October 18

My friend Keith and I had our dinner at New York System in Providence tonight. Even if we had only gone for this, it probably would have been worth the drive in the rain, and the drive back in the snow. I don't recall snow in October before. Once in May, sure, but never in October.

But I digress.

Keith needed the lift to visit a unique craft store in Warwick, and his lure was to offer me dinner for driving him. He introduced me to Coneys in Fall River earlier this summer, and New York System weinies -- don't call them hot dogs! -- are similar. They come topped with meat sauce, mustard, onions, and celery salt -- and I think the toppings outweigh the pork in the hot dogs.

Still, they're delicious, and there is a tradition -- a mythos, even -- around their consumption. Since they're small, they're often consumed in multiple units; six is not unheard of, though that's usually a weinie-only meal. As I only had two weinies, I also got a small order of truly outstanding french fries. (Note: a small order of french fries at New York System is a dinner plate full).

And then there was Norman, the loquacious and colorful weenie cook. He was entertainment all on his own, telling stories of his 20-plus years there.

All in all, it was a great day, despite the weather. I'm going to have to haul my photo walk cronies down there some weekend next spring.

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October 09

It seems a little ironic to me that my two recent "cheats" have both involved jewelry. Since I'm dealing with images that I've taken recently, and this was the most pressing item I had to tackle, I'm using it. (Dreary autumn days are also sucky for photography, for what it's worth.)

Keith (my jeweler friend) needed some edits to designs we did for promotional purposes. We needed to change some information on his business cards and postcards. With my schedule ramping up for National Novel Writing Month, we managed to shoehorn the appointment in today. And -- surprisingly -- the work went very quickly.

So even without a photo of the day, I still feel I've accomplished quite a bit.

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October 03

True confession time: This photo was not taken today, but yesterday. The resulting image was created today, however, so I'm using it as my photo of the day. (The nice thing about making the rules -- you know just how far they will bend.)

The necklace and earring set here were created by Roslindale jeweler Keith Monsour, and were recently featured in the Parkway Fall Fashion Fiesta. I photograph all of Keith's work, so I got the chance to shoot this on Friday.

It was tough to light this image; when the necklace and all of its beads were properly illuminated, the earrings in the center shone too brightly, completely washing out all of the detail on the long beads. When the earrings were lit properly, the pendant on the necklace was in deep shadow. Rather than continue trying futilely to find the perfect lighting solution with my limited tools, I decided -- reluctantly, as this is always my last resort -- to fix it in post-production. Essentially, that means I photoshopped it to within an inch of its very existence, all in the quest to make the end photograph look like the original items.

Ideally, you get the shot right in the camera. In most situations, you might make a few small changes or enhancements in Photoshop. Resorting to out-and-out photo manipulation to get a good image chafes a bit. In the end, though, it's a good looking photo, and Keith is happy with it.

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August 31

I did a quick glance through my photos of the day this year and was surprised that I've only used one jewelry photo thus far.

I'm friends with a jeweler, Keith, and I photograph his pieces for him in exchange for the occasional piece of jewelry as a gift. I have to say, it's rather nice to be able to commission a piece of jewelry for your mother from time to time.

These earrings, with the sea glass and Swarovski crystal beads, are fairly subdued compared to some of Keith's creations. He designed these for a businesswoman friend of his. Keith works hard to create pieces reflective of the wearer's personality as well as their desires.

I don't do product photography very often, nor is it something I usually pursue. It's nice to know I can do it, though, and show off the beauty of these unique creations.

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June 27

Today's photo walk took us outside the city limits -- to fabulous Newport, Rhode Island.

In the finest tradition of my photo walks, I had no clue where we were going to end up, other than somewhere outside of Boston, until late in the process (last night). My original plans were to go to Fall River and Battleship Cove, but those plans were tabled when the idea to visit Newport popped into my head.

So today, in a whirlwind of planning, Anna, Keith, and I got in the car, stopped at a market en route, and put together an impromptu picnic. Anna brought some really lovely bamboo plates, a frisbee, etc., while I grabbed a blanket, a couple of throw pillows, and other assorted accessories. Keith mentioned knowing a pretty place to picnic right on the beach, so we went with his suggestion (gut instinct), and ended up spending most of our time at the rocky beach at Brenton Point.

We left Brenton Point Beach with two bags of rocks, one depleted camera battery, some remnants of picnic food, etc., and pooped. God what a great day!

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June 21

I love it when things work out.

My friend Keith, the jeweler, hosed his Windows XP installation last week. I went over to help him, thinking it would be something simple and I could boot into Safe Mode, fix it, and look brilliant. No such luck. It just would not boot.

With time running short, I had to leave, but promised I would come by this weekend to help him back up his files. He was getting the restore disks from the friend who gave him the computer, but my concern was that he would lose his files (including his website) in the restore process. My plan was to take a Ubuntu Live CD disk over -- the operating system runs right off the CD instead of the hard drive -- and back up his files to an external hard drive for safekeeping. Keith, understandably, wanted to be able to check his e-mail. I held out a small hope that he'd be able to do that, but my understanding of Verizon DSL was that it might be problematic.

The Live CD worked, and remarkably, Keith was able to go online. This was a great solution to his problem -- he could check his e-mail, etc., until he was able to restore his Windows installation. At this point, I was completely prepared to declare victory and move on.

I decided Keith should have a demonstration how to use the Live CD, though. Keith is very intelligent, but he learns better by doing than by watching. So I sat him down and had him start the computer. Then I stopped him -- Windows had starting running CHKDSK. It hadn't done that before. As we watched, me in open-mouthed amazement, the login screen came up and the computer worked as before.

I couldn't take credit. I still don't know what was different about this particular boot cycle. Nonetheless, it worked.

So I'm considering this as my miracle CD, and I'll be making additional copies for future use.

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May 31

If I were a superstitious person -- or any more superstitious than I already am, I should say -- today would have been very auspicious indeed!

My friend Keith and I went roaming today, half in search of photo ops and half just getting out and enjoying a pretty Sunday afternoon. Near the JFK Library, after walking by the bay, we came onto a secluded little garden area. I looked down, because I will look for four-leaf clovers in any patch of clover I happen to see, and spotted this pretty little specimen.

Afterward, between rain showers, we caught sight of a rainbow from Castle Island and then another one over Boston from Memorial Drive in Cambridge.

With all these good luck omens today, I should have bought a lottery ticket!

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January 24

When you go to KFC with an artist and a sharpie in your backpack, the unexpected will happen.

Harland David Sanders, better known as Colonel Sanders, founded Kentucky Fried Chicken. His face is synonymous with the fast-food chain, and his cartoon image adorns buckets, cups, and signs at the restaurant. However, my friend Keith (the artist in question) decided that the good colonel needed a facelift. In Keith's able hands (kooky, perhaps, but able), ol' Harland got a perm, edgier facial hair, and noticeably hairier eyebrows.

While I'm sure other people have interesting lives and more exciting ways of spending a Saturday night, I doubt they're as entertained as I was by this little bit of impromptu artistry.

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