View allAll Photos Tagged snakesonaplane
Woo-hoo! Now I've photographed every single HMV music store in Ottawa. (I won't say "in the Ottawa area", since I still have one left to photograph in Gatineau, on the Quebec side of the Ottawa river.)
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Curled for warmth on a sunny Canadian Spring day. (image is much larger than life size)
I spotted this Garter Snake ( thamnophis-butleri) while l was walking around a pile of glass bottles and metal farm garbage that has been untouched for at least 60+years. It is common to find such piles around farm ruins dating back 100+ years, and as the saying goes, " one man's trash is another man's treasure."
All I had was the 17mm-85mm with me and used the pop-up flash with Live-View to monitor focusing with subtle back and forth movement.
I hope everyone had a great weekend and got out as much as I did, if you didn't, I hope you snapped up a few beauties right at home and are going to show us.
Have a great Monday and sorry for the late start today.
BIG HELLO from Ottawa, Canada
Introduction
Every culture has their symbol of the triumph of "Good over Evil" . This is the statue of the Dancing Shiva, also known as Nataraj, which, in the Hindu culture, symbolizes the triumph of Good over Evil. It was a "mist"ical moment this morning. This statue of the Dancing Shiva reminded me of the Bharat Natyam and Kuchipudi dancers who, before every dance recital, and especially during the Arangetram (a graduation of sorts) ceremonies, say a prayer to him.
A note relating to my roots in Physics
"Fritzof Capra in The Tao of Physics beautifully relates Nataraj's dance with modern physics. He says that "every subatomic particle not only performs an energy dance, but also is an energy dance; a pulsating process of creation and destruction…without end…For the modern physicists, then Shiva's dance is the dance of subatomic matter. As in Hindu mythology, it is a continual dance of creation and destruction involving the whole cosmos; the basis of all existence and of all natural phenomena."
Here's an excerpt from a poem by Ruth Peel:
"The source of all movement,
Shiva's dance,
Gives rhythm to the universe.
He dances in evil places,
In sacred,
He creates and preserves,
Destroys and releases.
We are part of this dance
This eternal rhythm,
And woe to us if, blinded
By illusions,
We detach ourselves
From the dancing cosmos,
This universal harmony…"
Nataraj, the dancing form of Lord Shiva, is a symbolic synthesis of the most important aspects of Hinduism, and the summary of the central tenets of this Vedic religion. The term 'Nataraj' means 'King of Dancers' (Sanskrit nata = dance; raja = king). In the words of Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, Nataraj is the "clearest image of the activity of God which any art or religion can boast of…A more fluid and energetic representation of a moving figure than the dancing figure of Shiva can scarcely be found anywhere," (The Dance of Shiva)
The Origin of Nataraj
An extraordinary iconographic representation of the rich and diverse cultural heritage of India, it was developed in southern India by 9th and 10th century artists during the Chola period (880-1279 CE) in a series of beautiful bronze sculptures. By the 12th century AD, it achieved canonical stature and soon the Chola Nataraja became the supreme statement of Hindu art.
The Vital Form & Symbolism
In a marvellously unified and dynamic composition expressing the rhythm and harmony of life, Nataraj is shown with four hands represent the four cardinal directions. He is dancing, with his left foot elegantly raised and the right foot on a prostrate figure — 'Apasmara Purusha', the personification of illusion and ignorance over whom Shiva triumphs. The upper left hand holds a flame, the lower left hand points down to the dwarf, who is shown holding a cobra. The upper right hand holds an hourglass drum or dumroo that stands for the male-female vital principle, the lower shows the gesture of assertion: "Be without fear." Snakes that stand for egotism, are seen uncoiling from his arms, legs, and hair, which is braided and bejewelled. His matted locks are whirling as he dances within an arch of flames representing the endless cycle of birth and death. On his head is a skull, which symbolises his conquest over death. Goddess Ganga, the epitome of the holy river Ganges, also sits on his hairdo. His third eye is symbolic of his omniscience, insight, and enlightenment. The whole idol rests on a lotus pedestal, the symbol of the creative forces of the universe.
The Significance of Shiva's Dance
This cosmic dance of Shiva is called 'Anandatandava,' meaning the Dance of Bliss, and symbolizes the cosmic cycles of creation and destruction, as well as the daily rhythm of birth and death. The dance is a pictorial allegory of the five principle manifestations of eternal energy — creation, destruction, preservation, salvation, and illusion. According to Coomerswamy, the dance of Shiva also represents his five activities: 'Shrishti' (creation, evolution); 'Sthiti' (preservation, support); 'Samhara' (destruction, evolution); 'Tirobhava' (illusion); and 'Anugraha' (release, emancipation, grace). The overall temper of the image is paradoxical, uniting the inner tranquillity, and outside activity of Shiva.
[Text taken from hinduism.com, HDR by Photomatix Pro]
Disclaimer: I am not a religious person, but some people have accused me of being spiritual, which epithet I will graciously accept :)
So my friends (specifically, Mark and a bit o' Ashley) made me snakes on a plane for my birthday. I love my friends.
By the way, this photo's getting a lot more attention than it would if its visitors were coming only from my li'l podunk website; so I'd be curious to hear how some of you stumbled across it, if you'd be so kind as to let me know in the comments, since Flickr doesn't have that kind of stats-tracking...
Taken during the Flickr outing to see Snakes on a Plane tonight. It was everything I expected and more -- if not the movie, the experience. Do you know how many energetic people it takes to hiss so loudly that the dialogue is drowned out? I do. You don't hear so much cheering at most rock concerts. Every time Jackson comes on or does something cool, cheer. Every time a snake comes on, cheer. And, after the first 15 minutes, that's pretty much the only thing that happens in the movie, so that's a lot of cheering.
Frankly, I respect the movie for having the courage of its own convictions -- it knows what it is. There's half an hour of literally nothing more than people getting bitten. Halfway through, I said "Well, people have gotten bitten everywhere else, but no one's been bitten in the ass. Huh." And then someone got bitten in the ass. That's catering to our deepest needs.
See this movie, but see it with either at least 100 energetic people, or 25 energetic and drunk people. We got cheers and high fives for bringing rubber snakes to the theatre -- *that's* what watching movies should be about.
Gabe Saporta of Cobra Starship performing at the Central Florida Fair Grounds during the Warped Tour in Orlando, Florida on July 10, 2008.
This photo is copyrighted and may not be used in any way without permission.
Photo taken on 10/31/06 outside of Studio A in Miami, it was a Myspace Secret Show.
The Sounds are an upbeat New Wave band from Helsingborg, Sweden founded in 199?.
Gabe Saporta of Cobra Starship, Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes and William Beckett of the Academy Is... performing at the Central Florida Fair Grounds during the Warped Tour in Orlando, Florida on July 10, 2008.
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Snakes on a Plane starring: Samuel L. Jackson
Aight, so I went to watch the Snakes on a Plane today. Everyone... literally speaking, was raving about this movie. IMDB rating 8.2/10 with over 11k votes. That's pretty impressive for a B movie like this one. Apparently they had some funky marketing campaign for this movie that attracted a lot of hype. Something about a personal cellphone message from the man himself, Samuel L. Jackson... for the past couple of weeks. Anyways... on to the review...
If they had to rename this movie it would have to be: “Snakes On Crack” (A very funny quote that Jackson made during the movie), in a very literal sense (just like "Snakes On a Plane" is). Jackson put on his "A" game for this movie, and should be commended for his performance. Reading the title... one might not expect too much from the movie. I sure as hell didn't... When I came out... I was totally surprised.
The story itself is all layed out to you in the title... Duh!!! hahaha... But it's new one... You've probably seen some movies with terrorists, ghosts and crazy people on a plane... But snakes??? Come on... you gotta hand it to them for coming up with such an original idea! I was expecting a lot of laughs, I got that and more!
To be honest with you, this movie freaked me out... Snakes freak me out... Hell, I'd chuck all my camera gear at these snakes if I were on that plane... There were plenty of in your face out of no where snake scenes, that'll make you jump out of your seat. It was that freaky. Along with these freaky moments, there were plenty of scenes of pure humor. Like the couple that were bangin' in the restroom... The flight attendants were listening and stuff... Little did they know the oooo aaaa eeee aaaa's and the banging on the restroom door were not of pleasure, but they were actually cries of pain from being bitten by a kazillion exotic poisonous snakes! While the flight attendants were listening to them, one of them said "Oh this guy is really good...", then when the snakes finally let off the couple and the bangin' and screaming stops... she says "Oh, I guess he's not that good..." I think the whole theatre bursted out in laughter for that scene... You'd have to watch it, to fully appreciate the humor... Oh oh and the guy that goes to the restoom and pee's on a snake... urgh lez just say... he got bitten or shall a say sucked by a snake in the most private part of a man's body... I think this dude got the worst of all the snake bites in the movie... hahahaha oh man that's just wrong... hahah ooo... I can't stop laughing ^____^ Even during these humorous scenes, the directors managed to keep the movie reasonably serious and didn't let the humor take over the actual story.
The movie gets an A+++ for being geniune, however I was not impressed by the visual effects of this movie. I think 95% of the snakes in this movie were CG and you could tell they were fake... So you might be dissappointed if you're going to watch the movie for the snakes... BUT, that doesn't mean they weren't freaky... They were still 101% freaky, believe me I had my fair share of yelling "HOLY $#@!" during the movie, just like everyone else in the theatre.
Was it worth the hype? Tough question, can't really answer that... But I can tell you that I felt I got my $9.50 worth.
My rating for this movie: 3.5/5.
P.S. After the movie, I was subject to a random drive-by flashing by a couple of gurlies, when I was walking to my car har har har... Crazy white people... -___-
Why do companies release “converged” consumer electronics products with designs that seem so random to the user? (Is it the complexity of task? UI mode blur? Diversity of customer expectations?…)
After trying to use the Kodak EasyShare-One, I associate “pen on a camera” with Snakes on a Plane. Both are strange bedfellows.
For example, a pen can be helpful for photo editing and sharing, but that is a very different use mode than photography.
Fumbling with a pen does not make sense when taking photos.
Is this obvious to you too, or am I just expressing a personal opinion?
This camera requires the pen for basic photography settings (photo mode, exposure, etc). For example, to set the 2 second auto-timer takes 19 taps of the pen… for each photo! (Palm used to have a “tap counter”… a person who job it was to make sure that nothing on the Palm took too many taps.)
There is not a lack of button real estate for the typical photography functions. Kodak instead dedicates buttons for “Share” and “Back”, which are used in Edit/Share Mode… when you have to use the pen anyway. The hardware design decisions on buttons vs. pen seem like a random blend among modes of use. With camera in one hand and pen in the other, the handoffs are cumbersome. You can’t use the pen to push the buttons.
Needless to say, there is a long list of quirky hardware design decisions (the screen pivots the wrong way, the battery cover slides open when pulling the camera from the case), but the concept of modes of use seems so fundamental.
And the software UI seems to be inspired by Windows (note: not a role model). After taking a photo, the camera puts a progress bar over the image, so the user can’t review their shot during the processing delay. And like Windows, even shutting down is not a simple press of the power button. It generates a dialog box and prompts the user to spend a few seconds holding the button.
What would Apple do? Soon the iPod will be a method to generate and consume media. That means a camera. Apple will face similar convergence challenges, but I’d bet they keep it simple, elegant and intuitive.
Expanding the iPod will be an important and interesting test for Apple, and a canonical example of Winblad’s prediction, earlier this year, that Design Will Rule.
Pete Wentz on the set of Cobra Starship's video for "Snakes on a Plane (Bring It)."
For more on the video shoot plus more backstage photos, check out "Cobra Starship And 'Snakes On A Plane': A Match Made In Reptilian Heaven" on MTVNews.com.
Gabe Saporta of Cobra Starship performing at the Central Florida Fair Grounds during the Warped Tour in Orlando, Florida on July 10, 2008.
Travis McCoy on the set of Cobra Starship's "Snakes on a Plane (Bring It)"
For more on the video shoot plus more backstage photos, check out "Cobra Starship And 'Snakes On A Plane': A Match Made In Reptilian Heaven" on MTVNews.com.
This photo is copyrighted and may not be used in any way without permission.
Photo taken on 10/31/06 at Studio A in Miami, it was a Myspace Secret Show.
Check out more photos from this show:
The Sounds Concert Photos on 10/36/09
The Sounds are an upbeat New Wave band from Helsingborg, Sweden founded in 199?.
Cobra Starship play to screaming fans on April 21st, 2009 on their latest stop of Fall Out Boy's Believers Never Die Tour.
**ALL PHOTOS COPYRIGHT IAN WITLEN. ALL UNAUTHORIZED USAGE IS PROHIBITED. PLEASE CONTACT IAN WITLEN FOR LICENSING AVAILABILITY (ian@theCameraClicks.com)
This photo is copyrighted and may not be used in any way without permission.
Photo taken on 10/31/06 at Studio A in Miami, it was a Myspace Secret Show.
Check out more photos from this show:
The Sounds Concert Photos on 10/36/09
The Sounds are an upbeat New Wave band from Helsingborg, Sweden founded in 199?.
All Time Low plays to fans at Pompano Beach Amphitheater on April 21st, 2009. Metro Station is currently on the Fall Out Boy: Believers Never Die Tour.
**ALL PHOTOS COPYRIGHT IAN WITLEN. ALL UNAUTHORIZED USAGE IS PROHIBITED. PLEASE CONTACT IAN WITLEN FOR LICENSING AVAILABILITY (ian@theCameraClicks.com)
Victoria Asher of Cobra Starship performing at the Central Florida Fair Grounds during the Warped Tour in Orlando, Florida on July 10, 2008.
This photo is copyrighted and may not be used in any way without permission.
Photo taken on 10/31/06 at Studio A in Miami, it was a Myspace Secret Show.
This is probably my favorite photo of the night.
Check out more photos from this show:
The Sounds Concert Photos on 10/36/09
The Sounds are an upbeat New Wave band from Helsingborg, Sweden founded in 199?.
All Time Low gets fans hyped for Fall Out Boy's performance on April 21st at Pompano Beach Amphitheater.
**ALL PHOTOS COPYRIGHT IAN WITLEN. ALL UNAUTHORIZED USAGE IS PROHIBITED. PLEASE CONTACT IAN WITLEN FOR LICENSING AVAILABILITY (ian@theCameraClicks.com)
Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes performing at the Central Florida Fair Grounds during the Warped Tour in Orlando, Florida on July 10, 2008.
Cobra Starship play to screaming fans on April 21st, 2009 on their latest stop of Fall Out Boy's Believers Never Die Tour.
**ALL PHOTOS COPYRIGHT IAN WITLEN. ALL UNAUTHORIZED USAGE IS PROHIBITED. PLEASE CONTACT IAN WITLEN FOR LICENSING AVAILABILITY (ian@theCameraClicks.com)
Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes performing at the Central Florida Fair Grounds during the Warped Tour in Orlando, Florida on July 10, 2008.
This guy is nuts. I think this snake is six feet long or better. From my book Snakes in the Cockpit (a book about aviation crashes, not snakes but that's what pilots call it when your flight controls go limp -- snakes in the cockpit).
All Time Low gets fans hyped for Fall Out Boy's performance on April 21st at Pompano Beach Amphitheater.
**ALL PHOTOS COPYRIGHT IAN WITLEN. ALL UNAUTHORIZED USAGE IS PROHIBITED. PLEASE CONTACT IAN WITLEN FOR LICENSING AVAILABILITY (ian@theCameraClicks.com)
All Time Low plays to fans at Pompano Beach Amphitheater on April 21st, 2009. Metro Station is currently on the Fall Out Boy: Believers Never Die Tour.
**ALL PHOTOS COPYRIGHT IAN WITLEN. ALL UNAUTHORIZED USAGE IS PROHIBITED. PLEASE CONTACT IAN WITLEN FOR LICENSING AVAILABILITY (ian@theCameraClicks.com)
Snoops and I were discussing new movies we might want to see, and he mentioned the new Samuel L. Jackson flick. We are not sure about it, but of course that little dog had to do his own snake impression. What a show-off. ; )
Brian Warner & John Starsja, 2016, Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, USA, light sculpture
All Time Low gets fans hyped for Fall Out Boy's performance on April 21st at Pompano Beach Amphitheater.
**ALL PHOTOS COPYRIGHT IAN WITLEN. ALL UNAUTHORIZED USAGE IS PROHIBITED. PLEASE CONTACT IAN WITLEN FOR LICENSING AVAILABILITY (ian@theCameraClicks.com)
Work now has a new password policy where passwords have to be changed every 45 days. Unsurprisingly development was quick to find some humour in the situation, parodying my "Simpsons neologism of the week" feature.