Terror

What does he see?

Airhead

Something tells me that he'd be very friendly, but perhaps a bit vacuous.

Diminutive Model

This obliging bird posed for me this morning. Do you think I should've gotten a model release?

Frosty Morning

How can you not like this leaf? Maybe even empathize with it a little?

My Oatmeal Wears a Hat

I have a lot of certain food staples; I go through so much of some things (like flour) that it makes sense to buy them in bulk and store the extra until I need it. This mostly takes the form of a stack of buckets in my bedroom filled with flour, sugar, and rolled oats. Yep, I go through a lot of oats; 50 pounds lasts me somewhere between eight and twelve months, and costs $18–$20 (which is way better than paying for the little Quaker Oats-style canisters). That canister at the tip-top (the one you can see inside of because of the bright light) has oats in it; I fill it from the buckets it so I don't need to open a bucket each time I make breakfast.

The hat? I just needed someplace to put it.

Jack-o'-lantern Family

I especially liked the rather rakish expression on the far right jack-o'-lantern.

I would not be surprised if there were more pumpkin-related pictures this week.

Grayed Out

This pretty much sums up the weather these last few days.

Stuffed Duck

Tonight the family got together again, and I took a lot of pictures. Many of which featured Hazel. Can you blame me?

Autumn Rain

It rained off and on today, and I was looking for chances to include the rain in my photos. I liked this one the best.

Intramural Soccer

I was riding my bike by the intramural fields this evening and heard a couple of soccer games going on. Since I was looking for some good pictures, and I'd never tried sport photography, I decided to stop by and see what I could do.

Of course, it's kind of challenging to get good pictures in low light when people are moving (plus I haven't the faintest idea of how to photograph sports), but I shot several photos that I rather liked. The one above was my favorite of the night.

And this was my favorite action shot.

Thanks again to Chillylint for lending me the lens that made these possible!

Building School Spirit

Yesterday Chillylint very graciously offered to lend me her portrait lens, and I was pretty ecstatic. Today, while passing by a construction site, I saw a familiar-looking flag atop a crane and decided to pull out the portrait lens to see what kind of picture I could get.

Turns out, that lens lets you get a really nice, close-up picture even of a flag on top of a crane. (Thank you, Chilly!)

I kind of wonder why they decided to fly the BYU flag on top of a crane? Do most tower cranes have flags on top?

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

Chillylint, Lisa, and I made dinner tonight: spaghetti alla carbonara. (Really, it was more them than me.) It turned out well! I also got to borrow Chilly's 50mm 1.8 lens, which made this shot so much easier. And I got Chilly to artfully arrange the toppings.

Ping Pong

A favorite work pastime (mostly for my coworkers) is ping pong. If I were better, maybe I'd play it too; for now I'm fine just taking pictures of it.

Evidence

I had to break into a new bag of flour today. I've used 30–35 pounds in the last six months. Fortunately, I had this 50-pound bag ready! I suppose this might be evidence that I like baking a little bit...

Bananas

I had a few bananas that were starting to get a little ripe, when a friend suggested a recipe I should try. That was over a week ago, and I just barely made the bread, so the bananas were really ripe! (Not bad, though, just very ripe and very soft.) The recipe turned out well; it's supposed to be particularly good for high altitudes, so I have no idea how it would turn out elsewhere, but at 4200 feet it's a winner.

Hiking Timp

I hiked Timp today, and took it slow so I could get lots of pictures. It was hard narrowing things down, but I finally decided to just post my three favorites.

First of all, I love the way this red maple looks against the dark background. I was lucky that there were deep shadows behind it, which let me get this shot.

Second, I took this shot underneath several leaning-over trees, because I loved the golden-green light.

And finally, I saw this stump on top of (frozen over) Emerald Lake, and liked how it stood out.

Even though so many of the plants along the hike were dead, there are still so many beautiful things to see!

Coffee Cake

This is a recipe I saw months ago on Smitten Kitchen and wanted to try myself. I think it turned out pretty well, though I have a couple other coffee cake recipes I actually like better. (Including another Smitten Kitchen recipe, cranberry vanilla coffee cake.) Now I just need to get people to help me eat the rest of the pan! (And thanks for helping make it, Rachel!)

Hello Lamppost

Somehow even October feels cheerful when you still have sunflowers.

Frayed Knot

I spied this bit of rope walking home from work today. I suppose it was probably originally used for a hammock; if so, I wonder what became of the hammock? Was it taken down clumsily when a tenant moved out? Or did the rope break while the unfortunate occupant(s) were relaxing in its breezy arc?

New Hairstyle

One of my cute sisters got a new hairstyle today (new length and new color) and wanted pictures. The thing is, she didn't have a camera. So I got to help! I know nothing about portraiture, but she was patient and let me take quite a few shots to get a few that she liked. This is my favorite.

Columns

I spotted a very well-wrapped car on my way to work today. More intriguing than the toilet paper job, however, were the Post-It notes stuck to the windows. I thought "styllous" was interesting. (Apparently it could refer to either a place on Cyprus, or to a transliteration of the Greek word for "columns," at least if one blog is to be trusted. Perhaps Cyprus or columns have a special meaning to this couple.*) However, my favorite was "Great porch step kisser."

While I was taking a few pictures of the car, a guy stopped and asked if it was my car, offering to help me clean it off if it was. Well, it wasn't, but I thought that was a very nice offer from a random stranger. Hopefully whoever did clean the car off got some help undoing this very thorough job!

*Yes, I realize it was probably a misspelling, but can't I give them the benefit of the doubt? Cypriot columns are more fun, anyway!

Broccoli Carnage

Tonight for dinner I made broccoli cheese soup, which turned out rather nicely. Since I didn't want to whip out my camera while I had people over for dinner, I instead settled for this picture of the broccoli florets, along with the cutting board, my glorious chef's knife, and a measuring cup that came in handy for measuring chicken broth. The accent lighting in my kitchen is very fancy, but not so great for photography. I'm going to have to figure out what to do about that. Mostly likely, eventually, get a flash. But not yet.

My Saturday

Clearly my Saturday was very exciting.

It is, however, rather satisfying to have a clean bathroom.

Trip to Temple Square

I took a trip to Temple Square this evening to just experiment. I'd been through there last week to pick up the camera charger and my phone (which I managed to leave with my friend), but didn't have the time to stop and just explore and take pictures the way I wanted. Today's trip was an hour and a half of just wandering around, experimenting with light and perspective, and finding subjects that I liked.

This first one was of a fountain near the Church Office Building. I started off with a picture of the fountain itself (when the setting sun hit it just right), but decided I liked the close-up view better.

I took this picture just because I liked the idea of focusing on the little girls staring into the pool, while a new bride appeared blurred-out in the background (which is a reversal of what we usually consider the most important in a photo). Thinking about it now, I realize that this could represent two stages of life: going from childhood to married adult. In fact, the girl on the right is looking toward the bride across the reflecting pool, as if looking toward her own wedding day in the far future. I didn't intend that when I took the picture, but I really like it.

Photo of the Unknown Tree

I'm not actually sure what kind of tree this is, but the small fruit intrigued me.

Unusual Seat

I saw this while walking today, and quickly pulled out my camera. I forgot that I'd had the aperture set on f/16 for a previous picture, or the background would've been more blurred; I'll remember to check next time! Either way, I really like the picture. And I want a backhoe.

Neighborhood Shots

Sometimes, when I don't have anything much happening to take a picture of, I just end up going for a walk and looking for interesting scenes. That's what happened today.

I was playing with perspective, and took shots of these construction barricades from a bunch of different angles (including different heights). There were actually six of them, which is what originally caught my eye while I was walking, but two didn't make it into this photo. (I wonder why they needed six clustered around one closed manhole?)

I contemplated climbing a nearby tree to get yet another perspective, but decided against it because it wasn't very climbable. Maybe next time.

Also, I wish I knew how to use flash to fill in the foreground, because I think this shot could've really used it. That'll have to wait for a future time too.

I was taking pictures of this apartment complex at dusk when a couple turned the corner and started walking down the sidewalk. I like the scene much better with them in it, even though they aren't the most prominent part of the photo.

After the Rain

After it rained today, I was walking and a new-style Volkswagen Bug caught my eye. I wanted to emphasize it just a little more, but after playing with selective contrast and brightness (using a mask), I decided to just leave it as it was. Maybe once I learn a little more about post-processing I'll be able to do what I originally wanted with pictures like this.

Family Lunch

Today all of the family here in Provo got together to watch conference. Between sessions we had lunch, which was delicious. (This was actually the pre-lunch snack, some delicious bread that Anthony made.)

And just for fun, here's a shot of the table before we actually sat down to eat.

Hazel Eats Lasagna

I got to see my niece, Hazel, tonight. I caught her right after she'd finished eating, so she was kind of messy. (Most of the extra food ended up on the floor, however, rather than on her. And there wasn't even that much of that. I guess she likes lasagna.) She was intrigued by the camera, particularly the sound of the shutter. I plan on giving her plenty of opportunities to get used to it!

Amy

Today's (completely unposed) photo is of my lovely friend Amy. I've known her for years, and she's simply one of the kindest, funnest people I know. Thanks to her and her husband for inviting me over! I really enjoy being friends with them.