Day 94/365 - Candy on the beach, there's nothing better....

Day 94/365 - Candy on the beach, there's nothing better....
Originally uploaded by ...Brian

I remember these candies well when I was little. One of the many things I used to buy at the penny candy store across the street from my house, really it was diagonally , but I could walk there in 20 seconds or less. I remember the sweetness when you bit in, and then the sourness after you chewed on them a bit more. Not one of my favorite candies but a memorable one at that.

A slow day for photos, but I walk by this machine all the time when I'm leaving the Emerald Square mall so I thought I'd snap a photo since I was looking for something colorful, this filled the shot. A closeup of the machine, and a strange reflection in the glass , not much else going on here..

...But I like candy when it's wrapped in a sweater...

Day 93/365 - You know I like my chicken fried....

Day 93/365 - You know I like my chicken fried....
Originally uploaded by ...Brian

A shot of the seating area at Village Haven restaurant that we celebrated Michelle's grandmother's birthday the other night. I basically placed the camera down on the table and pushed the button. The autofocus and the shutter speed did the rest. It kept the shutter open enough to let in all of the necessary light for the shot.

I like the way the shot came out, just random, but unique angle , I can see someone enjoying themselves through the legs of the serving trays. I love the way the lighting came out as well..

....cold beer on a Friday night....

Day 92/365 - Avocado, What makes you think you're so holy?

Day 92/365 - Avocado, What makes you think you're so holy?
Originally uploaded by ...Brian

What is left from my first time making guacamole is this half of an avacado. I think it is one of the neatest looking fruit insides that I can find, just the coloring is unique. This one was a bit unripe so it was very hard to make the tasty treat but apparently I did a good job, by adding just the right amount of lime juice, cilanto, tomatoes, onions, sour cream and olive oil. Glad everybody liked it.

Well having company all day makes for not so many unique shots for the blog, I like this closeup of the fruit, love the colors and the blank background from the countertop..

...You're gonna be guacamole before too long....

Day 91/365 - I can climb the highest mountain....

Day 91/365 - I can climb the highest mountain....
Originally uploaded by ...Brian

A beautiful place situated a few miles off the main road in Jamestown, RI. There are so may state parks and places to rest and explore or just have lunch at and enjoy the scenery. This is located minutes from the Newport bridge and is such a breathtaking place.

I love the colors of the shot, the sky transition from white to blues, the beautiful blue of the ocean opposite the cragged rocks and green shrubbery on the sides of these cliffs makes for a wonderful shot. I can almost feel like I'm there again...

...Cross the wildest sea...

Day 90/365 - Cause when we kiss… Oooooh…

Day 90/365 - Cause when we kiss… Oooooh…
Originally uploaded by ...Brian

Another quiet day , and another day of decay, this time an old Ford Fire Engine sits quietly on the side of a busy road. This must have been from the 50s or 60s it's got a great looking front end, I love the round headlights. It doesn't look like this was quite as comfy as the firetrucks of today , probably a pain too steer this thing...

A simple shot of the cab of showing off some of the missing front and decay starting to happen. A nice bright red caps it off, what else for a fire truck...

...baby it's fire......

Day 89/365 - I'm sailing away, set an open course for the virgin sea...

Day 89/365 - I'm sailing away, set an open course for the virgin sea...
Originally uploaded by ...Brian

We went to visit Michelle's mom today and have dinner there. I brought my tripod in case I found some night shots to take there since their backyard is very dark at night , unlike ours which has the street lamp pollution. Well this was sitting on the banister in the living room and I thought I could do something with it.

I like this shot which was simple to accomplish. I used the light from the chandelier behind it to create the shadow effect, I think the black and white of the picture along with the colored american flag creates a unique effect. I also like the details of the riggings which can be seen as well as the deck rails... Neat shot....

..come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with me.....

Day 88/365 - get your motor runnin'.....

Day 88/365 - get your motor runnin'.....
Originally uploaded by ...Brian

I drive by this area on my way to Connecticut and have been meaning to stop in to check out what was going on with this Jeep. Poor Jeep! It looks so distraught there on its wooden stand abandoned for eternity. Perhaps someone will restore it to its former glory someday.

I had seen a few other shots on some other projects of old abandoned cars and thought this one made a nice addition to mine. The sunlight coming from the noontime sun made for great lighting, and if photographing a jeep you kind of have to include the signature grill.....

...head out on the highway...

Day 87/365 - goodness, gracious.....

Day 87/365 - goodness, gracious.....
Originally uploaded by ...Brian

I had lunch at Qdoba yesterday up in Millbury, MA since we hadn't gone grocery shopping yet. It was a very large spicy shredded pork and black bean burrito. These things are huge and by the end it was spilling out all over the plate and I ate the rest with a fork. I always ask for the spiciest sauce they have which they list as a habenero sauce, but it doesn't seem that spicy at all... I was expecting to be some fire breathing dragon by the time I was done....

I finally took a shot with more people in it, and not a closeup again. I think this perspective gives you an idea of the whole layout of the restaurant and some life by incorporating actual people into my shot.

....great balls of fire...

Day 86/365 - and I'm free....

Day 86/365 - and I'm free....
Originally uploaded by ...Brian

Across the street from the Dunkin Donut's where we met the JP for our wedding the other day was this huge lot of newspaper vending box thingies. I knew that would make a great picture having a sea of these so I proceeded over there after we were done and grabbed a shot. So are these all free ? I'd perhaps like one , so many to choose from.

I like the closeup shot, and the sea of boxes here, it's just a simple shot with a few contrasting colors, not too much to say about it.

....I'm free fallin.....

Day 85/365 - sugar, ah honey honey

Day 85/365 - sugar, ah honey honey
Originally uploaded by ...Brian

Went to the cake tasting yesterday for our wedding coming up in October. Early ? Nah, not really with all the stuff we need to plan. We got to try all these different kind of cake bases, fillings, and toppings. From almond to white cake, from buttercream, to hazelnut ganache fillings. I can't say which one we opted for out of all this or it would spoil the surprise for the people coming....

Just a simple closeup shot, after I got permission to take the shot in the store. You can clearly see all of the different flavors we got to try as well as the brightly colored magenta plate it was served on. The focus is on the center of the plate so perhaps a few blurs towards some of the sides and edges...

....you are my candy girl....

Day 84/365 - i have only one burnin' desire....

Day 84/365 - i have only one burnin' desire....
Originally uploaded by ...Brian

On the side of the road heading back from Sturbridge , I always drive by this tattoo shop and noticed the bright colored painting on the outside of the building. I finally remember this time to pull over and get a few closeups of the artwork. It is a shop that has leather and tattoos, I didn't dare to venture in, perhaps if I was with someone else I may have peeked inside but not this time.

I only took a few photos today and this one had the best colors in it. It is very brightly lit due to the shining sun behind me. I only got so close to take pictures as the store owner was mulling around and I didn't feel like telling him what I was doing. I think the colors stand out great in this shot, only got a bit of some metal contraption and it's shadow on the right hand side....

.... let me stand next to your fire.....

Day 83/365 - i shot the sheriff.....

Day 83/365 - i shot the sheriff.....
Originally uploaded by ...Brian

Down the street from where I live is an park and library. On the grounds stands this old rather large cannon. I drive by it everyday but haven't stopped to get a closer look until today. I enjoy taking shots of industrial things, mechanical things, so a good shot for the day.

I like the closeup of the shot, you can't really know what this is unless you were there, but it leaves the viewer guessing in my opinion. I especially like the contrast of colors with the rusts to the steel gray.

...but I didn't shoot the deputy...

Day 82 - I'm sittin on the dock of the bay.....

Down on a lunch break the other day in Hyannis I drove to my old spot I used to sit and have lunch on my way back to Route 3. This was a dock hand with a giant sack of sugar! It said sugar on the bag so I can only assume that was what was in it. A few minutes later another guy backed his trailer down the dock and loaded this large sack onto it. I'm not sure what they would be doing with all this sugar.

This is an unusual shot for me as it includes people , people that I don't know. I didn't include his face and he didn't know I shot the picture so , no big deal, I just wanted to include something out of the daily life at the docks and the ocean that I love so much. It smelled so great down here with the cool ocean breeze coming in.

...watchin' the tide roll away...

Day 81 - raindrops on roses....

Coming home from a long day at work I'm always pleasantly amused when I see both the kitties looking out the window as I walk up the front steps toward the door. Leo always looks so peaceful and patient as he stares out with his big bright eyes. I am always wondering what he may be thinking in his little mind, but one can never know.

I took these shots of the cats through the window with the full knowledge that I may get the reflection of the sky and trees in the background due to the direct sun behind me. I liked the shot after seeing it in the lcd screen because it looked so ethereal. I think the blending of the cat and the reflective nature came out quite interesting. Notice the thick orange mane, but the white out almost vanishing face staring directly back at me. It almost looks as if he is looking down from the clouds at me wishing me well on my journey...

...and whiskers on kittens....

Day 80 - you spin me right round baby, right round

A little closeup shots around the house of some mechanical objects and the fact that I was playing with this the other day after we got a bunch of 45s donated to us from Michelle's mom. Sweet, lots of good old stuff to play. A lot of people don't really see the point of listening to records anymore, but this is where you get the true sound of the music, the crackles and all from the needle in the one continuous groove on the record. Records are actually making a bit of a revival in the music industry. I can go to my local store now and get some of the latest music on records as well as cds, pretty cool

It's a unique shot, I had to be really steady with the camera for a few shots, until I took this one which pointed to the window and let the natural light in illuminating the record as you can see. It's purposely blurry in the background as I focused more on the grooves of the record. The camera had a hard time getting any focus on the record at all, but I was satisfied with this shot.


...like a record baby, right round, round round

Day 79 - You are the apple of my eye....

A slow day, Michelle and Deb were out at the bridal shop, so Michelle could try on dresses. So I was home with the baby and my brother Rob. He basically sat on his computer (pictured) and played on Warcraft or whatever else he felt like playing at the moment. So I snapped the shot of the lid. I am a PC guy so I have none of these around in this house.. Especially being in IT, we never have these. If I was doing any extreme graphics or sound manipulation, then I may bite! No pun intended...

Simple shot, nothing special, I do like the apple all lit up like that, although in the picture you probably may even think it's just a white piece of paper cutout....


....forever you'll stay in my heart....

Day 78 - T'was in the darkest depth of Mordor....

Ahh good old Dungeons and Dragons! I haven't played this in a few years, I used to play with an old coworker of mine and my sis-in-law Deb, but I gave up his campaigns after they got too drawn out and boring. This night was a game with my friend Bob and Sarah and Jay and a few others I met there. We are playing a new campaign with the new D&D version 4 rules. It's a bit upside down from what I'm used to, but it seems a bit easier in the long run to understand, and I think I'm gonna like playing again...

It's a simplitic shot, a closeup or course, but the colors of the dice and the angle give it a neat view on the game table. In the foreground is a special action coin that is part of the new system and then some of my favorite green dice....

...ramble on....

Day 77 - each day through my window......

One of the many doomed businesses of this economic downturn is the Macaroni Grill restaurant. This one situated on Route 2 across from the Verizon store is one of those casualties. I was upgrading something in the store, I couldn't leave, yet I couldn't do anything either at the time but wait, so I drove across the street and noticed the abandoned building for lease. Of course I also found the one window with the decrepit shutter.

Perfect opportunity for a great shot, a little deterioration in the urban architecture, I like the contrasting colors of the wall and shutters as well, the 2 things I don't like about the shot is the speaker on the wall, but even that doesn't bother me as much as seeing my reflection in the bottom left pane!!

...I watch her as she passes by....

Day 76 - i want to ride my bicycle....

This bike has been sitting outside of the Verizon store where my desk is for about a week now. At first I thought it was one of the eomployees who worked there, but no. It's a women's cheap mountain bike that no one seems to want to claim and no one is taking off the premises either. The chain looks like it's seen better days anyway. I wonder when someone will take it away.

It's a simple shot, of an mechanical piece which I always enjoy and as I said yesterday a bit of decay showing the wear that uncared for items receive. I like the metal and the water drops together because of the complete opposition they create. The stone wall in the background also creates it's own play of the natural earth and the man made metals. Made in China I see....

... I want to ride it where I like....

Day 75 - i'm starting with the man in the mirror.....

A little quick stop off of Route 4 heading to Middletown is this fishing area. I drive by it often and wondered close up what it looked like. There is a bridge with waterfall area as well as this dock area. They even have the little pole holders on the dock for the fisherman. It's a very quiet place considering how close it is to the busy highway, you don't seem to even notice all the cars wizzing by only a few hundred yards away.

I like the shot, I love how pristine the water looks and creates the unique refelection. Again I always love when I get a shot of something old and decaying as it creates a lot more intrique in the shot. The RAW format of the picture looks so much better and not as washed out as this one, yet I'm only posting the jpgs here....

...and no message could have been any clearer....

Day 74 - welcome to the jungle....

A mass of these red barked bushes or trees sits along the edge of the parking lot at the Y. I had no shots of the day and I was intrigued by this particular section that appeared to be worse off , as if it was run over by a plow during one of the many snow storms we've had this winter. I'm going to hazard a guess and say that's the case. It was raining after having snowed again a little bit so I tried to be quick about getting the shot.

I like the wildness and unpredictability of the shot. The colors are in a range that while similar provide a good range of hues from reds to browns. Also a bit of light reflection off of the wet branches in the foreground let you get the coldness of the moment as well I feel.

...you know where you are ? you're in the jungle baby.....

Day 73 - we can dance if we want to......

Happy Birthday Ilana! My niece turned 5 years old yesterday and had all of her friends and family hanging out first at Build-A-Bear and then afterwards down for some tasty desserts at Brigham's. It was fun seeing all of the kids so excited when they got to get their bear stuffed and then put the little hearts in. Very Cute. I took tons of pictures which Deb is patiently waiting for! I never knew how insane a place like that can be with 12 excited kids running around like nuts to get their bears all stuffed, cleaned, and dressed! Oy....

This shot was the last one I took of the day and I think it is the best one, she definitely hammed it up for the camera! I think the pose along with the bright colors and lighting make the pictures look incredible, plus the adorable little girl there helps out abit as well....

...we can lose all self control......

Day 72 - I'm nerdy in the extreme and whiter than sour cream....

Ok, ok, here is CJ. He doesn't know that I put him up here on the blog yet, and I finally got a picture of him where he is smiling normally. Here he is sitting on the steps at my Aunt's house that we visited yesterday. Michelle and CJ and Brendon had never met her yet so she got to meet all of them at once. We had a great time there and a great lunch of spaghetti with turkey meatballs and some garlic bread and a salad. I think everybody enjoyed themselves there. I also had to use the caption of a Weird Al song because he likes him so much, that's because of me... oops!!

I like this picture because it is a great portrait shot of the boy! The lighting is great , I didn't need to use any flash, and he smiled normal for me!! I think the colors of the picture came out great and the clarity looks great as well.

....just becaue I'm white and nerdy.....

Day 71 - go speed racer, go speed racer....

So this was an interesting night. Michelle's dad had tickets to an indoor midget car racing event at the Dunkin' Donuts center in Providence. Apparently it was 50 years since the last time they had any indoor event and we witnessed a big thing. There were so many people there that follow these guys and were rooting on their favorites, I had never heard of these things until a few days before. They were neat to see these midget cars racing around the track at up to 70mph! Even better was seeing some of the crashes. No one was hurt , just mostly minor things that looked worse than they were....

I took many many shots , trying to obtain one when they were flying around the track at those insane speeds, which resulted in many blurry shots, except when I increased the shutter speed and turned on the flash, but many of those were a little too dark, albeit not blurry. I opted to post this shot which they were circling on a caution flag because the speeds were done and I got some clarity and good colors in the frame....

....go speed racer, GO!!

Day 70 - baby you're my everything......

What's better than having some stuffed shells and some nice italian bread and garlic bread as well. Here is Michelle cutting up some nice ciabatta bread for dinner with Jenn the other night. The dinner was very good and the garlic bread (not pictured) was extremely tasty and really really garlicky. You also get to see her nice ring that she's sporting these days..

It's a different kind of shot, not something I incorporate too often, meaning people and/or parts of people. A close up yes, but not my typical close up shots.

...diamond ring.....

Day 69 - You know that it would be untrue, You know that I would be a liar....

Another month and another self portrait type picture. I picked up a bunch of doors from Home Depot the other day to replace a few around the house. I have them stacked in a pile in the basement, so I thought, hmmm, what an opportunity for a crazy pic with them. Well with a little strategic placement and 10 or 20 different poses I got a few pics I liked.

Yes, I used the flash in this shot, I figured in this case in the dim basement and the bright white doors the lighting would reflect off of the doors and not illuminate me with such terrible lighting. I think this was one of my most fun shots I have made and I debated which picture to use, ultimately I am posting one of the more goofy shots, but it is a fun shot as well...

....If I was to say to you
Girl, we couldn't get much higher.....

Day 68 - all in all you're just....

Drove around a little bit with CJ after picking him up from the Y yesterday and stopped by one of my favorite areas nearby, the Monastery. The grounds are large and full of many different buildings , most of them quite old.... This is one of a couple buildings near the back of the property close to some of the many hiking trails that abound back there. There are over 400 acres of trails to explore. It looked like some people had been trudging through the snow covered trails recently.

Notice the reflection in the window of this shot. The sun was on it's way down and I thought this old building looked like a neat way to capture a little of the lighting of the moment. It's a dark shot otherwise, the white brick wall looking rather blue in the photo, but you can get a glimpse of color in the glass which offers a bit of warmth.

...another brick in the wall.....

Day 67 - and it seemed to me, you lived your life.....

A little bit of the long candle holder I have in the living room. It holds about 10 to 12 candles and looks really great all lit up. As you can see the candles have gotten a little bit of use as they slowly shrink into the bottom of the glass holder. These are just something you can light, sit, and just stare into the flickering flames and contemplate so many things. I remember in our college days, just sitting around with friends, lights off, perhaps a candle lit, some frosty beverages, and some music playing, just talking about whatever came to mind. This was not the times where we were partying it up hard obviously, there were plenty of those too... but that's for another day....

I particularly like the simpleness of the shot, the lighting, and the fact that I didn't need to keep the shutter open long at all to achieve the shot I was looking far. Just a dimly lit room and the camera perhaps a little close to the flame, but all in the name of my pictures...

...like a candle in the wind.....

Day 66 - la, la , la la, la, la,

Who can forget these lovable guys! I used to watch the smurfs everyday when I was little as far as I can remember. "Are we there yet Papa Smurf? "..... "Not Far Now!"... Ahh the memories. This Boomerang channel brings back all of them from the Smurfs, to the Snorks, the old Scooby Doo, Tom and Jerry, and much more. Why am I watching cartoon channels you may ask ? Well we have an 11 year old living here, sooooooo....

Not much to say about the shot. I took several shots at the television screen trying to get one I liked that came in clear enough, and without showing the television screen edges. I apparently missed that and ended up with a little of the edge showing. No big deal. It's Papa Smurf!!!

...la, la, la la, la, la, la, la la, la la....

Day 65 - blinded by the light.....

I've been noticing that with all the pictures I've taken so far, there aren't many taken at night. This was taken on my way back from Cumberland House of Pizza the other night. What you see is the lights from an oncoming vehicle on Angell Rd. Of course I was moving as the picture was shot which accounts for the strange light effects here.

I think it's a unique shot the way the headlights came out with the long shutterspeed the camera used in order to catch enough light for the photo. It was held open approximately 10 seconds as I drove down the road creating this unique effect from the bouncing of the car as well as the forward movement. It appears as if it is a shot from some sort of new fangled laser blaster.

...revved up like a deuce,
another runner in the night......