Category Archive

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Just a couple more shots of the family of Canada Geese that are living behind my store. I like to take my dinner break out back and watch them if they’re around, makes for a nice change in a hectic day.

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Here are a few pictures I took at the Grand Opening party the other night. I’ll spare y’all the standard “strangers smiling for the camera” shots, but I thought these were a bit more artistic:

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Ohhh, what PUNishment! I just couldn’t help myself though. Anyway, this was a photo op at work today. Sorry for the lack of updates, but I’ve been busy, busy. There will be a long rambling post tomorrow, but for now, sleepy time.

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There are times when I think I’ve come along decently as a photographer, then there are times when I come upon something that drives home how far I have to go. I came upon this picture on Deviant Art and it just blew me away: (click the link to check it out as the photograph is an artistic nude and not work safe) Read the rest of this entry »

Whew, Tired today, but still feeling good. Today’s a recovery day and I’m definitely feeling it, especially in the upper back and shoulders. Sooooo, yeah. Other than that, not much going on today and I can’t think if anything clever to rant about, so we’ll go with some pretty pictures:

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Not much to say at the moment, so here are a couple of pretty pictures:

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“To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.” -Henri Bergson

My apologies to those I’ve concerned with my absence. I’ve been taking a break from my online routine, partly in the futile hope that breaking one pattern would lead to change in others and partly from a severe lack of inspiration. Since my blog is mostly about my life, and my life has been fairly static lately, there just hasn’t been much to say. I feel like I’m stagnating, doing the same things over and over again on a daily basis, beating my head against the unyielding wall of unemployment, working out, eating, sleeping. My days all just blend together and I honestly didn’t realize exactly how long it’s been since I updated.

Speaking of working out, I started back with weight training this week, a bit earlier than I had planned. A strictly cardiovascular workout routine just wasn’t doing it for me. I need the intensity of lifting to feel like I’m making progress, I’ve decided to try to change things up with a three day cycle. I’ll do weight training one day, cardio the next, then have a day of rest instead of trying to work out six days straight with one day of recovery. I’m hoping that will give me better results and I’ll be able to stick to the routine. After all, it’s consistency that is the key.

That’s pretty much all that’s been going on. With any luck, there will be some changes soon.

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I know, I know, I’m a bad blogger for not posting more often. I just haven’t had a whole lot to talk about. There’s not much going on in my life at the moment. The job search continues to be fruitless, which is frustrating, but doesn’t give me a whole lot of blog material. Absence of job also means a minimum of social interaction, so that doesn’t give me a whole lot of blog fodder.

Heh, I suppose I should be grateful that things are so routine. I may be bored, but that’s better than bouncing from crisis to crisis…. Right? I’m actually perversely proud of myself for maintaining this level of bland. I’ve never handled boredom well and the old pattern was to run out and do something stupid and self-destructive to get the thrill back in my life. So far, I’ve managed to fight down any urges in that direction. Does that mean I’ve matured or that I’m getting old? Is there a difference?

Hopefully, once I get a job, my life will get more interesting without increased drama. I can deal with bland…. for now.

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In my last photographic foray, I decided to try something a little different and take close up shots of turbulent water with the high speed setting on my camera. It was an experiment and I came out with some interesting pictures. The problem is, one looks much like the other. The second picture in the series has been photoshopped for artistic effect:

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Spring has most definitely sprung. The past couple of days it’s been sunny and in the low eighties here, just perfect spring weather. I took advantage of it to go out and take pictures this afternoon. I got some good ones, but I just wasn’t feeling too inspired. I had a bad case of ‘been there, done that’, like my photography is in a rut. Of course, it didn’t help that I was at a local park I’ve been to a bunch of times before. I need new locations and more variety in my subject matter. Anyway, here are my favorites of what I took:

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This would have been such a cool picture if it had just come out clearer. I took about five different pictures when I saw this jumping spider on my windowsill, but none of them came out decently. Grrrrr. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a shot of a spider with the eyes like that.

Sunny, warm spring days are definitely giving me the photographic itch. The job search has to come first though. Having to pay out almost four hundred dollars for taxes certainly didn’t help my financial situation, but at least I’ll get it back in my “incentive” check later this year.

So, that’ pretty much the latest news. Still poor, unemployed, and celibate. Film at eleven.

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My dad wrote this poem as an anniversary gift for his friends, then got the idea to combine it with one of my pictures. I kept the design simple and I’m fairly happy with how it came out, so I thought I’d share it here as well:

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Sometimes, you have to take the time to appreciate the little things in life:

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I’ll tell you, spring is feeling pretty good to me. It’s not quite warm enough to drive around with the top down, but just having the sun shining and plants blooming really helps my mood.

Thanks to all for the kind comments on my pictures. I was chatting with a friend the other day and she said my photographs “move her”. Then, my dad of all people told me that my pictures make him look at things differently and that he’s really impressed with how I notice and frame the small things. It’s always surprising and gratifying when people say things like that about my work. I’m very critical of myself, which has been one of the problems in my attempts at freehand drawing, so the positive reinforcement is much appreciated.

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More pictures from Saturday’s photo safari:

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I woke up this morning at a little after four am. Since I’d planned on getting up at five to go to the gym, I decided I might as well stay up and get moving early. I should have known better. My gym opens at five during the week and I thought it did the same on Sundays, but it turns out they don’t open ’til six on the weekends. So, after getting ready and heading out, I find the gym dark and empty. Have you ever tried to find a constructive way to kill forty five minutes at five am on a Sunday morning?…. and fight the temptation to just go back to bed at the same time? I was not a happy camper.

Other than that, it’s been a pretty good weekend. We had the Game on Friday, which was a lot of fun. It was my first time moderating since I went on the Lexapro and I could really feel a difference. It’s really hard to maintain my concentration with multiple stimuli now. I am just way distractible. I’d start to look something up in the rule books and get side tracked by something that caught my eye or a side conversation going on. I’m hoping that’s a side effect that will improve as I adjust to the medication. If not, I’m going to have to figure out a way to compensate. Still, the game was fun and being out and socializing felt good too.

Saturday, Kendra and I went to one of the local parks and spent some time taking pictures. That also felt really good. Fresh air, sunshine, good company, and being creative are all good things. it sure beats sitting alone in my room watching stupid movies on the sci-fi channel. So, I’ll be posting new pictures throughout the week (or longer), starting with a few of my favorite niece:

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I’m starting to get the creative itch back. I’m hoping that the weather will cooperate this weekend, so Kendra and I can go out on a photo safari. It’ll have to be local, as I’m way short on funds for fuel, but just getting out and snapping some pictures would be nice.

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This is a picture of a figure I have on my desk. Sometimes I feel like this, just a clown braced and waiting for the big kaboom.

Of course, waiting passively only makes the explosion inevitable and hurtling through the air out of control is not the same as flying….

… And that, my friends, is my thought for the day.

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Well, to the surprise and shock of no one, I did not get the photographer job I interviewed for. They decided to go with someone who had more action photography experience, which I can’t really fault them for, since I have none. What I find annoying is that I had to chase them to find out I didn’t get the job. From what I understood, they had all of three applicants. How hard is it to drop an e-mail to the other two saying, “So sorry, but we decided to go with someone else. Thanks for your interest.”? This happens in every job I’ve interviewed for. You go to the interview and they say something like “We’ll make our decision by the end of the week. Either way, you’ll have an answer by then”. The end of the week comes and, if you’re not the applicant they go with, you hear nothing. Really, that’d be fine if they’d just said “If you don’t hear from us by the end of the week, you didn’t get the job.”, but no, they leave you twisting. You think maybe there was a delay, so they won’t decide until Monday. You have to decide how much time to give them before you contact them and ask. I friggin‘ hate that. Just tell me! I can take rejection. The gods know I’m certainly used to it by now. It’s the uncertainty that gets to me, having hope and cynicism fighting a little war in my brain for a couple of days.

Meh. Ah well, back to the want ads.

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This is a sculpture I did for my 3D art class back when I went to Gibbs. As you can see, I did a craptacular job on it, but I think I ended up getting an “A” anyhow. The teacher was extremely kind with grades. I think anyone who completed the project and made an honest effort at it got an “A”. Luckily, he didn’t deduct for lack of talent. Anyway, it’s been sitting on top of my bookshelf for the last three years and, obviously, it’s never been dusted. I think all the cobwebs add a little something, don’t you?

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So, I was bored, my camera was handy, and I just happen to have this dagger….. for decoration, of course. So, I snapped a few pictures, just to experiment and fool around. Some of them came out fairly cool.

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After taking this one, I had the thought that a picture of it actually cutting me would look awesome….. Then I had the thought that I’m really not that dedicated.

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Well, In a burst of optimism, I once again sent some pictures in to a stock photo company. This is a different place than the one who rejected me twice and they actually supplied some guidelines for the type of pictures they were looking for, as well as what they absolutely didn’t want. Unfortunately for me, flower and woodland pictures were at the top of that list. As I’ve said before, I really need to expand my repertoire.

**addendum**  Well, that was quick. Less than five hours to be rejected by this company. That’s a new record. Gotta face facts, ’tain’t no one willing to pay me for my photo work.

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Thanks to all for the complimentary comments. I don’t have much to say at the moment, so I hope you’ll indulge me a few more pictures:

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Well, yesterday I got an intense hankerin’ to go out and take some new pictures. I hadn’t taken any since we had that ice storm almost two months ago. I went to one of the local parks and spent a very pleasant time taking pictures of ice formations in the stream. Then, in an effort to expand my horizons, I asked myself what I wouldn’t normally take pictures of. There was a playground in the park, so I tried to take some interesting pictures of that. Since it was winter, the place was pretty deserted, which was good for me. After all, they have names for guys who hang around playgrounds by themselves taking pictures, don’t they? Anyway, you can see all the pictures I took on my smugmug page, but I’ll post some of my favorites here:

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I took this one at the stream and then altered it a bit in Photoshop. Which one do you like better?

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This one is a macro of the ice. I really liked it, but I think tweaking it in Photoshop really made it pop:

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The stream under the ice was really beautiful too:

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And finally, here are some of the playground pictures:

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Taken through my kitchen window late last night. I took a bunch of shots, but this is the best I came out with because:

1. My camera sucks at night pictures
2. My hand isn’t nearly steady enough to take low light pictures without a tripod
3. Deer do not cooperate with the whole “Just hold that pose while I get a picture” thing
4. Deer also tend to wander away from the window that you’re trying to take pictures through.

Deer also apparently like birdseed….. And my father thought he had enough problems with squirrels.

Meh, I’m not feeling very articulate today, so here’s some “streaming” pictures (Haha):

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Oh man, I have a severe case of the don’t wanna’s today. My butt is dragging more than a wet bag of concrete. Ugh and double ugh. I need coffee. Unfortunately, I don’t have any coffee, nor can I afford any. I have two whole dollars in my wallet, twenty nine cents (!) in the bank, and barely any income. On Friday, I should get paid for the two days I worked last week, but that will be less than a hundred dollars. Meanwhile, I have my car insurance payment due on Wednesday, my gym membership due on Friday, and a car payment on Saturday. Gee, I wonder why I’m not feeling more uplifted and energetic?

I’ve contemplated canceling my gym membership temporarily just to save a little money, but my workouts are about the only positive thing I have going that make me feel good. I’m just not willing to give that up. Meh, I should get my butt moving. Sitting here bitching isn’t going to solve anything.

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Well, I’m gearing up for my ‘Observation Day’ today and feeling pretty happy that the killer snow storm they were predicting turned out to be just a little drizzle. I’m feeling anticipation about today, but I’m not really nervous. I’m hoping that’s a good sign. The more I’ve read about what I’ll be doing, the more I’m sure I can do this…. and I might even enjoy it. One thing I have to remember is that I’m not there to debate or convert anyone who’s dead set against the cause. It’s “This is who we are. This is what we’re doing. Would you like to help by becoming a member and/or contributing?” No is no. Thanks for your time and move on…… That’s easy enough and the quota you’re expected to meet is definitely doable. I’m also looking forward to meeting the people I’ll be working with. It shouldn’t be all middle aged businessmen this time. That should be refreshing. All in all, I’m looking forward to this.

Meanwhile, here some pretty pictures for those who did get hit with snow and for anyone who might be experiencing the winter blahs:

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Because I felt like posting something pretty:

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… Oh no, wait, it was just New Year’s Morning.

I tell you, if you want to know what it feels like to be the last person on earth, go to a gym at six thirty am on New Year’s Day. I drove in and there were no other cars on the road. (Of course, my gym is just about a mile from my house, but anyway…) When I got there, there were about a half dozen cars in the parking lot, but no one was in sight when I walked in. It was kinda spooky. everything was on and I could hear a bunch of little machine whirs and beeps that you don’t notice when there are people around. The music was on, but no one was working out, no conversations happening, just nothing but myself reflected in the mirrors.

Call me weird, but I found the solitude very enjoyable, not that it will last. Soon, there will be swarms of people with shiny new resolutions descending on my peaceful gym. They come every year, like locusts only sweaty. The good thing is that most of them don’t last more than a month. Those resolutions don’t stay shiny for long. Me, I’m in it for the long haul. I’ll out last the lot of ‘em….

In other news, I finally made a decision on my photo-blog. I shall no longer be updating my Diaryland site. Instead, I’ve opened a Deviant Art account, which can be found by clicking this:

I’ve uploaded about twenty five pictures so far and received several nice comments as well as people adding my work to their favorites. It’s very gratifying, especially since my Diaryland site never got much response. I may also open a photo-blog here on WordPress since Deviant Art only allows members to comment, but for now, I’m content.

It’s funny how things balance out sometimes. After having my pictures rejected yesterday, I get this in the mail:

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W00T!! I am now officially a published photographer! I’m number six on the page, for those who don’t recognize the photo. Looking through the whole anthology, I’m even prouder to have made it to the finals. There are some fantastic pictures in there and I’m surprised my photograph made it as far as it did. According to the publisher, I made it into the top five percent of over twenty thousand entrants. That really helps my confidence that I can actually do this. It’ll just take time and effort.

Good thing I’m so patient, eh?

I’ve had a strange craving for macaroni and cheese lately, so I got some the last time I went shopping (organic M&C, five boxes for six bucks) and I made some tonight. I even went the healthy route with low-fat milk and no butter (though I did add extra cheese) and a yummy kale salad on the side. ‘Twas tasty, but it sure didn’t satisfy the hunger pangs for long. Now my tummy’s all growly and I’m resisting the urge to snack. Actually, I’m resisting the urge to run out and get a bacon double cheeseburger (With extra fat!) and a chocolate shake, but that’s beside the point.

Yep, you know when I’m blogging about what I had for dinner that I just had a day filled with excitement. I faxed a couple of more resumes, which will hopefully show some results for a change. I also submitted another set of pictures to a stock photo company. If the pictures are accepted, I then become a member and earn a fee for every time one of my pictures is downloaded for use. A lot of professional photographer use this sort of service as a secondary source of income and the company I’m trying for is reputable (and it doesn’t charge an entry fee or anything), so I know it’s not some sort of scam. I definitely stay away from any company that promises I can make thousands of dollars if I just send them twenty bucks to find out how. So, here’s hoping I get accepted.

Well, I’m even boring myself, so here’s a pretty picture for you:

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I did get some good pictures on Friday morning before the sun came out and melted everything away. This one is by far my favorite:

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I posted more on my Photoblog, so check ‘em out there.

Since I don’t have a waterproof camera, spending any time outside to make more pictures isn’t going to work out. I snapped a couple of bad photos before giving up and  played with this one to make it purty. Funky, ain’t it?

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Well, the killer ice has arrived in New Jersey. It’s sleeting pretty heavily, but hasn’t really done much yet. However, I did grab my camera for some quick pictures. I figure I can use these for comparison shots later in the day.

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Like I said, these aren’t much. If you want to see some really beautiful ice pictures, check out this blog. The woman is highly talented.

Speaking of photoblogs, I’m considering moving mine from Diaryland. I’d either start one here on WordPress or over at Blogger. Diaryland just doesn’t have many features or get much traffic and it’s actually something I have to pay for. I want more exposure for my photography, so I think the move is a good idea.

While we’re on the subject of photography (I am the master of the segue!), I did get some good news in the mail recently. I got my official certificate for making the finals in the Photographer’s Forum Magazine contest. Woot!!

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The 2007 Annual will be coming out at the end of the month and my picture will be in it. That will make my first ever published photograph, so I’m very excited about that. I really want to enter more contests, but I haven’t had the cash for entry fees. Once I get a new job though, that’s high on the list of priorities.

My Father, Kendra, and I went back to the Lakota Wolf Preserve to see the wolves in their winter coats. It was definitely a good trip, though the light wasn’t so good for photography. I really wish I had a spare four hundred dollars for their half day photography session. I’d love to be able to get some close up pictures without the chain link fence in the way.

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I also took a video with the intent of recording the wolves howling. YouTube wouldn’t accept it, so I had to upload it to MySpace. Which means, unfortunately, I can’t embed it here, so follow this link to watch it…. and ignore the video itself, which is awful. Just listen to the wolves sing…..

….. That I am not a man of my word:

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You have no idea how satisfying that was.

Last night I went to a fantabulous Halloween party given by the always amazing Lez and her equally fantastic boyfriend Jon. I had much fun. There was good food, good drink, good people, and (of course) costumes!

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Here we have me embracing my inner demon.

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Lez rocking out.

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Lez and Jon being all kinds of cute together.

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That’s Jon’s brother Sam on the left. I don’t remember the names of the other two.

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Murad (and I probably misspelled that) being a living drinking game.

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Three slightly blurry badasses.

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Jon and yet another person who’s name I can’t remember. The word of the night was phalanges!

Yep, all in all a very good night. The hard core partiers went until four in the morning and I ended up sleeping until two in the afternoon.

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There’s a ghost in my room!… Well, not really. Just a trick using a long shutter speed on my camera and then moving my hand while the picture was being taken.

Sometimes, I truly think I’m an idiot. I was reading an online tutorial about capturing motion blur in your photos for artistic effect and fiddling around with my camera, wishing I had a way to manually set things like shutter speed and aperture. Well, long story short, it turns out that I do. Actually, it turns out I can do a lot more with my camera than I thought I could. Yep, after over a year and a half of owning my camera, I finally broke the seal on the advanced manual that came with it. There are all kinds of settings and options that I haven’t been taking advantage of.

Like I said, I’m an idiot

So, after I blogged earlier, I decided to head out to Frenchtown, NJ to take a walk along the Delaware river and see if I could take any good pictures. I thought the trip would be a bust because as I arrived, there were a bunch of clouds rolling in:

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Luckily for me, no rain happened and I did get some good pictures taken. Thanks to an especially cooperative squirrel (or two), I even got some good wildlife pictures:

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I was really pleased with those. So, on the whole, I’d say it’s been a pretty good day. You can see all the pictures I took today in my Smugmug gallery or wait for them to appear on my photo blog. Myself, I’m gonna relax for a bit.

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The picture above is my fantabulous niece’s hair.  I took it at the spur of the moment while we were out at the Great Swamp taking pictures and i thought it looked kinda cool, so I kept it.

Today was kinda of a blah day. I decided to give myself the day off from working out as a recovery day and I was looking forward to sleeping in, but last night was a lousy night for sleeping. I’d crash for an hour, then wake up and not be able to sleep, then crash again, then up again. Grrrrr. So, of course I was all discombobulated today, just tired and achey. The weather didn’t help at all either. It’s been raining on and off all day. So, all in all, just blah, blah, blah.

Right now, I’m just killing time until my friend Jim shows up, then he, Kendra, and I will be going out to dinner.  That, at least, will be fun. We were supposed to have a Game tonight, but Ken is busy taking motorcycle lessons, so that was canceled. Too bad to, I could use some hack and slash.

Judging by the extremely aggravated bird that exploded into my room earlier today, those bird nests I found underneath my air conditioner were still in use. I opened up my window and the bird flew back out to yell at me from a tree for a while. I considered trying to get a picture of it while it was in my room, but I figured it was more important to get it outside before it hurt itself. Later on, there was a stink bug flying around my room that got snagged in a spider web:

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Yep, my room is just Wild America these days, mainly because my window screens haven’t been replaced in my lifetime and I like fresh air.

Kathy, over at Becoming Kate, and some friends are calling for “from the loo” pictures. Always willing to break out my camera, here are mine.

First I took this one:

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Then I opened the screen and took these two:

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Man, I remember when that view didn’t have any houses in in at all. Still, at least they’re far away and there aren’t all that many of them.

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Taken out of my bedroom window just a little bit ago.

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As evidenced by the lack of significant posts, this has been an uneventful week. Today was better, as I went out with Kendra on our last photo safari before she returns to school. The picture above is one I took while we were horsing around, but I think it came out very good.

Other than that, there’s not much to talk about. I’m a bit miffed with my father. I was making dinner when the phone rang and my dad answered it. Usually, Dad screens all calls through the answering machine, but this time he picked it up on the first ring. The next thing I know, he’s saying “There’s no David K**** at this address” and then he hangs up. I look at him and he tells me that he assumed it was a bill collector, so he said I didn’t live there……. Ok, soak that in. I’ve been sending out resumes and filling out online job applications with my home phone number, and if my father picks up a call for me, he tells the caller I don’t live here…… That’s just freakin’ great.

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Well, I got all of yesterday’s pictures processed. Out of the two hundred sixty two photographs I took, I got one hundred sixty four usable ones. My second favorite one is up top there. I like it ’cause it feels more artsy than the rest. You can see all of the pictures from the Kay Environmental Center by clicking here.

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I was stung by a wasp today. Twice actually, once on the arm and once on the neck. That’s the price you pay for getting a little too enthusiastic about photographing their nest. All in all though, it was a good day. Kendra and I went to the Kay Environmental Center in Morris County, NJ for a photo safari and I took over two hundred sixty pictures. Some were quite good and some were total crap. The one shown above is my favorite of the lot. I haven’t processed them all yet, but I will by the end of the weekend. I also learned a couple of things on the trip. The first being not to get too close to potentially dangerous photo subjects and the second is to bring my tripod with me in case of low light conditions. It was overcast all day and when we got into the woods, things got a bit gloomy. The problem with that being that your camera aperture has to stay open longer to let enough light in for a good picture and that means any had shake you have going on becomes much more pronounced. I had some potentially excellent pictures come out blurry, which was frustrating. I thought I’d gotten over my need for a tripod, but I realize now that most of my forays have been on bright sunny days. Ah well, if I knew it all, what fun would life be?

My reaction to the stings was interesting. Not the physical one, mind you. I’m not allergic, so it was just a bit of pain that quickly passed. However, I enjoyed the adrenaline rush way more than I should have. A little danger really spiced up my day. Heh, if Kendra hadn’t been there, I may have gone back and taunted the wasps some more. Best that I didn’t though. After all, the wasps weren’t bothering anyone. It was me who invaded their territory.

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*Edit* Almost forgot the picture of the sting:

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*note to self: Macro shot of skin = Bad idea

 Yesterday was one of those days where my horoscope turned out to be eerily accurate. I checked it in the morning like a usually do and it read, “Scorpio: Making a tough financial decision could be your big challenge of the day. One part of you wants to spend the money without sticking to your budget. But you know that an impulsive purchase might not be the smartest move. You can get the best of both worlds by buying something relatively inexpensive like lunch, a book, or a CD, while putting off a major buy until you have enough time to do more research and think it over carefully.”

Since my plan for the day was to go out with Kendra on a photo safari where my biggest expense would be gas for the car and breakfast, I wasn’t all that worried. Heh, silly me. As it turned out, the weather decided not to cooperate with our plans. It was cold, rainy, and just not good hiking and taking pictures weather. So instead, we went to the mall. We had planned to go there after taking pictures because Kendra had one a free photo session at a portrait store and she wanted more information. I figure we’ll check it out, then catch a movie…. Which we did. We saw Stardust and that film is awesome. It’s original. It’s entertaining. The acting is great and the special effects are awesome. Plus, Robert De Niro plays a gay pirate. I highly recommend seeing it.

Anyway, when we checked out the portrait place, Kendra and I ended up making the appointment for the photo session that evening. So, after the movie, I ran her home so she could clean off her makeup and grab a couple of outfits. The photo session itself was a lot of fun. Kendra got her hair and makeup professionally done for the first time in her life. That took close to an hour, but it looked fantastic when she was done… and I say that as a straight male. Then they did the photo session. I have to admit, I had several ‘Who is this young woman and what has she done with my little niece’ moments. Kendra was just glam-or-ous. They did about a half dozen pictures in each outfit and the photographs turned out wonderfully. I also enjoyed the chance to get to see a professional photographer do studio work. I don’t have any experience with that or with working with a live model, so it was a good learning experience for me.

It was only at the end that we hit a snag. Kendra’s prize covered the makeup and photo session, but did not include any prints. They started talking print packages that started at over five hundred dollars. Just a basic 8 x 10 print without any touch ups or graphic effects was forty five dollars, and we got twenty five dollars off as part of the prize,  so I ended up having Kendra pick out her favorite photograph and got a print of that. The manager offered us a special deal of three more for another seventy five dollars, which sorely tempted me, but I just couldn’t afford to spend so much. At least with the one print we can scan it and make more for Kendra to give out as gifts.

All in all, though. it was a lot of fun and a very interesting experience. Now I have a much better idea of what would be involved for me to do studio work. I also have a better idea of the money that can be made at it. Heh, yeah. I just have to invest in the equipment, but still, it’s an idea. With a better camera, lighting, and a few simple backgrounds, I could offer an ‘in home’ portrait service that could make some money. I know I can match the colorization and touch up editing they were offering easily enough. It’s food for thought if nothing else.

Friday, we had some excitement. Several fairly violent thunderstorms came through our area and caused some damage. They even blew down a couple of trees in out own yard, one of which being a fairly large oak. Luckily, the trees were the only casualties and I even got some decent pictures from it. Of course, if I want to take the really cool storm photographs, I need to invest in a waterproof camera. In this first picture , you can see the size of the hail that came down. I’m glad I wasn’t out in that:

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Then we have the oak that went down. My lovely assistant Kendra gives some perspective on the tree’s size:

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After that excitement, it was our regular gaming night, so it was off for an evening of D&D. It was a good game with a larger group than usual. I enjoyed the social part of it almost as much as I enjoyed killing things. The rest of the weekend was fairly tame. Kendra and I hung out at the house for the most part, mainly because I’m totally broke until this week’s unemployment check comes through. We plan to get together again on Thursday and do an all day photo safari. I’m looking through some issues of Weird NJ to find someplace cool for us to go. I want to see if I can find some other subject matter than the usual trees, flowers, and insects.

Speaking of unemployment, I saw that the local large chain bookstore is hiring, so I went online and filled out an application. Ugh, what a chore that was. The first part was straightforward, but then there were 47 pages of these stupid pseudo-psych evaluation questions. I mean, come on, that’s well over two hundred freakin’ questions! Give me a break, and of course, a lot of them were repeats asking the same thing in a different way, “I seem to get in a lot of arguments” followed by “It seems like people often argue with me” followed by “Arguing is a good way to get your point across”. Yeah, I get it. Arguing with customers is a bad thing. Can we move on? Despite that, as retail jobs go, this would be a good place to work. So, I’m hoping for some results.

Don’t get me wrong, I still want to put retail behind me, but I think that will take longer than I have unemployment benefits for. Not to mention the fact that being absolutely broke is getting old real fast. I have to change this ‘all or nothing’ attitude I have. It will take some discipline, but I can hold a regular job and still work on my creative projects.

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 I spent a pleasant afternoon at one of our local parks hiking and taking pictures. My main goal was to practice with my cameras Macro mode, so I was taking close ups of small things. Of all the pictures I took today, the one above is my favorite, but I think I got a bunch of good ones. They’ll be profiled on my photo blog over the next few days or you can go see all of them (even the bad ones) at my SmugMug gallery. This park is also where I went on one of my first photo safaris (as I like to call them) so I spent some time comparing my technique now to my technique then. I think my photography is improving. I know it’s going a lot better than my artwork, but then, I spend more time taking pictures than I do drawing or working on computer graphics. Practice is key to improving anything.

Part of the problem, I think, is that I’ve been way to vague on what my goals are. I’ve got the big picture in my mind, but not the steps I need to take to get there. Even when I make a schedule to block out time for artwork, all I have planned to do during that time is ‘draw stuff’. So, I sit down in front of a blank sheet of paper with no clue as to what I’m going to put on it. That’s just a bot intimidating and not very useful. So, over the weekend I spent some time brainstorming and making lists. I went over the tools I have, what I want to do, where I want to go, and how I need to do it. I’ve made a project list and