thewordisdan

in just one visit to a monkey temple, I went from 13 fungi to 14 wild animals as most submitted

I haven't experimented too much with self-portraits in the past because whenever I did - they suck!  I find that as a model, I have very particular angles.  I have a few good angles, but most suck!  I suppose once I skinny down I would find more good angles >.<  I don't feel insecure about myself, however, I am not so into myself that I think that every photo with me in it is godsent, lol.  I have had fun in the past with self portraits and I think they will look cool only to find that they suck!

The last round of self-portraits I took were with a cell phone camera and they were too small to upload on deviant art, but one of them ended up as my profile pic

I was rather happy with this experement in that my self portraits for the first time didn't suck!    Although, I waited almost until spring to get around to uploading again >.<

Unfortunately, I was not able to aquire proper underwater photography equipment in time for my first dives.  I got some photos of the people around me, which I sent to them and will not make public.  The only thing I was able to capture decently was "the bass that lived", lol.  The lighting was horrible - 60ft underground in a flooded mine, go figure >o<  After 10 min the humidity started to fog up my lens and I didnt bring any supporting equipment like a lens wipe >.<

The dives were mainly saftey training for certification - so there wasn't much time to just float around and photograph anyways, lol.

And so now I am a certified diver through SSI!    I plan on heading to Thailand for teaching - and diving  There should be alot of interesting subject matter in that country  I am almost done with my TEFL certificate, and should be done with that soon enough to begin job hunting during the March hiring season for Thailand.

I put a shot of me in my dive skin in my scrap book for anyone curious enough to check it out

I thought I was rather clever at buying a new lens on amazon. . . as I later found out - the auto focus was broken!  After speaking with the dude at the camera shop, it was explained to me of how that it was a common thing to find "consumer level" lenses with a broken auto focus!  Apparently if you try to manually focus a lens with the auto focus switched on, it burns out the auto focus motor. . .  Also, since it was a broken Nikon lens. . . it would cost more to fix it rather than just to get a new lens. . . or just upgrade to a more professional brand

Interestingly enough, I have found that the stock nikon lens that came with my camera has problems focusing in low light situations. . . which more costly lenses will fix :s  It is interesting that as the dude in the camera shop listed off the advantages of getting a new lens - every advantage listed was something that I was needing anyways!  At that moment I realize that I am getting experienced enough with photography to actually appreciate a professional quality lens. . . or the need to get a pro lens. . .

As for the photos - all of these were slightly off, to kinda off - which was frustrating because they would have been really great if they had been in proper focus. . . and so I share my frustration with the DA community, lol. . .

Yesterday winter weather finally arrived.  Some people always seem to underestimate the weather. . .  when it rains, some people die on the road, when it snows, some people die on the road. . .  I wonder, what is it about our society that causes people to not become cautious and underestimate the weather. . .  Have so many simply become out of touch with the pulse of the planet?  It seems to me that this modern world we live in moves with out consideration for the pulse of the planet.  The machines just can't stop.  The money refuses to sleep. . .