I was looking through my photos tonight and realized I can count the number of pictures I’ve taken so far this year on one hand and still have fingers left over.  That’s pretty sad.  I’m not sure why I haven’t been shooting much this month.  I think it might be the cold weather.  I usually shoot a lot outdoors so with temperatures staying consistently in the single digits or below, I haven’t been spending much time outside.  And I don’t have a lot of interesting subjects in my apartment, so that hasn’t produced any images either.

I was thinking of doing a self-portrait tonight, but I discovered I couldn’t find my shutter remote.  It’s a wireless system.  I have the transmitter, but I can’t find the receiver that plugs into the camera.  I looked everywhere I could think of.  The last time I remember having it was when I was shooting the pictures of the deer last fall.  I’m thinking I must have dropped the receiver in the woods somewhere the last time I was out.  Since it’d be buried under snow now, there isn’t much point in heading out to look for it.  I doubt it would have survived this long anyway.  I wasn’t too terribly impressed with the build quality of the components.  I don’t think I’ll buy the same one again.

I’m still excited and looking forward to photography school this summer, so this isn’t a lack of interest in photography.  It’s just a little lull.  I’ll start shooting again soon.  In the meantime, I’ll start shopping for remotes.

I was reading someone else’s blog today and I came across this test that is suppose to show you whether you are predominately left or right brained. The test shows a silhouette of a spinning female dancer. If it appears that she is spinning counter-clockwise, you’re using the left side of your brain. If she spins clockwise, you’re using the right. The article with the test shows the general characteristics that you can expect a left or right brained individual to have:

I read through the list before viewing the test and figured I would easily fall into the left brain category given my degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Information Technology. However, when I viewed the test, she was spinning clockwise, indicating I was a right brain person. That surprised me so I did some more reading on the subject. Apparently, everyone uses both sides of their brain at different times, but most people tend to favor one side over the other most of the time. I thought maybe I had just viewed the test at the wrong time so I rechecked it at various times throughout the day. Nearly every time, she was spinning clockwise. Only once was she spinning counter-clockwise and that was after I had just finished writing a bunch of C# code for the web project I’m working on at work. If I stare at it long enough I can get her to switch back and forth, but it’s easier to go from counter-clockwise to clockwise (left to right brain) than it is to go from clockwise to counter-clockwise (right to left brain).

After reading some more and taking a few other tests I found on the web, it appears I’m pretty equally distributed between my left and right brain with only a slight favoring of the right brain. I guess I shouldn’t have been that surprised. Reading through that list of characteristics again, there are some on both sides that apply to me. The left brain characteristics just seemed a little more obvious to me initially. The functions “uses logic”, “math and science”, “order/pattern perception”, “forms strategies”, “practical”, and “safe” all seem to apply to me. On the other hand, so do “‘big picture’ oriented”, “imagination rules”, “symbols and images”, “present and future”, “philosophy & religion”, “spatial perception”, and “presents possibilities”. I can be impetuous and risk taking at times too, but I think I tend to stick to the practical and safe side more often. I also read elsewhere that left brained people tend to be more organized and orderly while right brained people are disorganized and messy. I definitely fall on the right brained side there.

Some of the other tests I took and the results are below:

Hemispheric Dominance Inventory Test - I answered 13 as right brain and 5 as left brain.

Brain Lateralization Test - I came out 50% left brain, 50% right brain.

Brainworks Left Right Brain Test - My results were Auditory: 20%, Visual: 80%, Left Brain: 47%, Right Brain: 52%

What side of your brain do you use most?

Now this would be fun to play with: a Casio Exilim EX-F1.  It’s capable of shooting at bursts of 60 frames per second (fps) and movies at 1200 fps!!!  Just think of the cool action shots you could get with this camera.  For comparison, my Canon 5D is only capable of shooting in bursts of 3 fps and most camcorders record at around 30 fps.

My old blog at www.tonyrix.com has now been converted to a photoblog and has its first post.  Go check it out!

You may notice the watermark on the photo and wonder, “What the heck is wanderinglightphotography.com?”  Well, that’s the name I chose for my photography brand, or business, or whatever you want to call it.  It has its own domain and website where you can view my best work and even purchase prints if you like.  As to why I chose “Wandering Light”, I’ll cover that in a future post.  I’m not in the mood to type it tonight.

I’ve started running regularly again.  Nothing too far yet.  Generally, around two miles.   I run on the treadmill at the local YMCA.  I currently set the time for 20 minutes and my pace to 6.7 mph (9 min/mile).  Then, I set the workout to rolling hills so it varies the incline from 1-4% over the 20 minutes.  It doesn’t really work me too hard, but I have to let my body get used to running again.  The plan is to keep the overall time the same for a while and just bump up the speed until I’m running around 8 minute miles or less.  Once that happens, I’ll start increasing the overall time to increase my mileage further.

I’ve been running on and off for the last couple of years.  I think the main problem I have with sticking with it is that I don’t really have any motivation.  The few races I’ve run in the past don’t require much training to prepare for so it’s easy to skip the workouts.  Therefore, this time, I’m setting a loftier goal.  There are a couple of half-marathons in the area this May and I’m going to run in at least one of them.  There is one in Green Bay in mid-May and one in Madison on Memorial Day weekend.  I’m not sure which I will shoot for yet.  The Madison one might be too close to when I leave for Missoula so I might have to do the Green Bay one.  In either case, a half-marathon is long enough that I can’t just wait until the month before the race to start training and expect to do well.  After all, I have to beat my Dad, brothers, and sister-in-law’s best times. :)  Bragging rights are important!

On my way to go hiking on the day after Christmas, I swung by Mount Rushmore and snapped a few pictures. I just pulled off on the side of the road in designated areas. I was too cheap to pay for visitor parking at the monument itself, which is why none of the photos are from the front of it.

Click on the image to view the entire set.

Most of you know I’m leaving my job and going to the Rocky Mountain School of Photography this summer in Montana. Since I won’t have any income during the five months of classes, and possibly very little after that if I’m trying to start a photography career, I decided it was probably best to get rid of my car payment. I really didn’t want to get rid of my Wrangler, but it was hard to justify keeping the $440/month payment on it for the next four years. So yesterday, I traded it in for a used 1996 Jeep Grand Cherokee. The Grand Cherokee was being sold for just under $5K. Since I still owed quite a bit on the Wrangler, the trade-in amount I received minus the amount I owed didn’t completely cover the cost of the new vehicle. I had to pay $2K out of pocket. But, I would have spent that much on the Wrangler in payments over then next five months before heading to school anyway. So from then on, I’m coming out ahead (barring any major repairs on the Grand Cherokee).

The Grand Cherokee has 113,000 miles, but is in very good shape. It’s dark green with a tan interior and no rust or dents. It’s pretty loaded for a 1996 model: power everything, full-time (Quadra-trac) 4-wheel drive, leather interior, CD/Cassette with Infinity speakers, even heated seats! The engine starts and runs well, so I think it has a lot of miles left in it. Parts of the vehicle are showing their age, though. There are a few rattles here and there. The tailgate doesn’t always want to stay open on it’s own. And the rear wiper doesn’t actually touch the glass, making it useless. I think the spring just isn’t strong enough to pull the wiper in tight to the glass or else the hinge is just too stiff. I may be able to fix that. Otherwise, everything seems to work like it’s suppose to.

One more interesting note: by getting rid of my Wrangler and eliminating that loan, I am now completely debt free! That’s pretty cool.

This is the token “first post” for my new blog.

This blog will be replacing the one that was previously found at www.tonyrix.com, which is being changed into a photoblog.