A Scenic World

I had to change my plans quickly today when I found out I had to go to work to clean (ugh) in lieu of “company” coming tomorrow. Since I had cleaned my apartment earlier, I really wasn’t in the mood, but I immediately thought of a good 365 pic. I rushed home from my errands (erm, seriously, trying on pink satin prom dresses at the mall so Mike Autry could laugh hysterically at me counts as errands) and set up the shot. I had to pull every lamp in my apartment into my room to get the light I needed, find my yellow dishwashing gloves, plug headphones into a sponge, and find cleaner that sprayed. I had just set the tripod up and taken a shot when the manager called me, asking where I was. So I fired off another few shots, changed clothes, and went to work.

When I got home and actually had a chance to look at what I’d taken, this one won hands down. It wasn’t the shot I originally planned; in fact, I only took it with the blog fourfour in mind. Note that no cleaner, sponge, or headphones are present. And, um, if you don’t catch the reference, you should really read more FourFour :)

And because I’m a slacker, I never posted the rejects from Day #263. I had the following shots, which I thought were pretty decent, but I didn’t feel they captured my day very well. I’d felt so boring all day that it seemed hypocritical to post a dramatic photo, so I posted the “official” 263, which may be the least interesting (at least in terms of Flickr’s “interestingness” algorithm) of all my 365 pics.

#263 Reject 1:

#263 Reject 2:

#263:

I realize that my musical tastes don’t normally veer toward the sentimental, but somehow I managed to spend the evening listening to, for lack of a better term, love songs. Some of them are so fantastic that I had to share. Enjoy!

Mason Jennings - Ballad for My One True Love

Bright Eyes - First Day of My Life

Jackie Greene - Love Song; 2:00am

The Bees - Imaginary Girl

Jens Lekman - A Postcard to Nina

Herman Dune - I Wish That I Could See You Soon

I’ve had what can qualify as a rough couple of days, so I was overjoyed when I found this song from a mix made by the multi-talented Jeremyokai. It seems to fit my mood exactly.

I had a great idea for my 365 today, with just enough time to execute it. I grabbed my bag, my tripod, my remote, and headed out the door. And straight into the rain. Gah.

I had my 50th photo make it into flickr’s “Explore” today. For those of you who don’t know, Explore is flickr’s way of tracking a particular day’s 500 most interesting photos. The rankings change constantly, so a photo’s ranking can change or drop out of Explore altogether within a few hours.

Some people really stress out about how to get a photo into Explore. It wasn’t so long ago that I was thrilled to have one of my photos make it, but considering how screwy the system is, I’ve lost a bit of respect for it.

For instance, the 50th photo that made it? This one. 11 views, 1 comment. It was taken the same day and posted at the same time as a photo with 37 views, 4 comments, and 1 favorite that didn’t make Explore. Yeah.

I’ve gotten a ton of emails asking me which Lightroom presets I use (actually, no one has ever asked me, but Mike Autry feigned interest the other night). I make my own presets and then use them liberally. I put five of my favorites in a zip file that you can access by clicking here.

Lightroom Presets #1:

1. Vintagey

2. Skin So Smooth Black & White

3. Low Contrasty

4. Greenest Eyes (possibly works best if your subject actually has green eyes)

5. Emorific!

And in case you’re curious, here’s the original picture:

Just goes to show what a little LightRoom magic can do for ya ;)