94 - Orchid Redux

I'd taken a picture of some of my wife's orchids before, but I wanted to do it again. First, they've bloomed a lot more since the first photo. But even more, I felt like there was a lot better photo to be had. I did both color and black and white versions of this photo. They both looked good in my opinion, and the color version had a lovely classic still life painting aesthetic to it. But I went with black and white because it made the simple composition even simpler.

86 - Java

72 - The Orchid Thief

The wife bought some orchids today for the kitchen and I stole them (temporarily) to use as a subject for today's photo. I don't take many flower pictures mainly because there are so many photographers out there who specialize on them and they're really good. But this did give me a chance to practice on lighting a bit. This one was a little tricky because I was shooting white flowers on a white background and that can make it tough to get separation. I lit this one with a shoot-through umbrella on the flowers (camera-left from above) and a bare speedlight on the background which is a white reflector.

71 - Galactic Titan

After the skating rink, we went back home to celebrate my older kid's birthday. He went with a slightly lower key affair - he just invited one friend over and we took them to Chuck E. Cheese's. Of course, they had a blast. Then we came home, had cake and ice cream, and opened presents. We bought Dylan the "Galactic Titan" Lego set which he built this morning (it was getting late on Saturday and he didn't have time then).  After he was done, he wanted me to take a picture of it for posterity.

67 - Form, Texture, and Tone

Today's photo subject is a vase that the wife and I got in Ruidoso, NM many years ago.  It occurred to me while looking around for subject matter that it might make a cool photo because of its graceful curves, mixed with the overlaid textures of soft feathers and crackled glaze.  I lit this one with a single, small softbox on the left-hand side of the photo, trying to emphasize depth and shape.  You can see the reflection of the softbox on the vase.  I added a bit of fill light by reflecting some of the light onto the other side of the vase using a piece of white cardboard.

62 - Brain Coral

61 - Meno Mosso

55 - Crystal Decanter

54 - Gentlemen, Start Your Engines

This weekend is my kids' (and my) first pinewood derby race with the Cub Scouts.  It's going to be a photo finish but we should be ready to roll in time for the weigh-in on Saturday.  We waited a bit too long to start on the cars so I couldn't go as elaborate as I would have liked, but the cars are turning out okay.  On the other hand, the car my neighbor put together with his son is a bloody work of art! I'm glad my kids haven't seen that one yet!  ;-)  Next year I hope to be a little more ambitious with the design.

50 - Breakfast of Champions

Expanding Waistline Champions, anyway.  I normally don't take food pictures.  Too Twittidiot.  But Susan did such a wonderful job on this French Toast I had to do it.  Between the Valentines dinner at Perry's last night and the French Toast this morning, I probably gained 5 pounds this weekend.

41 - The Sun King

Man, I'm glad this week is over.  This one was a grinder at work.  One intractable problem after another.  I'd really like to have a couple of easy weeks for once.  It seems like I haven't had one in years.

Some photogeek tech talk:  Doing all these guitar photos, I've discovered that classic portrait lighting tends to work really well with inanimate objects.  The biggest difference is that objects are more likely to have giant specular highlights, so you have to guard against reflections a lot more diligently.  For this still life of a copper sundial, I used very traditional Rembrandt lighting and it worked like a charm.

39 - The Red Pill

38 - Look Into My Eye

Today's photo is courtesy of a Baoding ball, a coffee cup, a camera, and one desperate photographer.

To me, this one looks like either a chrome web cam or a fisheye lens stuck up against a mirror.  It's actually a regular lens stuck up against a chrome Baoding ball.  The ball's round, mirror-like surface gives an ultra wide angle view.

33 - Maudite

One of biggest drags about middle age was the rapidly diminishing returns on beer.  I've never been a heavy drinker, but I've long enjoyed a good brew.  Unfortunately, about the time I turned 40 I started feeling excessively bloated and tired with a headache about 30 minutes later.  Like a hangover only without the wait.  Instant Karma.  It's gotten worse over time, and as a result nowadays I'm more likely to have wine since it doesn't have that effect on me.  But occasionally I'll just decide to suck it up and deal with it - like when I have something from the Unibroue brewery singing its siren song from my refrigerator.

31 - Memory

At an abstract level, my day job is to find solutions to fundamentally complicated and intractable problems.  These are the sort of problems that don't have ideal, or in some cases even "good", solutions.  They're "solved" by devising a solution that either produces the least pain, or that optimizes around certain goals at the expense of other potential (and probably reasonable) goals.  Sadly, I have a terrible memory, which is an unfortunate trait for somebody who does what I do for a living.  The way I compensate for my memory is to take notes.  Copious, detailed notes.  I've become quite good at it.  I can write and type very fast, and with a lot of independence from other tasks I might need to do.  So, I can look at somebody, listen to what they're saying, and write or type a completely different thing all at the same time (being a musician helps with that, actually).  It sometimes freaks people out.  On the other hand, people often want my meeting notes because they're so detailed and organized.  Frankly, I'd rather have a good memory.  Because if it doesn't get noted, it's as good as gone.

29 - What Would Ace Do?

In my last post I mentioned that I traveled to Dallas over the weekend.  The reason was to visit a dear friend and guitar collector in order to shoot several of his guitars for inclusion in my guitar series of photos I started late last year.  I got a lot of great shots, of which this is merely the first one I processed.  I'll be showing the best of them on my main blog as I finish processing them.  After I've completed the series, I intend to self-publish a photo book.  If you're interested in a copy, go to the main blog and get my contact information.

When my buddy pulled this guitar out of the case, I knew that it had to be in my series.  The cherry sunburst Gibson Les Paul has a special place in my heart.  It's the very first guitar I lusted after.  The one that kindled a life-long passion for me.  I was a big fan of KISS back when I was 12 and Ace Frehley played a cherry sunburst Les Paul.  I wanted one in the worst way.  But of course, 12 year olds generally can't afford real Les Pauls.  Shoot, I'm middle aged and it's still a whole lot of money.  I shot this one in front of an old Marshall amp because that's what Ace played 'em through, and to my mind, that's the quintessential pairing with a Les Paul.

27 - Temporary Housing

We had a minor freeze here in Houston last night.  And because this is the south, that pretty much shut everything down.  They canceled school and the kids got a day off.  My company wasn't quite as accommodating - they said we didn't have to come into the office but they expected us to work from home.  (The Internet has its drawbacks, folks.)  So I commandeered my wife's library for an office for the day.  I love this room.  My brother put a lovely finish on a bunch of floor-to-ceiling bookcases for me over the summer and we got a nice desk and chair for the room, so it's an awesome place to work or play.  Certainly much nicer than my office at work.  The only downer was this was one of Edison favorite rooms to sleep in during his final year, so from time to time I would find myself looking into the emptiness of his corner of the room and I'd get sad again.

25 - Goodbye, My Friend

We got Edison from the Town Lake Animal Shelter in Austin in 2000.  For me, it was pretty much love at first sight - a little white and tan puppy with a patch over his eye.  He was also playful and friendly.  One of my most cherished memories is carrying him out of the pound that day in one arm, like a football.  He grew to be very large - about 120 pounds at one point.  And it turned out he was smart, which was a good thing since we'd optimistically named him "Edison".  We taught him how to behave himself, which is crucial for a dog that large.  And of course we taught him some nifty tricks like how to fall down and lay down when you point your finger at him and said, "bang!"  The best trick was how to ring a bell we had tied to the knob on the back door whenever he needed to pee or just wanted to go outside.  He rang that thing so much, I wondered who had been trained - him or us.  But we never had to teach him how to love.  He knew that one from the start and taught me quite a few things about it.  He was a more patient teacher than I was.  His love was boundless, unconditional, and in unlimited supply for whoever wanted it.  Today Edison died after 14 years of sharing his love so generously with me and my family.  I already miss him terribly.

Edison, 2000 - 2014

22 - By the Light of the Flickering Flame

Funny, but some of my favorite photos of this project have been when I'm scrounging around for something to shoot.  Good thing, because by the time I get a few months into this, I might be really desperate for subject matter.

16 - The Relentless Progression of Time

In my first post, I mentioned that time is accelerating.  I truly believe that it is.  Now, I don't think it is accelerating for everybody.  Therefore, I think the velocity of time is relative to perspective.  In other words, I think we all mark time differently.  But mark time we do, because time doesn't stand still.  It marches forward without rest and without mercy.