How to Photography

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There Was a Snake in Our Yard

SO I was out in our yard, here in Arizona, taking some pictures and walking the fence, very reasonable things to do in your own yard.
I walked towards the corner of the yard, I’m maybe a meter from the fence now and I see a tree branch.
Tree branch moves, just a tiny bit.
It’s a snake.
I run, terrified, to the back door, the sliding glass back door, the locked sliding glass back door.
After what felt like hours of terrified tapping on the glass Mom comes up and lets me in, staring at me like I’m an insane person.
I tell her there’s a snake, she goes over to look, I get my zoom lens and follow her.

After careful review of the photos in the field we determine it’s a gopher snake, harmless.
Unless you’re a  mouse, bat, or gopher.
It only eats tiny mammals, turns out.

Now the snake’s in the corner, he tries to slither out the crack in the wall he obviously came in by.
He has eaten a mouse or other small mammal whilst here, he’s fat and full and stuck.

Now here’s a video of what happend next:

Black and White Tree

Shot digitally but edited to look infrared.

GE Sponsored Tour, Day Two

The second day had a lot more stuff in it.

Portrait: Photographing a photographer photographing a photographer.

Included: The first time the staff photographer smiled. {The guy on the right.}

Lunch in Sedona

 Dad if you didn’t know, has a plane.
And for the first time since we’ve started doing this it’s in AZ with us and also not broken.
So a couple days ago Dad said “Hey we’re flying to lunch. In Sedona.”

Takeoff.

GE Sponsored Tour, Day One

THE whole point of this trip was something oil–related, I think there was a conference?
{Dad’s part in this was that he and his team were buying spare parts from GE.} Because there were so many people there GE sponsored a tour for the “Spouses” {Really the wives/Girlfriends. And Me.} Spouses is in quotes because I was the only guy {On the Tour} I saw.
 There were a bunch of organised things, but I only went on the tours of the last two days.

We were on Tour #1. 

Portrait: This was quite the official outfit, there was a guide and a guard and a photographer.

This is the photographer, I took a couple of pictures of him because of his grumpy face.

Florence: Gross

Seriously, this one is gross. 

If you’re a veganitarian please go read one of the other absurdly long photo posts we have available.

Florence: The Graveyard of San Miniato al Monte

THEY call it the Remembrance Park.
  I like a graveyard, mostly because it makes me feel better about my character names, a lot of real people had crazy names. You’ll see.

One day we had some time, and Dad wanted to walk. So we took a taxi to the church on the hill, just up the hill actually from where David used to be, and walked back. 

Around back of this church is a really great graveyard, huge and cool and free.

St. Peter’s Basilica {2/2}

WHEN you walk into St. Peter’s basilica your senses sort of overload.
 It’s a HUGE space, the walls, covered in carved marble, sometimes that is covered is gold, there are paintings of bible scenes I know nothing about and statues of Popes and Saints with names I’d never even heard, it’s overpowering.
 Frankly, I didn’t like it. It was too much all at once.

Detail: Two of these cardinals/popes were obviously the best ones, Iacobo 3 and Iacobo 2. 

{Iacobo is Latin for Jacob.} 

Detail: A Corner. 

St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome. {1/2}

ONE of the things most people go and see in Rome is St. Peter’s basilica, spiritual and political centre of the catholic version of christianity. 

  Dad kept calling it the Vatican, and while The Basilica was in Vatican City but I think the vatican is actually a bunch of offices and such in the back that tourists can’t get to. 

The Vatican City and St. Peter’s Basilica are way too big to see in a day, especially if you have a cold.