• Humor,  Self-portraits

    Words of Wisdom

    Oh, that's whats' wrong.
    Oh, that’s whats’ wrong.

    Every once in a while a bad day will raise it’s silly head. Nothing seems to go right. The brain is just not running on all cylinders, randomly sputtering unintelligible words, drawing strange looks from your favorite barista. I’ll give and example. All of a sudden you face a situation where you press the shutter button on your camera and nothing happens. You make a gasp for air as if your life is about to end. Your pulse rate and blood pressure just rocketed. You look at the camera turning it around to see whats wrong and it fires. You let our a sigh of relief as you realized it was on the self-timer mode.  A photographer error. Well, I’m here to help with my words of wisdom. There are a couple of things we need to look at on those bad days.

    First, check your socks. We are now able to buy socks that are made for right and left feet. They put these little “R’s” and “L’s” on them to help. It is a known fact the day could be off kilter if those socks are on the incorrect feet. You may also notice is a slight limp, unable to keep your balance or walk in a straight line. Check it out. Second, is your shorts. Nothing can mess up the day more than having your shorts inside out. Let me tell you it happens to the best of us. A primary symptom with this is the inability to sit comfortably for any period of time. Or you could have them on backwards. You will have the same symptom with this situation. You may encounter an embarrassing time if standing in front of a public urinal. Now, if you have them both on backwards and inside out you might as well just go back to bed and start all over. Hope this helps the next time you have a bad day.

  • bees,  Self-portraits

    Happy New Years

    The New Years Eve Party
    The New Years Eve Party

    Here’s a self-portrait of the party animal. Lights were out by 10:23 and blankets were pulled up around my neck due to the sub-freezing temperatures. This is what happens when you’re facing your 65th birthday in 2015, carry an extra 15-20 pounds at the waistline and have a difficult time staying awake past 11:00. I stopped trying to stay up till midnight and welcome in the new year a few years ago. I figure I’ll see it in the morning feeling refreshed after a good nights sleep. In my past I did not need a holiday to party and drink, any day worked. I actually was more interested in the “four” bowl games on New Year’s Day. We’d set out unhealthy snacks and overdose on both all day long. When the kids were younger it was fun to make them a big breakfast and watch the Rose Bowl Parade. I hope everyone has a blessed 2015 and Happy New Years!

  • Black and White,  People/Portraits,  quotes,  Self-portraits

    Dark and Mysterious

    One Light Portrait
    One Light Portrait

    “There’s just something unsettling about studying your reflection. It’s not a matter of being dissatisfied with your face or of being embarrassed by your vanity. Maybe it’s that when you gaze into your own eyes, you don’t see what you wish to see—or glimpse something that you wish weren’t there.” 

    Dean Koontz, Deeply Odd

    I again called upon the older guy to model for me as I played with some exposure and lighting effects.  Shot this in the afternoon with window light only. I wanted to use the camera and flash to darken the background. I set the camera on manual at f2.0 and a shuter speed of 400th of a second.  This darkened the background while I used off camera flash, set on manual, and powered at 1/64th to light only my face. It is through using myself I learn about flash and how to play with it. It takes longer to experiment. After I feel comfortable I can then use a different model. Black and white conversion was done in Silver Efex Pro.