…because I actually adopted an orphan!

Yes, most people who know me know that I dislike children. So then, naturally I should turn my nose up if someone offered me an orphan to take care of. Well, not this time! Yesterday at 2pm, I got a call from Winston Salem saying that an orphan came in that met my criteria. It was yellow and black Passion Coupe (now discontinued) and had the comfort package. Well, I had to make a decision on the spot, and I slapped down $250 over the phone to hold the car until I could make payment arrangements. Well, I took off of work early, headed on over to the bank and got my loan (forcing them to work about 45 minutes past closing time). Got the loan, drove up to Winston Salem and picked up the new addition to the family! I have to say, it drives better than I remember and didn’t have any problems driving 85mph down the highway to get back. I’m in love. That’s all there is to it.

Now, I have to come up with a name for my baby. Anyone have good ideas?

begins with TtV photos.

TtV is (as far as I can tell) some obscure type of photography created people who like odd things like me. The gist of TtV, which derives its acronym from “Through the Viewfinder”, is basically taking a photo with a macro lens into the top viewfinder of a “top-down viewfinder” camera. Personally, I picked up an old Argus Seventy-five (seen below) for less than $10 on eBay.

So, all you have to do is this….
1. Create your own “box” to block out additional light between your camera and the twin lens reflex camera.
2. Find the correct distance to the twin lens reflex camera so that your camera can focus and still have the full view of the viewfinder.
3. Simple enough, snap a picture and crop as necessary.

An example can be found below from Flickr user melissajane307.

And finally, the last stage of my photo exploration will involve potential loss of life, namely my own! This type of photography is very rarely known, but is quite fascinating. Kirlian photography is when an object is placed on a photographic plate and is then connected to a high voltage source. Small coronal discharges create an “aura” of the object. At dinner on Friday night, I was discussing with my family about how much voltage can be considered lethal. No one had a clear answer, so I was told to do research and post here. Well, here is the result. Voltage isn’t considered lethal, current is….and the lethal current is more commonly stated as 20mA. Well, to do this type of photography, the high voltage generator I found produces 300mA. Surely that won’t kill me, right? But, if in my final death throes I could capture a picture like below, that would be awesome!

Update: Sorry about the cut and paste incident on the original post!

in honor of my birthday!

Click the picture to make it bigger!

Comic by the one, the only…O!

…and hopefully they don’t scare too many people off.

I have always had a desire to “play around” with photography. Now that I have purchased my Nikon D80, I have begun to take my first steps. My first jump into photography was taking High Dynamic Range (HDR) images. This is a process where multiple images (at different exposures) are combined to really show off details. There are two schools of thought on this type of photography: the first being those who like to show off details in a more realistic manner as can be seen with the naked eye (but which normally don’t show up in pictures) and the second being those who like to force images to be very artistic (almost with a halo effect around trees or even watercolor-esque). The first photo below is an example on Flickr from Artie which shows the detailed version type. The second photo is also by Artie on Flickr showing the more “artsy” approach.

Unfortunately, until I can afford to buy the program necessary to process the photos, I have to switch to another type of photo. The latest I thought I would like to get in is called tilt/shift photos. Normally this requires a special lens to either tilt or shift the lens to produce different effects (hence the name). But once again, cost is very prohibitive. The cost of the lens ranges from $1,000 to over $2,500, so we would call that quits, right? Nope! You can duplicate the method by using a photo editing program, so here is the grand unveiling of my first fake tilt/shift photo!

Tomorrow, I’ll give you installment two on my grand scheme of photography!

Yup, that’s right, another month closer to my mini-mobile. I still need to come up with a good name for it. If anyone has thoughts, feel free to express them in the comments.

Anyway, I passed up my chance twice at having a smart car sooner. There was an orphan at the Charlotte dealership on Friday, but it was missing the comfort package that I like. Then Monday of this week, I got a call from Winston Salem stating they had one, but it was the blue one which I can’t stand at all.

So, on with the waiting!

…so naturally, these new contacts are scaring the mess out of me.

When I was in early elementary school, I started wearing glasses. After awhile, my parents thought I should try contact lenses so I wouldn’t be quite so restricted. So, I went for “lessons” at the local optometrist. After about two hours, I finally got one in, but bothered me so much that it popped right out due to the squinting. I haven’t put anything in my eyes since. If you don’t believe how much things in my eyes bother me, ask my new optometrist. It took about 15 minutes just to get a glaucoma test last time.

Anywho, an artist by the name of Erik Klarenbeek has developed his form of fashion aptly named “Eye Jewellery”. It is exactly what you think, small crystals attached to a contact lens by medical wire. So you have danglies hanging outside your eyelids…..gross! Knowing my luck, I’d catch them on something and jerk them right out. And how does it affect your vision with the string attached near the center?

Check out the picture below for someone actually trying this thing out…

Product Info -Eye Jewellery-
Retrieved from -Dvice-

Yup, just checked this morning, and it moved up one more month. Since the estimated date of actually receiving the car is 30 days after the first date, I could be looking at June of next year.

…one month closer!

…is because of the inherent inquisitiveness of being a structural engineer.

I have to know how everything works, which could involve taking things apart and trying to put it back together. I never thought of that in the context of a child, but XKCD Comics really nailed it right on the head with their latest comic.

…I thought I would let you in on my current status. I’ve been trying to keep it quiet, but I can’t any longer.

Hehehehe.