Friday, January 29, 2010

Bringing Some Outside IN

I have the Winter Crazies.

Bad.

This affliction is different fr0m Spring Fever or Cabin Fever in that it involves considerable moronic babbling, screaming and general insanity.

I always get this. The only thing that seems to help alleviate it at all (besides the onset of spring, which is the cure) is nesting. I just get this overwhelming urge to redecorate. Change things. Organize things. Update things. And now that I'm through that first-trimester, crushing fatigue and stomach-rebellion, I can actually do this stuff.

I have a number of such projects planned-- some small touches and some major updates.

The first small touch was to bring in some of those beautiful red sticks that are in the fields around here. I went out into the 10 degree sunshine and cut a big bundle of them.

I brought them in (Nathan laughed and shook his head at me) and trimmed them up a little, and then I was faced with the problem of finding a container. I really wished I had a great big crock to stand them in.

But I didn't, so I found a jar.



I'm afraid it looks a little diminutive with the height of the branches, but oh well. I gots what I gots.

(Oh, and do me a favor and try to ignore the disgusting-looking living room floor. It's the result of years of ongoing construction work. I can't wait to do something about it, but it's gonna be a while. And those holes? Used to have pipes going through them back in the days of my temporary kitchen.)



I then had to play with my new camera (man, I'm in just love with that thing!) by taking a few photos of my decoration.




If you can count 30 as "a few"...







The color of those sticks is just irresistible.






Especially against my wall color.





And then there's the bokeh. Branch bokeh. Yes, please.






Hey, look! Holey, Scuzzy Floor Bokeh!

I had thought about trimming them up so that they were just straight twigs, but I decided that I like the branchyness at the tops.

So I feel a little better. But only a little. And only for now.

4 comments:

  1. Katie,

    Which lens is that? What are the specs??? I'd love some bokeh love, but I'm afraid my f/3.5-5.6 just isn't up to it.

    Still lusting after a Tamron 17-55 f/2.8 VR to upgrade my kit lens.

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  2. Um... hmmmmm... looks like it's 28-135 and I'm not quite sure of the aperture range, but I know that it was set at 3.5 (pretty sure that's the widest it will go) for those shots. Obviously, you can get some bokeh at that, but not as fabulous as you'd get with more aperture.

    The only lens I'm lusting after is a fixed 50 (or better yet, 35) f/1.8. That's always been my favorite lens.

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  3. Prime lenses have come way down in price recently. Keep an eye on Craigslist, and you can probably find something at an even better price. If you don't mind manual focus, you can probably get it really cheap.

    A 50mm f/1.8 is a great portrait lens also.

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  4. That would be the EF 28-135 f/3.5-5.6 IS USM. The bokeh is okay at 28mm f/3.5, but only if the subject is really close. The bokeh is far better (in my opinion) at 135 f/5.6 due to the compression of the image.

    /lens nerdery

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