The Tracks

On my way home from class today I decided to take a trip by an old warehouse that a friend told me about. I managed to get a few good shots inside the warehouse along with one of my favorites of the day, The Tracks! Just down the road there was a loading station for some sort of material into the train carts - looked pretty old school. Lots of junk laying around inside the warehouse, I wanted to move some big buckets of paint out of the way but decided not to. The warehouse was covered in kudzu - even about a 50' vine running through the middle of the building, that stuff is out of control!

I'll for sure go back and use some lighting on the inside, could be some really nice shots. Pics of the warehouse, both inside and out, will be up on my flickr page soon too.

Pink Slip

Jess has been out of town for wok since Sunday so I've been busy doing homework and of course watching T.V. Well Nat Geo just happened to be showing a 2 night mini series called Drugs, INC. Crazy show! I learned a lot about how drugs manipulate the body and even worse how people manipulate others. The things people will do for a quick high are pretty insane. I think I watched episodes on Meth, Coke, Heroine and Weed - I came the the conclusion that if I want to be rich I need to get into dealing drugs. Errr wait no that's not what I learned. People are crazy!

I think out of all of the drugs Meth is the most insane! I don't understand why anyone would look at the ingrediants of Meth and go 'YESSS lets shoot it into our arm!'

This picture is entitled Pink Slip - some of the people on the show got into drugs because of something that changed their lives in a big way, others however just wanted to get high with friends and are now trapped. Look for the little random things in the picture. I think the feel of it turned out well. Don't do drugs people!!

Ok now off to read The Kite Runner by Monday - 400 pages here I come! (Or iTunes audio books...)

Strobe life

After the normal Saturday night Taco Mac dinner with friends I decided to go out and shoot - not the guns! Before dinner I did a quick drive around and found a few places. One really struck me as a winner. Industrial equipment is always cool but no daylight time so night shots would have to do. I think the location would be better during the day because the equipment outside this warehouse was pretty neat. It looked like some sort of truck junk yard / parts place. Lots of bumpers and stuff stacked up everywhere.

Not to bad for one of my first lighting setups.

Maybe next week I'll drive back there during the sunlight hours and do some more of that location. I found a cool brick wall with ivy growing on it that looks promising also.

Fun times!

-Matt

Atlanta

Well it has been a good while since I posted but it's time to get back into the swing of things! I took this picture a week ago while on the top of a building in downtown Atlanta. Was taking some pictures for a friends website who just happened to have rooftop access, NICE!! In the next few weeks I need to have a night model shoot up there.

Things have been pretty crazy around here recently. Three weeks left of summer classes, sweet! But then only two weeks off before next semester starts, boooo!

New pics coming soon! Maybe even tomorrow, if I have time due to a big calculus test on Thursday - ugh! If not tomorrow then Thursday after the test for sure!

March of Dimes 2010

Woke up at 5:15am this morning and drove downtown - yawn. The rain was not to bad on the way down there - I don't think I needed to turn my lights on though due to the ridiculous amounts of lightning. Gave the parking garage lady my "vendor pass" and parked the car. Took the elevator up to the top level and stood there for a while watching everyone run around like fools getting wet. Then I made the horrible decision of walking before I looked - 8" of water soiled my shoes and socks, you fool! At least I thought ahead this morning and brought an extra pair of shoes, socks, and shorts to change into after!

March of Dimes 2010 - really already?! It does not seem like a full year since the last time I covered this event, nor does the weather feel the same. High 50s and rain. Luckily it was not that heavy from 8:00-9:30 and by then I had what I needed and was able to head home. I got some decent shots for the time of day and weather. I had three main goals - Starting line front shot, starting/finish rear shot, and random kids pictures before the event. I think I covered that decently! Hopefully one of the shots will be used in an upcoming AJC along with some March of Dimes print material.

Fun times again this year even though it was wet. Glad to see so many people show up even in the rain for a good cause!

The kid above stopped me and ask if I would please take his picture, sure! I love his fake/excited smile haha! Behind him is Harry Douglas, the Atlanta Falcons wide receiver. He attended the event last year as well and is a pretty nice guy.

-Matt

http://www.flickr.com/photos/redefinedm3/sets/72157623922659592/

Almost Perfect Weather

Low 70's, low humidity, with a 'hint' of pollen, can't ask for a much nicer day than this! Leaving school I decided to put the windows down and go for a drive. Found a really nice area by the house where they started to build a mini subdivision, one with 6 acre lots - so nice! Well all they achieved was zoning the lots and putting in the main blacktop street - I guess they went bankrupt after that as it's all for sale by owner now. Either way it made for some decent pictures with the stream, mini lake, and nice wooded area. It's to bad the houses are listed as starting in the low one millions......

Time to finish a paper and read about a thousand pages. After tomorrow there is only one week left of actual classes followed by a few days of finals! Then one month off before summer classes start. Oh yeah, today I also registered for my five fall classes along with finally making changing Majors - Finance here I come! Gonna be a rough one, but fun!

-Matt

http://www.flickr.com/photos/redefinedm3/

Weekend Update!

No pictures from the weekend so some good ole text will have to do for now.

**Ok tossed up my iPhone picture**

Friday: Thanks to Jared I'm still sore (yes I know its Monday night!) from our noon workout on Friday! Talk about a killer - really I almost died. No joke, actually I think I did die. Friday night was a blast. Halston and I went down to the Braves game! It was a long game but was a bunch of fun, lots of runs scored - most of which were off of singles so lots of action! Halston and I got our grub on too, I had a 5mile long hot dog, soft pretzel, and some delicious ice cream. I think he had the same dog, a 5lb burger, some fries, and some fruity dip-n-dots. GOOD STUFF! I was going to carry my camera bag inside but was informed that a lot of lenses are not allowed inside - booo - so decided to play it safe and leave the camera bag in the car. I did post an iPhone picture up on Facebook while at the game though. Oh well, good day!

Saturday and Sunday were pretty relaxed days. Spent a good amount of time on schoolwork during the day on Saturday and then had dinner with Andi and Jared at Taco Mac that night. Good food good people! Sunday was full of church, morning service followed by small group that night.

Monday - Not sure why but I was super tired today. After class I came home and took a nap with Jess and the dogs. Then we went out to eat with a couple from our small group at a place called Ink in historic Roswell. I would describe the food as "exotic Mexican". Was pretty good! I liked it more than Jess but hey, I'm a foodie!

Hopefully tomorrow I can get a picture of something!!!

-Matt

Fences

A play, who my age enjoys plays? For some reason the last few plays I have seen I thoroughly enjoyed myself. The play of the night was Fences by August Wilson, the production was required for my TPS class and was put on by the University. I even stuck around for the Q&A after – of course I get extra for staying but that’s besides the point – which I enjoyed hearing the actors point of view. It’s interesting to hear how they get into their specific rolls and the transformation they go through to be able to step into their act – wither they agree with their character or not.

Looking forward to expanding my views on the world through others by attending more plays in the months to come!

Sorry for the iPhone picture, they wouldn’t let me bring my camera in. I was going to try to get another picture for today but I thought this event was great and decided to toss it up anyway. The picture is of the house that the entire story takes place around - Troys house.

Other then the play tonight the day was fairly boring. Went to class this morning, washed the car, randomly fell asleep…good stuff!

-Matt

Tinker Time

No matter what I do I have to tinker! I picked up a Springfield Armory 1911 Mil-Spec back in January and have been working on it for the past few months. A full build thread / post / blog will be up once the pistol is finished. I love working on this thing, it has been a great learning experience but I already am looking forward to my next build. Looks like if I'm not building a car I might be building a gun! Just working on more blending and dehorning today. Only a few parts left to fit and the rest of the work will be focused on making it look 'purdy'.

Hopefully once every few months I'll be able to take some training courses, everything from basic pistol to tactical carbine classes - bring it on! The AR is pretty fun to but the parts just drop in on that one, no custom fitting is needed. I can't wait to hit up a class with that one, kinda boring to just plink around at the range now days.

If your a gun person - or just someone that likes to make sure we get our rights as U.S. citizens - make sure and keep up with the SB308 bill. The hearing for it was today. SB 308 - Firearms; carrying and possession; change provisions; definitions. This is the bill that will clear up what "carrying in a public gathering" means.

The gym has also been kickin my tail! Kind of hard to type this after doing a lot of upper body today but you know what they say 'No pain no gain!' Up lots of muscle and down 20lb since November.

That's it for today hopefully I make it through the rest of the day with all this pollen! Someone send a few hours of rain our way...please!

**One of these days I'll do what I REALLY want and order a light setup. Or at least some CyberSync goodies to mess around with my 430ex ii! **

-Matt

Pollen 1 Matt 0

Well it's been 8 days since I cut the grass so I figured it was time - what a horrible idea! Pollen.com has a scale of how bad the pollen is (9.7-12 is the highest) and today it was rated at an 11.1! I really didn't even notice it until I started sneezing and the sinus pressure started to build - about half way through the back yard. Once I was done I think I blew more pollen off of the driveway than grass clippings. It looked like someone dumped yellow flower all over the driveway

Oh well. Today you win pollen. Unfortunately it doesn't look like we'll be getting any rain until the middle of next week to wash this yellow haze from Atlanta.

Had a nice lunch with K-Swizzleyzzzlzz at good old T-Mac. Keep coming up with ideas you might be on to something. One day it will make you a millionaire and when it does please hire someone to come cut my grass.

Soft Noses

As many of you know we live out in the boonies - well not to far out there but we do get the breeze on a warm summer day from the freshly cleaned chicken coops yummm. Well we have been out here going on four years now and the majority of the time we drive home I talk about pulling over and petting a horse or two. Today was the day! Well that was the plan at least.

So how many of you grew on on a farm? Yeah not me. The first stop was a field with four or five cows. They were all close to the fence so I pulled over and swapped out lenses. By the time I finished that they were now standing, facing me, all with menacing looks and out weighing my car by a few hundred pounds I'm sure. I opened the door and started to make my way over to them - my first thought was "That little barb wire fence wont stop them will it?" Well after about five steps they all turned and started to walk away - one actually ran! I've never seen a cow run before but it was quite hilarious, sorta like Murray (our big dog). Well there went that shot attempt, onto another location.

Spot two was a field of black horses - gorgeous huge horses. Almost like a black Clydesdale, if those exist. They all looked at me when I got out of the car but wouldn't come with 25 yards of me. I didn't think that both horses and cows would be so timid to approach people - oh well.

Spot three brought me to Albert. World meet Albert! He was the only animal willing to come over to me. He walked slowly and once he got to me just poked his head over the fence. Horse noses are so ridiculously soft!

Moral of the story: Unless you grew up around farm animals be afraid. They can and will eat you for dinner!

-Matt

http://www.flickr.com/photos/redefinedm3/sets/72157623841961598/

Beautiful Day!

What a nice day today! High 70's and low humidity, doesn't get more comfortable than that. Jess started out the morning on the hammock soaking in some rays with a James Patterson book - I think I may have gotten her hooked on his books, oops!

With this weather I had to get out for a drive with the windows down in the BMW! Loaded up my bag and headed for the gym. Had a great workout but slightly disappointed nobody was there playing basketball. Soon Halston and I will start setting up some weekend bball events!

Both Dobbs and Murray love this weather, even though Dobbs would rather be on the couch watching TV- no I'm not kidding! However, Murray on the other hand, is like Jess and attempts to soak up as much sun as possible. When he gets hot he goes to the corner of the fence to cool off.

Oh well, time to finish my paper for English - is this semester over yet?

-Matt

http://www.flickr.com/photos/redefinedm3/