Day 159/365 - The Modern Prometheus

Not much in the way of backstory about today's shot. I was walking to the subway station this morning and saw these guys repairing the light fixture on the underside of the overpass. I thought the way they were silhouetted looked pretty cool, as did their extendible platform thingee, so I decided to take a photo.

Given that there were two workmen maybe the title should be Promethei instead, like octopi and rhinoceri. It always bugs me when reporters on tv who are covering Wall Street refer to the stock "indexes" rather than "indices" or someone says "appendixes" instead of "appendices." I'm all for inventing new words and stretching the meaning of old ones. The more expressive we can make our language, the better. But I hate when we lose existing words and unfortunately it looks like "indices" and "appendices" are rapidly fading into obscurity.

I guess I'm just word greedy.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 56/365 - Experiments in Bokeh

This may look like an old school Lite-Brite, but it's actually just an out of focus shot of a tree trunk that was wrapped in Christmas lights. I cranked up the shadow level in Picasa to strip out everything except the lights. This is a great time of year to play around with bokeh shots.

Usually I forget to try and bokeh a subject and then it strikes me after I'm reviewing the downloaded images that "dang, that might have looked cool as a bokeh shot." This shot is really too busy and crowded to make good bokeh, but I still kinda liked the way it came out.

Tonight the outdoor shopping area near my apartment was having an open house with free horse and carriage rides, giveaways, and a special Santa for animals to get their pictures taken with (although some little kids did wind up horning in on the Kris Kringle action as well). I met up there with my friends Chris, Desiree, and Adriana. Chris and Des brought their dog Chewie with them and dressed him up in his reindeer costume so he could get his picture taken with Santa.

Can't wait to see how that comes out. Hopefully Des and Chris will post the shot on Chewie's blog shortly.

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Day 33/365 - 'Twas a Dark and Chilly Night

I set out to walk home from work tonight, but I didn't realize just how windy and chilly it was outside. I wimped out after about four blocks and ducked into the nearest Metro station. Before I did that though, I did manage to snap this shot of a closed refreshment stand on the National Mall.

I really liked the way it looked huddled there in the dark in a puddle of light with the Washington Monument lit up in the distance. Getting this shot made me feel a little better about chickening out on the walk home tonight.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)