a day of rain was fine; buster didn’t mind it. thunder and lightning? that’s a whole other matter.
by my count, buster’s only afraid two things. 1) ironing boards & 2) thunder
Tag Archive for 'buster'
so on sunday, i loaded up buster into the jetta and drove to my sister & brandon’s mansion near the hills.
because it was “championship sunday” brandon & i knew it would be socially acceptable to spend the day with copious amounts of food, beer and laughs. you see, brandon and i watch a lot of football together—not on a weekly basis—but definitely when the game is important enough that the local market adorns its aisles with celebrity-cardboard-cut-outs and cases of “supplies” stacked to the ceiling.
yes, on these hallowed-of-days we hangout for 10-12 hrs just being awesome.
so buster loves going over to the mansion b/c they’ve got this elevated bbq/lounge area in the backyard that looks out to the surrounding mountains and stands almost 6ft above us grounded mortals. give buster 5-10mins and he’ll sneak up there until someone goes out and coaxes him from his lofty heights.
so we watched as the ny jets blew a 1st half-lead to the machine that is peyton manning and that really bummed buster out bc he had $50 bucks riding on the jets-to-win. You can buy a lot of science diet for fifty-bucks.
soon, we hit hour number 10 of being rad and reality set in; brandon remembered that he’s a grown-up attorney who had important things to do the next day in LA and I had to do…well, pretty much more of the same thing i do everyday on campus.
buster remained resolute but would spend the next 36hrs sleeping off the fun.
so I brought Buster the Dog home a new toy today. it survived about 10mins which equals out to about a dollar per minute. it was totally worth it though b/c he got to have some fun and I got to play around some more with the 70-200mm lens in “action mode”.
you’re welcome.
after being very underwhelmed with the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L, I decided to exchange it for the mother of all Canon lenses…the 70-200mm f/2.8L IS.
The good news for Buster was that I needed something/someone to shoot…and well, you know where I’m going with this:
Here’s buster peeking out the back door and being captured sharply at 200mm.
…and here’s Buster acting more bored than I’ve ever seen him.
also, I find these photos funny b/c Buster is unaware of what life is like without having a camera firing at him ad nauseum.
When I stuck the camera in buster’s face this afternoon, I was met with this look which can be interpretted as: “Seriously? Again with the camera?”
You would think after literally 1000s of photos, he’d be used to it. he-is-not.
Buster was kind enough to help me test out a lens I rented for my New Orleans’ trip—the Canon 35mm L f/1.4 prime lens. Got to love that shallow depth of field action.
so did you kids see all that halloween craziness earlier this week? no? hmmm.
well to recap, BusterTheDog decided that he’d had enough of being costume-free and with a little help from sister he was soon sporting all sorts of chicken-goodness.
photos are up on flickr–including really poor-digital-camera video footage to drive you crazy with cute overload.
FEAR THE BUSTER!
so I didn’t get Buster any sort of halloween-themed gear and I fear he’s becoming jealous of all the attention all the other pets in the neighborhood are getting.
here’s a shot of him from last night waiting for some halloween schwag:
“where the eff’s my costume?”
more times than not I find myself shooting photos in the harsh incandescent light of my living room. even with my fastest lens (a 50mm f/1.4), I often find myself needing some help from a flash. on my Canon 50D, I use the Canon 430 EX II and an Stofen Omni-Bounce diffuser to help soften the light.
Last week, I ordered a Gary Fong Lightsphere II
from Amazon and put it through a few tests this weekend. Once I accepted the fact that my flash unit looked like it was adorned with a piece of tupperware, I was pretty happy with the results. The Lightsphere (I bought the “cloud” variety vs. the translucent type) does what it claims, it spreads out otherwise harsh strobe light and gives the appearance of what you would expect from a small lightbox.
Per the usual, Buster agreed to be photographed ONLY if he were allowed to do so with a mouth-full-of-bed.
[flickr]3850114801[/flickr]
[flickr]3850115867[/flickr]
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…and the rest of the Flickr set:
[flickr-gallery mode="photoset" photoset="72157622124767418"]
so today school tried to get all up in my grill and I had to back hand it before it got too out of line. crisis adverted.
when I walked home for lunch, I saw that the FedEX guy had delivered my fancy new Glen Fong Lightsphere. What’s a Lightsphere you ask, why it’s a $40 piece of tupperware that you slip onto your flash, of course.
the idea is that it takes your otherwise harsh and spotlight-like-flash and diffuses it into a soft-milky-tub-o-fun. after a few shots, I’m undecided. also, because I’m stuck out here with out misty, in a pinch buster becomes my default photo subject. today he wasn’t all that into it as is evidenced by these…
oh and dude, have you ever listened to the version of “Thunder Road” from the 1975 London show? fuck, I’m not a crazy springsteen fan, but jesus, it’s good.
here’s the video for your face:
yeah, that’s enough.
Buster the Dog is very keen to his surroundings and pays close attention to little queues from Misty and I. This evening, we pulled out our luggage for the weekend trip and Buster got the panic-look on his face. Granted, giant-rolling-black-bags are not the most subtle of clues, but Buster knows this means that shit’s about to go down.
I couldn’t resist snapping a shot of his “oh dammit” look.
Canon EOS 50D | EF 50mm f/1.4 | ISO 200 | Lexar Digital Media
have I even told you where we’re going yet?
so buster the dog and I have been in bakersfield for the past couple of weeks and it has been absurdly hot here. if you follow me on twitter, then you’ve already seen the photographic proof—and if you don’t follow me on twitter, then I’m not sure what the deuce is wrong with your face.
either way, here’s how buster has been handling the heat…by sleeping with a mouth-full of his bed directly under the AC vent.
if the weather gets over 110F again today, I’m going to join him.
so here’s video of Buster tearing up a bone while I record his antics with the all new iPhone 3G S. Conditions were low light (only one cfl was running) and the subject was a tan puggle, lying on tan carpet covered by a tan blanket right next to a tan bed. also, the youtube-compressed-version compares fairly with the original quicktime .mov file but there is noticeable compression artifacts in the YouTube version as compared to the original.
One last observation is the audio quality…it is superb. In all of my recording tests, the audio proved to be excellent. In this video, I’m playing “lonesome train” by ben harper and the sound is more than acceptable considering that buster’s bone-chomping is very distinct from the background audio.
still, having a video camera of this quality with one-touch publishing to YouTube made the iPhone 3G S’s cost of entry well-worth it for me…and Buster.
Verdict of iPhone 3G S Video Recording:
Video Quality = 7/10
Audio Quality = 9/10
P.S. Look at me! I’m like those kids from Engadget!
this shot was taken during an extreme “keep-away” session…
and now in holga-style…
Buster! Fear him!
so it’s the second week of April and I’m just finishing up with all the life from February. that being said, i think i’m just going to throw out the page of my desk calendar that reads “march“.
so I moved out of my redlands-flat and into a more “house-like” place a stone’s throw from school. moving was a son-of-a-bitch and doing so reminded me of why I lived where I did and paid what i paid in rent for the past 3.5 years. this may or may not be directly related to the fact that i’m 3.5years older and not exactly in world-class-shape.
so i’ve been living in the new place for almost a month and i absolutely love it. my total walk time from my front-door to campus is 4mins and that’s with all my heavy-breathing/sweating. lacking any empirical evidence, i would estimate a healthy person could make the trip in under 3mins. (but then they wouldn’t be living my rock-star-life now would they?)
thankfully, all my schwag has found it’s proper place and b/c you’ve been dying to see pictures, i thought i would do the gentlemanly thing and share:
check out the vintage DMB posters hung over the couch with care.
here’s a crappy iPhone shot showing the BAMF IKEA bookshelf (PLUS DOORS) that @lewisesq kindly donated to the cause of being awesome.
next to Buster, my Mac and ThePrettyGirl, this is my pride & joy. 42″ of LCD HDTV lovin’ (notice the subtle incandescent lighting behind the flatscreen).
ladies?
finally, here’s BusterTheDog not giving a flying-fuck about where I place the furniture but is all about my CalKing Bed’s numerous pillows. (when i jump into bed i like to be ensconced with pillowy fluffiness.
i no longer have any secrets…are you happy with yourself?
ok, come over sometime, bai.
last weekend my buddy josh was in town and he stopped by to give me some lighting tips w/ my new Canon Speedlite 430EX II Flash
here’s a few shots i took of buster that were taken using josh’s techniques and—of course—finished up using Nik Software.
so last thursday i sold my precious iMac to a photographer in Orange County who was setting up a new photostudio.
the process of selling the iMac took all of 5mins…i logged onto the Orange County Craigslist and the first listing was:
“WANT TO BUY: iMac 24″ 2.4GHz“.
Emailed the guy, we agreed on a price—$100USD less than I paid for it 1.5yrs ago—and setup a time for delivery.
on friday, I drove to his studio on my lunch break, dropped off the goods and he gave me the cash and…wait for it…$40 for gas money.
best. craigslist. buyer. ever.
once i was back in the jetta, i hit up the iPhone for the nearest BofA and quickly deposited more $20 bills than I had ever seen at one time.
also, in retrospect, the guy’s place could have been a porn studio and—as we speak—my precious iMac is being used to edit pictures only meant for mommies and daddies who love each other very much.
to temporarily replace the desktop, i picked up a new 13″ MacBook to use to shuttle between home and school and while i wait for new iMacs to be released this little notebook is my primary machine.
it’s a stunning piece of art that doubles as a computer.
here are a few beauty shots:
if you visit the Flickr page of the above image, you’ll see the all the notes for the gear on my desk.
also, this is what buster looks like when he’s trying to figure out why his owner is standing on an office chair, holding $2000 worth of photography equipment to take a picture of a desk.
you’re welcome, internet.
so buster and i have been home with the family celebrating the holidays—xmas for me, hanukkah for buster (he’s jewish).
after more than a week of “holiday cheer” i can tell that buster is ready to get back to everyday life.
this dog thrives on normalcy.
if you question my ability to understand his most complex of emotions, look at this shot and tell me it’s not written all over his face.
Canon 50D :: 50mm :: f1.8 :: ISO 200
that dog whisperer guy doesnt have shit on me.
