(no subject)

[which_chick]

I could talk about tenant Alecia (arrested for heroin, bail set at straight 150K, which means she has to front the entire sum and not a percentage like most people do to make bail) who has not paid April's rent and who has moved in six (two adults, four children) other people who are not on the lease and not allowed to be living there. I could talk about grandma's visit to the eye doctor and how annoying it was that their handicapped-accessible bathroom was Out of Order. But what I'm GOING to talk about is how to take the waterdrop pictures that are de rigeur for owners of spiffy new digital cameras.



People need a tutorial if they don't want to blow about an hour standing in front of the sink faucet figuring it out for themselves. First off, you'll need a faucet which will allow you to turn or lever it to the "one drop every three seconds" level of ON. If your two-hundred-dollar Moen setup doesn't have that degree of granularity in the controls, you can always hie your ass to the local hardware and get the cheapie forty-dollar sink set and that'll do ya just fine -- it's what I have, works great.

How to take an acceptable waterdrop picture from your kitchen or bathroom faucet:

1. Turn on all the lights in the room. Set the camera on end (Portrait instead of Landscape) on the edge of the sink and take a couple of test shots of your faucet-where-the-water-comes-out, the aerator element. Are the pictures in focus? Are you getting an OK shutter speed? (Probably not, unless you're Emeril or someone and cooking-for-television with a gazillion lights in your kitchen.) You'll need to use flash for this, probably, and if that's the case, pop that up now.

2. Examine the background in test shots. Is the area where the drop is going to be all cluttered with shit? Try to put the spigot where you will have "clear air" for the waterdrop. Repeat test shots if needed until you're happy. You will be pissed if the perfectest waterdrop ever is right in front of a fucking faucet knob, so get this right the first time.

How do I know?



3. Turn the faucet so that it drips once every three seconds or so. This is so that you don't have to freaking wait all day for a fucking drop to form. You want regular drops like clockwork so that you can nail the timing.

4. Pre-focus on the aerator element on your faucet by tilting the camera up so that the aerator is in the middle of the frame. Then, level the camera so that it's pointed about two inches below the aerator element. That's where the round drop you want should be. Your eyeball should watch the drop swell. When it looks ready to drop, press the button.

5. Check results in your LCD display. Repeat as needed. You may need to adjust your timing slightly, but that's the short form for how it's done. I didn't find it real useful to tripod the camera because I kept needing to refocus on the aerator for the next attempt.

Helpful hint: This will show your housekeeping or lack thereof. If you don't want to let people know you are a total slob, spend some quality time cleaning up the brightwork ahead of time. (I am a total slob. I am okay with this.)

Comments

[not-your-real.livejournal.com]

That is a gorgeous and serene picture, and looks less cruddy than my faucet that the cat rubs up against. Not serene enough for me to forget that I may have bolloxed up the $1347 class I'm taking by missing an exam registration deadline, but close.

(I keep trying to read 1347 in 1337...)