More importantly: new laces that need to get muddy!
It was a pretty good place to shoot actually. Beautiful grounds, interesting buildings, wildlife, and to top it off, big rigs and pretty women. There were some professionals there doing a shoot of some new rigs. Not sure why they came all the way here (there were California license plates), but they did choose a nice setting. It was kind of interesting watching the professionals work though. Huge white screens to bounce light, the truck freshly waxed, the ground wet to look nice, the lady dressed in a shimmery dresss, and tons of helpers. People placing the hair on the model, people adjusting lights, people just standing and watching. Very cool.
My shoot went pretty well, but I struggled with the lighting. Everything was a bit cool and dark, and my camera seemed to want to lighten everything too much. Maybe I had the wrong settings. I need to consult the manual. I should have the pictures up tomorrow though.
from Hand of God by Soundgarden
That’ll teach me to take care of my own backups. Sheesh. Thankfully my webhost had a pretty recent backup of a few key directories, and in the end I didn’t lose anything I couldn’t recreate myself. Lesson learned. All should be back to normal. Yay!
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Time to contact my webhost to see if they can do a restore on a directory. I WILL be more diligent about that myself from now on.
Oh yeah, if you see anything amiss (outside of the galleries), please drop me a line.
If you find something that doesn’t work, please let me know.
When driving back to work from the mall today, I needed to turn left into the driveway at VMI. Problem was there was a lady stopped in front of if letting out a passenger. I honked, and she looked up at me I gave her a dirty look, but she didn’t really do much beyond that. Her passenger hurried a bit then scurried off. She pulled out, gave a little half smile as if to say oops, then drove off.
The thing that really got me was that 5 feet away (just in the driveway she was blocking), was a parking spot for visitors. She couldn’t use that eh? Stoopid lady. For that she should have her licence revoked.
The part that made me an asshole was the fact that her passenger was using a cane. Doesn’t matter to me though, she was blocking the driveway for no good reason at all.
I had seen DMB one other time, and that concert was absoutely amazing. Excellent sound, wicked energy from the band, and by far the best light show at a concert I have ever seen.
This show had a lot to live up to.
I lived up to my hype though. Again the sound was excellent, the band was full of energy, and the light show excellent (not quite as good as last time). The music was so fluid that I had a hard time not believing I was listening to a CD. Of course the songs had some of the best solos I have heard, flowing from the song to solo after solo until each band member had their turn, then again blending back into the song.
Few concerts are perfect though. There was a large Jumbotron (for lack of a better word) that was above the band. It was a beautiful screen with crisp clear, and bright images. The problem was that it was so easy to watch the band on the screen, it distracted from watching the band. Several times I shook my head and realized that I had been staring at the screen for the past while, and hadn’t even really been watching the band (something I normally love to do).
Another distraction was that they sometimes toook large breaks in between the songs. To me it ruined the flow of the show, but I did notice that during a couple of the breaks, a technician was attempting to repair something on the massive drum kit. The breaks did highlight one aspect of the band, and that is their timing. After one long break, just as the crowd was starting to relax, all at once there was an explosion of sound and light emanating from the stage. It actually startled me.
The negatives aside, I really enjoyed the concert. The drummer was amazing, and alway, always, always had a huge grin on his face. The fiddler, had such energy, and really seemd to be having fun up there. The sax player, blended in perfectly. The keyboardist was OK, and basically did his job. The bassist was hilarious. Usually when the camera was on him he started dancing really funny, and aking fishy faces. I am not sure if he as in a strange mood, or if that is what he does.
Dave. What needs to be said about him. He is a mumbler. 
We were talking about it at dinner, and the few times he talked to the crowd, I had no clue what he was saying. Singing is a different matter, and that was excellent.
I all, I would rate this an excellent show, and would recomend anyone who likes his music to see him live.
We had friends over for dinner on Saturday night, Sunday was a work kind of day, amd I took Digger and Yoshi mountain biking, and today Sue and I went to visit Steve, Rhiannon, and Teagan.
Tomorrow we brave the ferries to go to Vancouver to see Dave Matthews! I am really looking forward to the show. It should be awesome. Time to go pack!
This past Wednesday Victoria was treated to a wonderful show by the Canadian Forces Snowbirds. They performed over the water just off Dallas Road just after 7pm.
Their acrobatics are amazing! So precise, in such close formation. Their head on passes are heart wrenching. It is almost like watching a ballet in the air. They can make their planes do a sort of dance that is beyond believable. Truly awesome!
The pics I took can be viewed here.
Now this seems like a great idea to display your digital pictures in your home. I definitely want one. I would have to get two though, one for horizontal pictures, and one for vertical. Very high tech though, and I love how it uses WiFi to get the pictures to the frame. One downside is that it looks like you have to drill a couple holes in your walls to power it. Small price to pay though.