Its Only 365 Days
230/366: SAM
17 AUG 12
I said today was going to be the day that I went out and I committed to that. I have been avoiding the overwhelming heat all summer long but I miss my photowalks. It's such a huge calming influence on me, just being able to move about the world with my camera. So I woke up at 5am, no big deal considering I tried to go to bed at 230am and couldn't so basically rolled along in the bed until 5am. I wanted to catch the park at dawn hours because a)its friggin' hot and b) this is the last weekend for the kiddos of the world to be school free, so I knew it would be packed today.
I wasn't as impressed with this walk. Last time at dawn I caught so much stuff, but this go round I really had to search. It was so muggy out that my camera lens kept fogging up which was kind of annoying. Yet again I have the uncanny ability of being at the wrong place/wrong time. I was strolling along the back paths snapping some birds when I came across the local construction man (whom I originally thought was homeless b/c a lot of homeless make camp in the park), but there he was in all his glory taking a piss. Talk about awkward moment...do I turn back, do I go forward...I mean we made eye contact (shudder). I did what any respectable person would do, I pretended the whole thing didn't happen and walked quickly in the other direction. At least this guy had the majority of his clothes on. My last adventure included the insane man sitting in the middle of the intersection with no clothes at all.
Oh boy...I have to really bring up this next point, and maybe others can relate, but it is really annoying when people scream out to me, HEY TAKE MY PICTURE!!!! This happens to me on such a frequent basis, that its worth mentioning. Example, this morning, its like 6:30am, its only me in the park, a few runners, and the waking homeless, and here comes the parks and rec lawn guy cracking through the calm silence of the dawn hours screaming for me to take his picture. I was nestled in between some steps on a low crouch on a manual setting trying to get a shot of this brownish white pigeon amongst the hundreds of other gray pigeons. I've got one eye closed, looking through the viewfinder, trying to concentrate on the manual manipulation of the lens...but no, now I have to stop and address some rando yelling about a picture. So I look up, do the smile and nod thing hoping he'd just go away, but no, he keeps asking for a picture. Finally I aim my camera on him and take some fuzzy unfocused thing. Does he give me an email address to send it to him, no, of course not, so this was clearly a waste of my time because what am I going to do with the image? Rather then leave me alone now that I'd obliged, he says, are you in school, what are you taking these photos for, and then he says the most random thing ever...he says, well, you know, when you make it big and make it on BET you'll remember me right. I thought, I don't know if you know this sir, but this is a camera, as in takes photos, as in when is the last time you saw a photographer on BET making it big? And why BET of all things...that's an entire network. I am a photographer at 6:30am in the morning taking pictures of pigeons for gosh sakes, what about that says shooting straight to stardom to you??? So I just kind of nodded and went back to trying to focus on the birds when he starts up the loudest freakin' lawn mower ever and scares the birds away. Seriously dude? Seriously?
I think the guys need to explain this one, because it only ever seems to be guys that approach and scream about wanting photos that they apparently have no intention of ever actually receiving. I have tried to be nice in the past and oblige people and in one case I did meet a homeless man wanting a picture because he said quite poetically that this is his lot in life, a life destined to be on the streets and he wanted someone to remember him. I thought wow, definitely taking this photo, but for others I'm just kind of like get away from me ESPECIALLY when I'm with clients...those are the worst. I'm talking my assistant has the reflectors up, we're working to get a pose right, and here comes someone yelling about a photo.
In other news, this is my favorite shot of the day. I'd had enough of ducks and pigeons and went across the street to work on my 6 angles assignment, as in take a photo of one thing from at least six different POV's or angles. You can cross under this statue and as I did and came out of the other side to shoot some shots with something in the foreground, this guy came running through and did the whole Rocky thing. At first I thought it was like a funny thing, but he was like so serious about it. I kept watching him as he ran up the steps and circled the statue and did the little dance of triumph. Then he just sat down underneath it and snapped a couple of pictures. This guy was for sure a serious runner because I'd seen him run full 5 mile laps around the park while I was taking photos. Because I didn't really want him in the shot, I decided to walk around the statue and found myself in lizardville. Out from under the bushes hundreds of lizards were just darting back and fourth. It was the freakiest thing. I'm not big on the bug/insect/creepy crawly things fear as long as they don't touch me. Once something is on me, I turn into serious girl mode, though I'm not a screamer. I actually thought about that the other day...I've never truly screamed a day in my life. Even on things like roller coasters, I could never muster up any juice to get one out. People have done the run up and scare on me, and I just jump but never scream. I thought, maybe I should go to the woods somewhere and let one out.
And finally in the funniest comment ever news, I was watching this guys response video to something in the news and in the video he goes on a quiet rant, but uses a LOT of profanity in the video. So the first youtube comment was this long paragraph about how intelligence is equated with being able to use speech that is not of the four letter variety. The author of the video simply wrote: ummmmm f__k you, and thank you for watching!
230/366: SAM
17 AUG 12
I said today was going to be the day that I went out and I committed to that. I have been avoiding the overwhelming heat all summer long but I miss my photowalks. It's such a huge calming influence on me, just being able to move about the world with my camera. So I woke up at 5am, no big deal considering I tried to go to bed at 230am and couldn't so basically rolled along in the bed until 5am. I wanted to catch the park at dawn hours because a)its friggin' hot and b) this is the last weekend for the kiddos of the world to be school free, so I knew it would be packed today.
I wasn't as impressed with this walk. Last time at dawn I caught so much stuff, but this go round I really had to search. It was so muggy out that my camera lens kept fogging up which was kind of annoying. Yet again I have the uncanny ability of being at the wrong place/wrong time. I was strolling along the back paths snapping some birds when I came across the local construction man (whom I originally thought was homeless b/c a lot of homeless make camp in the park), but there he was in all his glory taking a piss. Talk about awkward moment...do I turn back, do I go forward...I mean we made eye contact (shudder). I did what any respectable person would do, I pretended the whole thing didn't happen and walked quickly in the other direction. At least this guy had the majority of his clothes on. My last adventure included the insane man sitting in the middle of the intersection with no clothes at all.
Oh boy...I have to really bring up this next point, and maybe others can relate, but it is really annoying when people scream out to me, HEY TAKE MY PICTURE!!!! This happens to me on such a frequent basis, that its worth mentioning. Example, this morning, its like 6:30am, its only me in the park, a few runners, and the waking homeless, and here comes the parks and rec lawn guy cracking through the calm silence of the dawn hours screaming for me to take his picture. I was nestled in between some steps on a low crouch on a manual setting trying to get a shot of this brownish white pigeon amongst the hundreds of other gray pigeons. I've got one eye closed, looking through the viewfinder, trying to concentrate on the manual manipulation of the lens...but no, now I have to stop and address some rando yelling about a picture. So I look up, do the smile and nod thing hoping he'd just go away, but no, he keeps asking for a picture. Finally I aim my camera on him and take some fuzzy unfocused thing. Does he give me an email address to send it to him, no, of course not, so this was clearly a waste of my time because what am I going to do with the image? Rather then leave me alone now that I'd obliged, he says, are you in school, what are you taking these photos for, and then he says the most random thing ever...he says, well, you know, when you make it big and make it on BET you'll remember me right. I thought, I don't know if you know this sir, but this is a camera, as in takes photos, as in when is the last time you saw a photographer on BET making it big? And why BET of all things...that's an entire network. I am a photographer at 6:30am in the morning taking pictures of pigeons for gosh sakes, what about that says shooting straight to stardom to you??? So I just kind of nodded and went back to trying to focus on the birds when he starts up the loudest freakin' lawn mower ever and scares the birds away. Seriously dude? Seriously?
I think the guys need to explain this one, because it only ever seems to be guys that approach and scream about wanting photos that they apparently have no intention of ever actually receiving. I have tried to be nice in the past and oblige people and in one case I did meet a homeless man wanting a picture because he said quite poetically that this is his lot in life, a life destined to be on the streets and he wanted someone to remember him. I thought wow, definitely taking this photo, but for others I'm just kind of like get away from me ESPECIALLY when I'm with clients...those are the worst. I'm talking my assistant has the reflectors up, we're working to get a pose right, and here comes someone yelling about a photo.
In other news, this is my favorite shot of the day. I'd had enough of ducks and pigeons and went across the street to work on my 6 angles assignment, as in take a photo of one thing from at least six different POV's or angles. You can cross under this statue and as I did and came out of the other side to shoot some shots with something in the foreground, this guy came running through and did the whole Rocky thing. At first I thought it was like a funny thing, but he was like so serious about it. I kept watching him as he ran up the steps and circled the statue and did the little dance of triumph. Then he just sat down underneath it and snapped a couple of pictures. This guy was for sure a serious runner because I'd seen him run full 5 mile laps around the park while I was taking photos. Because I didn't really want him in the shot, I decided to walk around the statue and found myself in lizardville. Out from under the bushes hundreds of lizards were just darting back and fourth. It was the freakiest thing. I'm not big on the bug/insect/creepy crawly things fear as long as they don't touch me. Once something is on me, I turn into serious girl mode, though I'm not a screamer. I actually thought about that the other day...I've never truly screamed a day in my life. Even on things like roller coasters, I could never muster up any juice to get one out. People have done the run up and scare on me, and I just jump but never scream. I thought, maybe I should go to the woods somewhere and let one out.
And finally in the funniest comment ever news, I was watching this guys response video to something in the news and in the video he goes on a quiet rant, but uses a LOT of profanity in the video. So the first youtube comment was this long paragraph about how intelligence is equated with being able to use speech that is not of the four letter variety. The author of the video simply wrote: ummmmm f__k you, and thank you for watching!