Why So Serious? - Day 365 of Project 365
Image by purplemattfish
16/08/09
What can I say... it's over... !
For the last 365 days I have taken a photo a day. The last 12 months have shot by alarmingly quickly. There were times when I wondered what I'd got myself into, and the odd occasion where I really couldn't be arsed taking a shot. But on the the whole it's been an amazing experience, and I would highly recommend anyone thinking of giving it a go to "just do it" ;)
I've quite heavily processed this shot, but this is almost exactly how I wanted it to look when I came up with the idea. I wanted an almost cartoon look to it.
People sometimes ask me how long it takes to get my 365... it depends some are 10 mins... this was a bit longer I started at 11pm and I'm typing this at 4am.... but I'm happy, plus I've processed 4 shots and typed all this blurb and had a shower to clean all this bloody make-up off (that took me a good half hour!).
There's also my back-up shot here, and a make-up progress shot here
For the interested here is my summary of the year. At the beginning of August last year I had this crazy idea to do a 365 photo project. I also really wanted to buy a new camera and in order to justify that purchase I needed a good reason to buy it... the last 12 months of photos was that reason. I had 2 goals and 1 objective, the first rule was to take all my photos with my 5D (which I technically failed as I've used my film cameras for a small number of shots) and the second was not to miss a day... and as there are 365 shots in the set I consider that to have been a success ;) The objective was "to take better photos", I think the best test of that will be in a couple of weeks when I friend of mine gets married. Myself and another 365'er will be shooting the wedding!
Over the last 12 months:
I've taken 24,134 shots, of which I kept 3,626... !
I found a compelling love for the 50mm focal length.
I became a big fan of off camera flash use (I blame that strobist bloke)
I met lots of nice people though Flickr.
And finally, a big thank-you to everybody who has taken the time to look at or comment on my photos as it's been a source of inspiration for me over the last 12 months!
now what to do next .... Year 2? well I'm going to do a week of 50mm and see where that gets me ;)
Lightroom: export 2 shots one exposed for the card the second exposed for the background
Photoshop: where do I start... lots, export the 2 shots in split into 3 layers the card the hand and me in the background, change the hue on the hand and me, tweak the card for maximum readability! flatten, sharpen, save to JPG
Strobist: 580EXII @ 1/128 just behind the camera fitted with a snoot, vivtar 215 @ fill power into softbox to camera right. They say a picture is worth a thousand words so have a look at the setup shot
Life goes by
Image by aftab.
It does, no matter what. Not much anyone one can do about it.
Tagging fever seems to be in it's dying phase, but I feel like instilling some life into it, not to mention that I have been tagged again by Zabir and Atif. Moreover, some complained that I didn't talk a lot about myself in my last tag picture. So,..
1. This is one is one of my most favorite wildlife pictures. I have not come across a wildlife shot that was taken with f/32 and 1/25 sec. to get a motion blur like this. Thank you oystercatcher for not moving!
2. I think Rabindranath was the greatest writer to walk on this earth.
3. I don't want to live too long, but long enough to see some of my favorite persons getting married and having kids.
4. Life is 'imperfect'. Only God could think of such 'imperfection'. A 'perfect' life would have been robotic. There is nothing more perfect than the life God created for us.
5. I find most legendary photographers to be overrated. For example, the famous 'Afghan Girl" could have been taken by million other photographers. If you are a young photographer, don't follow the legends, follow your heart.
6. I think Einstein was the greatest scientist ever lived. He is also the author of my most beloved quote, "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." I feel sorry for those who don't feel the miracle in everything in and around them. BTW, physics is the most interesting science, mathematics comes second, biochem third, the rest is okay except the 'science' of evolution.
7. I find it ludicrous when people say atheism is scientific. No one can prove that God doesn't exist. It is just a belief. There is no science in it. Believing in God is not scientific either, but His presence can be felt in the most enlightened way.
8. Talking about science, most people don't understand the limitations of scientific methodology. It's a pretty narrow life and world view. Some people think science is The Answer. That has to be The Joke of the History. Think about this scenario. An alien has come to visit earth. He can see everything except human beings. He tries to understand how a car moves. In his scientific mind he determines when the steering wheel moves to right the car moves to right as well and when the steering wheel moves to left... etc. He decides that the steering wheel is the brain behind the car (tries to understand about it scientifically). This can be 'proven' and theoretically falsified' as scientific methodology demands. How funny is that!
9. I find it ludicrous when people talk about evolution without understanding how DNA, RNA and cellular mechanisms work. I think Richard Dawkins is hilarious, as hilarious as religious bigots. He is pretty rude as well, but that all is predetermined.
10. My most favorite living writers are Sunil Gangopadhay, Al Mahmood, Stephen Hawking and Noam Chomsky.
11. When I was 13 years old, someone wanted to have sex with me. I declined. He is now a professor of the most renowned university in Bangladesh. I think most gays in Bangladesh are pedophiles.
12. As a little child, I saw hundreds of dead bodies floating in river. Pakistan should apologize.
13. I find it disturbing when people put values such as freedom of speech (or anything else for that matter) above people. Nothing can be above people it serves.
14. I love cartoons. Jungle Book is one of my most favorite movies ever.
15. I am dark skinned. When I was little my mom affectionately used to say, no one would marry a 'kala guy' (dark guy) like you. She was right.
16. A Bangladeshi photographer, who works for Reuters, recently said, composition in a photograph was not that important. I think he is as clueless as I am.
17. I think dreamers are losers. But in a dreamland losers don't exist.
18. I love all kinds of movies. But I get a bit scared when I watch scary movies after midnight.
19. I think sex without love is vulgar. I also think, having a swimming pool in a house is vulgar ( when millions in the world don't have enough pure water to drink).
20. When I am sad I listen to sad songs. They make me sadder. I love it.
I don't want to number it. It can't be numbered.
My life has been changed by a small icon and the soul behind it. Its a miracle.
But the sweetest thing is that she doesn't even know the depth of it. She is so sweet!
Soon I will tag few people. Please, play =)
The Cameo
Image by angus mcdiarmid
The return of the IMDB comments. (Earlier editions here.) I haven't done one of these for a couple of years, I think.
The IMDB message board for Looper is full of discussions about time travel. None particularly enlightening. Baby Hitler doesn't feature in the movie, by the way, but he always crops up in the message boards for any film that features time travel.
It might be worth bearing in mind that, going by the five pages of messages, most IMDB commenters would advise against killing baby Hitler. You may decide to take their advice or not, should the opportunity arise. It's entirely up to you.
The ever-growing set of Cameo pictures (most without stupid comments) is here. On Thursday, it'll be eight years since I took the first one.
Alki Beach, 1911 to 2010
Image by Rob Ketcherside
Wrote this up a bit differently for a Seattlest Re:Take.
There's a story waiting to be told here, about racism.
Alki Beach opened on July 4th, 1911. You probably know that Alki means "by and by" or "before long", and that Seattle's first name was New York Alki. The first ship of pioneer settlers were both aspirational and willing to make fun of themselves. They joked to each other that the tents would be transformed into a new New York before long.
I opened up the digitized Seattle Times for the day before Alki opened. At the top of the page, above the Alki article, was a political cartoon. On the left, a big strong white man looks down on a tiny, scrawny black man with the caption "One Year Ago Today". On the right, that scrawny black man is now huge but still boney and goofy and with lips half the size of his head; the white man is miniscule but muscular, and the caption says "Today". It was a commentary on the one-year anniversary of Jack Johnson's defeat of James Jeffries. If you don't know what that means, do yourself a favor and look it up.
Alki was built in the image of New York City's public beach on Coney Island which was "following the trend of paternalism of municipal governments." Coney Island had bathing suits for rent, but the poor couldn't afford them so kids went into the water with "sawed off pants." And conservative immigrants couldn't bear to bare skin, so they went in with their clothes on, and changed into another pair. Most important to my point, though, was the purposeful, multiethnic, multiracial nature of the beach. The mayor of New York was quoted saying, "Everybody was having the time of his life. There were no racial lines."
I haven't found any comments about the mix of patrons at the beach in West Seattle. I do know that a week before the beach opened, the Holy Rosary Catholic Church in West Seattle invited the Tulalip tribe to visit Alki and bake some clams for the church picnic. That's the closest I've come, though.
The story is still waiting. Was Seattle as progressive as New York? Or were we still backwards, longing to be like New York, Al-ki?
(Coney Island article in Seattle Times 8/24/1911, page 15.)
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