Craig's First Quarter

Taken at an abandoned building on the trail up to the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawai'i.

Q's 1q

From January, this was a late night out with my friends Andy (right) and Dan.

Next week: Spring!

Post your "Best of Jan/Feb/Mar" soon!

/rl

Q's forbidden

I wasn't able to come up with something truly forbidden this week, so I just made a picture I like of something looked down on: stripes and plaids.

Ryan's "Forbidden"

Photographically, not my best. I had just taken the photo I planned to use when I passed this building. I found it amusing...

My "planned" photo is here.

/rl

Forbidden

There's so much I love about this sign. First is the apparently necessary translation of what a "no left turn" sign means. Next is the egregious use of quotation marks on said sign. Finally is that, while no left turn is allowed, it's apparently okay to go *straight*, except 59th street is offset as it crosses Harlem. This involves, you guessed it, making a left turn.

Cory's Forbidden

I was kind of busy last week, so I didn't manage to take a really great picture. But I did recall this great bridge that's next to Hinsdale Hospital: it is only one lane wide, so there's a stoplight on each side to keep traffic flowing only in one direction. It is also built as an arch, so there's no way to know when you start over it if the people on the other side are paying attention to their stoplight. Very exciting. You can kind of see what's happening on the Google.

Anyway, traffic is forbidden from driving over this bridge in two directions at once!

Next week...

Best of 2009Q1! I suppose that means, January, February, and March only.

'Forbidden' due today. I forbid you from not posting something.

Q's (unhatched) peep

which came first? the cadbury creme egg or the peep?

Ryan's "Peep"

Finally figured out where the M&M's have been going....

Also, I promoted "Forbidden" this week. We had already agreed that it should be "Best Of" for the first quarter of 2009. Do we want to change it?



/rl

Craig's Disco Peeps

If we knew why peeps went to discotheques, we'd have a much deeper understanding of the world.

Cory's Peep Show

I took a special trip to the Chicago area's only Peep farm for this week's topic, and came back with this picture of some peeps ready for market.

I also had an alternative shot that looks a lot more rustic, but the Peeps didn't look so peepish in it...

"Peeps" due tomorrow!

Next weeks topic is forbidden.

Err... no. The topic isn't forbidden. The topic is "forbidden."

I think.

/rl

Q's new

recently a friend mailed me a letter . . . a new one (at least to me) snipped out of sheet metal.

Ryan's "New"

April showers bring May flowers. Will blizzards in April bring us lizards in May?

Anyway, sometimes "New" things come too early.


/rl

Cory's New

I was hoping I would have "new kid" pictures for this week, but it's still a little early. So I settled on these little guys. Bonus points for identifying them!

Craig's New

I'm cool with quarterly best-of. Here's my 'new'... Spring is here. Ostensibly.

Due tomorrow night: "New"

Next week's topic is "Peeps".

Cory and I discussed doing "Best of" quarterly instead of yearly. It sounds good to me. Q and Craig?

/rl

Ryan's "Chain"

By a lucky coincidence, Jenny started making chain this weekend.



/rl

Craig's Chain

Do two links constitute a chain? I was quite fascinated by the erosion on the concrete. This one's a couple of years old, but I wanted to try this out before I posted something new for New.

Q's chain

i return!

however, it appears cory and i think very similarly.

shameless self-promotion: i finally got around to building a portfolio website like i've said i'd do for the past six or eight years. www.quenluen.com.

Cory's Chain

I spent all week trying to think of where I would find a chain, and then I remembered where I keep my chains: in the garage, attached to my bike.

Welcome, Craig!

Also, "Chain" is due Sunday night. Shoot something "New" for next Sunday.

Somebody needs to fill up the topic bucket. I can see the bottom.

/rl

water

i'm in phoenix for the weekend. there is no water here.

Ryan's "Water"

This week's story is similar to last week's - I had a wonderful shot lined up involving Niagara Falls, a helicopter, spotlights to create a rainbow at night, etc. Unfortunately I ended up studying for a Calc exam instead. Oh well. Ducky likes his water.


/rl - stretching the truth a bit.

Cory's Water

I tried the typical "water drop" picture, but failed miserably. So here's some water for drinking.

"Water" due sooner rather than later.

"Chain" will be due later rather than sooner.

/rl

Ryan's "Candlelight"

So, say that one plans a photo for most of a week. A photo that involves a friend's dungeon-like storm cellar and some candles. One prepares for the photo - makes arrangements to use the dungeon-like cellar, purchases enough candles to keep the little old ladies dropping nickels in the lockbox at St. Bridget's for weeks, creates an idea in one's mind how it will be lit. Then one realizes that he's not very good at Calculus, and should spend that time and energy integrating, derivating, and performing other obscenities upon numbers and trigonometric functions. What does one do? One improvises at 11:00 at night, risking burning down one's bookshelf:

Anybody want some of those little tea candles? They were $0.02 a piece in lots of 50. I spent $2.14 with tax. I have a few to spare...

/rl

Cory's Candlelight

Nothing special, just a candle that is lit. Instant candlelight!

"Candlelight" is due tonight!

The spinning wheel-o-topics has stopped on "Water" for next week.

/rl

Q's technology

Ryan's "Technology"

Given a supply of iron and a hammer, you can make a chisel. With a hammer and chisel, you can make a file. With a hammer, chisel, and file, you can make the rest of the world.



/rl

Cory's Technology

The biggest technology I have access to right now: a 40-rack Blue Gene/P system - 40,960 nodes, 163,840 processors, 450 teraflops. Also hidden off the frame to the right is 8 petabytes of disk space and a mess of 38 miles of network cabling.

Science!

"Technology" due within 6 hours

We have about 174 hours to shoot "Candlelight."

/rl

Q's pants

Ryan's "Pants"

Lighting the inside of a dryer is quite a pain....



/rl

Cory's Pants

It turns out I'm not very creative when it comes to pants...

Next week

Technology.

Pants due today!

Ryan's "Confusing"

This appears to be part of OPPD's new "Power to Nowhere" project...


On second thought, it may be a display at the OPPD Arboretum.

/rl

Cory's Confusing

This was definitely the most fun I've had taking one of these pictures so far. I also took another one with more weird stuff, but the composition wasn't nearly as good as this one.

Next week

Pants.

Confusing due today!

Q's profile

Next week I'll try to refrain from using my light table again . . .

Ryan's "Profile"

Inspiration has failed me, so I dumped out the pennies to recycle Lincoln's profile on a smaller scale:


/rl

Cory's Profile

Next Week

"Confused" or "Confusing".

Profile due today!

Plus, we're running out of topics. Pull out a dictionary and choose some more words!

Q's $3.27

When I first saw this topic, I was excited about making a picture of diet Coca-Cola and unlit cigarettes, but soon realized the topic was 36 cents off and instead wasn't an allusion to anything I recognized.

And when I tried importing my first picture into Photoshop, it gave me an error message saying "this application does not allow the editing of banknotes" and wouldn't let me open the file.

So, this is my plan C.

Ryan's "$3.27"

A penny made of 327 pennies!

It helps if you unfocus your eyes while looking at it....

Special thanks to Jenny for having the patience to sort pennies and make a penny out of them.

/rl

Cory's $3.27

All week I wanted to do something more creative than this, but this is the best I could do.

Next Week

Next week: Profile.

$3.27 due Sunday.

Cory's Trick

A simple shot of me cheering myself on as I play Wii tennis against myself. I've seen other people doing this sort of thing lately, so I figured it was time for me to give it a try. Hopefully it isn't breaking the rules too much...

Q's trick

I couldn't come up with much, so here's a remote shooting trick.

Taptaptap.... Is this thing on?

"Trick" due yesterday.
"$3.27" will be this week's topic.

$3.27!?!? Uhmmm.... errrrr..... Ok.

/rl

Ryan's "Trick"

I'm sure this is a part of many card tricks....




/rl

Q's animal

Ryan's Animal

Loki meets fisheye distortion:

Not a great picture, but it makes me laugh.

/rl

Cory's Animals

I got a great cereal toy a while back that works perfectly as a light pen, so I decided to play with it for this week's unrelated topic.

Next Week

Next week: Trick.

Animal(s) due today.

Ryan's "Modern"

"Omaha shure is modurn... we got one o' them roads way up in the air an' everthing!"


/rl

Q's modern

theaters > movie houses > cineplexes > VHS > DVD > bluray > netflix streaming. modern.

Please stand by....

My modern will be up tomorrow night.

I have no plausible excuse.

/rl

Cory's Modern

This is as modern as I get. Note that five recipes are included on every label. How much more modern can it be?

"Modern" is due today!

Next up is animals(s).

/rl

Ryan's "Blue"

Introducing Fugs, the Blue Doll Faced Persian. Sometimes his bluish tinge is apparent, but it is overpowered by electronic flash. I tried a light blue gel on the strobe, but it shifted him too close to Grover color.

/rl

Cory's Blue

For my blue, I present a close-up view of my messenger bag.

Lis thought I should have posted this shot of the sky instead though.

"Blue" due tomorrow!

Looks like next in line is "Modern".

/rl

Many apologies to Q!

When I posted the last poll ("Christmas"), I added a "g" to his name! I blame insane blood sugar levels - I was sitting on Mom & Dad's couch sucking down peanut butter balls and toffee.

Oops.

/rl

Q's best of '08

A shot from the summer on Melissa's front porch outside Managua, Nicaragua.

Ryan's "Best of 2008"

Also a brutal contest, also (if you really want it) available as a print. This really isn't my favorite of 2008, but every time I look at it I am surprised by it. Click through to view larger!

/rl

Cory's Best of 2008

It was a brutal contest, but this one beat the others as my "Best of 2008". Also available as a print!

Next Week

Next week: Blue

Best of 2008 due tomorrow!