Phun with Photos

Today marks a week since I replace the horrible Panasonic Lumix FX75 with the impressive Canon PowerShot Elph 300 HS. I haven't looked back since, and the little elph hardly ever leaves my pocket! I never miss an opportunity to take a few good shots and today I experimented a bit with image modification skills (GIMP for those who are curious).

I recently decided to surprise my special someone (no, not Chaz) with some great looking roses and today I noticed they had started to bloom quite nicely. This provided a perfect opportunity to experiment with the camera's color accent mode. Here are some of the picture effects thanks to the camera's internal processor -- no modifications were done to these pics after they were taken.

Original Pic

Color Accent - Yellow

Color Accent - Red

It was some pretty nice snapping, but the fun really started when I decided to clear the background of all the unnecessary elements.

Sake Fountain

If you've ever been to a hibachi-style restaurant (and if you haven't, go now! I'm not kidding...stop reading this and go!) you know that one of the key attractions is the show put on by the knife wielding, egg rolling chef. They also like to entertain you (and themselves) by squirting as much Sake into your mouth as possible while slowly increasing the distance between the squirt bottle and your mouth.

Photo Credit: Photo by Emily Anne Epstein

Before you ask, no I'm not in the picture above. What happened to me is much more entertaining (at least from my guests' point of view!)

Accepted?

Opening my mailbox today I found a large envelope from UCONN. My excitement peaked immediately, obviously thinking that if I receive a large envelope as opposed to a regular letter it means I have been accepted.

After reading it however I wasn't so sure!

Weekend Update!

The great thing about summer? The fact that you're more compelled to do group activities as everyone awakes from hibernation and returns to a social life! There are many, many activities to accomplish while the weather remains above 70 degrees and before the official start of the season (now only 2 days away!) we've already been able to achieve of a few of those.

You can see in the picture above how we preferred the dark and damp surroundings of a go-kart track to gradually emerge from winter mode...not to be thrust outdoors too quickly!

Camera Woes...and Woahs!

So why no posts for a week? Well, in a nut shell the camera arrived! What should have been a moment of jubilation and unrestrained snapping, unfortunately turned into incessant fiddling with settings to get a decent photo. Let's see what Panasonic has to say about this:

 This bright lens offers approximately 170% brightness compared to the conventional F2.8 lens and assures high image quality even in low light condition

Well that sounds fine and dandy but let's let the camera do the talking. The pictures below were taken in two different locations with fluorescent lights on. Granted it isn't bright sunlight but the camera couldn't do any better than ISO 800 and the grainy factor is turned up to eleven!

Hot Hot Hot!

Summer is here! After a bone chilling winter with enough snow to fill the Grand Canyon we're now at a mere 93 degrees. Productive members of society are bunkering down in air-conditioned offices, kids off for the summer are running to the pool...and pups are dancing at the opportunity to get dog ice cream!

I know there's ice cream up there, I know it!!

Working from home!

No benefit is greater when working from home than getting to sleep late and not worrying about an early wake up call. Unfortunately car checks and meetings thwarter the best laid plans. It might not have been the most productive day from a work perspective, but getting things done was pretty satisfying!

Epic Fail of the Day - EFOD

The EFOD category is reserved for those classic moments when you just wish someone was around to shout "FAIL!" at your own misfortune, just so it wouldn't be wasted.

What comes to mind when you hear "laser tag", power sliding behind obstacles? summersaulting to avoid enemy fire? 7 year old? Yeah well the latter would probably be more accurate in this case.

What the...daily

PARTY! Nothing signals the beginning of summer like a few friends sitting around a grill waiting for a burger (and in this case some venison too!) to be done..but that's for a bit later Overall,. It was a pretty fun Saturday all in all. Started off the day with a drive to the mechanic's only to find out the shop was closed. Looking at it from  a positive angle I thought I had already found my EFOD early in the day, until I checked their website and found they were supposed to be open but simply weren't...with no explanation!

But you're not supposed to be!

Epic Fail of the Day - EFOD

The EFOD category is reserved for those classic moments when you just wish someone was around to shout "FAIL!" at your own misfortune, just so it wouldn't be wasted.

Excitement leads to rushing, which inevitably leads to mistakes. Today's EFOD is all about what happens when you don't double check what you're doing!

What the...daily

Honestly, I don't even remember what the heck happened for most of the day. I remember getting my usual wake up call from the pup (complete with a side of slobber) and grinding through work to finally make it to the magic hour...4PM! But I couldn't tell you what actually happened between 8 and 4 other than some lolcat shenanigans.

Getting a jump on the weekend

Epic Fail of the Day - EFOD

The EFOD category is reserved for those classic moments when you just wish someone was around to shout "FAIL!" at your own misfortune, just so it wouldn't be wasted.

There are few things more annoying than a dripping faucet, so when it's your shower, that just becomes unbearable. That's the topic of today's EFOD.

What the...daily

How's this for the start of your day? You're sleeping comfortably, trying to postpone the inevitable moment when your alarm will go off and start another workday when all of a sudden....BAM! You're attacked by a furry beast who wants nothing more than to savagely devour you (ooor maybe just lick you awake, I haven't figure that out yet). Just look at that ferocious face!

Oh the horror!

What the...daily

The highlight of the day? Deciding to start a blog! I've been racking up pictures, ideas and words to put this together and here it finally is! The goal is to post daily through the series called 'What the...today' and provide the key highlights of the day. A digital scrapbook for my future self if you will.

No major occurrence, just planned for Dave's (or rather, Hazmat's) bachelor party and found a great Groupon we can't wait to try out...28 dirt grippin' miles on an ATV for 3 hours through the Vegas desert!