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Nothing exceptional about this image except that this is what we see from our bedroom window across the courtyard. The new resident has hung plants (finally! That's what a balcony is there for, besides hosting oversized keg parties in Manhattan living quarters!) and I wanted to not only thank her, but also pay tribute to what's been our view for two years. If this isn't any indication of why I want streetside windows, aside from the pretty green plants, I do not know what else is! Anyway, this morning after posting I made a few messes: traveled to Ace at 94th and 2nd to pick up a new pot for the previously pictured Jade plant, with which I have developed a near year-long relationship without mercilessly slaughtering it, as happens to most plants/flowers who cross my path, and found a nice rusty-orangish new home for the Jade, but when I filled the pot with new soil (I should really just call it 'dirt' because what happened next doesn't license me to use such a professional gardening term as 'soil') and when I dug a little well for the roots and bottom part of the Jade, transition wasn't so smooth, and the whole thing just died in my hands. I don't know what went wrong! I was tender, I didn't push and shove the core branches around - but they all sagged to different sides - it was a tragedy! Craig walked into the kitchen, which I had quickly turned into a makeshift greenhouse/plant murdering tank - dirt clumped in piles in the sink, on the counter, and there in the nice large new rust-orange pot sagged the lifeless Jade! Needless to say, there were such phrases thrown about by Craig as, "That is why you will never get a puppy" and "What did that Jade ever do to you?" - all which made things worse, so then he tried to help by replanting the Jade back in its original smaller green ceramic pot. An update, after we spent the afternoon in the Park with the curiously complicated camera, is that the Jade looks like it just wants put out of its misery once and for all. Craig's bandaid treatment doesn't appear to have worked. Poor Jade!!
So, here is fairly much my first attempt today to get one flower to stand out while the rest soften behind. (once again, clicking on the larger image reveals the attempt better than the version on this blog page.) This one wasn't the best, yet it helped me to understand a bit better that sharply focusing on one thing will better enable the depth of field I'm attempting to accomplish sans computer software. Nothing wrong with enhancing computer software such as Photoshop - but I want to test the limits of the camera and know how it functions without computer aid. For as much money as I spent, it sure better be able to leap, spin and serve me cocktails, if I ask! Anyway, I'm about to post some more of today's efforts on our photo blog site. Some of them satisfied some curiosity I had, while others may as well be left to rot in a folder on our computer. I plan to post two shots taken from the rocks overlooking Wollman Rink, where the Essex Building and other Midtown Buildings rise in the background - one was shot "normal" in image enhance mode, the other was shot in "vivid". I think the contrast is noticeable.*I stopped at the bookstore on my way home and browsed the dSLR how-to books. I was disappointed in the selection but did invest anyway in a Nikon D40-specific book, which hopefully (as it professes it will do) will help me further develop a relationship with all of the neat, again I stress complicated features of this cool mechanism.*Craig naps, and Jeff will be over in about an hour. I'm excited to give the camera a rest, as I don't believe margaritas and expensive equipment necessarily compliment one another...