Sometimes its just Fail, all the way around~

So, long time no see, again. Yes, yes, I know. I fail at this writing thing. It’s not so much the writing as it is the keeping to a posting schedule instead of visiting wordpress and getting lost in other blogs. It’s the same thing on Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram and FB for me. No it’s not ADHD…. it’s more like easily distracted, believe me I am not hyper about anything… well except chocolate and new camera gear, and maybe cute puppies.

Anyway to the good stuff! On the list are two new photo sharing apps.

One is very specific and unfortunately for me doesn’t have an android app yet. Just a mobile website, which is fine, just lacks some of what you would expect. But it is a relatively new app. Know as Pack, it is a photo app for dogs! Only dogs. I mean you could take a selfie, as long as it is with your dog. Visit the website or check out the app for ios here. It is a great way to share the love of your best friend and not feel guilty about spamming your social networks with photos of your dog. If there was an app for android I would use it more as the mobile website doesn’t quite offer everything I like in a photo app yet.

On to my second, and I dare-say my Instagram replacement! Not that I really even use Instagram much, it is way, way to messy. EyeEm is my newest photo sharing app obsession! Oddly enough you can also connect it to your Instagram. You can also connect it to your Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, Foursquare, and Facebook. I am still waiting for a G+ hookup, please please please give me a G+ hookup! EyeEm offers a nice selection of filters and all those other things you like about a photo sharing app but it does offer more, a lot more. First there are missions, much like how Foap had events you can join and win money or prizes so does EyeEm, however, I don’t need to take a picture of my passport or drivers license to compete. Secondly unlike other photo sharing apps like Instagram where the plethora of tags is staggering, I am limited to 4 tags. It is amazing!  The limit of 4 tags helps a lot, and cuts down on the messiness. When I search for #Cute dog, I just get cute dogs, not random selfies tagged with cute dog. EyeEm also has two great features that deal with geo-location.  The first is if you photo has geo-location information you can tag businesses, locations, etc directly, much how foursquare used to work. The second geo-location feature is like something from 500px but much better. Photos tagged with a geo-location close to where you are with your phone now show up. A great little feature called “Photos around you” will bring up any photos tagged with geo-location in the area you are currently in. It’s great for last min photo ideas, photo walks, and inspiration in a neighborhood you may no longer see anything new in. So if you have the desire to leave the little square box behind check out EyeEm.

In photo trip news August should be a decent month. I plan on going to Yoro Park in Gifu and hopefully climbing Mt. Fuji this vacation! It will destroy a pair of shoes though… it did last time. So I will need to get a new pair. I am in need of a new pair of Vibrams anyway 😉 September is looking pretty bland but I am saving for the Kouyou season so I can hit Kyoto, Wakayama and Nagano this year! I am taking part in Color Me Rad in Tokyo on the 23rd of September but I have been reading the horror stories of the cornstarch in the lens! So now I am seeing what I can do to protect my camera and if it is worth the risk…. One can hope! It looks like it may involve a lot of plastic wrap, plastic bags and maybe some duck tape to keep it all sealed up tight.

I did make it to the last day of the World Cosplay Summit which will be up in a post hopefully next week! So keep an eye out for those photos!  It was amazing! I just wish I had taken the days off in advance and gone to the whole thing! Next year that is the plan! I also became an official contributor to Yokoso News! Check it it here!! Get your Japan fix from the Chubu area!

 

 

 

 

Watch “The death of Mr. Al Gator” on YouTube

Koyo being cute. I’m kinda falling in love with the new auto awesome movie feature of google~

Windmills~

Sometimes it’s easy to forget where you are. It’s easy to forget what you set out to do. Instead taking a tilt at the windmills you become lulled by the motion, it soothes you inexplicably. I fear recently that this has happened me. In my photography and life in general. It’s easy to say I’m good enough or that it whatever it may be is good enough for me, I can produce decent work, I know the basics and the rules and I seem to no longer challenge them. I used to laugh in the face of challenges! Now I cringe and spend more time and energy thinking how to avoid them. I’ve realized I do this more and more.

This really hit home for me when I took a trip to the Nagoya aquarium with a friend. I had to look at my controls! As in physically remove the camera from my face and look at the controls! And the light, ahhh the light! I read it wrong! Some of my pictures turned out decent and yes by decent I do mean workable and just toeing that line of “looks good”. Examples below. But more than half of the pictures I came home with were to be honest… Crap. With that capital C, as in no amount of Photoshop or Lightroom will save you!

I’m so lucky I don’t shoot film. I will also save your eyes from the horror that occurred and not post any of those instead a few more decent ones. So the goals for this year have a new sub-article? Yes again! I plan to see this one as a lifestyle change not just a photography one. I think they go hand in hand in my case so I expect that as one changes so will the other. At least that is the logic I’m applying to this constant problem.

Some of my new year’s resolutions have fallen under the lull of the windmills. I don’t need to go for that run or I can have an extra bottle of soda because well I look good enough, I don’t NEED to run…… See where this is going? So hopefully with this new point added I can focus on doing stuff. And doing stuff better ^_^ at least that is the goal. I’ve even downloaded the couch to 5k app and will be starting that Monday. I plan on bringing bigger and better and also more frequent photos to the table. But, gotta walk before you can run I guess. As to that I’m am going to need a lot of practice before sakura season starts so I’m going to see if I can rope someone into being my shadow model. I hate taking photos of people but I’m curious if I can do a shadow series where all they are are shadows/silhouettes. Stay tuned to see if I can convince anyone to do so. In the meantime I convinced Koyo to model a little bit. She was too sleepy to object.

Unfortunately she awoke with the first actuation. So only one of her really sleeping~

Other than that I am off to Kurokabe Square on Sunday and going to attempt blowing my own glassware. I’m going with a friend so hopefully she will allow me to take pictures of her but we shall see. I plan to get more of Koyo as she is my constant companion and therefore makes a great model~ We had snow on the 14th which was really nice. I was actually able to make a snowman! He lasted a total of maybe 5 hours though all said and done. However, Koyo was able to play a bit in the snow so I got a few good ones of her out running around.