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.
A portrait of my friend Nicole
Home again for the weekend, and this time my girlfriend is off in Nevada at the Talent Quest national competition. She sings for the final five tonight, so here’s hoping for the best. Meanwhile, I’ve had an absolutely unprecedented amount of free time the last couple of days, so I’ve been up to an awfully lot more lazing about and television watching than usual, along with the occasional bit of something interesting or productive.
The Danie in front of a backdrop
Came home for the weekend again Friday, and went straight from class at UCF, to pick Danie up and eat dinner at USF, to Ellenton to take her to band practice, and finally back home to Bradenton. Needless to say, I was happy to finally get home. Then we did the usual Friday night karaoke, and this morning I finally got a haircut…for the first time in five or six months. Then we went to a cousin’s birthday party, and came home, where I resolved to finally photograph the Danie in front of a roll of seamless paper.
Director and lead actor
Now I’m in the middle of a four-day weekend, thanks to a skipped Friday and Labor Day on Monday. Friday was my girlfriend and I’s 2.5th anniversary, so I went ahead and took the day off of school and came home Thursday. That night we surprised the folks at our small group by showing up on a Thursday, and ended up playing a ridiculous game of cranium. I maintain that my drawing of the grand canyon (with accompanying donkey) was truly exceptional, but apparently the others beg to differ. Then we did Thursday karaoke for a change, and then I actually got to sleep in on a Friday.
John behind the RED One
All sorts of fun things happening lately. Today I went and hung out with my friend John, while he was trying out the RED One camera for his next film…and it was a beast. I made some behind-the-scenes sorts of photos of the production folks testing it out, and of course ogled the thing plenty myself. Lately I’ve also gotten the chance to shoot some video, and found that laser tag can be thoroughly amusing.
One of the nurses (actually posing for a photo) with a patient
Today my church participated in an event for migrant workers and their children at the Good Samaritan Mission out in Wimauma. They had food and some variety of medical care (looked like vaccinations, I think) for the parents, and school supplies, popcorn, cotton candy, and all sorts of festivities for the children. There was face-painting, hair-cutting, magic shows, balloon animals, and all manner of fun. I think they even tried to have a soccer game, but the sun was brutal, and that didn’t last for very long.
My sister, Steffi
So this is definitely going to be the weekend of photographs. Thursday, my sister needed a portrait to print to go try out for modelling. So I set up some lights under the carport, metered, and shot away. I ended up with a shot I was happy with, and went off to print it. Last time I went for a print, I found out that the Wolf Camera I usually use for quick prints (on Manatee Ave.) had closed, and had to drive out to the one on US 41 to get prints made. This time I went out to the US 41 store to find that it, too, has closed its doors. Apparently, charging obscene markup in an economic downturn isn’t a viable business plan. Go figure.