Going South to the Pens
I believe that 2006 is the first year in many years that I didn’t do at least one trip to Horse Pens 40 for some good old sandstone bouldering.
So naturally, I’m quite pumped about heading down there next week for four days of bouldering. Two notable projects I hope to tick off (or at least make progress on).
Millipede
Great White
A cup of joe
Most mornings I need a coffee fix. I think Starbucks coffee is about as tasty as water steeped through burnt wood. I’ve been sticking with this little chinese-couple run deli up the street from the office for their coffee which is quite good.
But the one thing that annoys me about getting coffee from that place is that they charge $1.89 for a large cup, so after taxes, its about $2.04. They dont take plastic. So I have to hand over $3, and get a pocketful of change back. Every day. There’s a small mountain of silver/copper on my desk right now becuase people who know me, know I hate carrying around change.
So I’d been reading about how McD coffee is actually quite good. How it beat out Starbucks in some blind taste-tests. (Again, that’s not much of a challenge, considering how horrible Starbucks tastes.) This morning I decided to see for myself, and stopped in for a cup. Which cost me $1.34.
VERDICT: It’s cheap. But it’s lacking in flavor. Guess Ill be sticking with the chinese-couple brew and 96 cents in change.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
I’d known of Henri Cartier-Bresson. The father of photojournalistic style shooting. Often mentioned in the same breath as “Leica”, and “the decisive moment”.
Wasn’t until I did a bit more reading up on him today when these words spoke directly to my heart.
“He never photographed with flash, a practice he saw as ‘[i]mpolite…like coming to a concert with a pistol in your hand.’”
There is nothing I hate more than strapping a flash on my camera. When I do, it’s almost insulting. Coming to the admission that my equipment is inadequate for the moment at hand. If I can *see* the subject, why can’t I capture it as is? Why must I announce my presence, and destroy the entire moment with a blinding flash of unnatural white light?
That is what drives me to accquire the fastest primes. The best low-light performers. The challenge of producing pictures from the most miserable conditions. Because then I can capture the scene I saw in my mind’s eye. A flash changes all that, makes it artifical and different.
This Henri dude and I would probably get along just fine!
Idiotarod 2007
Much props to Carrie who tipped me off about this new-to-the-DC-scene event called the Idiotarod. This definitely has the makings to become as legendary as the annual 17th St. High Heel Race.
I’m experimenting with a new way of presenting a timeline of photos, in a storyboard format instead of a gallery. Go take a look here!
Thanks again, Carrie for a fabulous time out!