Marching of the Ants

I’ve watched the daily march of the ants

From nest to honey pot

Tasks before them

Trudging onward

Jostling each other for position as they move along well-worn trails

Circadian rhythms feel imperfect when compared to the daily motion of these ants

Their lives bottled up, lived, and consumed in symmetrically rigid steel mounds

Each carving out a space

Each carving out a function

Thirsting for a saccharine sweet reward

But the honey earned tastes bitter in the mouths of the discontent

Flower 4/40

I can't thank Mr. Panitzke enough for being an upstanding guy and letting me keep the flower.

Flower 4/40

Card included w/ the plant

The clue that led to the find

Muir Woods

I always wanted to try out black and white HDR. I finally found an image in my library worth working on. This was taken in Muir Woods just outside of San Francisco.

Before:

After:

Austin in August

I've got news for you...it's hot in the hot tub.

I had a chance to take a few shots on the Austin skyline from my hotel window at night, and of course I had to HDR-ize the view:

I also got to see some bats...one or two...or 1.5 million. Give or take.

(Click for larger images...They are worth it):

I took also trip to my own personal mecca. 

Lance Armstrong's bike shop Mellow Johnny's: 

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In the Mix Vol. 1

This is a first for me. I have put together another playlist; however, this time I went ahead and mixed the songs together. So here for your listening enjoyment is the first installment of "In the Mix."

You can download the mix at the following link:

In The Mix Vol. 1.mp3

TRACK LISTING

Feel it all Around -- Washed Out

Coat of Arms -- Nosaj Thing

Heartbeats -- The Knife

Little Motel -- Modest Mouse

Baby's Breath -- Bill Callahan

Sim Sala Bim -- Fleet Foxes

Man of Constant Sorrow -- Bob Dylan

Whoopee, Ti Yi Yo, Get Along Little Doggies -- Woody Guthrie

Song to Woody -- Bob Dylan

Do Re Mi -- Woody Guthrie

Dead Flowers -- The Rolling Stones

Where Did you Sleep Last Night -- Nirvana

Minnesota, WI -- Bon Iver

Perfect Day -- Lou Reed

Pale Blue Eyes -- The Velvet Underground

The clouds float gently by

The thoughts of man attempt to put meaning in the motion

Science explains but fails to reason why

And the clouds float gently by

The irrelevance of time and space

Confounded by the need to belong

Still the clouds float gently by

Tilt Shift Photography

I seriously could sit here, and make these all night long. It is so much fun. The technique is called Tilt-Shift photography. It comes from the use of a fancy lens, and you can read more about it on wiki. You can also cheat, and use Photoshop to accomplish the same effect as the fancy lens, which is how I made these images. It is really fun to play around with, and as you can see some images work better than others.

Click on the image to get the larger size...it makes a huge difference!
(pun intended)