Orton Imagery

Siamese(?) Cat in Northridge, CA
Originally uploaded by jdashton

I finally took time to find a tutorial on doing Orton imagery without using Photoshop, i.e. using the Gimp. The technique has been described as "snippets of sharpness floating in a sea of blurred colour. Very cool!" and I think that about sums it up.

This is one of two results of my experiments today, and the other is here on my Flickr page.

Bike Riding

We've gone on a couple of bike rides in the last week or so, and both of them were significant. Yesterday we joined some friends to ride the Zoo Review. This lovely 20-mile ride makes use of both Rock Creek Park and the Capitol Crescent Trail. Very highly recommended.

The previous weekend Vicki and I managed a fair bit of the C&O Canal trail in our area, starting at Great Falls and riding north to a point between Broad Run Trunk Aqueduct and White's Ferry. Our total distance was pretty close to 41 miles.

This weekend:

• Trip Distance: 25.47 miles (I got in a little extra)
• Trip Time: 2 hours 40 minutes (rolling time, not counting rests)
• Average Speed: 9.55 mph
• Maximum Speed: 26 mph

Last weekend:

• Trip Distance: 41 miles
• Trip Time: 4 hours 19 minutes (rolling time, not counting rests)
• Average Speed: 9.49 mph
• Maximum Speed: 15 mph

Because we did these without any proper preparation, i.e. taking shorter rides in the preceding weeks, we've been pretty sore. However, we're also proud to have made it back to the starting point each time, and happy to have seen some new and beautiful territory.

Flickr Zeitgeist

I just came across this interesting tidbit. I'll probably try to find a place for it in my weblog's template, but I'll just share it here in this post for now.

This widget shows pictures from me and my contacts on Flickr. The word zeitgeist can be translated, loosely, as "spirit of the time," so one assumes that the pictures selected are somehow chosen for their popularity. We shall see. If it even works as a blog post.

Update: I didn't recognize any of the photos, so I took it back out. I'll do a little research and try again later.

C-Bouts & ƒ-Holes

Sunlight on Strings
Originally uploaded by jdashton

I'm trying something new to me.

Yesterday morning I came downstairs to find this picture just waiting for me. All I had to do was grab my camera and take it in.

I asked Vicki to look around to find flickr groups suitable for this picture. She found several, but something seemed to be missing. So last night, after a few more searches, I created the C-Bouts & ƒ-Holes group. (That's the new thing: starting a flickr group.) Then I did a search for candidate photos, and invited about eighty people to join the nascent group.

At the moment we have eighteen members and twenty photos. Please take a look and leave comments as may seem appropriate to you. If you're already a flickr member, or when you become one, please make me a contact. (You can do that using the link near the top-right of my profile page.)