Tchotchkes

Last of the series of pictures of the "antique junk" lying around the country house in upstate NY. There's plenty more stuff to shoot, but maybe another trip. Shot in situ, except for the matches which were placed on an old cabinet topped with that deep red laminate surface, also antique, or maybe "vintage" is a better term, probably from the 50s or 60s.

Google & Nik Software

Google bought up Nik Software, and offers the full collection of 6 plugins for $149. You can even get a discount on that, apparently, using coupons posted over at the Online Photographer. I downloaded the 15 day free trial, and so far it's kind of fun to play with, but I haven't been able to produce anything that is any better than what I can do in lightroom and photoshop.

I made two versions of the alarm clock, the one posted here is edited in Nik's Viveza. I then edited the same image in Lightroom. Some subtle differences, but I can't say one is particularly better than another. I realize that this is not a particularly challenging subject, and I am just playing around with it, but I did the same experiment with some landscapes (nothing I want to post) and again found not much to argue for the price, even at the current bargain rate - I have not played much with the Silver Efex Pro for B&W. I'll post something later on that.

Memento Mori

I don't expect this to be the start of any pattern of morbid images, but happened upon this backbone/ribs of some animal in a walk upstate yesterday. No other part of the skeleton anywhere in sight, so no idea what it might have been - a small deer, perhaps.

Washed Up River Junk

An attempt to get back into the swing of things after work and winter brought things to a grinding halt in January. Winter weather is still with us, even though it's technically spring by the calendar, but I've got a week off from work to jump-start the engines. Walk along the river today at low tide. This is a piece of wood landscaped by what I believe are shipworms, which are apparently actually a type of clam.

And this is a close-up of one of several pieces of black foam padding, it appears, that washed up or were discarded in place - hard to imagine why they would be clustered together in one place like that, but they were in various states of decay.