LOL Maeby

also, i made this. it cracks me up.

"Knoxville in the Fall." Colon, "Where Did the Hunters Go? The Jesse Hunter Story. By Jesse Hunter, with Josh Hunter."

(done using the gradient layer mask in photoshop. i like it.)

went to knoxville this past weekend. for what reason? well, i'm still not really sure, but it was a fun trip. i felt it was one of our best efforts when it came to spreading a limited time out amongst friends.



we got up there about 11pm friday night and went straight to mandy's where we caught up on her time abroad. (it's so funny seeing someone in the exact same place i was 3 years after coming back from Hungary. you really know what they're going through (withdrawl-wise).) jordan came over, we went out for some serious carbohydrates (beer and frieds), came back and crashed.





got up the next morning and headed over to our old college church (the one and only CSF), walked around some, took some pictures, felt nostalgic, and waited for todd's girlfriend, murry, to come pick us up. saw this:

(this guy was driving around on game day. clearly he has too much money.)

then it was off to todd's new employment residence. (and not to be outdone by murry's mom, say hello to The Adventures of Todd & Stella: You Ask Us for North Face One More Time and I'm Going to Let Stella Have Her Way With You... or something like that. i'm still working on the subtitle.)



or, the classic zoom. (i've really been enjoying this whole "fade between layers" thing.)



here's another. i think he's about to drive into the Take On Me video...



THEN while everyone was watching football, we went to see The Darjeeling Limited. although it's the most "irregular" of the Anderson films, i do recommend it. (Wes is always good for a few tragically hilarious moments.) but before that, walked around the greenway over near farragut, i believe. i love this next picture...





i enjoyed photographing the tiny stella. (there are several more pictures where these came from...)



and finally, we all gathered 'round the panera bread for unlimited caffeine and slightly limited breadlets. with steven. steven reed. who took two of these pictures.

Triptych Maeby Has Cheezburger

this is a triptych and it cracks me up. the more i look at it the more maeby looks like the icanhascheezburger cat.



yeah, i couldn't resist...

The Secret to Cat Photography

as you may know, i am a bit of a cat enthusiast and from time to time dabble in amateur cat portrait photography. well recently i borrow an external flash from my uncle tim (it functions with my camera but apparently doesnt communicate, so i have to do everything manually.) and last night discovered that IT is the secret to successful cat portraits.



this guy has been a very big inspiration to me. and i always wondered HOW he took such wonderfully lit shots. well, i took these last night in our apt with nothing but the bathroom light on in the background... THAT'S how you keep they're pupils so big! so wonderful!

(dudley hides from maeby... a lot)


look at this towering inferno of kitten!



(maeby may or may not have initiated this flight.)

(i see this view a lot in the mornings)



anyway, they aren't all amazing, but it's definitely a start! so who wants pet portraits??

My Office

there's not really a good angle to get the building from. i liked this one though. made from 5 exposures.

From the Archives

i took this first one a while back after i'd gotten the fisheye. it wasn't anything fancy, but i had fun with this post-processing and it's pretty much exactly what i was wanting to do. not necessarily from the start, but sometimes it's hard to figure out how to produce what you see in your head in photoshop. not that there's not a way to do just about anything, but that it can be challenging to just figure out how to do something for the first time. photoshop just has so many options everywhere.



i took this one the same day at the one above. trying a slightly different more advanced approach to the gradient change (color -> B&W). this time i did the fade from one layer to another instead of just within a layer (got help from this tutorial. super helpful.



this 3rd one was from the Bloc Party show. it's not incredible either but i really enjoy it. somehow at 10x zoom i got Kele shaking his hair to come in very sharp. and of course the people's hands up add another dimension. it's fun, but it's part of my life.



i think there are a couple more pics that have caught my eye today. i'll be back with more.

i'm back. this is from Paolo Nutini at the Wildhorse Saloon. that place was like a rock-opera concert hall. and with 3 floors, it was just pretty dang awesome.



saw this sign on our way back to our car.

My 10.5mm Fisheye vs. the Sigma 10-20mm

so lately i've really been considering getting this Sigma 10-20mm. so i went to try it out the other day at wolf camera (those guys crack me up; they actually think i'm going to buy something from them at full price right when i walk in the door... funny guys). i was rather surprised at how LESS wide it is than my fisheye. i guess that's my fault and that IS the point of a fisheye (to grab way more than any regular lens), but i didn't see that coming.

standing in the same place, i took these...

Sigma 10-20mm


Nikon 10.5mm


when i overlap them, i get something like this...



crazy, eh? so the 10mm is wide, but not NEARLY as wide as the fisheye. however it still stands that it produces much less distorted images than the fisheye. oh well. not sure what to do now.

My Gmail Changed...

did yours?

Cats and Travellers

this weekend ashleigh(sp?) and zack(sp?) stopped by on their way from georgia to... alaska. that's right. they're moving to anchorage and driving that way as we speak. how crazy is that? part of me is very jealous, but a bigger part is not so much and wants to give them all my warm clothes. they're from florida. man, they are in for a frosty treat. while they were here we gave them the nashville driving/eating tour (i think we're getting pretty good at it!).




i guess this is random, but sunday when i woke up from napping/passing out (we were up very late with Ashlack (see above) to a very interesting yellow light in the room. it was just the most yellow sunlight i can remember. it was cool, so i took a picture.



i also borrowed tim's external flash and played around with it.



three things i'm a sucker for (sucker meaning i'll take a picture of it irregardless of how "phototastic" it'll come out): sunsets/clouds, jesse, and the cats. and from here on out, it's cats cats cats.



it was actually a really enjoyable weekend. it's always rewarding when you actually utilize that free time instead of just throwing it away. it sucks when someone asks you what's going on and all you can think of is "just workin'." so this weekend, we spent the several hours gathering the necessary photos for our christmas card. then we cleaned the apt (so nice to have a clean place. i forget how nice too often), then ashlack came in and we toured and watch Meet the Robinsons (which i HIGHLY recommend. it was hilarious and really touching.)





(maeby was mid-meow. so precious.)


and because i'm just so excited about it, here's a taste of this year's hunter Christmas card...

FINALLY... The 2007 National Douchebag Championships

i've been looking for this ever since it aired. BRILLIANT.