kbobam

I'm too tired to look into this idea thoroughly right now, but that definitely looks good! ( :

Well, those of you who know me probably already know that I don't like this. It's the same pointless no-improvement 'change for change's sake' situation that constantly happens with all websites, but was wonderfully avoided here until now. And OMG! I just realized that now I can't hit 'enter/return' whenever I want and keep writing without there being these annoying spaces between the lines! Going to hit the oh so very sophisticated sounding 'submit reply' button now! barf P.S. My avatar isn't 'round', dammit.

Ha! I'd take the lox over raisins too, but of course it's all good. And let me post the message I was just finishing when you sent yours. After making that last post, I just saw Ric's sugar cream pie explanation. I didn't think my guess at what it must be like could be improved, but to call it 'cheesecakey' put it over the top for me. There's no doubt that putting 'above and beyond average' fruit on something that sounds this good would put it into the highly desired and seldom attained 'Dessert Stratosphere'! ( :

I have no idea what the different available ginger options are. My ginger experience is based on stuff that comes in a jar and looks pretty much the same as a typical jar of minced garlic. I'm having a vague recollection of seeing ginger somewhere that looks like sugar-coated gummy bears, but I've gotten to the point where I've accepted that my brain is no longer reliable and could be making this up. I use this particular type of ginger exclusively with ground pork for a pseudo-Asian dish of mine I like to do once in a while. It works well. OMG. She brought up the raisins again. If you had a bagel with cream cheese, would you like to put raisins on it? And honestly, I'm just asking with no judgment! Many people I admire and respect think this is a great combination, even though I'd personally rather starve. Ha! Just remembered that back in the old days in New York, even the people who loved this would go to the deli and order a toasted bagel with "turds on snow"!

So much great stuff here! Sorry I can't respond to all of them, but of course that would be excessive and look silly. But I will respond to a 'concept' I felt from several of them. Which was the realization that all of us have very personal and unique ways of appreciating marbles. And that these ways aren't often a black and white distinction, but more often a question of our individual tastes giving a little more 'weight' to certain characteristics over others. Most recently, let's look at one of JerryG's beautiful marbles. I'm probably at one extreme end of the spectrum of people here, but it doesn't make a bit of difference to me whether it's German, hand-made, or polished. I just like it. But it was definitely interesting to assume from his comments that some people would be excited about an unpolished marble in this condition. A little earlier, Ric and Winnie touched on the subject of 'beaters'. There's probably no way around the fact that on the 'business' side of marbles, those in better condition will command higher prices. But in terms of 'personal value' I think a reasonable percentage of us sometimes 'fall in love' with beaters. They have a 'history' to them which can sometimes make them more appealing than a marble that's been stored in a safe since day 1. (And a lot more comfortable to take out and play with!) It's kind of like meeting someone who's so ugly that you find them irresistibly cute. If that makes any sense. But if you still want to throw them away, you should certainly send them to Jessica! Or me.

I have no idea what a sugar cream pie is. But it's hard to imagine how something with that name could be anything but delicious. The overall idea of 'fresh' ingredients is a funny one. I'm guessing most people automatically assume that they must be 'better'. But of course that's not always the case. (Oh good! I was 'winging it' up to now, but I just thought of a good example.) Let's say you decide to make some 'dip' for potato chips that you'll be serving to friends when you watch this 'soup bowl' ballgame that some of you have referred to lately. You have your sour cream. Are you going to cut up a fresh onion and put a bunch of onion pieces in it, or are you going to use some unobtrusive onion powder and whatever else to give it that perfect flavor? ( :

Thanks, everyone! I'm glad this post wound up having a little 'food for thought' in it. I was worried that maybe I was 'going off' a bit too much.

Thanks, Winnie. With this kind of shot, the hardest thing for me is controlling the reflections. 'Control' in this case can mean either the amount or the location or both. You can sometimes limit the amount of reflection with a polarizing filter, but for this to work well the sun-marble-camera 'angles' have to be just so. This isn't always possible, because probably the most important thing is to position the marble and camera so the location of any bright reflections is on the transparent part of the marble. This usually gives a much more pleasing result than having a bright sun spot right in the middle of the pattern. ( :

I can only imagine how difficult that would be. Making an overall realistic marble image, and at the same time keeping that 'built in' image looking as it should sounds like a tough balancing act!

Thanks, Steph! As you knew when you wrote it, I took your comment as a compliment. But it did remind me of the frequent frustrations I deal with in my 'camera forum'. There are so many people there who've been brainwashed that there are certain rules that must be followed in order for a photograph to be 'real', that they will probably continue forever to insist that their hideous results are the only way to go! Real? It's a photo! The only 'reality' is being there at the time! A good example of this might be the possibly 'hyper-reality' photo I took of my 'marble-mail' Bananas. I loved these so much that I made a point of waiting several days for what I thought were just the right conditions to shoot them. If you were actually there at the time, you would have been half-blinded by the low-setting sun and wouldn't have ever seen this exact situation. But I used some of the same high-tech deflector and reflector techniques they use in Hollywood (black and white cardboard!) to make the final result look 'good'. Have I 'sinned' against reality? This is probably a 'semantics' argument. Like most arguments are. But anytime anyone genuinely feels they captured the 'essence' of a marble as they personally see it, then they've made a successful 'translation' in my opinion. Will shut up now before I get into one of my still a hippie mostly 'what is reality really?' rants! ( :

Thanks for the comments, and sorry I didn't have it in me to shrink them down a little and make them a little more easily viewable. A who tree? I'm afraid I'm totally ignorant of this sort of thing, and will have to ask one of our knowledgeable people to answer this question.

Really nice! And above and beyond all the 'overall' tricky stuff, you also chose to make it even more difficult by doing a marble shot with limited depth of focus. This is almost always a losing proposition, but your particular layout/design works wonderfully here! ( : It's always been a funny 'concept' to me that, when you think about how a camera works technically and optically, that a 'sphere' is just a ridiculous thing to try to photograph!

I have a few pieces of different types of cullet, and a very small collection of Akro glassware. In terms of "What Else" that's a little more separate from marbles, I like old bottles (mostly soda pop) and related accessories. Have always enjoyed trying to make photos that combine this stuff with marbles in a hopefully fun or interesting way. The photo with the two bottles shows a 'carrier' that the folks at Coca-Cola attached to supermarket carts so people could enjoy a Coke while they were shopping! The good ol' days!

These sound like good ideas, but could you maybe include 3/4? Otherwise a lot of people with favorite JABOs would be left out. On the other hand, there's certainly something to be said for 'limiting' a category to keep it more distinct and precise, so of course whatever most people would enjoy is more than cool! Jess, your recent photos have been terrific. You're obviously doing all the important things exceptionally well, and your overall results are much better than most people get with 'actual' cameras. Although you certainly deserve one if you're so-inclined! ( :

I've been experimenting lately, and I've come to a conclusion. It pays to be flexible. Marbles can be fickle, and it's hard to know just what they 'want'. This shot of a Blood Viper (or what have you) isn't bad, but it doesn't show the marble's 'fire' at its best. I have yet to get a really good shot of one of these indoors. They simply seem to demand sunlight, and I should probably just accept this. I also tried using a different post-processing program recently, and was surprised at how different its results could be from my usual software. Some shots were outstanding in one and terrible in the other (and vice-versa). No amount of adjusting could change this. Sometimes I think marbles just like to be difficult. ( :

Great post! Had some technical problems and didn't get to see the photos until now. And by great post I mean both the fascinating pictures and the action you chose to take. Maybe I'm simple, but anytime you can 'feed the hungry' it sounds like a good thing to me. No questions asked. It's just the right thing to do. And this is 'recycling' at its best! ( :

What's the deal with the cotton in aspirin bottles? Is it a low-tech version of those little moisture-absorbing packets? Or is it just there to keep them from rattling around? Both? Oh, the questions never end! ( :

The idea of 'loss' stirred something up in my subconscious, and got me trying to remember a line from a song I heard way back when. Which I can't remember. I was remembering something along the lines of 'lose yourself, but don't lose your mind'. I put this into the googly thing, and all I got were references to a song Sean Lennon wrote. (Yep. He's who you probably think he is. Of half-British half-Japanese descent.) Not what I wanted. This is definitely not 'way back when' enough. Do these words ring a bell with anyone? Could Sean's father have already written them? Or someone else from the same time period?

One of my buddies on the message board where people who appreciate my camera of choice share stuff, put together this video from a gazillion time-lapse photos. Pretty neat! ( : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3_2Oo-iyFI&feature=player_embedded

If I'm remembering correctly, this is a Chinese corkscrew approach. It and several other marbles that came with it seem to have what I think you serious people would call a 'single pontil'.

I hope there isn't some new rule I don't know about that you can't post to this topic in the second half of the month! Or did everyone just run out of whites? ( :

Very cool, as always. ( : On the lighter side, this isn't what you'd call 'eye candy', but I don't know where else to put it. Turned on a lamp I never use and noticed this shadow on the wall.

This is probably unnecessary and going to sound stupid, but for the sake of full-disclosure and the ever-present fear that I might say or do things that could be misinterpreted (a reasonable neurosis for someone who frequently talks gibberish) I'll say it anyway. I don't think I ever read this particular squabble. Still haven't. I don't look at many of them. I guess I looked at the last few posts to make sure that my new post 'opening' would have a reasonable flow to it. But the reference to Griff and Galen had nothing to do with content. It was just the same thing I've been goofing about with Ann. They too were part of the names and words I just got tired of seeing day after day in the main subject line. ( : Fella! Dang it! Some part of me knew that 'what's it to ya?' would have been better than 'to you'.

Oh gosh, no! This was clearly all Galen's and Griff's fault! Oh shoot. Incorrect off-topic 'attitude'. I meant "Yeah! What's it to you?" ( :

My first smile of the day! In the middle of what will probably be a forty-eight hour long lousy Monday morning. Enjoyed both seeing your 'puppies' and the kick I got out of your 'Wilson' photo approach!