One of the singers on stage at the memorial
Today I got up bright and early Saturday morning to get over to the Church, where they were hosting a memorial service for the local Haitian churches, in the wake of the recent earthquake. Of course, the service started late, so the waking up early was in vain, but it still felt like quite the accomplishment to actually be somewhere just after seven. (more…)
The dinner table on Christmas Eve
Yesterday was Christmas! On Christmas Eve, I went with my mom’s side of the family to a candlelight service, and then we all had dinner at the grandparents’ house. I made some vegetable and chick-pea curry, and had some assorted vegetables and such that other folks had brought. And Grandma made a wonderful pumpkin pie. I set up and shot family portraits while I was there, which proved interesting, as I worked with Grandpa’s 5D Mark II, and forgot that its maximum sync speed was 1/250. So now I’ve just finished processing the photos, and cropping the black sync bars off the bottoms of every frame. After that and dinner we had the gift exchange, which was one of those where everyone draws a number out of a hat, and then you each pick a present in the order of your numbers, with the option to take someone else’s after your turn.
Danie singing at band practice
Christmas is approaching, and Winter has been a lot of fun so far. I got to see Avatar with some friends yesterday, which turned out to be amazing. The 3D visuals were pretty impressive, and the story was interesting, if not completely original. Now everyone’s coming back home for Christmas, and it was mostly nice to be able to go see it with friends who’ve been off at school for the last year. (more…)
Santa Danie
This weekend I got to come home nice and early on Thursday, and I get to hang around until Monday evening. I’ll get to go and take exams Tuesday and Wednesday, and then the Fall semester is finally over, and I can stop worrying about stupid projects at last. In the meantime, I get to relax, and of course study for the bunch of exams I have to take in a couple of days. Thursday I went and picked Danielle up from USF, and we had lunch and came home in time to make small group, and then went and had dinner at Vertori’s…where I managed to devour a large pizza by myself. Friday I got to sleep in, but the cat woke me up around eleven, so I didn’t waste too much of the day away.
I got to take a nice long weekend for Thanksgiving, starting Tuesday night and going through Sunday. Tuesday I came home and had dinner with Danielle, took her to band practice, and watched a moviefilm with her. Wednesday I got to have a nice lazy day, sleeping in late, and then I tried to make a loaf of chicken flavored seitan…and failed miserably. Then I took Danie to Five Guys, ate peanuts and fries, and we went to Kroaky’s karaoke in Sarasota, where she won their contest. Thursday, of course, was Thanksgiving. I had lunch with my dad, and then went with my mom’s side of the family to my grandma’s house for dinner. That was great fun, and I ate plenty, of course (including half a pumpkin pie), and had a little fun with my grandpa’s 5D Mark II while I was at it. I shot a little video that’s embedded below.
Cat in the headlights
This weekend we had the day off of school for Veteran’s day Wednesday, so I came home Tuesday night, skipped Thursday and Friday, and had a nice long weekend. Tuesday Danie and I went to a friend’s birthday party/proposal, and then came home and watched a movie. Wednesday I got to sleep in, and spent the day mostly being lazy. I got some assorted foodstuffs for Danie, and made her some Annie’s mac and cheese. And I oh-so-sneakily got her a belated birthday present, since she turned 22 on Monday.
The Flamingourd
I got to come home early this weekend, in time to go to karaoke Thursday night with Danie, and surprise our small group by showing up mid-week. Then I actually got to sleep in Friday morning, and we went to lunch and the mall, and Danie went off to compete in the Doctor Idol contest at Michael’s on East in Sarasota. Her group won, of course, and then we watched 1408 that night. This is, quite possibly, the single creepiest film I’ve ever watched.
Danielle singing at Bayfest 2009
Today Danielle was singing at Bayfest out on Anna Maria Island, and I went to photograph her and her band, Highway 41. The festival was out on Pine Ave, towards the North end of the island, and parking was a mess. The messiest part, of course, was that it was impossible to tell as you drew nearer and nearer to Pine Ave, how far you could go before you’d have to try and turn around because all the parking was full. I got lucky and tried my luck with a lot about two blocks away from the street itself, where I managed to snag a spot that wasn’t too far away…and the last lot with any available spaces up to Pine Ave, as near as I could tell.
Some horse shoes from the beach baptism
Today I shot some baptisms at the beach, and assorted activities beforehand. I started the day running video at church, as usual, and ended up volunteering to show up and shoot the event at Coquina Beach later. So I bought a new book (David Weber’s By Heresies Distressed), lazed around reading for a while, and headed out to the beach. I had fun shooting some volleyball, horse shoes and so on, and eventually got to battle it out with the sun shooting baptisms in the water with the sun about ten degrees up off the horizon directly behind them. I had someone out in the water holding a strobe, but it was still nigh-well impossible to get a decent exposure. I was able to get them looking alright with a little post-processing, but with the strobe at full power I only got one shot each (it takes a good two and a half to three seconds to recharge after a full-power flash), and some of the expressions turned out…interestingly.
Emily under the Go-Kart bridge
When I was a kid in Bradenton, by far the coolest thing to do in town was hanging out at Pirate’s Cove. It was one of those arcade/go-kart/laser tag kinds of places, and it was a pretty good one at that. At one point they even had a Shake Pit (a local ice-cream place), the only time Shake Pit ever had a second location. Unfortunately, the mini adventure park type of establishment has really fallen out of favor, and a couple of years ago Pirate’s Cove closed its doors. The owner had intended to sell the property, but that deal fell through, and after everything in the place was auctioned off they boarded up the building and left the property unmaintained. It’s been several years now, everything is overgrown and destroyed, and I decided to go back for a photo shoot.