Picnik

I found a fun new website today! It's called Picnik, and it's an online photo editing site. You can do normal photo editing stuff (color correction, cropping, etc.), but the coolest part is that you can add stickers/shapes, thought bubbles, text, etc. Hopefully I'll have some time to play around on it a bunch over Christmas Break, but for now here's a fun one:



And another:



Hehe. Too fun!

Meme'd

I got tagged for a meme by Nin the other day, and I'm really excited - my first meme! One problem, though. I have to say eight things that are weird about me. There are so many weird things about me that lately this has been my motto:



Hide the crazy, Ashley!

So I'm working hard on the meme, trying to come up with eight sufficiently weird things (hopefully with photos to match) that don't scare y'all into never reading again and blocking me from commenting. Stay tuned. ;)

My first published photo!

Ok, well sort of published, but still. =) The past five summers, I've worked at Philmont Scout Ranch, in Cimarron, NM. It's one of my absolute favorite places on Earth, and the source of many of my favorite photos. There is an organization called the Philmont Staff Association comprised of current and former staff members that exists to support the Ranch and the current staff, and to keep former staff in contact. They maintain a website that has a photo masthead that changes with the season. The webmaster was looking for photos to use for this winter, so I submitted a few, and one got picked!

Here's the original:

(as always, click to embiggen!)

And the screenshot of the page:


Woohoo! I am so excited! I took the photo, along with many others, when I visited the Ranch for New Years Eve 2006/2007. A huge snowstorm had shut down the state (literally) and so my travel plans were...well...slightly different than planned. Flights canceled, roads closed, hotels overbooked, etc. Luckily, when I finally made it, I was rewarded with some awesome scenery. It pays to persevere. =)

Cool dSLR Feature #98393878

Burst mode! Burst is a setting on dSLRs where you can hold down the button and the camera continually shoots photos until (a) you stop pushing the button, (b) the buffer fills, or (c) your memory card fills. I just experimented to see how many shots before I got to (b) or (c). I got bored sometime after 80 and quit, haha. (It did slow down for a bit around 45, but then picked back up...it was probably emptying the buffer...) It's tons of fun to shoot on burst; in fact, I almost never turn it off. I feel like the paparazzi...clickclickclickclickclick...

My camera can take about 2.5 pictures per second; fancier cameras shoot more quickly. My point-n-shoot even has a psuedo-burst setting: it will take 3 frames in a row, giving you a bit of help in the constant battle with shutter delay.

I love playing around with this feature at sporting events. Here are some images from tonight's LSU Men's Basketball game:









Neat, eh? Interested in more info? I have to bow out for now (big quantum test Friday...), but click here for lots of details! =)

e.t.a. - Apparently the pics weren't working...but they should be there now...