Purchases, products, plantings [s]

Chilies and rosemary and stuff - plants that are used as seasonings so we don't have to grow a whole bunch to have useful quantities. Since I feel that organic foods are pretentious, I'm going to spray them with DDT every week or so.



The front yard is getting some love. The papyrus is doing well and Jes added some sort of flower. The grass is still flourishing, but now I need a damn lawnmower.



The deck's been cleared off for another coat of stain and then some heavy sealant. I'm not messing around with that thin deck sealant this time.

Also in store for the backyard is replacing all the pvc drain grates (most broken) with metal ones. They're actually cheapest at Home Depot.


Source.

I finally settled on wheels and tires for the vr4. Enkei pf01's with Sumi HTR Z IIIs from Tirerack. There aren't a lot of options for the Mitsu (see tiny caliper on Z above) but I like them and it's time. I stopped by Discount yesterday to see if their store selection differed from their site. Barely.

So the pfs have an extra half inch of width, are forged, and add about fifty pounds of lightness.

Now, as with surfboards, I'm set until I move up to carbon fiber (espp-dependent).


Source.

Along with replacement fridge water filters and a subscription to Roadracing World & Motorcycle, Amazon is sending me Endless Ocean 2.

My first F [p]

I had always coveted the F100, but until now I've languished in the N series (or, properly 10-99). With many miles on my D70, the time has come to move up to the D700 (image source), derived from the F100. I'm looking forward to the full frame, cmos, and five fps. Perhaps a Saturday morning at Palomar might be in order.



Barely related, I came upon a circular polarizer for my 105mm. It's amazing what eliminating reflections will do for color - I easily maxed out what jpgs can represent (check out the obvious stepping). Of course, the above image is straight off the camera.

This piece will be clutch when I get back out to autocross since it's always quite sunny and reflecty.



The house has gotten plenty of attention too. I swapped out the crusty old exterior fixtures for shiny new ones.



The new valves throw much easier and, naturally, don't leak.

The irrigation is coming along. I ran a half inch line to the front yard with drip inserts in the necessary places. I'll be good to go should I decide to plant anything under the front windows.

I wanted to run a dripper to the fern next to the steps, but there was no easy way to go across or under the path. So I used overhanging branches to go above the path, where just a few inches of dripper can be seen. With the newfound supply of water, I don't imagine the trees will take too long to span the remaining gap.

The poly pipes were not handling the water pressure very well at the fixture, they leaked out the twist-couplings. To remedy this I epoxied some parts together and added a splitter to the faucet so the other branch could relieve some of the pressure. Tomorrow will be the first test.

The pile of trimmings, sauna pieces, and random junk leftover from the previous owner has been divided between the trash and a nicely stacked woodpile in a useless corner of the side yard. That was most of a Saturday, but I now have an empty area in the front yard and a decent stash of firewood.

And on a final programming note, I'm slowly updating all the tags from my previous posts. E.g. "renovation" will give you all of the home improvement material.

A story told by portraits [s]

Four glorious hours in the darkroom. I toned these because monochrome just doesn't look good on a monitor, it's all bluish and you can't see detail.

Portraits that tell a story (?) [s]

Assignment three, portraits that tell a story. I went both directions, straight up portraits and capturing a well-defined sequence of events.





I imagine the four prints we turn in should be from the same roll, both have a few candidates but the photojournalism ones are more varied. Of course, the following are just blown up copies of the contact sheet frames.


Maybe a smaller aperture. It was overcast though, so the window wasn't providing much light.


Lens filter worked well with the eyes.




Shoulda gotten that engine chromed. I mixed up mid-motion shots with poseds.


Under the car was tough, it was very dark but it turns out overexposure was possible.




Requisite beer, light was pretty low at this point but I shoulda risked a polarizer.