The Machinery of Night

Friday, June 19, 2009

Posted 2:04 PM by Angie Schultz

Movin' On Up

Movin' on up
to the East Side
to a dee-luxe apartment
in the sky-yyy

That'd be me. I am indeed moving up, to the East side, to a deluxe apartment in the sky -- so deluxe it's not an apartment but a house. For the first time in nineteen years, I will not have to share walls with another person. It's out in the country. It's cool and quiet. It's closer to work. And it's got a view you won't believe.

Until then Foto Friday will be on hiatus, because I'm packing.

Saturday, June 06, 2009

Posted 3:47 AM by Angie Schultz

Celebrity Non-Sighting: Lindsay Lohan

There were no celebrities sighted this week at the fashionable watering hole I frequent (the local Safeway). However, the young man who is my informant tells me that he was driving right behind Lindsay Lohan the other day.

Me: Was she sober?
Him: Don't know. She had on sunglasses.

She was driving a rented Mustang, he said.

Frankly, I couldn't pick Lohan out of a line-up if the other participants were Rosie O'Donnell, Mr. T, and Dick Cheney, so I don't know how he knew it was her behind those sunglasses. Still, I report, you decide.

Labels: Too Much Time on My Hands

Friday, June 05, 2009

Posted 10:34 PM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: Rainbow Road Warrior

I got some 17mm rainbows still in the can(ister), but here's what we have today:

Rainbow over Haleakala Hwy
Pukalani, Maui, Sep. 2008

And it's a double, too!

You see that a lot here -- rainbows that you could almost reach out and touch. This one seemed to end just on the side of the road. We didn't have time to dig for gold.

This was taken through the window of a moving car, so you see motion blur on the right. The darkness outside the window is probably due mostly to polarization from the windshield.

No, I was not driving.

Last week's Foto Friday was canceled due to laziness.

Labels: Foto Friday, Hawaii

Friday, May 22, 2009

Posted 4:57 PM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: Clouds

And now for a little something abstract:

Sunset clouds
May 2009

This was taken with the 17mm lens, pretty much directly overhead. I would have liked to get the horizon -- or better yet, the mountains -- in the shot, but you take what you get.

The Foto Fridays have been late because I'm usually too lazy to hook up the big monitor so I can edit the pictures for color. One of these days I'll have a desk -- rather than a card table which was supposed to be a kitchen table but is being used as a desk -- and the big monitor can stay up permanently.

Labels: Foto Friday, Hawaii

Friday, May 15, 2009

Posted 6:51 PM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: Memorial

Vancouver Memorial
Kihei, Maui, Nov. 2008

Hmm, I suppose this should have gone next week, but I didn't think of it until it was too late. Oh well.

This is a memorial to George Vancouver, who visited Maui in the years 1792-1794. Why this rather handmade memorial was put up in (I believe) 1960, I don't know. The roundish thing in the center is a beehive-shaped plinth made of concrete and dark rocks, with a memorial inscription inscribed in the wet concrete with a finger, or possibly a stick. I keep meaning to write it down, but it's hard to read in some places. To either side of it are totem poles. They make a nice silhouette agains the sunset.

Here you can find a picture of one of the poles in broad daylight (scroll down a bit). I can never haul myself out of bed early enough to get morning shots.

Labels: Foto Friday, Hawaii

Friday, May 08, 2009

Posted 10:33 PM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: Shadowplay

Sunset from N. Kihei, Maui, Nov. 2008

The only really interesting thing about this picture are the "feathers" at the bottom. That's the shadow of the spray as the little wave breaks against the beach. I was surprised I was able to capture that -- especially during what must have been a fairly long exposure, 1/30 second or so -- but I've seen it in a couple of images since, so maybe it's not that hard. Or maybe 1/30 of a second is not that long.

The other day I went out to Ho'okipa where the weather was beautiful and there were many surfers. I took some pictures through the telephoto lens, though it will be a while before I have them processed (I'm trying to cut back on my film habit). I was able to use 1/1000 second on many of them, but I figure there will still be motion blur. I was taking pictures of surfers doing that thing at the top of the wave where they fishtail the board and the spray goes flying in an artistic fashion. And each time I found myself trying to "help" the surfer to reach the top by pushing him with my camera. I suspect that doesn't work.

Labels: Foto Friday, Hawaii

Posted 7:00 PM by Angie Schultz

OMG! Celebrity Near-Sighting!

NEWS FLASH: Chris Noth was seen in my local Safeway today. I didn't see him, but the teenage checker told me about it. The lady bagging the groceries told me Brad Pitt had been in once, but I don't know how long ago that was.

If I had seen Noth, I bet I wouldn't have known him from Adam, but he'd be one of those people standing in the middle of ice cream aisle, blocking all progress while deciding between Cherry Garcia and Chunky Monkey. Damn Safeway's full of 'em.

I have no information on Noth's actual purchases. Forgot to ask. I told the checker that I preferred Jerry Orbach to Noth. Now that's how you know you're getting old, ladies.

Friday, May 01, 2009

Posted 3:51 PM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: Do You Canoe?

I realized too late that this is a really lousy scan. I needed the film in a hurry so I took it too the drug store, where they scan it at about half the resolution they ought to. But I didn't have time to dig out a new picture.

Canoes on Maui, Mar, 2009

These canoes belong to the Maui Canoe Club. They look so dashing drawn up onto the beach that everytime I go by I think, I should get a picture of that. So when I got my new lens (this is taken with the 17mm lens) I made sure to get shots of them. I don't think they turned out well; I didn't capture the dashing. (I was testing out the lens, and was in a hurry.)

What you might not be able to see from the lousy scan is that the outriggers have little eagle heads on them. For cute! Er, I mean, dashing.

(You note the darkness at the right-hand corners? That's vignetting from -- I hope -- the polarizer. The lens is so wide that it sees the edges of the polarizer! I have to get a special slim polarizer for it, which cost a bundle. Sigh. More toys! Handy hint: pick a hobby where you never run out of things to buy. It's more fun that way.)

Labels: Foto Friday, Hawaii

Friday, April 24, 2009

Posted 10:01 PM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: Sandset

I so totally did not forget to post a foto this week; that was your imagination.

Sunset at Mai Poina Oe Iau Beach, Maui
Nov, 2008

That defocus in the clouds is your imagination, too.

I love the colors reflected in the sand. I keep trying to repeat that, and failing. It looks good to my eye, but the camera doesn't capture it.

This sunset is the same as this one.

Labels: Foto Friday, Hawaii

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Posted 5:41 PM by Angie Schultz

Our Sophisticated European Brethren

The fellows at David's Medienkritik don't post very often these days, more's the pity, so I only drop in every once in a while. That's why I'm over a month late in noticing this: Obama-Fingers! Yes, delicious frozen fried chicken fingers, "mit Curry Dip". Complete with American flag and the Golden Gate Bridge looming mysteriously in the background.

It would be unfair to expect the Germans to be aware of our every cultural taboo (hell, I don't know them all). But tough: raaacists!

More cheerful is this ad for a Russian ice cream. Looks like they hired a Japanese artist, what with the shiny happy anime character. Babelfish says that the ad copy translates to "in all on the mouths dark in the white to go out of mind give". I think they're calling him a coconut. Remember that, Obama.

Took me a heck of a long time to get Babelfish to cough up a translation making even that much sense. Turns out those things that look like lower-case m's are actually lower-case t's. Them Russians is sneaky.

I'll try to have a better translation for you later in the week.

UPDATE: I have it on good authority that the translation reads:

"Everyone says: Dark in the white gives (and here the translation breaks down somewhat) coolness."

Of course, there's also the possibility that it says:

"Everyone says: Dark in the white is one crazy giver, man! So get your hands out now!"

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