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Out for the evening with friend, pictures to follow later (maybe tomorrow).

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I hope you are all still with me.  'm trying not to bore you but lets be honest, it's hard to really WOW you without good photo editing. 

I'm trying :)

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The boy and I did some yard work for my grandmother this afternoon.  After wrestling with a nasty multiflora rose and while the boy finished mowing I got the camera out and climbed under a nearby bridge.  

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I swear it was 35 degrees plus wind chill at my daughter's baseball practice she was freezing but was surprisingly tough about it.  Very minimal whining from her, I, on the other hand, am a huge wuss and that was pure torture.

I took a few minutes to play with my flash and reflectors (again).  Not the greatest composition, just a rock that my daughter found on the train tracks on Sunday.  I was merely practicing bounce flash techniques.  However, it does make a great case for why off camera flash is nearly essential.

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Used a bounce flash off a plain paper reflector to get these macros.

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Went for a walk again today but took the girl with me.  My wife is absorbed into the last 2 weeks of med school year 1 and the boy is doing manly gun things with grandpa.  Instead of staring at the awful movies she wants to watch I decided it was time to get outside.  After a bit of whining and grumping from her and a bit of begging and bribing from me she happily agreed to model for me.

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I took a short walk downtown today.  Took some interesting shots, there was some kind of organized town day and every one was out.  For the life of me, I cannot figure out why everyone looks at you with strange suspicion when you have a camera around your neck.  I might as well have been walking around town with a gun on my belt.

I headed home and when I was almost home I saw an old stump between two hedges.  I thought, to myself inside my head, that might be an interesting shot if I get the angle and depth of field right.  So I proceeded to find that perfect shot.  I was squatting on the side of the road holding my camera almost on the ground when I notice a car coming up the road.  I pay no notice, thinking they'll be quickly out of my way but it slowed and rolled to a stop, blocking my shot.

I stand and give the driver a may I help you? look.
She is a prison guard.  I live next to a prison and my lovely stump is in front of the parking lot (not one building, fence, or even a car was in my shot.  Just stump, bushes, grass, and sky). 

Guard: "What are you doing?"
Me: "Taking a picture."
Guard:"Why?"
Me:"Because I'm a photographer."
Guard:"Why?"
Me: (awkward pause) "uhh...because I'm an artist(?)"
Guard:"You do know that video and photos of the facility are prohibited."
Me:"I was taking a picture of that stump."
Guard:(uncomfortable and unable to maintain eye contact due to the inner knowledge she's being trite and bitchy)
Me:"I'll be done if that's okay."
Guard: "okay"

Seriously!?!?
These are the same guards that are busy cleaning the gutters on the superintendent's roof while a dozen prisoners are raking and mowing the lawn below.  The same guards that stand at the entrance to the main building of the prison smoking and chatting while the prisoners they are "supervising" are 100 yards away IN MY YARD mowing because they don't friggin' know where the property line is!!

Apparently I happened to find one of the few guards that take their job (too?) seriously!  Maybe she should be on groundskeeping/maintenance duty.

At any rate, no stump picture but here's some others around town.

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I'm going without Photoshop until mid May when CS5 is released.  So it's time to get back to basics. Instead of moaning about it I'm going to turn this next month into a "reset" time to get back to pushing my camera further as opposed to pushing my PC.  Digital editing software can really become a crutch and it's very easy to become a lazy photographer which I'm guilty of being all too frequently.


I received these heads from a friend of my mother's.  She was moving and wanted to be rid of the ugly things.  Her husband loved them and would only give them to someone who would appreicate a wall of ugly heads as much as he did.

That would be me.

There's eleven of them in all and they represent different fictional characters from Dickinsonians like Bill Sikes to pirates, fishermen, and random obscure nationalities.

This gentleman is a Kurd.

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This still counts, right?

Yeah, I took it on my new Sony Vaio.  That's right, no more complaining about a slow PC.

Ok, now back to the tedious task of new computer setup...

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There's a fantastic photographer that I've been following on RedBubble for a long time named Mike Stimpson.  He uses Legos, especially the mini figs, to make fantastic portraits and quirky images with striking photographic skill. He even recreates famous and historical photographs with amazing accuracy.
Take a bit to browse his gallery, it's really something to see.

Inspired by Mike, I decided to borrow a few choice figures from the boy and try my hand at the minfig portrait.

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Took the kiddies on a walk this evening on the same path I took yesterday.

The girl who constantly whines "I'm just not that into Nature, Dad" ended up with two handfuls of frog eggs and we all enjoyed a 30 minute front row performance by a very large beaver.

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Today I went for a quiet walk at one of my favorite local trails.  The overcast sky was great for getting those deep colors, contrast and general moody moodiness.