Starving Artistry

Some More Pics

// November 30th, 2009 // No Comments » // Photo

Well, I was writing this fancy post about music and stuff, and I even recorded a new video, but YouTube is being stupid so I’ll probably have to wait to upload it until tomorrow. It’s interesting though!

Anyway, so I’ve shot some more pictures and I thought I would upload a few to share. They’re from Thanksgiving weekend, both the actual night, and the Saturday after when I went out for a walk while it was actually sunny. I actually wish I had started earlier so I would have had more sunlight. Clicking on any of these photos will take you to my Picasa page, where you can then look at the original size if you’d like to see more detail.

Anyway, so here’s a photo of my Dad singing in the Beatles rockband. It was a dimly lit room, so I’m fairly certain it was shot at f/2.8 (but I can’t really remember). It’s fairly in focus considering the circumstances, and I like the bokeh in it, so that’s why I’m uploading it.

Here’s Gretch mock-eating the turkey. I again like the blurry background. I also like that everything seems perfectly centered. You can see the two sides of the kitchen framing her and the turkey pretty well. Still learning about centering and composition, but this is decent IMO.

So anyway, fast forward to Saturday. Went out for coffee first. I ordered the seasonal Peppermint mocha. It was quite delicious. So delicious that I had to take a picture of it.

And another. The coffee cup is meant to be the object in focus. I dunno, do you think it works? Maybe because it’s so off center it doesn’t really make sense.

I liked this shot because it came out so sharp. I’m pretty sure it was set to f/5.6 or something like that. Having the sun so bright probably helped, I bet I bumped up that shutter speed to a point where there was no chance of any blurriness. At least that’s what I’m thinking. Who knows, I sure don’t.

So this was… cotton seeds? I dunno, something like that? Along the bike trail in Falls Church. I actually like the video I shot better, but it’s pretty clear. You can tell I was losing daylight by this point.

Another try at interesting composition. I like that it seems pretty sharp, but you can see some strange chromatic abberation in the lower right hand corner. Whattup with that Canon??

Anyway, I’m looking forward to Evan and my photography date. Hopefully we’ll find somewhere to go. Maybe Troy will want to come too, and we can share lenses.

Thanksgiving 2009

// November 29th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Uncategorized, Video

So thank goodness for 4 day weekends! We had some family come into town for thanksgiving, so I had a good excuse to get the camera out and get in everyone’s faces. I could tell I made some people uncomfortable. My lens is kind of intimidating. Hiyo.

A lot of the shots are too dark, but I did what I could, and threw together this video. I used “Virginia Moon” by the Foo Fighters, off their acoustic B side of In Your Honor. Seemed appropriate, as this year we were hosting Thanksgiving. In previous years it’s been in Roanoke (also VA), Rochester (not VA), and I think my parents even hosted one up in Ottawa, Canada one year (which I was unable to attend).

It was also amusing getting all of my family to play Beatles rockband. =) Good sports. Anyway, enjoy the video, hopefully I will continue to find time to shoot and edit this kind of stuff!

Unboxing my Canon 17-55mm F/2.8 IS lens!

// November 25th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Photo

Good ol’ UPS. So reliable. I think they actually opened up a new distribution center in Delaware, so even though I had 2 day shipping, I received it in ONE. Nice.

Anyway, here it is after I took it out of the box…

And after I took off the wrapping…

The first thing I immediately noticed was how much bigger and heavier it is than my other 18-55mm lens is, even though the zooms are almost exactly the same (17-55 vs 18-55). The glass elements are much bigger. Here are the two lenses side by side.

And here is the first shot I took with it… my other two lenses.

And finally, some comparison shots. Completely unscientific, but labeled as such. Click on the image for a full size taste  (still sized down from the original 18 megapixels though).

I dunno, what do you think?? It definitely auto focuses more quickly and quietly. Maybe when I do some real photos, I will be able to tell better… more to come I’m sure!

Jammin w/ da Drumz

// November 24th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Music, Uncategorized

So today started off relatively nice. Met up with Annie for lunch at Panera…. partially for the company, but mostly for the cookies she owed me:

After all my work was said and done for the day though, I came back to get to work on some music. Was sorta workin on some new lyrics but I hit a writers block on that front… I’m afraid of recycling too many melodic themes and whatnot, so I called it quits on that and started working through some of the drum tracks I’ve been putting together.

Part of my “creative process” I guess, is to play along with the drum track after I’ve written it. It helps me feel how authentic it sounds, and gives me a better feel for the tempo and whatnot.  So tonight I taped my process and am sharing a clip of me playing through one of my new songs called “So you Say.” By no means a great performance, but for those of you who care, it’s a little insight into how I work through my songs until the final product is produced.

I’m kinda going for a bit of a retro sound. I dunno. Obviously all the songs on my EP will not be in this particular style, but I kinda dig it. I actually came up with the little melody for the chorus when I was visiting my sister in St. Maarten this past summer. It took until… August I think until I finally developed the rest of it. It came pretty easily to me, and as my Judo Chop guitarist Matt Berry says, “If it doesn’t come to you in 15 minutes, it’s not worth it!” Definitely some truth to that.

Anywho, Enjoy:

New Blog Layout / Location!

// November 23rd, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

So for a while I’ve been forwarding this domain to my existing blog location, but I finally got my act together and imported all my settings from the old one to this one. So update your RSS feeds (all my thousands and thousands of readers).

I’m actually working on stuff again, so hopefully the posts will be coming more regularly. I’m thinking of starting a song-a-day type thing. Not like writing them necessarily, but at least playing them and posting them. I’ll see if I can get my act together.

Anyway, not much else to say for now. Gonna hit up some drum tracks for a bit. Thank goodness I finished Modern Warfare 2 before hitting my new creative streak…

Also, this may or may not be in my future thanks to amazon and impulse purchases.