Day 317 - Abandoned

A seemingly abandoned stroller-gone-shopping-cart in Mountain View. Funnily, I've seen plenty of both: groceries shoe-horned into strollers, and children wheeled around more or less awkwardly in shopping carts. Sounds like there's a market for trading these things (transportation devices, that is, not children). Start-up idea, anyone?

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Day 316 - Leaning

I wonder how these trees came to lean left and right, alternately.

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Day 315 - Ready for the Ball

My new lens has arrived! I took this as a first test, at 34mm and f/3.5. I think it turned out great!

And hey! Don't complain: This isn't technically another photo of my dog. It's of my dog's ball. ;)

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Day 314 - No Whiners

Some delicious Coloradan IPA, out of my favorite American beer glass. It's a Black Dog Ale glass from Spanish Peaks Brewing, which coincidentally is also from Colorado. Now I only need to actually have that beer sometime and not just fill the glass with replacement brew from the same state :)

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Day 313 - Almost a Full Moon

Because taking a photo of the moon on the actual day of full moon (tomorrow) is for wimps, I am doing it today.

This is a hand-held shot (with optical stabilizer), at 200mm focal length for 1/250s at f/11 and ISO 400, with some very mild postprocessing.

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Day 312 - Mountain View City Center

Trees and banners, outside the Mozilla office in Mountain View.

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Day 311 - MVCPA

This is the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, next to the Mountain View City Hall, as the sun is setting.

In the spirit of "The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it." (Ansel Adams), trying to take an actual photo with a cell phone camera here.

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Day 310 - Baggage Boy

"Baggage Boy" -- A sculpture at the Mountain View Caltrain Station.

This might also be one of the last pictures I took with my trusty old Canon EF-S 17-85 f/4-5.6 lens, which routinely shows an "Error 99" on the camera now after a handful of shots, at best. Now, I don't use a standard-range zoom lens a lot anymore anyway: Over the course of this year, I've gotten into prime lenses more and will happily choose them if I know what subjects I am expecting. Still, I don't want to go completely without such a lens, because sometimes I don't know what to expect, yet I can't reasonably haul a variety of lenses where I'm going.

So long story short, I ordered a Sigma 17-70 f/2.8-4 lens as a replacement, which trades a slightly shorter zoom range for better aperture, and on top of it, has decent macro features, and so far I am missing a macro lens in my modest lineup. Looking forward to trying it out!

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Day 309 - Angry Birds

I didn't know Angry Birds had such a massive market for merchandise that there are even dedicated carts at the mall now. Crazy.

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Day 308 - The Cloud

"The Cloud" is all the rage now in the Silicon Valley. Quite appropriately, this building in downtown Mountain View reflects the (real) clouds very nicely. I also like how the architectural style that looks a lot like the windows on an airplane.

Credit for the "photographer's eye" goes to morgamic, who pointed out the photo opportunity while I was oblivious. Thanks!

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