Photography – Page 34 – The Bald Heretic – Short, bald dude with a goofy beard

Trip To The Zoo

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Weather was great so we headed to the zoo on Sunday. Always nice to see the animals. All these were shot with the new Sony A850 and the Sony 70-300G lens.

Zoo

2009 International Quilt Show

Quilt Show

Cynthia and I made our annual pilgrimage to the International Quilt Show. This event attracts 10’s of thousands of visitors from all over the country…maybe even the world. I don’t know that I would travel far to attend myself, but since it is held here in Houston it’s an easy drive to and from for an opportunity to shop for some unique fabric and see the quilts that are on display. Many of the quilts have signs on them that say “No Photography.” On top of that, I have not found a consistent way to make photos of quilts interesting.

Of note this year were two rock and roll quilts, one of John Lennon and another of The Rolling Stones.

Quilt Show

I made the comment that “yes, indeed, the rock and roll generation is now old enough to quilt” which earned me the shushing of a lifetime by group of women viewing the display…

Also on display was the Pittsburgh Friendship Quilt which is made up of 32,000 hand signed 2.25-inch fabric squares. Very interesting to look at, both close up and at a distance.

Quilt Show

Cynthia emerges from the “Quilt Matrix” …

Close
Quilt Show

Danish Kroner

We’ve traveled to the U.K. so we’re familiar with the GBP aka Pound Sterling (£) and we’ve been to Europe a few times so we quite familiar with the Euro (€) but our upcoming trip to Copenhagen, Denmark will be our first adventure in Scandinavia. In Denmark they have not adopted the Euro, though this may change in 2011. For the time being, the currency in Denmark is the DKK aka The Krone (kr) and it’s our first time dealing with this currency.

The current exchange rate is 5.06648 DKK to 1 US Dollar. So that means we’ll be doing a lot of dividing by 5 to figure out just how much money we’re spending while on this vacation. Should prove interesting. We have pre-ordered some DKK so we have money when we hit the ground as is our usual modus operandi. There is nothing worse than trying to convert to some local currency after 15-20 hours of travel time.

Since I blog everything about the trip I of course had to photograph the kroner for posterity. When pulling the image into Photoshop to resize it for the blog an interesting thing happened.

The same thing happened when I photographed the Euros for our trip to Belgium last Christmas, but it still kind freaks me out a little.

I did my best to adhere to the posted rules regarding the legitimate reproduction of DKK linked in the warning message.

Wait A Minute Mr. Postman

I headed off this morning to go to Starbucks and grab a coffee in preparation for the day ahead. In the front yard there were feathers scattered across the lawn, an indication that something horrible happened to one of the many doves that frequent our yard. I assumed that a neighborhood cat had scored a tasty meal and hoped the day’s rain would wash the carnage away.

As I was returning home, having acquired the aforementioned coffee I spotted the neighborhood Cooper’s Hawk landing on the neighbor’s mailbox. I ran inside and grabbed the camera and managed a few shots before he spooked and flew away.

If you click the images below and examine the larger version you can clearly see feathers in his talons. Feathers that match the feathers that litter my front lawn. I guess this clears the neighborhood cats of suspicion in at least one bird death…

Cooper's Hawk

Strange Fruit – Swoon

After having seen Strange Fruit perform “Spheres” on Saturday night at Discovery Green I was compelled to make it back out for their Sunday afternoon performance of “Swoon.”

I was reluctant, Fall in Houston seems rather meaningless. It was hot and humid but I felt the sunshine and the unique photographic opportunity was worth braving the elements for, so I headed out for the 3:00 pm show.

Again, the actors shimmied up their bendy poles, but rather than orbs they donned period costuming and performed a love story (of sorts)…all in pantomime set to music. I was struck by how much the whole thing looked like a René Magritte painting come to life.

Strange Fruit - Swoon @ Disovery Green

The blue sky, the George R. Brown and the aerial acrobatics all combined for a very thrilling and enjoyable show. I like how it appeared that the actors were literally falling from the sky at some points during the performance.

Additional images in the gallery

Strange Fruit – Spheres

Strange Fruit performed this weekend at Discovery Green. It’s hard to describe, so let me borrow from their web site…

Strange Fruit is a Melbourne-based performing arts company that produces and performs a remarkable style of work that fuses theatre, dance and circus, using a unique elevated medium. Perched atop 4 metre high flexible poles of original design, the troupe delivers a sublime performance, bending and swaying in the air, captivating and engaging the audience in absolute fascination.

On Friday and Saturday night they did a show called “Spheres” in which the performers shimmied up to the top of tall, flexible poles and then encased themselves inside of giant white fabric spheres which then began to sway back and forth like so many dandelions bending in a light breeze.

Strange Fruit - Spheres @ Disovery Green

As dreamy, ethereal music played the performers emerged from the spheres in the form of four characters and proceeded to put on a pantomime that was, well…hard to describe.

Again, from the web site:

Creation, exultation, liberation, life, the universe and everything. The Spheres take a whimsical look at physics, the miracle of birth and humanity’s existential relationship to our planet. Giant, illuminated orbs of luminous beauty contain characters that gradually emerge to stand and rise above their spheres of existence. This piece is beautiful, reverent and sublime.

Strange Fruit - Spheres @ Disovery Green

The whole show lasted about 30 minutes and it was really quite beautiful and pleasant to watch. Also, quite a challenge to photograph.

Strange Fruit - Spheres @ Disovery Green

These pics don’t really capture the movement so well. In my next post I cover their daytime performance of “Swoon” and it gives a better sense of how extraordinary this was.

Additional photos in the gallery.

Fab 40

The Fab 40 pay tribute to the original Fab 4 with a free, live performance of “Abbey Road” on Saturday, September 12 at Discovery Green.

40+ (probably closer to 50) local musicians – handpicked by Beatles enthusiasts David Blassingame and Steve Candelari – performed the Beatles’ album “Abbey Road” from beginning to end.

It was an ambitious project. Nearly felled by illness, loss of critical instruments and the weather, it went very well despite all this.

Fab 40

You can see a slideshow of all the photos I took that night by clicking here.

Roy Head

Roy Head is one of my all time favorite performers. He’s a local legend due to his 1965 hit single “Treat Her Right”

Check out the moves on the young Roy Head in this video from 1965

He’s about to turn 70 next month but you’d never know it from the energy level of his live performances.

All shots below with the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 on the Sony Alpha 700

Roy Head