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What’s sparked my interest in this adventuresome area? Well, there’s the side note that I had the pleasure of working on the site’s rebranding and redesign w/the amazingly talented folks over at Substance. And then there’s the main story of an upcoming Crab Feed that has me wanting to polish up the bike for an early Reach the Beach or, more realistically, fueling up the car for a little roadtrip adventure.

It’s THIS SATURDAY. It’s a fund raiser. Who wants to go on a do-good and fill-your-belly adventure?????

• Date: Saturday February 11, 2012
• Time: 11am-3pm
• Location: Old Charleston School Charleston, OR 97420

Here’s a few of my favorites from the event which I shot on a Nikon F3 with Ilford Delta 3200, a trusty Ikoflex before the sun went down and a Cannon 2Ti with some borrowed lenses which were very hard to give back (a 1.2 fixed 50mm plastic lens and a 3.5 zoom wide angle). A few things learned about shooting a stage and dark room full of people:

• Setting -2 EV on the digital allowed me to trick the light meter and get the exposures I wanted while still picking up detail in the shadows.
• Setting -2 EV on the film camera did not.
• When shooting for an event, vs for fun, I need to move around more. It’s fine and dandy to zone out and enjoy the music but if I don’t move, my pictures don’t, either.

The full event by pictures can be found @ Flickr along with info on who’s who. Enjoy and don’t forget to check out the event next year.

Rock Against Alzhiemer’s in Pictures

I’ll spare you the details on how I fumbled my way through self-timer settings since I needed three hands for this camera trick and recommend a fixed macro lens. After doing some research (aka. googling), I can report that my spider is a Misumena Vatia: a chameleon of arachnids belonging to the Crab Spider species.

As I leaned in to test a macro shot on a white flower, the bee I’d been eyeing disappeared. When I heard him buzzing, I stepped back cautiously and that’s when I saw him fluttering as if he were stuck in something. I figured a web but did not expect that the white “goo” I thought I saw was actually a spider. <shudder>

Luckily, the red markings I initially took for blood made the spider easier to identify. These 2 red stripes are simply the devilish markings on this spider that camouflages itself to match the flower it hunts on.

Really hope I can think of something else to dream about. And not Robin Tunney from a scene in The Craft.

a pair of Nene

A Red-Crested Cardinal. He's trying to help me out and still I can't seem to focus quite fast enough. Lucky for me, I found a man with a net who picked a few fresh mangos from the tree. No eating off the ground for this chick.

Gonna guess Finch or Papya Bird. Came to Hawaii in the 1800's, likely as escaped pets. Saw a few of these near Lihue and on my drive to Waimea Canyon.

A cattle egret chillaxing near the remains of the Russian Fort Elisabeth.

Love Birds. The Nene is monomorphic- with male & female being nearly identical with the exception that the male is somewhat larger.

Walk Like an Egyptian. The Nene was aggressively hunted in the 1800s but is now increasing in numbers thanks to captive propagation. Check out the bracelet.

Red Junglefowl. aka: roosters. and apparently Hawaii's first introduced species, being brought over by the Polynesians over 700 yrs ago.

In my searching to find out some of these birds & their histories, I stumbled across 2 fabulous resources- enjoy.

• A local’s page of Hawaiian Birds
• Kaua’i Birds

Compared to last week’s experiment, from the “safety” of my car, I found that I was less likely to capture people from my bike. Instead, I focused on architecture or waited until I was comfortably seated behind a book to spy on my fellow citizens.

Nevertheless, a few from the first roll, to be digested later.

[view on flickr]

Luckily, a friend’s birthday crept up on me and I now had the perfect excuse to get out the saw and get crafty. Being that I have little patience for following instructions, I didn’t dig up the old article and instead started in on my own safari adventure.

Read on to find out how you can get

from

Tools & Materials: a saw (see #2 below), hot glue gun (plug it in before you start and it just might be ready when you need it), magnets.
Time: 30-60 minutes.

1. Go shopping. Check out your local party store and stock up on cheap, plastic animals made in China.
   
2. Find a saw. Any will do. I’d wanted to try the Jig Saw but couldn’t find it and decided I probably shouldn’t play with power tools anyway, so grabbed a hand saw that could double as a cleaver. Saw your beloved toy in half.
   
3. Play Taxidermist. Chances are your toy will be hollow. Stuff it with something, preferably with fabric or paper. Definitely not something that will rot. Carefully place some hot-glue over the stuffing to seal the front/back half of your animal.
   
4. Insert Magnets. While the glue is still warm, place a magnet in each end, being careful so as to place them so that they will attract each other when you want to re-assemble your dear pet. I tried 2 different methods: (1) place magnet in so that the edge is flush with the glue or (2) submerge magnet in the glue and apply another clear layer of glue over the magnet. I tried the latter method as a reinforcement. Either appears to work fine.
   
5. Put a Photo in It. I created a little card for the special occasion, though I imagine you could print a photo with a cleverly placed face or body such that the animal adds to the scene. In my case, I started with a cougar joke until I realized I had a cheetah on my hands. (Thank goodness for Google Images.)
   
6. Give it Away. The end.

Here’s a few of my immediate faves from the first few “rolls” (digital snaps from a 4G memory stick + Nik’s Silver Efex Pro plug-in for Aperture): ones that are blurry, catch motion & cautionary glances from people looking more at my camera than I am at them.

[drive by shooting 2 :: more photos >>]

[view on flickr]