Daily Photos

< October 2008 >

October 1, 2008
It`s a bad sign that my first picture of the day was taken at 8:01pm. My second picture was taken at 8:02. I could be all done by 8:05. The longest, purest `Sanctus` you`ve ever heard. As I mentioned on August 25, 2008, the lighting in my pictures is totally natural. Dinner came at 9:49pm.

October 2, 2008
There were many like this: totally immobile, they probably hadn`t moved since the day before. Samson, the Zeta Tau Alpha mascot. What flavor is your window? This was going to be a picture of the moon, but I somehow lost track of the moon while parking the car. Celebrate Banned Books Week by reading anything you want.

October 3, 2008
Strangely similar to my `perfect` butterfly photo on October 5, 2007, but this one was sleeping on my car. The priest`s lecture on atheism was sitting-room only. Obviously a trick by McCain supporters to get their opponents to vote on the wrong day. I realized later that on this picture I had my camera`s cuteness knob turned up way too high. Hold your horses.

October 4, 2008
In the highly-competitive world of collegiate baton-twirling, even your own teammates may turn on you unexpectedly. The Pride of Dayton. What the tuba saw. Color guard: spinning flags outdoors. Winter guard: spinning flags indoors. I`m usually a winter guard guy. So you got one interception -- we still beat you 42-0.

October 5, 2008
Orange bowl. Love the racing stripes. Can I have a glass of water? A not-totally-successful experiment in the photo studio. Does he look worried about the economy?

October 6, 2008
Seen through a glass squiggly. Porch party aftermath. Spreading happiness, one helium canister at a time. Wind damage, vandalism, or sheer neglect? This portion of the sky is off limits.

October 7, 2008
I wonder what these look like at night. Dew and roses today, ice and snow soon. Alone in the chapel. Facetnating. So THAT`S what they look like at night.

October 8, 2008
Ouch! Just like the turtle of June 23, 2008, except 1000 times smaller. I thought it was a toy, until I tried to pick it up. Last call for beautiful things. Sarracenia leucophylla, or the white pitcher plant, looks lovely from the outside . . . . . . but don`t go inside, or you`ll never get out.

October 9, 2008
Today I got to work by touch rather than sight. Lunch-in-the-making. Lunch-in-the-eating. I walked home by a different route today and discovered some encouraging words . . . . . . which were nullified a few blocks later.

October 10, 2008
Seen through a glass brightly. Watch your step. A follow-up to the starry night photo of September 2, 2007? No, just water droplets from a lawn sprinkler. Leaves are naturally yellow. It`s just chlorophyll that makes them look green. Got mice?

October 11, 2008
`Just my size!` How far can you catapult a pumpkin? This won`t hurt a bit. Some costumes are festive . . . . . . and some costumes are frightening.

October 12, 2008
It always seemed to me that a blur in photography was every bit as natural to the medium as sharpness. KEITH CARTER I try to make pictures on a good day that are externally objective, that come from the real world more or less. KEITH CARTER But I try to make them where they`re internally a little more boundless, that leaves the viewer some room to move around and finish it. KEITH CARTER I`m looking for a poetry of the ordinary. KEITH CARTER I often tilt the horizon line to break space and depth. It`s a bit askew, like my life. It`s easy to square up and make straight, but I have no interest in that. KEITH CARTER

October 13, 2008
High above the highway. Evening on Jupiter. Hung out to dry. Blowing in the wind. Holding the line. Insert cliche here. Revenge for the Ford picture on September 20, 2006. And thereby hangs a tale. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

October 14, 2008
You take the low road and I`ll take the high road. It caught my eye, I pushed the button, no biggie. Some handsome hands. `That`s going to be a great picture!` a lady said as she went past. Someone wants to minimize the number of trick-or-treaters coming to the door.

October 15, 2008
It`s squirrel season for city hawks. People who live in glass houses. Do you know which way the wind blows? Free shows nightly. Marooned on an urban island.

October 16, 2008
Not the glow of sunrise. Detail oriented. Whoosh! I can say without a shadow of a doubt that a tree was nearby. Jewelry. . . . . . . Why?

October 17, 2008
The guy was smiling at the camera when I took this. I didn`t have the heart to tell him his face wasn`t in the shot. I think this is my best hummingbird photo yet. Is it a paddle or an oar? Want to see how long I can juggle these glass -- oops! Shot with an expensive -- and borrowed -- lens. If I`d had the right ticket I would`ve gotten to keep the lens.

October 18, 2008
So I`m in Columbus for a two-day photography workshop, which is basically a two-day infomercial about new lenses. They loan me a bunch of lenses, then let me loose in a floral park and expect me to buy one at the end. Well, I`m not that easily persuaded. I mean, they`d at least have to provide cookies before I purchase a new lens. The workshop was led by a great photographer, but I learned the `wrong thing` from his demonstrations. What I learned: it`s not the lens, it`s the light. So I ended up spending a bunch of money anyway (more on that later).

October 19, 2008
You can see some really beautiful things from a rooftop. Despite what I said about Italian girls on October 29, 2006, Mexicans are clearly the most attractive people. `Ohhh! I look like my mother!` she said when she saw this. On the way down from the rooftop, shot with MY NEW CAMERA ACCESSORY (more on that later). The sun has gone down, it`s dark outside, yet thanks to MY NEW CAMERA ACCESSORY you can`t tell.

October 20, 2008
There`s something about this flower closeup that makes it different from all the flower closeups I`ve taken before. There`s something about this dewdrop photo that makes it different from all the dewdrop photos I`ve taken before. There`s something about this bug shot that makes it different from all the bug shots I`ve taken before. There`s something about this bee picture that makes it different from all the bee pictures I`ve taken before. This new flash unit is what makes today`s photos different. It`s probably best if we don`t discuss how much it cost.

October 21, 2008
Out of the clear blue sky. Soon to be smashed on the sidewalk. A black fence casts black shadows. What if it was red? Not getting enough sleep? Nobody, not even the people who write the Oxford English Dictionary, knows why they`re called STRAW-berries.

October 22, 2008
Some people draw leaves. Some people trace the shadows of leaves. Some people repeatedly take photos of the same thing. `Come on, man, you`re scaring me. Don`t do anything crazy. Come down and we can talk this thing through!` Why do straight columns produce diagonal shadows?

October 23, 2008
`Don`t take my pitcher yet. Lemme put my teeth in first!` If you don`t have goals, how will you know if you`ve succeeded? Negative connotations. More color to come. I`ve always wanted to photograph a falling leaf, and thanks to a string of spider silk now I have.

October 24, 2008
Time to clean out the refrigerator in the staff lounge. Don`t blink. Oh, you blinked. I came out in the cold for the concert, so the least they could do is have it. Ladies and gentlemen, would you please rise for the playing of our national anthem.

October 25, 2008
It`s always fun until someone breaks a leg. The awkwardly adversarial dance of the fullback and the striker. Whatever happened to Kathie Lee Gifford? Abandoning the `sad clown` persona of his father, Emmett Kelly Jr. tries something totally different. A very long string of tiny electric lights. The ones closest to me were multicolored.

October 26, 2008
Today`s pictures are another example of a studio photography assignment that I gave myself. After three hours of shooting pictures of jewelry, I learned that I don`t like shooting pictures of jewelry. The yellow glassware (bought for 79 cents at Goodwill) was marked `MADE IN CHINA. FOR DECORATIVE PURPOSES ONLY.` Uhh, toxic substances perhaps? The difficult part to any shot with a mirror is making sure I don`t appear in the reflection. After some experimentation, I stumble across a shot that makes it all worthwhile.

October 27, 2008
Beware of frost tonight. Boredom -- someone else`s, not mine. There`s something about this bug shot that makes it different from all the bug shots I`ve taken before. It`s cold and raining, so this was shot from the car. Vote for change.

October 28, 2008
I stood and waited for a break in the clouds. The fallen. Another rare break in the clouds. One sixth of the world`s population does not have access to clean drinking water. More than 2 million, most of them children, die each year from water-borne diseases. Only one of the Wright brothers was born in Dayton.

October 29, 2008
Sitting in a seminar for the past two days, it`s been hard to take pictures. Autumn is off limits until further notice. Poor kid. She was so young. You can`t really take a picture of light, but you can photograph its effects. It`s NOT cold and raining like it was two days ago, so let me try this again.

October 30, 2008
I told you there would be more color to come. The appeal of free stuff. Nice shirt. Nice shirt. Cityfolk gives me free tickets, and I make sure their name is PROMINENTLY DISPLAYED in my photos.

October 31, 2008
Leaves of Glass. This space available. A motorist sat and observed while I took this. Shortly afterward, there were two police cars racing through my neighborhood looking for SOMETHING or SOMEONE. If I continue to take great pictures like this, I may someday be able to urn a living from photography. For lack of a better caption, Happy Halloween!

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