It was a pretty busy weekend, but oddly enough not much had to do with the rapidly approaching holiday. As I suggested last week, my panic holiday post tends to kick me into gear and things tend to fall quickly into place once I get going.
So, pretty much there are a lot of things that would be worthy of a full post, and I might get back to those I skim over, but here we go.
On Friday, ended up having a good talk with Todd over dinner... well, it wasn't about dinner... but about me. I have self-admittedly been in a big 'ole funk lately... it has been the proverbial "perfect storm" of things, but I have been pretty moody and usually takes one of those mood swings (in the bad direction), to get around to talking about things. It's nothing bad, but just some mental homework so I don't get too/further down... and admitting you have a a problem (or the start of one) is always the big first step... even that makes it sound more serious than it is... it's more like that Cher "Snap out of it!" slap from Moonstruck.
So there was nothing better to cheer me up after that then to head off to a angsty musical about oppression, suicide, a botched "medical procedure," and lost love... Spring Awakening... pretty an R-rated Romeo and Juliet set in 1890s Germany... fun, huh?! Well, I loved it. It's still all sinking in, so I am really not sure how much I can honestly say about it.... but I will echo what I twittered about it over the weekend, that it restored my faith in musical theater. As a season ticket holder, we see so much crappy theater ... that it was great to see something so different, edgy, and ambitious. I kind of felt old, as I found myself thinking that the youth of these days have their musical... much like I feel about Rent (even though I was likely a bit too old for that to be my show either). I've been hesistant to download some of my favorite songs from the show as I'm thinking I should just download the full cast recording.
Then, Saturday night was some good 'ole Southwestern holiday celebration... more so of the New Mexican variety than Arizona. First, we went to one of our favorite restaurants and decided to change it up a bit and just get some appetizers and soup instead of our favorite entrees. We definitely wanted some posole (a pork and hominy-ish, red-chile based soup/stew) and then we got some loaded nachos and foo-foo'd it up a bit with some crab cakes (the habernero aioli is the star ingredient for me)... and we ended up more stuffed than usual (and the check pretty much came out to be the same vs. just order two regular entrees). But good stuff!
Then we were off to the Desert Botanical Garden for Las Noches de las Luminarias... in my 18 years here in Phoenix, I am kind of embarrassed to say that I had never been to the Garden... not even for the Luminarias, which is a big 'ole holiday tradition here in the Valley. Despite seemingly expanding the number of nights each year, the event -- where over 7,000 luminarias placed around the Garden -- sells out each and every year.
But I am so glad we went this year, because in addition to the "lumis" (as the signs around the Garden seemed to like to call them) they are currently in the midst of a 6-month exhibit of the incredible glass artwork of Dale Chihuly - and his first outdoor exhibit in a desert setting. Before this, I was most familiar with Chihuly's stunning glasswork flower ceiling in the lobby of the Bellagio in Vegas. But the combination of the luminarias and the glass work was stunning, though Todd and I both felt it certainly detracted/distracted from the traditional Southwestern holiday display of luminarias.
And the night proved to be a challenge for me from a photography standpoint, I had kinda sorta thought I figured it out when I was experimenting with the "Manual" mode of my camera while in Paris. I was thrilled with those results and intended to repeat them here. But quickly things did not seem to be jiving. The difference was that I was dealing with a whole lot of different settings and lighting... and unlike the stationary Eiffel what worked in one picture didn't work for the other... it wasn't just a matter of changing the shutter speed or aperture.
Fortunately, Todd was able to talk me down from my frustration/panic (are you detecting a behavioral pattern here!?!) and get me using the flexpod was very much needed (though I am kinda kicking myself that I didn't bring the "real" tripod) and calmed me down enough that I was able to talk out a Plan B (manually focusing and going to "program" mode, giving the control back to camera in making those aperture and shutter speed "decisions").
Ultimately, I would say about 60% of the pics did not turn out well ... which sent me spinning, but then I just needed to flip that around that I did have 40% that were acceptable, which after some thought was still a pretty good. Now, probably half of those (so we're down to 20% of the total shot) are good enough for Flickr or to share... but those I am very happy with! And even before I get them up on Flickr, I'll share a couple of them with you here (and no post-processing either!):
Here is one of the Chihuly installs... and by far, my greatest success when it came to the Chihulys:
And one of my unofficial goals of the evening, was to get an image that I could use for a future Christmas card... and I think this one is it!
For my photography buddies, this was a craaaazzzy 20 second exposure... and it was way darker out (probably around 7:30pm)!! For my non-photography buddies, one can typically "hand hold" a camera for maybe 1 second without blurring/shaking it.
That Chihuly glass picture is extremely nice. I love his stuff. The Fine Art Center here has some of his glass on permanent display and every year when he shows here they buy more. What a treat. He's incredible. Note of interest: he won't go into Florida during hurricane season.
I've been looking for a tripod and your comment about your flexpod vrs. a real tripod piqued my interest. Is your flexpod not reliable? I've been looking at this one at MOMA: http://www.momastore.org/museum/moma/ProductDisplay_Gorillapod%20Tripod_10451_10001_52186_-1_11496_11507_null__
Do you think its crap?
I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of your pics.
Posted by: Scot | Tuesday, December 16, 2008 at 12:09 AM