Warm Beverage, Anyone?

Not having much of a chance to leave my apartment today, I had to find something indoors to help me get my daily photo.  Not being in the States, where I am surrounded by a lot of (interesting and more photogenic) crap, I am limited to the things I brought with me or purchased here.  Which really isn't much.

Luckily my wife is constantly drinking tea...and leaving her teacups where I stumble upon them and realize they are as good a subject as any.  Especially when you are going for an overexposed and washed out look (things with smooth surfaces are better for this (or so it seems)).

And Finally...Today's Photo

I have a broken bicycle in my shed.  It is beyond repair.  Instead of tossing it, I decided to harvest certain parts for a new photo project.  The project is called "Deconstructing a Bicycle." It is basically what it sounds like...I will be taking photos of pieces of the bicycle as I take it apart.

Bicycle Chain

The first part I removed was the chain.  I don't know if I will use the isolation style for all the photos, but it worked well for this one...so we shall see.

Ode to Scruggs

Today's photo is a banjo.  The accordion from the other day got me into the instrument photography mood.  Nothing special today, just an isolation with some color alterations.  Enjoy.

Ode to Scruggs

 Earl Scruggs is known for a certain three finger picking style.  I don't know how he would feel about this modern-ish looking banjo, what with his back country, blue grass background.

For Eugene

I've been listening to a lot of Gogol Bordello as of late.  They are a fantastic gypsy punk band, and I would recommend them to anyone.  Even those that are fans of neither gypsy nor punk music.  They create such a unique sound that I feel it is impossible to categorize them and thus, really feel that they deserve a listening to by everyone and anyone before judgments are made.
I figured that with listening to so much of them lately, I should do a picture in honor of them.  I have an old accordion laying around and, well, there are few better things to photograph while listening to the wheezing sounds of an actual one.  The beautiful wheezing sounds, mind you.

Accordion Isolation

I've done detail shots of this accordion before, but felt that this time, the whole thing needed to be in the image.  I love the way the slightly open and curved chambers blend and disappear into the black background.

For Friday, the 8th of April

I was horrified on Friday.  We went camping and I didn't have much time to take my daily picture what with getting there late in the evening and getting everything set up.  When I finally had a minute to put towards it, I took an easy route.  We weren't really camping...my family had all got a trailer in the middle of the woods...and there was a basket of fake flowers in one of the rooms.  I decided that I'd try a simple isolation shot of some of the flowers.  I aimed, focused, and clicked.  The camera fired away, and then a big "NO CARD" message showed up!  Argh! I forgot my memory card at home.  I got pretty annoyed because I knew there would be many good photo opportunities on Saturday, and now I'd have to run back home in the morning to get my cards.  Next morning I woke up and laughed at myself.  Even though the memory card was at home, I had my whole camera bag with me and had about another 30 gigs of cards in the bag.  ugh.  So I grabbed one, loaded it and shot Friday's photo just as I would have on Friday.

Isolated Flowers

I wanted a very minimalist approach to this isolated shot.  The black and white definitely helps with that, it also makes these fake flowers look a little better.  A little.