The Second Of The Photo Shoots

I finally went through all the random shots I had taken over the last couple of weeks and put them up.  As I am trying to limit my learning to the camera none of these are photoshopped or changed much.  I got the white balance I liked and cropped but that is primarily it.

It always amazes me how much cats like boxes and since most of the time I have to play around with the camera is at home, they end up being what I focus on.

They kept jumping into the box onto one another but I was unable to get that so instead you just get the eyes:

Yachi is another favorite choice of picture material even though I am playing with fire when taking shots of her as she is not too fond of the camera.

This was after a hard day for both of them:

 

And this is me taking shots of my toes in memoriam of some movie that I cannot remember and my external brain is failing as well:

There are more here.

The First Of The Season

For whatever reason this past summer was the one of weddings.  I guess all of my friends made the same decision at approximately the same time.  Anyways that led to 9 weddings this year.  This was the first that Yachi and I went anywhere for.  Adam got married in LA which meant it was my first chance to hang out there.  I was excited as it was the first time I got to see my friend Brett in a ridiculous amount of time and it is always good to see Adam, Brad and Jivs.

The wedding was gorgeous and the weekend was a blast.  I am still not sure I would live in LA but it was a good place to visit.

Yachi and I got all gussied up for the rehearsal dinner which was awesome:

Where we caught up with the happy couple:

And headed to a bar afterwards where we saw John C. Reilly and the most awesome paintings I have seen in a bathroom:

The next day we spent walking around Rodeo Drive with friends where Brad found his dream car:

And then we all got ready for the event.  Here is the married couple:

And the rest of us all dressed up:

The reception was great.  They had a photo machine and scrapbook table which really brought out the competition in Brad and Sara.  Also I spoke to Adam later and they got all the pics that were taking on the machine on a CD and he said there were a fair amount of pics that people had not turned in, ranging from the bartenders taking pics of themselves to some more risque fare.

Our table decorations:

 

And us all hanging out:

Posing:

Here are more pics.

Georgia Peaches

So as part of taking a bunch of pictures with the new camera I uncovered a huge set of things I had meant to post over the summer but due to laziness I never got around to posting them.  I am going to try to get them all out soon and mix up some posts of the new pics.

Here is a weekend I spent in Duluth Georgia hanging out with family and getting to see my niece Calla being born.  Needless to say it was one of the highlights of my life.  They are coming out to visit this weekend for Thanksgiving so I wanted to get these out so you can see how bigs she has gotten.

Here is my dad and Morgan waiting for the baby.  There was a lot of just hanging out which was cool while waiting:

We also took lots of walks and trips to the park, especially when Kip's family showed up.  This is his nephew:

And Kip driving Morgan to the hospital, looking surprisingly relaxed:

Here is the moms getting checked in at the hospital.  Obviously Morgan is starting to have pretty severe labor pains

More waiting in the waiting room:

With things rapidly getting less serious as the night wore on:

Until finally Calla made her grand appearance:

The new family together.  I also really like the look I managed to catch on my dad's face in the background.  I pretty aptly captures what I am sure was on mine as well:

Morgan getting to hold Calla after things had calmed down a bit:

The new Aunt:

The cousins passed out:

Changing the first diaper.  It smelled as bad as you would assume seeing Kip's face:

The dads and son:

Here are the rest of the pics.

K'naan

I have been tangentially aware of this guy and his music for a while now but just sat down tonight and listened to some cuts of his.  I was pretty impressed.  He has a crazy life story that he goes into here:

And makes some compelling music out of that as evidenced here:

Breathing Room

Work was relatively hectic this week so I did not have as much of a chance to take photos as I would have liked but Obama did become our 44th president so there is that.  Apparently there was a huge party on the street just a couple of blocks down from where I live and even though Neville, Yachi and I heard it (The distant roar of the crowd) we were able to convince ourselves it was the sizable group out side of the neighborhood bar instead of huge group it was.  A guy at work took some awesome photos which you can view here and someone close to the Obama family posted a bunch of candid shots of Barack and his family here.

Now I am able to hang out at Yachi's store which has been amazingly busy today.  This forces me to sit in the back and look at random things on the interweb like this amazing video shot only with a DSLR.  Also I took myself off of all mailing lists or at least attempted to.  We will see how that works.  Now I will go through the few photos I did take this week to post tomorrow.

Making a chocolate shake out of a vanilla one:

New Camera Pics

Available here.  After waiting 3 years to buy a SLR I have to say I am really happy to finally get this.  I picked up a Canon 30D from Ebay through the current Live Search 25% cashback offer which means I got it for about $350 which is a smoking deal.  I also picked up a really good cheap lens which is a prime so less moving parts which makes me focus exclusively on learning the body which has been cool. 

Overall I have been really happy playing with the camera and enjoy even my crappiest pics which I am going to force on all of you here.

The first pic ever taking with my uncooperative model:

On the walk to the store:

At the store:

 

Outside the store:

With a slightly more cooperative model:

 

And the most cooperative:

About To Start

Under 3 minutes now until live results start coming in.  Man I am much more excited than I thought I would be.  Like jittery feet pacing around excited.  Tomorrow really has the possibility to be no fun.

Crazy Day

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3679931&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines

I am not sure how I feel about Billups no longer wearing a Piston's jersey but I have to admit having my favorite non-Piston on their team makes me more excited to watch this season than I was.

Oh yeah also VOTE!!!  I don't care for who but get out there and do your civic duty.

New Toys

Got a new camera.  It is a Canon 30D and it is sweet.  I am still converting all the pics I took this weekend with it and will share some tomorrow.  To hold you over here is a child that reminds me of myself:

And here is an homage to Titanic:

Maybe I Will Have A Budweiser

Not sure why this amused me so much but thought I would share.  Keep your fingers crossed for the next week that craziness does not happen.

Also VOTE!

Forgot that I was going to try to add a pic a post so drinking on the couch:

The Luster Wears Thin

On business travel.  Of course my last trip was to Fargo and this one is to Ames, Iowa so perhaps not the best sample.  For dinner my choice is either Subway or El Azteca "authentic" Mexican.  I might just coast off the cheese steak I had for lunch.  The one randomly exciting thing about being here is that I came here for a competition in high school and that is actually bringing back some fun memories.  After interviewing tomorrow I might just wander around and see if I can remember any of the buildings.

Last random thought:  Stringing together the same movie on TNT is awesome.  I caught the last five minutes of Old School and now I get to watch it all, sweet.

I am also stealing an idea from Casey and trying to post at least one pic per post:

Wedding Massacre from Adam's wedding this summer

Being On Both Lists

 

I think this is a good thing.  It was weird that they both came in the mail on the same day though.

Possibly my new hero.  It is good to see someone being somewhat honest about their motivations and also having the self-realization to pull back and relax.

On the opposite side of that coin were the two women sitting near me on the bus yesterday who had just been laid off.  What seemed weird was their department had not been told.  Their manager just came in and was like do you have any concerns or questions? and they said about what? and he was like ummm... being let go?.  Pretty awful way to lose your job.  I have the feeling that the world is going to get a little bit worse before it gets better.  Hopefully it does not directly impact any friends or family in a negative way (unless they have been looking for an excuse to move jobs :)).

Back Like The Beat In Belly

Possibly the best movie intro ever almost entirely based on the beat coming in as the guy falls out the window.

I imagine this is going into the ether as it has been forever since I posted and a ton of crazy shit has happened in my life. I think that is why I have been avoiding posting as some of it still feels a little raw and some of it would just take too long to explain. Maybe at a later date. Anyways enjoy the saturated masterpiece that is Hype Williams and I will try to make this more consistent.

Dressing Up For Going Out

http://music.guardian.co.uk/pop/story/0,,2280067,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=39

A great article with even better pictures.  I got about 75% on the matching pictures of fans with stars gallery but that is cause I read the article first.

Feeling Like Holland

Back at the beginning of April a group of intrepid adventurer's decided to head North and see the famed tulip festival.  Unfortunately we picked a rather cold day where the flowers had not fully bloomed.  Above are the said adventurers imagining a field of flowers.

There were some fields however as evidenced by this woman completely ignoring the big "Don't go in the field" sign for this great photo.

There were some great flower names which I did not really expect for tulips like:

Perhaps the flowers are actually out and in bloom in that photo.  You can never see the ninja.

Another good one was:

The tulip that will beat your ass.

A little more expected was:

which unfortunately was all by itself.

There also was an angel sighting which always makes the day more fun:

And the cleanest water I have ever seen:

I will leave you with my personal favorite photo of the day:

For those that cannot get enough tulips there are a lot more photos here

Blue Sky Country

Man was last weekend beautiful.  Got a great chance to take advantage of the evening and around.

 

Dodgeball and basketball occurring at Cal. 

Saturday was spent showing a coworker around Seattle and playing badminton in the park. 

Sunday was my first bike ride in 13 years.

A great weekend with the sun burn to prove it.

Geotag Test

The geotag info did not show up in the previous post so trying again through Picasa.

Where's The Baby?

There were a couple of days some weeks back where I saw this stroller outside the house:

I then saw it later again in front of Hollywood.

All I wondered was where the baby was.

As a random side note these are my first geo-tagged photos. Thanks to Casey for explaining the process to me and thanks to Google for making it absurdly easy to do.

Hopefully it works.