Week #8,9 & 10 Photo A Day Challenge

HOLY WOW!!! I got really behind here! Time to catch up. Enjoy 3 weeks of photos! Some are good…some are not so good, but I’ve managed to stick to it…so far.

August 8th: #50

Took some photos for church today. Went around to some of the classes and the childcare. It’s easier to take pictures of kids. They love cameras. Adults on the other hand get all weirded out.

August 9th: #51

The Bowe’s dog again. This time we’re inside and she’s posing for me with the sweet curtain backdrop! I really do like this shot though!

August 10th: Photo #52

We are having an Open House for our Distance Profs on campus tomorrow so we were setting stuff up for it today. This was our little display table with business cards, programs, and some frames of relevant stuff. The Open House flyer you see framed in the background I designed as well.

August 11th: Photo #53

This is literally the only photo I took today. Stopped at a light…that was actually green (I was in the turning line and no one was behind me.) I snapped this shot out my window.

August 12th: Photo #54

Make a wish! This was the only photo I took all day. As you can see. I barely even got it in before the day was up! If only I had taken this yesterday…on the 11th!

August 13th: Photo #55

My friend Chris bought a hookah and we were trying it out for the first time. As I waited over a week to post this I don’t recall what flavor it was.

August 14th: Photo #56

Dave and Jessy’s cat soaking up some rays with his head propped up on a CD case.

August 15th: Photo #57

Probably not the best photo I took all day, but how could I pass up on the opportunity to embarrass some friends?

August 16th: Photo #58

Sunset I drove way way way out of the way to try and find a good spot to take a picture of it…this about sums up how successful I was! Not to mention gravel roads for a few miles that have left me car looking pretty dirty!

August 17th: Photo #59

I LOVE LAMP!

August 18th: Photo #60

Trying out a technique I had read about online. All you do it take off your basic crappy kit lens…turn it around and hold to the front of your camera and you get a basic crappy Macro Lens!

August 19th: Photo #61

Stuck on a Macro kick I took this of the wood grain on my dresser.

August 20th: Photo #62

I loved how the sunset was kind of reflecting off the siding of my neighbors. I’ve really enjoyed the sunsets this summer. I feel like I’ve taken a ton of sky shots!

August 21th: Photo #63

Shady part of Rolla? Maybe! Josh was getting some money at the ATM across from this tattoo place. This one didn’t turn out so well, but I only took a few pics tonight and I didn’t like any of them.

August 22th: Photo #64

I told you I love lamp….where you not listening?

August 23th: Photo #65

MORE LIGHTS!!! Sorry, I’m mostly just getting lazy and taking some pics of stuff around the house before I got to bed! haha.

August 24th: Photo #66

I’ve noticed it’s hard to get a good pic of the moon at night, but if you can get it while it’s still kind of light out it helps…still would have been better had I had my telephoto with me. Next time perhaps.

August 25th: Photo #67

I hate going to work early…and by early I mean when most people probably go to work 🙂 Twice a week I go in at 11:30am…the other days are 8am and 7:15am. There is one good thing about the morning though. Morning light is fantastic. Great for photos.

August 26th: Photo #68

I convinced Josh to go on a Donut King run late tonight and had to get a pic of our spoils!

August 27th: Photo #69

Oh hi Dave!

August 28th: Photo #70

Addie is sleepy!! This is Dave and Jessy’s dog Addie. Apparently she thinks she can just take a nap anywhere!

Week #7 Photo A Day Challenge

Behind again! I suck! Missed Song of the Day as well. I’ll have a couple songs this Wednesday and also Week #8 Photos before the weekend.

August 1st: Photo #43

Grass! Freshly cut…do I really need to explain this. It’s green! There are lines. My favorite part about mowing is the design in the grass that is left.

August 2nd: Photo #44

I went to my local music store today where I purchased a harmonica. Something I hope to start playing. I couldn’t leave without snapping some shots of the store.

August 3rd: Photo #45

Treating myself to some ice cream with brownie cookie. In celebration of Joining the gym today!

August 4th: Photo #46

Every Wednesday we’ve been going to Applebee’s for Trivia Night. Three 3rd place finishes in a row! Dang it. Still good times. Matt is vigoriously writing down our answer on the “marker board”. Oh…and hellow mister Brewtus Glass.

August 5th: Photo #47

Croquet in the dark calls for Tiki Torches!!!

August 6th: Photo #48

Cool antique Organ that has been passed down from my mom’s side of the family. It’s a little out of tune…and as you can see some of the keys are falling apart, but it does still work!

August 7th: Photo #49

Went on a float trip today so I definitely did not take my DSLR. This was just a quick shot I took from my cheaper Pocket Videocamera. This shot explains most of the day. It was a perfect day to be on the river!

Week #6 Photo A Day Challenge

I am a lazy bum! Here’s last weeks photos!

July 25th: Photo #36

Sorry if you are getting sick of seeing me! There was a full moon tonight so it was really light out. I tried to take some pics of the moon, but it just becomes a huge halo of light!…it would be better to take a pic of the moon of a really big telescopic lens…which I don’t have…and can’t afford.

July 26th: Photo #37

Saw this building awhile back. Thought it would make a good shot with all the ivy and stuff on it. I was just having some fun with some weird colors and this is what I ended up doing. I liked the purpley sky!

July 27th: Photo #38

Hanging out with Augie and Nathan the other night and snapped a quick shot for the photo of the day.

July 28th: Photo #39

Been raining a lot lately. The storm was coming in over my office. Took this picture as I was coming back from dinner.

July 29th: Photo #40

Went to my mom’s work to take some photos of students doing a “Water Walk” for some physics class or something…I was a bit late and they were all just swimming by the time I got there. So on my way out I took a picture of some of the mats that cover the basketball court when there are events going on.

July 30th: Photo #41

Yep…another stormy sky pano! This time, after realizing it is kind of hard to match up a 6 photo panorama I got the brilliant idea to just take the photos vertically! So that’s exactly what I did. This is a 4 photo pano with all the shots taken vertically. I think it turned out pretty good!

July 31st: Photo #42

Today I watched my BFF from high school get married. She looked gorgeous…so much so that her husband teared up when she was walking down the aisle. For his sake I posted a photo were he’s not crying :). Congratulations to you both. I’ll post a full album soon. My pictures aren’t great cause I was using a zoom lens and I hate taking flash at weddings.

Week #4 & #5 Photo a Day Challenge

Whoops! Sorry guys…I missed last weeks photo set. Well, I was gonna do it Wednesday night, but didn’t have time and by the time Thursday came around I just decided I’d do two weeks at once come the next week. So here are two weeks of photos. Enjoy.

July 11th: Photo #22

Sorry, another sunset/panorama. Couldn’t pass it up. Finally was able to get a 6 photo pano done successfully. It was another strange day in MO. Tornado sirens around 7 and torrential down pours. Then the sky cleared up some and you could see blue skies and the sun setting. Then it poured again.

July 12th: Photo #23

Had to run an errand for my step mom today and ended up her dad’s house with my camera. He’s a big hunter and actually just recently went on a Safari. He’s got 3 mounted bears in the basement and I really like this one. The other’s weren’t as threatening. One was a rug and the other didn’t have the arms and claws!

July 13th: Photo #24

I only took like 10 photos as I walked from one building to another on campus today. This is a little fountain area that has some really tall grass by it.

July 14th: Photo #25

I drove out to the old farm house today. Heard the people that bought it from us moved out and it’s for sale so I figured no one would be there and I was right. Took pictures around the house and then trekked it through the woods to my favorite cedar tree. About half way up I found this little clump of moss/fungi. I thought it looked really cool. Especially the way the light was shinning on it. I wish the focus was a little better but what can you do when it’s 95+ degrees and like 110% Humidity! I was trying not to sweat all over my camera! I like it nonetheless though!

July 15th: Photo #26

Libby is such a happy dog. Was taking some pictures around the house when one of neighbors was walking her dog up the road. It’s rare that she’s being still. I have like 10 shots before this one that are all blurry cause she was jumping and wagging her tail! 🙂

July 16th: Photo # 27

Jakob and Nathan at Ted Drewes! I had a couple other pics from today, but this one was just too adorable not to post! 🙂

July 17th: Photo #28

The crew visited my buddy Travis at the Farmers Market located in some park in St. Louis. Afterwards we hung around and played some Bocce Ball with this strange bean bag set. Jakob here is displaying their stacking capabilities!

July 18th: Photo #29

I didn’t get out of STL till 10pm tonight and on the way home realized I hadn’t taken a single picture all day. There was some crazy clouds going on and they seemed to vertically split the sky in half. The moon just happened to be right on the dividing line. There was also a ton of heat lightning going on in the storm. It lit up the clouds my whole ride home. Was quite beautiful actually.

 

 

July 19th: Photo #30

I saw a friend post a picture of a light bulb during his 365 challenge and so I thought I’d give it a go. Now I’m starting to wonder if it was actually one in his picture…as this really hurt. I was seeing spots for awhile afterwards! I would suggest not taking pics of light bulbs that are turned on!

 

 

July 20th: Photo #31

I’m running out of ideas folks…especially when I don’t take my camera to work and I get off at 10pm! Tonight I took some pictures of kitchen appliances!

July 21st: Photo #32

Been storming a lot lately. Makes for some nice night shots though. Everything is shiny!

July 22nd: Photo #33

You know I’m getting desperate and have neglected my Photo a Day when you see pictures of myself. It was like 11:45pm and I realized I hadn’t taken a single picture yet…so this is what you get!

July 23rd: Photo #34

Another late night attempt at getting in a photo for the day. I was on the floor taking pictures of my guitar and they weren’t turning out very good. I need some nice lights! I was getting frustrated and decided to take pictures of myself again.

July 24th: Photo #35

Today was Life in a Day, put on by YouTube. People all over the world were supposed to film what they were doing today and send the footage in for the largest user-based feature film. So needless to say, I was filming with my little Kodak Zi8 camera and didn’t have my DSLR all day. So I took this shot with my phone when I was hanging out at the recently opened Benton Square.

Week #3 Photo a Day Challenge

Week #3 Photos

July 4th, 2010: Photo #15

I know you were probably expecting some cool fireworks shots for my July 4th picture…well so was I, but an unfortunate location choice by us gave us a pretty bum view of the fireworks that night. This tree recently fell down at my Aunt’s house during the almost foot of snow the Dallas area got this winter and I really loved that tree. It was already leaning over really weird…not like it was unhealthy or anything, but was just leaning funny and I could climb up on it real easy. Well the stump still looked pretty neat from atop so here’s a little self portrait! 🙂

July 5th, 2010: Photo #16

My Aunt’s boss owns a company that rents BMW motorcycles to people to take on tours all over the world. This morning we had to help his new Alaskan guide load up 5 bikes that he was taking back up to Alaska. At this point 2 were in the trailer this one was about to be loaded up on the back of the truck and two more were waiting in the garage to be loaded into the trailer.

July 6th: Photo #17

Was lazy again today. Didn’t pick up the camera till almost 11pm so I took the time to play around with some really long exposures. This one was set for a 20 second shutter speed. This is my back yard on a slightly overcast night. The buildings up on the hill are the old Missouri S&T dorms and also the tallest buildings in Rolla.

July 7th: Photo #18

This picture kind of gives you a glimpse into what the weather was like today. Spitting rain here and there with spots of sunshine.

July 8th: Photo #19

For a larger picture click here: http://i776.photobucket.com/albums/yy46/Prafeston/CountrySidePano.jpg

I’m not sure what I was going to take a picture of today, but this was not the plan until after I finished dinner with my mom and there was a big storm coming our way. I pointed the car out of town a ways and found a spot where you could really see the clouds coming in. I tried to take a 6 photo Panorama, which would be 3 up top and 3 below, but I’m still new to Panoramas and trying to match the clouds was getting frustrating cause PS couldn’t Automate it. I still think this turned out pretty good and you can expect more Panos in the future as I’ll be practicing more and more!

July 9th: Photo #20

Today I was walking a neighbor’s dog and came across this tiny “house”. At least I think it’s a house. Couldn’t be more than a room or two big. I’ve seen it before, but it’s so small you kind of forget about it. So as I was walking by I snapped a shot of it.

July 10th: Photo #21

Late night jam session turned early morning jam session. I didn’t really take any pics during the day of the 10th, but this one was taking after 12am the night before so it totally counts.

Week #2 Photo a Day Challenge

Here’s Week #2 Photos.

June 27th: A storm just passed through tonight when I was about to leave Springfield. The sky was a strange orange/yellow. Messing with some of the shutter speeds I got this house across the street to look much creepier than it actually was…though it was still creepy!

June 28th: Panorama: 3 Shots

Beautiful sunset as I was getting off work today. My neighbors must think I’m crazy when I drive like a psycho stop in front of my house leave the car on and the door open, sprint inside sprint back out with my camera and speed off again. Gonna have to start remembering to bring my camera with me to work..but then I leave it there on accident…it’s quite the dilemma.

For a larger pic click here: http://i776.photobucket.com/albums/yy46/Prafeston/PanoramaSunset.jpg

June 29th: Didn’t get to take any pics until after work today so I just took some random shots around the house. Something about the texture and the shadows really stood out to me in this picture.

June 30th: I took a bunch of crap photos today. This is the only one I liked. My mom was watering the flowers while telling me not to take pictures of her! 🙂 I spent most of my time after work today writing lyrics for a contest on YouTube put on by one of my favorite YouTube Musicians. If you wanna see it check out this post: https://prafeston.wordpress.com/2010/07/01/kina-grannis-co-write-pre-chorus-chorus/

July 1st: On the way down to Texas me and the step bros stopped in Springfield so they could visit their grandmother in the hospital. I had some time to kill why they were inside so I took a bunch of pictures in the parking lot. Really liked a couple of the ones I took of my wheels. YAY B&W!!

July 2nd: I’ve been perfecting the shoot from the hip method and as you don’t always get great shots you can catch people off guard or just get angles you wouldn’t normally get from setting them up properly. They don’t always turn out this good, and I probably had some better shots on this day, but I kept coming back to this one cause I like how it turned out and the fact I shot it holding the camera at my side I’m quite proud of it.

July 3rd: I was trying to get some good shots of the pool at night, but I had an audience of my step bro and dad so I ended up taking some funny pics of them playing around with the shutter speed set at 6 seconds. This was the first one we took. I thought Trevor did a good job standing still for so long so it was definitely worthy of Photo of the Day!

Week #1 Photo a Day Challenge

Last Sunday I decided to start a Photo a Day Challenge. Every Sunday I’ll be posting up the photos from the week. Here’s week #1!

June 20th: Today was Father’s Day and I was hoping to get a good shot of my dad for my first day of the 365 Challenge. This ended up being one of my favorite shots of the day though. Love my little Jackson dog!

My little boy

June 21st: After work I walked around campus as there are some great lights on some of the buildings at night. Took a lot shots I liked, but really liked this one. I was playing around with purposefully over exposing the shot and there was just something surreal about this one. This was at around 9:15pm so there was very little light left in the sky. That is the moon above the smoke stack.

June 22nd: Audio Mixer at my work. This unit controls 26 desk mics. Needless to say things can get a little hectic at times. I actually tried messing around with some of the effects in iPhoto before posting this one. I turned down the color a few notches on this one as it was a little yellowy due to my bad white balance.

June 23rd: There is an old shed at my dad’s house and it’s full of things of time gone by. Snapped this picture of a pile of fishing rods after having no luck getting some good shots of pistons, antlers, and turkey feet. I’m having fun messing with the easy edit options in iPhoto. This one has an edge blur and I messed with some of the exposure and contrast settings.

June 24th: Had dinner with my step brother tonight and I brought some brews…tried to take some artsy pictures while the sun was setting and we were waiting for the burgers to grill.

June 25th: Left for Springfield today and noticed these flowers had bloomed over night at my mom’s house. Wish I had a macro lens, but I still think this one turned out pretty good.

June 26th: Lots of pictures were taken today. I was in Springfield for the C-Street Jam. Saw my good friends in Truett & the Traitors as well as Ha Ha Tonka. I took some really good shots today, but Rick on the drums was just really into it tonight so I wanted to post one of his shots.

The Pursuit of Happiness, Art, Music, Photography, Film, Poetry, and Spirituality

Exclaim: You’re Alive!

I’ve chosen this title for my blog as I hope to post on the many reasons Life is good and I think we should share our joys of being Alive. Exclaim, shout, share your joys of life for everyone to…well, Enjoy!

In this blog I’ll be focusing on a few things that really put a smile on my face.

Art: I’ve always had a love for art in any fashion. I don’t practice any Fine Arts very often these days, but will do some sketching occasionally. If I blog about Art it will most likely be about another Artist I find interesting. I’ve got a lot of my photography on a great artist site called Bluecanvas. If you are an artist I highly recommend you setting up an account on this site. Here’s my profile.
http://www.bluecanvas.com/rafe

Music: There are so many flavors of music and I find myself enjoying quite an eclectic mix of tunes. There is nothing that makes me feel the emotion more than the simplicity of a passionate singer strumming with a guitar. I’m a big supporter of local music and tend to stay away from the Radio. Not that I don’t enjoy some of the music found there…I just find a particular joy in discovering music that’s not just handed to me via mainstream outlets. I might end up doing a Song of the week or Band of the week thing at some point. You can also expect a review of any new music I acquire. If you are curious as to what music I’m into you can check out my Last.fm profile. If you are a music lover like myself then look into getting a Last.fm account if you don’t already have one. It posts (they call this scrobble – you download a program that shows what songs you listen to) all the songs you listen to onto your profile and gives you stats like: Most Listened to Bands/Songs etc. I’ve had an account since Sept. 2006 and have scrobbled over 30,000 songs. Another cool feature is the Musical Compatibility. Go to any user’s profile and it will tell you how compatible your two music tastes are…fun to see how you compare with your friends. Here’s my Last.fm profile.
http://www.last.fm/Prafeston

Photography: Maybe it’s the easy way out, but my love of Art shifted at some point around the time I graduated high school to Photography. I’ve always thought I’m a creative dude, but in some instances I’ve had trouble expressing my ideas on paper or other forms. I have always had an eye for beauty, form, positive & negative space, and the unique aspects of life seen through our eyes. Photography has given me an easy way to capture these things. I recently started a Photo A Day Challenge and will post an update on a weekly basis with photos from the week. I’ll probably have a random post here and there about photo related topics and/or ideas.

Film: In college I was suggested by a friend to try out a Video class and I have thoroughly enjoyed making and editing anything and everything. I’ve posted many of these videos on my YouTube Channels. I’m hoping to start doing a bit more Video Blogging so you can expect to see those show up here as well. Who doesn’t love a good Movie? If I watch one I find particularly interesting or worth talking about I’ll give it a review.
http://www.youtube.com/Prafeston – Mostly Live Band Videos and College Projects
http://www.youtube.com/IamRafe – My new Blogging Channel

Poetry: Being a big music fan I have grown to love poetry and lyric writing. It’s not something I do A LOT, but I do like to write occasionally. I don’t have any formal training in the area so I feel like my poems lack structure at times, but I have found I have a way with words and rhythm that it seems to just come naturally to me. You can look forward to me posting old poems occasionally and new ones here and there.

Spirituality: I grew up in a Christian (Presbyterian) home and God has always been a part of my life. I’ve gone on quite the Spiritual jounrey since I was in high school. I’m very open minded about Christianity and Spirituality in general. As with all aspects of my life I’m a big monkey see monkey do or learn by example kind of guy and this has carried over into my spiritual life. I believe Jesus’ main messages were Love. I don’t push religion on anyone and I don’t think I have the biblical knowledge to even do so, but I do believe I can be an example of Christ by showing his love in all that I do…at least I try. I have fallen away from God some in the past few years. I’m a little unsure of where I am in life and where I want to go. I travel a lot and haven’t gone to church on a regular basis. It would be nice to find some time to do some reading of the Bible and get in the habit of praying again. Should I read something worth writing about or think of something spiritually related it might make it’s way into a blog.

Conclusion: I hope to keep this blog going as I’ve tried many times in the past to write on a regular basis and it just hasn’t happened. If you like what you read please subscribe and help me feel like I’m writing for a reason. Look forward to lots of posts on all aspects of my life, but in particular the ones which I have mentioned above. Art, Music, Photography, Film, Poetry, and Spirituality. Feel free to suggest a topic for me to write about as well. I’m open to any ideas. Get used to lots of Exclamation points! Lots of Randomly capitalized Words! And Lots of Ellipsis… 🙂