The one thing I learned in Art class in elementary school was that I cannot draw, I cannot paint.
I'm thankful for the combination of camera hardware and computer software to allow me to 'produce' images that are painterly because if it were left to my brain and fingers alone, my crayon drawings were always the ones adults would comment on in that 'special' tone: "Oh... yeah.....there it is... good .erm... job, Billy!" :)
I remain a bit surprised at some of the weird crap I see, out late at night, snapping photos. The night previous to the one where this was shot, I spent some time at the end of the pier talking to the guys fishing (it was about 1 am on Friday Night /Saturday Morning). I came down the pier and exited to the right towards a small patch of beach to snap some milky-way shots (or.. try to).
I hear this strange sound in the shadows about 12 feet away. I look over and as my eyes adjust, it's a couple -- doing what couples do, right there on the public beach of the eastern shore. I didn't linger and no I didn't take pictures but they appeared to be old enough to know better :)
The same night, I then headed down to Fairhope Pier to find it was quite crowded. One reveler asked that I stop and speak with his dog, (a mixed-breed Lab) because, Rex (The Lab) had to tell me something.
... and still, the same night, I helped a boater tie off to a dock along Point Clear / Mullet Point, only for him to ask me to help break into someone's boat house "a few miles down the road" because "he never returned my nets."
Yeah, nothing caps off a photo walk like a little B&E. No thanks.
..and this is why I prefer night photo walks in the colder months. The cold seems to keep the crazy away. :)
There was this thing on the news the other day about a UFO (<a href="http://goo.gl/UxbVtD" rel="nofollow">goo.gl/UxbVtD</a>) it got me pondering. My folks used to have these friends who claimed to have had several UFO, close-encounters.. As a kid living in the boonies, frankly, their stories freaked me out. The idea of scaly-skinned, big-eyed grey beings paralyzing you in your bed at night with their near-magic technology and levitating you away into their space ship to do medical experiments, just doesn't sound appealing.
As I look back, those friends in particular used and mixed a lot of gnarly drugs. So I'm sure any number of other mystical events occurred during their trips down psychoactive lane.
It did get me thinking. If anyone would 'see' a UFO in the sky, why wouldn't it be the super observant photographers hanging around the Bay Fronts at night with reasonably good equipment? Instead it is always the tourist who happened to be carrying Marty McFly's camcorder from Back to the Future.
So, this pinkish line in the horizon? Not a UFO. Just a helicopter. E.T. has not introduced himself to me and the Greys? Well, they are probably just looking for a good sandwich..
So thin, those things..
To the Greys out there, I recommend: www.earlofsandwichusa.com
Galactic conflict, avoided.
As a work-at-home dad, the vast majority of my summer has been a little like this:
I'm cloistered in my home office, which is rather close to the living room, scratching my bald head trying to concentrate on some programming issue while my son has his face pressed up against the glass portion of my office door, Wii remote in hand,
"Daddy, can you come play with me?"
"Sure buddy, as soon as I get off work this afternoon" / train of thought - completely derailed.
The kids started back to school, which makes the house eerily quiet aside from this similar little distraction, Penny - looking up at me as if to say, "I can Haz Kids to Play With?"
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Over the weekend, my little girl (She's 8) turned over a cup and exclaimed, "Made in China!" Why does everything say that?
At that moment, I wondered how to answer it.
I thought about my years working for Wal-Mart during school, my perspectives at that time from the "Wal-mart Effect" principles of race-to-the-bottom retail pricing and my own challenges as a minimum wage - earner.
I thought about my years working in Customs - Foreign Trade Zone software and what I learned about the lopsided Tarrif structures that put American manufacturers importing parts from overseas at an uneven playfield w/ oversees manufacturers importing finished goods.
I thought about our own huge tax burden, the challenges that tax system puts on Small Business owners, stifling growth. Then I thought about our failing national infrastructure and how those taxes are needed for infrastructure projects.
I thought about the human-rights issues in China versus the failing of our own education system to teach useful skills for the next generation workforce.
She could tell, she could read it in my stare that I was about to perch upon my soap box and go into "old guy" mode. Finally concluding with some long-winded and preachy "When I was a kid / Get off my lawn" - themed dissertation...
So, I finally answered with:
"Yummy Chinese food. Makes it easier to build cool stuff without feeling too full all day."
Yep, I'm going to leave it at that.
The telescope is broken. (Boo!) I was sitting out back marveling at a surprisingly clear summer sky and uses GoSkyWatch on an iPad. (You point to parts of the sky and it identifies visible and invisible objects, identifies constellations, etc)
It was around 11pm and the family was all asleep. Noticing the visible band from the Milky Way was starting to retreat into the horizon, I decided to grab the A7(r), tripod, headphones and wearable head lamp and set out for darker skies.
I headed down Highway 98 towards Fairhope. I'd never stayed at the Grand Hotel (maybe should try it!) but I saw via Google Maps that a particularly ideal location on Point Clear that seemed would be the ideal spot to shoot southbound and limited light pollution.
A 25 minute drive down Scenic 98 and I was at the security gate at the Grand Hotel in Point clear. The guard didn't speak fantastic english but he did have one of those fantastic, thick, middle-african accents and a warm smile (and he didn't appear to be packing).
Niceness aside, I was shot down - "Sorry, guests only."
I thanked him for his patience with me (after showing the point on google maps that I was trying to find) and headed southbound for my plan B location, "Mullet Point Park".
All that I really knew about this area is that when I was on my sailboat, sailing north into the bay, these portions of the middle-southern portions of Mobile Bay seemed mostly abandoned and quite dark at night.
Mullet Point Park did have a view of the Milky Way Band, though was retreating beneath the horizon and affected by plenty of light pollution.
With the park lights behind me, the unintended star-and-shadow selfies ensued for about 30 minutes until I headed North for the respite of my bed around 2 am.
I used the Rokinon 14mm on the Sony A7, still working on getting the ideal distortion removal profile built but it is getting closer. I think it'll be a good lens until someone comes out with a high dollar must-have alternative. :)
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I'm always quite partial to the Fall Season. Lots of cool things on the horizon. :) The kids head back to school, the beaches get less crowded, shrimp gets cheaper and the weather on the Alabama Gulf Coast gets nicer.
Hopefully, I'll find myself with a bit more camera time for my own projects, the summer has had me a bit booked with other people's projects.
I was a little off-put by the amount of fast-food trash around the Daphne Beach area during a sunset walk with the family, yesterday. It's a shame when folks don't leave things the way they find them.
I very much admire Zen ideals and I do, in my life and career try to exhibit some stereotypical zen-like qualities of peace, calm, slowness-to-anger, etc.
I try, anyway and usually fail. :)
But that's the problem with being passionate about things, when you actually care about outcomes, it is hard to react like a robot.
I encountered a company recently in my programming world that has these zen-references on their marketing face. I've found the people in the company to be decidedly un-zen to deal with.
Inflexible, short-sighted, combative and defensive, yet obviously brilliant. I dunno, I'm sure it is all my fault but I was expecting Jeff Bridges and ended up finding Steve Jobs. It was especially surprising b/c they were a marketing firm and usually sales and marketing people are more.. 'bright and shiny'.
I keep trying to remind myself that the reason they frustrate me so much is that it reminds me of my own obstinance. :)
I was over @ my neighbor's garden and I was struck that the way the background fell-off into a bokeh, it looked a little like these were floating on a pond of air.
Can't overstate enough how fun this ride was. :)
Playing in the Magic Kingdom, since 1983!
When I heard that the Polynesian would be under construction when we got there I was concerned that our view would be jacked up.
(not that you spend all that amount of time in the hotel room, anyway)
I actually didn't mind the view of the Bungalows under construction one bit. In true Disney fashion, when they are done they will fit in the environment as if they were always there!
This was a fantastic ride! Just enough thrilling to be fun for the adults but not too much so as to be overly scary for the little ones.
It is interesting b/c you can feel the train braking to keep a smooth speed and control descents.
Some interesting queue games as well.
If you can't get a fast-pass, it is still well worth the wait. Twice the sign said 90 minutes, and it was only about 60 both times.
