Tuesday, March 06, 2007

The Human Alphabet

This morning I got up and googled "human alphabet." I'm looking for letters that have been shaped by people. I'm not necessarily looking for real people. What I have in my mind's eye are drawings.

Colorful drawings of the alphabet where the letters are people.

I want to print out two particular letters to give to a friend of mine. I thought it would be cool.

I stumbled upon a wealth of information about people and alphabets. None of the sites I visited were what I was looking for, but one was a very interesting website about the history of artists using the human body to make letters of the alphabet. This particular site had naked people making the alphabet.

It was an interesting and...informative...way to start the day.

I'm still looking for an alphabet comprised of people.

Free, of course.

Monday, March 05, 2007

Self-taught Camera Games


Taylor
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic.
This weekend I played with my new camera, a Nikon D40. My beloved Fuji FinePix quit a couple of weeks ago. Well, it didn't exactly QUIT...it developed (sorry...no pun intended) a tendency to not open its' lens all the way. This made my photos very short! So I took it to Best Buy and had them send it for repairs.

Estimate: $263.

YIKES! That's more than the camera would be worth to replace.

So, at my request, Mensa Boy commenced researching the next camera. It's just too much information for me to digest.

He recommended a Canon Sure Shot. We both wanted a Canon Digital Rebel, but felt it would just be too spendy...because I needed more zooming power.

But I wanted a digital SLR.

So, after he did all that research, and asked his band of freelance photogs what they suggested, I went out and got exactly what he didn't want me to get...a Nikon.

He was wistful in his disappointment. Which, of course, heaped burning coals of guilt on my head.

I?

Personally?

Love it!

The book that came with it is good, too. (Although after you've had a Fuji, pretty much any instruction book is going to be better.)

So I've been carrying it around since Thursday night, shooting photos with and without flash and on different settings, trying to learn some basic techniques to get me through the next few stories. My friend Jenny, also a writer/photographer, will go with me to take some camera classes this spring. That will be fun.

This photo of Taylor was taken in the "sports" mode. I consider it to be a great feather in my cap because the first attempt at this mode yielded a lot of blur. Apparently, you can't just set the thing to sport and expect it to capture motion well. That doesn't make sense to me. Anyway, Mensa Boy mentioned increasing the ISO sensitivity, so after I checked the book on that, I found that was the thing to do and learned how to do it. I set this one to 1600. This allowed the camera to continuously focus and "freeze motion" enough to capture it. In this photo, Taylor is doing this odd, burlesque-style shuffling thing he does with this feet and arms, sort of running in place and waving his arms.

Friday, March 02, 2007

Marsha Davis


Marsha Davis
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic.
Do you suppose Marsha Davis had a bad day?

Thursday, March 01, 2007

A Story from Lis

I stepped across the lobby of the Hopkins Fine Arts Center on the night of Feb. 28 and stood in front of the Information Desk. The youngish (mid-20's) man behind the desk reluctantly interrupted his phone conversation.

"Yes?"

"I'm here for the writing class with The Loft."

He was impatiently confused. "A reading class?"

"Writing."

He was still confused. "Here?" He looked at his computer monitor. "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure it's here."

"Are you sure it's not the Ellison Center?" [not sure if that's the name he said, but that's what I heard]

"Yeah."

I opened my padfolio and pulled out the course description and location I'd printed out earlier. "L-27 2, maybe? Is that a classroom?"

He was still puzzled. I handed him the sheet of paper.The course I am taking is on "Capturing Memory." It's about getting details to stay in your mind.

Here's a detail: It starts on March 14.

I don't even want to try to figure out how I made this mix-up. I took the paper back from the young gentleman, who was almost managing to keep a courteous tone (he's probably an actor), although his face said, "This may, indeed, be the dumbest person I've ever met."

"Well," I said, tucking the sheet back in the padfolio pocket, "I'll be back in two weeks then. Maybe I'll see you, if you're here."

"Oh, I'll be here," he said.

Darnit

Nate is 17!


Nate17
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic.
Here's the birthday boy!