Day 37 - they say the neon lights are bright on broadway.....

Ahh the feel of a hometown subshop at it's finest. Had a bite to eat at Paul's in Cumberland last night before we headed down to Warwick for the non stress tests for the baby. I picked up a grilled chicken sub and Michelle had the steak and cheese grinder. They were both very tasty and we got to hear the pleasantries of high school kids talking about their sexual conquests. It wasn't really pleasant, more of a damn, did they just say that out loud in a public place without a care in the world. Maybe I'm getting older, but I don't remember blabbing with others in places like this about the inadequacies and shortcomings of others..

I like this shot, I liked the colors the brightness of the neon lights, the reflection in the mirror which gives you the menu board as well. I wanted to take it from the inside and have it read backwards as well. I used the telephoto 70-300mm on a few shots, but after the kiddies left I just stood up closer to the sign and took this shot. I think it encaptures the atmosphere perfectly. A typical late night bite to eat at a typical restaurant in Anywhere, USA.

...they say there's always magic in the air....

Day 36 - it's the eye of the tiger it's the cream of the fight....

The king of the jungle and the king of the chair. Leo sits and stairs at me a lot, I always wonder what he is thinking , he just looks right back at you staring deep into your eyes. Here is his usual spot while we are watching television in the great room, if he's not staring at people he's curled about in a ball and usually snoring. Yeah, my cat snores.

It's been a busy week at work so I have had to be a bit more creative with my pictures. I took this shot using the tripod and the stillness of my cat allowed it to come in clearly in a dimly lit room. I love the color combo of his fur and the chair, not quite please with the non-symmetrical cross bracing I got going on underneath, but it's not a big deal. I think the viewer is drawn toward those large staring eyes anyways.... meow....

...Risin' up to the challenge of our rival ....

Day 35 - you spin me right round baby right round...

Well I decided to make an appearance in here again since it's been a while. I did set up this shot because I was trying to think of something different again, and what better than putting my camera into the wash cycle! Well before I pushed start anyways. Just another load of laundry between commercials of course, ha ha.

I set up this shot because I was looking for another unique angle on a self portrait. Getting the focus clear and setting up the camera and setting the self timer proved to be quite the challenge. I took several shots and then some and even though this one is dark it seemed to get the best perspective of the interior of the washing machine and me looking in as if to check on the progress of the laundry cleaning. I played with the timer and the focus but just getting the camera in the right spot and closing the door and then standing still as the shutter held open for a few extra seconds was challenging as I mentioned already. So I like the shot, dark yes, angled , on purpose, come on it's in the middle of a wash cycle :)

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

Day 34 - If I had a million dollars.... (if I had a million dollars)

If it were just that easy as the Game of Life. There is my car parked at the millionaire estate. CJ and I played last night and I eeked out a win by a mere 100K. I loved this game when I was little and still like it. The new version is really rather dumb though. I mean how does a teacher get a salary of 100K but a lawyer get 20K? They are trying to make a change, but they should have stuck with the original, which is why I got this one 80s version off of Ebay a few years ago. I didn't end up with any kids this time! There's been times when I had a whole car full and then some.. alas not this time.

I took several shots of this , trying for just the right one, I wanted the car and the house to be the focus and the rest to be blurred which is what I got after much trial and tribulation. The autofocus was giving me trouble on these close shots lately for some reason. I layed the camera flat on the carpet in front of the board and focused on the car and house and got the shot I wanted. It makes you feel as if it's lifesize almost.

... I'd buy you a house (I would buy you a house).....

Day 33 - I wish I were big.

OMG! This thing is huge. We were driving to Jenn's house for our weekly get together and Michelle pointed out the snowman, I said , woah! back up, I need a picture of this. The thing is bigger than the house and that is not a perspective trick, it is huge. I love the sign that says Beep for Dusty!! They must have used a backhoe or something to build him. I'm not sure exactly what the buttons, eyes and the giant mouth and nose are made of but , damn!! We are getting a snow storm tonight so Mr. Dusty may be a little bigger after that. I think somebody had too much time on their hands though!!

The shot was taken rather quickly as we had to park on the side of the road and cars kept zooming by. I took a few shots but this one seemed to be the best with the lighting, and the scale of the snowman as you can see the house in the background. I didn't need to use the flash since there was just enough daylight left to capture the colors and to see the scarf lit up as well. All though it seems that there is some light in the foreground that may have been a car passing by.

...and you can get really big stuff at http://www.greatbigstuff.com....
(found by accident, but very funny)

Day 32 - and a spoonful of sugar...

Not too much to say about this picture, Ok it was at Wright's farm where he had a little post X-mas get together with my Mom and brother's since I hadn't seen her at Christmas. We waited a while in the lobby for our dinner and everybody loved the food. You see, none of them had been here before and were quite shocked at the enormity of the place, yet they all seemed to enjoy themselves. Michelle pointed out, honey, that would be a good picture of the day for you, and since I had no other shots of the day , minus the family in the lobby candid photos, i took a few aims at this , before I devoured it.

I tried to get the close up , but the camera could not focus on anything closer than about 8 inches with any clarity. I shot this one manual and managed to keep the camera still enough with the somewhat adequate lighting in the room to avoid andy blur. I love the fact that they put the chocolate chicken in the center of the ice creams...


..in the most delightful way.....

Day 31 - oh the places you'll go..

What on earth happened to this poor tree. It reminds me of something out of a J.R.R Tolkien novel, or perhaps the Dark Crystal, or a Dr. Seuss book. I took a detour after dropping CJ off at the Y for his car modeling class and went into the Blackstone Valley State Park. I headed down the snow covered path and took a look around, got some pictures of the river and the bridges and of a very cute german shepherd. On my way out I notied this oddly formed trunk or root system. I 'm not quite sure what happened here, but if I look long enough I can almost see a sad twisted face, two big sunken eyes and a furrowed brow, and small knobby nose and a bit of a sad grin. It's just an odd looking tree. I kind of feel bad for it, but it was my object d'art for the day.

I took a closeup shot of just the twisted trunk, but opted to post this shot which shows the not only the bottom, but a bit of the size of the tree. This root ball part was probably as tall as me, I may go back for measure sometime. I like the angle of the shot, the tree appears as if it's leaning away from the shot, the snow around the base let's the tree be the focus of the shot as I imagine if it were just dirt it might have a whole different feel to the picture.

...And when you're alone, there's a very good chance
you'll meet things that scare you right out of your pants....

Day 30 - karma karma karma karma karma chamelon....

Ok there is some blue in there too , but I like the song... I was sitting in the computer room and I noticed the Galileo thermometer there and thought such nice colors I bet it would make a good picture. In case you don't know how to read a thermometer like this, you read the # on the lowest floating bulb in the tube and that is your temperature, it only has a range from 64-80 though so it's only good for an an average home. It's not very precise either as it is in 4 degree increments as well.

I did position the thermometer in front of an open window get get the focus on the tube itself and have the blurred blackground. I really love the way the colors came out in this shot, very clear, crisp and the thermomenter centered nicely in the picture. You can really read everything easily as well. I'm waiting for the day now where all those bulbs are down the bottom and it says 80 again, that would be nice right about now It's cold out there.

Red gold and green, red gold and greeeeeeeen.....
(and blue) :)

Day 29 - Feed me! Feed me! Feed me!

A little bit of the ingredients I used yesterday to make dinner. An old sushi chef of mine used to tell me to use vinegar, soy sauce, oil, garlic and sugar to make a nice stir fry sauce, and I did and liked it. I used all of these ingredients and a few more with some nice juicy pork chops. Mmm, Mmm, good!

I was practicing taking different shots around the house using the tripod to deal with the low lights indoors and it worked very well. This shot I only steadied the pod against my body and used the light from the hood and above to get the shot. I tried several different angles and thought this one which appeared more random than a straight on shot was the best. I did purposely arrange the vegetables that way as to have separation of green with orange between. Not a bad shot and I will now remember what I ate on January 22nd 2009 as well, because I certainly would not have without this shot.

Feed me! Seymour!!!!

Day 28 - oh let me be (oh let him be)....

I really was not sure which picture I took yesterday I was going to post. I really had in mind a picture with some good color in it, lately it's been all snow. So I was leaving the mall and walking by the Build-A-Bear workshop and decided I'd sneak a picture from outside the store. I figure they can't say anything to me if I'm not in the store taking a picture. Apparently stores don't like you taking pictures in their establishments. I was reading some photographer's stories about incidents. I guess I'll have to sneak my pictures from now on. Well perhaps we will be heading into a store like this soon enough with the baby almost here. He's coming real soon, inducing on Feb 4th. Woohoo! I can't wait.

I really like the colors in this shot. We have all the primary colors and the individual bears on their platfroms. It looks like they are all part of a council about to vote on an important matter. I think the one quick shot without much setup still came out quite nice and bright, definitely got the colorful, cheer you up from the doldrums of winter shot I wanted.

...your teddybear...