Things I did today

Most of the photos I took with my photography challenge were in my dining room or living room. I decided to head to another room to get inspiration from the different objects and lighting. I went to my bedroom, cleaned off the nightstand and only had the lamp on it. I tried having the lamp on, the lamp and far lamp on the other side of the room on, and different views of the lamp and orientation of the nightstand. I fooled around with how much light to show above the lamp, how much nightstand to include, and if I wanted the lamp centered or off to the side. I knew I was envisioning clean, soft lines and gradient light. Nothing sharp or jagged. I wanted the viewer to feel something between peaceful and morose. I slightly changed the temperature and clarity of the photo in my post production, as well as cropped the right edge of the stand out of the picture. Keeping it in seemed to be a distraction at best, and an open question of "How does this add?" when it really didn

I've certainly gotten better from my first photo to my later photos. Granted, the first few photos were taken from my phone camera, and I didn't know about using photo editing software even though I had Lightroom for several years. I thought, "What would be the point of dragging my camera out every day just to take one photo?" Turns out the point is to make me a better photographer. I'm now using my tripod and remote shutter and considering composition, color, exposure, focus and artistic detail. Do I want to take a picture of a thing as more of a documentary idea, or as art? Should I take a picture of one item, or a collection, or try to tell a story? Here's my first photo: At least it's not the usual "Here is an item that I took from where I was standing," at least I got down on the floor and chose a closer perspective, but if I were going to reshoot the photo (I can't now, all the alcohol has been drunk - two months in shelter-in-

I captured my cookbooks today during photography practice. I wanted to share the humorous progression I took from vegan to vegetarian to paleo and finally the science of cooking (and history if you count my grandmother's cookbook on the far right.) I also liked the reflection of color on the surface of the table. It gave it more depth, not just some sort of documentary procedure. I've practiced photography every day for nearly two months, and I can say with certainty that I am a better photographer, and I am interested in being even better. I have a ton of photography books that I am excited to read, and I'll start one this weekend and practice with it. I'm getting into cooking much more as well - the last two months I've cooked Spicy Pineapple Pork, Picadillo, General Tso's Chicken, Ham and Bean Soup, Spicy Honey Chicken, jazzed up some Ramen with vegetables and eggs and sesame oil, made hard boiled eggs in the Instant Pot, and with my skillet, made some

Today, I cleaned out 7 years of collected papers and whatnot in my cubicle. It was odd to be in the office with no one there when I arrived. My manager arrived about an hour later, as did three others, but we all kept our distance. I threw out just as much as I saved, and after all that gone through, 3 hours later, I had three boxes. At home, I threw my bandanna mask in the laundry and will wash it tomorrow with the rest of my clothes. Swapping out a piece of pantyhose instead of a hair tie made all the difference. I don't care if people make fun of me for wearing pantyhose on my face, my ears are comfortable. I did another crossword in good time: And I'm currently enjoying the show James May: Our Man in Japan!

Though I did watch some fun YouTube videos from Matt D'Avella, and I also ran 1.7 miles in 21:20, I was pretty lazy beyond that today. The dreary weather doesn't help at all. I also did get some photography practice in, trying to make a lamp look arty.

Need a day of rest. My hobbies and projects have gotten me working much more than I intended and I'm not even doing all of them. I finished my Cardio workout sheet, listing every workout going back 8 years and found that took entirely too long! I had several meetings today and will have several meetings tomorrow. I'm looking forward to having Monday off and just working on my hobbies instead of hobbies and work. I took a walk because it was so lovely out today, and I'll likely do the same tomorrow if it's not raining when I'm able to go out.

We were given a sign up sheet at work of days to head to the office to collect our belongings and pack up our work stuff since we'll be moving to the new office in November as our current office space will be remodeled into the new exam center. Since we're moving during an infectious pandemic, we're only allowed 10 people in the office at a time, and we can't have anyone else that sits near us also in the office that day. I signed up for a day this week, and I'm not looking forward to it, and I'll just get up and go as soon as possible that day. The crossword went well today, but would have gotten it in under a minute if I hadn't made several typos. The container garden looks good! I planted all the plants. Home Depot had about 50% compliance of mask wearing, and the aisles were big enough that people would mostly be mindful about their distance. I guess that's about as good as I could hope for. Hopefully my mask kept me from any wayward covid pa