Zombitoberfest

Zombitoberfest 2011 was a killer neighborhood festival held in my old stomping grounds of Audubon Park this past weekend. What a better way to kick-start October than by dressing up like a zombie and partying outdoors with some live bands, food trucks, etc? They even had zombie makeovers for the undead.

These are some of my favorite shots of the night. Remember, only 27 days left until Halloween!

Milk Study - Part 2

As I mentioned in my last post, Milk Study - Part 1, my friend Thomas combined his artistic talents and sense of humor as a way to ward off evil milk thieves from our office's community fridge. He's working on getting his Milk blog up, but in the meantime, here are some more images I took that really show the progression of his madness art.

Milk Study - Part 1

My friend Thomas is one of the funniest and most creative guys I know. He has one big problem though. People drink his milk without his permission. I realize that sounds strange, so here's some back story:

We work together in an office where we share a community fridge. Every week he brings his milk to work and stores it in the fridge so he can eat his cereal everyday, get his calcium, etc. But one day he started noticing his milk reserve was dwindling! And not from his own consumption! Someone... dun, dun, DUN!... had been drinking his milk!

So Thomas did what any crazy normal person would do. He started writing warning messages on his milk jug and I started photographing them to document his weirdness creativity. What started out as as idle, but bizarre messages to discourage milk thievery has turned into something much greater.  Every week I look forward to see what he'll come up with next. He's currently working on developing a blog devoted to this so he can share his insanity awesomeness with the world.

Dexter hits Barberville

While strolling around Barberville Roadside, I came upon this area near the back that housed a lot of sculptures wrapped in plastic. It was to protect them from the elements I'm sure, but it gave off a very 'Dexter' vibe.

Or maybe that's just the way I see things.

Is it Halloween yet?

 

 

 

 

 

Barberville Roadside

A couple of weekends ago we had a family reunion out in Astor, Fl. On the way to Astor, you pass Barberville Roadside. It's hard not to notice an 8 foot tall pink rooster, but it's really hard to describe what this place is. They have everything - giant cast aluminum animals, fountains, ceramic statues, miscellaneous yard art. It's the ultimate in roadside kitsch. And I happen to love that stuff.

When I was younger, on cross-country road trips with my parents, I always longed to stop at all those crazy roadside attractions (giant ball of twine, huge dinosaurs, ghost towns, etc.). Sometimes we did, sometimes we didn't. I'm sure my parents, like most people, realized that whatever awesomeness may be shown on those billboards that tease you for miles is never what you get when give into your pleading child in the backseat and pull over. It's inevitably a disappointment for most people. Usually some craptastic waste of time and money. But kids don't care. Probably because any kind of break from the monotony of being trapped in a car for hours is a welcome relief. I am still this way today. Maybe that's why I still feel that childlike impulse to explore anything uniquely odd or offbeat.

So if you're into that sort of thing, and you're ever out in rural Astor, give into that youthful impulse to stop the car and explore. Get your picture taken with a giant dinosaur or rooster or miniature statue of liberty. Just because you can.

 

 

 

Hipstamatic meets Monster Golf

This past weekend we decided to beat the summer heat by playing some indoor mini golf at Monster Mini Golf in Winter Garden. It is a monster-themed glow in the dark mini golf course and IT IS AWESOME. The decor, props, sounds - everything is perfectly themed. Makes me wish it were October already...

I shot all of these with the Hipstamatic app on my phone. If you have an iPhone, buy this app. Seriously. It's fun and addicting and you'll love the results.


All of these were taken with the same settings:
Watts lens
Kodot XGrizzled film
no flash

 Click to enlarge

What Lies Beyond

I have been wanting to do some more levitation photos but it's a million degrees outside now and will be for about the next three months. So when I finally get some free time to do a shoot, it's going to be an indoor event and will unfortunately be limited to my very small (yet air-conditioned) house.

I spent about an hour shooting for this one image and came away bruised and sweating. It's not easy floating in mid-air while holding your front door open in the summer, ya know.

Better 1? Better 2?

Here is an example of my tendency to over think when I manipulate images. Does anyone else do this? Most of the time, when I work on whatever post production I'm doing, I'll get it to a point I like and then walk away from it for a day. The next day I come back and either still like it or start going in a different direction. Usually, the final image is obvious because it stands out from the other. But sometimes, I find that I can't decide which I like more. That is what happened here. Both of the images below evoke a different feeling, but I'm somehow drawn to both. Which do you prefer and why?

Here's the original image I started working with. It's a shot I took of one of the models at the Beauty shoot during SNAP weekend. Does seeing it influence your decision? Maybe that's part of my indecision problem, cause I do look back to the original a lot.