I really don't like Christmas

I don't like Xmas and everyone calls me Scrooge because of this. I have my reasons for not enjoying this holiday season and I guess I should explain myself.

First, I take issue with the false religious basis for this holiday. If you believe the bible and the current accepted translation the "birthday" of Christ is actually in October. Some theologians have gone so far as to say the actual date is October 4. So I guess the German Oktoberfest is the actual celebration of Christ's birth.

Second, the gift giving. I am really uncomfortable with the whole concept of exchanging gifts. Well actually the exchanging of gifts between adults. To me this is a holiday for children who are still naive enough to believe in Santa. Adults have no real excuse to exchange gifts. It would make much more sense if we all took the money we would spend on everyone else and spent it on ourselves, or better yet give the money to a charity.

Third, and this relates to my second point, is that business use a "religious" holiday to make up to 50% of the year's profit. It is sick that in a period of about 30 days a company can go from in the red to having a banner year. All because giving gifts is expected. What is really sick is that Halloween as all but disappeared as a holiday, the Christmas stuff come out in October now. There is nothing more disturbing to be shopping for Halloween candy to "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer".

Yeah I dislike the holiday season, but if you want to celebrate you go right ahead. Just don't expect me to follow along.

I'm sorry

You'll have to forgive me, I have been in a bit of a creative slump lately. I have no desire to go out and take pictures, I can't find anything that inspires me, and I think I may have reached the limits with my current camera. The ISO is limited (400) the manual settings are difficult to set, the focus is slow.

I would love to invest in a dSLR, but why? I make no money doing photography and the investment would be about five grand to get what I need to replace what I have in 35mm. I could keep shooting 35mm but the lens I have are old and crappy. I could replace them but my choices are limited because the camera body I am working with is over 20 years old. Minolta doesn't make the type of lens mount I need and only one company still manufactures them. I could order one but is it going to ne the same piece of crap I have now?

gabby & alex

These are the two greatest kids on the planet. Of course I am a little biased about this because they are my God Children, well Alex is and Gabby's his brother. Today I was over helping them design the tree fort we are going to build over winter break. I think I am more excited about this than they are.

Playing with a truck, oh I wish I was still nine so I could play with toy trucks without people thinking that I was lost my mind...

This is not the best picture of Gabe, you can see up his nose.

This is Alex, he has the most amazing eyes. They tell so much about what is going on in his head.

entropy

These are a few things I have been working on for the past few months. These are things I see while walking my dogs; stuff tossed aside. There is a sadness to these things, they have served a purpose but are no longer needed. I call the series "entropy" because these are things that are moving towards disorder. Entropy is a measure of the amount of disorder in matter.

I must warn you the last images are disturbing.

night light

cows & mist pt 2

misty path

good night

dirt

a stock photo?

I think this is stock photo potential. I shifted the hue to red to give it more of a fall look. Florida leaves don't change all that much in the fall; they go straight to brown.

fire

I like this photo but it feels like there should be something in the black space. Maybe I will use it for the base of another weird project.

Misty webs

Misty vista before and afta

More of my hadiwork with Photoshop - removing powerlines from what was a good shot.

Cows & mist

The day after Thanksgiving I woke early and it was foggy. It made for some great shots. I was so excited to take the pictures I forgot to put on shoes. Mom laughed at me as I ran around the yard taking pictures.

Compare image one and image three, they are of the same tree, I just took out the fence in the first.

Decay

Memphis' crush

I don't know what it was but Memphis would not leave Otis alone. She did not want to attack she just watched him. I think Memphis misses our old cat Anubis.

The watched

Memphis watches Otis, yeah Milo is watching Memphis. Otis was ignoring everyone...

The watcher

Milo watched Memphis

Ouch

This makes me happy not to be a cow, yeah it cow hair caught in the barbed wire.

Cows make better pictures than familyI

I go and spend Thanksgiving with my family and do I take pictures of the friends and family that share this wonderful holiday together, nope. I spend 2 hours walking around taking puctures of Dad's cows. I have pictures of people but I don't like them as much.

A small variation

Change the angle of the eyes and you change the mood of the picture. One begs to be color the other a harsh black and white. Did I make the right choice?

a thought

I think again I was trying too hard with this one, I was trying to recreate a perfect moment when I photographed Jake a few weeks ago. I didn't work out. I think I needed a ladder to get the right angle.

Love it? HATE it!

I like these but at the same time I hate them. Too posed looking, the beer bottle is awkward in the top one and the laugh is fake in the second.

Maybe I am trying too hard with this one. Too Herb Ritz? Maybe a too much Bruce Webber? I guess I should find my own style...

Mona Lisa Smile

"Never trust a man that doesn't like dogs." - Will Rogers