A video clip [NAP]

Yes, that's right its another Not-A-Photo entry.



Whaaaa??? Why is he posting a horribly compressed video clip?

I don't know. YouTube butchered the video I shot on my Sony DSC-T3 in super-high-res-ultra mode. Alas. Not sure if I'm ever going to do this again - this may be a one-off.

This video, I shot on my recent Seattle trip, features a friendly fish-chucker throwing a fish to a child actor in some sort of video production. The child entirely fails to catch the heavy fish.

How to annoy your friends

In three easy steps

Step 1: Find a friend making an undignified face.
Step 2: Take a picture of said face.
Step 3: Post picture on your "blog" for the entire "Internet" to see.


Well, there's no doubt about what's going on in this shot. Max is eating fiberglass insulation on a dare.

Joking and funny faces aside; I really am quite happy with this shot. The ambient lighting and the high ISO value combined to add a really interesting grain to the left (camera-left) side of Max's face. Bonus points are always awarded for crazy ripple-y forehead action.

A Prolific Day

I walked down the street this afternoon to take some pictures at the beach. I've been so ridiculously busy with the move that this was my first afternoon off in what seems like a month.


I'm very happy with this shot! The biggest reason is that the only thing I did to it in post was to change the color temperature and vignette the scene a little. You have to love it when a shot comes out well in camera. On the other hand, I had a feeling this was going to be a good shot - so I took about 12 exposures. Yay for digital!

So what makes this day prolific? Well, take a look at some of the other shots I took today. I like these two:

For want of a little traveling music

Today I ventured, by train, down to Jersey to help Pang drive up his father's station wagon. We decided it will probably prove to be invaluable during our upcoming move. I arrived at the Westport train station only to discover that I'd forgotten to bring the headphones for my Zen Micro.

With nothing to read, I found myself sitting in the doorway of the train taking pictures of nothing to pass the time. Between the photography and the compulsive email-checking I must have looked pretty bored.


For a while during the trip I slapped on my magnifying filter and started shooting some macro shots. The thing about this filter that I love isn't its ability to move the camera closer to the subject - frankly, when it comes to this there really is no substitute for a macro lens. Rather, what I really like about shooting with the magnifying filter is the way it softly blurs anything that isn't dead-center in the frame.


This shot is of the writing etched into windows panels of the train's sliding doors. I took quite a few shots pointing at this text from odd angles - trying to meter the shot turned out to be tricky because the backdrop kept changing. In this particular moment you can see a smoke stack in the center of the image, however it is so blurred it might has well be a matchstick pressed against the other side of the glass.

As for the text itself, I've decided I don't really care about it at all.

Another one bites the dust

Last night marked the close of the Downtown Cabaret's production of Sweet Charity. Followers of this blog (which apparently now include some members of the production staff) will recall that I've been acting LBO for this show for the past month or so.

It's always sad to see a show close - at least for me. Even the shows that I despise - the shows that go out of their way to screw with me - I can't help but feel a twinge of sadness. Despite some of the rig's more annoying features, this show has been a pleasure to run.


The photos I took last night were more along the line of "vacation photos" than anything else. None of them really good enough to highlite here. I spent a little bit of time last night cropping photos and presenting them like a pile of polaroids.

I'm not really sure what I think about this. For starters, I don't think I used nearly enough source imagery. Oh well, garbage in - garbage out. Additionally, the flickr resize algorithm beat the hell out of my hard lines. This pile really looks sharp when it's viewed up close. Lastly, doing this proved to be fairly time-consuming. We shall see whether or not I ever do one of these again.

Forgotten Shot

In the few hours I had to walk around Seattle during my recent trip I took quite a few pictures. Today I rediscovered this one.


I love the way the polarizer turns the glare into a sheen on the side of this building. I think the colors make this shot really special; the subtle shades of brown, gold and blue play very gently on hard stone.

I do enjoy rediscovering a photo that I took.

Update: I'm looking at this picture again... Please view it large. Flickr's image resize really beat the hell out of my straight lines

A slow rising moon

My parents, with Pang's help, finished painting the house while I was in a show. I stopped by to check it out - then went for a drive to unwind. I didn't realize how stressed out I was until I got moving with the windows down and the music going. Driving back-roads in CT is pretty relaxing, especially under a full moon - but when I turned the corner, crossing the bridge over the resevoir, and saw this - I simply could not believe what I was seeing.


What I have to say about this picture is this: I regard this photo as a complete failure. This picture fails, in all respects, to capture the most ridiculous moon-rise I have ever seen. Part of this I can blame on the medium - I don't think that there is any format capable of doing justice to this scene. In this photo the moon seems smaller and more distant. It also seems cooler and brighter.

Which brings us to the other issue which detracts from this photo: I messed it up quite badly. When I got to the site I was still wearing my blacks. It would have been absolutely insane to spend too much time standing in the road wearing black clothing in the middle of the night. Especially a road as well-traveled as this one. So I rushed. Big mistake. All my shots were over-exposed, and many of them were either out of focus or poorly composed. And they all had lens flares. Beebo convinced me to mark-up this image and reposting it. And I am thankful he did.

I think that as time goes on I will like this picture more and more as my recollection of the discrepancy fades. Well, that's something I suppose.

Flickr 1000

The photo says it all. My 1000th post on flicrk!


The photo is of the new color of the walls in my kitchen. I'm really happy with it. It'll look even better once I've sanded and painted the existing cabinetry. Also - new hardware.

Hard and Soft

My Saturday schedule leaves me with an hour of down-time between shows at the Downtown Cabaret Theatre. Today, after refocusing a newly-swapped-in Intellibeam, I had a bit of time to walk around on stage and take some pictures. Of course, the house was open so I had to stay upstage of the main, but I had some fun.


In this photo, the softness of the main puts it in stark contrast to the hardness of the masonite. The hardness of my shadow, cast by the movers, also adds an interesting element to this shot. You can see that the stage is somewhat in need of a paint-job. Oh well. Only 3 shows left.

A surprisingly decent picture of me

Appearantly, but not surprisingly, the very first stages of home-ownership seems to be all-consuming. I've been burning the candle at both ends for about a week now. My weekday schedule has been: Work till five, then at the house till midnight. My weekends are no better performances at the Downtown Cabaret have take all the time that working on the house doesn't get. Oh well.


Here you can see the handywork of my dad and I. We opened up this door-way to make the space flow a little better. Check out my shiny new 2x6 header! My dad took this altogether acceptable picture of me - sure the lighting is a bit wonky. Whatever. Traitor.

Homeowner [NAP]

It's official. I am a homeowner. Closed on the deal yesterday. Word.

I don't really have any good pictures yet, but as soon as I do I'll post them. In the meantime, here are some not-so-good pictures.

Sweeet.

Camera Shy

On random drive through, among other places, Weston, I passed a town fair and decided to stop. It's definitely the right season for these things and I can look forward to a whole summer of them. There is really no end to the number of good shots that are there to be found. And they range the gamut from wholesome to tawdry and from shiny to dingy.


The two girls - yes two - in this shot proved to be something less than camera-shy. It's a bit awkward taking pictures at this sort of event because you have to do it in such a way that doesn't make you suspect. I try to make it obvious that I'm taking pictures of the event and not individuals. Obviously the truth lies somewhere in the middle - without the individual the shot has no emotion, and without the context the individual is lost.

I took quite a few shots at this particular event. Expect me to post more of them.

Spring's last stand

With my rent's in Sturbridge for the day I was tasked with a dog-maintenance duty. Fortunately I arrived, for the walking of the dogs, during a break in the day's rains. I walked the dogs and then gave them some time to eat while I wandered the yard with my camera.


I studied my parent's clothes-drying-thingamajig for a while. It was really a fun subject. The rain-drops clung to it. Lots of parallel and intersecting lines. Metallic bits and brightly-colored plastic bits.

In short: I should have taken more pictures.

It might be...

It might be tough to take a bad macro photo of a dew-laden flower. This is another one of those photos that feels like it was so easy that it shouldn't count.


I took this shot at my parents house after a pretty decent rain. Dew. Purple. Pretty. The real reason I posted this picture is because of the cool little thready detail inside the flower. Also, the purpley veiney-ness.

My new weekend schedule seems to be making my weekend feel... er. Non-existent. On Saturday I awakened by the sun at 9:30 only to find myself sleeping in till 11:30. All of a sudden my Saturday was a race to make it to call for a 5:30pm curtain. I can't really complain, seeing as it's something I really enjoy, but I can't help but feel I'm over-extending myself a bit.

Work + Weekend Work + Buying a House = tired and stressed Dave.

Relief, these days, seems to come in three packages: Going to the gym for a run, driving around aimlessly and wandering around with my camera. Bad weather this week made me lose Monday and Tuesday for running, And rising gas prices are impeding the amount of driving-around I can do. Fortunately, this morning I was able to go out - while the sun was still out - and take some pictures.


This shot is of a street sign in downtown Westport, shot against the wall of the YMCA. Anyone from Westport knows the building the 'Y' is in. Its a gorgeous piece of architecture and tudor charm. The ivy is just there to hammer home the point.

Update: It appears that this is post #50. Go Dave!

Assorted Nerdiness [NAP]

Just a reminder. In case you were wondering, NAP means not a photo.

I just wanted to take a second to show off some true nerdiness, I recently started playing with Google Notebook. When you first go to use Notebook it prompts you to install a browser plugin. From this point on it seems very much to want to be a del.icio.us replacement. And, while it's interface is pretty cool, its not yet clear to me how they will build it into a community product. Maybe I'm wrong about their intentions.

In any case, I've already hitched my wagon to del.ico.us, but I am totally digging the ability to have all of my little note documents, which I would normally write in notepad.exe, in a centrally accessible location. This is one of things that you don't realize you need until you have it.

Well, enough shilling for a google product. Surely they don't need me to do that. What I do want to show-off is a bit of nerdiness from my current theatre job. Many of you don't know that I'm currently the Lighting Board Operator, and kind-of fill-in ME for the Downtown Cabaret Theatre's production of Sweet Charity. What I've decided to do is post my performance notes in a public Google Notebook. And here it is.

Why have I done this?
No Reason.

I will take this last line for one product gripe. It occurs to me, that if Google wants its notebook service to take off, they should provide users with a way of making public notebooks with a memorable address. Perhaps http://www.google.com/notebook/zorlack/notebook_name.

Oh well.

Locking up 'G'

Sam's basement apartment in Chicago is not unlike a million pre-war New York brownstone apartments. I love the under-the-stairs entrance into the first of six or seven ante-chambers. The only thing it's missing is a dozen-or-so pocket doors.


Lets face it, this shot is all about perspective. I found myself standing on top of the concrete barrier which forms the stairs looking down -camera in hand of course.
To me, a couple of things really stand out about this shot. The angle presents an isometric view of the action below. Something about it seems very uniform and stable.
Color is the next thing that pops out of the screen. The intersecting colors of leather softened by rainbow scarf and shimmering hair.
Lastly, the contrast. This was the first sunny day on my recent trip to Chicago so I was very happy to be shooting in direct sunlight. In this shot, the direct-sun paid some major dividends. I really like the play of light and shadow in Sam's jacket. I also love the way the bricks light up - they really add strength to the image.

Hmm... too much analysis.

Zug like picture. Grunt.

Standing at the corner of Fullerton and Sam

While in Chicago, Sam and I decided to hit up the Museum of Science and Industry - which by the way is an institution of ludicrous scale. While standing on the El platform, waiting for a south-bound ride, I decided to play with the trains that passed us by. Long-suffering Sam was my willing victim.


It was a very bright day, so to get any kind of motion-blur without completely over-exposing the shot I had to iris in all the way. To make matters a bit more fidgety, this was the first time - during my stay - that I decided not to take the tripod.

Oh well.

I'm pretty happy with this shot. I treated it a bit differently than the others in the set of El Photos. I like the over-exposed sky and the grainy look of the Sam. I love the fact that you can see the "Fullerton" sign exposed between cars. I love the contrast on Sam's collar, sunglasses and forehead.

Chicago

I spent last weekend in Chicago with Sam. Among the many memorable moment was this one at the Shedd Aquarium.


What you see here are three White-Sided Dolphins diving into the water simultaneously... of course the astute sea-creature expert will realize that this was probably preceded by three White-Sided Dolphins diving out of the water. You are correct.
It was incredibly difficult to get anything even close to a usable image of these fast moving pod-dwellers. This was as good as it got. I have a few other shots that made the cut, but none of them had this kind of score in the coolness department.
Shooting underwater, through glass turned out to be pretty hard. Especially when the subject is roughly the same color as the medium through which you're shooting. Alas.

Pastoral.... I guess

It's been an incredibly busy couple of weeks. Those of you who know me know that I'm getting close to closing on a new house. Yay me! Unfortunately this endeavor has become an all-consuming time whore. I have found myself going to the gym a bit more often - so that's good.


I took this photo on a little stress-relief jaunt to the Southport beach. It's almost hyper-idyllic. I'm not sure I can cope. I don't normally this type of pastoral imagery - to be honest, I'm not even sure if I like this one.

I like the clouds and the tide pool.
I like the grass.
I like the reeds.

Hmm... Maybe I do like this picture.