Fans of the random picture on the menu should be happy to see it has returned in its former glory, and even faster. Barring any gallery disasters, it’ll stay there too. I’m playing around with the colors of the site, so if you see anything strange let me know. I take requests too :).

It seems from a fit of stupidity I turned off FollowSymLinks in my gallery .htaccess file so that’s why the photos haven’t worked for a few hours. Things should be back to normal now, so now is a good chance to check out the new albums I’ve added. I’ve added some new days, which aren’t necessarily at top because things are in chronological order, and I’ve also added some new photos I missed to some of the recent days.

I just read a very interesting Canon 1Ds Field Report written by Michael Reichmann of Luminous Landscape with assistance from Thomas Knoll, who some of you might know as the original author of Photoshop. To sum things up, they basically came to the conclusion that the 1Ds surpasses every digital camera they’ve ever seen, and is preferably to film cameras in almost every situation. That’s quite a compliment coming from a reviewer with so much experience. I would recommend checking it out if just to see some of the beautiful test shots they took; the detail on some of them is really amazing. This camera is obviously out of my price range for the foreseeable future, but hopefully this will knock the price of the D60, which I’ve had my eye on for a while, down a bit.

Photolog lovers–I’m finally catching up with some of the pictures taken since 9-19! I’m going a little out of order, just because there are so many to do, but I think you’ll enjoy it. There are over two hundred pictures to add! Anyway give me some time; there will also be a lot of photos from the Kemah Jazz Festival this weekend (schedule) and I’ll try to add those as they come. For now, I hope 9-24-2002 and 9-25-2002 tide you over.

9-12-2002–These are fun to look at just see the pure delightment on Kel’s face when he finds the iPod. The first ones when he’s opening the package are low quality because the flash wasn’t on. There are also some nice ones of David and his fiancé.

Through Kymberlie I found a very cool photo contest at photojunkie that I’ve decided to enter. The theme of the contest is “Macro,” which is one of my favorite features on my camera. I have a ton of macro shots, so thinking of what to do was a challenge. The first thought that came to my mind was a face, and I had a particular model in mind but she isn’t available this Sunday, so I dove into the photolog to find one that suits. Kudos to Bridget. Without further ado, here it is:

Take a second look at the horizon :), we’re actually on the big swinging rides at Kemah.

When I was young I would go on trips to exotic locations and come home with nothing but pictures of the clouds in various cities, states, countries. Looking back I would say that clouds are certainly a unifying aspect of global scenery. 9-4-2002–Going back to my roots. You can never have too many cloud pictures :). Actually I really enjoyed the way the light and dark clouds contrasted in some of these pictures. Grab a full size if you feel like replacing that boring cloud backgroud that comes with Windows 95 and on. Tip: when viewing a photo you can click on it to see a really big (2048×1536) version, which usually varies from 300-600k in size.

9-3-2002–Since this is the first day I’m back at school and have my camera I wanted to walk through the routine I’ve started to build up. Unfortunately since I was running a little late I didn’t really get an oppurtunity to take any pictures of my Human Situation discussion class, which is by far my favorite (and smallest) class. I did manage to capture the four ravenous but cute squirrels that say hello between classes. Then we move on to my huge math class, and finally to the parking lot with cars as far as the eye can see.

9-1-2002—had a fun time playing frisbee at Hermann park; Wal-Mart can be fun to an unhealthy degree; parts of downtown can be really beautiful at night.

8-31-2002—even though summer is over now, in spirit if not in weather, I wanted to try and capture some of the things that symbolize summer to me: ants, grass, dirt, bushes, sun. Update: added about a dozen more photos from tonight. Interesting perspectives at the River Oaks shopping center, and some car logos, a new theme.

Don’t get too excited, I still haven’t gotten the camera back, but today my photo crave was satisfied by the photo booth at 59 Diner on Shepard. The beautiful Sarah and Rebecca decided to grace the pictures as well. The only thing is it didn’t give any warning when it started, so the first picture didn’t really come out. Enjoy!

There are going to be a lot more scans over the next few days, but I haven’t decided how I’m going to represent those in the photolog yet. Some are really nice though; I have a picture of me and Alan Greenspan!

I’m very sad to say that there won’t be any updates to the Photolog for a while. Last night at Katz’s I had set it on my lap while I put the memory stick into my laptop. My legs were stretched out and the camera (a Sony P71) rolled down them, and fell on the floor. This is all it would do.

Actualy at first I wasn’t even that stressed out about it, because I have the extended warranty from Best Buy and I’ve had very good experiences with them exchanging broken items; I hoped to have another camera in time for a photo shoot I was planning for Friday with Rebecca. Unfortunately, according to the tech, they only do exchanges within the first 14 days, or on items that they don’t attempt to repair at their service center. The tech then went on to tell me that the normal turn around time is 10-14 days, already too long in my opinion, but if they had to wait for a part it could take as long as a month. Better yet, there is no way for me to track the status of the camera, I’ll just get a call when they get it back at the store, if they do. I hadn’t realized how attached I had gotten to the camera, I would literally take it everywhere. I guess I’ll keep saving for my dream camera and count the days for my trusty, pocket-sized P71 to get better.

Jazz is a music in motion, that’s why I feel that the motion in the photos from last night’s gig exhibit a lot of motion. The longer exposure times necessitated by the low light created some interesting effects at times. The music was burning, as expected, and it was a very pleasant night overall.

I just had a very pleasant evening with friends at Diedrich’s (the usual) and 59 Diner, and the pictures are online. About halfway through the night, everyone started to try taking bad pictures of everyone else, and some were truly horrific ;). As a favor to everyone I’ve taken out the worst one for everybody. So no complaining, because the worst one in the album is nothing compared to the one I didn’t put up :-p. Tonight’s captions are from guest commentator Rachel. Enjoy!

Sights Unseen – Part II is now online for your viewing pleasure. Like it? Hate it? Let me know

Sights Unseen – Part I has been finished and is now online. It took a little longer than I anticipated to choose the pictures and put it all together. Comments, as always, are appreciated. Enjoy!

I just finished pulling an all–nighter so I could be up this morning for some absolutely amazing lighting. The past several weeks I’ve been noticing different areas in and around my neighborhood that are really quite striking in their aesthetic quality. With that the idea for this series of photos was born, to capture the beauty that we pass every day and that exists all around us, even in the urban sprawl of southwest Houston. “Sights Unseen” will go online tonight or tomorrow.

The Photolog has reached over 2500 photos! I would like to thank the Academy, and my Mom . . .

The Photolog now has over 2000 photos in it! I go for quantity over quality ;). I’ve been going through all of them and responding to any comments so if you’ve left a comment on a photo before go check to see if there’s anything new. Today is P2K :).