POLAROID

Torrington, Connecticut

Thrift store window.

Siren's Song

Washington, Connecticut

At a historical society event yesterday. Keeping the yarn theme going for another day.

Scream

Torrington, Connecticut

Another item from the public yarn art project.

Billboard

Ansonia, Connecticut

The relatively new plastic billboard covers strike me as tacky compared to the old days. If it's possible for a billboard to become more tacky than the base line.

Doorway

Ansonia, Connecticut

Upstairs, on the Main Street level in this commercial building, there's a pawn shop.

Two Yellow Hydrants

Ansonia, Connecticut

Torrington, Connecticut

Panel Discussion, Alternate Process Photography

Just a note that there's an interesting video available with folks from the Penumbra Foundation in New York talking about the foundation and its involvement in historical and alternate process photography. If you are curious about the subject, or especially if you'd be interested in hands-on learning about the various alt processes through workshops and other events at Penumbra, the video is worth a look. Disclosure: I teach platinum/palladium workshops there a couple times a year.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10154030538494401&id=293027294400&hc_location=ufi

Hanging Garden

Ansonia, Connecticut

The storefront seems to be some sort of eastern-style spiritual meditation/yoga center.

Mowing the Ball Field

Woodbury, Connecticut

Platform

Ansonia, Connecticut

Flags and Cat in the Alleyway

Ansonia, Connecticut

The building on the left is an antiques, salvage, and auction place. The alley used to be a walkway through and under the industrial building at the back of the picture. Don't know about the cat.

BANG

Seymour, Connecticut

Looks as though they haven't updated the shop window since July 4.

Hydrant Wearing a Wig

Ansonia, Connecticut

I did a bit of a double take when I saw this, but I quickly realized that it really is a wig left on the cap of the fireplug. I've seen similar wigs—in much better condition—in shop windows many times.

Conference on the Flood Wall

Ansonia, Connecticut

I don't know what these guys are. Vultures of some sort, but very small, I almost mistook them for crows. They appeared disappointed with the prospects for carrion in the area.

DAILY ADVENTURE

Torrington, Connecticut

Sheep Units Behind the Farm Stand

Roxbury, Connecticut

The weather for the past week has been quite awful, with dewpoint up in the 70s and temperatures in the 90s each afternoon. The good side of this time of year is the abundance of gorgeous fresh produce available at several farm stands located in easy reach. Plus, I'll admit that the dim and sultry light under these swampy skies can be quite lovely.

Also, I'm going to call this first one a wildlife photo, because one of the sheep is on the wrong side of the fence, and so, temporarily, wild.

I walked over near the fence to see if there was a picture to be found, but this disappointed the sheep. It seems that when people shop here, the kids are sometimes given scraps or tailings from the stand that they can toss to the sheep. I don't know how these two could mistake me for a little kid, but hope springs eternal.

It's definitely not a petting zoo, but the sheep are very comfortable with people, and they're also really vocal. I'm always startled how human-sounding the sheep's 'Baaaa' sound is.

Reflected Light

Woodbury, Connecticut

Groomed Tree

Woodbury, Connecticut

Alleyway

Torrington, Connecticut

DETOUR

Hartford, Connecticut

CILP

Torrington, Connecticut

Rain

Woodbury, Connecticut

Palm Tree

Torrington, Connecticut

This palm tree made of yarn, at the entry to the Warner Theater, is part of the town-wide project mentioned in this previous blog post.

Weeds and Old Truck

Torrington, Connecticut

Two Big Trees

Woodbury, Connecticut

The center of town has some very old houses with some really big old trees in the yards.

Summer Skies

Litchfield, Connecticut

Torrington, Connecticut

Utilities

Naugatuck, Connecticut

One stop: Hair and Nail

Naugatuck, Connecticut

Purple is the new, something or other.

Sidewalk, Rain, Streetlight Reflection

Bristol, Connecticut

They Don't Owe Me Anything

Woodbury, Connecticut

When I first began to use digital cameras that took SD cards instead of the larger CF cards, the dainty little cards proved quite unreliable. Not in a computer/electonic/data way, but mechanically. The thin plastic body of the cards tended to crack and split (even though I treated them carefully and wouldn't be caught dead doing something like dropping a card loose into my pocket) and worse, the write-protect tab would break off, also rendering the card useless. At least this left the cards readable, so no pictures were lost. This happened, repeatedly, with several different brands.

Sometime late 2010, I needed cards again, and bought a pair of 16 GB, 163x Delkin Devices cards. I chose them simply because they were on sale, and I hadn't tried that brand before. They have performed flawlessly ever since. I have no idea how many times they have been removed from a camera, inserted in a reader or computer card slot, then returned to the camera and formatted. Something over five years, 365 days in a year, and if I shoot I always download the cards at the end of the day, and I shoot at least something nearly every day. Most everything that found its way to this blog in the past 5-6 years was recorded by that pair of cards. Finally, earlier this week when I replaced "card 1" in a Lumix GX7 camera, it wouldn't seat properly. I got it out, and with close examination found that a bit of the housing plastic between two of the gold contacts had come loose. I managed to remove the sliver, and out of curiosity put it back in the camera, where it proved to work just fine.

But the handwriting was now on the wall. So, a quick trip to the B&H site, where I searched for SD cards, Delkin only. I found that 32 GB, 633x-speed cards were on sale for the ludicrous price of $15.99. Twice the capacity, and nearly four times the speed. I got a pair, and had to order a couple of other little accessory items to get the order up over $49 for free shipping.

When the cards arrived this afternoon, the first thing I did was put one in a GX7 and format it. Sure enough (I didn't use a stopwatch) but the format operation for the 32 Gig card took about half as long as the 16 Gig cards had taken. Downloading the several snaps of the old cards, using the Adobe DNG Converter, also went obviously faster than with the 163x cards. So the venerable cards are now put out to pasture, in a hard case for extra cards, where they will have a peaceful existence because I've never come near filling them, and now have twice the storage in-camera.

More Vents

Waterbury, Connecticut

Another mid-day sunlight picture, looking for surface textures.

Vent

Naugatuck, Connecticut

I seldom work with strong noonday sunlight, but every once in a while I give it a try and find something that responds well.

Two Chairs

Torrington, Connecticut

Side yard of a church building.