Artificial Intelligence
I started to throw out a cup of coffee a repairman left in one of the offices he was working in, but when I took the lid off and saw it was developing a brain, I couldn't throw out a perfectly good brain culture, so I kept the smart coffee to use for experiments with artificial intelligence. So far, when I ask it a question like you would SIRI or an Echo, no matter what the question is, it only gives one answer: "One cup at a time!" It may not be the right answer, but it's kind of inspiring, so I pour myself another cup of coffee, and get back to work.
T.Dashfield en El Camino de los Caminos
It's a bird! It's a plane! No it's...
Blogging buddy, photographer, and all around cool person Teri Dashfield of Images by T.Dashfield (https://imagesbytdashfield.wordpress.com) is in town for the balloon fiesta. She dropped by the office and we wandered around downtown along Old Route 66 this afternoon.
...udderly ridiculous
Smirking with Bronti on Route 66
Getting her kicks on Route 66
Behind Route 66
2016 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta From The Field
The crowd was already thick by 5:30 am as I made my way over to the media tent.
Crowd waiting for the glow to start are lit up by a truck trying to make it's way through the crowd.
The balloon glow.
The dawn patrol.
All the balloons from the glow up in the air.
There were lots of people with selfie sticks.
Balloons firing up to launch among the crowd.
Balloons inflating.
The balloons are as packed in as the people.
I'm not sure what the guy on the right is doing.
The referees making space for the balloon to launch.
The sunrise.
Special shapes started inflating later than most of the other balloons.
This young woman said "Wait! I want to show you something" and proceeded to lift her shirt. She was proud to be silicone free.
She was also proud to be a crew member for TTT. They had a pink balloon.
Lots of balloons in the air and lots of balloons inflating on the ground.
Smiley Face makes up the top of the balloon.
A view inside the Smiley balloon.
This shot gives you an idea of the sea of people on the field.
The crown was thick in places along the vendor strip I couldn't get through and had to go into the launch field to make my way around.
Black Moon: Another End Of The World Has Come And Gone
The Black Moon rising between the clouds, marking yet another "end of the world". Of course, we can't see the dark side of the moon.
Spunk, Rosencrantz and the sheep waiting for the world to end.
Osric was all shook up over the thought of the world ending again. His world ended when Sayre brought home a new puppy, so he's been hanging out at our house.
As part of the pre-Balloon Fiesta activities, balloonists celebrated the end of the world by launching from 50 school sites around the city.
New Mexico Zia between the cottonwoods
Old Film and a Macro Lens
"Develop before 10/2004" is printed on the box of Kodak Max 400 film I used to create these images. There is probably a post processing effect to get the grainy, slightly foggy look in these photos if I had made them with a digital camera, but all I did was use old, outdated film in a 35mm camera with a macro lens.
Black Cats & Photo Mags
I found four photo mags at Barnes & Nobles that looked worthy — a French magazine called Photo, Black+White Photography from the UK, Black & White and Shutterbug. Rosencrantz and Lola approved of my selection of photo mags. The four coasters on the wall are a fun processing of Spunk by Susan Graham from photos she did with her iPhone when Spunk was on her lap. We really liked the images, but since she used her iPhone, the files were not big enough to make quality larger prints, but they were perfect for coasters.
We don't sell no stinking photo magazines
While I was waiting to see the doctor last week, someone had left a Popular Photography magazine in the mix of the usual People, Good Housekeeping, New Yorker, and various medical pamphlets. I picked up the Popular Photography, flipped through it, and read a couple of short reviews before I was called into to see the doctor. I had a gift subscription to Outdoor Photographer a few years ago, but other than that I hadn't read photo magazines in years. Flipping through Popular Photography at the doctor's office reminded me of how many years ago I used to get various photo magazines like Shutter Bug, Aperture, and various other photo rags, and I started thinking that I should subscribe to a photo magazine again.
When I was at the store today, I walked past the magazine rack, and suddenly remembered that I wanted to get a photo magazine. I stopped dead in my tracks, put my shopping cart in reverse, backed up to the magazine display, and started looking through all the magazines for a Shutter Bug, Popular Photography or anything with "Photography" in the title; but much to my dismay, there were no photography magazines in the rack. I looked on the end displays, in the book rack, around the instore-photo lab — NOTHING — Not a photo rag to be seen. So I ended up wasting a lot of time looking for something that I would think they would carry along with rags like UTV Action, Sedona Monthly, Catster, Cowboy, Cowgirl, Golf, Sports Fantasy, etc. The least the store could do would be to put up a sign that reads "We don't sell no stinking photo magazines!" so photographers don't have to bother to look through the magazine rack for magazines that are not there.
A Nice Pair Of Hooters
This pair of Great Horned owls have been serenading us every night for the past several weeks. I was out just before sunrise this morning and they were still hooting up a storm. I followed the hoots and finally found them high in a cottonwood. At first they were perched apart from one another, but as I photographed them the larger owl on the right moved closer to the smaller owl on the left. The larger owl (likely a female) was much more curious about me photographing them and looked at me when I talked to them. The smaller owl ignored me for the most part.
