2009-08-30

Photogs Unite! First Friday Full Moon - keep your pants on

This Friday, September 4th, is another First Friday Art Hop in downtown Dayton, and it's going to be a full moon!

Weather permitting, I invite fellow photographers of all skill levels to come downtown on Friday and take advantage of these combined events. Something like "Light Up Dayton" back in May, but with one giant night-light for the nite-life! And stop in Bonnett's Books to say Hello. I'll be working, but I'll have my camera ready to grab shots should opportunities arise.

I'd be interested in seeing some of the results that come from this exercise, so I've set up a Flickr Group called "Keep Your Pants On" in case anyone wants to share.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/kypo/


If you're a new photog, or new to Lunar photography, these two links might be helpful (if you know of others, please share):


Below are some slideshows of my past moon sets. The first two were shot in the Oregon District. One set was to document a Lunar eclipse and the other was a much earlier unplanned shoot. Enjoy!





This one isn't a full moon, but two subjects are better than one, right?



Finally, this full moon was supposed to be particularly bright due to a closer orbital path than usual. But, as the song goes, "the clouds got in my way."

Google logo 8/29/09

I'm generally quite fond of Google's altering of their logo to honor people or events. I've been known to save those I like, such as the recent 400th anniversary of Galileo's invention of the Telescope (an all time favorite for me).


Well, in case you hadn't noticed, the August 29, 2009 U.S. logo honored what would have been Michael Jackson's 51st birthday. I don't recall ever seeing logos for Elvis, The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, or any other pop music icons, and I have to admit a slight loss of respect for Google due to their logo choice on August 29th, 2009:
When I saw it I didn't know what it was supposed to represent. I've learned that one can find out what the logo represents by hovering the mouse cursor over the image, which I did, to my dismay.

Let me make clear, I have nothing against Michael Jackson. I have owned many of his albums, in multiple formats, and I've always enjoyed the Jackson 5ive's hits (since before I was old enough to have my own music collection). Today I own more Michael Jackson CDs than my Elvis and Sinatra CDs, combined.

My complaint is that this feels, for the first time, like Google is pandering, or trying to stir up a little fuss, which apparently worked in my case. It was nearly enough to have made me switch to Bing, but frankly, I prefer making my own decisions. BTW, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly... no logos. But there was an awesome Ray Charles logo a while back (another favorite):

Many other great musicians share August 29th as a birth date and have yet to be honored with a Google logo:
  • Bebop jazz pioneer saxman, Charlie "Bird" Parker comes to mind. "Bird" was certainly as important to musical history as Michael.
  • Shouldn't the "Queen of Jazz" precede the "King of Pop"? In 1963, Dinah Washington also died of an overdose (accidentally). She was interred at the (in)famous Burr Oak Cemetery in Illinois. Burr Oak is the site of the recent scandal involving the re-use of gravesites. With the similarities of death and post-mortem controversy, why not feature singer-Dinah's lungs as they did dancer-Michael's feet?
From fetishists to prudes, many folks will find
this
adaptation of the 8/29/09 Google logo crass,
but
I prefer a pretty smile to sweaty feet any day.

Anyone wondering why I mentioned Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly earlier? When I think of Gene Kelly I think of Fred Astaire, so there he is, and I was thinking of Gene Kelly because 8/28** is Donald O'Connor's birthday, and Donald and Gene starred together in "Singin' in the Rain", for which a logo like this might have been concocted.


Any sticklers who believe the 3 umbrellas don't accurately
represent Google's two O's? There is
precedent in Google logo
history for further stretches
than I've made here. Also, it
closely resembles the
quick-jump bar at the bottom of a Google
search results page.

For simplicity I've limited my complaint to the naming of musically connected performers. If we looked also at sports, cinema, theater, science, and other celebrities, I honestly believe a more important and relevant choice could have been made, but not one as timely or controversial.

Click here to keep up with international and past Google logos: http://www.google-logos.com/


**Donald O'Connor was born on 8/28 and appears here by accident due to my reference of a faulty "8/29" birthday list. I didn't wish to waste my efforts, so I've made editorial corrections for their inclusion.

2009-08-27

Updates & Facebook maintenance

I've been busy lately. If you're reading this on Facebook, click through to read the whole post and see the links therein to learn more. Feel free to begin with these:

Lately, I've been doing things that have kept me away from Facebook, so FB, if you're feeling ignored, don't. So right now, when I finally get to a point where I can check in on it, I find my FB account is unavailable due to site maintenance. Phooey.

If you haven't already noticed, I've got this blog's feed piped into Facebook, so if it takes a few MORE days before I check in over there this should get through to let those who care know why.

Updates:
  • FOOD - Roberta has been making foodstuffs like a crazy person. It's AWESOME! She's experimenting with 'stuffed' this-and-that, so I've been eating a lot of stuffed green peppers, and tomatoes stuffed with tuna salad... never heard of that before, but it's delicious! I've neglected to photograph these things and I hang my head in shame for the slack. I actually rather enjoy photographing food and drinks, but my faves involve a burning flame, like food on a grill (see my FesTiki shots on Flickr). I like to give these shots a vintage look, as if they came from some old cookbook of the 60's or 70's. But this is about the wife's cooking...
In the last week or so I've had zucchini bread, banana bread, the aforementioned stuffed vegetables, a mushroom omelette and bacon, charcoal grilled hamburgers, corn on the cob, and more, all by her hand, and every bit of it as good or better than comparable items I've had elsewhere. She loves cooking as I love photography, but I think her skills are proportionally more advanced than my own. Oh, I just remembered, I did take a photo of Sunday breakfast. It was so good, even the coffee maker wanted some...


  • Another thing worth mentioning, FesTiki's headlining band, The Cocktail Preachers, asked me for a couple of photos I nabbed of them at that gig! They're not my best work, but I'll blame it on the beverages. They're the same photos from my FesTiki video slideshow on YouTube. I've recently updated the video with music by Dayton's legendary surf band, The Mulchmen. The Nick Kizirnis Band still performs a number of Mulchmen tunes... really good stuff. They had me at "theremin".
  • And, one more thing. I met a genuine published author at work on Wednesday, and I'm actually strongly interested in reading his book. More on that coming soon on the "Penciled Margins" blog of Bonnett's Used Book Store.
And that's about that... oh, except, I wanted to shoot the moon again tonight. The waxing slice visible tonight was very low and setting when I spotted it, but it was a deep orange color that I wanted to catch. I didn't stop to shoot it, and by the time I arrived home it had already set. I'll be watching for it tonight.

2009-08-22

A Picture A Day Catch-Up, July 2009 -- Variety Pack!

If you find this via Facebook, click through to see the slideshow.
I keep certain photos in the following locations, if you'd like to take a closer look at them than is possible in these video slideshows:
My Original Online Gallery -- http://picasaweb.google.com/khbonnett
Most Recently Used Gallery -- http://www.flickr.com/photos/kb_ultra/
Most Underused Gallery -- http://morecrap.deviantart.com/

There's a wide range of stuff in here, from quickie mobile phone images to artistic architecture.



BTW, I should explain my use of video slideshows.

Google's Picasa is where I have kept most of my images but I'm nearing the storage limit. They offer an upgrade option but money's a bit tight... (no, really?).

I started using Flickr to supplement my photo storage addiction, but I'm bumping into their limits as well. Flickr seems to have become THE place for online photo storage so I'm considering scraping together the money for an upgrade there. BUT! I've never ever been a fan of Yahoo! or any of their products, of which Flickr is one. I'm even more turned-off now that they're partnering with Microsoft and switching to Bing as their internal search engine.

Soooo... Google's Picasa makes it very easy to create video slideshows of your photos and upload them to YouTube, where there are no storage limits! I can upload video slideshows all day long to share my photos. Also, using video instead of stills somewhat helps keep people from 'borrowing' photos without permission.

BTW, I keep my Picasa/YouTube slideshows silent, but you can add music. Just be sure you use something that won't get removed by the copyright police on YouTube. ;-)

Ciao 4 now! :-)

2009-08-21

32 seconds of Soul Fire Tribe @ FESTIKI

Here's another little clip from FESTIKI. Again with the fire? I guess flames display better when they're in motion. This clip features a member of Soul Fire Tribe from Yellow Springs. Enjoy!

2009-08-16

9 Seconds of Flaming Tiki Madness!

I hate shooting video with my still camera, but some things just aren't the same without the action... Enjoy!

We went with wine...

Personally, I think a cold beer would've washed it down better, but who I am to argue with the chef?
Bartenura Moscato

Surf & Turf weekend, Part 2...

Part 1 was FesTiki, yesterday at Carillon Park, a little slice of Heaven. We continue the theme today with a surf & turf extravaganza. Sadly, we're out of fruity cocktails, so beer or wine will wash it down. It's nice to finally have my sweetheart back in action!
...And I get to enjoy this for lunches through the week. Awesome! :-)

2009-08-15

A Picture A Day Catch-Up, June 2009

Facebook users! Visit my blog at http://blonking.blogspot.com, or my YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/BonKH to see the video slideshows included in these posts.

This is a nice colorful batch of my photos. Some of them might appear to be the same as things I've posted before, but they aren't; they're different pictures of something I've shot before. There will be few such duplications in the future. These were simply a matter of circumstances. Enjoy! :-)

A Picture A Day Catch-Up, May 2009 Part 2

I don't have an exact count, but this slideshow should put me above my 'picture a day' quota. I warn you, this is one of the most mundane batches yet, but it's worth the watchin' for a nice glimpse of the Dayton Five Rivers MetroParks fountain at RiverScape and some fresh glimpses of that totally sweet Lotus Elise I posted some time back (maybe on "Penciled Margins", if not here). As always, enjoy. :-)

2009-08-07

A Picture A Day Catch-Up, May 2009 Part 1, Light Up Dayton

Some of these pictures have appeared on Facebook, MySpace, and maybe even Flickr (I can't remember off-hand). But most of them are making their debut right here and now!

If you see anything interesting and would like to know more, as always, feel free to contact me about it.

All alone, this video slideshow goes above and beyond the call of duty for May's requirements. It should help make up for a bit more of March, and there's more May yet to come! I could actually put myself ahead of schedule... but, at this point, I'm not even really counting anymore.

Enjoy!