This was nearly yesterday's photo. I loved the light, loved the composition and loved the color. But of course it was out of focus. There was a bit of a wind and the lilac branches would not stay put. So this morning I tried it again, without the wind. Now I'm happy. So I'm just going to stand over here being happy while you read this.
This is one of those shots that I love getting but probably causes the neighbors to doubt my sanity. It involves lying flat on my stomach in wet grass, pointing the camera at seemingly nothing. The one drop of dew on a blade of grass that makes me happy in the final product is pretty much invisible to anyone watching me shoot. So I might as well be trying to take pictures of my invisible rabbit Harvey. Except of course Harvey is tall, so I'd never be lying on my stomach to take his picture. Plus, as I mentioned, he's invisible, which kind of defeats the purpose of taking his picture. But he's a very willing subject should I ever want to take his picture. Bit of a ham for the camera actually.
Apparently nature is making some sort of comment on the state of TV today. I went outside looking for something to photograph and was surprised to discover this horde of flies on my satellite dish. Bizarrely a similar horde had taken up residence on the mailbox too. I'm not sure what to make of that.
And just in case you hadn't noticed, click on these photos to see the embiggened versions.
I could easily have used this for the photo blog but I had a different purpose in mind. Time lapse photography. I've long been fascinated by night photography. The light is so odd and alluring in photos taken at night. With my previous camera I attempted some of it, but it just wasn't up to the task most of the time. My new camera is definitely up to the task. So I trekked out to the back yard with the tripod, pointed the camera at a fairly random spot in the sky and took a long exposure shot. When it finished and the image popped up on the LCD, my jaw hit the floor. So many more stars appeared than my eye could ever pick up.
That led to the next step, time lapse. Very simply I just repeated the same shot over and over. Half an hour later I had thirty plus shots. Strung together on the computer gave me the hardest one second of video I've ever shot. But I'm excited with the possibilities. Check out this guy's work for an example.
Day 2 of this photo blog and I've managed to wait to the very last second to post the day's entry. I can see this is going to go very smoothly.
This is my cat Maggie. She has grown so lazy that she's now sleeping in her food dish. Based on that I assume you will not be at all surprised when I mention that she is perhaps the worst mouser known to man. The dog is actually better at it and she's trying to lick the critters to death.
In the last post, I mentioned starting a photo blog where I would post a new photo every single day for a year. It seems crazy and much too work intensive, so naturally I've decided to do it. I really wonder about my sanity some days.
Hi there. Remember me? It's been a while. I haven't much felt like writing lately. One month ago, my mother died. It was a shocking miserable experience and one that put me completely off writing. Not a word. That's not an excuse, as if I feel the need to apologize for not writing. It's just fact. There was no desire to write at all. The act of writing is very internal. I go inside my head and think about things and out comes whatever it is I'm trying to write. But for weeks, I've done everything possible to avoid spending time in my head because it just leads to painful thoughts. They were far too close to the surface.
It's getting a bit easier now though. I've started a bit of rewriting, hoping that would get me back in gear. And I've done a bit of work with the new camera, which you can see below. It's a short film called Spring. It was shot in and around my yard in one afternoon, all hand held on the Canon Rebel T2i. Make sure to watch it in HD because that makes it very clear why I wanted this camera. I really love the rich color and detail in some of these shots. The narrow depth of field is pretty nice too.
Hopefully I'll start posting regularly. I'm tentatively thinking about starting a photo blog, where I put up a new photo every day. We'll see. No promises right now.
A stream runs through the back of our yard. There is a spot on the bank of that stream, right at the very corner of the property, where some flowers grow. I am utterly hopeless with plants, so I cannot remember what sort of flowers they are, so don't ask. Despite being told annually, I can't remember. What I do remember about them is that they are the very first flowers to appear every spring. So early that I've often found them blooming in the middle of a patch of as yet unmelted snow.
Well, I wandered through that part of the yard yesterday and this is what I saw. An early sign of spring? I think so. There was also a robin in the yard this morning, but I didn't have the camera with me, so you'll just have to trust me on that one.
Any of you who have followed this site for the last couple years know that I'm switching gears, trying to go from being a critic to a filmmaker. Mostly that has meant screenwriting. But I'd like to shoot movies too and that means having some gear to work with. To that end I've been saving my pennies for a really long time now. Finally I've taken the plunge and bought some equipment. Specifically, a camera.
That camera is a Canon Rebel T2i. It is a DSLR, which means it was primarily designed to shoot stills. But even better, this one shoots HD video. So that means I don't have any excuses for not shooting some movies this year. I'm so excited about this I'm just about drooling on myself. Yeah, that's a great visual.
Anyway, here's a little taste of the camera in action. Not video yet, I'm still figuring my new toy out. But here's a photo I shot of my mother's dog Molly lounging on my bed. I dare you not to find her adorable.
I've been what you might call stuck in terms of writing lately. Not writer's block because I never stopped writing. It's more like I slowed down massively. The effort was there but the output wasn't. I've come up with all manner of explanations to myself and they're probably all bullshit. I'm not particularly interested in excuses, particularly my own. The current script was simply not coming along as quickly as I wanted.
And then I remembered something. For years I've juggled multiple scripts at once. When one wasn't happening I'd just jump to another and keep writing. Over the previous year my focus was on rewriting and so there wasn't much jumping around. It was one script at a time until a particular draft was finished, and then jump. So I sort of forgot about my own system.
Yesterday I remembered. And it was liking ramming a plumber's snake through a clogged pipe. The clog let go and everything just poured through. But instead of a disgusting mass of rotting hair what emerged was several brand new pages on my zombie project. I should have thought of this weeks ago. The zombie project is a particularly nice change of pace as I have endless ideas for it and not even a hint of a story so far. The no story thing is certainly a problem but if I just keep pouring out enough scenes and ideas, something will develop eventually. More importantly it gives me a lot of freedom to write just about anything which is a wonderful antidote to the other script which is rather tightly structured.
For some reason writing about blood getting sprayed around is rather cathartic.
For the first time in years, I will not be hosting a live chat during the Oscars. I know, you're heartbroken. But with mom in the hospital I was distracted and nearly forgot about it entirely.
So my recommendation is to go to Kevin Pollack's Chat Show and watch his snarky take on the whole thing. That's probably what I'll be doing. And my sole prediction is a massive upset where Inglourious Basterds sneaks past Avatar and The Hurt Locker and steals Best Picture. Personally, I'd give it to Up in the Air, but the Academy has yet to ask my opinion on these matters.
This was nearly yesterday's photo. I loved the light, loved the composition and loved the color. But of course it was out of focus. There was a bit of a wind and the lilac branches would not stay put. So this morning I tried it again, without the wind. Now I'm happy. So I'm just going to stand over here being happy while you read this.
