Remember the Flash!

More importantly, remember to turn the flash off when shooting through things...

Oddly enough though, the shot is interesting in it's own right and could almost be considered an "art shot."

Silhouetted Tree at Sunset

It's not just about being at the right place at the right time, but remembering to pull off the road and actually take the picture too.

Christmas Gifts

It's that time of year again where everyone runs out for last minute gifts because the holiday season sneaked up on them. Or maybe they just procrastinated until the last minute. After all, the auto parts store always has a fine selection of gifts on Christmas Eve.

However, for those who are looking for a more personal gift (since last year's neon trunk lighting just didn't go over well with the Missus) I'd like to recommend clams. About a bucket's worth should be festive enough for this Yuletide season. After all, if clams weren't Christmas-y then why would they sell a resin statue about it?

Pipe and Beam

A large drainage pipe and concrete support beam in a parking garage.

The excess light bleeding is due to an inferior camera and software combination. Regardless of the camera quality though, sometimes you do want some of the extra graininess and blurriness of a fixed focal point camera. I find the effect to be somewhat eerie, yet pleasing.

Manners and Modes Nightmare

While cleaning out old images from my hard drive (why exactly did I find that humorous?)  I came across a little gem. I recall finding it while searching through archive.org a few years ago. Sadly, I don't recall what book it came out or or who the author of the work was, so I can't give give full credit where credit is due.

And just think, half of the "formal" gowns today could probably double as lingerie. Or is it that half of the lingerie today could double as a formal gown if you threw on a string of pearls to go with it?

Going Clubbing

I was in the rough without my personal driver. 

I felt trapped. 

Then I started to putter around and I found a new club.

Mixing Board

Close up views of a multi channel mixing board. 

The joys and beauty of technical equipment.

Little Boy Blew Off the Shackles of this Tired Planet

OK, so maybe the title is a little contrived. But the image itself is a great combination of old and new which oddly works out to look like a 1960's science fiction pulp cover. And given my penchance for pulp novels and all they contain, this is a great thing in my book.

As for more information regarding the image or the designer, Ben Pieratt, I redirect you to the original posting at Kitsune Noir:

KN | Kitsune Noir » Space Suit of the Week

Green - Light

New bright green grass surrounds a grey landscaping light. Shame that the pending winter will turn it all brown so soon.

A rose by any other name is pure marketing genius

Often it seems that in order to distinguish yourself and your products from your competitors you need to come up with some sort of gimmick. Not that I have an issue with that. In fact it seems to be Marketing 102 to me. It's just that every once in a while I come across a product that just doesn't seem to be named right for what it is, and yet at the same time the name nails it.

This time it's a carpet swatch. A green swatch to be exact. They could have named it something like Forest or Meadow or even Tropical Something-or-other. But no! They've taken naming green carpet to a whole new level!

Behold the awesome marketing power of Botanical Fury!

The Rat's Nest of Cables

Fire code be damned!
We need more power!

Weird Fries

Some great graffiti / building art in Austin, Texas. After all, if one keeps Austin weird, then one should also keep their french fries weird too...

House Phone

Ah, back in the good old days when you could just pick up a phone and get whatever it was you needed.  

Subtle Sleep Message

It looks like the Wyndham hotel chain wants to add a little subliminal message to my stay. I may have actually been well and slept better if the A/C compressor didn't make so much noise.

Ban Rap Music

Spotted on a car in Austin, Texas. 

Squares and Windows

A view from within a parking garage stairwell which is just a repetition of squares and parts of squares. The sunlight coming through the grate behind me added extra squares as a grid across the entire picture.

Bonus for the woman walking right into the middle of my shot without me trying.

Water Droplets

Every once in a while I'm even more impressed with a picture from my camera phone than usual. This one is one of them (not to toot my own horn or anything). 

A close up shot of water drops left over from a brief rain shower that landed on the BBQ grill cover. I love the reflection of the sky in the drops (more visible in the full size) and the depth of field overall in the shot. Just enough of the center section is in focus and the foreground and background just fade into blurriness nicely.

Heck, I like it so much it's currently my background on the computer.

Row of Lights

From the roof of a parking garage. The clouds were too good to pass up, and the light poles remind me of the old optical illusion of "Which one of these is bigger?"

From http://opticalillusion.wordpress.com/2008/10/20/256/

Shadowy Self Portrait

Gas Pipe Label

Simple, yet informative. A brass tag labels the gas pipe as to which business it supplies.

Green Chair

I came across a pair of these at a local thrift store for just $25 a piece. They would be perfect if I was still in college and needed some spare seating, but alas, growing up means trying to own furniture that DOES NOT match the color scheme in your parent's kitchen growing up.

Don't ask me to get them for you though. They've been sold to a good home since taking this photo.

Dumpasaurus

I love it any time you take an object or action and then make it sound even more powerful by adding a dinosaur reference to it.

Hello, My Name Is...

I've found a new alias name: Chester Draw.

Erotic Token

Rare and Unusual Sagittarius Erotic Token

The front is pretty normal. It's the design on the reverse that's a little more "fun." Click on the link above to see it.

Paisley

That 70's Couch

Sure, I'll admit to growing up in the 70's. I'll even admit that my parents had the same mid-70's brown striped couch well into the 1990's. But it still amazes me that something as visually loud as a thick yellow striped couch was all the rage at one point in time.

Cellular Killed the Pay Phone Call

Thanks to the continued proliferation of mobile phones pay phones across the nation are disappearing in droves leaving the empty booths open for "artists" to leave their mark.

Prairie Style Light

Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie Style is a style that is very distinctive and while easy to copy, difficult to properly achieve. The outside lights at Willow Bend mall in Plano, Texas does a decent job of accurately portraying Prairie Style.

This particular fixture is located outside of Neiman Marcus on the parking garage.

Ready for Takeoff

Metal flies available for sale at Nieman Marcus. 

Yes, Nieman's has metal flies.
Get one for each of your friends.

Of course, they all come with a recipe for Shoo Fly Pie.

Sadly, there's no Apple Pan Dowdy recipe to go with it.

Parking Garage Support

Concrete beams integrated into the parking garage structure.

Even the mundane can be intriguing if you look at it from the right angle.

Skywalking

Not only is there another person out there likes taking the same kind of pictures I do, but they enjoy the challenge of taking those photos on a camera phone too.

Skywalking

Going Down

Waiting at the airport can get tedious. Waiting at the airport with a cameraphone can get interesting if you look around. Here the down escalator at DFW airport offers up a nice reflection of the skylight tube against the sides of the escalator.

Put on a Happy Face

Seriously.

Just put it on anywhere.

The end-cap of an aisle in Michael's works just fine.

Pink Hollyhock

Bright.

Bold.

Pink. 

Portal to the World

It's early morning at the Starbucks in the local Target. Inside it's somewhat bright, but nothing to the harsh reality of the morning sun. The phone takes it's sweet time trying to start up the camera application, as though it's waiting for the same shot of caffeine that it's owner is waiting for. Finally it's ready to take the picture.

Wait, what's that? 

Some guy wandering through MY shot? 

How dare he!

Although after the caffeine gets absorbed, maybe it's not so bad of a shot after all. The brightness of outside caused the camera phone to underexpose everything indoor that the sunlight was not directly touching. All in all a nice juxtaposition between indoors and outdoors.

Lonely Pylon

One lonely traffic pylon sits in the parking garage, day after day, just waiting for the day it might be needed.

Pipe Dreams

Driving back from lunch I took a different route than usual. I was rewarded with a long row of exhaust vents from a laundromat. The sun was nice and strong (as one would expect for a typical Texas Summer) and cast some very nice shadows.