Trashed Sunset

I don't know if you've ever seen the sun set. You would think that it's a slow process that would be unnoticeable to the naked eye observing along the horizon. However, it's actually much faster than you think. It's kind of like filling up a water bottle; you can see the water getting closer and closer to the top until the bottle is full and overflowing with no more room for water. The sun sinks lower and lower until the light is but a faint glow along the horizon where the sun once resided just seconds before.

It's actually astonishing how quickly a moment like this can pass. It's a split-second of beauty few witness, and many overlook. This is what disappoints me.

Flip UltraHD

Ok, so good news bad news. I'll assume you want the bad news first.

BAD NEWS: The Flip UltraHD camcorder that broke last week, so it turns out, did not have a warranty on it anymore, according to Best Buy and Pure Digital Technologies.

GOOD NEWS: My dad created a fuss and haggled his way into getting me a brand new 8GB Flip UltraHD camcorder fresh off the shelf. I'm pretty stoked and glad that everything worked out.

MORE BAD NEWS: The factory wrist strap that comes with the camera is pretty wack so I found another wrist strap and put it on my old Flip. My dad gave them that Flip, so I'm stuck with another lame wrist strap. Oh well...

Evening on the Beach

So today my family, two other families, and a friend of mine spent the evening on the beach. We first arrived and threw around the pigskin, played bocce ball, and played games. However most of the time my friend and I spent our time engaging in some amateur photography: he scouted out some objects to get shots of, and I made it happen.

I took pictures almost all night. The problem is that (as seen in earlier blogs) I don't have a decent camera. I was resigned to use my phone camera. The shots actually came out really good, except that each one took me like 5 minutes to take, as phone camera settings are impossible to perfect. If you wanna check it, click the link below. Tell me what you think.

CLICK

Anyway, some interesting things transpired at the beachside restaurant, Frenchy's, that we ate at. As our waiter was taking orders for meals, I was talking to my friend about some shots I'd taken earlier. Then our waiter walked away and I realized I hadn't ordered. So the waiter came back to our table and swore he had my order. I never ordered my meal, though it seemed that the waiter had written down my EXACT order. Cajun Mahi-Mahi Fish Tacos. I was shocked.

Anyway, later on we noticed an interesting man walking to the deck with some buddies of his. However, he was dressed JUST like Alan from the Hangover: he had a beard and sunglasses. But that's not all, he also had the (Fake) Baby Carlos in a baby carrier. We decided we had to take pictures with him. Oddly enough, he too, was there with his friends for a bachelor party.

Peeps are mad weird.

Photography

So I've noticed that more and more of my friends are becoming interested in photography and big projects and whatnot. Some of them are even enrolling in photography classes in school. It's not odd that my interest in the field is increasing: my dad has always been quite the photography enthusiast. He's owned at least 7 digital cameras in the last decade.


I have everything necessary for such a photography project. Well, most of the requirements anyway. I have Adobe Photoshop Creative Suite 3, the perfect environment/community for decent pictures, an empty Flickr account waiting for pictures, and an encouraging paternal support system (father, for those with inferior vocabularies). However, I lack the most essential thing: a decent camera. Right now I have a Olympus C-5060 (as seen to the left), which is a dinosaur compared to contemporary photographic devices.

I would shell out the dough in a heartbeat for a nice D-SLR camera if I had the cash. That's the problem, though. I'm thinking that maybe if I get straight A's, I can get the folks to throw down half the cost of the camera. I'm hoping that might work, but I'm quite doubtful as to those possibilities.

I'll give you guys the Flickr info if everything works out. Just keep informed and I'll let you guys know.

How You Know Winter's Almost Over

You know winter's almost over when your neighbors have trash bag mountains full of fallen leaves. Even as a kid I never got my deserved "jump in the leaf mountain". Sigh.