ultrasupergenius’ journal

There was a cool wind bustling across the parking lot of woodburn village this morning… Enough to dislodge acorns from the tree just above my car. I have no idea how many times my car got bonked before I got in it… but it got bonked three times while I was in it. The first one scared the crap out of me - it was ridiculously loud. It sounded like someone had thrown a brick. The next two were nearly simultaneous, and I was able to asertain that the sound was just as loud outside the car as inside. A gentleman had just pulled up and gotten out of his truck to take care of the trash when the two acorns struck - and he spun his head around right quick and went into a partial duck posture when he heard it. I guess he was about 50ft away.
I resisted the temptation of yelling out “Run for your life! The sky is falling…!”, but now I wish that I had.

I competed in my first photography competition last night, one of the monthly competitions of my local photo club. I entered 2 11×14″ color prints in the “Novice Color Prints” category, and two color slides in the “Novice Color Slide” category. Here are the results:

Soft Purple Flowers voted out in 1 round. The judge did not care for the soft focus, although made a point of indicating that the central focus was sharp. Did not care for the sky, felt it took away from the photo. The elements that were in the soft focus areas (other blossoms and leaves) were fighting with the image. Photographer did not do enough / if anything with the flower - just saw a flower he / she liked and took its picture. Should have been some arrrangement, set up the shot.

Lotus and Leaf voted out in 1 round. The judge noted that there was not enough leaf to provide a base for the picture. Good color. He did not feel that this leaf was in any way attached to the plant. He has seen the shot before, many times. While this incarnation is technically very well done (nice focus - great color), it is not special enough for competition.

Soft Lotus (color slide) voted out in 1 round. Judge indicated that while part of the flower were sharp, not all of it is - and in this shot at least the entire flower should be sharp if not the entire photograph.

Blooming Lotus (color slide) Voted Worse than out in 1 round… This is so embarassing! There were a small number of novice color slides, and so the prizes were limited to just a 1 and second place. This slide, Lotus Blooming, was the last of the slide set. The judge had kicked all but one of the other slides out of the competition, and the projectionist indicated that this was the last one. As soon as this shot came up, the judge turned to the projectionist and asked “Can we bring the others back in for another round?” I was laughing so hard on the inside… but at the same time it was really embarassing. The judge then gave the following notes - Just a straight on shot, the background is not helping, the sun is far too strong, it is overpowering the flower and everything is too contrasty.

So… they went back through the slides that were kicked out - and Soft Lotus was awarded second place for novice slides!:

NVPS September Competition Novice Slide 2nd Place Winner

Whoohoo!

I saw the quintessential soccer mom driving a mini-van on my way to work this morning. She had a bumper sticker that read:

The Only Bush I Trust is My Own

Go soccer mom! Heehee. I am pretty darn sure that she was not talking about landscaping. Not 100%, but pretty darn sure.

I dreamt that I was sleepwalking before a big family event, something like a wedding. I had been outside with my camera, but finally came back in and was starting to wake up. My brother was there, and while we were talking, I took some photos of him… But each time that I put the camera up to my eye, the sleep walking dream state that I was in would overcome me, and the image that I would see in the viewfinder was completely different than what I saw outside of the camera. It was a dream within a dream, somehow completely separate in my mind from the dream that I was dreaming. Like I was aware that unlike the other parts of my dream that my mind was creating - this vision was being created completely independently of me or my subconscious mind. It was really fascinating, like the camera was revealing a completely new world. Later, when I went to look at the images (I was using the new Digital SLR) they were neither the images that I had seen in the viewfinder, nor the images that I had seen while I was talking to my brother. They were pictures of the room we had been in, but my brother was asleep in all of the photos, which meant that I had been asleep and dreamed that I had been talking to my brother - and the vivid crazy images I had seen in the viewfinder were a further extension of the dream in which I was talking to him (all the while thinking that the conversations were not a dream). It is very difficult to put into words - and there were several other adventures and layers to the dream… It was lovely.
I think that I also got an answer to whether I dream in black and white, or color. I never really remember colors from my dreams per se, and yet also never remember a ‘lack of color’, which seems like it would stand out even more. I think that the reason the images seemed so surreal to me in the viewfinder was that they were in color. I also remember being fascinated by my cousin Steve’s bow tie, which was bright red. I believe that I was looking through the viewfinder when I saw it, but was also touching it with my free hand while I looked at it. I am now pretty darn sure that I dream in greyscale. I am also quite excited by the fact that I may have discovered a device by which I can attmept to do some dreaming in color. I have done some experimentation with lucid dreaming in the past - where you remind yourself that you are asleep, and that you can take control of your dreams to make things happen the way you want them to. The next time I become aware that I am dreaming - I am going to try to use my camera again - and see if I can make more sense of the colors and views in the viewfinder. Fun stuff.

I have spent three evenings in the last week or so taking night photos on the DC mall… I have come to a new appreciation of just how much beauty there is in architecture and design out there - and there is a lot more to explore. The last two nights that I have been out there, I brought a tripod for some long exposure shots. There were more than a couple of people who came up to me while I was shooting - and I had a great time talking to them. Last night, a guy came by with a canon rebel 300d, and expressed his jealousy that I had gone to the trouble of bringing a tripod. We talked for a bit, and I let him mount up on the tripod and take some shots with his brand new canon - and in the course of the conversation that ensued discovered that a) he worked at the Apple store in Clarendon, and b) they were discontinuing the D70 (the camera that I have had my eyes on for about six months or more)… as a result of the dicontinuation, the apple store was going to discount their last D70, 18-70 lens kit down to $799… Nikon is also kicking in a $100 rebate - which means that I just got a $1200 camera and lens combination for $700. I can’t believe it. The best price I have found on a brand new camera body alone is $749 - and the 18-70 lens that came with the kit can’t be touched for less than $350. As I am writing this, the battery is charging, the camera is loaded up with a 1gb sandisk card, and a 67mm skylight filter is poised on the end of the lens just waiting to shoot some dreamy blue Virgina Fall skies. Once that battery light is done, I am off to the races. Sometimes it seems like there really is someone out there making sure that all the right pieces come together.
I hope everyone will join me in welcoming ultrasuperphoto in to the world!

New Lotus Blossom - In Memory of NOLA

Originally uploaded by ultrasupergenius.

A new Flickr community has spring into action - it is dedicated to auctioning off photos to help in the Katrina Hurricane Relief Fund. All proceeds go directly to the American Red Cross, and by directly I mean that the winning bidder will make payment directly, then provide proof of payment to those facilitating the auction - who will then give word to send off the picture. I am donating an 11×14″ print of this photo to the cause - it will be framed in a simple but elegant 16×20″ glass front frame. the body of the frame is black plastic. Any and all are welcome to enter the bidding process - my photo can be found here:
http://flickr.com/groups/katrina_auction/discuss/80507/
Other photos being auctioned off can be found at the Katrina Relief Fund Auction Group.