| Stunning photographs for your home, office, yourself, or as a gift. | ||||
| Enter Gallery | ||||
|
||||
This morning, in the village of Union Hall, Co. Cork, I allege that this dog STOLE my jambon:
J'ACCUSE
Here are the details. I had gone into the shop in Union Hall & purchased a cup of coffee, 3 sausages, a Jambon and a pack of cigs. I ate the sausages, drank the coffee and put the cigs into my pocket. The Jambon (which was FRESH from the oven and WAY too hot to eat) I left in approximately the location shown in the photo below.
After I finished the coffee and had a smoke, I went back into the shop to purchase a package of napkins and another cup of coffee. As I was paying for my purchase, I looked right, outside the shop and saw THIS dog, EATING something, which I quickly realized, was my Jambon.
My initial though & reaction was Son o B_tch,,,and I ran outside. As I crossed the street, the dog simply looked up at me, licking his chops, with a look in his eyes, saying “What?”. Then I laughed.
Now I am CERTAIN I left the Jambon on top of the topbox. How the dog got it? dunno.
And by the way, I am just poking fun here. This is a delightful dog. We spent a nice time together walking around town, as I waited for the streets to warm up & de-ice, and for the shop to open. I am actually delighted that this cute little doggie enjoyed the Jambon,,and ENJOY he did. Price for the jambon, $3.00. Value of the memory & story, priceless.
PS: For those that don’t know what a Jambon is, it’s a delicious (usually) puff pastry filled with cheese & ham.
Feeling nostalgic & sentimental tonight. So I had a listen to some of my grandfather’s music collection (that I have archived into MP3). He’s passed away, since 2002, and I’m really missing him tonight. He was a very cool guy, even tempered, objective & fair thinking for the most part, though we didn’t always agree on everything,,,but he was cool with that as well. He was open to most thoughts. He was a great lover of music, and made quite a collection over the years using his reel-to-reel recorder,,,ancient technology now of course, but he LOVED it. Of course he also played records (the VINYL type). When CDs came out, at first he was hesitant, but then fully embraced them.
Of ALL his songs, I think (I am sure) his favorite was “Waltzing Matilda”. I can remember, on quite a number of occasions, when this song played, he would kinda go into a trance. Once the song finished, he might have tapped me on the shoulder, or gave my knee a tap, but would always say, “Kevie, count your blessings”. I’ll never forget that as long as I live,,,“Count your blessings”.
So here is a rendition of “Waltzing Matilda”, sung by Dermot Henry, played on Fordham University Radio, dedicated to my grandfather, Joseph Stapp:
Waltzing Matilda, by Dermot Henry
And here’s Joseph himself, singing an old Frank Sinatra song, “My Souvenir”:
joe_my-souvenir_002.mp3
I miss him,,, and of course, Elly
Been working like crazy on this photo, 30 hours easy in the past 2 days. Not in LOVE with it yet, but it has enough potential for me to keep working on it. Difficult to work with the tonal range, but I’ll sort it out. Because of “workflow” issues, I was JUST able to roughly crop it. As soon as I am able to flatten the image, I plan on cheating (Hi Jenny) the left side & stretching it, for better graphic visual balance.
One thing I have already realized though, is that despite my best efforts to present my work on my web site, THIS photo is one of my photos that will need to be seen printed and seen BIG to be appreciated. Low resolution simply robs too much of the feeling. Nevertheless, I will finish and post the final result…but so far:
Update of Photo with no name yet
Below is how I did it ROUGHLY a few days ago. Note how I plan on stretching the left side. I can’t do this however, until I am nearly finished, and have flattened the image. Why didn’t I just shoot wider? you might be asking
2 reasons, I would have actually gone far enough to left to show the road again, AND there are some other buildings there I didn’t want in the photo.
New Photo 3
I know I am going to get slammed for this, BIG time, but overall, I thought Avatar was one giant animated cliche, albeit a very EXPENSIVE cliche.
I was extremely impressed with the animation, the production design, art direction & overall production. All gorgeous stuff, no doubt.
That aside, the actual movie, the FILM, was a giant yawn, cliche after cliche, and an obvious re-treatment of Dances With Wolves (and a bunch of smaller bits from other films, such as Apocalypse Now). Mind you, I formed this opinion during the film & prior to reading any specific reviews of it. That said, one reviewer for NPR (American National Public Radio) summed up my feeling concisely: it’s as if Cameron took a dozen former movies scripts, threw them into a blender, whizzed them out, et voila, Avatar.
My other major criticisms of the film, visually this time, is the animated emulation of hand held camera shooting & motion control. One, I think there is a time & place for the “hand-held” look, but not for this film, and certainly not for the majority of the scenes. Secondly, if the hand-held look wasn’t enough, the overwhelmingly contrived & overdone motion-control emulation did me in. In both instances, I’d say this is a prime example of: if it can be done, let’s do it.
Now, take the hand-held & motion-control, and put a cherry on top, with the quick cuts often employed. I absolutely deplore the quick (1 – 1 1/2 second cuts) cut technique. I kept thinking, can we stay still for at LEAST 3 seconds!!!
Now, I will withhold final judgement, as I do want to see the film again. The animation & all the technical CGI fascinates me and I hope to someday actually learn at least some fundamentals of the art.
Lastly (and now I KNOW I am going to get slammed), I saw a 2D version of the film. BUT, as cool as I am SURE the 3D technology & effects are, technology does not make a film, at least in my opinion. I do look forward to further productions made, employing the very same technology, and even the very same people (Cameron too). But the next time they come up with 200 million to make a film, could they possibly hire a script writer that has some original ideas?
Gonna be a GORGEOUS morning, BUT,, I am too freaking tired from all this web site crap to even THINK of going out to shoot,,, excuse my language, but F_CK. SO freaking sick of this SH_T.!!!!!!
I got an email from President Obama. I am still hopeful that many of his goals will occur:
Kevin –
I just finished delivering my first State of the Union address.
I set out an urgent plan for restoring economic security for struggling middle class families. This is my top priority, but I cannot do it alone — and that’s why I’m writing to you now.
Tonight, I called on Congress to enact reforms and new initiatives to defend the middle class — to create millions of new jobs, support small businesses, and drive up wages; to invest in the education of our children and the clean energy technology that must power our future; and to protect the economy from reckless Wall Street abuses.
And I made my position on health reform clear: We must not walk away. We are too close, and the stakes are too high for too many. I called on legislators of both parties to find a way to come together and finish the job for the American people.
I have no illusions — there have been setbacks, and there will be more to come. The special interests who have shaped the status quo will keep fighting tooth and nail to preserve it.
So tonight, I’m asking you to join me in the work ahead. I need your voice. I need your passion. And I need your support.
Can you help fuel our fight for the middle class with a monthly donation of $15 or more?
https://donate.barackobama.com/StateOfTheUnion
We have just finished a difficult year. We have come through a difficult decade. But a new year has come. A new decade stretches before us. We don’t quit. I don’t quit. Let’s seize this moment — to start anew, to carry the dream forward, and to strengthen our union once more.
Thank you for making it possible,
President Barack Obama
Need to “modify” my tripod for a shot I wanna do. Hmmm wonder if Coleman is doing this FaceBook thing?
These are 3 shots I’ve done in the last few days, all shot in West Cork, Clonakilty area. All are VERY VERY VERY rough composites of all the exposures, etc. I always go through this process, to evaluate what I have shot. It’s TONS of work (just to get to this point in fact), many many MANY hours to finish them. The thing is, I don’t always finish them. All these photos have potential (a phrase I use a lot), but I may actually discard 1 or all of them, in favour of other photos. Time will tell. In the meantime, I need to move on to more PRESSING issues, like trying to make some $$ and as soon as I can find the time, I’ll get back to these photos.!!!! If I do finish any of these, they will most certainly CHANGE, but then they will be “just perfect” :
 New Photo 2 |
 New Photo 1 |
|
New Photo 3 |
So it took me HUNDREDS of painful, heart wrenching hours to get a “Lightbox” working in my photo gallery software.
Took all of 15 minutes in Wordpress, my “home page” software.
What’s a lightbox you ask? Click on the photos below:
 EVIL FROST 1 |
 EVIL FROST 2 |
very VERY rough composite of a photo that will needs LOTS of PS work
It’s going on 7:30 AM, Saturday morning. The dawn is JUST dawning. I am, for the first time in over 2 1/2 YEARS going to set off on my motorbike to shoot (possibly anyway), and shoot something that I WANT to.
I’m going to set off to Galley Head. There’s a lighthouse there (I’m a sucker for lighthouses). Nice spot. I went about a week and a half ago to have a look. Worth going back, that’s for sure.
Anyway, it’s cold, but little frost, and seemingly none on the roads. No ICE, no WIND, not a cloud in the sky, so no RAIN.
Looking forward to this,,, it’s been a VERY rocky 2 1/2 years, and I am getting VERY sick of wasting my time doing stuff that has NOTHING to do with my love, my passion, PHOTOGRAPHY!!!
So let me go suit up, and saddle up the old motorbike!!!
