A Fair Shot

I visited the State Fair with friends and had a fabulous time fotographing fun things. I still aspire to work some magic on the photos. Sadly, at the time, my filter had not arrived yet, but here are my first and last shots to keep you interested while I try to find the time to learn how to work the magic.

Campus in the Fall

I had a rare day off from work, and walked around campus taking a few photos with my new B+W polarizing filter. I'm not used to it yet, and several photos turned out too dark. Here are a few of the better ones.

Pretzels!

A pack of yeast remained in my fridge which was due to expire in 1.5 weeks. Wondering if it would still be active, I put it to use on a new trial of pretzel making. Actually this is the first time I've tried to use yeast in cooking - the yeasty (for lack of better descriptor), sour smell was somehow comforting. It reminded me of making LB broth for bacterial cultures in lab. Anyhow, the dough rose in the hot Indian summer quite nicely, the pretzels were boiled 15 sec per side, and then finished off in the oven. After I make something it often doesn't seem appetizing to me, so I'm not sure if they were good or not. But fun was had. Here they are in their pre-boiled state, followed by done and awaiting toothsome trial. So yes, yeast can be refrigerated till exp date.

Yes I am a novice

Yay! My photo friend took the Tahoe sunrise photo and worked on it to improve it further. Clearly he has some superior skills. Unfortunately, he was working on a small version, so let's see if we can tell how it turned out. Compare it to the ones below. I think the sky looks nice and pinker while the shore looks even more apparent!! Lots more pebbles. In fact, the more I look at mine, the more I think it looks worse after I've had a go!! I have to get back to zee drawing board...

Faking a Filter

My friend was telling me about the powers of a gradient neutral density filter for landscapes. I poked around a little on the internet. It seems most real photographers have a plate of graded glass which they place after metering for the exposure. I don't know how to do that, but I did find some websites online that illustrate how to apply a gradient on GIMP. Basically you can apply a gradient to allow more light from one section of the photo, and less from another. It can therefore be useful in fixing a photo with underexposed or overexposed areas. I decided to try the technique on a photo of Lake Tahoe at sunrise, which I took, but it's too dark in the foreground. I multipled another layer, and modified that layer to show more light and detail in the foreground (the shore). Then I applied a gradient mask to opacify the sky of the modified one, then changed the percent opacity to 50%, and flattened that brightened, gradient layer with the original. This melded to produce the products below. I still like the old one since it had a rosy sky. I can prob work on that.

Before


After

Hmm. On the small screen you can't tell the difference so much, but you can see that even the stones on the shore are more visible. The ski runs down the mountain are now apparent.

Links to how to apply a GND filter are here:

http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6411

http://www.gimpguru.org/Tutorials/NDFilter/

http://howto.wikia.com/wiki/Howto_add_the_effect_of_a_graduated_neutral_density_filter_on_a_photo_using_the_Gimp_graphics_editor

Who wears the apron

I used to enjoy cooking, but now that I have to do it all the time, it's not quite as fun. A few days ago I made my first custard from Epicurious' chocolate cream pie recipe. It turned out well and it was exciting when the consistency changed at boiling point and little clumps of hot custard flew out of the pot like lava drops. But lately my brother is the real cook in the family. He has a cooking blog, in fact. Don't go there hungry! I've eaten this tartlet up above. Actually it has the name of "Vanilla bean patisserie." I couldn't pronounce it but I sure could eat it fast. My brother made it for me when I visited : )

Alter ego

I have also started sewing in the last few years. My production has slowed down immensely since my job started, but here is my first quilt from 2005 (has it been that long?). It's an applique with batiks, and I learned how to do it during a class at the (sadly) now defunct Cotton Boll. The teacher hand-dyes her own fabric and makes stamped appliques herself. The nice thing is you can just sew all crazy-crooked, and cut pieces irregularly, and not match colors and it looks better! My friend Julie took class there with me but she has a much different aesthetic (and is going to be famous some day). That is why she is now in New York. Visit her here.