Rose 3

Rose 3, originally uploaded by RMStringer.

These are some of the first blooms from my roses. I have been waiting for them to start blooming. I hope to have several more blooms open on some of the other roses in my backyard. I thought that this was a very nice shot.

Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/2000)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 400

Concert Tonight!

Antiflag & Street Dogs at The National 6.30pm
From RMStringer

Powhite Park-Richmond VA

Taken with my LGVX8600 phone.
From RMStringer

Waterfall Revisited...

Waterfall Revisited..., originally uploaded by RMStringer.

I went back and wanted to do the "waterfall" thing again after knowing a little bit more about my camera. I used the same waterfall that i located in the fron of my neighborhood. I shot the photo in Shutter Priority this time. The results were amazing. I achieved the desired effect that is wanted when shooting waterfalls. The water is slowed down and it gives a milky look with the surrounding area in sharp focus. It had just finished raining and was overcast with some breaks in the clouds.

Exposure: 0.25 sec (1/4)
Aperture: f/36
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 400

Mack re NPR

Thanks to Mac for letting me post this.

 

You'll Never Hear This on NPR

In an unsettled time when some discount stores will sell a customer only 100 pounds of rice a week (Oh, no!  How will we survive the coming winter?), one is strangely comforted by the eternal 1968-ness of National Public Radio.  Here are some observations that will never be heard on NPR:

 

We've polled everyone who works for the station, and no one here knows what "Hegelian dialectic" means.

 

Food prices are skyrocketing, huh?  Does this mean we have to scratch our files of stories about greedy, overweight Americans?

 

We really are being just a little too, too precious by bragging about how we don't have advertising but then really do have advertising anyway, and then spend hours and hours of air time begging for money because we don't have advertising.  We also receive hundreds of millions of your dollars in tax support every year, and voluntary donations are tax-deductible.  This message is sponsored by the Calvin and Ethel Plonk Foundation for a Greener and More Diverse Recycled America.

 

Have you noticed how cleverly we phased out global warming in favor of climate change?  Clearly the planet, which has been cooling and warming in cycles for millions of years, is little influenced by your lawnmower.  However, if today there is rain and tomorrow there is sunshine we can call it climate change and still blame it on your lawnmower.  Climate change – formerly known as weather.

 

Today on All Things Considered we're not going to feature a single story about some lazy oaf in New Orleans who can't be bothered to clean up his own front yard while whining about how the rest of you aren't sending him enough money.

 

Following All Things Considered we'll have Car Talk and then Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, known to radio professionals as dead-air time.

 

And now an interview with AlleeSHEyah von O'Hara y Gomez d'Raheem, the daughter of a Chinese-Irish father and a Spanish-Moroccan mother whose parents were persecuted everywhere else and who then came to America and received lots of freebies but were snubbed by a grocery-store carryout which is why AlleeSHEyah hates America and wrote an award-winning book of I, I, I, me, me, me poetry that doesn't scan detailing her existential angst. And, honestly, her book stinks. 

 

In the next hour we'll feature an award-winning musician, Friedrich "Stubby" Hamncheese who plays fusion Afro-German-Suomi on an Indian sitar hand-made by unemployed Sherpa draft evaders in Toronto, and, really, that doesn't make any sense at all.

 

You people need to get real about fair-trade coffee.  If some grocery chain re-labels a can of coffee with pictures of happy Colombians holding hands and dancing barefoot in the rain forest, and charges you two more dollars for it, are you stupid or something?

 

We use words like existential, ethnic, fusion, diversity, and fair-trade a great deal because that makes us sound, like, you know, smart and stuff.

 

And now, commentary by grumpy old Daniel Schorr, who disapproves of everyone.

 

In the end, we at NPR are just a bunch of otherwise unemployable white liberal arts graduates who play old records and subtly sneer at people who have real jobs and love America.  We even think Al Franken is an intellectual. So why would you send us money?

 

-30-

 

Prom night -- tattoos, cell 'phones, and rented clothing. Why?

Good Place To Purchase Books!

I know that many of you read books and novels from many of the big name authors.  I like as much as any to read them as well.  If you go to Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, or even Wall-Mart you can pick them up in hardcover for a premium price.  If you wait for a little bit, you might be able to get them at your local Goodwill outlet.  We went there and have bought several books for a little money. They price hardcover books at $3 and paperbacks at $1!  I purchased a coffee table book that retails for well over $60 at the local goodwill for $3!  They are all donated to the stores and they resell them for profit to help the needy. We have found all the big name authors and the books are in good condition; most of the at least.

 

I read a book by Brad Meltzer about 6 months ago called “The Book Of Fate” that I purchased at Wall-Mart.  I found his first book  “The Tenth Justice” and I got it for $3!  It is in excellent shape and in hardcover.  So if you are looking for some bargain priced books, Goodwill is a great place to go look and it is for a good cause.

 

RMStringer

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You have no conscience and it seems you never will - Cyberaktif

 

More Rain...

More Rain..., originally uploaded by RMStringer.

This was taken at 7.27pm and it is another installment of my "Rain Project" It was raining this evening and i used my camera to try to get individual drops of rain falling. I opened the door to our deck just big enough to get my lens out and keep it dry. I used the flash and it worked better. I tried many Exposure settings and 1/60 was the best for this instance.

Exposure: 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 18 mm
ISO Speed: 400
Flash: Flash fired, red-eye reduction