The mindless ramblings of an old man.
Yesterday was another busy day! I got up early and went with my parents to Downstream Casino near Joplin. They sent me a thing to get a free buffet and $12.00 credit to play with. The buffet is decent, even without getting it free it's cheap. I think it is only about $6 and drinks are included in that. I thought since the last time we were there about a month ago the food had gone down hill a little. They had replaced one section with stir fry. We got there just after they opened and they weren't really busy, which could have been why the food was just barely warm.
After eating we went out on the floor to play. Gambling really isn't my thing and usually when we go I won't spend over $20-25 dollars. Occasionally I'll play a slot machine for fun, but I mostly stick to the roulette table. I have a system and I only bet when the odds of winning are in my favor so I usually do ok. I made enough to afford my gas, parking and ticket to get into the Ozark Empire Fairground that evening. Plus I got an incredibly cheap bonus gift!
For a bonus gift I got to pick from three things. The first was a silicone like baking pan (they called it a loaf pan). At first I thought it was one of those things you set in a drawer to organizer your silverware. The little squares in it weren't much bigger than the round holes in a cupcake pan, I guess you could make square cupcakes. The second thing was a really cheap little makeup bag, of which I would have no use. The third thing, which I picked, was a little tool kit.
The tool kit had a flashlight in it and when I put the batteries in they were almost dead. There was an ink pen which looked like it was made of metal, but it was made out of plastic. There was a tire gauge which also looked like it was made out of metal, but it was plastic as well. I certainly would not trust the tire gauge to be accurate! I'm sure if any of these gifts sound appealing to you I bet they can be purchased at the Dollar Store.
After getting home from the casino I uploaded a few pictures and microwaved some pizza bites. I wanted to save money by not eating out somewhere and I figured the food at the fair would cost a small fortune. Surprisingly some of the food at the fair wasn't that expensive! A lot of the places were $5-6 for a funnel cake, but I saw at least a couple only charging $3.00 I don't think I could eat a whole funnel cake by myself! I thought about buying one for my mom and bringing it home, but I didn't think it would be good by the time I got home and I knew they would be asleep. They had a Fizoli's and a few other places where the prices weren't bad at all. If I knew the prices weren't going to be so bad I probably would have grabbed something down there.
I had a couple hours to kill before my friend's concert so I walked around taking pictures. I checked out the photograph competition going on in the fair. I saw some that I had taken almost an identical photo too, I go a lot of places and take a lot of pictures! I didn't see any though I couldn't at least match!
I'll see these people out places and events taking pictures and I'll feel a little insecure because my camera is getting old. It's a great camera, but there are more expensive cameras out there and mine is pretty basic. I mean these people have cameras newer than mine, more expensive, with all the bell's and whistles. Lenses that cost thousands of dollars that are way bigger than mine, add on flashes, tripods, etc. But later on I'll be surfing around and come across their photos and mine will be just as good and more often they will be better.
My camera is five years old now so it's getting up there. It's 16.2 MP and the new ones are 24.1MP. I would love to have an ew D7100 and get that MP upgrade! I have a few other lenses, but I don't ever use them. The 85-105mm lense on my camera is pretty much all-purpose for me. I don't have one of those little flowery looking things on the end. I'm not even sure what they are called, it lasted about a day before I tossed it somewhere around the house. I think they are just mostly for people who want to look like professional photographers. Mine kept twisting on the lense and the corners were getting in the pictures. It just made the camera that much longer, bigger and bulkier. You know what I do if the sun is in the way? I use my hand! Heck I don't even know where my lense cap is! I don't use it because it's in the way too! Sometimes you have a split second to raise the camera, aim and click and if the lense cap is on you are going to miss that shot.
My camera gear is an extra battery (which I rarely need), two 32GB SD cards which I have yet to take so many pictures I need more than that, an a lense pen and a couple lense wipes. That's it, simple and basic!
Talk about getting sidetracked! Back to the fair...... I would have liked to have had a little more time to walk around taking pictures at the fair. I'm sure there are a few things I didn't see and the fair always has different things going on at different times. But after getting home from Joplin I couldn't have gotten down there very much sooner than what I did and if my friend hadn't of been playing a concert I wouldn't have gone at all.
Kimberly Patrick, my friend's concert was really good! We met last year when I photographed her at a concert in Springfield. Usually her shows are to far away for me to go to, but since she was playing in Springfield I thought I would go out and support a friend and take some pictures. She plays great music and puts on a really good show, so if you ever have the opportunity to see her in concert I'd really recommend it! Or you can check her out here http://www.kimberlypatrickmusic.com/
The concert was after dark which sucked, so lighting was bad. But the stage was up high and there was a nice big clear area in front of it to move around and take pictures. I remember at one point I really found the sweet spot on lighting. As a photographer that is like an incredible feeling. I normally don't shoot in burst mode, but I did a lot that night. I wasn't going to be taking any more pictures later so why let all that empty space in the memory cards go to waste?
I will end up deleting most of the pictures, because a lot of them will be almost identical. It's all about capturing that split second candid smile or a little bit of attitude thrown into a song. I'm pretty sure when I'm done editing I'm going to have some really amazing pictures!
When I'm done editing.... that may be a while! I just finished up the ones from the C-Street City Market in Springfield. I still have some I took walking around Commercial Street, but those can wait a while. I haven't even touched the ones from Branson yet. Tonight my niece was like when are you going to get them online!? I'll probably work on those after I wake up in the morning, save about half of them for later on and then Thursday start the ones from the fair and concert.
I didn't get in bed last night until late and then I slept till almost 1:00pm. Was still tired! Now it'salmost 4:00 a.m. again and I'm still not in bed. Busy busy busy!
Got the rates for the wedding show in August today and it's more than I can afford. Maybe I can swing the cheapest booth. As tight as things are financially right now it would suck so bad if I didn't get any weddings booked from it.
I worked on photos most of the day. Took a break and played Xbox for a couple hours and watched this weeks episode of The Last Ship on the DVR. Knocked a bottle of wine off the counter tonight and with some amazing reflexes caught it in my hand by the bottom of the bottle without even dropping the empty paper plate I had in the same hand.
Opened the curtain to check on the cats outside and there was a baby opossum eating the cat food. As soon as I opened the curtain and turned on the porch light it scared him and he started to run away. I ran to get my camera and through on my shoes because I knew by the time I got back he would at least be in the grass somewhere. Grabbed the flashlight and couldn't find him. Thought I heard him rustle some leaves by the shed, but didn't see him anywhere. I wasn't going to look to hard though because the backyard was a minefield of spiderwebs. Almost walked into one on the far side of the shed with a big spider right in the center but the flashlight reflected off the webs.
When I went around to the far side of the shed the neighbors dogs started barking and I hear the neighbor go sssshhhh to the dogs. Just out there lurking around in their yard at night in the dark. I swear there is some weird stuff that goes on next door. Doesn't matter what time of day it is, morning, noon or night someone is always coming or going from that house. I leave or get home and it seems like they are too, doesn't matter what time it is. They must go out to their cars and circle the block every 10 minutes.
I guess Ms. Kitty and Yellow (our two adopted stray cats outside) don't mind the opossum. When I went outside they were by the door just standing there like nothing was going on. There is no way they couldn't have not seen the opossum, who knows maybe he lives under the shed with Ms. Kitty.
After eating we went out on the floor to play. Gambling really isn't my thing and usually when we go I won't spend over $20-25 dollars. Occasionally I'll play a slot machine for fun, but I mostly stick to the roulette table. I have a system and I only bet when the odds of winning are in my favor so I usually do ok. I made enough to afford my gas, parking and ticket to get into the Ozark Empire Fairground that evening. Plus I got an incredibly cheap bonus gift!
For a bonus gift I got to pick from three things. The first was a silicone like baking pan (they called it a loaf pan). At first I thought it was one of those things you set in a drawer to organizer your silverware. The little squares in it weren't much bigger than the round holes in a cupcake pan, I guess you could make square cupcakes. The second thing was a really cheap little makeup bag, of which I would have no use. The third thing, which I picked, was a little tool kit.
The tool kit had a flashlight in it and when I put the batteries in they were almost dead. There was an ink pen which looked like it was made of metal, but it was made out of plastic. There was a tire gauge which also looked like it was made out of metal, but it was plastic as well. I certainly would not trust the tire gauge to be accurate! I'm sure if any of these gifts sound appealing to you I bet they can be purchased at the Dollar Store.
After getting home from the casino I uploaded a few pictures and microwaved some pizza bites. I wanted to save money by not eating out somewhere and I figured the food at the fair would cost a small fortune. Surprisingly some of the food at the fair wasn't that expensive! A lot of the places were $5-6 for a funnel cake, but I saw at least a couple only charging $3.00 I don't think I could eat a whole funnel cake by myself! I thought about buying one for my mom and bringing it home, but I didn't think it would be good by the time I got home and I knew they would be asleep. They had a Fizoli's and a few other places where the prices weren't bad at all. If I knew the prices weren't going to be so bad I probably would have grabbed something down there.
I had a couple hours to kill before my friend's concert so I walked around taking pictures. I checked out the photograph competition going on in the fair. I saw some that I had taken almost an identical photo too, I go a lot of places and take a lot of pictures! I didn't see any though I couldn't at least match!
I'll see these people out places and events taking pictures and I'll feel a little insecure because my camera is getting old. It's a great camera, but there are more expensive cameras out there and mine is pretty basic. I mean these people have cameras newer than mine, more expensive, with all the bell's and whistles. Lenses that cost thousands of dollars that are way bigger than mine, add on flashes, tripods, etc. But later on I'll be surfing around and come across their photos and mine will be just as good and more often they will be better.
My camera is five years old now so it's getting up there. It's 16.2 MP and the new ones are 24.1MP. I would love to have an ew D7100 and get that MP upgrade! I have a few other lenses, but I don't ever use them. The 85-105mm lense on my camera is pretty much all-purpose for me. I don't have one of those little flowery looking things on the end. I'm not even sure what they are called, it lasted about a day before I tossed it somewhere around the house. I think they are just mostly for people who want to look like professional photographers. Mine kept twisting on the lense and the corners were getting in the pictures. It just made the camera that much longer, bigger and bulkier. You know what I do if the sun is in the way? I use my hand! Heck I don't even know where my lense cap is! I don't use it because it's in the way too! Sometimes you have a split second to raise the camera, aim and click and if the lense cap is on you are going to miss that shot.
My camera gear is an extra battery (which I rarely need), two 32GB SD cards which I have yet to take so many pictures I need more than that, an a lense pen and a couple lense wipes. That's it, simple and basic!
Talk about getting sidetracked! Back to the fair...... I would have liked to have had a little more time to walk around taking pictures at the fair. I'm sure there are a few things I didn't see and the fair always has different things going on at different times. But after getting home from Joplin I couldn't have gotten down there very much sooner than what I did and if my friend hadn't of been playing a concert I wouldn't have gone at all.
Kimberly Patrick, my friend's concert was really good! We met last year when I photographed her at a concert in Springfield. Usually her shows are to far away for me to go to, but since she was playing in Springfield I thought I would go out and support a friend and take some pictures. She plays great music and puts on a really good show, so if you ever have the opportunity to see her in concert I'd really recommend it! Or you can check her out here http://www.kimberlypatrickmusic.com/
The concert was after dark which sucked, so lighting was bad. But the stage was up high and there was a nice big clear area in front of it to move around and take pictures. I remember at one point I really found the sweet spot on lighting. As a photographer that is like an incredible feeling. I normally don't shoot in burst mode, but I did a lot that night. I wasn't going to be taking any more pictures later so why let all that empty space in the memory cards go to waste?
I will end up deleting most of the pictures, because a lot of them will be almost identical. It's all about capturing that split second candid smile or a little bit of attitude thrown into a song. I'm pretty sure when I'm done editing I'm going to have some really amazing pictures!
When I'm done editing.... that may be a while! I just finished up the ones from the C-Street City Market in Springfield. I still have some I took walking around Commercial Street, but those can wait a while. I haven't even touched the ones from Branson yet. Tonight my niece was like when are you going to get them online!? I'll probably work on those after I wake up in the morning, save about half of them for later on and then Thursday start the ones from the fair and concert.
I didn't get in bed last night until late and then I slept till almost 1:00pm. Was still tired! Now it'salmost 4:00 a.m. again and I'm still not in bed. Busy busy busy!
Got the rates for the wedding show in August today and it's more than I can afford. Maybe I can swing the cheapest booth. As tight as things are financially right now it would suck so bad if I didn't get any weddings booked from it.
I worked on photos most of the day. Took a break and played Xbox for a couple hours and watched this weeks episode of The Last Ship on the DVR. Knocked a bottle of wine off the counter tonight and with some amazing reflexes caught it in my hand by the bottom of the bottle without even dropping the empty paper plate I had in the same hand.
Opened the curtain to check on the cats outside and there was a baby opossum eating the cat food. As soon as I opened the curtain and turned on the porch light it scared him and he started to run away. I ran to get my camera and through on my shoes because I knew by the time I got back he would at least be in the grass somewhere. Grabbed the flashlight and couldn't find him. Thought I heard him rustle some leaves by the shed, but didn't see him anywhere. I wasn't going to look to hard though because the backyard was a minefield of spiderwebs. Almost walked into one on the far side of the shed with a big spider right in the center but the flashlight reflected off the webs.
When I went around to the far side of the shed the neighbors dogs started barking and I hear the neighbor go sssshhhh to the dogs. Just out there lurking around in their yard at night in the dark. I swear there is some weird stuff that goes on next door. Doesn't matter what time of day it is, morning, noon or night someone is always coming or going from that house. I leave or get home and it seems like they are too, doesn't matter what time it is. They must go out to their cars and circle the block every 10 minutes.
I guess Ms. Kitty and Yellow (our two adopted stray cats outside) don't mind the opossum. When I went outside they were by the door just standing there like nothing was going on. There is no way they couldn't have not seen the opossum, who knows maybe he lives under the shed with Ms. Kitty.
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