The Getting Clever Project

The apartment complex near the bus stop has been adding inflatable decorations to its display. It started with just the snowman family, then they added Santa, and now they've added Mickey. It's a mixture of strange and adorable.



I added the snowflakes.

The Washington Post Express liked my photo of the library Christmas tree enough to put it in the paper! I took a copy over to show the librarians and they were glad to have it. The tree had collapsed/been knocked down, but they are going to rebuild it.

It's (wooden) penguins that children use to keep their balane while they learn to skate.

Article and caption here

Outside Clyde's Restaurant in Georgetown. But he looks a little grumpy about it.

You may recall I followed Commander Hadfield and his photos and tweets from the ISS avidly when he was up there. He wrote a book about his astronaut experiences and the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum hosted a book signing party for him. I dithered about going but could not resist.

I got there about 1 1/2 hours before he was scheduled to appear. There were 10 NASA and Hadfield aficionados there ahead of me but I was happily assimilated into their group. One woman brought abut 30 mustaches that she passed out.

( the mustache gang )

The NASM actually ran out of books, so many people showed up. He was a real gentleman and insisted on shaking everyone's hands. He was very kind to the kids and even to a slightly pushy older woman who insisted on a little photo:

( ahem, pushy lady )

I really was thrilled to meet him. So far the book is quite enjoyable. There's even a local connection. His family lived in Maryland when he was stationed in Patuxent River.

This weekend, artists around Logan Circle/ 14th Street in DC opened their studios for walk-ins and tours. I really enjoyed doing that. Partly, it's getting to see how the artists integrate what they do with their living space. It's fun to talk to them and see what they are working on.

Many of them seemed to like found objects even if they didn't incorporate them into their art. They'd have them on shelves around the place. Brian Petro had all sorts of little things around. He'd been in the same studio in the lower level of a design shop for more than 10 years. He talked about finding an animal crackers box and using it in several paintings. Sally Kauffman had these little forks she'd added to a box. George Shomori used old leather and cowrie shells as well as little silver elephants.

Several of the photographers liked images of abandoned buildings. One man went to Spain and took photos of all these abandoned movie sets from the old spaghetti Westerns. Another guy did an abandoned racetrack.

Lucinda French is inspired by science and that scientists know only about 10% of the universe. That leaves a lot of room for creativity.

My photos are here http://flic.kr/s/aHsjL9oZHK

It's a little plaque near Dupont Circle.

One reason I like visiting art galleries is the chance to discuss process with the artists. Last night I went to a photography exhibit. The artist displayed photos taken during a 72-hour period in Las Vegas. The photos were taken at extremely high ISOs but he couldn't use a tripod. His use of lighting was amazing. We had a nice conversation about f-stops and the pros and cons of digital photography over film. He was so generous sharing his time and knowledge.

I talked to another artist about an exhibit earlier this year at the same gallery. He had missed his own opening because he was traveling. His art is quite different - three-dimensional constructs with a strong mythic base. Frogs, fairies, snails all appear in his works.

I shopped at the local farmers market before going over, so I had this bag of peaches. I couldn't stay out too late - I had to get them home. So ripe, I had to eat one standing over the sink so the juice didn't go everywhere. Delish!

Sister 9's birthday was yesterday. She hadn't been to the National Zoo in nearly nine years so that's where we went. They have a new Elephant House. It's much larger and they have an outdoor trail as well as an exercise yard. The weather was quite hot, so the elephants stayed in their house during the heat of the day. There's also a new Bird House. She really wanted to see the flamingos. They crack me up too - so flexible and perfectly balanced. We also saw emus, rhea, whooping cranes, and more rare birds.

My favorite at the Small Mammal House was the golden tamarin. Face like a lion, tail like a monkey, and cute as a button. No visit to the Zoo would be complete without seeing the pandas. Tian Tian was chowing down on bamboo while we were there. We wanted to see the little red panda that escaped last week, but he was still in seclusion.

My photos are here http://flic.kr/s/aHsjGH7oEn

I downloaded a new-to-me software package called Andreamosaic. It takes your photos and uses them to create a mosaic of another photo.

For example, I have about 300 photos I've taken over the years at Moonridge. I set a photo of Cascade as the main image and then made the mosaic with all my photos.

( Before and after )

Cascade is now made up of hundreds of pictures from Moonridge. It's a little hard to tell. My copies are higher res than I can upload here. I plan on doing a little more experimenting before I'm really ready for primetime.

( OK one with Garett )
Garett is made of fans :)