The Classy Chassis Car Show provided ample fodder for some more fake models. I know they’re cheezy, but I like ’em. You might recall Mini-Urquhart Castle and Mini-Arc D’Triumph posted previously.
When executing this eye/mind trick it’s good to have a strong down angle. It lends itself quite well to the table-top miniature illusion.
Slightly larger versions available by clicking the corresponding image
As I mentioned previously, I don’t have a way to shoot cars that I feel totally comfortable with, yet. Still, it was fun wandering amongst the chrome and steel with the wide angle and taking a few select shots.
Empowered by my previous success with the 20mm lens I decided to use it on my photo excursion on Sunday.
Every year my good friend Joe invites me to the Classy Chassis Car Show benefiting United Cerebral Palsy. Joe’s one of the organizers of the event and he’s understandably proud of it. And rightly so. This event brings in substantial amounts of money for the charity and boasts one of the finest gatherings of unique and rare automobiles you will ever see in one place in your life.
This year Joe was also wanting me to provide some photographic services for the event as they were somewhat short on photographers.
I gotta tell ya, shooting cars is not my cup of tea. Even the Art Car Parade, which I go to every year, doesn’t really provide me with much in the way of photographic inspiration. It’s not that I don’t think the cars are cool and interesting because they are. It’s just difficult for me to find a unique way of expressing a car photographically.
On the one hand, close ups can show interesting detail but on the other hand I feel compelled to show the entire vehicle for context. In the end I get frustrated and delete a lot of shots.
Still, I wanted to give it a try. It would be the first time at this event with the new dSLR and I thought this would be the ideal situation to play with my high speed 20mm f/1.8 lens. The lighting in Reliant Stadium is pretty amazing.
Walking in to the event I was struck by the idea that a panorama shot might be an interesting take on this so I shot a series of photos panning from right to left with the thought that I would find a way to stitch them together.
Well, I spent a good part of the afternoon playing with various trial versions of panorama programs and after a load of frustration I ended up with this:
You REALLY should click to see the larger size.
This smaller version simply does not do the picture justice!
In fact, I encourage you to have a look at the full size image which you can view here.
Keep in mind that Internet Explorer and Firefox will sometimes resize the image to fit in your browser window so don’t forget to enlarge it if that happens.
It’s pretty cool to use the slider bar and scan from side to side. The stitching is almost flawless.
The entire panorama is composed of 11 separate images, all shot completely hand held (no tripod).
More images coming soon.
So I have this Sigma 20mm f/18 lens that I picked up a while back. My thought was that it would allow me to shoot more stage content than the Sony 50mm f1/4
After taking it out and shooting a few shows I was rather disappointed in the quality of shots I was getting so I stashed it away and went back to the trusty 50mm Sony which consistently produces great images in low light.
Not being one to just sit on a few hundred dollars worth of high speed glass I decided to take it out for another run.
The Continental Club was hosting a show commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Monterey Pops Festival and I thought it would be fun to shoot that.
Not as crisp as I like, but I really do like wider angle.
Click for larger image
Allen Hill as Johnny Rivers
This time out, though, I think I stumbled upon this lens’s secret. By getting in close to the subject I was able to get some sharper shots and, with the wider angle, I was getting a bit more than I could with the 50mm.
Click for larger image
Allen Hill as Johnny Rivers
The above shot is of a member of a Moby Grape tribute band called Grape Jam. Who knew there was a Moby Grape tribute band? Go figure!
At any rate, I’m encouraged and will experiment more with the 20mm.
As I was getting ready to pull into my driveway I noticed what I thought was a mockingbird standing in the road. He was practically on top something that appeared to be a dead or dying sparrow.
At first I thought it must be that a sparrow had been killed or injured by a passing car or a neighborhood cat and that the mockingbird was just checking it out.
I parked the car and decided to walk down the driveway and see if there was anything to be done and when I got back to the street both birds were gone.
I’d never heard of a Mockingbird carrying off another bird and found the whole thing to be quite strange. Perhaps the sparrow was actually a baby mockingbird that had fallen from it’s nest or maybe it was a sparrow and it wasn’t injured that badly after all and it flew away.
None of that seemed right as that Sparrow looked to be in very rough shape.
I decided to go online and search on the term : Mocking bird kill other bird and was immediately presented with dozens of sites relating to “To Kill a Mockingbird” so I had to refine my search. I went with “Mocking bird kill other bird -“to kill”” and found a site called Bird Watcher’s General Store which had an article about The Shrike aka “The Butcher Bird”
As you can see, it looks a lot like a Mockingbird.
The Shrike is not called “The Butcher Bird” for no reason. Apparently it’s a fierce hunter and it not only kills for food now, it kills and stores it’s prey for later consumtion. It’s a grey-winged killing machine.
After some more research I determined that what I had seen was a Loggerhead Shrike right after making a kill.
I’ll have to keep a closer eye on the bird population and see if I can spot him again.
Via marchenland
You have to scan through some junk, but there are some nuggets in there:
Also worth a look, LOL80’s
Via Lunadude
Star Trek as an old silent film. Brilliant!
Reminiscent of Georges Melies’ Le Voyage Dans La Lune (A Trip To The Moon) filmed in 1902
Steam Trek: The Moving Picture
The distant future, the year 1980
Living in suburbia it’s quite common to come home and find that the house has been doorknob spammed in some form or another. It could be anything from a menu and coupons from the local Chinese restaurant, pizza parlor or sandwich shop to any number of home repair or lawn maintenance services.
Saturday I found this hanging from the door handle:
I know there’s no such thing as a free lunch movie and there’s got to be a catch. Obviously it’s a promotional gimmick for something. I flip it over and I see this:
I’ve been doorknob spammed BY A CHURCH!
These leaflets are not cheap ones, either. Glossy and full color, they had to be a pretty penny to have printed.
If I read this correctly they’re holding their services at the movie theater on Sunday mornings.
