D.A.N.C.E.

do you ever just hear a song and all of the sudden remember just how much you absolutely love music? yeah, that happened to me this morning. and i don't even really "forget" that i love music, just that i really REALLY love music. so this morning Justice's D.A.N.C.E. refreshed my memory and really just set my day going the right upbeat direction.

check out this original untouched jpeg


now look at the difference running it through photomatix does (and photoshop & neat image)



that's just using a single jpeg and saving it at different exposures in photoshop, then running it in photomatix. pretty awesome.


i got my 50mm lens in yesterday. i LOVE the postal service! they mailed it from IL tuesday morning and i get here yesterday afternoon. awesome.



i really like both of these. one is the B&W action and the other is the Lomography action. both i just use every day. check out the shallow depth of field!





this is jess after i explained just how long "till death do we part" could actually be...



i took some shots like these the other day at centennial park. they're probably nothing special to you, but i really enjoy them. i like taking pictures of "segments" of jesse because it really reminds me how precious all of her is to me; from her little feet to her big eyes, they're all so special. it's easy to forget that when you're in a relationship for a long period of time.






jesse just recently said to me how i'm always talking about all these other things i like so much on my blog and not her, but what she doesnt realize is that i dont generally talk about her because i so much more enjoy posting pictures of her! she's my favorite subject! (and then the cats :) ) so jess, you just have to realize that i probably wont ever talk much about you on here, but that doesnt mean i'm not thinking about you.

Bonnaroo "Picture" Contest

so i entered what they referred to as a "photo contest" the other day for Bonnaroo '07. i entered this picture:



i liked it. i thought it was decent. greatest picture in the world? possibly, but probably not. well they announced the winners today. (just to go ahead and break the tension, i did not, in fact, win.)

the grand prize (and you also submitted a 1 liner with it):

"Center of the Universe - 12:10am Friday"


not bad at all. in fact, i can totally get behind that. nice work, sir.


then there's the first place winner. should be almost as good as the grand prize, right?

"Getting Blown At Bonnaroo"


...what the f??

seriously... i've actually been thinking about what to write in response to this for a few minutes and i'm still speechless...

...i don't even remember it being windy... nothing. i've got nothing.


second place...

"God Save The Queen...From This!"


\:|


...and that about wraps it up. i guess it's my fault for misinterpreting "photo." i thought they meant something else... something that had to do with... well, i was wrong. whatever it was, i was wrong.

UPDATE

so here are the ones i guess i should've entered...

"180° from Boobs!"


or

"The Ever Funny Bonnaroo Death!" (well the title is still on drawing board)

Has Anyone Tried the inBlogger Video Button?

i'm testing the quality difference between uploading a video through YouTube vs. uploading it directly into Blogger. let's see!



hmmm... well, that's... good. i guess.

Bloc Party

The Prayer


This Modern Love


Banquet


Blue Light


Song for Clay


This Modern Love (Smoosh)

My First Photo Gig

so as you may have read below, i was recently commissioned to photograph the world famous Pony Ride at Ava's 2nd Birthday this past saturday. as funny as that may sound, it was truly ideal for a first time job. it was important for me to do well, but it also wouldn't have been the end of the world had something gone wrong. the only thing that really caused concern was the fact that i was actually friends with the "client" (one of my real job bosses) as opposed to them being a complete stranger. however, i'm really proud of the results, i feel like i learned a good bit, and in general, was honored for the opportunity.

below are a few of the ones i really liked (they weren't all in B&W. i just happen to like the B&W best) (i found a fantastic photoshop action to convert color to B&W and i LOVE the results it gives).



because if i ever expect any sort of input, i must ask, so... what do you think?

Deals, Deals, and Deals! (and Bloc Party!)

Yesterday was a bit different than usual. I started at 4am and ended at 12.5am this morning. Fortunately, I was able to squeeze a 2hr nap in there, so that helped. Let’s see, so I worked from 5am to 2.5pm yesterday, then I started getting the deals!

First I went to Grimey's to get my Bloc Party ticket and picked up MIA's Kala for $8. it's brand new! EIGHT!

Then I got Knocked Up (2disc special ed.) for $23 at target

Then I got a 2GB flash drive (look at the size! gotta work on not losing these things) at Office Max for $18

THEN I got a 500GB external hard drive for $120 (also at the Max)

And I got my new VGA/component cable in (cause the other one broke) (that’s not really a deal, but it’s still good news)

And finally, I got to see Bloc Party (and Deerhoof and Smoosh) for $22 (which is kind of a lot in my concert world, but it was TOTALLY worth it; Bloc Party freakin rocked.) (i'll post the videos when they finish processing.)

And THEN I finished up working on the birthday photos for Kevin and was able to deliver my first job! And THEN I asked him about them today and he said they came out great. Yeeeeeesssssss. (I’ll put some of those up soon.)

Oh oh oh! And Monday night I got a new 50mm f1.8 lens on ebay for $70! Now the f1.8 probably doesn’t mean anything to any of you, however, what that means is that it has a really large aperture, way larger than normal lenses, and THAT means I can take pictures in much lower light OR get incredible depth of field action like such and such. So I’m excited about that.


And I guess that’s about it. Looks like I need to not spend money this next week. Dang.

Check Out That Time Timestamp, Ho.

that's right. and i'd actually been sitting here for about 30min before i remembered to write.

just dropped corey off at the airport. it's early. and Bloc Party plays tonight (late). i'm gonna have sleep somewhere inbetween.

i had my first photog gig this past saturday taking pictures of kids on horses at Kevin's daughter's 2nd birthday party. it was great. it was the perfect sized starter. nothing too critical that if i messed up for a split sec i would miss, but still something for me to get some great experience on.

last night jess and corey and i watched 30 Rock that i borrowed from billy. incredible. we seen a few episodes before, but it's AWESOME to just sit down and run through them on DVD. between alec baldwin, tracy morgan, the paige (i cant think of his name), and tina fey, it's so so funny.

greatest line so far... in the episode where alec baldwin plays poker against jack mcbrayer...



baldwin is so impressed with mcbrayer's poker face (because all he does is smile) and at the end of the episode he beats him in this big poker game (where baldwin has bet him his job). well, he gives him his job back and tells tina fey you should keep your friends close and your enemies closer. and then he says...

"keep your eye that one. in 5 years we'll either all be working for him... or be dead by his hand."

priceless. i don't know if it's possible to translate funny through my simple description, but i couldn't find any videos with it.

FOUND IT! watch the whole thing, but the scene i'm referring to starts at 2:00.




more crap that's come to light...

-check out this colorful corey weekend wrap-up!
-a picture of the tallest buildings by state

Net Neutrality

this is a scary thought. wow.

The Big Guns

so here it is, the latest and greatest...

Photoshop CS3 (463mb)

it's archived with WinRAR (if you don't have winRAR you need to get with it). if you have any questions, just ask.


if you would like something to "fix" pictures, but don't need the beast or just want something slightly less hardcore, below is Adobe Lightroom. it's fairly user friendly, let's you fix a lot of common problems with photos, and is only 22mb.

Adobe Lightroom (22mb)


while i'm at it, and you might not care about these at all, but here are the links to Photomatix (3mb)and Neat Image (4mb). Photomatrix does this. Neat Image does this. both are spectacular programs.


and now you know what josh uses.

and we all know, that's half the battle.

Flickr Recognizes iTLAPD

this is pretty funny.



for you mateys who aren't hip. ("hip..." that's not very pirate like)

Hey Everyone! Come See How Good I Look!

Jess brought to my attention last night that she thought my blog had been more “look what I can do / how cool I am” than “hi, how are you” recently, citing all my pictures and “work” and stuff. I was rather surprised by this. I hope this isn’t how everyone has perceived it. Is it? Because it’s not supposed to be. (I actually feel a bit silly addressing this.) There’s no ounce of haughtiness or “hey everyone come see how good I look” in any of this (even though I do indeed look good). Maybe if I was posting it on a public forum (public as in, others can post there too) like the MJ blog you could argue otherwise, but I don’t make anyone come here (well, sometimes I strongly encourage it. STRONGLY). The reason I post these (incredibly cool) photos is because I find them incredibly cool and therefore am excited to share them with everyone else. If you had photos that were incredibly cool, I’d want you to share them with me. This isn’t a celebration of my talents; it’s about things I enjoy. I don’t spend time looking through Flickr and shooting down all the other great photographs because they aren’t mine; I celebrate them for their beauty and originality.

It’s funny (and Jess and I talked about this last night) because I just finished reading a chapter in The Screwtape Letters on this very topic. The senior devil basically says it’s their job to confuse self-doubt as modesty/humbleness; it’s better to have the person doubt their talent than to have them recognize and use and enjoy it. The trick on our part is to not be proud of that talent (or at least, no more proud of it than you would you be of anyone else’s gifts). In the book he relates being proud of a talent to being proud of your hair color. It’s pointless. It’s not something you gave yourself.

Anyway, I’ve lost my train of thought due to work. The point of it is, I don’t post things to show off, I post to share. On top of that, I figure the inner workings of my mind probably aren’t that interesting to you… well, I don’t even think it’s that. I think it’s the fact that I’m not able to express the inner workings of my mind or life very well in words (at least in a quasi-entertaining format). I just don’t write as well as some of you (I just end up writing like I talk, which is good and bad).

I guess I could include how I created a picture to go along with it, but I don’t think that interests you (at least no one’s ever said “hey josh, that interests me”… except Kori Diamond, who’s secretly reading this as we speak.)

Hope that helps… Jesse.


(did you guys see the Extreme Whammy Face below? that absolutely cracks me up. ...course it'd be funnier if i'd made it, but that's another story.)

Extreme Whammy Face

this is just really hilarious to me. i don't even know what it is. i just came across it this morning.

extreme whammy face

Hey Look at the Website I Made in 30min

well, maybe more like 60 1/2min. due to popular demand at work, i updated our website. i like it...

Best Emmy's Moment

Kanye West and Rainn Wilson play "Don't Forget the Lyrics"




Worst Emmy Moment... this is so great. Sally Field says something about the war, but she prefaces it with the word "g-damn" and FOX cut her off (or rather mutes the sound and cuts away on camera). so the internet spins it like this:

Fox censors Sally Field’s anti-war speech at Emmy’s

no, FOX just didn't want to get sued by the FCC... cause you can't say that on primetime television. so so stupid.

From the Men's Retreat

these are the few that didn't involve people. there are some good one's of people, but i figure, what do you care about seeing pictures of people you don't know? i dunno.

The Thursday Afternoon Ad

this task was handed to me yesterday afternoon for completion... yesterday evening. i love when they do that. so i came up with 2 basically different ones. i can't decide which i like better between the 2 orange background ones (one has the text in red). anyway, given the amount of time i'm pretty proud of the design. (it's only a 1/4 page ad.) (they look a bit crappy as JPEGs) (oh and i came in this morning and they're like, "yeah... it's actually not due till wednesday." ...)








worked 50hrs this week. yessssss.

Times Are Changin'

the graffiti in this town just gets more and more gruesome...




also, it just occured to me that there is a black guy in the picture and i say something about gangs. i just needed someone walking in the picture to give it depth. anyone would've done. it's purely random that he was black.

so... not racist. just uncomfortable coincidence.

From Alabama in 1 Day

i won these on ebay for $20, the lady mailed them yesterday, and i just got them in. incredible. the postal service is just... impressive.



i've never had the clogs before (because they seemed mandatory at UT). we'll see how they work out. i figured i could wear these at work for a while since they look faux dress shoe-y.

this was weird to see on the side of a hospital

driving by yesterday i came across this. oddly enough, it seems appropriate.

THIS is why it's always good to have a camera on you

even in this hectic, fact-paced, troubled life, it's good to know someone's still keeping the message alive...




and look at what this dazzling little urbanite did...



e-props to you, good buddy.

Flight of the Conchords

you know how sometimes there are things you hear about but because of the way you hear about it or because of your preconceived notions, you dont really look into it much? well that's kind of how these guys are for me. first off, i'm not really big into comedy music; the thought of comedy through song does not appeal to me at all... at first. and secondly, i didnt hear about them through a source i was... on the same page with... i dont know... anyway the point is, these guys are just really really funny to watch and listen to. so please, if you have a minute and havent already, take a look see...

Graffiti-ing Things

i came across a tutorial that showed how to do this. it's fairly easy if you've got the spacial skills. this is my first try.

Me & the Gang

i thought this came out pretty funny.

More Stuff

i ordered this cat bank the other day with my wallet. i think jesse really likes it. it's pretty funny. and it's about 8" tall. it's a sizeable cat bank.





this was in the lobby at the Sleep Inn. they were so great. they upgraded our room to a suite, left champagne on ice in our room, and a card that the hotel staff had signed. really above and beyond. makes you feel very special.



jess has a good/quick recap of the weekend.