Lazy ? weekend
Jul. 5th, 2006 09:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
johnridleyThis was one of those weekends where it doesn't seem like I got much done until I think about it.
Friday night, I went across the state for a Saturday wedding. I did the photography there; I failed to mess up when I did it at the last family wedding, so I guess I'm going to be doing this for a while. It was a bit stressful (not to me, I was just sitting by), things were less than organized, but in the end it was one of the better weddings I've been at because people finally just stopped worrying about it and let things happen.
I was honestly amazed; the photos I took were very good. Must have been pure luck and good equipment, because I don't really know what I'm doing. I am very glad that I bought the battery grip for the Rebel; I only really use it at weddings, but MAN it makes a difference when you have an external flash mounted and you're doing a lot of portrait mode shooting. Having a proper bottom grip with controls so I don't have to contort my right arm up and over is very nice and allows a comfortable and steady grip.
Anyway, I got back late Saturday. I blew off church Sunday morning, and spent about 4 hours sorting photos and doing some Photoshop work on them. Very little, really, just fixing levels (the church was very large and fairly dark with miserable lighting). I wound up with 60 good shots, 100 duds, and about 100 OK shots. I uploaded the 60 to Meijer for 4x6 prints.
T went to S&R's house in the afternoon for a play day and to go to the fireworks with them. J&K weren't terribly interested, I would like to go but IMHO it's barely worth the hour it takes to get out of the Metropark afterwards. I'm happy to go if I'm taking others, but for myself I'll just skip it.
Sunday I got started on a new website project; an astronomical observation logging system. I have a couple of programs that also do that, but I don't really like them that much. This system is going to allow multiple users, multiple lists, and will print log summaries that can be submitted to the Astronomical League for certificates. I worked on that off and on Monday and Tuesday also, it's getting there. It is taking extra time because I'm doing it in PHP/MySQL, and I have only done one PHP project, that was just a port from CGI-perl, and it was a year ago. PHP is OK, I'm going to have to do some reworking eventually because right now it's just one big blob of code, but it's coming along nicely. I'm also working some Javascript (AJAX) into it when appropriate. I tend to write without the Javascript at first and then put it in later, but a few things were obviously going to be much easier written with AJAX from the start.
Monday morning it was an errand run including picking up the 4x6 wedding prints and a small proof album, then picking up Tom and heading home. One of the things I picked up was some cedar mulch. I haven't really worked with mulch before, my landscaping tends towards the "dig a hole and put something in it" variety. But I was out of ideas on how to surround the pond. The mulch is working well for me. In fact I think I need a big bunch more to cover a triangular area behind, and then I want to do a planting there with at least a few bunches of ornamental grass.
I also got three of the beds weeded, and I took the garden bench into the garage and got the horribly weathered wood brushed down with a wire brush and got 3 coats of poly on it; it looks a lot better now.
Friday night, I went across the state for a Saturday wedding. I did the photography there; I failed to mess up when I did it at the last family wedding, so I guess I'm going to be doing this for a while. It was a bit stressful (not to me, I was just sitting by), things were less than organized, but in the end it was one of the better weddings I've been at because people finally just stopped worrying about it and let things happen.
I was honestly amazed; the photos I took were very good. Must have been pure luck and good equipment, because I don't really know what I'm doing. I am very glad that I bought the battery grip for the Rebel; I only really use it at weddings, but MAN it makes a difference when you have an external flash mounted and you're doing a lot of portrait mode shooting. Having a proper bottom grip with controls so I don't have to contort my right arm up and over is very nice and allows a comfortable and steady grip.
Anyway, I got back late Saturday. I blew off church Sunday morning, and spent about 4 hours sorting photos and doing some Photoshop work on them. Very little, really, just fixing levels (the church was very large and fairly dark with miserable lighting). I wound up with 60 good shots, 100 duds, and about 100 OK shots. I uploaded the 60 to Meijer for 4x6 prints.
T went to S&R's house in the afternoon for a play day and to go to the fireworks with them. J&K weren't terribly interested, I would like to go but IMHO it's barely worth the hour it takes to get out of the Metropark afterwards. I'm happy to go if I'm taking others, but for myself I'll just skip it.
Sunday I got started on a new website project; an astronomical observation logging system. I have a couple of programs that also do that, but I don't really like them that much. This system is going to allow multiple users, multiple lists, and will print log summaries that can be submitted to the Astronomical League for certificates. I worked on that off and on Monday and Tuesday also, it's getting there. It is taking extra time because I'm doing it in PHP/MySQL, and I have only done one PHP project, that was just a port from CGI-perl, and it was a year ago. PHP is OK, I'm going to have to do some reworking eventually because right now it's just one big blob of code, but it's coming along nicely. I'm also working some Javascript (AJAX) into it when appropriate. I tend to write without the Javascript at first and then put it in later, but a few things were obviously going to be much easier written with AJAX from the start.
Monday morning it was an errand run including picking up the 4x6 wedding prints and a small proof album, then picking up Tom and heading home. One of the things I picked up was some cedar mulch. I haven't really worked with mulch before, my landscaping tends towards the "dig a hole and put something in it" variety. But I was out of ideas on how to surround the pond. The mulch is working well for me. In fact I think I need a big bunch more to cover a triangular area behind, and then I want to do a planting there with at least a few bunches of ornamental grass.
I also got three of the beds weeded, and I took the garden bench into the garage and got the horribly weathered wood brushed down with a wire brush and got 3 coats of poly on it; it looks a lot better now.
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Date: 2006-07-05 05:14 pm (UTC)Then we went back to the house to pick up missed supplies; bug spray, compass, and a pinch collar for the dog, who otherwise pulls on her leash until she gags. We also picked up another kid, and set off for a 6-stage. This one was a bushwhacking hike of about 1/4 mile (of the part that we did), sometimes through prickery berry plants. We got stumped after finding a fake hide on stage 2. We were obviously within 15 feet of the hide but we didn't find it. We'll have to go back another day.