New site design. Lick your monitors.

Friday night, Erin and I got the chance to hang out with a friend of mine who stopped in town for the weekend. We went downtown to check out the remnants of Sunfest. While I was there, desperately wishing I had a camera... I remembered I had this... monstrosity...in the car, loaded with film and batteries.

Look. at. the. size. of. the. flash. on. that. thing. HYOOGE. Bright enough to completely paint a 5-7 story building right up to the roof. Bright enough to leave me colorblind and seeing trails for 20 minutes after I shot myself in the face with it (a rather genius move, yeah). UFO's were landing. It shot gouts of flame 15 feet into the air after 3 photos. After the roll of film was done (126mm film has only 12 exposures per roll), I took to pointing it at random people and just setting the flash off. Also, in a flash (har har) of inspiration, I jammed the flash into my mouth and set it off. This is what it looks like:

I'd like to point out that this was done in a completely dark room. The light you see in the background is from the flash. I'm still seeing pink blotches, biotches.

Yesterday I had a killer headache, thanks to my trapezius and erector spinae muscles latching onto the base of my skull like hungry, red, moist, glistening, striated starfish onto a bivalve. Yes, I realize that was a run on sentence and made next to no sense, but it hurt. I wanted vomit twice from it. After a few hours of trying not to be a pansy, I asked Erin if she would massage my shoulders and neck. I swear, that woman just heals me. She massaged, and my headache was gone. She heals me in so many ways. She lightly runs her fingers up and down my back, and I'm asleep, a deep healthy sleep, in minutes. I sleep next to her, and I sleep more soundly and mo' betta than I have in years. She is a balm to everything wrong with me.

I've been going through a trial and mostly error process of using the Polaroid 420 for night photography. Last night, I built a tripod mount for it, using a quick change plate and a piece of plywood. I rigged up a pressure cable release using the top from a bleach bottle and duct tape. I had everything set up in mostly working order. After one really boring shot of the moon, the tab for the next photo ripped and film pack decided to jam up and shit just broke. I had to walk away before I threw my camera at my car. OK, not really, but I was pissed. Polaroid 667 film is expensive! OK, yeah, I wanted to throw it. Sigh. I'm going to build a better set up for next time.

Today, I'm taking this 126mm camera out:

Kodak Hawkeye Instamatic II. All know is that the shutter works, so I'm down with it.

So, what's up with you? Leave it in the comments.

Photo Of The Week: Morikami Park

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Photo of the day is way too difficult. I'm switching to photo of the week. I'm also going to feature it as a module on the side of the front page. Whee, fun.
So anyhow, this new position has me busier than a one legged man playing tennis with Gary Kasparov. Ok,not really. But I have been pretty busy. A good busy though.
I have surprisingly little to write about lately, which has been apparent. A thousand apologies.

A little less funk, a little more whitebread.
- New motto for this weblog.

Photo Of The Day: 330

Being a supervisor means that when someone calls in sick, you need to cover for them. Here's to working on Sunday. Yay!

Photo Of The Day: Wet (iPhotoForum.com April contest entry)

Ugh. Still sick.

Photo Of The Day: Warehouse II

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I woke up yesterday with an itchy throat and stuffy nose. Nothing too bad, just some mild allergies thanks to the brisk winds that have been blowing since Friday. Erin and I packed up our photo gear and coerced Iris into the car ("Want to go to the park, honey?"). Within 2 minutes of leaving her house, not even out of the neighborhood we share yet and I was completely

dis

orie

nted.

My head turned inside out. My vision spiraled from the horizon through my skull. Vertigo slammed into the back of my head and rippled through my occipital lobe.
Then, I was fine. I recognized everything once again. I knew where we were. I knew the green stuff on the ground was the perfect urban lawns. I knew the large, colorful shapes were houses.
A second tsunami spun sensory overload straight up the center of my sight. My vision tunneled and became over saturated. No thing look ed quit e rig ht. My eye s had stop ped ma king sen se. COLORS BECAME TOO BRIGHT AND TOO LOUD.
The words oozed from my mouth, I asked Erin to pull over. To stop. She did, and I asked her to take me home. I wasn't feeling well. I wasn't nauseous, something wasn't right inside my head. Inner ear fluids. Something.
She dropped me off and came back with the kinds of medicines only nurses know about. I took them, after having to ask her which ones to take when and not being able to remember, finally having to write it down.
Thought ceased and I slept for 5 hours.
I woke up, still not quite right, but I needed to clean my car. So I had Erin come get me, take me to her house where I'd left my car. We cleaned our cars, my head occasionally swimming like an epileptic in the 100m freestyle.
I came home and ate. I took the pills she'd given me and slipped off to sleep at 10 pm.
Still a little off today. But I'm much much better.

Photo Of The (Yester)Day: Net Fishing

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Dear Xanga,

Your hardware is as hardy as Calista Flockhart with a calcium deficiency.

Love,
Me.

Photo Of The Day: Building

Living here (in Florida) aggravates the hell out of me. The architecture is cheesy 2nd rate art deco in hideous colors (mostly pink and green pastels, feel free to vomit). All the old buildings have been razed or renovated. Everything is constantly renewed. There's nothing good to photograph as far as locations or architecture. I mean, how many photos of the ocean, the beach, some field with trees in it, the construction sites and the rare as a diamond building with interesting architecture can you take? No one wants to see 50 photos of the same building or location. Arrgh.
I only have one model to work with (my girlfriend), and honestly, I don't know if I'd feel comfortable working with another one.
I desperately need a photo expedition/road trip.

Frustratedly yours,
Rich.

Photo Of The Day: Soma

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I'm so bleh right now.

Photo Of The Day: Drawbridge

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