For my first trick

Word of the day

As an exercise in quasi-creativity (and also an exercise in getting myself out of bed before 11 each morning), I hope to spend most mornings taking the word of the day from dictionary.com and going out in search of a photo to correspond to it. It's pretty likely that I won't make it out of bed in time every day to find a good photo, but I'll do my best to keep it going if only to keep myself from lying in bed every day, getting fat.

I expect that many words will have to be matched up with a less-than-literal interpretation, but use your imagination and I'm sure you can make the stretch.

I would also encourage what I anticipate to be my many, many followers to join in by submitting their own photos that follow the theme. Just send your best images to rfisherphotos@gmail.com, and if they're great (and I'm sure they will be great), I'll post them up with mine (which may be less great).

Today's word:
parry \PAR-ee\,
verb:
1. to ward off; turn aside (as a thrust or weapon)
noun:
1. the act of warding off

As I rode my bike around Raleigh this morning in search of a streetside fencing match, I tried to imagine what else might go along with the word. And there it was:

Gear and whatsuch:
I shoot a Canon 10D, which is the 2003 version of the now popular 40D and 50D, which are much, much better. While it became obsolete almost immediately, it still takes photos, and that's what's important.

For this particular polaroid-looking photo to the left, I used a lens I bought from an old man on Craigslist.

(For those of you who hate the tech talk, click here instead of reading on.)

The lens is a Canon FL 55mm f/1.2, circa 1968. It came in a whole bag of old gear the man was getting rid of for $50, so I went ahead and snatched it up.

The FL and FD lenses sported bayonet mounts, so I had to find an adapter (which only took a 10-minute ebay search, despite what the pompous, tech-savvy-but-fully-devoid-of-happiness former photographers at Peace Camera told me).

Probably because the lens is so old, the light tends to bounce and diffuse on the way in, which gives it a strange look. Sometimes I think it adds character. Sometimes I think it ruins the photo.

The lens and I have a very love-hate relationship.

In any case, I hope you, my many fans, have enjoyed the first entry of what I'm sure will blossom into a brilliant and extensively lucrative blog. If you'd like to add to the parry category, just send an email. Thanks for reading!