Category Archives: Photography

Photo Firsts (Apphia), Stats, and More

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Life has gotten another month of updates. It might have more by tonight, so check again early tomorrow.
Edit: Life did indeed get another update. Another two months plus, in fact.

Portraits has also gotten a small update. Yay photos.

Here’s my first photo of Apphia:

September 2, 2004, waiting outside physics class.

Also, I went back and did stats by semester for everyone because I was rather curious as well:

    Apphia:

  • August 1, 2004 to December 31, 2004: 869
  • January 1, 2005 to May 31, 2005: 216
  • June 1, 2005 to July 31, 2005: 0
  • August 1, 2005 to December 31, 2005: 125
  • January 1, 2006 to May 31, 2006: 257
  • June 1, 2006 to July 31, 2006: 0
  • August 1, 2006 to December 31, 2006: 72
  • January 1, 2007 to May 31, 2007: 57
  • June 1, 2007 to July 31, 2007: 0
  • August 1, 2007 to December 31, 2007: 126
  • January 1, 2008 to May 31, 2008: 89
  • June 1, 2008 to July 31, 2008: 0
  • August 1, 2008 to December 31, 2008: 0
  • January 1, 2009 to present: 0
    Dan:

  • August 1, 2004 to December 31, 2004: 180
  • January 1, 2005 to May 31, 2005: 101
  • June 1, 2005 to July 31, 2005: 0
  • August 1, 2005 to December 31, 2005: 203
  • January 1, 2006 to May 31, 2006: 69
  • June 1, 2006 to July 31, 2006: 0
  • August 1, 2006 to December 31, 2006: 57
  • January 1, 2007 to May 31, 2007: 56
  • June 1, 2007 to July 31, 2007: 0
  • August 1, 2007 to December 31, 2007: 399
  • January 1, 2008 to May 31, 2008: 295
  • June 1, 2008 to July 31, 2008: 0
  • August 1, 2008 to December 31, 2008: 0
  • January 1, 2009 to present: 0
    Greg:

  • August 1, 2004 to December 31, 2004: 0
  • January 1, 2005 to May 31, 2005: 0
  • June 1, 2005 to July 31, 2005: 0
  • August 1, 2005 to December 31, 2005: 61
  • January 1, 2006 to May 31, 2006: 181
  • June 1, 2006 to July 31, 2006: 122
  • August 1, 2006 to December 31, 2006: 123
  • January 1, 2007 to May 31, 2007: 481
  • June 1, 2007 to July 31, 2007: 332
  • August 1, 2007 to December 31, 2007: 564
  • January 1, 2008 to May 31, 2008: 154
  • June 1, 2008 to July 31, 2008: 0
  • August 1, 2008 to December 31, 2008: 268
  • January 1, 2009 to present: 0
    Ian:

  • August 1, 2004 to December 31, 2004: 168
  • January 1, 2005 to May 31, 2005: 23
  • June 1, 2005 to July 31, 2005: 0
  • August 1, 2005 to December 31, 2005: 156
  • January 1, 2006 to May 31, 2006: 116
  • June 1, 2006 to July 31, 2006: 0
  • August 1, 2006 to December 31, 2006: 51
  • January 1, 2007 to May 31, 2007: 44
  • June 1, 2007 to July 31, 2007: 35
  • August 1, 2007 to December 31, 2007: 88
  • January 1, 2008 to May 31, 2008: 194
  • June 1, 2008 to July 31, 2008: 0
  • August 1, 2008 to December 31, 2008: 17
  • January 1, 2009 to present: 0
    Keith:

  • August 1, 2004 to December 31, 2004: 188
  • January 1, 2005 to May 31, 2005: 220
  • June 1, 2005 to July 31, 2005: 0
  • August 1, 2005 to December 31, 2005: 567
  • January 1, 2006 to May 31, 2006: 251
  • June 1, 2006 to July 31, 2006: 63
  • August 1, 2006 to December 31, 2006: 108
  • January 1, 2007 to May 31, 2007: 55
  • June 1, 2007 to July 31, 2007: 10
  • August 1, 2007 to December 31, 2007: 284
  • January 1, 2008 to May 31, 2008: 320
  • June 1, 2008 to July 31, 2008: 159
  • August 1, 2008 to December 31, 2008: 90
  • January 1, 2009 to present: 0
    Mars:

  • August 1, 2004 to December 31, 2004: 0
  • January 1, 2005 to May 31, 2005: 76
  • June 1, 2005 to July 31, 2005: 0
  • August 1, 2005 to December 31, 2005: 63
  • January 1, 2006 to May 31, 2006: 25
  • June 1, 2006 to July 31, 2006: 0
  • August 1, 2006 to December 31, 2006: 39
  • January 1, 2007 to May 31, 2007: 23
  • June 1, 2007 to July 31, 2007: 0
  • August 1, 2007 to December 31, 2007: 186
  • January 1, 2008 to May 31, 2008: 188
  • June 1, 2008 to July 31, 2008: 0
  • August 1, 2008 to December 31, 2008: 0
  • January 1, 2009 to present: 0
    Mark:

  • August 1, 2004 to December 31, 2004: 346
  • January 1, 2005 to May 31, 2005: 192
  • June 1, 2005 to July 31, 2005: 0
  • August 1, 2005 to December 31, 2005: 95
  • January 1, 2006 to May 31, 2006: 104
  • June 1, 2006 to July 31, 2006: 11
  • August 1, 2006 to December 31, 2006: 46
  • January 1, 2007 to May 31, 2007: 210
  • June 1, 2007 to July 31, 2007: 0
  • August 1, 2007 to December 31, 2007: 186
  • January 1, 2008 to May 31, 2008: 218
  • June 1, 2008 to July 31, 2008: 0
  • August 1, 2008 to December 31, 2008: 0
  • January 1, 2009 to present: 723
    Tim A:

  • August 1, 2004 to December 31, 2004: 617
  • January 1, 2005 to May 31, 2005: 100
  • June 1, 2005 to July 31, 2005: 0
  • August 1, 2005 to December 31, 2005: 167
  • January 1, 2006 to May 31, 2006: 171
  • June 1, 2006 to July 31, 2006: 0
  • August 1, 2006 to December 31, 2006: 88
  • January 1, 2007 to May 31, 2007: 120
  • June 1, 2007 to July 31, 2007: 0
  • August 1, 2007 to December 31, 2007: 0
  • January 1, 2008 to May 31, 2008: 977
  • June 1, 2008 to July 31, 2008: 0
  • August 1, 2008 to December 31, 2008: 45
  • January 1, 2009 to present: 0
    Tim M:

  • August 1, 2004 to December 31, 2004: 722
  • January 1, 2005 to May 31, 2005: 224
  • June 1, 2005 to July 31, 2005: 0
  • August 1, 2005 to December 31, 2005: 352
  • January 1, 2006 to May 31, 2006: 555
  • June 1, 2006 to July 31, 2006: 45
  • August 1, 2006 to December 31, 2006: 55
  • January 1, 2007 to May 31, 2007: 132
  • June 1, 2007 to July 31, 2007: 135
  • August 1, 2007 to December 31, 2007: 318
  • January 1, 2008 to May 31, 2008: 331
  • June 1, 2008 to July 31, 2008: 0
  • August 1, 2008 to December 31, 2008: 0
  • January 1, 2009 to present: 0

Yesterday there was random piccaring with Gopi.








Afterward, we pulled Ally in and came back and made tasty soup with lots of different veggies and spicy sausages. After Gopi, Tao, and Raphael left, Ally and I wandered for a bit until she got a text from a friend inviting her to a party. We walked there (about 1.9 miles, so not bad at all) and it ended up being a big formal party thing at what looked like a club, so I bowed out and walked home instead, arriving at around midnight. At least I got some good exercise.

Whee awesomeness.

Piccaring

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I went photographing with Gopi today, and had a lot of fun.

I got to try out Gopi’s 8mm lens, with 180 degree view:

Also, it was rainy:

I also shot a lot of photos with Gopi’s 50mm f/1.4 lens. I’d forgotten how much I loved the lower fstops on my film cameras because of the amazing depth of field you get, and the ability to handhold after sunset or indoors (such as the cluster):




Have to end with this:

As a result, I will likely almost certainly be buying myself this lens (50mm f/1.8, ~75mm equivalent for digital) later this week. My normal-use lens (18-200mm) only stops down to f/3.5 at the 18mm end and f/6.2 at the 200mm end (and my 100-300mm isn’t much better), which is generally worthless for depth of field. Also, this would be an ideal portraiture lens, and I tend to prefer shooting portraits. Meh.
…
…I can afford to spend $130, right?
…I still feel bad spending it though. Blahhh.
…I’m also tempted by the 50mm f/1.4 but I don’t think the extra stop down is worth an extra ~$250.

Ugh camera repair

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So some of you probably remember my horror stories about this camera repair service (such as not fixing it the first time, not being open during their advertised hours causing me to waste a trip downtown, not having people on-hand to do repairs despite that being their name, losing my flash popup button such that I had to use a paperclip to pop it).

Turns out they left me with another present: When they fixed my camera, they set the time on it behind by 12 hours. This isn’t something I noticed before because I usually don’t use timestamps, and the time itself is right (it’s just the AM/PM part that’s wrong). Noticed this today while tagging photos because Photoshop Album (which is a rather terrible program in itself, but I digress) sorts photos by chronological timewise but reverse chronological for days (i.e. as you’re scrolling down, 12:01 midnight on January 2 appears before 11:59 PM on January 1, but 11:58 PM on January 1 also appears before 11:59 PM), so some days were being split up (because photos taken before vs after noon on that day were being reported as different days). So yeah, now I have to go and fix the timestamp on every photo from August 5, 2007 until today. Argh.

Don’t ever use this camera repair service. Seriously.

On the plus side, I have now tagged 104226 photos. Yay photos.

Portraits!

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Woke up today feeling kinda sick, so I went back to bed rather than going to work. Felt quite a bit better in the afternoon, so I got some work done. Did pen-based computing (yay). Looked at OS P4 a bit (yay). Played ITG with Andres (whom I hadn’t seen since before summer) and it was awesome. Shot some portraits of Zach, because Zach is awesome and posed for me, and generally satisfied my portraiture urges.

So yeah… tons of photos:














Updates

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I suppose I should update this, since I haven’t in a while and stuff has happened since Thanksgiving.

An Endeca interview happened. No offer, as expected. I suppose that’s just as well. Boston was mostly uneventful.

Some rejection letters happened… rejected three of the five offers I had. Two left to ponder over.

A P4 happened. I wrote the entire lab in about an hour. We’ve just now started debugging it, but it really shouldn’t take too long.

A work happened. I have a huge project for my final 3 days of work. I’m not going to get it anywhere near complete. I swear, my coworkers have way too much faith in me.

Also, complaints:
No one’s been available for portraits, and I haven’t shot any portraits in a semester… starting to feel this intense urge to shoot potraits again. People always seem to be too busy for me. I’m more torn than I thought I would be on my job offers, and one of them has an absolutely-final already-pushed-back-2-weeks-despite-corporate-policy deadline of tomorrow. I haven’t been doing well at ITG. I haven’t been fulfilling my commitments in Pen-based Computing (my group probably thinks I’m the world’s biggest slacker). Went out to try and shoot landscapes of the fresh snow, and that didn’t really work out either. The scroll wheel on my mouse is starting to go… I’m going to have to get used to using scrollbars again. Feeling incredibly inferior at photography after seeing some of the stuff submitted to the yearbook this year by people far more talented than I. No one is ever interested in my card games or anything.
Blah.

On top of everything, I’m almost certainly leaving Pittsburgh forever in under 2 weeks, and that’s really starting to sink in. I’m not ready to go out on my own.

Snow piccar, because why the hell not: