October 17, 2007

• Potpourii Photopost

  

  I purchased my Sony digital videocamera, with it's internal 1.2 megapixel still camera, in early 2004. My Xanga blog went online in May 04 and I created the above composite header for my "Photoposts" on Xanga. During 2005 and 2006 I took literally thousands of pictures, and I've been regularly "featuring" Photoposts on my blog, and uploading more inclusive photo folders to my Webshots Gallery. I decided to scale down my photographic "expeditions" in 2007 because I planned to get a new digital still camera this year. That didn't happen.  I've blogged about wanting an SLR with interchangable lenses, but these cameras are pretty expensive, and I'm still trying to iron out my credit card debt, and certainly I don't want to buy a new camera with a credit card, no matter how "easy" it might seem. 

  So now it's mid October, and I've only taken a few hundred photos. I don't see a new camera in my near future. I've got two and a half months left in the year, and my 2007 "Year in Pictures" post will not be too varied. In fact, because I haven't posted that many Photoposts this year, and it's been a while since the last one, I'm sort of posting "the Year in Pictures" post right now, just in order to put something on the blog. None of the photos have been shown here on WhenWordsCollide, and I've even dug deep in the archives and have included some photos from 2005 in order to fill out the post.

  

  1-4/24/07 Malcolm the cat in repose. We begin with a photo of Cancerboy's cat Malcolm in her favorite "pose". Here she is on top of the dining room table. Her latest "resting area" is on the top of the sofa in the living room. She and her sister Spike are almost 20 years old. I can remember clearly when they were just kittens. (Bob, Joel's roommate at the time, didn't know the kittens were female when he named them!)

  

  2-5/12/07. Huntington Library Cactus Garden. I've been on very few "photo expeditions" this year. In May I took my camera to Huntington Library and Art Gallery, specifically to get photos of plant life for my video "Floral Dreams".

  
  
  3-5/12/07. Roses at the Huntington Rose Garden. Here are some of the blooms in the Rose Garden at the Huntington. I'm amazed at the floral pics I've seen on some Xanga blogs, taken by amateur photogs with high quality cameras developing more than 5 megapixels. I saw a videocamera at Best Buy last weekend with a 6 meagapixel still camera built in. It was on sale for under $500.00. It pains me to think that all the photos I've taken in the past three years aren't as sharp and detailed as they could be with a better camera.

  
  4-6/30/07. The Focault Pendulum at Griffith Park Observatory.  This is an interesting composition showing the large gold ball at the end of the pendulum in the center of the Griffith Observatory, which just opened up this year after a couple of years of renovations. The pendulum swings in a circle, illustrating the turning of the Earth.

  
  

  5-7/1/07. The full moon shining above the Norms Restaurant on Pacific Coast Highway.  When I finally get a nice camera, my "moonshots" will be brighter and more detailed. If I adjust the exposure to get the sign, the moon is bright. If I dial down the exposure to get the detail of the moonscape, the rest of the photo goes dark.

  

  6- 7/1/07. The Full Moon.  Each full moon, it seems there are never any clouds around, so I attempt to find "stuff" to shoot through or around to get a better composed photo.

  

  7- 7/22/07. The Breakers on Ocean Blvd. Long Beach, CA. The main reason I made a "photo expedition" along Ocean Blvd, which also resulted in 2007's MikeVideo "Greetings From Ocean Blvd.", was because it didn't cost anything. I've tried to use as much "free" footage as possible in my recent videos and photoposts.

  

  8- 7/22/07. Outside  P.F. Changs. The Pike. Long Beach.  Also taken when I took my "photo walk" along Ocean Blvd. in Long Beach this past summer.  The asian horse statues are magnificent, and flank the opening of the restaurant.

  

  9- 7/22/07. An alleyway off Ocean Blvd. A study in abandoned areas along the oceanfront.

  

  10- 7/17/05. A Carnival Cruise ship docked beside the Queen Mary.  I went back into the archives for the next few photos. Here is a cruise ship in Long Beach harbor, in a photo taken from the deck of the Catalina Express when I visited Catalina Island in 2005.

  

  11- 7/17/05. Catalina Island inlet from the mountains. This is a shot of one of the bays on Catalina Island, shot from up in the hills. A cruiser and a speedboat can be seen in the distance.

  

  12- 7/10/05. Los Angeles from Elysian Park. A shot of the city skyline from the hills around Dodger Stadium, shot in July of 2005.

  I certainly hope I can get a new camera by Christmas. I'm looking forward to using my bonus this year for the purchase. I might not get a full SLR. There are some less expensive cameras on the market with built in wide angle lenses. Only a couple of the photos above use the wide angle, but most of my photos are landscapes, and the wide angle comes in handy, and makes for some interesting compositions. Here's looking toward a much better "photo year" for 2008 (and maybe even for the end of 2007!)

  

   

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