Yeah, we were pretty awesome. It was great to relive some of our greatest hits, and do it in a theater right on Lake Michigan, hosted by the City of Chicago! Here’s a mini-gallery right now - but after the jump - the nice, big, FULL gallery of fun that was had.
Bonus points to anyone who didn’t see the show, but can name the Running Order based on the pics - every sketch is represented in the order they were shown during the show… Start your comments!
Each fall, as testosterone levels rise in white-tailed bucks they begin working off aggression by working rubs and building up much needed shoulder and neck muscles. It’s not an accident and if you’ve ever noticed the changes that a buck’s body undergoes between late August and late October, it really is amazing. However, as the breeding season — known as the rut by hunters — begins, whitetail bucks that were friendly towards one another during the antler growing period quickly become rivals. It’s all about a battle for space and access to receptive does.
The rut really takes its toll on bucks. Not only do bucks lose a substantial percentage of their body weight over the course of the breeding season, but buck to buck combat can lead to both direct and indirect mortality. Indirect mortality can come from wounds that become infected or even internal damage from fighting. Direct mortality, although more infrequent, can occur when two or three bucks’ antlers become locked together causing one or both animals to die.
This is the case today for one deer. I received these photos of two locked up white-tailed bucks from Minnesota. The guys that stumbled upon the bucks actually found them while one of the bucks was still alive. Instead of shooting the locked up buck, they managed to separate the two and send one lucky deer on his way. Here is the story:
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Coming up with solutions for problems while out taking pictures isn’t always possible.Try a better way!Keep in mind, “The best defense is a good offense.” And the best offense here is to avoid problems with your digital camera in the first place.
That’s not to say things aren’t going to happen that are unexpected and unavoidable. However, many of the common problems photographers have when out shooting pictures are easily remedied with just a little prior planning.
Dead Batteries
There’s nothing worse than missing that great picture because the camera battery died.The answer is to absolutely always have extra batteries in your camera case.It doesn’t make a bit of difference if you use regular or rechargeable battieries, you still need to have at least one spare on hand..
Also, bear in mind that if you’re outside shooting in cold weather, your batteries will die a lot quicker.In the case of running around in cold weather, digital batteries just don’t last as long, so it might be better to have a couple extra batteries instead of just one.
Yes, batteries are expensive, but it’s worth the spending a little extra money to keep from beating your head against the wall because a dead battery made you miss that once in a lifetime shot.
When Cards Go Bad
A while back I went on vacation and took all my pictures on one card.All those wondeful memories were on that one card and I was sure I had lots of great pictures.I was certain that card was full of fantastic pictures.
The scenery was indeed breathtaking, but what really took my breath away was when I tried to load the pictures onto my computer and got one of those dreaded “ERROR” messages.The card looked fine, but it was corrupted. All the files were useless. There was no way to access them, so all those wonderful pictures were gone, gone, gone.
While it doesn’t happen often, cards can and do go bad.That’s the reason it’s better to buy a couple of smaller cards for your digital camera than just one great big card.Get a couple of 1-GB cards, for example, instead of buying a 2-GB card.
Yes, it’s cheaper to buy a huge bunch of gigabytes on one card.If you only have one card, however, you lose ALL your pictures if it goes bad.Don’t make that mistake.Much better to only lose part of your pictures than to lose every last one of them.
Remember, two cards are better than one.
It’s Raining, It’s Pouring
The weather isn’t cooperating, or maybe you just like pictures of rain.Perhaps you’re somewhere else wet, like on a boat or at the seashore.Ruining your camera to get your pictures isn’t such a great idea.Is there any way to keep your camera dry?
Well, you can buy protective gear to keep in your camera case for such times. Places like B & H Photo or Calumet Photographic stores carry waterproof cases.You might not want to spend that much money if you only need waterproof casing once in a while.
For a make-do solution, carry a clear plastic bag in your camera case to keep water off your camera.You’re traveling and forgot the plastic bag? Look in your motel room for one of those clear disposable plastic shower caps.
Planning Ahead Saves Your Sanity
If planning ahead doesn’t save your sanity, it will at least improve your chances for good pictures with your digital camera.Keeping your camera dry, the batteries charged up, and extra memory cards in your camera case will at least give you the chance to try for good pictures.
And that’s why you bought a digital camera in the first place, right?
Out Of Service from duncmc via flickr.
The two lighthouses at Spurn – the “Low Light” to the left which is the older building, and the “High Light” to the right, up on the point itself. Both lighthouses are no longer in service, replaced by electronic navigation beacons.
This little guy was one of my (Mike) favorite children while we visited a pre-school near Lydia’s orphange. When we arrived he ran at the sight of me, literally! Every time I tried to approach him he took off. I decide to try an aggressive strategy, I handed him my camera to look at pictures of the other children. He was enthralled. Matter of fact, he did not want to relinquish the camera to me. From that point on he followed me everywhere I went. A new little friend thanks to the digital era!
It looks like this curvy blonde bombshell is ready for an erotic evening. Meet Cherry D. Today, we get to see her posing in sexy Oriental style dress. I love how just a bit of her cleavage pops out of this dress. Of course, we get to see a lot more soon, as she slips out of the dress. It isn’t long before she posing in just her black pantyhose with only a tiny thong underneath. Click here to see today’s Only Tease photo gallery.
There’s only one place to see Cherry D’s entire photo set and that’s inside Only Tease. Of course, there’s several hundred other sexy models posing in their naughty outfits and teasing in their sexy lingerie. If you’ve ever been curious what color panties a beautiful babe was wearing or what style of lingerie a sexy woman wears, now you can find out at Only Tease.
Click here to visit Only Tease.
Adobe has launched it’s online version of Photoshop called Photoshop Express. It’s currently a public beta and open for anyone to sign up.
The online Photoshop Express is a nice little photo editor for some of your more basic editing needs but if you’re used to the advanced features of the full blown Photoshop then it’s not for you.
Photoshop Express features 17 editing tools including red-eye removal, crop & rotate, saturation and sharpening (see left). It’s not the greatest selection of edition tools but the ones they do give you are quite nice. It looks like they took a page from Microsoft Office 2007, most of the tools display a row of thumbnail images across the top of your photo, just hover over a thumbnail and you’ll see the effect applied instantly to your image. This is great if you’re not quite sure what a specific tool can do.
The undo capabilities are also great! You have your typical undo and redo arrows but you also have a nice little ribbon like feature that displays a series of thumbnail images with all of the edits you just made. Click on a thumbnail and revert back a that particular point. Unlike most photo editing tools, it’s also easy to remove any particular edit without loosing any of the changes you made after words. All you have to do is remove the little check mark next to the tool and that particular edit is removed, leaving all others in place.
Photoshop Express isn’t just an editing tool though, you also get 2GB worth of storage for an online gallery you can share with friends and family. I have to admit, it’s nice to have 2GG for free, but I’m not all that fond of the gallery, it seems to be lacking in features a bit. You can organize your photos into albums and view the albums as a slide show but there really isn’t much more than that. The search feature is only helpful if you have commented or named each photo. The addition of tagging would make it much easier to keep organized.
Over all, Photoshop Express is a pretty nice little editing tool, especially since you can import directly from other services like flickr, photobucket and picasa. But if you’re and advanced user you’re probably better of with desktop software and if you’re looking for a place to store your images and show them off, I recommend using flickr.com, zooomr.com or picasa web albums, they have many more options when it comes to sharing.
Technorati Tags: Photoshop-Express, photography, adobe
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Okay, Valentine’s Day is out of the way and it’s time for some fresh updates! From Diva to entrepreneur, Torrie held her first ever fashion show for Jaded on January 31st at Houston’s Bond Lounge. A big thank you to Ashley for sending these pictures from the event, which are now up in the photo gallery; they are a mixture of pictures of Torrie and of the models sporting some of the Jaded line!
Check ‘em out and tell us what you think! Torrie looks gorgeous, I love her dress and is it just me, or does she outshine the models?!
Related Links:
• Miscellaneous - Jaded Fashion Show (January 31, 2008)
When I get a black car to shoot I try to find a nice open space to minimize distracting reflections. A good photographer friend of mine, Ron Perry, suggested a spot that would be perfect. Unfortunately, instead of a colorful sunset I got an overcast marine layer because the location was close to the water. The car looked great but the bland sky made for a bland photo. Luckily, my wife and I went to Hawaii for our honeymoon and I grabbed a great shot that worked perfectly with the black Dodge Challenger SRT8.
I flew to San Diego this weekend to watch my sister Kate compete in her first 1/2 Ironman at Oceanside CA. From what her friends tell me, she has been training religiously for months and it showed on Saturday.
From the time she entered the water to the finish line, she had a smile on her face, so it was no surprise that she now plans to go the distance and run a full iron man at some point in the future.
We could only catch glimpses of Kate along the course, mainly just before and after the transitions. The picture above was taken as Kate was finishing her 56 mile bike. She was telling everyone afterwards about how hard the hill section was. She said it started at about 30 miles into the ride. I found this map that shows that the riders had to labor up about an 800′ climb in elevation; three quarters of which was inside of 5 miles!
This was Kate when she was roughly half way through her 13.1 mile run. I’ve also posted a bunch of additional pictures from her race here for you to enjoy. In addition to meeting her goal of finishing the race, she also came within 15 minutes of her stretch goal - to complete the course in 6 hours and 30 minutes. GO KATE!!!