Spring at the Bangor Theological Seminary and Lumberyard

Last weekend the Seminary cut down some maples that I snuck over and planted one night 50 or 60 years ago. It's just as well because they had been blocking part of my view for the past 30 or so.

There is, umm, some sort of funky fisheye lens thing going on in the top photo because although the trees aren't, the buildings ARE relatively straight. I only have ONE lens. And it's just a plain normal lens. Nothing to write home about. And certainly NOTHING to take to the grand jury because I BOUGHT it and they can't prove ANYTHING.

Neene has some ultra-secret-behind-the-scenes skew tool that she took with her when she left NASA after they fixed the Hubble Space Telescope but she won't let me use it or explain it to me. She always changes the subject when I bring it up by telling me how dashing and gallant I am. Her words, not mine. But I'm prone to agree.

Traaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaain!

The hardest part about this shot was not tripping over the rail ties while running backwards. 

A Sure Sign of Spring...

is me running from my office and screaming like a girl when a bumble bee gets in.

Sure, laugh...but it was BIG! The actual life sized image wouldn't fit on your monitor. I had to make it smaller. Oh..and that buzz. That death threatening buzz. And the broken glass from where it broke the window to get in. Oh, the broken glass! And it killed the other guy in there with me. Did I mention THAT? It ate his HEAD! THAT was why I screamed when I think of it now. And it wasn't really a scream. It was more of a..umm...growl! Yeah!

You Can't JUST Look Through the View Finder.

WABI TV5 News Item from their website:

"Racecar Lands on Photographer

Opening day at Unity Raceway was halted abruptly Sunday, when a photographer was hit by a racecar and seriously injured. It happened just before six p.m.

One of the race cars went airborne and crashed through a chain link fence.

38-year-old John Crawford of Fairfield was behind that fence, taking photos and video of the race. The car came to rest on top of him. He was taken by helicopter to Eastern Maine Medical Center with massive head and chest injuries. He is in critical condition this morning.

The driver of the race car was taken to Sebasticook Valley Hospital and later released."

Be CAREFUL out there!

This safety message brought to you as a public service by The Thing of the Moment, Safety-Pup®, and the Ad Council.

Where New Religions Come From

*taptaptap* "Hello? Is this thing on?
A funny thing happened on the path to Salvation...
Take my Messiah....PLEASE!
Hello? Testing, 1.2.3" *taptap*

Pope Walter I of the Walternians knew if he made it big he could get the highly coveted Sunday time slot.

Posted for Shade

Actually, I liked these better, but I thought they'd be too small for a blog post because I KNOW how some Gentle Viewers hate to actually click on an image...

It's too....much.....work. Must.....lift....finger...*gasp*

I Feel Like I Am Flying When I Dance

The connection I have with birds and dancers...
We both fly.
When I am out in nature
That is when I want my pointe shoes on
Because I hear birds
And I feel like I am flying when I dance - Sydney Carroll.

I Like the Process More Than The Product

My friend Nancyleah, the train wreck maven, has a friend Dr. Sydney, the ballerina, who asked if perhaps I could take a photo of her pointe shoes and referred me to some dude who has all these shots of old pointe shoes and said she wanted something different. Which meant I wasn't going to work my way into a dance studio this time around, but that is beside the point(e). In her email she explained how she compared dancing to flying and there we have it...instant 'Not needing to give it any more thought.'
So Nancyleah and Sydney and I went to a park and threw pointe shoes into the air for an hour or so to try to capture images of pointe shoes in flight. There were also images of shoes hitting heads and cameras, and looking for shoes that had rolled under bushes.
It was a happy coincidence if a photo even HAD a shoe in it, let alone the sort of image we were looking for.

THAT my Gentle Viewer is why God invented Digital Cameras.

Shoot, shoot, shoot, cull, cull, cull.

The images in the second and third set can be seen HERE.

"YOU WILL HANG THERE UNTIL I GET THE DAMNED SHOT I WANT!" He Screamed While Casually Adjusting the Aperture of his Quaker Oats Box

Earlier I mentioned that I had a camera that I made out of a Quaker Oats box and a transistor radio. I got an email about it. I didn't know people ACTUALLY did that. (Well, without the transistor radio part.) Pinhole Photography? Who knew? What I don't know would fill volumes. Above is my faked tribute. If you want to participate in a REAL pinhole photography click the link below.

www.pinholeday.org

Hurry! It's coming up!

Ooops.

I left out the best ones. 

Any Excuse to Repost This Series

I don't usually do weddings because I don't have the equipment, skill, desire, or nerve. Mostly nerve. When I have done weddings it's been for friends who I am very comfortable screwing over with bad pictures so there is no pressure and they usually come out nicely.

I was recently asked to do a wedding for a STRANGER who is only a RELATIVE of a FRIEND and I tried to talk them out of it by showing them The Thing of the Moment and a Kodak Album of one of these weddings. They still agreed. So then I told them about my camera which I have made out of an Quaker Oatmeal Box and a transistor radio. They still agreed. FINALLY I call the Groom, JUST TO MAKE SURE and he says, 'Well, until Aunt Linda mentioned you we weren't planning on having anyone."

That is competition I am comfortable going up against.

"The Thing of the Moment Wedding Photography - We Are Better Than No One."