nightlife

Momma doesn't like me hanging around with the riff raff who roam the streets at night. But I like these guys. The skunks are nice animals. They don't go 'round stinking on people unless they're provoked. And the bats have been eating the mosquitoes. The only thing on God's green earth that I hate more than mosquitoes is dandelions, so the enemy of my enemy has become my friend.

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As you may have surmised, these were taken with something more than just the pop-up flash on my point & shoot. I used an infrared slave device to trigger a stronger flash. The bats were really hard to catch, since their flight patters are so quick and irregular.

frankenstein's camera

Preliminary tests are in on my Franken-camera. (Thanks to Lime, for the nickname.) It is intimidating to me, especially when I add a white envelope high atop the stack for soft fill-in. I can only imagine what the subjects think when I point this enigmatic contraption at them. Naturally, I have lots to learn here. The very first picture I took with this external flash & slave trigger was a skunk at 10:30 PM. It was dark outside, but the photo lights up like the middle of the day.

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On the left, we have a sample of what happens when we leave the flash off. I could have spot-metered it, but what fun would that be? This was more dramatic.

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Compare that to this one below, bounced off the ceiling with strong backlight.

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(By the way, those are my beloved paternal units. Mom sets up a story with a poker face, while Dad's anticipation of the outcome telegraphs the ending... a subtlety we catch with Franken-flash.)

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All of this leaves me awestruck with wonder at the complicated workings of the human eye. I worship God for creating our eyes to automatically and freely process raw visual information without having to strap on a bazillion gadgets and gizmos.

inching ahead

One inch forward...

two steps back.

Tuesday night was supposed to go something like this: I get home from work, have dinner, leave early for prayer meeting, stop at the local park to see if my soccer site is still available, go to bed around 10.

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Instead... My son called me out back to show off his new caterpillar friend, so I took pictures. The refrigerator broke, and we shopped in vain for a replacement, then the dog got skunked. I had to skip prayer meeting and never scouted that field. Exhausted, I finally plopped in the sack at midnight. (sigh)

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I wonder if my Mrs. found a new refrigerator. I wonder whether that caterpillar is still munching leaves or has become bird food. I wonder... zzzzz...