A is for Access
Image by Ben Zvan
Access: noun,
The right or opportunity to use or benefit from something.
Strobist:
1 540ez inside room on 1/1 into a sheet of white nylon thumb-tacked to the door frame and door.
1 540ez on 1/64 with 3" DIY coroplast grid from camera left.
Triggered with Pocket Wizards.
I'm learning to light at strobist.
In honor of the first annual, International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Used by:
Die Gefühlskonserve 13 July, 2007
The Good City January 2, 2008
Blogging Without a Blog February 18, 2008
Research Dreams February 23, 2008
Mendrblog March 3, 2008
Healthcare Reform Now March 6, 2008
CBC Radio One April 16, 2008
Robert's Luxury Real Estate Blog August 22, 2008
May December Home Accessories October 10, 2008
Public Affairs 2.0 October 22, 2008
The Marketing Spot October 27, 2008
neil.lolin.net December 04, 2008
Information Sells January 08, 2009
Enjoying a Healthy and Balanced Life February 15, 2009
National Network of Libraries of Medicine March 10, 2009
Blogging and Education April 16, 2009
The Lewin Report April 22, 2009
Apartment Therapy May 12, 2009
SUNY ENY/ACRL Conference May 2009
Transparency, Participation, Collaboration May 27, 2009
Matador Abroad July 1, 2009
Simple Security Blog July 8, 2009
Cops 2.0 August 17, 2009
www.examiner.com/examiner/x-20570-Boston-Open-Relationshi... September 15, 2009
Moments in Time September 27, 2009
Sunrock Property Management October 18, 2009
TheFinance.sg October 20, 2009
Ordinary Time October 28, 2009
Green Ideas November 20, 2009
Treasures Found November 27, 2009
Rhett Smith November 30, 2009
Social Media Strategery January 27, 2010
Business Insider January 28, 2010
Commercial, Apartment and Residential March 9, 2010
Faster Future March 9, 2010
Inventory System Software Blog May 11, 2010
Roundtrip May 11, 2010
Prayer For a New YearJan 1, 2011 (what's with all the religious people using this photo?)
God Sized Dreams: The Disclamers Jun 6, 2011
6 Great Uses For An Informational Interview Aug 31, 2011
Deals Of The Week: It's All About Access Sep 30, 2011
8 Signs it's Time to Take a Break From Your Relationship Jan 25, 2012
Babysitter Safety Apr 12, 2012
How to Find Good Tennants Jun 13, 2012
www.ehow.com/how_2299250_clean-antique-brass-door-hardwar... Undated
MIB solutions Undated
Digital Tinker 2009
College of the Canyons - Distance Education Captioning and Transcription Undated
pile_o_books.jpg
Image by Beth77
Buckingham Fountain and CPD Skyline
Image by Out of Chicago
Buckingham Fountain and CPD Skyline
from www.outofchicago.com
This is from our photo walk Saturday. We arrived at Buckingham fountain just in time to hear the finale of the Stars and Stripes Forever. So we missed the fountain light show, but the Chicago sky put on a show of its own. The city honored its recently fallen police officers, Officer Paul W. Nauden, Star #10803 and Officer Clifton Lewis, Star #4103 with the letters CPD on major buildings and their star numbers on the Blue Cross Blue Shield Tower.
Photo Walk Photo Contest
We're going to do this contest a little differently. I want to put the images into a post about our photo walk, so I'd like you to email them to me at chris@cjsmithphotography.com. Please send me your one best image. I will add it to a gallery for our judges and then put them onto the site. To qualify for the contest, I need to receive your image by this Friday at midnight.
The winner of the contest will receive the Topaz Labs bundle. Two runners up will each receive an individual piece of Topaz software of their choice. Thank you to Topaz Labs for their sponsorship of the contest.
Laotian New Year No 9
Image by frank3.0
Just when a slightly jaded cultural writer thinks he has seen it all, a brightly painted stupa and surrounding religious complex, rises from the Cajun prairie and changes all that. That's what happened this Easter Sunday anyway, in the small town of Broussard, where the Laotian (or Lao, I've seen it both ways, if someone wants to correct me on the proper term) community was celebrating their New Year Festival, Songkan. From what I understand this group of between 500 and 1,000 south-east Asian expats and their Louisiana born kin have been formally getting together at the Buddhist, Wat Dhammaratanaram temple for over 20 years. Celebrations include lots of traditional food, a beauty pageant and parade, a water cleansing fight, the sweeping out of last year's bad luck from homes and the ritual building of a large, flag-studded sand castle.
Golden spires rise from the flat alluvial plain and glisten against the pine, cypress and wild sassafras trees. Incense blends in the warm air with the smells of grilling chicken and fresh fruit. Dragon and elephant motif murals and carvings cover the buildings in elaborate red and white pictograms. The wall surrounding the temple grounds is composed of pillar shrines to ancestors, each adorned with plastic flowers and candles. Vendors sell syrupy, thick iced coffee and coconut drinks along with wickerwork and CDs from the home country.
Louisiana is a state known of its oddly themed festivals—The Shrimp and Petroleum Festival, The Zwolle Tamale Fiesta, The Mirliton Festival. But, increasingly these outdoor beer bashes have started to feel sort of similar. The same road-weary carnies, tending the same creaking rides decorated in flaking paint and with half their lightbulbs burned out. As much fun as Louisiana is during festival season, most of these events have taken on a certain sameness, catering to the roving RV crowd, bike clubs and parents looking for a place to distract their kids. These are festivals meant to draw in tourists. In opposition stand things like the Laotian New Year which seems to be aimed squarely at the refugee community that flocked to south Louisiana following the Vietnam war. There was even a veteran's tent full of older men eating pho and grilled meat on skewers. I am not being critical of events like the Beaux Bridge Crawfish Festival. Where else would one see both a live demonstration of the Sham Wow and a competitive crawfish eating contest? I only mention it because this New Years Festival was unlike any of the other Louisiana fetes I have attended. Maybe a bit like the wild, horseback Mardi Gras in Mamou—decidedly organized for and attended by locals. To be sure, I was not the only blue-eyed person present but the dominant language was not English or even French. And in a state that with as varied a patchwork of a culture as Louisiana has, it is inspiring to see yet another swatch being sown into the whole.
As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I have been approached about writing a book about obscure Louisiana restaurants, towns and festivals. I certainly feel like I have a decent working knowledge of the subject, but the Laotian New Year had always been one of those events that I had missed out on. I don't think it will be my last visit but I would recommend attending on Saturday night when, by the looks of the festival grounds, the real action happens. I feel so singularly fortunate to have been born in such an unusual place. Now, to be presented with the opportunity to explore and write about it at greater length, I can't think of anything I'd rather undertake. If everything works out with the book then I guess I will look back on this trip as my first day of formal research. If the rest of the project is half as interesting then this is going to be an amazing year.
NOTE: Sorry that the EXIF data is missing on some of these shots. I used a post-processing piece of software that strips it out for reasons unknown to me.
Check out more at my blog, Lemons and Beans, for lots of photos, recipes, travel writing and other ramblings. I appreciate any feedback but, please do not post graphic awards or invitations in the comments, I'm just not crazy about them.
