The Other Guys

The Other Guys directed by Adam McKay
2010
★★✰✰✰
So I like dumb movies like this but this was really dumb.  Although the end credits were surprisingly insightful and worth watching.  It essentially puts AIG/Bernie Madoff/bail-out figures into graphic visualizations.  Check out the movie at least for the credits.  Ha!

Stones and sea

Stones and sea, a photo by olmjohns on Flickr.

So I am continuing the gizmodo shooting challenges and having a lot of fun doing them.  I am really pleased with this shot.
The Challenge:
Capture a photo with the shutter speed of 1 second. No faster or slower.
http://gizmodo.com/5805415/shooting-challenge-1-second
My Comment:
After last week's challenge, I was looking forward to this week's slow shutter challenge. I took a number of photos at one second and wasn't too happy with them. I decided to drive down to our local beach and take some shots of the ocean at dusk. The way the sea ebbs out with each wave leaves a "fog" among the stones on the beach when the photo is shot at one second. I was pleased at how this shot turned out. It also captured an incoming wave in the upper right corner.
I brought my tripod with me and my shutter remote to eliminate any camera shaking.

Black Swan

Black Swan directed by Darren Aronofsky
2010
★★★✰✰
So I thought this was going to be a better film but I was a little disappointed.  The only thing that was interesting was Natalie Portman's spiral into crazy town.  The rest of the movie was way too slow.

Tron: Legacy

Tron: Legacy directed by Joseph Kosinski
2010
★★★✰✰
So I loved Tron.  I still do.  The computer effects are phenomenal.  I love the People Mover ride at Disneyland because at the end, you got to race through a tunnel with the light cycles.  So cool.  This movie was not as cool as the original.  At times, it seemed like a really long Daft Punk music video.  Sam was annoying and the weird digital Jeff Bridges/Clu got a little Polar Express creepy after awhile.  It gets three stars more on because the first film was so awesome.

Bumble bee

Bumble bee, a photo by olmjohns on Flickr.

So I have continued the shooting challenge.  I have actually started to do a few others at different websites too.
The Challenge:
Freeze motion with a shutter speed of 1/1000. No faster or slower. And no using a 1/1000 flash and a longer exposure. That's a great technique, but we're trying to have everyone approach this challenge from the same perspective.
http://gizmodo.com/5803159/shooting-challenge-11000-of-a-second
My Comment:
So I started early on this shooting challenge and decided I would shoot water. My first shots were of a bathtub running which were too dark. I upped the ISO and they were still no good. I added the flash and they looked great! Then I realized the camera forced the shutter speed down to 1/200 so those shots were out.
I tried water from the faucet and popping a water balloon which turned out fine but it was when I just playing around in my sister-in-law's backyard in Orange, CA that a bumble bee caught my eye.
Since I don't have a very good lens, I just tried to get as close as possible. The fast shutter enabled me to get the bee in flight instead of sitting on a flower. I wish I could have got a few more of the bee before he flew away.

Palos Verdes 5K Photo

So I got the photos from my race already.  So quick!  Not a bad shot.

Dinner for Schmucks

Dinner for Schmucks directed by Jay Roach
2010
★★✰✰✰
So I knew this was going to be a dumb movie.  I was super intrigued as it started off with Beatles music and awesome dioramas of anthropomorphic mice.  Then it just got dumb and boring.  Finally, when the get to the dinner party it got funny but it just felt lame.  This film could have been great if it was cast with different actors and had some tweaks to the story line.  It felt like an art/independent/Wes Anderson film but with an Anchorman cast.

Palos Verdes 5K Results

So I got my results for the race and they are good. Not quite as good as last year but still excellent considering my poor times on my previous races this year.

Macro ornamental strawberry

Macro ornamental strawberry, a photo by olmjohns on Flickr.

So I was hesitant to do this contest since I did not have any macro photography equipment.  I ended up purchasing some cheap accessories and took a lot of shots that look really good.  I chose this photo to enter because it is unique.
The Challenge:
Get super up close and personal with something tiny through macro photography.
http://www.gizmodo.com/5800821/shooting-challenge-macro
My Comment:
So I went out and purchased some new equipment for this challenge.  I had not bought anything for my camera since I got it over a year ago and decided I could get something for this challenge so I wouldn't have to eat a whole can of Pringles chips!  After reading all the tutorials on macro photography, I bought a set of extension tubes, a reversing ring and a shutter remote.  The reversing ring was the wrong size so I had to go with the extension tubes only.
This challenge turned out to be extremely difficult.  I originally intended to take a picture of a flower but shooting so close up outside was too hard.  The flowers kept moving and I couldn't get anything in focus.  I took a lot of great photos that I really like and I ended up really enjoying macro photography.  I think I will continue to work on more photos in this area.
My submission is a shot of an ornamental strawberry that I picked from my backyard and brought inside to photograph.  Since I used the extension, tubes, I don't know what many of the technical aspects are for the shot but I set the focal length to f/11 because I knew with the tubes I needed more light to get in to the lens to hit the sensor.
I think the strawberry ended up looking like a bunch of red ants on a ball.  Kind of crazy!
Thanks for the challenge.

Palos Verdes 5K

So I was thinking I was going to struggle on this run since my grandma's memorial service was the evening before.  I ran the race well despite dealing with a horrible shuttle service.  I got to the pickup point 45 minutes before the race start time.  When I finally got off the bus, I had only 10 minutes to run to the registration area and pick up my bib and timing chip.  Yikes!  Then when I left, the race was still going on so no traffic was going across the street.  I skipped the shuttle, hiked up the hill and my wife picked me up on the side of Hawthorne!  Crazy.

Hereafter

Hereafter directed by Clint Eastwood
2010
★✰✰✰✰
So I really tried to watch this film.  I really did.  It started off interestingly enough with the Boxing Day tsunami but then I felt it didn't go anywhere.  I couldn't figure out how any of these people could be connected and I'll never know since I stopped the film after an hour or so.

Portrait

Portrait, a photo by olmjohns on Flickr.

So I was hesitant to do this week's shooting challenge but I tried it anyway.

The Challenge:
Take a portrait of someone. This should not be a spontaneous candid, but a planned model shoot. It cannot be a self-portrait either. The challenge is to work with someone else and capture a portrait of them.
http://gizmodo.com/#!5798546/shooting-challenge-portrait

My Comment:
When I started up all this photography stuff, I told myself that I wasn't going to take pictures of people, only objects and landscapes.  Well, I also want to do these shooting challenges so I decided to try this contest.  The other issue I had was that I was hesitant to post of photo of my four year old son on the internet for all to see.  That being said, I wanted to make sure that my entry fit the criteria but still obscured my son's face a little.
I set up the shot with a small bedside lamp sitting in my son's toy grocery cart to get it to the same height as his face.  I had him stand against the wall and asked him not to smile.  Of course, that just made him smile.  I played around with shutter speed and was able to get 10-15 shots taken before he lost interest.
This was the best of the bunch.

Howl

Howl directed by Rob Epstein
2010
★★★✰✰
So I knew nothing of Allen Ginsberg or Howl prior to watching this film.  I knew Ginsberg was a "beat poet" but that was it.  The film was interesting as it takes all its lines from court transcripts and interviews.  Essentially, every line spoken by an actor was said by the person he was portraying.  Kind of cool.  James Franco was awesome as usual and the animation sequences throughout the film were good.

April

So I finished my second month of my "one object 365 days" photography project.  Here is a mosaic of the month's photos.  Visit my Flickr page at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewjohnson/http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewjohnson/

Telephone lines

Telephone lines, a photo by olmjohns on Flickr.

So I was having difficulty coming up with a shot for this challenge.  This is what I came up with:

The Challenge:
Take one shot and submit it. You cannot retake this shot if you mess up. The pressure is on.  That photo need not be the only photo you take all week. Feel free to warm up today, get comfortable with manual settings or a certain technique. But whatever you submit should be a wholly new (subject, framing, etc) photo - and before you hit the shutter, agree with yourself that "this is the photo I'm going to submit."
http://gizmodo.com/#!5796165/shooting-challenge-one- shot

My Comment:
I was having difficulty coming up with something to shoot since it needed to be visually interesting. When you only have one shot, you really need to think it out. I was at my sister-in-law's house in Orange, CA for a nice BBQ and noticed all the power lines in their backyard. I liked how they all criss-crossed against the blue sky. I did my best to get the wires lined up in my shot as to where it would give the most artistic look. I hope you like it.