34 posts tagged “flickr”
Well, it's done. On New Year's Eve, I took my final shot for 365 Days. It feels so good to be finished with this monster of a project. It was educational, inspirational, sometimes very tedious, and mostly a lot of fun.
I could get all chatty about how much I've grown as a photographer over the past year and how much I've learned by shooting the same subject everyday and how many great people I've met (online and in real life) through this project and how much I'll miss but won't actually miss shooting everyday, but I won't.
I will, however, go stat-happy and list some numbers that I think are fun.
Days Missed: 0
Cameras Used: 11
Interestingness on Flickr: 54
Ranked in the Top 10 of Explore: 12
Jumps: 52
With Mia: 28
With People: 54
With Cats: 9
With Food/Drink: 26
Reflections: 36
Parts of Me: 30
Sunsets: 11
I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do for my next long-term photo project. I thought about doing another round of 365 Days (366 this year, since it's a leap year), but I don't think I have the mental capacity to handle something that large. Maybe the 52 Weeks project. We'll see. I need to take a break from photo projects right now and just shoot for the pure enjoyment of it. Knowing me, though, I'll be back on something soon enough.
So, in case you haven’t been following my Flickr photostream, the reason for the lack of posts here is because I’ve been a bit pre-occupied having an absolute blast spending time with Mia (awwwww….!!!). We’ve been so busy hanging out with each other and going out with friends that I really haven’t taken much time to write about any of it. Let’s do a quick recap of some of the highlights from past couple of weeks:
- Market Ghost Tour at Pike Place Market on Halloween. Learned a bit of history about the market, did some bar hopping, sat through a séance.
- CD release party for The Kindness Kind (Mia’s friend is in the band) at High Dive.
- Seattle Flickr/Strobist Meetup at the University of Washington. Met tons of new people.
- Blade Runner: The Final Cut at Cinerama. That movie looks incredible on the big screen.
- Brahms piano concerto performance at Benaroya Hall followed by a late dinner at Wild Ginger (omg, that flourless chocolate torte was awesome).
- Seattle Flickriote November Photo Show opening reception at Cafe Vega and after-party at The Jones.
- An overnight trip to Vancouver BC.
- Another Kindness Kind show, this time at Chop Suey.
Sure, it’s been pretty crazy these past couple of weeks, but it’s been a ton of fun, and it sure beats the hell out of sitting at home doing nothing. However, I do need to spend a bit more time working on beating Guitar Hero 3…
Mia, Rachel, and I were ninjas at the Flickr Halloween party over the weekend. Between assassinations of fellow Flickrites and downing a few beers, we spent lots of time photographing each other. I’ve got a few images up in my Flickr photostream. Some more will roll in over the next couple of days.
Last Friday was the opening reception for the Seattle Flickrites October Photo Show at Cafe Vega. It was a crazy 2 hours filled with lots of coffee and wine, great conversation, art admiration, and at least 60+ people filing up the cafe and part of the street corner. I know that one piece was sold that night, and I’m sure others will sell over the next few weeks. It was an awesome show, and I recommend that that everyone get down there to check it out when they can. Check back in my previous post for location information.
I met Lisa and Anna the other night during the Flickr/Strobist shoot at a parking garage on the UW campus. They were just passing through with one of Allen’s friends, and while the guys were talking, I asked if they wanted to model for me. They hesitated for a bit but eventually agreed.
Once I got the OK, I setup a couple of lights next to one of the blank concrete walls, fired off a few test shots to get my exposure, then did a whole series of the girls individually and together. Lisa (on the left) was a little unsure about the whole thing, but I did manage to get her to relax and smile without looking too nervous and tentative. Anna (on the right) had no problems modeling for me. She seemed to be having a lot of fun, because it was tough to get her to not smile.
I’ve shown my picks from the shoot to Lisa and Anna, and they both love the shots I got. In fact, they’re both interested in doing another shoot with me. I guess this just goes to show that it never hurts to ask people if it’s OK to photograph them. It’s also good to have business cards on you, so those people can contact you later. ;)
More photos from my impromptu shoot with Lisa and Anna are available in my Flickr photostream.
Check it out! The Seattle Flickrites are doing our very first group photo show this month! We’ll be showing at Cafe Vega from October 7 to November 3.
The opening reception is Friday, October 12, 7-9pm. Swing on by and meet the photographers and maybe buy some work! Or just buy my photo. ;)
Just a couple of fun Polaroids taken at last week's Brews and Views meetup at Hula Hula. Also, it's 'Roid Week 2007 over on Flickr. Time to have some instant film fun!
So, here’s a recent self-portrait that I shot for 365 Days. I took this one on Friday night and posted it on Saturday morning sort of expecting it to get a couple hundred views and maybe a handful of favorites (my jump shots usually get decent responses). There usually isn’t much Flickr activity on the weekends, so I didn’t think much would happen with this photo.
I was wrong.
Within the first couple hours of posting it, I got nearly 100 views and 10 favorites with a few comments thrown in. I left to go to Oktoberfest, and a few hours later, when some Flickrites showed up, they told me it had hit #1 on Explore. Hitting #1 that quickly usually means that there was a sudden rush of activity on the photo, and that normally doesn’t last very long. I figure that by the time I got back home later that night, it wouldn’t be anywhere on Explore.
Again, I was wrong.
Just about 12 hours after I posted the image, it was at 770 views, 74 favorites, and 61 comments. It was sitting firmly at #3 on Explore at that time. However, I figured that it was a slow weekend what with all of the end-of-summer activities happening and that it would be off Explore by Sunday morning.
Way off.
Overnight, the views shot up past 2000, there were over 100 faves, and I lost track of the comments. I watched the numbers on it throughout the day, and views, faves, and comments just kept increasing. It bounced around the top 10 on Explore, peaking at #2 and usually sitting somewhere between #8-15.
As of this writing (almost 1am Monday morning), it’s at 4070 views, 142 comments (a few of those are my responses), 260 faves, and #11 on Explore. It’s also become my “most interesting” photo. So much for my theory about slow weekends on Flickr.
What better way to spend the last day of summer than to get drunk and goof off with some friends at the annual Fremont Oktoberfest. As usual, there was kick-ass beer, some fun costumes, and lots of good cheer. The weather threatened to go sour on us, but the rain stayed away, and the sun even peeked through for a little while.
I kicked off the fun day with the Texas Chainsaw Pumpkin Carving Contest. I managed to squeeze myself into a 3rd row spot just outside the “pumpkin zone” and got a great vantage point for the show (and within splatter range). There were only 4 competitors on Saturday, but they were a blast to watch. Some of the competitors went for pure carnage. Others put a bit more finesse and style into their work. In the end, everyone had a great time watching pumpkins get cut up by chainsaws. I could’ve done without the smell of gasoline, but the beer soon killed that.
After the pumpkin carnage was done, it was time for beer. For $25 I got admission into the beer gardens and 8 tokens to sample any of the 70+ featured beers. Being from the Pacific Northwest, I was already familiar with most of the beers on tap (I do drink a lot of beer), so I was on a mission to find something new and different to try. Some of my favorites included Rocktoberfest from the Rock Bottom Brewery, Mothership Wit from the New Belgium Brewing Company, the 8-Ball Stout from Lost Coast Brewing, and, of course, the good ol’ standby Mac and Jack’s African Amber (that one’s not new but always good).
Oktoberfest being what it is, even though you get 8 tokens with your admission, you can almost always get free tokens and drinks from generous friends, other drunken attendees who just can’t drink anymore, and the always-friendly servers at each tent. I ended up getting 4 additional drinks during the day. Three of those were extra tokens from my friends. One was a bonus pour from the New Belgium gang. I asked the lady pouring the Mothership Wit if she would give me a free pour if I pounded one right in front of her. She said, “Sure.” So, I pounded the little 5 oz mug of beer, and she poured me a new one right there. It was awesome.
This year’s Oktoberfest also turned into a mini Seattle Flickr meetup. There was talk on the group forums about coordinating a meetup there, but nothing was firmed up. People just mentioned when they might be there, and numbers were exchanged. I was already planning on hanging out with Scott and Tim for the day, so any extra people would just be a bonus. A few Flickrites did show up, including Rachel-B, tulipchain and her friend, and Fuzzirella and PunkJr, whom I didn’t even know were going to be there, but they just happened to see me as I was pulling out my camera. As expected we drank lots of beer, ate a bunch of junk food, and took a million pictures the entire time. I’m surprised we didn’t damage any camera gear.
I only did one day of Oktoberfest this year, but it was a great day. I’m not sure I can handle more than one day, actually. I drank a bit more than I should have and ended up dozing off for a bit at Benn and Brittney’s place (I parked my car there to avoid hunting for parking), and I’m feeling a bit off today. It was totally worth it, though. I had a blast hanging out with my friends, meeting new people, and getting some fun photos. You can see the shots from day in my Flickr photostream. Obviously, these are the shots I got before I was too drunk to hold a camera. I was wise enough to put my camera away once I had trouble standing up straight. :P
