Day 102 - Point Class - 08.31.11

I brought my camera to my daughter's dance class tonight. The teacher allowed me to sit in and take some photos. As you can see from this photo I literally sat in the class. This was something I saw today.

Day 101 - Morning Sprinkler - 08.30.11

I brought my camera on the morning walk this morning. I got quite a few really interesting photos. You can check out the rest of them here. In this photo the sun was just coming up and so I was able to catch these drops of water which were back lit by the sun. I really like how I captured the drops landing on the bricks and the ripples being made. It was something I saw today.

Day 100 - Fire Hydrant - 08.29.11

Once the sun started to set this evening, the temperature started to cool off. I grabbed my camera and went for a walk. I actually didn't even put my shoes on because I had intended to just find something in the front yard to photograph. I however started wandering down the street and before I knew it I was at an intersection of the street behind my house. The sun was casting long shadows and this fire hydrant was basking in it's rays. It was something I saw today.

Day 99 - Train Tracks At Sunset - 08.28.11

Earlier today when driving around I saw a train stopped near an intersection. I made a mental note of it. Then later this evening when I finally got around to going to take a photo I thought about that train. The sun was going down and I thought it might be cool to photograph at sunset. I hopped in the car and drove over there. On the way over to the tracks I crossed another set of tracks. Burbank has several sets of tracks. The sun was setting down at the end of the line. It looked really great. I almost stopped to take a photo, but I didn't. I continued to the other set of tracks only to find that the train had since moved. I quickly turned around and went to the first set of tracks. By the time I parked the car and got over to the tracks, the sun was actually set. So I missed the sun, but I was able to snap off a few photos just minutes after the sun went down, which made for some great colors and some very cool reflections off the railroad tracks. So this was something I saw today.

Day 98 - Fan in the Door - 08.27.11

It sure was a hot one today here in Burbank. Once the sun started to go down things started to cool off and we put a fan in our front door. It was something I saw today.

Day 97 - Lock/Jaw EP Release Show - 08.26.11

My son's band Lock/Jaw threw together a little EP release party show at Backside Records tonight. The record store was very cool for allowing them to play and everyone that showed up was nice and respectful of the store. They played great and everyone seemed to have a good time. After they played the store put on their EP over the sound system. It was the first time I heard the final mixed songs. They sounded really good. My favorite song are "Death To Hipsters", "Nerd" and "She's A Dude". Fun catchy punk rock. So go give them some support and check out the music. If you like it, download the EP here. It's only 3 bucks. Can't beat that right?




So this is my son at the microphone. It was something I saw today.

Day 96 - Orc On A Wolf - 08.25.11

Spent the afternoon with an old friend down in Orange county today. She works at Blizzard Entertainment. She gave me a tour of the place. Met some nice people and before I left I snapped some shots of the big Orc On A Wolf statue they have in front of one of their buildings. The Statue was modeled by WETA and flown in by helicopter a few years past. It is pretty impressive. This photo doesn't really sell its enormity. You can find other people's photos online to do that. I went for this more intimate shot of the wolf. It was something I saw today.

Day 95 - Bunny Toy - 08.24.11

Found this bunny a few years back at an estate sale. Didn't cost much. My wife and I thought it had a cute design. I'm not exactly sure when it was made, but my guess is the 50's some time. I guess that because of the "made in Japan" label on the foot. It must have been post war but before toys like this started getting made in China or Taiwan. She's sitting on our chair in our living room. It was something I saw today.

Day 94 - Indycar - 08.23.11

Feeling better today. Hurray! At work today there was a race car on display. It was the 2012 Dallara Aerokit Oval Car Concept Car which is part of the IZOD Indycar Series. I don't know much about cars and I think I know even less about race cars. I know is has stickers on it for sponsors like Honda, Lotus, IZOD and Firestone. There was a sign next to it that read.

"The extraordinary showcar you are viewing could be bulleting around high-banked superspeedways & demanding short ovals during the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series race season."

So it sounds cool. It looked cool. It was something I saw today.

Day 93 - Jan the Mountain Climber - 08.22.11

I made it out of bed today. Actually I was in bed most of the day, but I got up this evening. Took this photo in front of my house. This is Jan. She is one of my adventure people. She was a mountain climber. At appears that she has successfully climbed these bricks on my front porch. She looks very proud of herself. She made it just in time because the sun was going down. She was something I saw today.

Day 92 - A Room With A View - 08.21.11

So what is this photo all about. I know if just looks like lazy photography. In a way it is and in a way it isn't. I've actually had this photograph or some version on it in the back of my mind for a long time. When I started this blog I of course asked myself would I be able to take a photograph every day. I thought about if I was out of town, I could bring my laptop and then all I would need is internet. I also thought about if I was sick. Now just let me say that I usually get sick a couple times a year. I get the same respiratory infection that starts in my head and throat and then moves to my lungs. It almost always lasts a few days and when it moves to my chest that's usually when I end up in bed all day. Today was that day. I was up for a few hours in the morning, but then I pretty much laid in bed, all day napping here and there. The one thing I really didn't have to worry about was this photo, which brings me back to when I first started this blog. I thought about what kind of photo could I take from my bed. The ceiling perhaps? Don't laugh, that could be still to come. The closet? Who knows? The view from my bed looking out the window. Bingo. I thought it would capture the essence of this blog. It was something I definitely saw today. In fact this view I saw just about all day long. As you can see I was stuck inside on a beautiful blue sky day. Hopefully was the worst of it and tomorrow I'll start to mend. We'll see. Today however this window view was something I saw today.

Day 91 - Kitchen Counter - 08.20.11

One more day of feeling lousy. Stayed home all day reading, watching TV, working on the Halloween mix and resting. Toward the end of the day I walked through the house looking for a photo opportunity. Out freshly cleaned and straightened kitchen counter made for a nice subject. Some nice color and a friendly little message to boot. It was something I saw today.

Day 90 - Loading Drums - 08.19.11

I was really not feeling well today. Went to a business meeting this morning, but just got worse through out the day. So how bad was I feeling? So bad that I'm actually not going to see my son play a concert tonight. You know I'm feeling bad when I pass up a good punk rock show. I should be better by next weekend when they play. So this is my son loading up gear for his drummer on the way to the show. It was something I saw today.

Day 89 - Shadow on the Apple Store Wall - 08.18.11

Went out of dinner to celebrate my wife's birthday. We went to the Cheesecake Factory at the Americana. After dinner we visited the Apple Store and I noticed the cool shadows of the pedestrians on the wall outside the store. This is my son's shadow as he scratched his back. It was something I saw today.

Day 88 - Hall Of Records - 08.17.11

Not feeling great this afternoon/evening. Soar throat coming on and I think I'm coming down with a cold. So minimal effort again was placed into the photo choice today. This is the hallway from the front of our house to the back bedrooms. It is lined with frames vinyl records. I try to change out the records every once in a while and try to have a theme. Currently the records are all punk rock records, with many of them being hard core records from the 80's. You can clearly read the Black Flag record and you can kind of make out the AFI record. After that it is all glare. At the end of the hall is a window and door where sunlight pours in, which is what is blowing out the image. I kind of like that because it almost looks like records go into infinity or perhaps on into record heaven. So that is something I saw today.

Day 87 - Lockheed F-104 Starfighter - 08.16.11

I big part of Burbank's history is the the aerospace industry. Lockheed Martin was a huge part of Burbank and so in Olive Park there is this Starfighter. If you are driving by is looks like a plane on a Popsicle stick. The stick of pole comes out the back where the jet engine is (not in the photo). Anyways when I first moved here many years ago I thought it was very cool. Over the years I've just gotten used to it being here and so that is why I haven't photographed it yet. Well today on my drive home I thought about it and so I swung by the park to take a few photos. It was something I saw today.

Day 86 - Bart Simpson Cereal - 08.15.11

Continuing to mine the crap I have around the house. Yes, I collect cereal boxes. Specifically I collect cereal boxes related to cartoon characters. I particularly love entire lines of cereal made specifically for a cartoon character or movie. I have to say the pickings have been very slim in recent years. For a while there it seemed like every cartoon was getting its own cereal. Anyways, this is one of the Simpsons based cereals that I have. It was something I saw today.

Day 85 - Fisher-Price Dog - 08.14.11

I stuck with the toy theme for today. I couldn't devote too much time wandering around looking for photos because I had to work on my Halloween music mix. That thing takes many, many hours over several weekends. This was weekend two and I've got about an hour of music mixed. When it is done and posted I'll be sure to announce it here as well.

This dog is one of the few little people toys I have in my possession. I loved the little people as a kid. We had a mail truck and a mailman. We had the little town. When that wasn't enough I made store fronts out of small cereal boxes.

We also had the parking garage. Man, loved that parking garage. Cranking that elevator up and down, making that bell ring. If you had one, you know what I'm talking about. Anyways, I love these older little people toys. They don't make them with this design anymore apparently because their small size made them a choking hazard. Hazard, shmazard. I think the smaller ones looked the best.

Not sure what happened to all the people we had. Mother probably gave them away to relatives. In fact I'm pretty sure this dog was not the one from my childhood. I kind of remember that the one I had was chewed on. I think my dog, gave him a bit of a bite. I think I saw this at a thrift store or garage sale and bought it. Now that I fished him out of a box he's on one of my record shelves. He is also something I saw today.

Day 84 - Adventure People - 08.13.11

These toys were some of my first action figures. I think they may have even pre-dated my first Star Wars toys. Adventure People was a line of Fisher-Price action figures that were all about real life action heroes. There were people like scuba divers, (like these) astronauts, motorcyclists (have one of those as well) and mountain climbers (have the female one of those). In fact the mountain climbing rope and grappling hook is tied to this boat. You can see the string in the photo. The mountain climbers also had an attachment which was a sort of harness for a kind of zip line. You would run string through it and then you could send your little guy whizzing down the line. Oh the days of whizzing toys down strings. These scuba divers were bath time favorites as a kid. I think I had some rubber shark to attack them to make things interesting. I've since learned that their names are Becky and Matt. They were something I saw today.

Day 83 - Sunset over California Adventure - 08.12.11

Went with my daughter and her girl scout troop to Disneyland. Was there all day into the evening. We hopped over to California Adventure as the sun was going down and this beautiful sunset over the park was something I saw today.

Day 82 - Pinewood Derby Car #1 - 08.11.11

Did the photo early today. I'm hoping to have a long busy day without much time to take photos later on. So I dug into the toy box one more time and pulled out my first pinewood derby car. It was something I saw today.

Day 81 - Homer Simpson - 08.10.11

More digging through old things. Homer standing on my chair at home is something I saw today.

Day 80 - Ozzy Stained Glass - 08.09.11

Did some more digging through old junk to find a subject to photograph. How about this stained glass craft project I did when I was in 5th or 6th grade. Yep, that says Ozzy. Was a big fan when I was a kid. Amazing I've managed to keep it all these years without breaking it. It was something I saw today.

Day 79 - Hungry Bear Lantern - 08.08.11

My daughter and I had a quick visit to Disneyland today. On the lower deck of the Hungry Bear restaurant you can find lanterns like this one looking over the water. It was something I saw today.

Day 78 - Merlin - 08.07.11

Went through some boxes today to see what stuff we could give away. Came across my old Merlin game. Not giving that away. It was something I saw today.

Day 77 - Broken Baby Shower Statue - 08.06.11

I did not spend too much time on the photo today. I was too busy working on Halloween music. Needless to say, this morning on my walk I found this broken statue in a strip mall parking lot. It was something I saw today.

Day 76 - Morning Car Lot - 08.05.11

More experiments with HDR images today. Brought the camera on my morning walk today and found several subjects to photograph. I think my images were more successful today because the light was better. I think my over exposed and underexposed shots were better. Lastly I figure out how to process the RAW files and bring them into photomatix better. I had a lot of fun this evening playing with the settings and creating some fun stuff. This is one of the first photos I took this morning and the colors I think are just great. I am really liking this process, but the files are huge and it does take a bit more work to process everything. I don't think I can do it daily. So we'll see what happens. But today it was what I did for something I saw today.

Day 75 - HDR Car - 08.04.11

Yesterday I started reading up on taking HDR photos. Today I did my first real experiment. I don't know how successful the images were. I think the initial photos weren't great, but this exercise has allowed me to play with the various settings and methods of generating HDR images. Hopefully this is the first of many experiments. So while sort of dreamy and unreal like, my car was something I saw today.

Day 74 - Wooden Toy Truck - 08.03.11

This is one of my oldest toys. I had this when I was a wee baby and somehow have managed to hang onto it all these years. It was something I saw today.

Day 73 - Atomic Records - 08.02.11

This week I've been into the band Wire. So this evening after dropping my daughter off at dance I stopped in at Atomic Records to see if they had any copies of any of Wire's first few records. Sadly, they didn't, but I did snap this photo of their sign as something I saw today.

Day 72 - Statue at Work - 08.01.11

Returned to work today. In one of the courtyards an there were bronze sculptures on display by one of our employees, Andrea Paolino. They were all pretty amazing pieces of work. I took some photos and this one was something I saw today.