Close to home...

Today I slept in pretty late. I always feel lazy when I do, but when I'm going back to work it makes the night so much better. If I wake up at 7 like usual things get real rough around 3 AM. After I got up I wrote a few papers for school and then decided to take Lucy out for some exercise before I go to work. I used to get her outdoors more often, and I think she is really getting depressed because I sleep during the day sometimes...so I'm trying to make an effort to get outside more often when I'm home. I'm always looking for trails near my house, and today I found some great trails in a neighborhood off of Rocky Creek Rd. I don't know if it's frowned upon that I just parked in a cul-de-sac and cut through to the trails, but I imagine as long as I'm a law abiding citizen no one really cares. It said "invited guests only"...maybe I should email someone and see if I can be "invited." I took my Sigma 50-200 lens along and took some pics. I was a little disappointed as I thought there would be more good ones...maybe it was the really bright sunlight. I am still struggling with getting the focus so that everything in the lens is more or less in focus with a small aperture setting. I've read about it but I'm still not getting it the way I would like to. Either way, Lucy had a great time.

Simple is better...

I'm slowly getting over my sickness, although today was the worst as far as my voice goes. I think Addy was a little confused when I walked into her room to get her up talking in a high-pitched raspy voice. Either way, since we missed our usual bacon, eggs, and grits breakfast atThe Coach House on Saturday because of my fever, we went this morning and then Kristi came and got her afterwards. Addy is a big fan of grits especially.

I spent most of the day today trying to figure out what things I can sell or give away that I own. I feel like I just have a ton of crap laying around that I don't use very often, so I'm trying to simplify. I took a few pictures along the way. I also added some noise to the pictures via my more simple photo editing software, Photoscape. I like pictures from old school cameras, so I was trying to make them seem more like those since they are pictures of things from around the house. I especially like the picture of Lucy. I feel like it captures her personality, with her nervous stillness while there is a bunch of clutter and activity all around her. Good ol' Lucy, people think she's crazy, but she's really a pretty good dog.

I need a steadier hand for my new lenses...

I let my more photographically talented friend Joseph Adams (of JAR Photography)play with my camera today while I played guitar at Southside Fellowship and he took some cool photos. He used my Sigma 50-200 for most of the shots, and it is quite obvious that he is far better at low light photography. I really struggle to be steady enough to avoid blur with longer shutter speeds...perhaps I will have to try out his technique that he showed me. It was a good day at Southside, although my voice really was hoarse by the last service. My throat was sore when I woke up, but it didn't really affect me until all of a sudden at the end of the second service when I couldn't hit high notes very well. I muddled through to the end though.

When I got home I took Lucy for a walk and tried to take some interesting pictures...I guess next I need a wide angle lens.

New Things

I got 2 new lenses for my camera on Friday which was very exciting...slightly overshadowed by the fact that I became deathly ill Friday so I pretty much stayed in bed for 2 days straight. Tonight I'm feeling a little better and at the least my fever is gone...which is good because I'm supposed to play/sing tomorrow and I don't think they have any backups for guitar at this point at Southside.

I've been playing around with my new lenses. One is a "nifty-fifty" and one is a Sigma 50-200. I haven't been able to do much with the Sigma yet as I need a pretty good day outside to use it for the type of things I want to use it for. With the Canon 50mm I've just been playing around with the aperture to see what it does at different settings and distances. I've gotten some interesting pics. I'm trying to think of somewhere to go so I can take pictures of something other than pets and family.