bag 'n' trash -- home of monster yarn

No Saturday Sky

the skies today were gray and not very springlike.  it was a perfect day for hanging around the house in my pjs until 3pm, which is when my sister-in-law called and asked if we wanted to go to Friendly's.  Duh.

other than that i didn't do much.  but i did manage to take pictures of eggs.

these aren't any eggs though.  these were laid by carole's friend, blogless sharon's chickens.

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day 17 -- i might have knitting or fiber content tomorrow, but i can't promise anything.

Stupid Questions

while at work, prefacing a question with "this may sound like a stupid question" doesn't distract anyone from the fact that the question is stupid.

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day 15 -- today is may 1 and the first day of maritza's Macro May where for each day of may we're taking macro shots.  if you want to play along, come and join us. (by the way maritza is an incredibly talented toymaker)

Shop Update

i'm sure you've all been waiting with anticipation.  but your wait is no longer.  i've updated the shop.  heh.

if you recall, i donated a set of 10 cards as a ravelraiser prize.  not everyone can win though, so i've put some of these cards up for sale.  i'll put more up tomorrow.  AND IF PEOPLE WOULD BUY SOME I MIGHT EVEN MAKE MORE!!  not that i'm begging or anything.

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day 8 -- good for shameless self-promotion

A is for ....

I'M IN IN 2008!!!

if you recall, i participated in this along only peripherally in 2006 because i had missed the deadline.  if you'd like to see my posts/pictures from 2 years ago you can click here or check out my ABC photo album .

but this year, i'm officially in.

and i am pumped!  ha!

so here we go.  for the letter A i've got two.

A is for apple.

and

A is for alpaca!

one of the challenges of this along is to post photographs of things/places/etc. that reflect your personality or are meaningful to you.  in the coming year, my subjects may not appear to fit these criteria.  i'm not a particularly huge fan of the apple, for example.  (although i do love alpacas.)  but it's almost impossible to not include a bit of myself in every photograph i take, because every image is a reflection of how i see the world around me.

by the way, this is post number 666.

heh heh.

Just a Yarn Cake Minding His Own Business

this day started like any other day.  a yarn cake just minding his own business, whistling a happy tune even.

and then DANGER struck!!! " NO!!!!!!!  HELP!!!!!!"  he screamed.

but his cries were in vain.

did the beast eat our yarn friend?  did she pull his yarn end and make him dance across the floor before getting tangled within his strands with a satisfied sigh of contentment?  tune in tomorrow (or maybe the next day -- tomorrow being more of a general time in the foreseeable future rather than actually the day after today) to find out.

this play in three acts is my entry in hannah's bittersweet contest.   i just discovered her thanks to oiyi.

Ball Talk

hmmm, clearly if i want more blog traffic and more comments, there needs to be more BALL TALK here on the blog.   you people are sick.

oh!  this just in...

way back in august, i quietly submitted a couple of my photos for the 2008 knitty calendar.  i wasn't expecting much but i figured, what the hell.  what do i have to lose?  right?  (it's not like i had to submit them in person and then have amy herself look at them right there and then have her laugh at me or anything.  god i love email.)

well none of them made the calendar, but two (actually all three -- i missed the third) of my pictures made the honorable mention pool!   how's that for cool?!

not making the calendar is ok.  sometimes it's just an honor to be mentioned.

BALLS!

 

A Compromise

the other day i was "talking" with claudia and told her that at the top of my camera accessory wishlist was this macro lens.   (this is a very inexpensive macro by the way.  they can get pretty expensive).   but with the home improvements, i really couldn't splurge right now.  so i was using instead a very inexpensive set of magnifying filters.  "what is that you say?" she said?  (ok she didn't say that.  but you know what i mean.)

"magnifying filters,"  i replied.

"how do those work?" she asked.

"well i'll show you in a blog post."

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so here we are.  so what are magnifying filters and what do they do?

let's start with what the deal is with a macro lens, shall we?

a macro lens allows you to get really close to your subject and still be able to focus.  so for example, the lens i mention above, allows me to get 8 inches away from my subject, whereas my 50mm normal lens allows me to focus no more than 1.5 feet.  why do i want to get that close?  because sometimes you want to focus on a very small precise area, with the rest of the field more fuzzy.

because sometimes you want to take a picture that looks like this.

but now you're thinking, "hey i thought you didn't have a macro lens!  LIAR!!!"  no, i don't.  but i have magnifying filters.

here's my anniversary bouquet taken with my 50mm lens alone. this was a close as i could get to the big purple flower and still be able to focus on it.

then i added my 1+ filter to my lens.  see, the flower is closer because i was able to focus closer.  but the focal length of the lens didn't change (when you're using a telephoto lens, you're changing the focal length to bring the image closer to you). 

here's the flower with a 2+ filter.

and so on ...

+3    +4

+5    +6

and finally, +7.  i'm so close to that flower that the petals are practically tickling my nose.

pretty cool, huh.

 

here's another example ....

so claudia,  that's what magnifying filters do.   i'd definitely add a set to your christmas list. 

by the way.  i don't pretend to be any kind of expert.  so if i'm wrong about some sort of technical detail, i apologize.  but the pictures don't lie.

there's a 10+ filter out there too that i may have to get.  i want to be IN the flower next time.

next post will be about knitting, maybe.