Explored!

TSC: textures I started with the Coral Catshark swimming in the shark- and ray-petting tank (yes, I still have all my fingers ;) ) and the outside wall of the aquarium (I got there twenty minutes before the event started, and used the time to collect potential textures for the challenge ;) ). The koi are a bit of street art I found in New Orleans when I drove through last month on my way to Houston; I finished it off with a night shot of flowering trees reflecting on the pond in the Public Garden back in the spring. (original images are in the notes) [ETA: the koi were done by Jeremy Novy, and they can be found all over New Orleans :) ]

TSC: Selective Lighting 100x in 2014: B&W (44/100) (best viewed fullscreen/on black)

TSC: get personal The Mouse-a-saurus Rex. Soooo fierce, with his spiky tail and candy corn fangs! :D He followed me home one day, and now lives on the shelf above my work table. 100x in 2014: B&W (45/100) (best viewed fullscreen/on black)

TSC: water

TSC: Legs 100x in 2014: B&W (58/100)

TSC: Books 100x in 2014: B&W (59/100)

TSC: Grey Three glass beads.

TSC: Spooky Ghost lights in a cafe window. (alternate in the notes) 100x in 2014: B&W (74/100)

TSC: metal A spool of silver chain. 100x in 2014: B&W (76/100)

TSC: sepia

TSC: in the bathroom Bathroom-mirror selfie. (flipped to un-reverse the image ;) ) 100x in 2014: B&W (79/100)

TSC: sliders Processed in Lightroom 4. To get the dramatically dark, gritty, high-contrast look I set the tone curve to "medium contrast" and tweaked the light/dark settings; set the clarity slider to +80; and applied post-crop vignetting to further darken the corners. (original in the notes; best on black) 100x in 2014: B&W (81/100)

TSC: pushing the boundaries I had a shiny new-to-me 20mm lens to play with, so I knew that whatever I did for this week's challenge, I'd be playing with distorted perspective. :) My original idea was to mirror his pose, knee-to-knee, and shoot from there; but that turned out not to be a particularly boundary-pushing angle. After playing around a bit I ended up on the ground, camera on the bricks tilted up until the mime filled the frame. (For those of you who remember back to the Scenes That Evoke A Mood challenge, the guy in the note is actually smiling down at this guy's performance ;) ) (better bigger on black) 100x in 2014: B&W (90/100)

TSC: numbers

TSC: christmas traditions There is a tradition of bringing trees indoors and decorating them by hanging colorful glass balls in their branches. I don't do the christmas thing or anything, but I do make colorful glass balls and sell them to people who do. :)

TSC: christmas/new year traditions Ever since my sister moved back to LA, our new christmas/new year traditions involve lots of beachy sunsets.. :D

TSC: middle of the day Elephant seals hanging out at the Piedras Blancas elephant seal rookery. Over 17,000 elephant seals live on this 6-mile stretch of beach. While they spend most of their time at sea, each seal spends about a month at a time at the rookery twice a year - birthing/breeding in winter, molting in spring/summer. The newly-hatched pups hang around for a couple of months after breeding season learning to swim, and the juveniles come back in the fall to rest and practice fighting before the adults come to claim their territory for the next season. January is the busiest time of the year. These pups are at most a few days old; from all the noise and the kerfuffle with the seagulls (who aparently like to clean up the mess) at least two others were born while we were there. www.elephantseal.org (better bigger on black)

TSC: selective color Some early Hello Kitty products, from the "Hello! Exploring the Supercute World of Hello Kitty" exhibit at the Japanese American National Museum. I think I still have that same stapler - which I got back in the (very) late 70s - somewhere; I had the tape dispenser too, but I don't think it survived...