I've been trying to answer the tough question of "what do you do when you're on vacation?" given that I'm starting to think about an upcoming trip, and giving my hosts ideas of what I'd want to see. It occurred to me that what I find interesting might overlap with what I tend to photograph while traveling, so I made a list of things that seem representative.

For those of you who weren't aware, my friend Noah is closing up his online photography print shop on January 1. If you want a print of his work, hop over to noahgrey.com/photography to nab one.

Some of you might even remember that I was in his 2003 gallery. Look closely and you'll see two photos of me available on that page.

I've mentioned this off and on, but today is the day!  In a few hours, we'll pick up the giant 4x4 needed to ascend to the summit of Mauna Kea.

Call this the 'before' photo:

If I had to guess, I was six. Maybe. Too young for such things at the time, too young for such things even now, in an age of technologized children. I was young, and my memories took longer than most to root, so I do not remember a time when I did not know the inner workings of a camera.

I got my new toy last night -- the Nikon 20mm f/2.8 wide-angle lens. We're still sniffing each other and making friends, but Wendy was nice enough to let me shoot three photos of her over lunch today that give a pretty good idea of how different the world appears through each of these lenses.

Shot with my trusty Nikon D80 across the table, using ambient light and with no real attempt to do anything except point and shoot.

This entry is partly to test a code fix and partly to grin at the results of this morning's photography.

#37 - Sequined awesomeness
at , Huntsville, Alabama, United States by domesticat.

BJ is a favorite and consistent photo subject of mine. I got an excellent headshot of her for a print piece I worked on a couple of months ago, but I had to cut her photo out of the finished piece due to space constraints. It made me sad, because her photo was excellent; it was just trumped by two better photos.

This morning, she saw my camera bag and said, "Think you'll need another shot of me sometime soon?" I told her that I might, but that it would be for a very different project.