Deirdre Saoirse Moen

Thoughts in Camera

deirdre — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 01:53:34 +0000

Three years ago, I bought a Canon SD 700 IS. As the saying goes, the best camera is the one you have with you. This whimsical shot in Heathrow airport is one of the first I took with it.

When I got my iPhone 4, I noticed that the camera was way better than I expected, and the shot of the cuttlefish was better than ones I’d taken with my old Canon. Also, there’d been many improvements in cameras over the years. Was it time to ditch the Canon?

Most of the photos I take are of pens in a light tent. Usually, I use one or two photo lights (and not on top, that was simply being expedient because I couldn’t find the stand), so I took some test shots.

Except for the blue region in the middle, the most accurate color is the iPhone, no flash, photo light photo. The best detail at normal resolution, though, is the Canon SD 700 IS, no flash, photo light photo.

I wasn’t expecting my new iPhone to replace my camera, but it is a really close call.

Friday’s Monterey Bay Aquarium Trip

deirdre — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 22:38:29 +0000

Friday, we visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Had a great time, walked myself to exhaustion, and got a couple of cool pictures, including this one of a cuttlefish. Not bad for an iPhone photo!

Edible Landscaping

deirdre — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 08:28:00 +0000

Saturday, we’ll be going on Common Ground’s Edible Landscaping Tour. If you’re in the SF bay area and interested in organic gardening, it’s worth the day’s crawl. Last year, two of the gardens were Jesse Cool’s and the Warnocks. Picture of the latter:

The Joy of Fountain Pens

deirdre — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 03:50:29 +0000

Sure, fountain pens are a bit fiddlier than your average ballpoint. But they do have their advantages.

The colors you can write in is not a direct function of the manufacturer of the pen. Like the look of one pen and the ink colors offered by someone else? You can do that.
More ink colors. For those of us with acute color discrimination, this can be really useful.
Washable ink. For those unhappy accidents. Sure, some ink colors do stain.
…which brings me to: waterproof and forgery-proof inks. Sure, there are ballpoints (Uniball Signo) that do that as well, but not in as many colors as are currently available for fountain pens. Note that these are not washable from clothing, so you can go to both extremes. Here are some torture test results.

I’ve seen fountain pens from $1 all the way up to “Oh my God!” levels, where that was seven figure to the left of the decimal point. Most expensive I’ve held in my hands was five figures. All of them can use the same inks.

Here are some of the permanent inks I have:

Our Baltic Cruise

deirdre — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 22:20:52 +0000

For those who want to read about our 2008 trip to Europe, posts can be found here.

Photos are all uploaded to flickr and can be found here.

Our Trip to Greece, Egypt, and Turkey

deirdre — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 21:35:39 +0000

For those who want to read about our 2007 trip to Europe (and Egypt and Asian Turkey), posts can be found here.

Great Photos of Africa

deirdre — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 05:38:00 +0000

Grant Kruger found some fabulous aerial photos of Africa.

You know you want to see them.

Go look.

Now.

Pantheacon

deirdre — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 11:29:34 +0000

I’m sort of torn between sites these days, but for those of you who are interested in such subjects, my notes about Pantheacon can be found on my LJ.

Things to Do When You’re Sick, Part 104

deirdre — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 09:04:00 +0000

What do you do when you’ve got a sore throat, can’t sleep, and silly pictures of cats send you into coughing fits?

Make some cat macros of your own, perhaps.

Idiot Bicyclist

deirdre — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 00:45:00 +0000

My mother and I were driving into downtown Menlo Park today, stopped at a stop sign. A woman with a wheelchair was crossing the street, so I decided to wait. Just then, a bicyclist plows through the stop sign, across the intersection, and nearly hits the woman in the wheelchair.

At the next intersection, he didn’t even slow down for the stop sign, just plowed through.

I never thought I’d consider it justifiable homicide if a bicyclist got hit, but this dude changed my mind on that point, because he has such utter disregard for rules and safety.