know if the molars are the reason Austen's been waking up screaming at 5:45 lately (instead of 6:00, 6:15, or 6:45, as usual); it might also be the extra...
May 3, 2006
No Human Being is Illegal
I have a bunch of miscellaneous items to post, but in the meantime, may I suggest you get thee now to Myla Kent's amazing set of photos of the march for immigrant rights that took place in Seattle on Monday....
March 29, 2006
Laugh-In
February 6, 2006
Player Portraits
OK, I'm a Steelers fan by proxy (I inherited my fandom from Al, though I've been a backer of Hines Ward since his Georgia days), and I'm absolutely thrilled that they won the Super Bowl. Yay, gadget plays! Yay, Hines Ward! Yay, Ben Roethlisberger! Yay, Jerome Bettis! Yay, Coach Cowher! But what I really want to know is:...
January 6, 2006
An Interesting Idea From Derek
I love visiting Derek's site because in addition to great writing, great photographs, and great links, This Is Powazek is also full of great ideas. Today's interesting idea: create a mosaic of photos from your Flickr stream (or your favorites list, or any other photos on the web). I've used Picasa2's Collage feature to create mosaics before (most notably the one commemorating Austen's first year), so the mosaic part isn't the great idea. It's that Derek chose to make...
November 11, 2005
And... We're Back
Austen and I returned, along with Al (who flew up to Hartford to meet us on Sunday), from Maine on Monday. We had great weather every day except Sunday (which was foggy and drizzly), and especially on Saturday, when the air was brisk but not cold, the sun was warm but not roasty, and the wind was cool but not frigid. Perfect Dreamweaver fleece weather. Val, Austen, and I started the day with a hike around Mackworth Island just...
October 24, 2005
Flickr Finds
I'm changing the title of this post and updating its contents, because I'm finding some mre great stuff on Flickr. Like this:...
September 28, 2005
Backlog: Boston
It's time to clear my backlog of scribbled-on-hotel-stationery notes, most of which pertain to our trip to Boston on the 7th. Al had a meeting there on the 8th, and we decided to make a weekend of it so Austen and his godmother could meet each other, and so the three of us could have a little family vacation. The drive there was pretty easy; Austen didn't cry at all, and we made good time despite a stop at...
September 21, 2005
I Need an Editorial Calendar
I have so many things I want to blog about that there's a sort of logjam in my brain. It's kind of like how when I have a ton of things to do, I often get completely overwhelmed with the length of my To Do list and end up doing nothing. In college I combatted this tendency to become overwhelmed and just go back to bed by scheduling my days in 15-minute increments so I could see that it...
June 19, 2005
Princeton, Sunday Morning
I actually ordered a present for Al for Father's Day (it still hasn't left the warehouse yet, so it'll obviously be late), but his real gift was time: Time to play a round of golf with his brother. They'd planned to meet halfway between their respectives homes, at a course in central New Jersey. I'd planned to stay home and watch the Boopster. When I found out (last night) that the course was near Princeton, however, I proposed that...
June 9, 2005
Oh, The Old Minolta
A few weeks ago I was down in the basement doing some laundry, and I set Austen on the couch for a few minutes so I could unload the dryer. He looked so cute sitting there that I wanted to get a photo... but I hadn't brought the 10-D downstairs with me. That's when I remembered that I have two or three film cameras, and that they're all in the basement. I pulled out my favorite, my dad's old...
February 3, 2005
About Town II Is Back II
Yay, another blog makes a comeback. about town II is now live again!...
February 2, 2005
About Town Lives
I can't quite believe it, but I found ALL the images that go in the about town (san francisco) blog on various backup CDs. I hope I'm as lucky with about town II (philadelphia). In thinking about how I want to rebuild things, I've reconsidered moving The Ice Hockey Escapades back to avocado8.com. Although it started on this site, the entries I'm adding now are really about Al's hockey experiences as much as mine. So it seems fitting that...
November 2, 2004
Election Day Photos Are All Up
We're back from the childbirth class, and I've finished posting the remainder of the election day photos. A thumbnail sampling of a few of the shots:...
About Town II Special Edition: Election Day
I'm posting the photos I took between about 11am and 12:30pm today over at about town II. I have a few more to add (including two more of Bush supporters), but we have to leave for our childbirth class now. I'll add them when I get home tonight. One important thing to note when you look at the photos: I didn't photograph every Kerry sign I saw, but I did photograph every Bush sign I saw. (If I had...
September 28, 2004
Weddings
This weekend Al and I were in San Francisco for the beautiful wedding of two friends. When the officiant asked the bride's father, who walked her down the aisle, "who gives this woman in holy matrimony?", the father replied in a booming voice, "she gives herself!" All RIGHT!! As the bride and groom joined hands, the officiant said some things about marriage that I can't begin to articulate now but that were so true they made my heart burst...
September 22, 2004
Photo Walk
I'm starting to feel sluggish and slug-like these days, kinda like I did during the first trimester—I want to exercise so I don't feel like such a blob, but my energy level is pretty low. Yesterday I resolved to go out for a long walk first thing in the morning, before my energy dropped off to the point where I could barely get up the stairs or lace up my shoes. Since I haven't been on a photography trek...
June 23, 2003
Ghost Writer
May 11, 2003
Mayday, Mayday!
I've finally posted my mayday photos. Unfortunately, we were in the house for a good part of the day watching the Ducks-Wild game, so there aren't as many snaps of the beautiful Northern California sunshine we were having yesterday (after an incredibly rainy spring). I had considered posting larger versions of the photos, linked from the thumbnails, but I liked the thumbnails so well that I left them as-is. Oh, and in other photographic news, my photo of tea...
May 9, 2003
about town has moved
Oh, I meant to announce also that about town has moved. Movable Type categories seemed a perfect match for about town, so I've spent the past two days entering the old photos (and some new ones) into MT and categorizing them. I'm very happy with the results, I must say—and as with all my other web journals, moving to MT will likely mean that about town will get updated more frequently....
April 30, 2003
A Day in the Life
Mark your calendars for Saturday, May 10, and put your camera by your bedside the night before....