Photos of the Memphis Zoo from me to you

I am fairly depressed about my life right now.
But I am not going to just complain.
I don't have anything poetic to write.
I missed a chance to get a 60D for a good price recently. :P I really need to start a photography business right away, but I don't really know how to go about doing it... I went to the Memphis Zoo recently; here are a couple of photos I took there.

An iPhone HDR image:

:  

 A long exposure shot taken with my DSLR (and my kit lens, which I haven't picked up in ages but it was the only lens I used at the zoo) set on my backback: 

So Many Colours Around My House

These were all shot around my house...

I shot this with my DSLR but further edited it (from the above image) with my iPhone.

This was shot with my iPhone and edited with my photos apps.

And just for fun: Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the "Suburbanator"!

A Suburban body on a huge chassis with monstrous tires and more...it's most definitely American: make it bigger, more powerful, faster and louder! a

Let It Snow

Today is/was my first day of snow here in TN - it's still snowing and the white blanket on the ground grows steadily thicker...
Cold, wet and windy does not a good combination make, but that's what it's like outside right now. Cold weather (sub-60-degree temperatures indoors) helps with sleeping well - provided you have warm blankets, but as you know, it makes getting out of bed in the morning exceedingly difficult. :P

My Thanksgiving was pretty good; some of my relatives from my mom's side of the family stayed for a few days and we had a nice time with them. How was your Thanksgiving?

I might post some recent photos when I have access to WiFi; I don't want to use up my data plan. :(

Paper Heart

The text formatting came out weird on the last post I tried to write poetry in, so click the image to see what else I wrote for this one...if you think it's worth reading; it's nothing special.

I just found out this afternoon that a girl I knew got killed by a train last night...while we weren't close friends (I'd only met her a few times and haven't talked to her in quite a while), it still makes me very sad to hear, especially since she was nice and I had talked with her. I've never had a friend die before - this is the closest to that happening I've experienced. But I know it doesn't really compare to losing a close friend, like many of you have; that would be very hard for me to go through.

The Ripple Effect

I took these with my iPhone when at Arkabutla Lake in MS. Did I post them already?

Waterfalls

I got back from the NCFIC Gospel-Centered Marriages for a Glorious Church Conference a few days ago and I enjoyedthe conference, but methinks that will take quite a while to relate. In the meantime, here are some photos I took of a waterfall at a park in Asheville, where the conference was held; sadly, nearly all the portraits I took there of my family turned out to be awful, but a few of my waterfall shots look all right, in my opinion, although they could probably look better with more editing (which I don't know how to do).
As for my spamming my posts with multiple versions/variations of the same photo, I often simply can't make up my mind as to which is the best, but if I get an opinion, I quite possibly might remove the others.

The Gospel-Centered Marriages for a Glorious Church Conference and other recent events

I figure I might as well start this post before it becomes too far in the past; I'll write more as I can.

Late last month, my family and I traveled to the Gospel-Centered Marriages for a Glorious Church Conference in Asheville, NC. It took around ten hours to get to the conference center, but we arrived without any major casualties.

[I just decided to majorly condense this since if I don't I doubt I'll ever finish it.]

There were lots of good talks at the conference, including a very powerful one given by Paul Washer, who always gives moving messages.

A Broken Heart

These fragile hearts So easily broken But so hard to mend Once wounded Will carry a scar Though the pain may fade The memory remains All along You had a porcelain heart The focus could be better (I need to try with a tripod instead of handheld so I can use a smaller aperture), the composition could use improvement (too close-up), and there are doubtless other things I should fix if I try to redo this shot later. I might have used an actual porcelain heart for this had I had one, but I might have to have it broken for the theme and I would really not want to do that. An expensive camera and lenses and mad editing skills (plus knowing more about and just being good at photography in general would be nice, but I don't have those, so those things are a few reasons why my photos aren't breathtaking...I just have to work with what I have now. Bleh, the text formatting is all messed up for some reason. Click on the photo to see how what the words are supposed to look like.

Two Swords

There are two kinds of warfare: physical and spiritual.
Make sure you have weapons for both.

 

I Am Here, I Am There, I Am Nowhere Worth Noting

I have nothing to write, nowhere to go, nothing to do...

Actually, that's not exactly true.

Where am I going, what am I doing, who am I being?

My dad bought a 2004 VW R32, so I can now try to sell my M3...back to a slow, cheap car for me now, 

it seems.

There's not much else worth telling at the moment.

One man's trash is another man's treasure; one person's pain is another's pleasure, some are poor but have wealth beyond measure...

Random, very random. And perhaps slightly bizarre. 

I'll try to write something more coherent - and something that might actually be worth reading - soon. 

A photo I took with my iPhone and edited with the Snapseed app:

Granted, this is a love song and as such doesn't have very deep lyrics, but I find it both very haunting and beautiful:

Reason Why, by Sleepthief

You might want to check out the rest of Sleepthief's music...I discovered it on Pandora and now really like some of it; perhaps you will too.

Foggy morning photos

I really should try to get back into writing and concept photography, even if my attempts at them aren't very good...but here's something in the meantime.

I often post multiple edits of an image, and while it's not preferable, many times I simply can't make up my mind as to which one I like best.

I like fog. Like lightning, certain clouds and cloud formations, stormy weather, etc., it makes for nice images (the mysterious, moody or magical feel fog gives...I love it), but unless you add it in Photoshop, you just have to wait and hope you'll get it.

Oh, one more thing.
I don't remember about the second photo with the sun through the trees, but the first of those two is SOOC, a rarity for me. It's far from spectacular, but I kind of like the fog and colors or something about it.

Nothing

Yes, I have nothing to write about, or at least not much worth writing about...
I'll probably sell my M3 soon since insurance for it is so expensive. I saw a B2 bomber for the first time last Saturday. I can't think of anything else except we visited a church last Sunday, but we won't be continuing to go there - it's back to Grace Bible Church in Coldwater, MS for the time being.
And now, here are some photos.

A New Ride

Last night my "new" car finally arrived; my aunt's old 1998 BMW E36 M3.
While it's not a color I'd have chosen, I'm not complaining. :) It's much nicer and faster than my old Nissan 240SX, and it has more levers for seat adjustment than I've seen on any car before. :)
I'm hoping I'll learn how to take better car photos soon, but here's one for now.
I know, the location and editing are far from spectacular; at least the clouds were semi-interesting...
My dad is actually going to be driving it for now, since I don't have a job at the moment, and we're waiting for our old house to sell. When it does, he wants to buy a 2004 VW R32 (which means my car might actually be faster, although since the R32 has a six-speed, it might be faster off the line. Using a drop-clutch launch or something.

In the City

Right now I am in Chicago at a Homewood Suites hotel (fast, free WiFi - yes! Broken laptop power supply - noooo!), and I'm writing on my iPhone yet again Although I've yet to visit anywhere downtown, I've seen the Sears Tower and walked around in a park/forest preserve where I got a few photos. That park had so many mosquitoes...in one part I had numerous attack me (including some who bit me through my shirt), and although I got a few, there were way too many to kill, so I departed rather quickly from that path.
Later, what looked like a mosquito landed on my arm, but if it was a skeeter, it was the biggest one I have ever seen: it was around an inch-and-a-half long and about the same in height. I didn't try to figure out if it really was a giant, mutant mosquito or just something harmless that looked like one; I brushed it off as quickly as possible. I daresay getting stuck by its nose (if that's what it was) would have been quite unpleasant.
Now that my cousin's boot camp is done (it happened yesterday), we've just been hanging out at the hotel...my siblings have been in the pool a lot (and I did last night as well - gasp!). Now we're about to get some famous Chicago deep dish pizza - hooray! By the way, what do you think of the new Blogger interface?
Unfortunately, I dropped my iPhone on a hard surface for the first time yesterday (I'd dropped it multiple times before, but not onto concrete), and it has a scratch/nick now. At least it still works fine, and the scuff isn't very big. I really need to get a case for it before I really damage my phone.

Off to Chicago

Yes, that's right; tomorrow we're heading to Chicago for a few days because of my cousin's boot camp graduation. I might do something worth writing about there or get some decent photos, but for now, here are some photos I've taken recently. I know, seeing multiple edits can be annoying, but any feedback as to which ones look the best would be greatly appreciated. If you want to see some images created by someone who really has amazing photography/editing skills, you should take a look at Lula's blog and Flickr photostream. I actually took the first photo below for the current photo contest for her Flickr group, which I'm a part of - the current theme is "goodbye." I think I will mention various photographers I admire from time to time so you can take a look and possibly be impressed. With that being said, you should definitely check out Rob Woodcox's work; he's says his style is surreal conceptual portraiture, and his images are amazing. I'll probably mention some other photographers I really like in my next post.

Click this image to see it on Flickr, where I tell more about the meaning behind it.

Although automotive photography isn't my favorite "genre", I still photograph cars from time to time. We passed by a car show the other day, and here are some photos I got there.

Sorry for posting so many images at one time...but I thought perhaps someone might give their opinion on which they think are the best and why.