What a BuzzKill

I think I’m going to amend my saying that I’ll take and post a picture every day this month to be more like I’ll take a picture everyday, but it may take a day to actually post it. That being said, I’ll still do my best to post it on the same day that I take it.

I went to the store to pick up a couple of things and when I got out there was this vivid sunset starting to form. I hurried to my car and drove to the nearest spot I knew of where I might capture it. What I like best about this shot (aside from the fact it was a beautiful sunset) is the row of palm trees in silhouette.

The park I went to take this turned out to be a place where quite a few people were gathering to enjoy the view. Couples holding hands, a woman walking a dog, an older fellow doing the same as I was – taking pictures – were all there taking in the beauty of a Southern California sunset with the uncommon addition of a cloudy sky to give the light something to play with.

_{This entry never gets tired of sunset.}

I was helping my friend Rana with her computer; she’s a graphic artist and enjoys photography as well. While sitting around waiting for a malware scan to finish, I spotted one of the old components we took out her computer and thought it would make for a good subject for a photo. We discussed how it might best photograph and experimented with a few angles and focal points. This was the result.

This is an AGP video card. The big part you see here is the heatsink for the GPU. Either this video card or the memory stick in her computer was bad and causing some errors and/or random restarts. I swapped them both out with some spare parts I had laying about and her computer was back to behaving as it should.

_{This entry loves macro shots.}

Time just wasn’t on my side today. So I ended up having to do another photo at home. I can’t say this is bad or good, but it was an attempt at something different.

My dad was in town so we went out for dinner to catch up on what’s going on with one another. The picture is of his guitar. He’s had the thing forever and it always reminds me of when he used to play and sing for us as kids. One of my favorites was one we called “Jungle Boy”. I’ve tried finding the lyrics to the song, but I never can. There was a part of the song where he’d do this jungle bird call type of sound that would make us all giggle and laugh. My dad’s love of music is something that seems to have stuck with me. It’s no wonder that his children have made it big a part of their lives, too.

_{This entry remembers furious strumming and a “brrdddddddd – KAH KAH KAH!”}

Today I decided that I didn’t take enough photos of people. I also don’t take photos of people at night … well, ever. I recruited my own personal teenage model (Rece) for an attempt to do long exposure night shots against a brick wall. He was willing, but definitely didn’t understand the concept of holding perfectly still! Anyhow, 2 of the shots out of 14 weren’t blurred, so I can’t complain too much.

The idea for this moody shot came earlier in the day when I went home for lunch. For some reason the brick wall just caught my attention and I thought it could only look good if shot at night. Then I went through all manner of ideas of what to put in front of the brick wall … a chair? a plant? a vacuum? I couldn’t decide at first, but then it came to me – a person … but who? Rece, of course! But how would I shoot it at night with an extended exposure – people move. That’s the beauty of digital photography, I could just shoot until I got one that wasn’t blurry. Lucky for me it only took 14 shots to get 2 and one of those was good enough to apply some effects that would capture my idea.

_{This entry likes it dark and moody.}

Today was Christine’s birthday. After a fun dinner out at Benihana we stopped by Ralph’s to pick up some cake. I remembered that I hadn’t taken a photo yet, so I went back to my car and grabbed my camera. While the others were selecting a cake, I spotted an end-cap cooler full of champagne bottles and decided to use them as my subject for the day, seeing as it represents celebration.

Looking at it now, I can see a lot of ways that this could have been done better. But after taking just one photo (this one) I had the store greeter standing behind me and staring. I took a quick look at the preview image and thought it was good enough and promptly put the lens cap back on and went to help with cake selection.

_{This entry forgot that grocery store chains don’t like people taking pictures inside.}

I ended up taking a personal day to handle some stuff I’ve been putting off for far too long. When it’s all official and done, I’ll probably write about it here. Then again, those of you who read this already know about it anyhow.

While waiting on hold I spotted something that I thought would make a cool picture. I snapped a few pictures and chose one to put up here. Can you guess what’s in the photo?

_{This entry loves gradients.}

It’s been awhile since I’ve done much writing or photography. I felt it was time to change that and see what would happen if I took a photograph every day and posted it to my blog with a description or story. So here’s the first of what I hope will become many of these. Wish me luck!

 

This is my computer desk at home. I spend quite a lot of time sitting in front of it almost every day. I’m quite proud of my self-built system

_{This entry wonders about some of its ideas at times.}

I’ve been playing Lord of the Rings Online since it was in the beta phase. I’ve enjoyed the time I’ve spent roaming about a decent digital interpretation of Middle-earth and making friends along the way.

Earlier this month Turbine (the company that produces the game) released an expansion to the game, extending the land that players can venture into to encompass the Mines of Moria and Lothlorien. To their credit, the Mines of Moria are an incredible sight to behold. The vast caverns and dwarf-delved halls are awe-inspiring.

I took quite a few screenshots while I was there and wanted to show them off. 🙂

You can check out my Lord of the Rings Flickr set for more screenshots and to view the larger versions of these.

_{This entry is just one small dwarf in a very big cave.}

If this video doesn’t make you smile, stop reading my blog.

[flash http://www.youtube.com/v/lk5_OSsawz4&hl]

_{This entry can’t get the tune out of its head!}

I just found this article online that has some of the most stunning pictures of our sun that I’ve ever seen.

While I’m on the subject, here’s some Monty Python for your enjoyment …

[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpbjXFS8Zag]

_{This entry is enjoying its ride on our little blue marble.}