Saturday, October 08, 2011

EMPS: A House Full of Faces

The topic for this week's Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot was Faces, with extra credit given for a montage of faces. Let's start with that. I was surprised, once I got started, just how many human faces one can photograph here at the Museum of the Weird without photographing even one real person!



The top row here is all Disney characters, including an original sketch by legendary Disney artist Marc Davis. Dopey is from the cover of a vintage Disney book called Fantasyland. Quasimodo is a plush toy. Esmerelda, Mulan and Li Shang are all from Mattel, with Mulan and Li Shang packaged together.

The second row features miscellaneous dolls. I have two Chatty Baby dolls because I couldn't remember what color hair my original one had. So I bought one of each. Spunky is a friend of Jan, the Remco Japanese character doll I had as a kid, herself a friend of Heidi, who was probably meant to be Swiss. The best troll dolls from the 1960s were the "DAM" dolls, but Wishniks were the next most popular, and are still being made I think.

On the bottom row are some of my vintage Barbie dolls. The first doll from the Barbie line of products I ever had was Tutti, followed by a straight-legged bubble-cut Barbie I got in trade from my friend Cindy. My favorites at the time were the only other two I got as a child, Casey (left) and Talking Stacey (right). I never had a Skipper, a Midge or a Ken growing up, but they're iconic, aren't they? I got those three over the past 15 years or so, and the ponytail Barbie shown here at a toy show just a few years ago.



Now let's leave the house and check out a much larger character with a face. This giant lumberjack is known locally is Glenn Stone, or even "Glenn Stone, the axe murderer." He stands at the corner of Glenn St. and Stone Ave., and why not! There's also an intersection of Glenn and Campbell nearby! Rumor has it that new beat cops in Tucson are sometimes sent to this intersection to check out a police report of a "large man with an axe." Roadside America calls all such giant figures "Muffler Men" because historically many of them held mufflers instead of axes.

Our Glenn recently got a nice, badly-needed paint job, apparently courtesy of the Coronado Heights Neighborhood Association, judging from his shirt. He's all shiny now.

Karen

Round Robin: The Blochers Relax

This week's Round Robin Photo Challenge is Relax! That's quite an individual thing, isn't it? I mean, I find formatting spreadsheets relaxing, but that's probably not very common. John's favorite way to relax is downloading old, obscure comics, or playing with his iPad. But I also have one slightly more photogenic way to relax:



This is Mount Lemmon Highway, of course, also known as Catalina Highway or Sky Island Parkway. My favorite way to relax is to drive up this narrow, twisting road, and take in the wonderful, familiar views along the way.



Paradoxically, part of the "relaxation" I get from the 30 mile drive up or down Mount Lemmon (not that I usually get that far up) is the challenge of negotiating all those curves, inclines and switchbacks, sometimes with rain or snow on the road, sometimes with darkness coming on, and almost always with other cars in front and behind that want to go faster or slower than I do. Can something be exciting and relaxing at the same time? Yes!

The dogs, on the other hand, have much simpler requirements for relaxing:



Cayenne generally prefers the couch, and doesn't care if the cover is half off it. In fact, she often pulls the couch cover down as she digs herself a nest on the couch. And she doesn't care if there are a few boxes strewn about as we get ready to bring in an exterminator. (Long story, and I'm not prepared to tell it now.)



Pepper likes the couch, too, and the bed even better if we're in there. But she sometimes prefers the unconfined freedom of the floor of the den.

Karen

Now let's check out the other Robins' relaxing photos!

Linking List
as of 12:12 AM MST, Saturday October 8th

Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com

Jama
Sweet Memories
http://mummyjam.blogspot.com

Freda
Day One
http://fredamans.blogspot.com

Rachael
The Smile Spot :)
http://smile-spot.blogspot.com/
Healthy, Sexy, You.
http://healthysexyyou.blogspot.com/

Chris
CJPhotography Blog
http://theotokos.christopherjosephphotography.com/

Sherrie
Food for Thought
http://100sweets.blogspot.com/

Gattina - Posted!
Keyhole Pictures
http://gattina-keyholepictures.blogspot.com/

May Rodrigo **Welcome, new participant!**
May Rodrigo
http://www.mayrodrigo.com

Jeanette
Net On The Net
http://netonthenet.blogspot.com

Kim, USA
A wifey blog
http://awifey.blogspot.com

Tina - - Posted!
Tina´s PicStory (Goodies for a Pleasant Life)
http://tinaspicstory.blogspot.com/

Sunday, October 02, 2011

EMPS: Puppy (and Kitty) Love

This week's Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot topic was "Pick an Emotion," and I was almost certain I'd be photographing doggie emotions, mostly because I'm shy about asking people to let me photograph them. But today was the Blessing of the Animals at St. Michael's, and the emotions most on display were on the faces of the pet owners. Check it out!









The emotion is obvious, isn't it? It's love, the love of a human for a pet. Yes, it's mixed with other emotions, mostly pride and joy. But most of what I saw today, despite the dark church and my shaky camera technique while holding two leashes and looking at a dead battery warning light, was clearly Love.

Oh, and the cat photos were taken just before my dogs started barking at them...!



One last shot, and it represents the photo I didn't get. During the Eucharistic Prayer. John (the teenager walking in front here) was kneeling before the altar, and lifting the candle (torch, in ecclesiastic parlance) at specific moments in the ritual. The crucifer (the person who holds the cross on a pole) held the leash meanwhile, but the dachshund was able to reach John's feet, and at one point climbed onto John's calves. Eventually John completed his torch raising duties with one hand while scratching his dog with the other. The calf jump was the cutest thing I've ever seen at church, but I could never have gotten a decent photo from my vantage point, a good twenty feet away! So instead here's a photo of the walk back to the sacristy after Mass was over.

Karen

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Round Robin: My Favorite Obsession

Listen, for the Round Robin Challenge: My Favorite, I really did try to come up with a different favorite subject from the one I'm going to feature here tonight. Favorite toy? Nah, already showed you. Favorite vista on Mount Lemmon? Didn't make it up there. Favorite book? Variable, and not very interesting to photograph. And so on. Nothing really did it for me, and I was running out of time.

So I'm going to show you parts of my Doctor Who collection, from my all-time favorite television show. Doctor Who. It first aired in the UK on November 23, 1963 and lasted until December 1989, was revived in 2005 and is again going strong on both sides of the Atlantic, in something like 40 countries around the world.

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At first, I thought I wouldn't have anything interesting to show you. I don't really buy much by way of Doctor Who toys and collectibles. I own a few hundred books and nearly as many videos, but how photogenic is that? So I set up some of the box sets on a shelf, along with a few other things I do have. Clockwise from left, you can see  a heavily-autographed copy of The Doctor Who Encyclopedia, box sets of Series One through Five (2005-2010) on DVD or Blu-Ray, a fan novella called Paradox that I wrote in the early 1990s, the last Target novel I needed to complete my collection of novelizations circa 2000, a TARDIS bank (that's the blue thing, representing the faux "police box" the Doctor travels in), a sonic screwdriver, the new issue of Doctor Who Magazine, a cartoon sketch of the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant), and a disappearing TARDIS mug.

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Here's a better look at the sketch and the autographed book. The latter has been to two Gallifrey One conventions in Los Angeles, and has been autographed by numerous writers, actors and behind the scenes people.

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The more I worked on this entry tonight, the more I remembered other things I could show you. I'll spare you the photos of the TARDIS towel, trading cards, TARDIS Time Lore fanzines and the FoDW keyring, but what about this? This original art by Ruben Calvillo is about 24" x 36", and made with either colored pencil or pastels. It cost me $100 at a local convention circa 1996.

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This poster was on the back of my office door here at home for about 16 years. Until tonight. It's from a 1991-1995 Doctor Who exhibit of props and costumes (etc.) at the Museum of the Moving Image in London. The exhibit was called called "Behind the Sofa," which is where British children are said to hide when Doctor Who episodes get scary.

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And finally, here's an autographed photo of the late Patrick Troughton, the second person to play the Doctor on television. Unfortunately, I never met him myself. I have met four of his successors, though.

You can find more photos here. And if you're interested in Doctor Who, you may want to follow my new Tumblr blog.

Now let's see what other Robins singled out as favorites!

Linking List
as of 12:32 PM MST Saturday

Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com

Jama - Posted!
Sweet Memories
http://mummyjam.blogspot.com

Freda - Posted!
Day One
http://fredamans.blogspot.com

Sherrie - Posted!
Food for Thought(new blog)
http://100sweets.blogspot.com/

Chris
CJP Blog
http://theotokos.christopherjosephphotography.com/

Tina - Posted!
Leckeres für Mensch und Katze - Goodies for a pleasant life
http://leckeresfuermenschundkatze.blogspot.com/2011/09/wonderful-moments.html

Karen

Monday, September 12, 2011

EMPS: The Mermaids of Disneyland

Carly asked to see sand sculptures or mermaids, neither of which are a natural fit for life in the desert. So I went to my archives:



First off, here's Ariel, the Little Mermaid herself, photographed at Disneyland on Christmas Day 2005. There's a better than 50-50 chance that John took the photo, but I did the editing, including the framing.



More recent, but definitely my work, is this shot of the ceiling at my local Chuy's Mesquite Broiler, taken a month ago.



Finally, here's a playful composite I made from about five different photos. The scene is the submarine lagoon at Disneyland, now home to the Finding Nemo attraction. There are mermaids on the ride itself, but I got no photos of those. These are, or course, the mermaid Barbie dolls from the ceiling of Chuy's! The two subs are both from other photos taken the same day as the lagoon itself.

Incidentally, back when the original Submarine Voyage attraction first opened, there were live "mermaids" in that lagoon!

Carly also asks whether I'd rather have sand of grass between my toes. Neither would be best, but failing that I'll go for some nice, clean, dry sand. I'm allergic to grass!

Karen

Sunday, September 11, 2011

EMPS: In Living Black and White

For the Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot: Black and White Photography isn't exactly what I posted Friday night, but it's a similar concept! Here are some fresh shots:







And, in my best attempt at Ansel Adamsness, at least for the moment, here's a black and white treatment of a shot from a month ago:



Karen

Friday, September 09, 2011

Round Robin: Did I Cause This "Shades of Grey" Day?

It's the tail end of the Arizona monsoon, Tucson's summer rainy season. I hate to complain about too little rain when elsewhere in the country houses and bridges have washed away from too much of it; but the fact is that we didn't get much rain over our house this summer. There's been a bit of thunder and the occasional ten minute storm, but not much more than that. And now we're at the time of the year for even that to end.

Nevertheless, inspired by a cloudy sky, I set this week's Round Robin Photo Challenges topic as "Shades of Grey." Frankly, after that, including this morning, the weather around here started to clear up. Then, around 5 PM, which is usually when our storms start, if at all, I heard thunder. It was as if the sky was offering to help me with the grayish shots I needed. A little later, after it actually started raining, I got the following photos:



There's just a touch of sunset here, but mostly it was all just grey and dramatic.



One thing I like about this photos is that it's 100% in shades of grey, even the tree and the bit of roof. Yet it's a color photo, completely unedited except to resize and sharpen.



Just a bit of a skyscape, this one, again unedited except to resize and sharpen.



I did reduce this one to grayscale, but you're not missing much.

Now let's see what shades of gray the other Robins captured!


Linking List
as of almost 10:45 AM MST
Saturday, September 10th

Jama - Posted!
Sweet Memories
http://mummyjam.blogspot.com

Freda - Posted!
Day One
http://fredasvoice.blogspot.com

Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com

Robin R Robinson  **Welcome, new Robin!**
The Back Story - My Controlled Chaos
http://robins-chaos.blogspot.com

Rachael - Posted!
The Smile Spot :)
http://smile-spot.blogspot.com/

Kim - Posted!
My Pride and Joy
http://niecesandnephew.blogspot.com

Peg - Posted!
Who Can Discover It?
http://whocandiscoverit.blogspot.com/

Gattina - Posted!
Keyhole Pictures
http://gattina-keyholepictures.blogspot.com/

Tina - Posted!
Goodies for a Pleasant Life
http://leckeresfuermenschundkatze.blogspot.com/

Karen