happy new year

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Please, don’t wake me, no, don’t shake me
Leave me where I am, I’m only sleeping  –  Beatles

I don’t normally make resolutions on New Years day and I’m not going to start this year but Emo has expressed a desire to sleep more in the future.  Given that he sleeps 23 hours a day I’m not sure that’s possible but I’ll support him in whatever he decides.  He’s just an endless source of amusement and creativity and it must be tiring.  We would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone in the world a happy and healthy new year.

This photo was shot with the Samsung Note 8 (also an endless source of amusement and creativity).  You can see another one from the Samsung here.

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leaf 2.0

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Hostas are one of my favorite plants and we have a few of them around the house.  It’s getting close to the time of year where I cut them down to the base for winter so I started with this one leaf which I thought seemed photogenic.  I attached it to a south window Emo was not using at the moment with Scotch leaf tape and shot some photos over a 2 week time period.   The leaf, over the course of the two weeks, and in addition to the original green, took on a yellow and rust color that picked up the light nicely,  In the end, though,  I thought the colors were a little gaudy so I use a creamtone preset I made in Lightroom.  I also got a chance to use the extension tube set from Amazon and it worked very well.  More on that later.

click on any photo to enter the gallery:

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Emo eventually demanded the window back so I had to discontinue this series.  But there will be another leaf series coming up so stay tuned.

 

Lamberton Conservatory … and a requirement fulfilled

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I stopped at the Lamberton Conservatory yesterday and there was very few people there.  That’s good for me because I like to take my time and I hate to be a bother to other patrons.  I thought it was a good day to go because rain was predicted and it did look like it was about to rain all morning, but we never got a drop.  No matter, the light is usually very nice and even inside and I got a few shots I may not have been able to get if it were crowded.  Although I shot some interesting flowers, I tended to focus more on leaves of various plants.

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The requirement to post a photo of Emo is hereby fulfilled.  If you feel compelled to comment, please mention him as his ego needs stroking every so often.

time pt. 1

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The “half battery” indicator is flashing on my Timex watch so I’m thinking about replacing it.  The watch, not the battery.  I could have a jeweler replace the battery for $18 (US) or I could replace it myself if I had access to jewelers tools such as eyeglasses, screwdrivers, tweezers and $18 (US).  But then I’d still have an old watch with a “genuine faux leather” band that Emo likes to chew on and is barely able to hold the weight of the watch with a new battery.

One of my “stupid ideas” was the invention of a solar powered watch.  The prototype consisted of two separate pieces; the watch and a baseball cap with photovoltaic cells on the lid and wires that ran down the side, through the sleeve of your shirt and onto the watch to charge it.  It worked fine but it wasn’t very practical because we only get 62 days of sunshine a year here in Webster (Where Life is Worth Living) and the cells couldn’t produce enough electricity to run the watch.

Photographers are obsessed with time.  Some photographers want to keep track of the “premium”  times for outdoor photography; the golden hour or the blue hour.  Some may time long exposures of flowing water to get that creamy smooth look.  Timing is critical in every phase of darkroom work, too.  Every photograph is an instant in time so it can’t be underestimated.

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…to be continued.

brand new day

rainbow # 8422

Welcome to 2clicksaway, a blog dedicated to photography and other nonsense.  Anyone familiar with the old ONEOWNER blog will feel comfortable with this new format since most things are the same, except there is no history.  But history makes itself and I’m hoping to follow the same path as ONEOWNER.  There are some minor differences, though.  This blog is 99% fact free whereas ONEOWNER was 100% fact free.  The added 1% fact makes this more nutritious and keeps readers on their toes.  The facts won’t necessarily be obvious so if there is any confusion, please leave a comment and I’ll personally get back to you.  As a matter of fact, I intend to answer all comments since I don’t anticipate very many anyway.  But do comment, please.

Another thing you may notice is a bit cleaner look since I’m not using too many Widgets.  There is no “Blogroll”.  I had one on the old blog but I neglected it and it never seemed up to date.  I’m unsure of the value of it so if anyone has any opinion at all, please let me know and I will be glad to add one in the near future.

In conjunction with this blog is a second blog, LIGHTSCATTER, which is very special to me.  I won’t be doing any writing on this blog, only posting photos.  There are quite a few blogs that follow this format and I really like the idea of having the photos stand on their own.   I also welcome comments on LIGHTSCATTER as well and look forward to sharing information on any photos.  The posts will represent  my favorite photos, so some may or may not appear here.

emo # 2127

Oh, this guy might show up from time to time.  It’s in his contract.