From a couple of weeks ago, picking up a to-go order at a Thai restaurant.

One of these days I'd like to try my hand at printmaking. I could probably handle developing my own negs even now--it doesn't take much space or money, and I have done it before, even if it was over ten years ago at this point. But to make prints you need an enlarger, and a light-tight room big enough to hold it and the developing trays. Not something that's really in reach right now. It's nice to dream, though.

"Daddy, look! A flower!"

There's beauty all around you. Take a look; be open to it. You'll see it, too.

I would have sworn that it was over 90 this weekend, but I guess that old age has turned me into a wimp. Still, despite the heat and the mosquito bites (mosquitos love me; I wish they loved me less), I had a pretty fantastic 4th of July weekend. I ate a lot of food, drank some beer, had some big laughs, and--by way of initiating a friend's new girlfriend into our group--told the Clown Joke for 44 minutes. Not much more I could ask for, really.

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Nikon D40, Nikkor 35mm f/1.8DX
f/5.6, 1/100, ISO 200

You know, when I'm at home I don't much care for grilling--standing around my back yard by myself just never strikes me as a good time. Something about being out in nature, though, makes it a lot more appealing. In this case, though, not so appealing that I wasn't just fine with my friend taking care of the whole thing. It was for the best, really--my grilling results are decidedly inconsistent.

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Nikon D40, Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 DX
f/2, 1/1600, ISO 400.

I've been kind of swamped with business-related stuff lately, which has left me with little time for personal photography stuff. We did an overnight camping trip to Lake Morena this past weekend with some friends, which gave me the chance to relax and shoot for myself.

I suppose this is kind of a mundane shot, but the more I look at it, the more I like it.

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Nikon D40, Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 DX
f/8, 1/160, ISO 200

I mentioned that I went and checked out the MIHO Gastrotruck last week, well, there was also a coffee truck which was parked right behind it. Sadly, it was about 85 degrees out and, people not really being in the mood for hot drinks, the barista was left to his own devices for most of the time that I was there. I'm not sure what this woman ended up ordering, but I was waiting to get an iced tea when I snapped this picture.

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Nikon D40, Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 DX lens
f/2.8, 1/640, ISO 200

Looks like the "food truck renaissance" thing that's sweeping the nation may finally be taking hold in San Diego. Today was a nice enough day out and I was interested enough to check out the MIHO Gastrotruck that I skipped out on the free lunch my company provides on Thursdays. It made for quite a pleasant afternoon.

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Nikon D40, Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G DX lens
f/1.8, 1/640, ISO 200.

The first pass I took when editing this photo I used a much tighter crop, focusing just on the poster in the center. That was what had initially caught my eye, the poster, and the way the woman's hands and head were framed by the windows across the street. The common wisdom is that composition is as much about what you leave out as what you include, hence the tight crop. Still, something about that framing didn't work quite right for me--it just seemed incomplete. When I added back most of the original image, it struck me that not only did I like the couch, the vases, and the additional buildings in the reflection, but I also liked including myself. I like the idea of making the photographer's relationship with the image explicit.

Technical info: Shot with a Nikon D40 and Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G lens, in manual exposure mode. Aperture f/4, shutter 1/60 sec, ISO 200. Post-processing in Aperture 3: cropped to 4x5; curves for highlight recovery and contrast.

Thoughts for improvement: The only thing that's bugging me about this one is the way that the neon sign's pull-cord intersects the wine glass on the poster.