Category Archives: photography

Seeing the world through my viewfinder.

gardening, photos 1 Comment

Growing Things

This weekend, I drug Aaron out with me to purchase some planting supplies — most notably, a seed starting kit. I’d purchased several packets of seeds last year, and decided that this is the year I start my own plants from seed.

I ended up starting five plants each of hollyhocks, lemon basil, sweet basil, parsley, and catnip. Well, each peat pellet pot has two or three seeds in it, but they’ll be thinned to one per pot, so we’ll just say it’s five plants apiece.

I’ve never done this before, so I had no idea how peat pellets worked. It is SO COOL. They start out as little flat discs. You water them with warm water, and poof! They become little miniature biodegradable pots! How cool is that?

And what’s cooler? My hollyhocks and my basil are already starting to germinate, after only two days. There are little, pale green stems curling up out of the soil. I opened up the lid of my mini-greenhouse, and it smells like those bean sprouts we planted in first grade. *squee*

So, what’s my diabolical plan? Well, I’m planning to plant the hollyhocks close to the fence that borders the neighbors. This will hopefully act as a bit of a privacy screen, as I understand that hollyhocks can grow pretty tall. Beside the hollyhocks, farther away from the fence, I’m hoping to plant one or two of the potted Rose of Sharon bushes/twigs I’ve been trying not to kill for the past two years. I’m hoping to manage this in a way that doesn’t complicate Aaron’s lawn-mowing mojo.

In the NE corner of the backyard, I’m planning to plant a little herb garden, with my basil and catnip and parsley and maybe some store-bought plants. There’s a decent little patch of sunshine by the fence and the gate, so hopefully I can nestle a little corner of herbalicious goodness there — and, again, not complicate Aaron’s lawn-mowing mojo. I’m hoping that my strategy will reduce the amount of edging for me to neglect.

As much as I’m tempted to go buy myself a nice climbing rose, I know I should hold off. I’ve already just about killed one rosebush from neglect; I don’t need to continue my murderous rampage of flora until I can take care of what I’ve already planted. Plus, goodness knows how much I’ll be able to take care of any of this once we pop out a kid. I can’t help but assume that infant care and gardening are not particularly compatible.

But that’s not for some time yet. For now, I’ll be content in watching my baby plants germinate and make condensation inside their little greenhouse.

photography 7 Comments

I Think I’m Dumb

After several years of use, our trusty Fuji FinePix 2400Zoom is finally starting to call it quits. The clamshell-style lens cover no longer latches closed, and it’s difficult to open it far enough so that the camera knows it’s open. Besides that, it still takes decent pictures… but it’s really kind of a pain to deal with.

So, I took it upon myself to research and purchase a new digital P/S (point-and-shoot). After the general annoyances from the Fuji over the years, I had an idea of features I wanted. The new camera had to be an ultra-compact. Fits in any pocket. Unobtrusive. It also had to have a *fast* start-up time and minimal shutter lag. Too many photo ops were lost while waiting for the Fuji to power up. The new camera only needed to be more than two or three megapixels, so discontinued models were fine. Keeping it on the cheap, preferably around $200. It needed to take SD Memory Cards, which my new Nikon D50 uses (as no cameras seem to use the SmartMedia cards the Fuji used). And finally, it had to have positive reviews from “real” photographers who use the camera as their own P/S.

I finally narrowed the playing field down to two contenders: the Canon PowerShot SD300 Digital Elph, and the Minolta DiMage X50. After checking eBay, I decided to go with the DiMage X50, since it is regularly at least $50 cheaper than the Elph.

Next step: do some bargain hunting. I figured out early on that my best bet would actually be to go with eBay, since both of the cameras I was looking at were discontinued models. I found some for parts, and some with cracked screens, but I finally found a DiMage that I thought looked good. I bid $115 plus shipping, and won.

I told Aaron about it that weekend, and showed him the completed auction.

And saw the fine print.

My camera had a cracked LCD. D’oh! I couldn’t believe I’d missed it! I could only wait until the camera arrived and hope that it wasn’t as bad as it could be.

Today, my wait was over.

I opened the carefully-packed box as Aaron watched, lifted out the retail camera box from within, and opened that box to see what awaited me. The camera looked great from the front: amazingly small, stylish. From the back? A small black mark spidering from the lower left corner of the LCD.

I thought I’d gotten all worked up over nothing. Surely the LCD would still work!

Not quite.

If I tilt the camera just so, I can see enough of the menu to know that I’m changing, say, the resolution or the white balance. There are several features that are impossible to find, due to the nearly inoperable screen.

There are two particularly good things about this, though. First: the camera does work. I can test it out, quality-wise, and I have every intention of posting it back on eBay and trying to get some of my money back. Which brings me to the second high point: there was a 256MB memory card in the camera when I received it. This card was *not* listed in the auction.

So, as long as I resell the camera (sans 256MB card) for around $90, I’ll actually come out even. In truth, though, I’m assuming I’m going to take a loss for this one. Karma is going to bite me in the ass for being stupid and not reading the auction thoroughly before bidding. And I’m OK with that.

Next time, though, I’m bidding on a refurbished camera with a 90 day warranty…

Update: Both the cameras I was considering have video capture capability. Fun! I took a test video to see if it would work… and, lo and behold, it does. Fun stuff.

memories, photos 6 Comments

Happy Birthday, Carrie (er, Carolyn)!

Carrie and I were best friends in Middle School. We sat next to each other in the first day of Choir in seventh grade, completely by chance, and ended up as friends. We were both awkward adolescents in our own ways, rejected by the majority of our classmates, and that fact was probably our biggest bond. I was a new kid at the school that year, too, and shy to boot, so finding friends wasn’t easy for me.

As with all friendships at that age, we had our ins and outs. Carrie had a very peculiar sense of humor, and if you didn’t know better, you might think that her jibes and insults were really meant. She liked to call me “Tech,” because I always used long, technical words, and she often poked fun at me for my long strides and fast walk. At dances, the term “wallflower” somehow morphed into “Wall Idiot,” her endearing term for my tendency to never actually dance, and especially not with boys.

She also never failed to badger me during the two months between her birthday and mine. Her mantra would be, “Ha, ha — I’m older than you!” (If you know how old I am, you can already see where this is going.)

During the summer after 8th grade, Mom separated from my stepdad, Tom, and so ended my stint in the North Central Local School District. Carrie (who opted to go by her full given name of Carolyn in high school) and I still stayed friends, visiting one another during the summers between school years. Even into college, I would borrow Mom’s car and drive from Medina to Creston to visit during breaks, especially summer.

We started to lose track of one another later in my college years, especially as she became involved with her then-boyfriend, now-husband Jeff. Still, though, we made sure to keep in touch somewhat, always making sure that we knew how to reach one another, should the occasion arise.

Not long ago — well, over a year now, I guess — I received baby photos from Carolyn’s mom, Candy. Shortly thereafter, I received an invitation to attend a baby shower for Carolyn. Of course, I Mapquested the directions to Carolyn’s house in West Bumfuck, Ohio, and drove the two and a half hours out to see her and her new son, armed with a soft and fuzzy teddy bear.

The coolest thing about the visit, besides seeing Carolyn’s new son, was hearing her call me her best friend again. It’s like that, isn’t it? Once best friends, always best friends, even if you have other best friends in the interim. Sure, we hadn’t seen one another in probably four years, but I still have the right half of our “Best Friends” necklace from circa 1988. 🙂

Tomorrow, I believe, Carolyn turns 30. I have a card all ready to send to her. My inscription?

“Ha, ha! You’re older than me!”

I’ve been waiting over 15 years to say that. Now I just need to unearth her mailing address…

Update, 10:35pm: Found it. Had to clean (well, sort) my entire desk area, but I found the baby shower invitation. Carolyn’s address is now in my Palm Contacts, synched to my iPod, so I won’t lose it again. 😛