Tilting at windmills ...

Gozer: [after Ray orders her to re-locate] Are you a God?


[Ray looks at Peter, who nods]


Dr Ray Stantz: No.


Gozer: Then... DIE!


[Lightning flies from her fingers, driving the Ghostbusters to the edge of the roof and almost off; people below scream]


Winston Zeddemore: Ray, when someone asks you if you're a god, you say "YES"!




Ghostbusters

Inspiration strikes at the strangest times. No, I wasn't watching Ghostbusters at the time, but I was staring at my big, beautiful 54" DLP TV (that now has one lovely pixel that's stuck in the on position). It's a nice TV. Has a great picture, especially when the high def channels are running on it.



I was watching something on one of the Discovery channels when inspiration hit. I had been thinking about backgrounds because of the cookie setup I used for some recent portraits (written about in Boot to the head!). One of the things I look for now is an interesting background. Ok, maybe not interesting ... different. Something I haven't seen or done before.

Read more and comment at Are you a God?

Master: Ed Gooberman, you fail to grasp Tae-Kwon Leep. Approach me so that you may see.


Ed: Alright, finally some action.


Master: Observe closely class. Boot to the Head [boom].


Ed: Ow, you booted me in the head!


Master: You are lucky Ed Gooberman. Few novices experiece so much of Tae-Kwon Leep so soon.

Headshots. No, no, I'm not going to perform the moves of Tae-Kwon-Leep on you. Humorous as it may be, that's not the subject of today's post. Today we're talking about photographic headshots. Or rather, as close to them as I've gotten in the last month. Maybe a bit of background is in order.



I'm a member of a non-profit organization. August was the first month of the new term for the organization's Board of Directors. The organization is relatively new and still getting on it's feet. Slowly, but surely, it's getting there. I happened to be in the area when the meeting was occurring and offered to take photos of both the BOD and the organization's staff. Nothing fancy was needed, just something simple and presentable.


Read more and comment at Boot to the head!

So there I was, stuck in the jungles of Borneo fending off the attacks of never before seen lovers of longpork and the delightfully disgusting dance of durian when ...



Wait, that's not it.



So there I was, sitting in first class on my way to grand Paris when the co-pilot rushed out of the smocking cockpit proclaiming the need for a professional geek. I, being a professional geek, raised my hand and ...


Wait, that's not it either.



So there I was, wondering how I was going to explain to my wife that I'd been arrested for trespassing in some rancher's field while trying to get my nude, feather wearing model to mount a cathartic bull when ...



Nope, nope. Not it either.

Read more and comment at A month! Where have you been!?.

You ought to have seen what I saw on my way

To the village, through Mortenson's pasture to-day:

Blueberries as big as the end of your thumb,

Real sky-blue, and heavy, and ready to drum

In the cavernous pail of the first one to come! 

And all ripe together, not some of them green

And some of them ripe! You ought to have seen!"

Blueberries by Robert Frost

Have you ever pulled a well-ripened blueberry from it's comforting container and just ... admired it? Hold it between your fingers. No, don't squeeze it; it'll burst at the seams. But, just cradle it. They have a delicate skin, a deepest of blue. Some of mine were just past the age of ripeness. You could see it in the skin, wrinkled like the skin of a well-worn man aged in the sun and retired from the orchard.



When ripened, blueberry skin becomes waxy, almost white and milky. This aging of it's coat protects it from spoiling too quickly. But, at the same time, reveals a mottled and textured appeal for the camera. It gives life and depth to this tiny blue planet.

Read more and comment at Blueberry, blueberry, where are you?

Spent Thursday afternoon filling my camera with more sources of mediocre HDR down at the University. I have to admit: trying to see this stuff is much harder than I expected. You don't really know what you're going to get until you're staring at the tonemap and you're clicking on commit.



It's somewhat frustrating, I must confess. You think you have something good in camera and when you get it loaded it ... well. It's just utter crap. I like the look of HDR photography when, to the naked eye, it appears delicately painted on, brush stroke by brush stroke. I suppose it will get better with time, but we'll see.

Read more and comment at Hoppin' the waterplug just for old HDR's sake

Last month when I flew up to Chicago, we got diverted to St. Louis because of the nightmare that was the storm front rolling through the area. The sunset was beautiful. It was just us, the plane, the tarmac, and our fellow stranded fliers in the other planes around us. We were all in the penalty box and no one knew if we'd get out alive.


Read more and comment at HDR Playtime!

I think I'm going to start something new on here. Well, restart is probably more apropos. I spend a decent amount of time feeding my hunger for photography (and other interesting stuff) on the web every day. Probably far more than a sane person should. So as I come across this stuff, I'll drop it on here for you.



President Obama's first 167 days in office — Man these photos are awesome. Very engaging. I really enjoyed #16, #18, #32, and #36. Makes me wish I could step into a photography role like that, where I get to follow someone in the limelight and document their lives for posterity.



Read more and comment at Links plucked form the Ether.

Happiness is ...

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bliss is ...

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:-9

I promised myself I would do every Strobist Bootcamp II assignment this go-around. I swear I did. When I failed at doing the second one (the food assignment), I went out and bought some random vittles at Whole Foods to make up for it. A good strobist I was. I chose a random smattering of things: serrano peppers, fresno peppers, coffee beans, spaghetti (spinach AND wheat), two-bite brownies, and pints of blueberries.



Sadly, the brownies didn't make it out of the evening alive. But the coffee beans did! I'm not sure about the photos though. I need to take a step back and re-evaluate what I did and figure out how I could have made them better. I think the biggest problem is that they're just too uniform in color. All brown, no biscuit.

Read more and comment at Juan Valdez, eat your heart out!

It's two for one blogging Mondays!

Oh foul weather, I am not impressed.

Panning for Gold