• Sitting at the kitchen table chatting with Ginger (365:246)

  • More of the same (365:245)

    At least this one is in colour.

  • Just me – reprise (365:244)

    Another busy day doing webby stuffs.

    Just me – reprise (365:244). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Tonight’s picture is a reprise of a picture I took on my first 365. I wore more clothes this time and didn’t treat this one as harshly in post-processing as I did the original shot. I look a lot happier in today’s picture. However, the original remains one of my favorites.

    For some reason that I still haven’t gotten to the bottom of, my flashes weren’t working properly tonight, resulting in partial exposures. That’s a synchronization issue. I’ve not met this particular problem before. I was able to work around it without difficulty, and at first, I thought I had the shutter speed set too fast, but it didn’t always sync at 1/60th either. Ginger ran off a few shots on her camera and had the same problem. I’ve obviously accidentally changed a setting on the flashes. I feel a bout of manual reading and Googling coming on.

    Just Me 365:088 (re-edit). Copyright © 2007 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

  • August 2011

    This month saw the return of black and white! Again we were hunkering down hiding from the +100°F temperatures. I spent lots of time at the computer working on a new project, and have been playing with some new photographic toys. I also prepped the kayaks ready for use. I shouldn’t have bothered, we didn’t use them. Finally, at the end of the month, I went off on a trip to St Louis to get my biometrics taken for my ten-year permanent resident card.

  • At my desk (365:243)

    At my desk (365:243) Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Another late-ish session.

    I did try a bit harder for this shot though. I used my desk lamp and monitors as the light source, and put up a large reflector camera right to slightly lift the shadows. I could have tried a bit harder and used one of my Speedlights. But I didn’t.

  • 2 am (365:242)

    2 am (365:242). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    I was working late.

    I wanted to finish the first draft of a website, and I just kept at it as the last stage was loading in the content which doesn’t require a lot of brain power. Of course I should have remembered and taken my daily picture earlier.

    This picture will have to do. At 2am I wasn’t in the mood to try and set up a complex shot. Shame about having to wake up just after 6am the next day though.

  • McDonald’s, I’m good ‘n cold and I have two egg McMuffins! (365:241)

    McDonald’s, I’m good ‘n cold and I have two egg McMuffins! (365:241). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    I love Egg McMuffins.

    Sorry, but it is true. However, that’s jumping ahead a little bit. I was the first to arrive for Biometrics scanning – which was great because it was all over in ten to fifteen minutes. There is probably a joke to be made about an Englishman, a Jamaican and a Russian waiting in line for Biometrics, but it will have to wait for another day.

    I guess I made somebody’s day, as the lady taking my fingerprints said “it is great to start the week with a laugh” this was after busting out laughing because I was nonplussed as to why my thumb print still matched, when it shouldn’t. Then it dawned on me… I’d injured the other hand.

    You are not supposed to take cameras along for the biometrics appointment so I saw lots of pictures I couldn’t take while walking to my appointment, and by the time I walked back to the hotel the light had changed and the pictures weren’t there any more.

    It was hot and rapidly getting hotter in St Louis so I decided to head on home. On the way back I stopped at Pacific, Missouri for an egg McMuffin, and I couldn’t believe my luck when I was told there was a two for one offer! My attempts to take this picture of one of my McMuffins attracted the attention of the staff, but fortunately I wasn’t asked to stop – probably because I’d deliberately hid myself away from everyone else which I guess was also rather suspicious!

  • Chatting with Ginger (365:240)

    Chatting with Ginger (365:240). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    We had a plan, but it didn’t work out.

    Tomorrow at 8am I have an appointment to have my biometrics taken to extend my US visa by 10 years.

    Originally Ginger and I had planned to spend the night in St. Louis and leave the grandparents in charge of the kids. It all unraveled starting with Ginger’s mother being ill. That was okay (well not, but you know what I mean), her dad could still come down. Then our friend’s aunt died, and she needed cat tending duties while they were away. So we re-planned, I’d spend the night at St Louis, and Ginger would stay behind to look after cats and kids.

    So there I was in the hotel in St Louis and suddenly I found myself transported back 3 years, using Chat to keep in touch with Ginger. It wasn’t good to be apart, but it was very good to find out we could switch back to our old modes of communication.

  • The problem with dirty glasses (365:239)

    The problem with dirty glasses (365:239). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    I had terrible trouble with this shot.

    I was trying get a very controlled amount of light from the flash, but I was continually getting a terrible reflection from my glasses. I’d change my position, change the position of the flash (being bounced of a wall). The highlight wouldn’t go away.

    It was only when I came to process the pictures that it became obvious that the problem was not so much a reflection, but dirt on my glasses. If I’d cleaned them, it would have been fine. D’oh! Oh well, at least you can’t see the wall in this picture.

  • Gary and Tubby (365:238)

    Gary and Tubby (365:238). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    I thought I’d try and liven up my daily picture with a cat.

    Unfortunately Tubby didn’t seem to be that impressed with the idea. Working at the computer all day so not a lot to do photographically, hence the endless stream of ‘wall shots’. Today I used two black foamie things just because I could.

    While I was at it I took a couple more shots:

    Ginger
    Ginger
    I'm getting tired of seeing these.
    I’m getting tired of seeing these wall shots.

  • Lit by a black foamie thing (365:237)

    Lit by a black foamie thing (365:237). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    I’ve been trying out another attachment on my speedlights. Single flash + ‘black foamie thing’ – here’s a link for it.

  • Working on a new project (365:236)

    Working on a new project (365:236). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    and of course other work comes in.

    So I’ve been busy. This picture merits the award of ‘most processed so far’. I knew I couldn’t get the picture in one shot so I took a picture exposed for the background, and then another of me so that some details would show. Merging the two images in PhotoShop was a pain. I should have got one of the flashes out and used it to fill in. It would probably have been quicker. I’ll try that another day.

    I guess that makes this picture an HDR image. Heaven forbid. That can’t be right, where’s all the funny visual effects and ghosting? I obviously don’t know my HDR from my elbow.

  • Wine and picture editing (365:235)

    Wine and picture editing (365:235). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Working on my latest batch of 365 pictures. Once more faux Lomo is used in an attempt to rescue a mediocre picture.   

  • Meet my camera (365:234)

    Meet my camera. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    It’s about time I took another mirror shot

    Today I helped Jim deliver his bottle tree to its new owners. We drove to Oklahoma and the Will Rogers museum where we loaded the tree into the pickup of the very happy Bud and Marg.

    After a break for lunch we visited the Will Rogers memorial museum. To cut a long story very short, thanks to Ivan Pace, whose business card is sitting on the desk in front of me, and says “It just don’t seem right for a man to go through life without owning a Winchester Rifle or a Colt Pistol” we had the privilege of going into the Rogers family tomb. Judging by the difficulty they had getting the doors open I doubt there’s many Brits that can say that, and I suspect not so many Americans either.

    It rained the entire time we were in Oklahoma so I didn’t take any pictures apart from a couple of shots of the Bottle tree in the back of the pickup.

    In tonight’s picture we get to meet my D7000.

  • Dressing gown (365:233)

    Dressing gown (365:233). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Or robe as the colonials here would have it.

    We visited Ginger’s parents and I tried to take a picture of Jim’s latest creation, a huge bottle tree. iI was working in very hot and humid conditions, by the end of the shoot both I and the camera were drenched in sweat. After taking pictures we loaded up the tree in our van for delivery to Oklahoma tomorrow. It’s going to be a fun trip.

    Bottle Tree (8"x10" Crop)
    Bottle Tree
    Bottle tree details
    Bottle tree details
    Bottle tree details
    Bottle tree details
    Bottle tree details
    Bottle tree details

  • I have nothing to add (365:232)

    Today was a bad day.

    ’nuff said.

  • More proof that my camera takes colour pictures (365:231)

    2011-08-19-214718.jpg

    Now I’m playing with more lights.

    Fun times.

    Ginger and Blue Kitteh attempt to recreate a scene from an Abba video
    Ginger and Blue Kitteh attempt to recreate a scene from an Abba video

  • I thought I ought to prove that my camera does have a colour sensor. My recent pictures would indicate otherwise (365:230)

    I thought I ought to prove that my camera does have a colour sensor. My recent pictures would indicate otherwise. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Still playing with new lighting set-ups.

  • Gary + wall = picture (365:229)

    Gary + wall = picture. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Playing with some new lighting set-ups.

    Ginger
    And here’s a test shot I took of Ginger

  • Sometimes there is a huge disparity between how I feel and how I appear to others (365:228)

    Sometimes there is a huge disparity between how I feel and how I appear to others. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Wine does help though.

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