Shooting Fireworks

Last night to celebrate Independence Day, we went to dinner in the small country town of Hempstead at the home of some friends from church.  We and another family from church had a great dinner, some really fun conversation and the kids had a - dare I say it - legendary time playing in mud and water in the back yard.

Then sunset came and time for the fireworks.  I've been reading a lot of tutorials this week about how to shoot fireworks, so I decided to give it a shot.  I've never tried to shoot fireworks before (well, not since I've had any kind of clue about photography, anyway), so I was pretty excited about it.

We headed to the outskirts of town to a hill where we would have a good view of the show.  And we waited for the fun to start.

The scene was picturesque.  I opened the shutter at f/1.8 at 8 seconds and got a pretty decent shot of what we were looking at.  It was a beautiful night  - the bugs weren't bad, it had cooled off from the day and a light breeze was blowing.  The perfect evening for fireworks in the country!

When the show started, it turned out that there was a large oak tree that was blocking a lot of the fireworks that were lower to the ground, but the larger ones would burst perfectly over the tree.  Our friends lamented that the tree was blocking some of the fireworks, but I loved it because it gave me a foreground element to add some interest to the frame.  A black frame full of fireworks isn't as interesting as a frame with other elements to set the scene.

Then something cool happened.  The full moon started rising behind the very same clump of trees that were framing the fireworks.  Because I was shooting long exposures, I knew that the moon would be blown out in the shots, but I thought it looked awesome anyway.

Anyway, these are my first attempts at shooting fireworks.  These are pretty much straight out of thre camera - no processing, except for a little crop.  It was a lot of fun, and definitely something I'm going to do again.

And this was a 33 second exposure of the grand finale:

The Graveyard

We love Halloween! The kids and I have been working for the past several days to build headstones for a graveyard Halloween decoration for our front yard.

We started with some old foamcore conference posters that were going to be thrown away at work. Kayci and I drew the outlines of grave markers on the posters and I cut them out.

Then Kayci spray painted the cut posters gray and both she and I decorated them with marker. Noble got in on the act, too. He spray painted a gold glitter skull that we found in the dollar spot at Target and drew on the backs of the grave markers.

Then - under the cover of dusk - Kayci and I carefully built our graveyard on the hill in our front yard.  I dug up the ground in front of each grave, as if it were freshly opened (either by grave robbers or by the dead rising from their tombs - take your pick!). And the final piece was the skull - I partially buried it in front of one of the graves, and it looks pretty amazing.

But then the cool front blew in. I awoke this morning and looked out the window to see all but one of the graves laying down. So I went out and picked up the gravestones and will put them back in place when the wind dies down a bit. But luckily I got out last night and snapped some photos of the Stone Street graveyard before the wind kicked up.

How Many Biebers Could YOU Take in a Fight?

Created by Oatmeal

You've Got a Friend in Meat - or - Why My Son Will Need Therapy

I think I've found what I'm getting my boy for Christmas:



"My First Bacon" plush toy. He even says "I'm bacon!!!"

Right vs. Left

Thanks to Sherri for sending this, even though she has no clue where she got it from.

You Stay Classy, Michelle...

From Yahoo News:

U.S. First lady Michelle Obama flashes two thumbs-up to the crowd, as she is introduced by Panama City Beach Mayor Gayle Oberst, on Panama City Beach, Florida July 12, 2010. Obama visited the area to show support for the people and businesses impacted by the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

What? She didn't have a dress with a dead bird print on it?

The Apple Google Ad

How to attract a man

Ladies, come over here and sit with me for a moment. I have some wisdom to impart. Please don't sit on my lap, ma'am - it's not that kind of blog.

Today I want to tell you how to attract a man. Yes, any man.* Being a man, I happen to know a little bit about the subject. It's really quite simple, and it all has to do with smell.

First, throw all that flowery perfume crap away. No man worth attracting is going to go for you because you smell like roses. Only florists and gay men find that kind of thing attractive. No, the key is to wear a scent that men enjoy, and it comes down to three basic scents that can't go wrong. Simply pick one and wear it and you'll have men falling all over themselves for you.

The three scents that will attract any man* are:
1. grilled meat
2. grass clippings
3. campfire

It's just that simple. Smell like any one of those three things and you're golden. Just don't get creative and mix and match. No one likes grilled grass clippings.

You're welcome.



* Tom Cruise, broadway dancers and Barney Frank excluded, if you get my drift. ;)

R2-D2 in the Strangest Places

It seems that R2-D2 made not one, but two cameo appearances in summer blockbusters this year. First, from Transformers II, there is this frame:



And then, in a move that will send many sci-fi freaks into spasms, R2-D2 also shows up in Star Trek, as shown here:



The little guy gets around.

He even made two cameo appearances in another one of my favorite movies, Raiders of the Lost Ark:




Now, if only he had appeared in Back to the Future, my inner-geek would be satisfied.

Thanks to Matt for starting the ball rolling on this.

I Love PSAs with a Sense of Humor

I thought it was just a funny spoof until the very end. She-cat. Hilarious!!!

Mad Men Yourself

I'm super-psyched about the upcoming season of Mad Men.

In anticipation of that, here's a site where you can go to Draperize yourself.

Check out my Draperized version...