Books, Bokeh and Beaches

The 23rd of October was rainy.  I already posted for it, but had been lucky on that day and got outside before the rain hit.  Once it hit it kept going until early on the 25th.  This forced me to stay inside on the 24th and find something worth photographing within my apartment.  

I have been reading (and greatly enjoying) Herman Melville's Moby-Dick.  In an attempt to keep a visual list of the books I've been reading, I have been taking a photo of each book.  Compelled to stay inside by the rain, I give you...something inside my apartment that is at least slightly worth photographing...

A good book

I grabbed my camera and my homemade tilt shift lens as soon as the rain stopped on the 25th.  I didn't know how much time I would have before it started again, so I ran around outside looking for something to shoot.  A train went by, I squeezed my plunger-like DIY tilt shift lens and pressed the shutter button.  

Not as tilt-shifty as I would have liked

My tilt shift lens was still attached on the 26th, so I used it again.  There are some pretty awesome "post boxes" (mailboxes) around here.  Here is one that is right outside of my apartment.  

Mail me things!

In an attempt to add on to one of my new projects (architectural photography that might not initially seem like architecture) I got this shot of a wall on Thursday.  I don't know if I can actually add it to the project (it is strange, but I think it is pretty obvious that it is indeed something architectural)  but I really like the angle.

Biggest cage ever

I woke up to the sounds of this happening on the 28th... 

I think they were trying to melt the road.  Is that normal?

I then took some pictures of my wife and her morning tea.

With only window light.  

In the evening we went to what was supposed to be a haunted botanical garden.  It would have been nice if it would have been free.  We stood in the line until finding out it wasn't free.  Then we left.

I absolutely love Halloween...but not enough to pay to walk through a garden with people dressed up in an attempt to appease crying children.

On the way back I was trying some low light shots...

...and ended up with some beautiful bokeh.

We went to Larne yesterday.  In an attempt to get people to use a new train that has just been added, they had a "try the train" day.  We tried it.  A free train trip?  Most definitely!  We got off the train and walked around...rather disappointed.  Larne seemed to be a very boring town.  With horrible crosswalks.  We almost died a few times.  What was strange was that we had looked into the town and found what seemed to be some interesting things.  Apparently they were farther away from the station than we had thought.  We chose a direction and walked that way...hoping it would take us somewhere interesting.

After a few miles we came upon a cute little park.  With a stone on the other side of it.  We made our way to the wall and slipped through a little gate and...

  much better.  We thought there was supposed to be some water around Larne.

We found the coastline path that we had read about.  We headed north on it, hoping to find a tunnel that had seemed rather alluring.

that little hole in the mountain...that's my tunnel!

We found the tunnel just as the rain found us.  We went up to the tunnel, looked around and turned around.  The half hour walk back was not much fun, what with the ocean breeze slamming the rain into our faces and soaking us thoroughly.  We found a little shelter, asked an old couple that was taking refuge there if we could join them, and they told us of a very nice little cafe that would hang our clothes up by the radiator and give us hot soup.  We went there.  The soup was good.  My roasted red pepper and mushroom panini was better.  But they didn't hang up our jackets by a radiator.  

This isn't the cafe.  It's a close up of the tunnel.

A Few Days Of Working With Textures

These past few days consisted of me playing with different textures and layers.  Not all of the shots include texture work...but some do.  You will be able to tell which include it.


This cat is free of texture work.  It requires little to no improvement...rather cute all on its own.

The following day (the 27th) was when I first decided to get into really working with textures and layers.  I ended up starting a postcard series due to the results I got from these two pictures...

These shots are from inside the greenhouse in the Botanic Gardens.

Much like the cat, no textures are needed here.  This guy is more than good enough all on his own.  He sits outside of our house for about an hour or two every day.

On Thursday I meandered into one of my wife's future lecture halls.  When she found out where I had been she got jealous...she was yet to go into it due to how awesome and old the building was..also because she didn't know if she was allowed to enter it yet.  

Yesterday, back in the Botanic Gardens, I saw my chance to get a good shot of the greenhouse from outside.  Normally people are in front of it...ruining potential shots.  With the postcard series in mind, I pressed the shutter release...

Entrance/Exit

Depending on which way you are going on Ephrata's Linear Trail, today's photo could be considered either the entrance or exit.  Anytime I want to go for a real quick bike ride, this is always my destination.  It is such a nice little trail, filled with friendly people and dogs, and it is (mostly) surrounded by trees...not something that can be said of most of Ephrata, PA.  Getting off the trail today, the clouds looked nice and dramatic behind these buildings, one of which was at one point in time a mill, all of which are rather old.  I took the photograph and edited it just a tad to get that old postcard-like look...

  A Picture Perfect Postcard

If you look close enough, you can see Ephrata's derailed caboose.  It's the red thing above and to the left of the white sedan in the middle-ground.  There is a pole in front of it.