Blueye Photography » monday

Miscellaneous Monday #28 (Crazy Economy)

Troy — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 05:01:50 +0000

Melanie spent last week in Los Angeles and snapped this photo across the street from the El Capitan Theater. Is this a sign of the times? Elmo and Tigger out of the work and forced to negotiate a drug deal in broad daylight?!? Say it ain’t so Tigger… say it ain’t so!

Miscellaneous Monday #27 (Chicago Style)

Troy — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 03:21:49 +0000

This past weekend I flew up to Chicago to hang out with my friends Holly and Matt who just moved there from Dallas a week ago. The trip was a lot of fun and Holly and I got to act like complete tourists on Friday while Matt worked. Things I learned during this trip:

1. The Sears tower was completed in 3 years.
2. Giordano’s stuffed pizza rocks! (and two slices will put you to sleep)
3. Cloud Gate (aka the bean) has to be the coolest art installation I’ve ever seen.
4. Chicago architecture is fascinating.
5. 3 days is too short of a trip to take in this huge city.
6. Buffalo calamari is fantastic (visit Bar Louie for this delicacy)
7. I want to see a Cubs game at Wrigley in the near future (perhaps next Summer)

And what good is a trip without photos?

We took the brown line downtown from the Addison stop.

A few photos from the 109th floor of the Sears Tower (yeah, it wasn’t that nice of a day… overcast)

Millennium Park and the Art Institute

(12 more photos after the jump)

The trees in Millennium Park were beginning to change color

Various views from Holly and Matt’s balcony

Wrigley Field

A few random shots from Holly and Matt’s neighborhood

Miscellaneous Monday #26

Troy — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 04:44:14 +0000

I’ve been thinking about joining a gym lately. I’m not exactly in prime physical condition and I like to eat too much to really think that changing my diet alone will be enough. The problem is will I actually go to the gym on a regular schedule and will I be able to overcome my feeling of awkwardness that comes with taking my flabby self to the gym for the first time? Is anyone a member of Gold’s Gym? They recently opened a new location in Cedar Park and I’m thinking that it might be a great time to join (low number of members, brand new equipment, and everyone getting used to the place). Care to venture a guess to the number of times I’ll actually make it to a 5:30am spinning class if I do join?

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In general I’m a sports fan… any sport is fair game to watch when it’s on TV… football, yeah… billiards, sure… basketball, okay… baseball, only during the playoffs. I just can’t get motivated to watch the games until they really mean something. Each game being 1/162th of the season is just too much to me. Make it 1/3rd of the team’s remaining season and you have my attention. I’m looking forward to watching the ALCS (Red Sox vs. Devil Rays) and NLCS (Phillies vs. Dodgers) over the next week or so. I’m rooting for Boston and Philly.

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My last wedding of the year is this coming weekend. After that I have some portrait sessions lined up, but for the most part the rest of the year will be down time for me. And I am totally looking forward to it.

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I recently took a skill finder assessment for work (yes, remember I still have a full-time job outside of photography) and found that my top skill is being an achiever (along with a maximizer, learner, listener, and hunter… okay, that last one is made up because I can’t remember my top 5 skills). Being the achiever that I am I decided 3 weeks ago to start teaching myself to play the guitar. I’ve been tossing around the idea of posting videos on YouTube to document my progress, but I felt like that would be a little too narcissistic. Not to mention I’m not sure I want to subject the world to my feeble attempts at guitar playing. What do y’all think?

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Only 4 weeks until we elect the next President. One of the good things about living in a one sided political state (Texas is a BIG red state) is that we don’t hammered over the heads with political ads. The democrats know that the republicans will win this state. I really feel for those in battleground states… y’all are probably sick and tired of political ads. The good news it will be over in a few weeks.

Miscellaneous Monday: lake house hangover

Troy — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 04:43:02 +0000

Ever have that can’t-get-back-to-work feeling after a mini vacation? Yeah, that’s what I call a vacation hangover and that’s what I’m dealing with now. Last Friday was Melanie’s birthday and I surprised her with a long weekend at a lake house on Lake LBJ with a bunch of our close friends and we had a great time. We spent some time boating and swimming, sitting and talking, cooking and drinking, playing and eating… it was a great weekend. I didn’t take too many photos as the girls all had point and shoot cameras along with them (and I’m sure you’ll see them if you are friends with me on Facebook), but here are a few that I snapped in the mornings while Dave and Jeff fished.

The light in the mornings was beautiful and the fishing was pretty good too.

The many faces of Bella. These were all taken within seconds of each other.

Miscellaneous Monday #24

Troy — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 02:53:23 +0000

If you have a Facebook account look me up and add me as a friend.
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Watching Michelle Obama speak at the Democratic National Convention has made me realize that I need to really start paying attention to the candidates now. Up until now it’s been a bunch of noise, but it’s time to listen to what the candidates are saying. I voted for Hillary in the primaries. I’m still unsure about Barak’s inexperience. He certainly has passion, but is that enough?
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Anyone else having Olympics withdrawal? For the past 2 weeks I’ve watched approximately 2 hours of sports each day and now there is a void. I’m eagerly awaiting the start of college football season.
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Speaking of college football, I believe it’s time for me to pick up a new hat (in brown this time).
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I’ve been using a Mac now for over a year and I’ve finally convinced Melanie that it’s time to make the switch too. Her computer is about 6 years old now and while working on photos in Lightroom last night on her computer she got fed up. It’s just too slow. I did a little happy dance when she said those words… “if a Mac will work faster then get me one”
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I will definitely be getting more sleep tonight. I didn’t get enough sleep this weekend and it caught up with me. I need to change my sleeping patterns for the better.

Miscellaneous Monday #23

Troy — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 04:44:16 +0000

I have only one thing to say tonight: go. see. the. dark. knight.
We just saw it tonight… fantastic movie… nonstop action… 2.5 hours fly by… Heath Ledger did a phenomenal job.

Miscellaneous Monday #22

Troy — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 02:07:38 +0000

Yeah, I know… I’ve been a slacker… missed the last 2 Monday posts. There are reasons, but they are a bit too personal for me to share on my blog, but just know that I’m back on track and ready to drop a bunch of randomness on you today

Thanks to some perfect timing and generosity of a friend I now have a used table tennis (aka ping pong) table in my garage. The best part is that I didn’t have to spend a dime on it (and it’s a REALLY nice table… as table tennis tables go). The worst part is that I had to spend 4 hours yesterday in the middle of the afternoon cleaning the garage and rearranging it so we could actually set up the table and play. Good times. Good times. So if you are ever in Austin and are craving some ping pong action shoot me an email.

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I’m still miffed at Apple over this whole iPhone 3G fiasco. I say fiasco because I wasn’t able or willing to wait in line the Friday it was released, had a wedding to shoot the Saturday afterwards, and now it looks like I may have to wait an additional month to get my hands on one. Grrrrrrr. I just don’t understand how they missed how popular the new version was going to be. Seriously? They provided only enough stock for one or two days. Seriously?! If the point was to make more people want them because they are hard to find it’s not really working for me… I’m starting to want it less. Wifey wants an iPhone and could care less about the features of the 3G so I’ll get the new phone and she’ll get mine. Ebayers are still gouging folks for the old phones too so it doesn’t make sense to go that route. I’m stuck and I’m upset.

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Have you seen The Dark Knight? How was it? I dared not venture to the theaters this weekend for fear of the mob, but I’m itching to see it. Maybe this coming weekend… who knows. I have a bridal session on Saturday so it would have to be Sunday. Perhaps after church…

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Song currently playing: Free Falling by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers

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Now that I have a table tennis table in the garage I want to put up a dart board as well. I’ve been looking for a few days and have narrowed down my options to a Guiness board and cabinet, a Philadelphia Eagles board and cabinet, or a plain cherry cabinet and bristle board. Which would you go with?

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Bob Opatrny was the winner of my iTunes give away a few posts ago. Congratulations Bob!

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Check back tomorrow for some fun photos of a birthday celebration I shot this past Saturday night at 219 West. Here’s a sneak peek of some of the fun we had.

Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil

Miscellaneous Monday #21

Troy — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:51:58 +0000

I just spent the last 20 minutes looking through the catalog of vintage t-shirts at www.80stees.com. I love vintage tees!
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I’ve been on a high with my bowling league lately. Two weeks ago I bowled a 663 series, last week I bowled a 649 series, and I currently hold the league’s high average at 208. That means I’m pretty much due for a 150 average week. We’re only 4 points out of first place heading into the mid season position round so it’s looking pretty good for us.
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Keeping with the sports theme I’m running a table tennis tournament at work and we’re almost finished with the tournament. I’m currently still alive in the loser’s bracket, but I’m not sure how long that will last. There are some good players who just emerged from the ranks a couple weeks ago. Wish me luck.
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Anyone else sit through the Bachelorette season finale tonight? I watched it with Melanie and we were both surprised that she picked Jesse. Did you predict that?
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What movie is this shirt referencing? Leave a comment with the correct answer and I’ll have a drawing for a $10 iTunes gift certificate at the end of the week.

Miscellaneous Monday #20

Troy — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 05:03:47 +0000

Evening faithful blog readers. This week’s miscellaneous Monday post will be short since I’m running low on energy and need to get some sleep.

I should have written about this a few weeks ago, but congratulations to my friends Chrissy and Brent back in Pennsylvania. Brent recently popped the question and Chrissy said yes. Y’all might be in the need of a wedding photographer… hint hint.

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What I’m listening to while typing this: Satisfaction by Benny Benassi & The Biz

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T-minus 3 weeks until the new iPhone is released. Though I am planning on getting one I am not going to wait in line at the Apple store for one. I may swing by on my way home from work and if it’s crazy busy I’ll wait until Sunday to pick one up (Saturday I’ll be shooting Brian and Jeni’s wedding)

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I’ve been thinking about picking up another Drobo recently so I can separate my music and file backup from my photography biz files. I love the Drobo and if you have no idea what it is you should check it out.

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My Wii Fit age went up to 30… probably because of my lazy weekend, but I’ll be working on bringing that back down where it belongs.

Miscellaneous Monday #19

Troy — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 05:15:00 +0000

It has been unseasonably hot here in Austin lately. We’ve already had 12 days over 100 and June isn’t the hottest month of the year. Just take a look at the forecast through the end of the week:

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Anyone catch the playoff at the U.S. Open today? Tiger is force of nature… bum knee and all. I’m a bit disappointed that he won because I think it would have been a better story if Mediate had beaten him. We know Tiger is good… we don’t need to keep hearing it.

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I’ve been on a mission to improve my Wii Fit age recently. The first time I tried it my age was 46 (yikes), but I’m proud to say that I’ve brought it down to 23. My birth certificate may show that I was born 31 years ago, but my Wii Sports age, my Wii Fit age, and my Facebook Real Age are all in agreement that I’m in my early twenties

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Today’s random photo:

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A couple of our friends are having an art fair this weekend in Leander so if you are in the Austin area and want to check it out here are the details (click to see the big image):