it’s something…

I took a bunch of pictures today. Ended up with a lot of flowers again. I was at Animal Kingdom, and they have some really interesting flowers there. Since they are trying to create that exotic far off jungle theme they have a lot of flowers you don’t see everyday. I also got a few non-botanical pictures like this “barn” door.

Anyway out of the pics I processed tonight, I picked out this one to include with the post. I think there is just something really neat about this flower, but I can’t quite put my finger on exactly what it is that I like.

OK, here are the links to some other pictures…

A yellow flower
Another shot of the “barn” door
And finally…some purple things

In case you didn’t already know…Transformers came out on DVD this week. Of course I know you all knew that…right? Anyway, I don’t buy a lot of DVD’s. Mostly cause I don’t like to watch “reruns”. If I know how the story ends I usually don’t so much enjoy watching it again. So most of the DVD’s in the house are more “kid” oriented. I think the only DVD’s that I have for me are Animal House and Clerks II. It seems like I have another one, but can’t think of what it is off hand.

So today I set out to do something that I don’t do very often…buy a DVD. So I head over to the fancy new Best Buy that is around the corner from my house. I walk in and right there in front of the door is the big ass Transformers display. I walk up and grab the $19 DVD…but wait, what is that other one. Oh the special two disk version with extra special special features…well I have to have that, cause that is the main reason to have the DVD in the first place. Wait…what is that other one…down there on the lower shelf…hmm, it is the special two disk special special features version, but it has something extra…

It has toys action figures!

Uh…yeah of course I got the one with the toys action figures!

So couple nights ago I posted a picture of my kids “potion bottles”. The picture was met with some mixed reviews. Well really not so much mixed. Mostly it was “that picture ain’t right…not sure what but it ain’t right”. In other words everyone pretty much agreed that I was sucking at the arrangingy thing.

So after some discussion with one of my critics trusted advisers, I came up with an idea for the shot. See I was trying to draw attention to the bottle with the more interesting shape, but the other bottles were just too jumbled and stuff and actually distracted from the bottle that I wanted to draw attention to.

So I went at it again with a fresh perspective and I think it works…

Hopefully I won’t get so much hate mail this time.

So I had this candle I was taking pics of, and at some point realized that the candle should be lit. So I goes and get me the clicker thingy…click click…no lighty. Again and again and again… My kid, who was trying to help me with the arranging at the time, and I were stumped. So I figure it might be that there is too much wick sticking up. I reach in to break off some of the wick and it won’t break off cause it is metal. The candle is burned done so far that the spikey thing on the candle holder is exposed.

This shot has the same kind of issue the train picture…part of the subject is disappearing into the background. I think I need to buy some more sheets…I mean fancy backdrops.

Oh…and you might be wondering how I lit a candle with no wick…I dropped a small candle inside and lit it.

He is another shot that I took last night. I had given up on the still life thing at this point and just wanted to see if I could take a cool shot of this caboose.

I am really digging the level of detail captured and colors, but there are some issues. The biggest problem I have is that the top of the car kind of disappears into the background. The next thing that bugs me is that part of the car up in the front corner is out of focus. I need to figure out why that happened.

Day 3 of operation still life. Today I raided the kids room looking for stuff to put in front of the camera. I found a candle and her potion bottles…

The potion bottles made for the more interesting picture. I am still not sure about my arranging…

I think I might still have a decent pic of the candle so maybe I can share that tomorrow.

I set out tonight to create the more fancier still life. You know one of those shots that has all these cool interesting things thrown together in a natural non-staged kind of way…to put it simply…I suck.

I found a bunch of interesting shit and arranged it and took some shots…and it was bleh. Very bleh. Moved things around…bleh. Take some stuff out out bleh. Move this change that, get rid of that…bleh bleh bleh. I kept taking stuff out till all I had left were some books, and a bookend. Finally, I had something! Then I tried to add something back in…bleh.

So…just some books and a bookend. That is what I am capable of “staging”…

The classic still life…a bowl of fruit. I think anybody that has every taken any kind of an art class has had to draw or paint a bowl of fruit. I think this is a decent picture of a bowl of apples, but it is missing something. I mean it is what it is, but it isn’t all that interesting when you get right down to it. See I was recently looking at a blog where the person posts pictures, and she had really fucking interesting still life pics.

The thing is…to get to that interesting level, you have to build a scene. Literally you have to put a whole thing together. Sure the bowl of fruit is subject, but you really need to fill in the scene with shit. An interesting lamp some old books, and all of that shit has to be piled up on top of an interesting table in front of an interesting wall or something. And you can’t just throw the shit on the table it has to be balanced…you almost need to be a fucking decorator.

I think I could capture an interesting still life it was there, but I don’t think I have it in me to “build it”.

I was reading on the internets that Staples was having a sale on 2 gig SD cards…$20 for a 2 gig card is a pretty good price any day. I already have three 2 gig cards, but it is hard to pass up that price, especially on a name brand…one of my cards just says “2 GB”. So I went over to Staples to pick one up, but when I got there my plans changed.

I found the $19 cards…just sitting there as advertised, I even picked one up and was ready to walk away when something shiny caught my eye. OK it wasn’t actually shiny, but it did catch my eye.

See…it said “ULTRA II”. Can you believe it? It’s not just ULTRA, it’s ULTRA II! So my will power was working and I was ready to walk away…but then…I noticed the price. Only $5 more! Fucking A motherfucker! $25 is still a good price for a 2 gig card, and…AND it’s ULTRA II!

It’s ULTRA II!

OK, first things first…Miller Chill is not all that great…and I am not so much digging Sam Adams Cherry Wheat, but since I don’t like them so much I am trying to drink them as fast as I can and as a result I seem to be getting a bit of a buzz. I wouldn’t say that I am drunk, but I am certainly feeling it.

Anyway a local radio show was talking about road lines and street signs today. I remembered that I had a street sign buried somewhere in my garage. So I was thinking it would be neat to take a picture of it, but I am thinking that maybe I shouldn’t take pictures when I have been drinking…