I don’t take my main camera, the Leica M8 used to shoot the engagement session, everywhere with me, though sometimes I feel that I should. Other times, I have it available, yet choose due to circumstance to use my iPhone instead. Now I don’t think that the iPhone’s camera in any way takes photos as good as even a low end point and shoot on a good day, there are times when discretion is a good idea, like in the next two photos.
This first photo was taken outdoors, however, to get the angle I did, I decided to park, quite illegally, literally right under a No Parking sign to get the shot. My camera wasn’t that far away from me, it was in the trunk, yet, I figured I wanted to get the shot of this building all lit up for the holidays and leave before someone showed up to tell me to leave or worse write a ticket. I literally only took the one and didn’t even stick around to see if it turned out well. I’m pleased with the efforts.
On Wednesday I found a group volunteering at the Santa Clara Valley Center for the Blind through bingo games. At first I thought the people we would be assisting were blind (and was curious about and looking forward to helping the blind play bingo), yet it turned out it was sighted players whose game fees would benefit the blind. As I was working there for the night and did not know what my job would be, having a camera would be awkward in terms of movement and respecting privacy (I hadn’t asked to take photos in advance). I did want a photo of the event, so I took one of the bingo cards I spent the night selling next to some colorful bingo markers.
My job for the night involved selling these cards called Cherry Bells or Cherries. The work simliar to a slot machine, match three of a kind and get a prize. Instead of using a coin to scratch off squares, players peel off the paper on the back. This way the whole card can be recycled, and additionally its faster to find out if you won (typical prize $1, $5, etc. though I did have a few $20 winners), and winnings can be paid out in cash or other tickets. Some players bought a lot of cards, and this is in addition to any bingo cards for games they were playing. There were also other similar cards which paid out other bigger possible prizes during in conjunction with the bingo games. I had a fun time volunteering, meeting people and even had a nice dinner (cheesesteak and fries) as thanks for volunteering, I plan to go back soon.
I’ve enjoyed seeing the city of Willow Glen decked out for Christmas for a few weeks now. Last Saturday before my run as I was very early I finally slowed down, despite the fog, to take a few photos of the pretty decorations.
This display caught my eye as I’ve always been a fan of blue as a Christmas color even though its not as popular as red and green for the holiday.
Some old fashioned snowmen help sell some antique treasures.
Even our running home base at Athletic Performance got into the spirit. I didn’t realize until I was editing this photo for the blog just how well the running gear matched the typical Christmas colors and decorations they had put up.
Then after my run, I spied something metal and yellow. One of my favorite brands of all time, and the first yellow Harley Davidson I’ve ever seen. It was amazing.
While I would have taken more creative angles if there hadn’t been any other cars around, I still found a few fun product shot like angles to take.
I’ll leave you this entry with a bumper sticker I found quite amusing (this is funniest if you are a Douglas Adams fan):
by Danielle Stolman
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