Busted

A child is on early bedtime for a week, a consequence of poor behavior. Said child’s last act last night was to take a book from her bag, which we advised was not allowed as she was at light’s out. She claimed (ahem) that she needed the book to remember to put earrings on the next morning.

A quick search of her room this morning found a book light, tucked into her headboard. Said book light no longer has batteries, but instead … a note.

Newspaper-ers

I have done a lot of non-human photographs the last few months – things and stuff, stuff and things. It’s great to search out patterns and light, but, let’s face it – I shoot pictures to tell stories, and good stories have great characters.

Today, in class, I got a collection of characters. We spent the first hour with Chris Stanford, a college alumnus who works at the Washington Post now. The second half of class brought us Alan NeSmith and Lane Gresham from The Northeast Georgian.

NeSmith, the publisher, will be hosting my class in his offices and county for our annual weekend workshop in a few weeks. The pair came down from the mountains to help the students learn about the area.

And you gotta love a guy who swings a newspaper around while he talks …

Alan NeSmith and Lane Gresham from the Northeast Georgian.

How Many Sunsets

I’m carrying this new camera with me everyday, a birthday present from my wife last month. It’s an Olympus E-P2 with the 17 mm f/2.8 lens and electronic viewfinder. I wanted it because it’s the closest thing to my beloved old Leicas out there. Well, short of a new Leica, but they’re a little out of my price range these days.

The one camera, one lens ideal suits me really well. The 17 mm lens, while not the sharpest lens, gives me a field of view really close to how I see the world. (About a 35 mm if you do the math to compare it to the old film days.) But, every now and then … I just wanted a little more reach.

One of the nice things about the micro four-thirds format is the ability to adapt older lenses to the new cameras. You don’t get the autofocus and all the autoexposure modes, but the E-P2 does a nice job when focusing manually. I ordered a $30 adapter off of Amazon.com and then scoured the internet for an Olympus 50 mm f/1.4 lens and found one at the right price at Adorama.com (so my friend Jeff got a little commission off of the deal).

Lens showed up a few days ago. Had it sitting on my desk as the sun set out the back window and the color caught my eye.

I’d guess this lens is from the 1970s, no telling how many sunsets it has already seen.