Halloween and Happy mistakes

in

When going to Halloween parties its important to remember to have fun and sometimes even dress up. My Friend Burch and my wife Carolyn Dress up every time they go, they have gone an the Sanderson Sisters before, as Tinkerbell and Zurina and probably a few I am forgetting. This year was Tinker-Thor and Zur-Loki. Crosses between Marvel and Disney.

We this particular night it was HOT, really really hot and Emily didn’t want to wear her wings or armor into the park. This led to her throwing on her sweatshirt and carrying her Target bag (used for Candy and wing storage) into the park. There was a moment of realization that she was now Basic Tink. If you don’t know what Basic is I will leave it as an exercise for you to look up.

Since we were in Magic Kingdom there were two more things that were needed to complete the Basic Look Starbucks and a picture in front of the Purple Wall.

Of course she was not going to remain Basic Tink all night but it was fun that with just two changes Emily had a whole new costume to use.

I now present Basic Tink as well as Tinker-thor and Zur-Loki.

Its a lot of fun to take photos at events like this. You see lots of fun costumes and just remember its always polite to ask before you take photos and its a nice gesture to offer the photos to those you capture.

Till next time keep having fun.

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A flower in time

As some of you may know I tend to have a black thumb when it comes to growing anything. The only plant I have been able to keep alive recently is a self watering Bonsai Tree. However many of my family members over the years have done a great job of keeping their yards and flowers looking amazing.

Growing plants takes time, and energy and sometimes a little luck much like life. If you put those things into it sometimes, just sometimes you will end up with a beautiful flower. And if you don’t that’s ok as well since hopefully along that journey you learned something.

Today’s photos was taken many years ago at a family friends house. I find myself going back to these photos every now and then since I consider them important to my photographic journey. That particular day was one of the first times I decided to start playing with settings on a camera, and just experimenting. They aren’t the best photos ever but they are pretty and they remind me of a sunny spring day in Connecticut.

If you haven’t done this in a while I challenge you to go back through all those thousands of photos that we all take now and look at some of the older ones with a new perspective, you may be amazed at what you see.

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A dark and Stormy Night

Growing up Halloween was always enjoyable to me. I loved dressing up and being someone else for a night. As I grew older I started to truly enjoy giving out candy and seeing all the costumes come by. When I moved into an apartment I Expected to have lots of trick-or-treaters, but alas none came.

Then when I moved to Florida again I had high hopes of having lots of trick-or-treaters since the apartment complex I live in is pretty personable and open. However again, not a single person.

At this rate I realized that in order to see cool costumes and people of all ages enjoying Halloween I would have to go the the Mickey’s Not so Scary Halloween Parties where everyone can trick-or-treat and have fun.

After going to them year after year I started to enjoy them less. I started to think of how to make it more fun for me and I thought of taking photos. Today’s photo comes from the party the other night. its of Cinderella’s Castle during the Hallowishes fireworks. I love how dark and spooky the castle looks compared to its normal magnificence.

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A happy mistake

Some times we do things and we don’t know how its going to turn out. Other times we do things intentionally. Growing up I was always told every thing you do has a consequence good or bad, we just have to be able to live with those decisions once they are made.

Today’s photo was not planned I just looked up and took it, however it reminds me of a lot of different things. The decision to close the attraction lead to Stitch having a meet and greet there and that lead to a meeting with Stitch Dressed with Elvis and this cool shot.

Stitch tends to make a lot of what we would consider bad decisions however he works hard to correct his short comings and learn from them. i think we need to continually strive to do the same. So lets all be like Stitch, make mistakes with good intentions and learn how to become better.

Till tomorrow Enjoy.

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Two Trees

in

When I was a Kid I loved being out in the woods, I loved carving sticks into swords and spending hours pretending I was a power ranger in my back yard. Then I grew up and moved away and now I live in a place that has some trees, but no good place to play. The grass in manicured what feels like daily and the trees I see don’t really shed sticks like the ones I remember.

When I go out looking for something to take an image of I try to remember to be open to different things, things I don’t normally see. So much of this world is photographed to oblivion, it can get discouraging, and we walk by the same things everyday we sometimes forget to take a moment to really look.

That’s what today’s images are about. It is something I walk by everyday and never pay much attention to.

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Wide angles and Creative Ruts

in

Earlier this year I started posting a photo a day on Facebook and on this site. some days they were good photos and some days they were bad photos, but somewhere along the way I started to feel that it was a lot of the same. I felt like I wasn’t being creative, I was in a rut. Many people fall into ruts you don’t need to be creative to know that, but somehow I felt like me not posting would give me time to reflect and pull myself out of my rut.

I went and worked on other things and slowly I started to forget about posting photos. I started to go back to my old ways of hoarding photos in my computer for no one to see. This was until a few days go when I started to edit a pile of photos I had been collecting and realized that I really liked some of them and others may as well. Immediately I remembered my challenge earlier in the year and I longed to start posting again. I decided that today would be the day that I start posting a photo a day again.

What to post though? I have a small stock of photos that I enjoy, but I wanted to post a something that felt a bit differently.

I have been talking with a friend on and off for a few weeks about different lenses and he agreed to lend me a few of his to try out a zoom lens and 14mm wide angle. Pair that with Carolyn asking me to take photos of Priscilla Prickle Pants her hedgehog and I had my photos.

Without Further ado I present Priscilla Prickle Pants.

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Out of Town

Hello All, 

This week I am out of town on my second cruise. Since I don't want to break my streak of posting a photos a day. I switched back to my blog so I can use some more advanced features. 

Now that the introduction is out of the way This photo is more of Cagan Crossings, I have found that I am enjoying documenting and putting some creativity around my local environment. This photo is from the back part of Glen 2. it is a peaceful section where When I walk I feel a bit of serenity. 

I had fun making this image since it took a few similar images and layered them. 

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HDR fun

in

Hello Everyone its been a while. During my absence I have been working on many cool projects. I finished the Lego bank and that post will be up later this week. I have also started CS50 at https://www.edx.org/. I have also started to dive back into HDR or High Dynamic Range photography. 

HDR is an awesome technique that many people overused in the past. This lead to a decline in the amount of HDR photographers. The idea of HDR is that your camera can collect more color and detail than your eye can see. By taking a number of photos and laying them on top of each other then pulling detail from each of those you can create a visually stunning photo.

My wife Carolyn and I went to Lake Luisa State Park yesterday and had fun shooting in a quiet part of park near the lake.  As you can see below the photo can look amazing. 

 

I use the mac program Aurora HDR from macphun found here. and my Sony A7ii. 

I will post more about HDR and more HDR photos in the future, until then have fun shooting and let me know what you think. 

Some fun at Magic Kingdom

Yesterday was my wife Carolyn's Birthday. We spent the day going to Eat at Ohana's, a great restaurant at Disney's Polynesian Village resort at Walt Disney world. Then we spent a few hours at Magic Kingdom. Now I will be the first to admit its been a few months since I've been to magic kingdom, but we all had a blast, however my blathering on and on is not why you read my blog. I decided to take some long exposure shots of Wishes, the nightly firework show that is being replaced in May. I had a simple set up of a 16-35mm Sony Zeiss lens on a Sony a 7ii. I took these shots a varying shutter speeds, some as long as 30 seconds and others as short as 8 seconds. I hope you enjoy the results. 

These were a lot of fun to shoot and edit. I highly encourage anyone who can to try shooting long exposure. It doesn't take much just a tripod and a camera. Play, experiment and have fun, you never know what kind of awesome shot you are going to get. Until next time, Keep having fun.  

A little fun with Legos Part 2

In my last post I showed you the first part of the the creator Bank. It was a blast to start this set. I find Building Lego Models extremely relaxing and so I tend to stock up my sets and build when I want to unwind. 

The second and Third parts of this set took me about 2 hours each and I completed them over the course of 2 days. 

Lego_Bank_Part_2-00033.jpg

The bank is really coming together, the details area amazing just like all the Creator sets. There will be one more post on this mini series about the assembly of the bank. I will give you my final thoughts and I will show you the completed set. 

Until next time, keep on creating. 

A little fun with Legos

in

Many of you know that I love to build Lego models, big models, small model and even some in between. Many of you also know that I have for a few years now been collecting and asembling a small city in my apartment. Well last year for my birthday I was given this awesome set.

The Lego Creator model 10251 Brick Bank. Its taken me a year to start work on it and today I decided to dedicate some time to this amazing set. Here is what I got done in 1 hour and 45 minutes.

There are 4 parts to this amazing piece and that was the first section. I expect to have this completed over the next two weeks dedicating just a little time every couple of days to it. Its amazing what can be accomplished with just a little time each day, or each week.

Have a great day everyone. 

Goals not Resolutions

Every year thousands if not millions of people across the world make resolutions each year to do or do not do something. Without fail every year most of these fail and we fall back into bad habits, just to try again the next January.

Companies live for this each year, Gyms offer memberships, diet trends start and books are sold and time management companies sell planners that they know you wont use after the first month. I don't like to make resolutions because of this. I use to make resolutions and I like millions failed year after year. Then it came to me, instead of failing and giving up why don't I learn to succeed. After reading many books by Lee Cockerell including Time Management Magic. I decided that I needed to get better at time management. Time is the one thing that is the same across everyone. When we say we don't have enough  time its not because time has changed its because we have chosen not to make time for that thing. 

The first thing I did was get a Day timer , this little wire bound notebook is where my daily schedule goes in. I also use my phone and I am still trying out a couple to do list apps, My reviews on them will be out some day... maybe... If I decide to make time to make a post about them. 

The second thing I did was to standardize the time I wake up each day. Now this is still tough for me, but I set my alarms for 5, 5:15 and 5:30 each day. My wife usually hits me by the third one and that's when I am defiantly out of bed. 

Thirdly I made a list of goals that I want to accomplish. Some of these wont be accomplished this year, some wont be accomplished for many years and some will be accomplished today. Its good to have goals and deadlines. You can set the deadline or others can set it for you but its good to have them, it keeps you honest. 

The fourth thing I did was start to fill in my goals into my shared calendar as well as my day timer. My wife has her goals as well and the shared calendar helps us see where we both stand and what we have on different days. 

Finally I started to implement my goals, they are organized and I know what I need to work on each day or each week or each moth to accomplish them. I may be resolved to accomplish my goals but they are goals not resolutions because if they were resolutions I would probably give up on them. 

In my next post I will share with you some of my Goals and how I am doing with them after one month of 2017.

As I look at this post I notice there is not color or picture in in so to liven it up here is a picture of a lemur from Disney's Animal Kingdom Enjoy.