Halloween, Friday, October 31, 2008


305/366 Toilet Candy, originally uploaded by Amberture.

My Halloween was less than spooky but was instead a quiet, relaxing night with the beau.

I found these at World Market for $.74 a piece. They are plastic toilets with sour powder inside. You "plunge" them with the provided lollipop plungers and then eat what comes out of the toilet. Awesome, right!?

Thursday, October 30, 2008


304/366 Band of Light, originally uploaded by Amberture.

I'm experimenting with exposure here but my camera's autofocus was having trouble and didn't want to lock onto the door. And clearly I have no concept of "blurry" vs. "sharp."

Wednesday, October 29, 2008


303/366 Two Pumpkins, originally uploaded by Amberture.

George bought these pumpkins for some huge sum of money thinking we would actually carve them. I'm not sure where the plan was supposed to go from that point because we live in an apartment and don't have a balcony or a porch.

In any case, they are still exactly where they have been for two weeks now. I suppose we'll eventually throw them out.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008


302/366 Dressers, originally uploaded by Amberture.

I'm always taking bathroom mirror self-portraits when I shoot at home so I thought I'd try something different today. Barring my lack of strobes or even an outlet close by to try janky side lamps, the light is far too directional from above but you'll have to live with it!

The dresser is neato but the bed is too high up and creates an unattractive leading line down with the circular handles.

Monday, October 27, 2008


301/366 The Rejects, originally uploaded by Amberture.

Poor mangled, ugly pumpkins. Some shmuck kid is going to get stuck with these because his mom couldn't get it together in time.

Sunday, October 26, 2008


300/366 Looking Back, originally uploaded by Amberture.

I shot a whole bunch of stuff but nothing was really very interesting. I like the rim lighting a lot but I was definitely missing a beat.

Saturday, October 25, 2008


299/366 White Space, originally uploaded by Amberture.

Friday, October 24, 2008


298/366 Pentagon Memorial, originally uploaded by Amberture.

George and I took a nice walk Friday evening down to the new Pentagon Memorial. And this is it. No giant stone carvings, ornate columns or ostentatious fountains with gold trim. To be honest, it felt a little subdued. Where is the fanfare for the celebrated fallen? Instead we get a bunch of benches and some miniature pools that have now filled with gravel.

Thursday, October 23, 2008


297/366 Butternut Squash, originally uploaded by Amberture.

George bought this butternut squash at a farm when I was away. I cooked up half of it but refused to touch the second half - I in no way am desirous to cook five pounds of squash.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008


296/366 Globe, originally uploaded by Amberture.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008


295/366 Winter Coming, originally uploaded by Amberture.

Between when I left and coming back from the road trip, the weather got markedly colder. As such, I've had to start wearing sweaters and scarves and jackets and all the clothes that mean winter is well on its way.

Monday, October 20, 2008


294/366 TCS, originally uploaded by Amberture.

This is me.

Sunday, October 19, 2008


293/366 Informal, originally uploaded by Amberture.

This is George. Not much to say about this one either.

Saturday, October 18, 2008


292/366 Flash, originally uploaded by Amberture.

This is David. There's not really much more to say about this picture.

Friday, October 17, 2008


291/366 Heroin, originally uploaded by Amberture.

Having wrapped up our road trip the night before, David and I headed down the hill to the DEA Museum where we snapped up some lovely photos of old bottles of narcotics (legal then). The museum was better than we expected but not that great.

We then proceeded to cook an enormous dinner and gorge ourselves, which is just about all we ever do when David is around.

Thursday, October 16, 2008


290/366 Creation Museum, originally uploaded by Amberture.

Road Trip: Day Six

After touring the surprisingly pleasant city of Cincinnati, David and I headed to one of the places we are least welcome, the Creation Museum.

This museum is a private institution (that's why we had to pay so much, right?) that is dedicated to spreading the word about creationism and beating down the myth of evolution. In my head this was much funnier but upon getting there, it was just kind of pathetic. There was very little appeal to reason and much more "yes, it's this way and isn't that awesome?"

David even sprung for the planetarium tickets. The show was pretty well done and I found myself enjoying the show. And then they explained a light year and I wondered, "why don't they just give the real definition instead of putting it in miles?" The answer came later, of course - because if it really took light that long to get to where we are, we wouldn't see anything, because the universe was created just a few short thousand years ago.

Nothing to laugh at, really. Plenty of people - I mean, everyone at the museum besides us - believes it.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008


289/366 Bourbon Whiskey, originally uploaded by Amberture.

Road Trip: Day Five

On the way out of the unmentioned relative's neighborhood, we tried to hit up a couple of places and fell short. We did manage to get into the Woodford Reserve distillery, though. Apparently it was high-class but I think I have to admit that I just don't like whiskey. I don't. I've tried.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008


288/366 Pabst Blue Ribbon, originally uploaded by Amberture.

Road Trip: Day Four

From the unnamed relative's house, David and I headed out to Mammoth Cave to see the largest cave system in the world. We were that close, we had to go. The rangers proved much more knowledgeable and entertaining than those of Luray Caverns but the sights paled in comparison.

I was more pumped about the "Dinosaur World" down the road but it was more than the caves and we just couldn't swing that. There was a really neat antique store across the way and that's how I snagged this photo of Pabst cans.

Columbus Day, Monday, October 13, 2008


287/366 Coal Elevator, originally uploaded by Amberture.

Road Trip: Day Three

Our Columbus Day should have been spent exploring the abandoned coal mining towns of West Virginia's New River Gorge. Unfortunately, my period made a show that day and turned me into a raging bitch and turned my belly to mush. So we only visited one ghost town, a "restored" ghost town: Thurmond.

This is a picture of the coal elevator from Thurmond's heyday. It was the biggest town around and all the railroads had to pass through so it was booming until... it was dead. The coal elevator was really neat and everything else was so obviously cared-for it didn't hold any falling-apart charm. More of the elevator in my flickr.

From here we went straight to an unnamed relative of David's. She fed us and continued to feed us for the rest of the trip.

Sunday, October 12, 2008


286/366 Dump Truck, originally uploaded by Amberture.

Road Trip: Day Two

We woke up in Elkins, West Virginia, quite refreshed and ready to start the road trip over, since we were quite ready to call it quits the night before (see previous post).

Right in front of the hotel were these two old trucks seemingly being left to rot in the middle of a field. The light was streaming through the windows and they were perfect. More shots in my flickr.

Day two took us to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory for a pretty awesome tour. For a twenty-five mile radius around the observatory, no one is allowed to broadcast anything. The astronomers regularly have to hunt out sources of static in their area, like electric blankets.

The rest of the day was spent getting on down to the New River Gorge. We drove through some incredibly beautiful scenery but there was hardly anywhere to pull over and snap photos, so we largely did not.

Saturday, October 11, 2008


285/366 S.L. Tidler, originally uploaded by Amberture.

Road Trip: Day One

David and I headed out after lunch with George and drove straight to Luray Caverns for some exciting spelunking activities. The cave was really awesome, though hugely overpriced. Check my flickr for pictures of "mirror lake" - an almost completely still body of water underground. It looks as though there's no water, until you realize you're staring at the ceiling reflected.

After stopping at this cool old cemetery to snap some pics, we unsuccessfully tried to play bingo with the locals and then spent three hours driving through mountainous Virginia and then West Virginia looking for a place to stay. Would you have made a reservation if you were going to West Virginia?

Friday, October 10, 2008


284/366 Pina Colada, originally uploaded by Amberture.

First post in a long time because I've been on vacation, a motoring vacation. More pics soon.

Thursday, October 9, 2008


283/366 The Shunned, originally uploaded by Amberture.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008


282/366 Five Guys, originally uploaded by Amberture.

Five Guys have the best hamburger around.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008


281/366 Gazebo, originally uploaded by Amberture.

This picture is far out of focus. When you zoom in my face is all blurry. There are a number of reasons this might be but #1, I'm going to go with quality of my lens and the fact that I was zoomed all the way in as the table I rested the camera on was far away. What can I do? Carry my BRAND NEW GIANT DSLR WITH ME!!

Other factors might include dirt on my lens, general incompetence. Totally not important.

Monday, October 6, 2008


280/366 Fall Spread, originally uploaded by Amberture.

Boring, but it was late.

Sunday, October 5, 2008


279/366 Relief, originally uploaded by Amberture.

Today I finished my relief project for Design I. It took me at least 20 hours to complete, but I may be underestimating.

Saturday, October 4, 2008


278/366 Twins, originally uploaded by Amberture.

This was taken at the Del Ray Art on the Avenue. I was blown away by how many vendors were out hawking their wares. More images are available on my Flickr (look left).

These babies were so cute and their Ma was full-on in the next stall over so I wasn't too shy. A newfound bonus of having an awesome SLR is that your face is in the same place as the camera so if someone's going to look at you, they're going to look at the lens. Score!

Friday, October 3, 2008


277/366 Jester, originally uploaded by Amberture.

Thursday, October 2, 2008


275/366 Through the Trees, originally uploaded by Amberture.

Hasn't been the best week, really. Sometimes it's hard to see the forest through the trees. But I find something comforting in these round parsnips - things coming full circle, the interconnectedness (roots) between everything...

Sometimes I feel like I just go along with what's happening, letting the tide take me where it will. Doesn't that have to end at some point?

Wednesday, October 1, 2008


275/366 AWESOME, originally uploaded by Amberture.

From the first pictures with my incredible new camera, shown. Of course, I haven't even gotten through the manual so I have no idea how to work the damn thing. Better photos are coming, I swear!

And apologies for the long break in updates - I've been busy like always but the past few days have been particularly trying. Have patience - I'll come back swinging.