Author Archives: Mark

Pineapple agua fresca


Pineapple agua fresca

Given how easy it is to make my lemon-lime aid, I thought I would see if I could replicate another favorite drink of mine: the agua fresca at La Selva Mexican Ice Cream store.

I took some pineapple chunks and blended it in water until smooth. The result was really thick and cloudy. Not at all smooth and clear. Straining it off helped out a little. But I think that I need a gravy strainer for this. Or maybe a siphon.


caramelized simple syrup

I also made some caramelized simple syrup to sweeten it with. I really have to come up with an easier way to make this. Basically, you take a cup of sugar and put it in a pan. Dry. And heat it up until it turns light brown. Take it off the heat and pour in a cup of water. The problem is that the browned sugar is 340 degrees and solidifies when the water is poured in. You have to mix it around until the candy sugar melts. Which takes a long time and a lot of work. I think it would be easier to just use dark brown sugar in a cup of water and boil it a little bit to break down the sugar.

I do like the effect that the two speedlites had on the picture. It really darkened down the foreground and background.

Texas sized cicadas

Texas Cicada

It was really hard to take this photo. It was too dark for the automatic focusing to work. So I had to shine a flashlight in one hand to help with focusing. Then the mosquitoes were eating me alive. I gave up after the tenth bite.

I also tried recording the buzzing of the cicadas. I think I need a wind sock on the audio recorder. Because, while it didn’t seem windy when I was standing out there, there were definite wind spikes.

Tropical Storm Hermine

Tropical Storm Hermine

I missed an opportunity to take some pictures of flash flooding. According to KVUE, Georgetown received 14.57 inches over two days! Sadly, the weatherman talked about how this was a 500 year rain event, but then did not blog about it.

The changing light of sunset

redish-brown
blueish-purple

When I just happened to glance outside, I noticed an unusual and strong color tint. So I immediately jumped out of my chair and ran to my camera. By that time, the color started to fade. It is amazing how ephemeral these occurrences are.

I also tried taking a picture after grabbing a color-neutral filter and taking a white-balance setting frame. But the result was rather bland after the light skew was subtracted from the picture..

Deep In The Heart Of Texas, again


Deep In The Heart Of Texas, again

The first time I tried to take a panorama of this, I hand-held the camera and just winged it by trying to keep the same point of rotation. This time, I used a panoramic tripod. But there is still problems with the low angle of view. I think I need to get it about twenty feet into the air for a better viewpoint.

Austin Bumb Fuck

Later, when I was processing this panorama, I noticed the following tag. Sigh. People make me sad sometimes.

Austin Skyline


Austin Skyline

I took a High Definition Range panorama of the Austin Skyline today at Disch Field. And learned some things. I set aperture priority. Which was a mistake. The exposure settings changed slightly on every picture. Which caused color problems. Fortunately, Photoshop was up to the task of correcting the pictures to a common white balance.

It also took a while to wait while people left the individual frames of pictures.

HDR San Gabriel River


HDR Georgetown

When I went to Georgetown to take a panorama, I ran into trouble. I placed my tripod here. Which was on the sidewalk of a bridge overlooking a small river and right next to a public park. As I was waiting for the sun to set, I notice something odd. A man was standing under one of the trees and was looking in my direction. He waited for a while and then finally left. I thought he was looking at birds or something. But then a teenager walks down the sidewalk and starts confronting me. He claims that I was taking pictures of his house. I didn’t even notice the trailer off in the distance before. I didn’t bother educating him that my camera’s lens was not powerful enough to resolve his barely visible trailer., which was not even where I was pointing the camera towards. I just calmly listened to him and then told him that I was on public land and he could just sod off.

Austin Photowalk

paparazzi shoot

I went to the downtown Austin gathering of the world wide photowalk. But I was rather disappointed in it. The leader said a few words and then everyone went their own separate way. I could go downtown anytime to take some photos. And this is how it felt. I decided to take my 45mm tilt-shift lens with me.

But before we wandered off, someone got a group of people together to simulate paparazzi.

fountain #1
fountain #2

The lens is a manually focused and is hard to get 100% sure that focus is exactly where you want it. I tried using the video screen with limited success. It was usually a little bit off.

oak tree

I only used the tilting feature of the focus plane. It has an interesting effect in directing the eye.

statue

I didn’t go for the miniature effect either.

horse and buggy

This cab driver was rather fond of her horse. And did not mind posing for photos.

storefronts

I would have liked the moon to be a bit more over to the right. And for it to be within the focus plane.

street crowds

Another picture just a little bit off. Hopefully, I wasn’t too intimidating on the street.

band

I liked this one.

frosty transformer

And this one as well. I didn’t notice how the Frost Bank building looks like a transformer.