Taiko is amazing entertainment. The rhythms, the noise, the discipline, the precision, the strength and the artistry. It will almost bring tears to my eyes to see these things come together in such a dynamic way. I hope we get to see them in the upcoming year. (you can stop at 3:45 unless you understand Japanese.)

I wanted to share some images from the portrait workshop that was held a couple of weeks ago. if you omit people in tuxes and white dresses, I haven't done a lot of outdoor portrature in my lifetime. But I felt pretty comfortable. It's hard to get out and shoot, let alone find an acomplis. I'm glad there were so many willing folks to help out. Special thanks to all the these great looking people for allowing me to show you their portraits.

This is a great holiday gift idea that is fun and also says a lot about how you care about the world around you. Attic Journals takes old books destined for the dumpster and repurposes them. Spines are carefully removed and paper is recycled. The front and back covers are then reused and wire bound into blank journals using at least 75 blank pages of twenty four pound paper stock. Each journal is unique and sometimes a bit quirky. You'll find lots of interesting old covers some abstract some very graphic. A great Idea for someone on your holiday shopping list. Go over and take a look at the different sizes and other items they have for sale.

No pressure at all. . .

Today I participated in my first Meetup event with Cape Ann Photography Excursions (CAPE). It was Portrait day and most people were behind and in front of the camera. Lots of nice people and loads of fun working with everyone making portraits and helping out. Pretty simple and effective lighting using diffused sunlight, fill reflectors and catch light with on camera flash. Members will use the photo's for profile pictures in paces like Facebook, Linkedin and other sites looking for a likeness of their members. You can go to the site and check out all the wonderful images the club members have produced.

Last night we were fortunate to see the wondrful Zoë Keating and her layered cello music. I've mentioned her before. Her music is haunting and beatiful and to see her in a dimmed cavernous church was an amazing treat. I was able to capture these images with available light using a Nikon CoolPix P7000. For the geeks out there these were at ISO 3200. It was dark in there. The results are quite surprising.

The I AM | Nikon Blog Posted a story about Tyler Card and the making of his flashy costume.

BATHTIME IN CLERKENWELL
Music by
(The Real) Tuesday Weld
Animation by
Aleksey Budovsky

This is one of Joanne and Mike's chickens. This girl is pretty funky with her dancing shoes, but rumor has it, she's dumb as a stick. We get eggs from them each week in season. Their eggs are wonderful, because of their strong shells and nice dark yokes. It may also have to do with the fact that these girls get to eat the things they forage for in the wooded area next to their home. They have quite a chicken complex and they are free range to the extent they are not allowed to visit the neighbors unexpectedly. Along with the chickens they also raise ducks. If you come to our house you may be treated to a duck omelet. It is hard to get used to to the idea but once you have one you'll be convinced. Duck eggs are slightly firmer with a larger yoke. These eggs also make a tastier egg salad. Joanne gives us fun facts with each egg delivery. Did you know you don't need a rooster to get eggs. I still have a hard time getting my head around that one. The color of an egg has to do with the chicken not the feed. If you want to know what color eggs a chicken will lay you check the color of their ear lobes. This photo was taken on a visit to "the source" this past summer.

I took a walk in the woods today to try my hand at some macro photography. It was a beautiful fall day with lots of vibrant colors and textures. Take a look over at my photo album to see the rest of the pictures.

Created by The Oatmeal

We went out to celebrate the Memorial Day holiday with my family and to take in the annual sporting spectacular. These pictures are more about the adaptation of my photography workflow than anything else. Hopefully this new process will allow me to be more "agile" in getting my photos sorted and published from now on. There are plenty more things I have to publish. The pictures are now in the photo album for you to enjoy.

I love seeing the subtile reactions of people when they realize what is going on. If you don't know about these type of restaurants in Japan, here is the gist. A conveyor belt rotates around the room with different food items. Patrons just grab what they want as the food passes by. The food item's price is denoted by the color of the plate. At the end of the meal the server totals up the number of plates you have and presents you with a bill.

I have to get me one of these. That is one sweet ride!



Here's how to get your own. Thanks John!

Saturday night my wife took me to a wonderfully funny comedy concert featuring Ron White. He sold out two shows in one night in a very big venue. I laughed so much I had tears in my eyes. Ron's humor is unique and poignant and very adult. I wanted to share this one clip with you so once you finish you can click on another link and watch many more clips. Caution, some clips NSFW.

http://www.danpat.fi/janne/flash/kuplamuovi.swf

I dare you to not touch it.

Have a happy Halloween!

FAO Schwartz has gotten in the act of the create your own likeness trend, Muppet style. Now you can go make your self a Muppet Whatnot. Here is what I look like with hair. You can't order a bald Muppet. That must be reserved for Bert.



Thanks LeeAnn and gothamist

Good thing I have a titanium hip.

You can get your own here.

I've seen two posts from coworkers in so many days about a new web application written by Jonathan Feinberg called Wordle. It takes any text you give it and creates a word cloud based on frequency. You can then manipulate it for orientation, font and color palette. I thought I'd give it a try. What grand literary work do I have to my credit for uploading? Nuttin. . . But I took my NaBloPoMo 2007 postings and came up with a word cloud that I thought was pretty interesting.

I'm sure we've all mistaken lyrics from one song or another. This video takes mistaken lyrics to a whole new level. Oh Fortuna converted into O Four Tuna. Just a subtile difference from the original lyrics.



Thanks Rock!

Just click here.

This is my friend Ruby. Her eyes get like that when she takes control of my mind. She is making me stop drinking single malt scotch for the night. That is the reason my face is like that.