Okay, so here’s the new weirdness from me. Sorry it’s been so long. I’ve noticed this before during the many long and fortunate years I’ve been on this earth, but I’d never really considered it in any serious way until recently. See, we’re used to our eyes being different in terms of visual acuity, right? How many of you with glasses or contacts have the same prescription in both lenses? Probably not many. Yes, yes, I’m talking about my eyeballs again. Anyway, yes, sure, we’re used to one eye being slightly different than the other or at least we’re used to it in terms of clarity and focus and so forth.

But …

see, my eyes see two different sets of color. I swear it’s true. I also know it sounds very strange, and I also have noticed that sometimes it is more pronounced, sometimes less so. I took a very few short moments to whip up the following graphic to illustrate my point. I apologize in advance, Henry, for the terrible graphic design. I wish I had more time but I must inform the world about my gross deformity IMMEDIATELY, don’t you know.

What you see below is the image as it was taken from my camera (using a custom white balance to try and obtain maximum ‘reality’) and then two images, one portraying what I seem to see from each eye. Click on it to make it bigger.

My left eye at its worst has a slight magenta tint to it. For those of you with Photoshop skillz it’s as if someone chose to adjust color balance, selected ‘highlights’, and moved the slider ever so slightly to the left.

No, I swear I’m not making this up.

The right eye sees more blue. Again, adjust color balance, select ‘highlights’, move slider to the right. Convenient how you have to move the sliders in the direction of the appropriate eye, no? No? Oh.

Anyway, the image above is an exaggeration, of course. My color disparity is not that pronounced. Sometimes it’s almost impossible for me to tell. Other days I’ll have closed one eye for some reason and when I reopen it I’m reminded that the whole color balance of the scene has perceptibly shifted.

Now, of course, you know what’s coming. Your involvement, that’s what. A five-second Google search returned no results for “seeing different color in each eye”. Of course I put it in quotes so that I wouldn’t really get any results, making me seem important and unique. But am I? Does this happen to you?

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In other news, I just wanted to share that I am constantly consumed by low-grade anxiety about photography. I spend most of my waking hours (outside of work, of course, because work is boring and I don’t want to take photographs there) looking at things and thinking that I want to capture them. Immediately follows the whole, “But … I don’t … I don’t know how to capture that correctly. I know it can be done. I’ve seen pictures like that. But … I … I don’t know … I don’t know how to capture that correctly. But I know it can be done. But I don’t know how.”

Did you ever want to know how I spend my time? There y’go.

Every now and then we all (yes, you too) get struck with a bit of internet-narcissism and we go looking for references to ourselves online. I got three of me that I want to share with you.

The one of which I am most proud is this: Photojojo using one of my pictures in a tutorial. Amit had originally written to me to ask if my grocery store vegetable panorama could be used in a pano tutorial - guess that one never appeared, but I’m still rather flattered that I got used at all. I love Photojojo and any involvement is wonderful.

The middle one is Twelvety using a picture from our trip to Ocracoke. I didn’t even take the picture (Katie did) but the act of him linking to it has bumped it up into the ranks of my top 20 most-viewed pics on Flickr.

The last, the one of which I am most proud, says simply this: “Kevin O’Mara has the best CC-licensed sideburns on Flickr.”

Damn straight.

In case you haven’t had your yearly Christmas seizure yet, or haven’t thrown up today, I urge you to view this dangerous little beauty I just put together. I can’t believe I’m the creator of such violence and intensity. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Okay, but seriously, it’s just an animated version of my picture of the Drama Center Christmas tree. It just makes me a bit woozy after I look at it too long, that’s all.

I’m very disappointed in myself for just now learning how to properly set my custom white balance on my camera. When I think of all the night shots I’ve rejected ’cause I couldn’t get rid of that nasty orange streetlight color I’m a bit ill. Being smart enough to carry a little white piece of paper with me could have created a lot of wonderful opportunities.

Oh well, c’est la vie, as they say, or maybe que sera sera. Or is it live and learn?

Regardless, when it stops being below freezing (current temperature: 19 degrees) I’ll start going out at night again and recapturing some of what I thought to be lost.

I’m a bit down lately because it doesn’t matter which day of the week it is, whether or not I’m getting out of class or out of work, there’s no daylight left. It seems silly for an amateur to say something so pretentious, but my photography is stagnating. I currently have one day a week when I can go outside and enjoy the daylight (that’s Sunday, for those of you keeping track) and I can’t just force inspiration to strike. Sometimes I’m too busy on Sundays even to just run around looking for photographic opportunities. There are only so many pictures I can take at night in Cookeville before I start to get a bit worn out, and only so many times I can take photos of sitting around a friend’s house doin’ nothing. I’m gonna have to start doing self-portraits against the blank white walls of my apartment or something.

I realize I should view this as a challenge instead of a detriment, but it’s hard to think that way. I walked to the square tonight to see what I could find, and the answer was NUFFIN.

Well, um, let’s see. Past that, I’ve decided that Tuesday night is Cook for the Parents Night. It’s an excuse to go use their sweet kitchen setup and not have to clean up afterwards. Tonight’s experiment was a FANTASTIC success, a solid keeper vote by all three parties. Cooking Light is to thank for this recipe, though I will post my ever-so-slightly modified version. Seriously, this one’s a keeper and it’s also stupid simple.

I Don’t Remember What They Called It - Italian Sausage Soup or Something?

3 links Italian sausage
2 cups chicken broth (for this I do recommend broth, not water + bouillon)
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes with basil, garlic, and oregano (see how easy? all y’uns’s ingredients is already in the can)
1/2 cup uncooked small penne pasta (or shells, or bowties, or whatever)
2 cups bagged baby spinach leaves
Lotsa grated fresh Parmesan cheese
2-4 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

1.) Heat a large saucepan over medium heat.
2.) Remove casings from sausage.
3.) Add sausage to pan, and cook about 5 minutes or until browned, and make sure to break it into bite-size pieces (or smaller)
4.) Drain; return to pan.
5.) Add broth, tomatoes, and pasta to pan, and bring to a boil over high heat.
6.) Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes or until pasta is done.
7.) Remove from heat; stir in spinach until wilted.
8.) Sprinkle each serving with cheese and basil.

See? Stupid easy. It doesn’t even have 10 steps, and it’s delicious. I’d make the Rachael Ray face here, but you can’t see me over the internet.

Though maybe I just got an idea for one of those self-portraits …

Step right up, folks, and test your Cookeville knowledge. Click the image below to find out more. Answers will be accepted both here and on the Flickr page for this image.

Good luck!

Total number of pictures from yesterday and today: 653.

I can’t even count the number of times I walked the seven or eight blocks to Jim’s house to escape the crowd and find some air conditioning. Between that, spending hours on my feet, being at the square at 6:45 AM this morning to shoot the race, the heat, the noise, and the food … I’m wiped out.

I’ve uploaded a few more pics - five, I think - to add to my Flickr pics tagged with Cookeville Fall Fun Fest.

Why have I only uploaded eight out of 650 pictures? I dunno. Call me super picky. Chances are if you looked at ‘em all you’d probably pick a different eight. I have no clue if the folks for whom I was taking all these will like them or even use them. Apparently there’s a fallfunfest.com page with galleries of last year - and each gallery has four or five shots in it. I get the feeling I pressed the shutter button WAY too often.

Today’s fun: walking up to the Cookeville Police Department Drug Awareness booth, tapping my finger on the largest bong in the ‘collected paraphernalia’ display, and asking, “How much you want for this one?”

I tell you what, man, those city cops got no sense of humor.

Okay, so I should be asleep but instead for some reason I couldn’t resist looking at the 198 (!) pictures I took today at the Cookeville Fall Fun Fest. While there I also saw something on the order of 198 people that I know or recognize. Ah, small town life.

Anyway, I chose my favorite three - no reason, I was thinking four for a while but changed my mind - and I’ve uploaded them to Flickr. You can find them under my tags labeled “Cookeville Fall Fun Fest“. If you don’t get around to looking at them on Saturday then there’ll probably be a few more come Sunday.

It was fun, taking pictures in an official capacity, but tiring. I have to be there before 7:00 AM CST tomorrow morning to take pictures of the CFFF 5k race. What am I still doing up?

I BID YOU GOOD NIGHT.

Looks like there’s no general consensus yet to the Kevin’s hair - grow or no debate. I need more opinions.

This morning I went to a friend’s workplace (or more accurately, her parents’ workplace) and did what I guess would be regarded as a professional photo shoot for their business. It wasn’t professional, though, because I did it for free. Well, that’s not true - I gained a whole lot of experience regarding the whole thing, and that’s why I didn’t feel I should charge ‘em. Next time, though. Oh! And it turns out I totally can entertain a large crowd of employees standing around waiting for the group picture. Who’da thunkit? Me? Outgoing and jovial and wisecracking? Anyway, for now I’m going to ignore the experience aspect and pretend this was another altruistic deed.

Finally, I stepped out on the porch today and I could smell fall in the air. I haven’t smelled a Tennessee fall coming for years now. It’s not here yet by any means, but it’s on the way. I couldn’t be more excited.

MAH HAIR.

So far I still haven’t heard back from that photo gig. However, when I went by there recently the lady at the front told me the bossmanager hadn’t called anyone yet because she’d been so busy.

And speaking of busy, I haven’t been busy at all on my new photography site. No, really, I haven’t. Trey helped me make some changes to the layout and styles and then I stopped moving on it. I finally tonight finished sorting through the 2000-plus files in my font library and decided that exactly none of them were what I was looking for. Oh well, the header links will stay as text for now.

Oh, so yeah, should anyone anywhere near me (or you, should you be near me) need anything photographed, send them to klophoto.com to see my ‘work’. I use the phrase ‘work’ to denote self-deprication of some sort though I haven’t yet sorted out which sort it is I mean. Anyway, I put that thing on a separate site because, well, not that I don’t want strangers to read my blog … if that were the case I sure wouldn’t have it on the internet, and then what kind of blog would it be? A diary, that’s what kind of blog it would be. I just want that when someone says, “Oh, I know this guy that takes pictures” they can follow it with “and you can see them at his site” and I don’t have to worry about them getting caught up in admiring my masterful use of the English language. Or thinking I’m retarded. Words are for the words site and photos are for the photos site. Y’dig?

Oh, the other part of the reason for a photo site is that I put a lot of pictures on my Flickr site and not all of them are of the awesome quality I’d like to show to a new viewer. Plus, it’s hard to tell people how to get there, how to force them to leave out the E in flicker, etc. So! Those of you who are my Flickr friends, you’ll see everything that ends up on the klophoto site before it even gets there. You’re the lucky ones.

I hain’t been up to NUTHIN lately, ‘cept the following:
+Eating Thai food and barbeque, but not at the same time
+Hanging out at Poet’s now that Gridge’s is gone (insert single tear shed here)
+Watching Mr. and Mrs. Smith with Ross and Ariel. I’ll admit, it made me laugh in parts.
+Drinking Ross’s beer. I am so fortunate to have friends that make quality products like coffee and beer. That’s really the good life right there. If only I could grow decent grapes here maybe in five years I could be that friend making wine.
+Playing Guitar Hero for the first time ever, and totally kicking ass. I was born to rock. Ariel was astounded at my incredible scores. So astounded, in fact, that she made an inedible pie.
+Seeing people (Leon and Crit) that I’ve not seen in years and years. They and Jim and I hung out for hours today doing a whole pile of absolutely nothing.

I’m sure there are more things I’ve done, but I felt that list was boring enough.

The Putnam County Fair is winding down as I type, and I never went. I couldn’t bring myself to spend the money to go take pictures of crazy people. Somehow my heart wasn’t in it. Maybe next year. I’ve already been drafted to take pictures of … um … what do they call that thing they do here in Cookeville in September at the square? The Fall Cook-Off and Child Disaster Screaming Day? I can’t remember. Regardless, they want me (and probably several other people, I am not that special) to take pictures to commemorate the whole hot muggy mess. Apparently I will get paid a grand rate of nothing per hour! I’m very excited!

Okay, no, I actually am excited. It’s true. Anyone wanting me to take pictures for any reason makes me happy. I have several ideas about things and people for upcoming photographicalizationated excursions.

I really need a job. I hope the photo place calls me and soon. If not, I’m gonna have to start doing more than looking at Craigslist and reading the classifieds. I’m one of those people that says that if I won the lottery I’d spend a few years running around and then go back to work. I need structure during my day and right now I got jack. I just keep putting it off for various reasons, just like I keep putting off my trip to Asheville.

MUST HAVE JOB.
MUST TAKE PICTURES.
MUST HAVE JOB.
MUST TAKE PICTURES.