Yes, “Anti-Thematic” is another cop-out theme. Big whoop, wanna fight?

I met Samuel L Jackson this week. And by “met” I mean I saw a wax sculpture of him at Madam Tussauds in DC. There were some realistic sculptures and some not-so-realistic ones but Sam Jackson was the most life-like of them all I think. I haven’t posted everything yet, but they will all end up in my Madam Tussauds set. Definitely a good way to spend some time on a humid 98 degree day…I mean you know the air conditioning is gonna be pumping at a wax museum.

This week’s theme was “On the Move“. The in-laws were in town for the standard three birthday plus father’s day celebration. As part of that celebration my father-in-law wanted to go on a right down the C&) Canal in Georgetown (more photos here).

I wasn’t sure what to expect… All I knew is that we would be on a boat in the canal which would be pulled by “donkeys”. Well the “donkeys” turned out to be mules and the boat was actually a barge. A few men and one woman (pictured) commanded our vessel dressed in period 1870s garb and gave us a bit of a history lesson during the hour(ish) ride. The highlight of the trip was being raised and lowered in a canal lock which moved our multi-ton barge 8 feet straight up and down.

I know what you’re thinking… “Sit Back and Relax” sounds an awful lot like last week’s theme “Take it Easy“. The thing is they are completely different because last week involved no sitting (except maybe this photo).

Katie and I are moving the Philadelphia next month and the photo above was taken during a trip to find an apartment (which we did!). We’ll be living about a block from Rittenhouse Square and apparently there was a documentary made a couple years ago aptly titled “Rittenhouse Square“.

The photo above was taken at the Amtrak train station shortly after our arrival in Philly. I was a bit sneaky and he never knew I took his photo… After posting to flickr a commenter let me know about a group called 100 Strangers which he thought I may be interested in. The idea of the group is to not only take a photo of a stranger, but to talk to them and “tell their story”. From the group page: “Step out of your comfort zone to a new level of portrait photography. Start by taking 100 portraits of people you don’t know.”

I’m not committing to this just yet, but I am definitely giving consideration to doing the 100 Stranger challenge. I think it could be a good way to take interesting photos and meet some people. Maybe I’ll even attempt to do all 100 strangers in Philadelphia… I’ll have to give this some thought.

“Take it Easy” was more of a command I was trying to get myself to follow this week which didn’t really happen (until the weekend). My birthday was this week and I went to not one but two Orioles games against the Nationals (one win and one loss). Katie arranged for a couple pals from out-of-town to make a surprise visit and we all went to the Saturday game. Stan (pictured) was confused when he didn’t see a hoop anywhere, then apparently took a nap.

Even though Arriving Shortly was a pretty random week of photos, I really like how a lot of them turned out. The photo above was taken on National Go Skateboarding Day 2008 at Powhatan Springs Park in Arlington, VA. I forget how I heard about this, but I made a point of going specifically to try and get some good action photos.

I actually took up skateboarding for probably a good year in middle school. I saved up and ordered a custom board (as in ordered all the deck, wheels, truck, and bearings all separately) from a magazine either my neighbor Tim, or I had. I really wanted to find a better picture of the board but I can’t even remember the company that made it. The only photo I have is below (with my neighbor Tim on his porch after a hardcore skating session!). Anyone know what brand my skateboard is?

Years before I became a “real skateboarder”, my parents gave me my first skateboard for Christmas (I think). It was a Valterra ALF skateboard (pictured below!) After doing some Googling it looks like it was only made in 1987 so I must have been about 5 years old when I got it. That skateboard was totally bad-ass.

I should definitely become a skater again.

This week’s theme was simplicity. I tried to stick with a single subject without many distractions.

I forgot to mention last week that I went over the 10,000 photo mark with my camera during the basketball shoot. The numbering on my files went back to 0001. I certainly didn’t save all 10,000 thought I do currently have 13,520 files from 485 unique days in my photo directory…though that includes multiple versions of a lot of files (psd -> tif -> jpg -> sometimes a resized jpg etc)

Anthony helped put the finishing touch on a fun week of photos. He’s definitely dunking on a real ten foot rim here…he’s got ups.

This week’s uber-literal theme (suggested by Stanus) may have been my favorite theme to date. It seems I go through cycles of creativity and subject selection… Some days or weeks the photos come easy and turn out great and sometimes they don’t but, this week seemed to come pretty naturally from start to finish. I think it also stayed interesting since 6 out of the 7 days I was taking photos of people (even though three were self portraits). If anyone would like to volunteer for a photo, let me know…I can only take so many pictures of my remote controls.

Next week’s theme: Simplicity.

After looking at the grab-bag of photos for this week, it was time to think of a theme. After soliciting advice from none other than “Daily” Dwayne it was down to two themes: “I Need to Think of Themes Before Shooting” or “OMG P0N!3S!”. I do have a handful of themes that were suggested to me…and since I have been lacking motivation, the next theme will be the ultra-literal, “Picture of Something with Camera on Floor Angled Up” suggested by Stanus.

I submitted this omgponies photo of Ima for the next issue of компютриJPG Magazine under the theme “Creatures”. Voting ends tonight or tomorrow…so vote or something. Oh, and I submitted a photo of Katie for the “Street Fashion” theme.

Kevin and I had to take a few product shots for a client so we set up a make-shift studio at the office. It consists or a sheet on the wall and a single strobe with umbrella. I convinced him to get in front of the camera, which he is typically reluctant to do, but usually obliges if I ask nicely.

I went to not one, but two Orioles games in Baltimore this weekend! Both games were against the Nationals - Saturday they got a win, and Sunday the O’s lost. My season record is 1-3…pretty pathetic, but at least the O’s have been playing decently so far.

We got to the game early enough to see some of the Nat’s batting practice…also let me get this photo before the seats filled up. I almost caught a ball during batting practice but it was just out of reach…though my glove did barely touch it as my shin slammed against a seat. Yes, I still take my glove to the games… The one and only game I didn’t take my glove to, I caught a line drive batting practice home run ball (hit by Kirby Puckett) in my hat! However, the hat went with the ball back about 10 more rows. I got my hat, but the ball was, of course, gone. Does this still count as “catching” the ball? Probably not…but I would have caught it if I had my glove! (I think I was about 12 years old at the time)