Belated Blogiversary

For some reason I thought it was today, but I missed it by 3 days, apparently. Anyway, this little blog is now five years old and ready to go off to kindergarten. Or something.

Today, on what I thought was my blogiversary, I hung out at Spa with a bunch of people whose company I enjoyed. And I didn't take a single photo. What I did do was finish off the gusset, turn the heel and knit up the heel flap on the second of a pair of socks I desperately want to get finished before we leave for Iceland. I finished the first one while waiting for Stephen Fry to receive an award from the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard and give a talk (at Harvard, as one would expect) last Tuesday night.*

No photos of the socks yet, since the pair isn't finished, but they're toe up with Sherman Short Row toes, arch shaping à la Oliver (Rav link), and a Widdershins-style heel. I do believe this may be THE sock formula for my feet. At least the first one seems about as close to perfect as I've ever come.

The yarn is merino/possum/silk sock yarn that I got from James. He's now sold off his remaining stock of this yarn, but I managed to snag a couple more pairs' worth from him on clearance. It is so soft that Danielle decided she had to stuff the first sock down her shirt. So now I can say my foot has touched her breast, which is about as rare a statement as it is odd, I believe.

Aside from that, I've also been getting my photographic equipment in order for Iceland. Remember this little camera I picked up a couple of years ago in Montréal?



Well, being plastic and lightweight, I figured it'd be the perfect option for doing some film photography, so I've been stocking up on no-longer-produced 620 film spools on eBay. I dropped the first test rolls off for developing on my way to Spa today, so I'll find out soon what I might be able to expect from it. Meanwhile, these might give you some idea of the type of images that are possible.

Also, I'm taking my digital camera and have been working on my finishing skills using GIMP. Even as a grad student, Adobe Creative Suite would cost me $300. GIMP's $0 pricetag trumps that easily, and it works really well. I've been going back through some of my India photos and have reworked some that I didn't feel had captured what I saw as nicely as I'd hoped. The results have been much nicer.







Since that trip, I've also managed to track down an open source program that can convert Nikon's raw image format into one that can be manipulated by GIMP. That has also greatly improved my overall image quality and capabilities, so I hope to have some very nice shots to share from the Land of Fire and Ice.




*Mr. Fry did not disappoint in his talk and my respect for him is now even greater than I thought possible. This young woman, however, nearly stole the show when she sang this very song to him during the Q&A session afterward. I do believe he blushed.

New Toy

I stayed up for a long time after work today, waiting for the UPS guy to bring me a package. I bought a new lens for the new camera - a 50mm/f1.8 Nikkor autofocus. With a price tag of around $100, it's not as rugged a lens as the slightly faster 50mm/f1.4 Nikkor, but at $150 less, I could still break it and buy a new one and come out cheaper. And the combination of a wide maximum aperture and Nikon optics means I can still get photos like this:



or this:



with waning afternoon light and no flash. At full original size, they're not the clearest of photos, but they work well as snapshots, particularly considering they're of subjects who don't like to be still for any length of time.

With a bit of flash and a still subject, it does even better:



This is a hat I started yesterday in Berroco Pure Merino that I got on clearance from Webs. It's a basic 2 x 1 rib that turns into a cabled rib in the black. I'm making it for my cousin Brian, who will be shipping out to Afghanistan at the end of March. It should still be quite chilly there, so I figure the extra warmth will come in handy.

Needless to say, I'm worried about him going on this tour, particularly given the current state of affairs. For the first time in his 15 years in the Air Force (in a non-combat role as a mechanic), he'll be going on convoys that may be targets for attack - an eventuality that is likely enough that he's undergoing combat training at Ft. Bragg right now. This assignment is his choice, and I certainly respect that and mostly just want him to come home safely, but I can't help but wonder how different the situation there would be if we hadn't diverted so much effort and money to the unnecessary war in Iraq and had instead focused on finishing what we had started.

And because I can do little else to change the situation, I knit on and hope.

Test Photos

The new camera came, and I had to wait almost 24 hours until I got home and could play with it. Here are a few of the first test photos:

Sylvie, apparently trying to decide which personality she wants to be today





Inga, posing like the lady she is





Rosa, in one of her favorite spots





And The International Fashion Mogul in his natural habitat studio