It’s Just Justin

A Song I Was Feeling

Earlier, when I was still feeling self pity, allowing self deprivation and encouraging binges, this song seemed to fit me.

Faith Hill - When The Lights Go Down

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Now, it’s more…

Mika - Relax

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Yeah, definitely feeling the Mika.  He is such a beauty.  Buy his cd when it comes out, well worth it!

Favorite letter combination?  oe

And I’m Ok With That

So, for perhaps a second time in my life, I was kinda sorta stood up. Ok, well it might be more than twice that it has happened but… anyway. (three times)

I need to write on this thing more often. I stopped doing any writing on here because I was afraid I would upset people or put myself into situations that… that I would not like to be in, or put my family in those situations.

But, whatever. This is my place to rant on the things on my life, to celebrate life and to get some attention like I did in California. Sometimes people, options, offers and life has to find you. I am not going to spend my time trying to find life, it is all omnipresent.

Love is around the corner. Success is just a handshake away. Take control of life where you can; let fate, God, the wind take you the rest of the way.

Right now I am not as successful as I would like to be, I am not as smart as I would like to be.  I am not in a relationship, as I would like to be.  I am failing myself every single day, over and over.  I would fire me at running my life if I could.  But that’s ok and I’m ok with that because soon, that will all change.

Take charge of what I can, but the rest on cruise.

I ate a cup of extra crunch peanut butter while I typed this, not an easy feat.  And you know what?  I’m ok with that.

p.s.  Lisa, you are an amazing person.  I’m so glad you are apart of my life.

HDR Fiasco! Part 4

and now

HDR Fiasco! Part 3

Ok, I went at it again… Exhale…

The result?  Well, let’s start with the originals.

Pretty decent improvement from

HDR Fiasco! Part 2

I might be one step closer.  Here is what I got this time around.  I took 157 shots, I just chose these 6 really quickly, I am going to try it again with different pics, these weren’t really in focus, a result of me forgetting how bad my eyes are without my glasses, i was wearing contacts.

This

became this

Thanks for all of your ideas and help.  And if anyone has some Nikon lenses they wanna unload… haha, lemme know!  I really want a super zoom (>200mm) and a fisheye.

HDR Fiasco!

I’m really hoping that there are some serious photographers here cause I’m just lost!

I recently bought a Nikon D80 DSLR. For those who do not know about this camera, a quick spec list.

10.2 megapixel
Bulb - 4000 - Hi3+ iso
Lens used does 2.8-22 f-stops from 15mm to 135mm with macro
Shoots JPEG and Raw plus combination

Now, what is HDR? High Dynamic Range images. They look like this when done properly

(credits to this photographer who uses the same camera)

When done properly the photographs look almost impossible. Do a search for it, or better yet click that link above and see what this guy can do. It is amazing. I have the same equipment so I should be able to do it too right?

WRONG! I tried it today with a simple skyscape. Here is the result.

You need 3D glass to appreciate it haha.

The problem? Look more closely

For some reason, the pictures don’t line up. HDR works like this, you take several pictures at different levels such as these…

You tell Photoshop CS2 or 3 to merge the three pictures together, it keeps all the RAW data and makes a beautiful image with tons of depth and something that SEEMS impossible in nature. Really, I cannot stress enough how incredible this HDR stuff is. A monitor to show HDR is $50,000! They have a contrast ratio of 40,000:1!!!! So, to show it on a regular monitor, we have to go from 32bit to 16 and then 8 bit for web.

Does anyone have an idea of what I’m doing wrong here? The pics were all shot at 4000iso f stops from 22, 11, 8, 2.8 on a tripod and no more than 2 seconds between shots. How on Earth did that tree move? Those clouds shift so much? I have tried this several times with the same results. Anyone have an idea for me?

Meebo, Youbo, Wii-all-bo

Ever had a job that seemed to just go on… and on… and on?  All you really want is to escape outta there.  Chatting online is a perfect compromise.  However, chatting at work can be dangerous, especially if they are logging IM clients.

That’s where Meebo comes into play.

While Meebo won’t allow you to skip past the keyloggers, it does a great job of allowing you to chat without downloading a chat client, and hides nicely in a tab.

It loads up Yahoo, MSN, Gmail, AIM, ICQ…  A host (hehe) of chat options.  I am loving it.

Welcoming in the New Year

So, for the first time in my twenty two years on this earth, I had someone to kiss on New Years.  That automatically made it the best New Years to date.  I have had boyfriends for new years, girlfriends, … friends.  But not a kiss.  It was fanfabulotastic.

And to ring in the new years, as they say… I went out and took pics with my new Nikon D80.

I just started driving down Providence and ended up in McBaine Missouri.  Home of the world’s largest Burr Oak Tree.

Also home of Hank and Lucy’s Tavern where I had a stunningly delicious hamburger.

Then took some pics of a water distribution system

Back downtown in time for the sunset and the moon.

Now, time to find dinner!