Point and Shoot

So I have to shoot two weddings this summer. Not something I can say I've done before. I'm not worried, per se, but I do want to be sure I don't mess things up. It's not like I can go and reshoot if need be. Well, maybe I could, but there would be an enormous hassle for all parties involved.

To that end, I've been looking at books on wedding photography for ideas on what I think looks good and what I think looks exceptionally lame. Or tacky. Or both. Really, it's just for the after-ceremony posed shots with the bride, groom, parents, cousins, ushers, and the little old lady who plays the organ so nicely. She really did do a nice job, didn't she? The choices were well-thought out, and added a nice element to the proceed...

Wait.

Um. Posed pictures. Yes. I hate...well, strongly dislike posing people. A nice portrait is fine, but I'm no good at the set-up, hence the books. The rest should be fine, since it's essentially one big event, and events are what I do all the time.

In the course of finding books, I'm aamazed at the number of "How To" books in the photo section at the library. How to Shoot Your Kids*, How to Shoot Babies, How to Photograph Your Pets, Photographing Landscapes/Cityscapes, How to Photogrpah Nature, Photographing That Stain on the Wall that May or May Not Resemble Aunt Ruth, and so on. Quite silly, I think. A nice book on the Photo Fundamentals is all fine and dandy. I say the best way to find out what works and what doesn't (once you know what you're doing) is just to get out there and start shooting. "Film is cheap" was the mantra at Webster**. Digital makes it even easier to get out and practice, but I say start with film and then move up. But then still shoot film. Or even better, slides. Really. Go try. Digital may be quick, but there's a certain something film brings to the table digital doesn't match for me. Especially in low-lit areas. Underexpose with film, and you might see some grain, which can sometimes look nice. Underexpose with digital and you wind up with digital noise, which, to me, is just plain ugly.

This is merely my take on things, of course. Oh: and if any of you have shot a wedding or three and have any ideas, advice, etc, please let me know.



Smile!
Dave




*Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking.

**This is only because all other camera gear is so damn expensive. Good film can be a bit pricey, although it's worth every penny.

Benny and the (Red) Jets

First, some bad news.

It seems the Catholic Church is in trouble now.

With the election of Cardinal Ratzinger as Pope, we're now being led by a German Shepherd.


Thank you! I'll be here all day!

One more?

Okay: the official Breakfast of the Vatican?

Eggs Benedict!

Thank you, thank you. You're too kind. No, really, please. Sit down, sit down.


Um, anyways. I was going to go one direction with this, then decided to start with something else, then wound up going with option 3, the jokes. So now I don't know where to go. I think I'll go with option 2. Right before I started typing, I noticed the empty Mountain Dew can on my desk, telling me to visit their website. I had to ask myself what I could possibly find there that would be of any use to someone like myself. So.....let's find out!

We have...

+MDTV
+Gaming
+Sports
+Promos
+Brands
+Downloads
+Join Dew


Let's try the last one, eh?

"You're on the path to be one of the few – the proud – the green."--Sounds like a good deal to me. I just hope it's not green with food poisoning. Hmm...asking for my birthday, fine, although having the option to enter my birth year as 1900 seems odd. How many 105 year olds are going to be bothering with this?


"Approximately how many 8oz. servings of carbonated soft drinks do you consume each week?" I doubt "too much" is an option, so I'll have to guess. My favorite drink? Caffeine-free, diet Coke. Yummy.

Okay, so I joined. The only perk appears to be the ability to enter contests. That's it? No coupons, free sodas, extra...stuff? What a waste! Let's try one more section of the site before my break is over.

MDTV? Eh, just 30-second TV spots. Gaming? Eh, no better. I don't see anything worth my time. And...now I've lost interest in the site, so I'm going to stop wasting my time. I don't plan on buying any 'Dew Gear,' so it's time to move on.

The lesson to be learned from all this? Soda brands have no business running websites. Well, not when they're annoyingly laid out and utterly dull. So, now my break is over and I've gotta start working again. I guess this was a mostly wasted post, so I'm sorry to have made you sit through it. At least you got some fresh jokes.



That's--that's me: Boyfriend Dan.
Dave

Looks like we're gonna have to jump!

I know this is one of those things that probably gets bandied about quite often, but that's as may be. I'm gonna talk about it anyway.

So there.

I am, by society's (and genetic's) definition: a Guy. This automatically makes me unable to understand a lot of stuff. For example: what's the big deal about going to the bathroom in large groups? Is there something in Women's rooms that I'm missing? Cable? High-speed internet? Pizza rolls? I mean, as a guy, I go in, take care of business, and get out, all on my own. But to see girls go hit the can solo is quite rare.*

But!

That's beside my point. I'm here to talk about the "romantic comedy," or "rom-com" to those "in the know," by which I mean the guy across the street. For example, we'll be using the J-Lo vehicle The Wedding Planner. I watched a portion of it on Sunday, although not by my choosing. Maybe it was a step up from HSN, but still. Is watching the Braves and Phillies that bad?

Anyways.

After watching an hour or so of said film, I cannot, for the life of me, get the appeal of such films. I mean, the entire movie hinges on the fact that Ms. Lo gets her shoe caught in a manhole cover and won't bend down and take the shoe off, even though a dumpster is careening right towards her. God forbid she put her cell phone down for a second and take her shoe off. Nonono. If she did that, she wouldn't get rescued by a hunky guy and we wouldn't have a movie. I won't even discuss the silliness of the rest, because the pivotal point of the film is so preposterous to begin with.

So what's the appeal? Things like that don't happen in real life, and if they do, I pray most people exercise a bit more common sense. It's just a shoe!

That said, there are two of the "rom-coms" I do like: Amelié and Love, Actually. Both are quite amusing, and while featuring situations that probably would never actually happen, they do it well enough to where I don't mind. One os British, which helps a lot, and the other is French, which may not make the film any better, but I thought I'd mention it.

I'm not condemning anyone who does enjoy such films, mind you, I'm just trying to figure out why they do so well when they're almost all the same, and really leave little drama as to what will happen at the end (Will they get together???). Maybe it's just a bit of escapism or something. I'm sure most of my beefs could be reworded and thrown back at me about Godzilla movies, except the first one, of course.

And, well, I think that's about it. Imagine that: a long post on one topic only. Weirdness.


Let's... trace! Let's trace some drawings!
Dave



*Of course, the bathroom in my house is out, since I can only accomodate one person. I bet if I had two stalls, or what-not, I'd have extra persons in there.

I caught you this delicious bass.

This is probably the coolest thing I've seen in awhile. I especially enjoy the last "whereas" clause.

Lucky!
Dave

Good enough for me

Well, it's certainly not as bad as I had originally thought. Readthis for one furry, googly-eyed monster's tale of triumph and cookies.




Really, I think a little moderation is a good thing.

My favorite part: "plus the occasional object." That makes me happy.


C is for cookie,
Dave

The quill! The page! Lyric, rampage! Word up?

So.

Soooooooo.

You might recall my ire last year about all the hoo-ha over Ms. Shandi Finnessy, soon-to-be-former Miss America, and more-or-less resident of Florissant, MO. It was, and still is, silly, although it may have been topped by two new additions to our roadsides. One is a rather large, gaudy, tacky, and pretty unnecessary...thing at the New Florissant/ I-270 exit. It looks more like a memorial plaque than anything I can bring to mind, but I'm pretty sure she's not dead (I think I'll go for a walk!). The other is a little addition to the 'Welcome to Missouri Sign' driving in from Illinois that reads "Home of Shandi Finnessy, Miss USA (America?) 200X." I don't recollect the year, nor do I care to investigate.

Now, unsightly as it is, I can understand a sign in Florissant, although I wish it was a wee bit smaller and moved somewhere other than where I get off the highway everyday. But the addition to the highway sign is just way out there. I mean, why does she get her name on a sign before other famous people we have? You know, someone like that President we had, or that author who wrote some book about the Mississippi? In 10-20 years, will people still be talking about Ms. Shandi Finnessy? Hmm?

Grr.

Anyways.

With the help of one Janice "I may or may not be related to Juggling Jeff" Koziatek. the computer room was most masterfully painted. Ceiling and all done in just over two hours. Looks quite nice, I think. Thus ends my upstairs painting endeavors, save for redoing the ceiling in the living room. Next up: the basement. Ooooooo, aaaahhhhhh.

Tax day is Friday. Have you turned yours in yet?

I have to wonder: who in the realm of One Hour Photo World decided that cutting negs into strips of four was a good idea? There is not a single neg sleeve on the market that I know of that holds any less than 5 frames across. It doesn't matter much on 24-exposure rolls, but for 36-exposre rolls, what should fit on one sleeve now takes two. Ideally, negs should be cut into strips of six, I think, so even the longest rolls fit onto a 6-frame sleeve. Plus, no one pays attention to how they cut the negs. Instead of starting at the first frame and cutting, the cut starts at the front of the roll, meaning the first strip is 3 blank frames and one good frame, and the last strip is invariably some odd-ball number.

Grr.

S'pose I should get the negs uncut and do it myself, eh?

I wish I was better with words so I could describe last night's Eric Sardinas/Steve Vai extravaganza. Eric wore a cowboy hat of the Griff-style, but had it low enough to hide all but his mouth. Long, black, curly hair. Tight pants, tatoos, velvet-esque shirt. Tatoos. He played slide with a bottle of beer and lit his guitar on fire at the end. When he joined Steve for the encore, he was wearing tight, floral print pants.

Where to start with Vai....he played with his tongue at the end.

What else can I say?

That said, it was an excellent show. Depsite their weirdness, both guys seemed like very nice gentlemen, and were obviously very grateful to the audience for coming out and looked to be having a lot of fun on stage. I wore earplugs, and it was the greatest thing ever. Not only could I hear the notes during the show better, but I could hear AFTER the show too, which is an incredible sensation. Fun times, yo.


But what about rules of verse? Iambic pentameter is where it's at!
Dave

I'm ready for the balls and the...bat.

The Cardinals, while not panicking, understand the position they find themselves in today: not in first. The stunning development---the first time since last May 30 that the Cardinals found themselves below first place---has the team speculating on what they need to do to get back on top:

"We need to play a game," said skipper Tony LaRussa. "That would be a start."

Still, with just 162 games left to go in the regular season, some fans wonder whether the team has enough in the tank to catch the Cubs, the Reds and the surprising Brewers, all of whom sit atop the N.L. Central. "It's disappointing, so far," said George Andrews, a Cardinal rooter from Painesville, OH, who arrived this afternoon in St. Louis after driving eight hours to see Opening Day. "I haven't seen much from any of the new guys, but, hopefully, they'll start to perform before it's too late." When told that tonight's Cardinal opener is being played in Houston---not St. Louis---Edwards said, "That seems really stupid. Opening Day should be at home."

Got this over at The Birdwatch. Pretty amusing, I think. It's yet to sink in that today is the Cardinal's opening day, albeit in Houston. Home opener is Friday night against Philly, I believe.

According to mum, who never lies; ever, all baptized males are eligible to be elected Pope. They've just been choosing Cardinals for the past million years or so. I tell you what, if the Yankees hadn't swooped in and grabbed my man Womack, I'd vote for him in a heartbeat. He'd be the best...no, wait a minute. Wrong kind of Cardinal. Um, yeah. Going back to the beginning: she suggested I could be Pope. I had to say no, if only because I had no good way of telling Janice I was breaking up with her to go lead the Catholic Church. A valid reason, yes, but how do you break that to someone? Although, as mom poined out, the Vatican would be great for family reunions. A tough call, yes, but I think I'll leave the Papacy to those in the know. Plus, I don't know Latin. Dominus Pizza delivery or something, I don't know.

All joking aside, I'm sorry the JP died, although he's probably more comfortable now than he'd been in a long while. Plus, the idea of a new Pope is a bit exciting. Learning all the ins and outs of the process makes the religion a bit more interesting too, mostly because I've never had to think about it. There's just always been a Pope. So this oughta be fun.

Requiescat in pace, Carol Wojtyla, a great friend to the world's poor. And a great wearer of Fly shades.

Dave