Train Effects

.

Waiting on the platform for our [delayed] train home from New Jersey last weekend, I took out my camera and tried getting a half-second exposure of the lights of a departing NJ Transit train:

Train Warp

On the train later, I tried out the video time lapse feature at Trenton and Philadelphia, to see how stations and cities would look as we passed by in the night:

Video didn’t turn out all that great; this camera’s video mode doesn’t handle night time exposure very well. Some time I’ll try these rail trip timelapses in daylight, preferably on the side of the train facing towards the “Trenton Makes” bridge.

Metro Rearview

.

I’ve always wanted to get this video, and I finally got my chance last week, sitting at the back of a Red Line train on our way home from church: the view out the rear window of a Metro train going from Gallery Place/Chinatown to Judiciary Square on the Red Line. (The Speed Racer tunnel ad is not visible at this angle.)

Mobile Catchup

.

Some cameraphone photos from the past couple of weeks that have gone to Flickr but not to here:

New York Post Hillary Home Alone cover Sushi Robot

Funny Van 1 Funny Van 2

What's Wrong With This Sign? C&O Turtle

Union Station Metro Pan

First row, left: New York Post headline depicting Hillary Clinton as Macaulay Culkin in “Home Alone,” shortly before the suspension of her campaign.

First row, right: Sushi Robot at Harbour Cafe, Washington Harbour, Georgetown.

Second row: Funny decals on a van, satirizing the life of a contractor.

Third row, left: What’s wrong with this sign before a sidewalk closed for construction on K Street?

Third row, right: Lazy turtle munches on floating mulberries in the C&O Canal.

Bottom, across: Quick mobile panorama of Union Station Metro, with Glenmont-bound train arriving at right.

Anniversary and Texture

.

Barong Up Close RRS_1970

Amy and I had our one-year wedding anniversary last week. We’re enjoying married life in DC greatly, and I thank the Lord for my wife literally every single day. Low-key introverts that we are, our anniversary celebration was a quiet, garlic-filled Sunday lunch of tapas and paella at Jaleo, followed by the purchase of a spanking new yellow DYSON from Russell.

On a related note, Russell pointed me to Smashing Magazine’s textures contest last month, so I figured, why not send in one of my favorite macro texture shots: my wedding barong. It didn’t win the grand prize (a DSLR camera), but it did get a mention in the contest results, which is fittingly awesome for our anniversary.

DC Timelapse – Passing Storm

.

DC Time Lapse - Passing Storm

Timelapse of the heavy storms that passed over DC this afternoon. The rain and wind/cloud change come very, very suddenly, then taper off while giving way to an unsettled stratocumulus layer.

Fetched every five seconds from the same weather news cam as was used for this earlier webcam timelapse. The frame rate might feel a bit jerky because the server dropped out occasionally, so sometimes there’s a time jump as it wasn’t always five-second intervals.

Update: I’ve replaced this with a new, smoother video which I fetched from the same webcam later in the evening, with more rain, and an added music track, “qwer” by 31d1. Watch for the bolt of lightning around -0:24!

Flowers in Breeze

.

Flowers bend with the breeze at the National Garden and Bartholdy Park on a gray, windy Sunday afternoon. Music is the 13th Century old English Nou goth sonne under wod from Lenten is Come, by Briddes Roune. (CD purchased from Magnatune. Though I do not subscribe to certain underlying aspects of the song’s theology, I do like how it sounds, and how it was exactly as long as the video.)

Rack and Tea

.

For your viewing pleasure, two recently recorded time lapse home videos of a domestic nature. At left, I assemble a new clothing rack after the old wall rack broke, fell off its hooks, and dumped clothes, hangers, and closet storage accessories all over the room. (Hence the mess.) At right, an Adagio display tea (Red Bloom) in a glass teapot, which goes from tiny tea ball to blossoming infusion flower when immersed in hot water.

Caturday!

.

Today’s Saturday cat photo series is a bunch of close up macros of Pandora’s face, and a noir-ish dramatic black and white shot.

IMG_2535.JPG IMG_2546.JPG IMG_2555.JPG IMG_2557.JPG IMG_2556.JPG

IMG_2518.JPG

Update: Greetings, DC Blogs readers! If you liked these photos of my cat, there are more of her on Flickr.