95 - Bad Egg

92 - The Photo They Don't Want You To See From Roswell

83 - Lean On Me

Lean on me, when you're not strong
And I'll be your friend
I'll help you carry on
For it won't be long
'Til I'm gonna need
Somebody to lean on

79 - Looking Through A Glass Onion

66 - Frozen Bud

We had some frozen precipitation last night.  We've had two days this year where they've called off school when there was no snow or ice to be seen, but today when we actually get some, school is still on.  I think they've used up their scheduling slack and don't want to have to figure out how to make up any additional bad weather days.  In any case, some of the bushes in the back yard were covered in ice which always looks interesting.

Photogeek Talk:  Bokeh is a term for the subjective beauty of the portions of a photo that are out of focus.   The word is a phonetic spelling of the Japanese term boke, which means blur.  The optical characteristics of a lens determine the quality of its bokeh.  There are several specific things that photographers look for in judging bokeh, but the simple version is that good bokeh looks smooth and creamy while bad bokeh looks jumbled and jittery.  Like I said, this is a subjective thing.  Anyway, this photo has a shallow depth of field from a combination of proximity to the subject, a relatively large aperture (f/4), and a relatively long focal length (70mm).  Bokeh is key in a shot like this because so much of the image is outside the focus area.  Most of my lenses have reputations for good, but not great, bokeh ("cream machine" lenses tend to be very expensive).  That said, I'm very pleased, and frankly a little surprised, by the blur in this photo.  It's quite nice, if I say so myself.  Looks more expensive than it is.

57 - Just Sleeping

45 - Individualitas

“The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.”
- C.G. Jung

44 - Winter Is Coming

I watched the season 4 preview for Game of Thrones tonight.  It looked awesome.  My favorite show on television and it's not really even close.  Just don't get too attached to any character.

38 - Look Into My Eye

Today's photo is courtesy of a Baoding ball, a coffee cup, a camera, and one desperate photographer.

To me, this one looks like either a chrome web cam or a fisheye lens stuck up against a mirror.  It's actually a regular lens stuck up against a chrome Baoding ball.  The ball's round, mirror-like surface gives an ultra wide angle view.

36 - Blue Wave

• Pizza - check
• Beer - check
• DVR set - check

Okay, ready for the Super Bowl.

Three Longhorns are playing - Quentin Jammer, Michael Huff, and Earl Thomas.  Only Thomas plays for the Seahawks, but all things considered, I guess I'm a Seattle fan today.

20 - Glass and Not Glass

16 - The Relentless Progression of Time

In my first post, I mentioned that time is accelerating.  I truly believe that it is.  Now, I don't think it is accelerating for everybody.  Therefore, I think the velocity of time is relative to perspective.  In other words, I think we all mark time differently.  But mark time we do, because time doesn't stand still.  It marches forward without rest and without mercy.

9 - Wine Stopper

I'm not a wine connoisseur but I do enjoy a glass from time to time.  I'm too cheap to ever really get deeply into it.  The ideal for me would be to become an expert on wines under, say, $25 a bottle.

7 - Feather

Fate was conspiring against me today.   I had something of a plan.  I brought my "take everywhere" camera to date night tonight with the wife with the intention of grabbing my daily photo either at dinner or at the fancy schmancy megaplex movie theater they have here in town.  A jazz trio was playing at the restaurant and there was a decent angle near the drummer to get what I thought would be a good shot.  No dice - the battery went dead just after I turned the camera on.  (By the way, the movie we saw The Hunger Games - Catching Fire.  Other than an overly melodramatic ending, it was actually quite good!)  We got home and I intended to get a photo of the boys peering through the railing on the staircase, but they weren't having it.  The boys weren't cooperating, I was getting very testy, and the photos just sucked.  So then I started getting desperate.  I started looking through the house for stuff to put together a still life.  Of the few dozen attempts, this one of the peacock feather was the one I liked best.  I think I need to start stockpiling ideas for the days when I'm creatively dry...