Entries tagged with “Photos” from ReadRaymond

This year we got inspired by the Swarovski Christmas tree in Zurich's main station and decided to gift ornaments. (Check out some links concerning the tree Photo, as well as a corporate video - which also explains the holiday lights, btw.)

We also decided not to "go all out" with the gift giving this year.  Not because we're cheep.  Just frugal (broke).  Actually, we did gift quite a bit this year to several charities, so we choose to keep with that theme and made donations to:  Toys-for-Tots, The Broward Outreach Center, Lighthouse Point Junior Baseball and the American Diabetes Association.  Merry Christmas!

While considering the year ahead, I played: What Are You Doing New Year's Eve from the album "When My Heart Finds Christmas" by Harry Connick, Jr.

OK,..so its not very interesting, but I was testing a couple of things.

I figured out that I was shooting images with my camera's setting set way too high - RAW.  The way I found out was that my hard drives were full, or close to it.  A quick scan and I found that a good 60% of the bulk came from enormous picture files.  OK, sure, RAW is cool.  And editing the RAW file is better than a converted JPEG, but my goodness they're hugh.  And for my purposes, impractical - especially when some of them only make it to 400 pixel wide posts on my website.  The one below made my think of a nice ham sandwich.

Its a bit of a stretch, but while writing this I played: Goodbye Pork Pie Hat from the album "Mingus" by Joni Mitchell.

Sybille and I enjoyed the very warm end-of-summer backyard gathering at the Bingi house.  Like normal, we had a good-old-fashioned, Zürich BBQ.  It was filled with over-cooked zucchini, perfectly prepared (traditional) salads, and happy moods.

Afterward, we took the train home to City Zürich and sat for a few minutes at the Central tram stop's local gathering spot, The Central Hotel - to catch a breath, to grab a last glass of wine, to reflect on a month in Europe, etc.  I will miss Zürich.

Once a woodworking shop a guy explained to me that there were two different kinds of woodworkers,..ones that "turned" wood into bowls and such and usually had round bellies, and ones that made tables, cabinets and similar items that required "flat" stock, and that they had more "flatish" stomachs.  "Humm", you might say.  But it generally fits the bill.  However, this post is about pictures.  And I have been thinking about the kind I take.

I'm a Macro Guy.  I have always been, and will probably always be.  Try as I might to take "wonderful" pictures of my friends, family and the places I visit, I suck.  They turn out looking like aliens at best.  But give me some time to look at things the way no one intended and I can produce some "magic" - or so I think.  Pleas tell me how you see it.

Thanks in advance.

Yesterday was the Forth of July but we weren't very patriotic until very late in the day.  It was raining and we had that "stay inside" feeling.  I worked on processing our wedding photos and Sybille worked on Thank You cards.  Later we watched a movie - "Click" - a cute little "remake" of Dickens' Christmas Carol.  I say that loosely, as it wasn't really a remake as much as it was a similar story line and an "and then I woke up" kind of ending.

I'm know I have said it before so maybe I have written it before, but I must say, I appall that kind of ending!  Maybe its because my 5th grade English teacher taught me to never abandon a fiction story with an "and then I woke up" ending.  She was right because that type of ending usually sucks.  However, I am amazed at the number of times it is used - especially in film.  Hollywood loves that ending.  "Oh, it was just a dream!", must be up there among moviegoer quips.

I wonder, have we learned to accept that kind of ending?  Have we become so frosted over that we require outlandishly written premises in order to entertain us - ones so extreme that the author has no choice but to offer an "and then I woke up" story line?  Don't get me wrong.  There are masterfully told stories with "and then" endings.  (I got tired of saying, "and then I woke up" so I have amended it to simply "and then".)  The Sixth Sense comes to mind as one of the best spins on this type of ending and Shyamalan deserves all the credit for approaching it so blatantly.  However, to Shayamalan's credit, he wrote the story from the "and then" ending as the premise.  That was the point.  That's why it worked.  It wasn't the other way around.  Dickens' tale was done that way too.  Which is why it made its way to a classic title, wherein "Click" probably wont.  But it was still fun and as it turned out, it was a 4th of July film.  We had no idea when we slipped it into the DVD player, but the story begins with a man who is torn between work and/or family during the 4th of July weekend.  By the time it was done, we felt much more patriotic than earlier.  And it had stopped raining as well.

So, we quickly jumped in the car and ran up to the store for supplies:  marshmallows, graham crackers and chocolate bars.  You guessed it.  We had S'mores - which was a first for Sybille.  She was under the impression that it was some kind of Independence Day treat.  I'm not sure where that misinformation came from, but as I hadn't had one in at least 15 years, I was game.  We made it back from the store just in time for the neighborhood fireworks to begin and we watched them while roasting marshmallows over the fire pit.

Sybille did me proud, quickly learning the art of roasting a marshmallow and how to blow them out when they catch fire.  She went on to perfect my recipe by using two big marshmallows her second time around.  They were great - the fireworks and the S'mores.

Above is a picture of the two flags which now fly over our backyard.  They are the wedding gifts of Janet and George.  Thanks to both of you.  We love 'em.

While writing this, I listened to: No Rain from the album "Blind Melon" by Blind Melon.

PS:  "Hi, Grandaddy.  I'm doing great!"

Its been raining quite a lot for am area in a drought.  We've been in Phase III of a water shortage and conservation program for months.  Which I actually think is a good thing, as even when the shortage is over (hopefully) we will have all learned a little bit about not being wasteful...but maybe my hopes are too high.

When it rained very hard the other day, it brought out all the little creatures.  Across the street I could see the birds all having lunch on the worms that get washed up.  But I thought the close up shot of this tiny, blue snail was more interesting.

While writing this I played: Summer Rain from the album "B-Sides 1990-2000" by U2.

Oh my!  What a disastrous choice Zurich made by getting rid of the old lights in exchange for the new ones that run along Bahnhofstrasse during the Christmas holidays.  You can see them in the photo here, or at WiFi-Art.com, where there's a great shot of them in the dead of night.  They are the white toothpick looking things lining the center of the street.  Apparently the old lights were too old and too expensive to maintain, so they gathered all the smart minds of the city to devise a fancy, new decoration for Zurich's main shopping district.  In a nod toward Swiss clocks, its supposed to be "The World's Largest Timepiece" - designed Fabio Gramazio and Matthias Kohler.  Well the people of the city hate it; and I can see why.  Its just plain ugly.  And the lights are too white.  It looks industrial, not festive.

There is still a section of Zurich where you can see the old-style lights - on Rennweg.  They look warm and inviting, so I understand why the new lights are the talk of the town.  Zurich is old, small and charming; and Bahnhofstrasse is like New York's Broadway.  But they ruined it with white test tubes.  However, from what I here, the talk is that the smart minds are being asked to reconvene early next year to "fix" the situation.  What I'd like to know is, "Was making a poor choice cheaper than keeping the old ones?"

Click on either of the two photos and tell me what you think.

While considering this, I played: City of Blinding Lights from the album "The Complete U2 - How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" by U2.

When chatting with friends and business colleagues, I was asked to put a face with the name. Well here you go.

With my new Wacom Tablet, now I can really use the brush tools in photoshop. And they act and look like real brush strokes, not mouse scrolls. I know it may be very basic stuff to those p-shop x-perts out there, but I'm quite happy. If you would like to see how I created the brushes, visit Adobe's tutorial section at studio.adobe.com. They've got it all - every "class" you will ever need to learn how to take full advantage of their software. After all, keep us using, keep us buying.

Thanks go to Hadi Mizban for the picture. Further thanks go to the AP for not spotting the error right away. Now the pic has been erased from the database but used to be here.

US Army soldiers take rest during patrol in Baghdad suburb, Monday Nov. 17, 2003. U.S. forces have reacted to the increasing attacks in which dozens of Americans and their allies have died by mounting a massive show of force in central and northern Iraq. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

More thanks to Steven for pointing it out to me.

This is the two little ones watching their favorite video, “The Cat Sitter”. They absolutely love it. But I think it makes ‘em sit a little too close to the television.

This is my stab at a sepia effect.

This is the little bug, close up. He really likes the camera.

This is the holiday picture that was inspired by TSS.

The "Antic" was this Sunday. And Magnetic Field had claim to the loudest band in Brooklyn. It was wicked cool & very loud!