Fall pictures
Saturday, October 20th, 2007
In work-related news, I am still at Ritz, and still am hoping to move on to something new. Most of the staff is dreading the upcoming Christmas rush, a part of winter I had hoped to avoid. I can already feel the underlying dread of the Christmas months, especially since stores have had Christmas displays out for weeks already. As in the previous year, the lack of a better job coupled with the aforementioned job is sure to make things tense for me during the winter. I’d rather have a job than not, but having the job itself is still a burden.
I have been hired again by my coworker to take some pictures of her color guard, as I did last year. [dhpersonal.com] I hope to have more success with the photos this time, as I didn’t have as many “keepers” as I’d wanted with my first attempt. I had also hoped by this time to have a zoom lens with a good aperture, but the cost still is too high for me to do so, even with a project that could make use of it.
Sales are soft this year at Ritz Camera. While analysts have predicted sales will be slower than normal [nytimes.com], Ritz Camera seems to have really been hit in sales. While I won’t reveal our sales figures (considering it’s probably a trade secret or something along those lines), the store is often deserted. On a side note, that probably means getting temporary help for Christmas is going to be difficult, and the current sales force has dwindled to a select few, far below what the store had when I first joined the crew two years ago. My main reason for mentioning the sales is that the staff has a lot of time on their hands at work. While the manager wants us to keep moving around doing “busy work”, there’s only so much time-wasting one can do on silly work things before it becomes pointless. That’s why the The Office [imdb.com] exists.
I am currently annoying my coworkers with near-endless reruns of The Office while at work, during the slow times when we have little or nothing to do. I’ve downloaded episodes from the iTunes Store and put them on my iPod, which I then connect via A/V cables to my portable DVD player. While I have other television shows and movies available on my portable player, one can usually find The Office playing on the player in the back room. The staff that does like the show is often found quoting entire scenes to each other in between fits of laughter over the content of the show. The ones who don’t like the show are often found grimacing at the screen and/or rolling their eyes in the sales area, complaining that I don’t play anything good on my iPod. Why did I mention this? Because I like The Office. Fact: The Office – Beets – Standing Around Doing Nothing. [youtube.com]
Over the past month I have been somewhat obsessed with finding the time to take photos of autumn season leaves. I have been searching for the “right” orange, red, or yellow (or combination thereof) color of foliage on the neighborhood trees, but have largely found the available colors lacking. This fall things seem to have gone the same way as the past few years: trees will hold their green color for weeks, and within a day or two change to brown and whither off the branch. Getting the vibrant colors is therefore even harder to find and catch.
Today I was invited to go with the family to a cider mill on the chance there might be some trees in the area that would be filled with the coveted leaf colors. While the cider mill itself didn’t offer anything, the drive home allowed me to get many photos, largely because the family was willing to stop to let me out to take the photos. For that I’m thankful, as I probably wouldn’t have gone out of the way to get the photos myself.
Below are the photos I took today. Today’s featured image is of a collection of leaves near the house from a tree growing around a fence. I have a bunch of other images from the day on which I took the aforementioned photo, which I will hoard until I make another update. Don’t fret, as I will likely make an update sooner than normal, considering I’ll have something to present. Usually I don’t post an update because I don’t have any photos to present to you, the reader.
There are some duplicate scenes in some of the pictures below. Thing is, it was a windy day, and the leaves moved around a bit, making light fall on different areas of the surroundings. As such, things look a little different in each of the pictures. Also, I moved around a little bit, so things won’t line up exactly. Therefore, I’d really like it if you’d stop accusing me of putting up duplicate pictures. I don’t know where you got such an idea, but it should stop, right now.
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