IMG0202, Where Are You?

I was looking for the tree corner in the upper right and had a bunch of photos show up in Picasa with the same image number.

Fascinating, huh?

Spring is Gross

Jan?

Gentle Viewer Jan Fan wanted more photos of Jan.

Jan, Jan, Jan, Jan....all anyone wants is Jan.

Well have some Lois, Margo, Emily, Kelly, and Brad to tide you over...

If you REALLY want some Jan...

I'll give you some JAN!

Facebook Icons

My friends are letting me take photos of them that they sometimes use as their facebook icons making my little friends list a sort of Thing of the Moment Portrait Gallery. Now if I only had more than these 4 friends.

Posted for Roberta who is getting sick of not seeing people. :)

Lensbaby: The Reeturn of Beembo

Aqui?

Ahi! I'd follow you to the Gates of Diabetic Hell, my powder white seducer.

Chickadees by Sue Heinonen

Many Gentle Viewers after seeing some of my best photographic works ask "Jesus, jkirlin, do you know ANYTHING about art?"

To which I reply: "Art? Huh? Wha?"

HOWEVER, I do own one thing that I consider 'aht, deah.' and this is a detail from that. Sue Heinonen once hired me to be the stock boy at a little candle shop in a mall I used to hang out in, in addition to giving me a buck or so and hour to change water tanks she shaped the very pliable and suggestable jkirlin into the person he is today. She probably KNEW this was possible and better her than other kids hanging out at the mall.

Besides a mentor, she was, and is, an AMAZING artist. This detailis from a pencil work she did one year for my Mom who demanded I take it back when she passed away and, well, now I have it.

Submitted for Macroday: Illustration

Someday I'll Have Done Something Besides Gone To NYC Once

But not today. Not yet.

K

What Do Our Hearts Treasure?

A Venus Paradise 114 Poppy Red 3 Colored Pencil

How do I know this? Linda Herbert Walker Dinsmore, the teacher across the hall, was mentioning that kids were fighting over this red pencil and not wanting to use seemingly fine Crayola or Scholastic colored pencils. They liked the color better and said it filled in easier when they were trying to color.

So I thought I'd just Google it and find the company and we could order more or something.

The only Venus Paradise pencils I could find were 55 dollars for a box of 12 for sale as vintage from the late 1950s.

Kids KNOW quality!

A Lensbaby Warning

That's all I'm Sayin'.

This Public Service Message brought to you by The Lensbaby 3G with Super Wide Angle Adapter Lens, (Did I mentioned I had one of these) and your Cold War Lovin', eBay Shoppin', lowly and humble photographic servants here at The Thing of the Moment

The Lensbaby 0.42x Super Wide Angle Lens Review!

As one or two Gentle Viewers may have noticed. I sort of have this thing with Lensbaby.

Lensbaby's latest addition to their line of accessories is the Lensbaby .042x Super Wide Angle Lens.

This lens is great at 21mm for indoor shooting, close ups, AND for we smaller sensor folks. The Lensbaby's native 50mm is a bit close for some of the shooting I do so I kept the Lensbaby 0.6 Wide Angle lens attached by default. But THIS new lens really gives great coverage and closer to the Full Frame users Lensbaby experience. The sweet spot of sharp focus is smaller with this lens also.

Here is the worm in the apple and it's no fault of Lensbaby, but rather my poor breeding and my optometrist. I'm blind as a bat, (Answering a lot of questions about many of my photos for most of you regular Gentle Viewers) and have some difficulty seeing to focus this. The Super Wide Angle makes some things so small I really had to strain to see it. Your experience may vary but I felt it important enough to mention. You can also see the edge of this lens sooner than I had expected when bending it but it didn't take away from most of the test shots.

My conclusion: Buy this. Buy it as your first accessory. The rest you can buy to show off but for the biggest bang for your buck, this 80 dollar lens will open up whole new vistas for you.

Lensbaby 50mm image without wide angle lens adapter.

Lensbaby 21mm image with 0.042x Wide Angle Lens

(This Lensbaby SpokesModel was not paid in any way for his endorsement. - Not even in SWAG!) ;)

Upon further review focusing the Lensbaby with the Super Wide Angle is eaiser to focus with an aperture ring in, even if it'sjust the 2.8. I apparently had taken it out to be all Lensbaby Hardcore. Just put one in like a normal person and it's totally cool.

This Is The Cutest Bill I Will Ever Pay

I recently changed dentists from my old mean dentist who used to recommend new services every time I called (WITHOUT SEEING ME IN THE INTERIM) to a new dentist whose name and number I found years ago on a pen that had belonged to my ex-wife that read 'We cater to cowards.'

So after my appointment for the cleaning where I asked many of you what this odd 'floss' was that everyone talked about I get this tiny little bill in the mail.

That had my name TYPED on the top..not printed on a printer... but tappitytappitytapptiytapDING typed

AND my totals written in by HAND.

THIS is the sort of service that makes me wish I had more than one tooth left!

The Thing of the Moment's 3rd Annual Moscow Subway FareCard Quiz and Talent Show

Q: Does our lowly and humble photographic servant carry this Moscow Subway Farecard with him at all times because______

1. it was a gift from his very patient friend, fellow photographer and photoblogger, the lovely Svetlana Tazhetdinova, who felt her name wasn't exotic enough so she goes by 'Ginger'.

2. he wants to throw off investigators who may one day find his bloated and faceless corpse after cutting through the ice to retrieve it from the river.

3. "When is the talent portion of this?"

4. IT STILL HAS TWO RIDES LEFT!

5. Other __________________

No cheeding, you cheeders.

Not Much, How Bout You?