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the various and sundry creations of sylvus tarn
16apr2021
Today I tried setting up my cotton carrier ‘strapshot’, which, now that I have the various pieces and parts was fairly straightforward, though I had to switch back and forth between the product and the instructions for it to be absolutely clear on how it goes together.
Last time I tested this thing, on my lumix, I concluded that camera was simply too small for the system as designed, and gave it up. The sony alpha7c is small for a full-frame (in fact it's just slightly smaller than the olympus E620 it replaces) but with a two pound telephoto hooked on the front of it (also technically “small” and “lightweight”, according the to review, which just goes to show how spoiled I am by primes) I wasn't really keen on having hang off my neck.
14apr2021
Here's some pix from the new camera, and to be frank, they look a lot like pix from the old cameras. Mostly. But hey, figured I might as well round up the various photography links I've been accessing lately—it'll be convenient (at least for me) to have them collected together.
- DPReview, my go-to site for deciding what camera I'm gonna get.
- this dude (whose site I've encountered before—appreciate the old-skool, barebones design) also has a very thorough review of my eventual choice
- all-around long lens to go with
- Strobist has totally new —and much cheaper! equipment recces since I last attempted their free course. (Which, despite not finishing it was still really helpful!) With, of course, a special exception for sony, which would have a nonstandard hot shoe...
- I usually shop B&H, as I've had good luck with them, but Adorama is also generally considered a reliable vendor, and they have a list of free online photography courses—I note my fave, strobist, is listed, which inclines me to check out the others.
- how to use your fancy new alpha7c, for rank beginners. (Surprisingly useful even for people who are not absolutely rank beginners, because the guy helpfully explains why you might want this or that focusing mode, say.) Now if only I could, ahem focus, instead of obsessively watching the battery life decrease throughout the video...
- Now, which lensbaby am I gonna get...?
- Hey, maybe that cotton carrier system for my backpack, which is designed for a camera this size, as opposed to the lumix, will work out this time around. Carrying 3 lbs of equipment is no doubt nothing to the serious wildlife photographers, but it's still a pest: I want a secure, hands-free (& hopefully not too dorky) way to cart this thing around.
12apr2021
Chocolate's a fermented food, who knew?
My watercolour palette is the white backside of a thin plastic coaster (with Picasso sketches printed on the obverse, how artistic) which originally I was gonna pitch because I just wanted the thin flat tin they were packaged in, nearly the perfect size and shape for my “big” set of watercolour pans (it's about 4x4x0.5"/100x100x12mm) but my sister-in-law recently gave me this awesome antique porcelain watercolour tray, and while I was tentatively able to identify the maker as Royal Talens, my research didn't turn up this particular model; however, I did find this review of porcelain palettes. I s'pose I ought to try mixing colours on a white plate to see if this is something I'd want—these things are kinda pricey, in addition to being heavy.
9apr2021
I hardly looked at the internet at all
today! yesterday —Which basically means I only visited, like, 50–75 sites/links...? Jeez. This is embarrassing. (And means my ‘Throwback Thursday’ is showing up on a Friday. But hey, it's a friday-fantastic, instead of friday-fugly, cuz I get my shot today, yay:)
A friend and I have been wrestling with how we—for lack of a better term, sorry— conceptualize the ways in which memory, behaviour and trauma interact, and to that end I sent him a link about a woman's efforts to deal with the ways her interior and online lives had diverged after she called off a wedding—and the nearly decade long relationship it was to cement.
7apr2021
It's always kinda embarrassing (to me, anyway) to finish a page & then fail on the intro, because that's very much a tail-wagging-the-dog situation, but that's exactly what happened yesterday. But hey, I did kettlebell with my friend, and yes, my arthritic knee felt better afterwards, and then I tried the heating pad on it before going to bed, so yeah, this
dude's doctor's recces (for which the teal deer is basically, keep moving! It really is better for you! —which I shoulda figured out on my own, it's not like my bobbin lacemaking teacher well over a quarter century ago didn't note how her elderly students’ arthritic hands felt better after taking up the gentle twist & cross movements of the craft...that said, I do find when it gets bad from over-exercising that a week off helps to reset; but it also explains why some runners pop anti-inflammatories like candy, it's the inflammation that's causing the pain.)
5apr2021
I have been editing those little brush and ink sketches and a bunch of them will appear in due course, but I wanted to preserve this recipe (or at least approach) before I forgot it—I don't think it's especially earth-shattering or original, though I expect the popular version is for pineapple, not oranges, but they're similar in composition and sour/sweet profile, so the technique works for either.
So here we go, how (I) roast fruit.
