To Be a (very modest) Pinup Star

In my first crossover post with my good friend Cammila, I decided to put a lot more effort into Photoshop than usual. I want to make it clear that my time there was largely spent on eliminating background elements, upping saturation and applying a certain satin-like quality to the whole image to give it an old pinup look. Cammila herself requires no work at all. If anyone I know was made to be a pinup girl, it's her. However, it was far too cold out for anything truly risque, so the photos are more "inspired by" than "representation of" the genre.

Cammila is a very close friend of mine, and we go way, way back. Once upon a time, she was the singer in my band, but more recently we've each been exploring our artistic side in new ways (see: The Bakist). One of Cammila's most striking creative outlets these days is her style blog, Dressed Up Like a Lady. You should check it out immediately. And I mean, come on, she runs a style blog, I run a photo blog . . . I'm personally amazed that it's taken this long to use each other's particular skill sets!

The lighting during this shoot was perfect. We literally caught the last few usable minutes of light, and Cammila knew how to get herself into that spotlight and work it.

The majority of the radiant quality of these photos comes entirely from that light. This one required very little work (except for the reflection, I wanted to get a car out of it).

This is easily my favorite photo from the shoot. Again, Cammila didn't need any work, but the credit card labels on the door needed to go to give it more of an old timey quality. I came very close to replacing the Coca-Cola add to something more period.

If you want to know more about the clothes, check out Cammila's blog.

Tones of Home

During my last few years in high school, and overlapping into every trip back to Kalamazoo I made during my first two years at EMU, I tended to frequent a particular coffee shop called "Boogies." Now, Kalamazoo is famous for a couple of things, such as: poverty, PCB (look it up) and 24 hour coffee shops. Boogies, at that time, was my favorite of those shops.

Well, years went by, and Boogies went out of business. This saddened me at first, but then I latched onto The 4th Coast as my main go-to coffee house (pictures of that will have to be taken the next trip I take). The space, however, was always destined to have something to do with roasted beans, and it changed owners several times (my favorite interim occupier was Ali Babba's Hookah Lounge, though a place like that was never going to survive in a city like Kzoo). Now it is "The Strutt," and I must say, they've done a lot of good to the place. They expanded the space a bit, added a small stage, have live music every day, got their liquor licence, and turned it into an all purpose venue/hangout. It's really quite nice. Here are a few shots (sorry, I was too lazy to walk around and get things from multiple angles, so these are all taken from the same spot on a couch.

First off, the fireplace. It was always there, but I never remembed it being in use in the olden days. It's a nice, warm, homey touch.

There is no space left undadorned. Everywhere you look ther is something to catch your attention just enough to not make it boring, but not so "cathy" as to perpetually distract you. I quite like it.

Overall, I recommend you look it up and give it a try if ever you're in Kzoo for some inexplicable reason.

Be My Franken(VALEN)tine

First off, sorry about the delay in posts. The muse has not struck me? I've been under the weather? I dunno. I definitely missed an opportunity there when the weather was awesome. In any case, I'm back.

So, Valentine's Day happened recently. Being single, this day usually sucks. However, I decided to make the best of it by spending the weekend in Kalamazoo with my friend Kary. Among other things, we sang, we danced (to rave music at a Sushi bar in downtown Kalamazoo of all places . . .), we ate foods, we watched movies, and we made muffins. Also, I caught a cold that is currently kicking the ever living shit out of me. Sorry for not being as witty as usual.

This is Kary and her cat Max. I might come back and photoshop this one to recess the background a bit more and do some other color enhancements.

Max is a cuddle slut (quoth Kary). he also has green eyes. My green bag reflected in them was pretty cool.

This is her screen. It's pretty, especially from this angle.



There will be another post in Kalamazoo, taken the next day at a coffee shop. Look for it soon.

The Bakist

Cammila is the most enthusiastic baker I've ever known. She whips up delicious creations with what would appear to be ease, if it weren't for all of the jumping, excited yelling, and laughing. Seriously, it's almost maniacal. It's certainly both a joy to witness the process and consume the fruits of her labor.

I can't even produce appropriate onomatopoeia to convey the types of gleeful noises that come from this woman when she's baking.

From humble beginnings, our delicious deserts are wrought.

Presentation is everything, 'eh?

P.S. The lighting in this place has taught me a lot about adjusting tint and temperature.

Agricola

My friends have become enamored of a certain game: Agricola. Now, a few of my friends are absolutely nuts about various board games, but not board games that most of you have heard of. No, these are . . . unique geames. Ever heard of Settlers of Catan? That sort of thing. Anyway, the newest great game is Agricola. Let me explain it to you.

First off, there's the craps table element. Ever been to a casino and been blown away by how many hands are moving around, doing various things at one table? It seems like chaos. This is nothing in comparison to this game.

The fundamental elements of the game are pretty straight forward, though. It's basically a mix of checkers, Magic the Gathering, Jenga, Risk and Beer Pong.

As far as photography goes, this one was my favorite shot. The other two, honestly, weren't that great. This one is . . . pretty alright.

views from the job front

We had a snow day today. Well, it wasn't exactly a "snow" day, but an excessive cold day. When school was called off, the ambient temperature was reading -15 F, with a windchill of at least 10 degrees lower. Anyway, I ended up going into work for a couple of hours anyway . . . got some paperwork done, met with my principal, took some pictures.

I share an office with a good friend of mine, Amber. This is her desk. I would have uploaded a photo of mine, but it would have taken too long to clear off.

One of our science teachers has a lot of plants by his office. This one apparently clones itself. Near the center of this shot, in the most focussed area, is one of these little clone pods. The concept is kind of frightening.

Even on "snow" days, the central office is a very busy place.

Yet in the chaos, there is still a bit of peace. You just have to get real close to focus on it, and even then it doesn't seem to quite stay in focus for very long (that was a poetic way of saying that I didn't quite get exactly the shot I wanted here).

The Gods have Forsaken Us

And here's how I know. Last night, David yells to me, "What the hell, come look at this right now!" He showed me something . . . something terrifying. He had been unpacking some things that he had taken to his parents' house the week before, and among those things was a portable USB drive for his XBox 360. When he opened the case (seen below), something moved. But no, moving does not accurately describe what we saw. Something pulsated and undulated. Something writhed. What was it? Inside a small, silk sack, a spider spun and kicked, as if this sack were some sort of unhallowed womb. After staring at it for a moment in horror, mouths agape, he commanded me to "do something about it." At first I just took the case in my hand, dumbstruck by the command. Then a more precise utterance issued forth from his lips: "Either kill it or shoot it with your fucking camera."

I immediately chose the latter. Here you can see its abdomen and back leg. Please click on the picture to see it in more horrific detail.

Here you can see the legs coming out from underneath the case. Apparently there was a small hole there, and that hole was the exit from its damnable encasing. As you can see, I was so afraid that I couldn't get a very clear focus on this shot. Verily I say unto thee, I thought it was going to eat my face.

Once it evacuated its prison, I considered David's two commands, and I decided, my job as an artist done, that the former of the two was now in order. This spider is no more. But be warned, for the next time you open some innocuous case, who knows what you'll find pulsating inside.