Photo Freeze
I have made a personal pact. I will not take any more photos until I have finished processing all the directories full of photos I have left from Sweden and Malaysia. Most of them are not even material I care to share on the site, but they are good for my own memories. Most of them are out of focus because my favorite lens has been broken. In Kuala Lumpur I took a look at lenses, finding one I really wanted to buy - 17-55mm, f2.8. It was about US$1,000. Since much of the other electronic camera equipment was around the same price as I remembered from Tokyo I figured it would be best to wait and try to find it used once I get back. Instead, I bought the same cheap lens that had broken a few months earlier. It was a little cheaper this time around, and although I figured it will break again, I saw it as a good temporary lens until I get that dream lens.
Now that I am back in Tokyo I find that the lens I wanted is a lot more here. Dang.
I have also been thinking about getting a macro lens, or some kind of adapter or something (I have some vague recollection that there is some type of device available). I have been taking the recent plant photos with my regular lens turned around backward, held close to the camera. I know this is a big no-no because it allows dust and pollen and whatever else to get into the sensor area of my camera, potentially rendering it worthless. But it's just too dang irresistible. I think I can warrant buying a real macro lens or adaptor now that the author of an up and coming guide to medicinal plants of Sweden has asked me to take photos for her book. The biggest problem now is finding the same plants in Tokyo that are so abundant in the Swedish countryside.
Finding the plants from Sweden may pose a bit of a problem, but I am really excited about the diversity of plant life found right here in Tokyo. Sure, many of them are extremely non-native plants sitting in a pot in someone's yard, but I guess that can still be considered a "plant of Tokyo". Once I get through all my photos from Sweden, I hope to start learning and documenting the plant life here in Tokyo, both native and non-native.
Since my excuse for not getting on with my life and doing something useful is that I have too many photos to process, I am taking the opportunity to justify spending many hours watching a Photoshop tutorial DVD. So far it is great, and I am still only on part 1. The only problem is that I now and hesitant to go through all the waiting photos until I finish watching it all... who knows what nifty little trick I will learn that will turn all my out-of-focus crap into masterpieces?
Once I am caught up on my photos, I plan to re-vamp the gallery, and my site. I will then make an effort to take fewer photos, but make them better. I also have been itching to start making photo-essay style posts on the blog, sequences of photos that tell some story, as opposed to simply "hey I saw this and thought it was cool". I don't have any excuse for not starting that sooner, since I have been thinking about it for a loooong time now. I am just going to use the old "no time" excuse. Once I get all my photos processed, and a couple of other small jobs I have promised for some people, I will be 100% responsibility free and will no longer have the "no time" excuse.
I have not met my birds yet since coming home. Tomoe and I were planning to go to her parents house this weekend to get them and my bike, but Tomoe's work wouldn't allow it. Next weekend she is climbing Fuji with some people from her office, and I will be off working at an organic farm looking for some helping hands. We plan to go get the birds next next week. I guess it'S a good thing considering my ban on taking any new photos until I process those I already have. By the time we get the birds I should be ready to take thousands of photos of them. Until then, you will have to make due with these photos of Hobbe, the bird who sometimes pretends to be evil, taking huge chunks out of my hand. I still have scars. Lucky for him, my love is unconditional or I just might have done something nasty before I left.
