Happy Holiday!

Happy holidays to you from Detroit's Monumental Kitty!





I love public art!

I got to see laureth and murstein on my way through Michigan yesterday and had a lovely lunch/dinner of Chinese food with them. It has literally been about seven years since I'd seen them, so that was neat.

Today, I'll be with my family, both immediate and extended, for a day of more togetherness. That's the best part about this time of the year for me; seeing, connecting with, and reconnecting with, people.

I hope you're all having a wonderful holiday experience.

Blue Human Condition, Christmas Breakfast

I just had a wonderful breakfast of pancakes, quiche, casserole, sausage, bacon, biscuits and gravy, and probably another thing or two I forget. My Dad loves making giant breakfasts on Christmas. My mother was able to convince him to let her help this year too! Both of my brothers were here, as well as housemate A and brother J's girlfriend; it was really nice to eat and talk with everyone. I shot a bunch of photos, somewhat to J and brother T's exasperation.

My parents are getting food ready to to take to the gathering at my extended family's place. Meanwhile, I'm editing a couple more photos. This is Blue Human Condition, informally known as "the orgy statue," by Mark Chatterley. The town moved the piece after numerous complaints about its sexually suggestive nature. According to NBC, the artist was "disappointed," and had intended to the piece to illustrate the way we all must lean on and support each other.

I shot this with my new 135mm f2.8 lens. I'm really pleased with it's sharpness and color! Definitely worth $8. I'm getting comfortable using a fully manual lens on this body, too. To set the shutter speed in manual mode, I set the aperture I want, then press the AE-lock button, which meters light and sets exposure. The only real annoyance so far is that the camera won't shoot unless it thinks the image is focused, which means I have to dial it in and out a little bit or move the camera around sometimes. I'd rather be able to risk an out-of-focus shot than deal with sometimes not being able to shoot when I want to.





A few more photographs of Blue Human Condition ( behind the cut. )