A fair to remember

A fair to remember, originally uploaded by billaday.

We hit the L.A. County Fair today. It had been a while. I learned 3 things:

1. Park at the Blue Gate (not yellow)
2. You eat whatever the kids want to eat. You can't wait in line twice.
3.

ok, I learned two things. It sure was a good time.

Day 285

I Be a Pirate

I Be a Pirate, originally uploaded by billaday.

Argh! It be International Talk Like a Pirate Day. I read "How I Became a Pirate" to my kindergartners today. They liked it. I wore this shirt as my undershirt all day. For the story, I put on another shirt over my work shirt: "Aaaargh ya' glad you're a teacher!" And then, as luck would have it, we studied the letter i... as in, "Aye, aye!"

Day 284

classic

classic, originally uploaded by billaday.

Isabelle got the new iPod classic today. It's silver. Oooh. And although it's brand new, it's already a "classic". As with most new things, I had to take a picture of it and make it the photo-a-day.

Day 283

up periscope

up periscope, originally uploaded by billaday.

Look at how gross the bottom of that stopper is (where it meets the floor).

They don't make sturdy door stoppers like this any more. Maybe because they are too hard to thoroughly clean.

Day 282

glass ceiling

glass ceiling, originally uploaded by billaday.

You can't see them, but there are actually 18 million cracks in this glass ceiling.

Thank you Hillary.

No thank you Sarah.

Day 281

vents

vents, originally uploaded by billaday.

I revisited this shot. This heater was one of my early photo-a-day shots. The original is here.

For a while, I really liked the original shot. It had a cool perspective (taken from the floor), and the pattern of the vents was interesting. As I went back to it (it was taken Dec. 29, 2006), I noticed what was lacking.

Hopefully, this shot is a great improvement. I went black and white, since the texture, not the color, is what caught my eye. I used a flash (on my point-and-shoot SD870) and got close. I ended up with a nice high key shot, where the top is intentionally washed out, and the bottom of the frame is fading into black. Better?

Day 280

crop hardlight

crop hardlight, originally uploaded by billaday.

Robert is sending his Christmas CD off this week. We took 100 photos Sunday night for the back cover. Sadly, it was really dark by the time we were able to get out there. Since when is 7pm dark time? Seriously. Any way, I could get some good light on him with my SB-600 speedlight, but couldn't get much background light/color/anything. We were at a park, so I was using available backlight. Besides, I don't have any other fancy lighting. So here's the final shot, with the speedlight mounted, with a 1/60 exposure at 90mm.

Though I was hoping to get a more interesting background (I've learned a ton with this shoot), I was happy with the color of the background. It was originally a cheesy pink, since the sun was setting. Robert liked this photo, but wanted a dark blue background. So I took a picture of the sky, added that as a layer above this photos, and changed the blending properties to hard light. Then, it was just a matter of masking around him (so he wasn't dark blue, too).

Day 279

pan the motorcycle

pan the motorcycle, originally uploaded by billaday.

We went up to Idyllwild this weekend with some friends. The girls shopped and the guys (me and Wayne) took pictures. I was starting to get bored/uninspired when I saw some long exposure ideas from Wayne. It was bright and midday, but there he was, taking 1/2 second shots, aiming at the big intersection in the town. I stole that idea, and panned my camera as bikers passed us.

Day 278

winding staircase

winding staircase, originally uploaded by billaday.

My original photo-a-day idea for today was a star trails picture. We were up in Idyllwild, and had a great balcony view of the stars and the valley. It was a full moon, though. So instead of stars, I took a picture of stairs. Just one letter difference. Special thanks to Wayne for holding my wireless flash (SB600) at the bottom of this staircase.

Day 277

fire

fire, originally uploaded by billaday.

There was a giant brown bear loose in the foothills today. At one point, there were five helicopters in the air. I drove around and took 100 pictures; it turns out, helicopters need to be far away from each other so they don't collide. Feeling defeated, I turned around and started walking to my car. This was what I saw. Not bad. The sky looked like it was on fire. I suppose it's all that smog.

Day 276

wax

wax, originally uploaded by billaday.

Melted wax is cool. This almost looks fake, the way it sticks to the tablecloth. I like the light in the background, shining through the candlestick holder.

Day 275

environmental print

environmental print, originally uploaded by billaday.

I find I'm taking more pictures for my classroom. Teaching kindergarten, I need to find examples of stuff that seems obvious to adults. This was one photo from a lesson on environmental print. Letters convey meaning.

Day 274

the foothills

the foothills, originally uploaded by billaday.

Bummer. I just realized that today's photo-a-day is quite similar to the Microsoft "sample desktop." That means it's cool, but unoriginal.

This is cool, however, because it's where I live (and not where Microsoft says I should have visited). I occasionally notice how cool it is to have the foothills right next to my home. It's tough to capture that feeling, but the depth in this shot (silhouette to light sky) reminds me of that feeling. And I suppose for that reason, this photo is a success. Even if some dude from Microsoft® sorta did it first.

Day 273

The Robert Kochis Trio

The Robert Kochis Trio, originally uploaded by billaday.

Here's The Robert Kochis Trio. I'm one of the three, but I was the one taking the pictures, so Junior Barnes filled in so as not to confuse anyone about the number three.

The one in the middle is Junior Barnes--he's moving up through the ranks. Once a bratty son (of Robert), Junior Barnes is now an accomplished drummer, percussionist, and sound engineer (and still obnoxious son). Now we just need to figure out why we call him Junior Barnes. That's not his name.

On the left is the nefarious Mark Gusek. He's a killer drummer. Besides driving The Robert Kochis Trio, he is a freak jazz drummer. Really good. He plays with Julie Day, who is also an amazing jazzer, and The Carnevel Kings.

And last, but least, is Robert Kochis, on stage right. He started the record label New Light Records, and has a Christmas album that's set to come out around Christmas (he's a marketing god). He rocks the microphone, and rocks the suburbs.

And I took the photo. If you look carefully, you can see me in Robert's sunglasses reflection (maybe).

We rock. Hard(ly).

Day 272

risk of inhalation

risk of inhalation, originally uploaded by billaday.

In real life, you use an inhaler twice. In the movies, however, they only use it once. What's that about? Do the characters just need a quick puff of albuterol? Come on. For all you screenwriters out there, make them take two puffs... talk about something scary, take a puff, then say something funny and/or brave.

Day 271

an apple divided

an apple divided, originally uploaded by billaday.

I can't remember the last time I used one of these apple slicers (until today (obviously)). In class, we counted how many seeds were inside the apple core. Then, of course, everyone ate their apple. This is quite different from teaching other grades (non-kindergarten). Good times, good photos.

Day 270

an insect silhouette

an insect silhouette, originally uploaded by billaday.

I've found that my knowledge of creatures equals that of a second grader. (I guess it's good that I've only taught second grade and kinder.) I know that this photo has an insect in it. But that's where my wealth of knowledge ends. It has 3 body parts, six legs, 2 antennae, and is sort of colorful. I would expect the same answer from an 8 year old. My picture is better, though.

Day 269

under a napkin hiding

under a napkin hiding, originally uploaded by billaday.

We played the hiding game that kids love. It goes something like this:

Everet "hides" under a dirty napkin.
I say, "Where did Everet go.....??"
He rips the napkin off his head, and giggles for hours.

And by the way, since when do 2 1/2 year olds actually USE a napkin? I have 30 year old friends who haven't grasped that concept.

fyi, this is a slow sync shot. The flash fires, and the shutter stays open for a while (one second here). It adds motion, and ideally, a sense of excitement.

Day 268

elephant trunk

elephant trunk, originally uploaded by billaday.

Maybe it's that I now teach kindergarten, maybe it's that I'm a dork. Either way, this drain thing looks like an elephant, raising its trunk. Oh yeah, this looks way cool big and on black. I like the DoF.

Day 267

stone stout

stone stout, originally uploaded by billaday.

Stone Brew just released the Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout. I liked it.

"...the aroma is dominated by roast malt and cocoa. Upon tasting, the cocoa (we used unsweetened, unprocessed cacao sourced through our friends at Chuao Chocolatier) really comes through with a deep chocolate flavor and a long lasting bitter finish. The roasted grains used add coffee and licorice accents. It is a thick beer, but not sweet, with the addition of oatmeal in the mash providing a rich, silky mouthfeel that adds to the creamy texture.”

Yum.

Day 266