Random tangent (blog)
Ameel Khan's personal blog. This is a blog about life, technology, photography, typography, the internet, science, feminism, books, film, music, and whatever other random stuff I come across or happen to be interested in today.
It’s been ages since I’ve ridden a tram. At least I got to see one when I went into the office today.
Photo of a classic tram turning into a street in front of some office building. Everything but the tram is blurred in the photo.
Zippy cyclist is zippy.
Photo of a motion-blurred cyclist exiting a curved bridge onto a paved, inner city riverbank.
Maggie would like Nadia to know that she too likes popcorn. Very, very much, in fact.
Photo of a red dog, ears pricked, standing at the foot of a low, outdoor lounge chair. The dog is looking attentively at the person sitting on the chair, whose is mostly off-camera but has their feet visible near the dog’s head.
A few seconds later…[Chariots of Fire soundtrack starts playing]
So the Google Pixel 6 Pro smartphone camera’s long exposure functionality is cool.
Selective long-exposure photo of a train passing through a level crossing. The moving train is the only element of the photo that has a motion blur effect applied to it. Because one of the long-exposure photos taken was from before the train appeared within the frame, the train in the final image appears to be semi-transparent. A white car has stopped in front of the lowered boom gate of the level crossing.
The more I use it, the more I like it.
Selective long-exposure photo of a train passing through a level crossing. Only the moving train has had the long exposure effect applied to it, so it’s the only object in the photo with motion blur.
Yay for post-lockdown catch-ups!
Had a lovely, delicious dinner at Panda Hot Pot with a bunch of friends. The food was good and the company was fantastic. 10/10 would recommend.
There was a line outside the restaurant for our scheduled sitting too. Nature is healing!
Selfie of a man and a woman sitting next to each other inside a large Chinese restaurant. Both are smiling at the camera.
Maggie keeps an eye on us while we eat dinner on the off chance that she’ll score a human-food treat when we’re done. She is forever hopeful and always hungry!
Photo of a red dog, sitting alert and ready, a short distance away from a dining table that has a pattered green and white tablecloth.
A couple of months after I stopped needing to wear it, I had to pull out my puffer jacket to walk the dog this morning. With this current cold snap we’ve taken two steps forward, three steps back on our way to summer in Melbourne. *sigh*
Selfie of a man walking along a residential street. He is wearing a black t-shirt, black puffer jacket, and black cap (with a red trim).
Intermittent rain + laziness = tall grass.
Tall grass + sunny day in spring = comfy dog.
Photo of a red dog lying cushioned on some tall grass in a residential lawn on a sunny day.
So the portrait mode + front-facing camera combo on the Pixel 6 Pro smartphone works quite well.
Especially when you can use the magic eraser to remove two instances of unruly beard hair :)
Selfie of a man looking straight into the camera. The man is in his 40s, and is bald with a full, but trimmed salt-and-pepper beard. He is wearing glasses and a black henley-style pullover. The background behind him is out of focus, helping his face stand out more in the photo.
The thunderstorm itself might have missed our suburb, but at least we got to see the gorgeous cloud formations on the fringes of that weather system.
(Of course even this distant thunder managed to freak poor Maggie out. She was a trembly dog all afternoon. *sigh*)
Photo of a completely overcast sky above the roofs of some houses. The sky is full of puffy, swirling clouds and looks quite dramatic.
Watching Nadia eat a piece of roast chicken is instantly and infinitely more interesting than playing with a rope toy.
Photo of a red dog on a carpet, with one of its paws on an orange and grey rope toy. The dog has interrupted its play and is looking up intently at someone off-camera.
Nadia and I made the most of the gorgeous, post-lockdown Sunday we had today.
First we had brunch at the Altona North Jolly Miller Café. (I’d been missing Eggs Benedict so much! Not enough to make any at home though.)
Photo taken from the top of a table in a café. On the table is a menu that’s out of focus because it’s so close to the camera. Behind the menu are a water bottle, two glasses, a salt shaker, and a pepper grinder. In the background are other tables and chairs, as well as floor-to-ceiling windows through which you can see a bright blue sky.
And then we went for a relaxing, hour-long walk through the lovely Paisley-Challis wetlands nearby.
Selfie of a man and a woman wearing hats, sunglasses, and light jackets. They are standing in a flat wetland area, with lots of green grass, several bushes, and pools of water. In the background, behind all this greenery, is the sea.
There were several walkers, runners, and cyclists on the track, but the rest of the place was so peaceful.
A wide-angle photograph of a green, brushy wetlands area, with the blue sea in the background. On the extreme left of the image you can see a thin walking trail with a single person on it.
A lovely way to spring into post-lockdown spring in Melbourne.
Whoa. The Pixels 6 Pro’s forward-facing camera really is excellent!
This photo was cropped slightly, but is otherwise completely untouched.
Selfie of a smiling man standing on an outdoor deck on a sunny day, with a residential garden behind him. The man is bald and has a trimmed, salt-and-pepper beard. He is wearing glasses and a t-shirt with the original book cover of Phillip K Dick’s book ‘Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep?’ printed on it.
Also, compare these two untouched (again, only cropped) selfies.
The Pixel 6 Pro (right) does a much better job than the Pixel 3XL (left) that I just upgraded from.
Collage of two selfies of the same man in the same location. The man is bald, has a salt-and-pepper beard, and is wearing glasses and a pair of black wireless headphones. He is standing in a residential garden, with the sun behind him. The photo on the left, captioned 'Pixel 3XL', clearly shows the bright environment he’s in, but his face is shadowed and the clouds in the sky aren’t well defined. In the photo on the right, captioned 'Pixel 6 Pro', his face is well lit and you can see some of the details in the clouds.
Oh, and in case it isn’t bleedingly obvious by now, I bought Google’s latest and greatest smartphone: the Pixel 6 Pro :)
I’d almost forgotten how lovely it is to smile at your neighbours!
It did feel a little strange walking Maggie without a face mask this afternoon. But I’m so happy outdoor mask-wearing restrictions have eased across Melbourne just before summer kicks in.
Photo of a medium sized red dog on a leash sniffing around a patch of white flowers next to a chain link fence.
Hope folks in Melbourne are getting to enjoy the gorgeous day were having today!
Selfie of a man walking a dog on a residential street. The man is wearing a t-shirt, face mask, and cap. The dog is sniffing around the nature strip next to a parked car.
Melbourne might be cold and super rainy the next few days, but at least spring is definitively here.
Photo of a red dog on a lead who is sniffing around in a patch of greenery with several flowering plants.
Someone who lives here knows how to make the most of a sunny day in winter.
Photo of the front lawn of a house on a sunny day. In the beautifully manicured lawn is a beautifully manicured tree, next to which there’s a comfortable wooden chair that’s set facing the sun.
Maggie knows how to make the most of sunny days in winter. She is alternating between warming up on a sunny patch of concrete and then cooling down on a sunny patch of dirt.
Photo of a relaxed red dog sitting on a patch of dirt next to a wooden deck. It’s a sunny day. The dog has her eyes closed and her face to the sun.
Sure, why not? Who am I to deny requests from a random sign in an alley in Kensington?
Photo of a sign pasted on the wall of an alley off a main road. The sign has black, all-caps text on a plain white background. That text reads: PLEASE BE AWESOME.
Speaking of that part of the city, the Flemington post office is in such a gorgeous building!
Collage of two photos of the same historic building from the 1880s.
Emerging as the meaning of life, the universe, and everything on her 42nd birthday, I present to you Dr Nadia Niaz!
(Maggie is suitably impressed.)
Photo of a woman with long black hair. The woman is wearing a maroon and black sweater, black jeans, and black boots. With a big grin on her face, she is striking a post in front of the the door to a house. Standing at her feet and looking up to her is a red dog.
There comes a time during every walk in which I make The Final Turn. That turn marks the farthest point from home I’ll be during my walk. Every step or turn after this is a step or turn going home.
Getting the first COVID-19 vaccine this morning felt like that Final Turn.
Close-up selfie of a bald man wearing glasses and a blue surgical mask. One the man’s black puffer jacket is a sticker that reads #JabDone. The man is holding up a small card next to this sticker that reads ‘COVID-19 vaccination hub record’.
When I get the second dose in three weeks I’ll probably feel like I do when I turn onto our street.
Two weeks after that – when I’m finally fully vaccinated – that’s when I’ll feel like I do when I close the gate behind me, turn off my stopwatch, and can officially say I’m home.
It’ll have been a long walk.
Photo of a residential street with tall trees, nature strips, and parked cars. Behind the building in the background of the photo is the rich golden glow of the setting sun.
This is personal website of Nadia Niaz and Ameel Zia Khan. Here we document our lives in Melbourne, Australia.
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia