{Explore} Highest Position: 171 on Tuesday, June 9, 2009 Yes, I have been in flickr hiatus for about a week. It is not by choice. I wanted to post new photos. I wanted to visit your stream. I wanted to go out and shoot... shoot... shoot. Unfortunately, I haven't been up to task this past week. There's a lot going on in my life---personal matters that I need to tackle head on. Work has also been quite a drag on my creativity and enthusiasm as well. Anyway, last night I decided to end that hiatus. Jumped on the opportunity to do some twilight / night shoot in downtown Chicago (primarily the Buckingham Fountain). I'm still not there yet but I am pushing myself to get that creativity juice flowing once more (hopefully a flow much like this fountain). I had fun. I missed this. And I'm definitely back. There is one big, huge drawback in taking a Flickr break though and that is catching up with my contact updates. I'm not even sure if I could catch up. I'm thinking of just going through the latest postings and if momentum allows, perhaps go through all those photos I've missed. Do not think for one moment that I've forgotten you. Do not think that I neglect you. Do not think I fail to appreciate you, because I do. It may take me a while to get to yours, but I assure you, I will definitely get there... eventually. About this photo. I used photomatix to create an HDR of 5 exposures and the detail enhancer controls for tonemapping. EXIF ISO800 | 17mm | f/22 | {1.3s, 2.5s, 5s, 10s, 20s} Happy Friday!

View from my front door. Remember the very expensive roof, and new gutters, we had installed this fall? Guess whose front step is right now an incredible ice slick? Cropped a bit, and also cloned to get rid of as much CRUD as I could manage, though I think I still missed some. I think I need to take my camera in to get the sensor professionally cleaned, because I've done the best I could myself. (I'm also struggling this week with very old glasses, having broken a contact lens Saturday night. So I'm not seeing as well as I might). This was, alas, a color photo, not something converted to black and white. So it's an accurate rendition of my outlook at present.