Prep Time

Sitting in the library.

That's what I'm doing.

I'm usually here every other day same time, same place.

Out of the six periods of classes one period is designated a prep period for us teachers, meaning we are supposed to use this time to do whatever teachers do when we don't have kids in front of us.

I get in to school at about 6:30 every morning so I get my work done then so when my prep period comes along I usually hang out in the library.

It's air conditioned don't you know.

Some times I take care of the grading or make up lessons but mostly I read the newspaper or surf the webz.

I sit with my back to the wall so the librarian can't see what I'm doing.

They probably think I'm doing something school related right now.

Ahem.

Well actually I kinda am.

Yesterday I got this:

I'm reading up on how to use this Aperture stuff.

I mean I've used it some since I got it but I don't usually alter my images all that much and I've found iPhoto more than enough.

I've hardly touched Photoshop but I do miss being able to add text to my images and making folks walk on water and all that.

When I ordered that book I didn't bother to check how many pages it was, I mean it's just a manual but oh my goodness that thing is like 480 pages long!

I mean seriously, my images better be looking like 3d holograms after I finish reading that tome.

I guess I got something to do doing my prep periods now.

I haven't even started on my Photoshop book yet.

Anyways I've been neglecting my blog lately and that makes me kinda sad so I'm trying to find some time to get to keeping you, the reader informed.

Besides, I really like making stuff up and exaggerating about my exploits.

Okay, not really.

About the exaggerating part.

So I figure I can take like twenty minutes or so of my prep period and use that as my blogging time!

If you squint yer eyeballs you can see that I'm still using iPhoto, that's because I'm only on page 5 of the Aperture book.

The good part is I actually look like I'm working!

You know, doing photography related stuff!

Boy, why didn't I think of this earlier?

I mean I can be writing the blog and downloading photos and everyone will think I'm doing the teacher thing!

That is as long as no one from school reads this blog.

If you know what I mean.

Sunday Final

Boy, I'm really falling behind here.
Seems like only yesterday I was punching out a post a day and now I'm barely getting one a week out.
Need to work on this.
Anyways, here's one of them night pictures I finally did a bit of work on:

I'm not really happy with the composition; something's not right about it.
I mean I really like the subject, but it's missing something or I need to take it from another angle.
Or something.
I'll go out and shoot it again.
With this:

Yep, I bought me another camera!
I told myself I was going to wait a bit but this deal came up and after thinking and thinking and thinking and thinking and well, you know what I mean, I went ahead and picked this up.
It's not a new camera but it had a very low shutter count and the price was right.
It is a step up, though not as up as I'd like, but a step up anyways.
My old camera was 10 mega pixels and this one sports 12.
Not a huge jump but it does take nicer pictures.  The old camera was CCD and this one was them newfangled CMOS things so I suppose that has something to do with it.
I swear I'm not going to be happy until I get to like 100 GAGILLION mega pixels and my image files cannot be loaded up on Blogger.

Here's the last of the images from the old camera; I took this one the same night I went out and got them   headlight trails.
I saw these surfboards in the window and I just liked the way they looked at night.
I also went by the LBS and got this:

I just liked the way the sign illuminated the sidewalk.
Anyways if you, the reader, have been following along at home, you know that I got some new glass:

It's the same as the old glass, 50mm f/1.8 but well, newer.
I'm not sure which one I'm keeping as they both have different qualities.
I used my new rig to take this:

Sort of a test shot to see if what I visualized holds any water.
I like the idea of taking a gas station at night, the way the lights shine with the high roof and how they are sort of beacons of safety made me think they'd be a good subject.
I stopped that image down some cause I wanted to blacken out the background.
I don't think this station has the right "character" but I think I may be on to something.
Anyways there's only like three more weeks until vacation and I'll be busy working on the last projects of the year at school.
Some of the kids do some surprising work and I hope you have to time to check out the stuff I posted up on our blog.
The link is on the right and if you go leave some comments so the kids know "real" people are actually logging on.
Okay, it's late and I still got to come up with the next lesson plan so off I go!
Sort of.