Stress, Pho, Breaking Laces and Cake!

     Stiiiiiillllll going and still excited… people tend to think I’m crazy when I’m seen climbing over things, laying on the flooring, getting extreme closeup and whatever other random odd positions I seem to put myself in to get a shot with my iPhone, but… the shots are coming out well and its still a ton of fun!

     So first up this week, I’ll pick up where I left off last week…. sitting at my desk updating this blog and watching the clicks come in on my bitly status page. 🙂 Nothing to big on this one, a little PhotoSplash to pull out the color and highlight the bitly window, and some tilt – shift to draw focus back over to the laptop on the desk:

Watchin my daily stats fly by on bitly. #thanksforclickin
Watchin my daily stats fly by on bitly. #thanksforclickin

     It was just a rough ass week too….. I have to say, while most people who know me would tell you, I’m a pretty agitated guy to begin with it does take a special kind of asshole to really send me over the edge like I was this week. The type of pissed off the lands you somewhere between after school special and slapstick comedy and it defiantly drove a bunch of the shots and situations I found myself in all week. This next one was taken while getting out of the building and heading to happy hour as fast as humanly possible after a solid day of fighting incompetence and stupidity! Some elliptical tilt shift in Snapseed, turned up the saturation a bunch and even applied a very light “grunge” filter:

"Situation: NO WIN! Rush for a change of atmosphere!!" #oneofthosedays #beerme
“Situation: NO WIN! Rush for a change of atmosphere!!” #oneofthosedays #beerme

     Shortly after came sweet sweet salvation. Nothing says relaxation like a few nice solid Belgian beers… this was another example of how a simple edit is all you really need…. don’t mess with it much, a simple shot, just pull it into PhotoSplash for the color highlight effect and that’s it. I think I upped the sharpness (detail filter) in Snapseed a bit, but that was it:

Problem solved! #beerme
Problem solved! #beerme

     Unfortunately all I got was the night to relax…. it was right back to grinding out long days at work the next day. So long that I almost didn’t get a chance to get my “one photo every day” entry in…. I found myself at almost midnight staring at my computer still working thinking I wasn’t going to make and miss I day, so I decided (with the advice of a friend) to just throw something together. She even said: “Hey, they can’t all be winners, at least you’re taking the shot and making an entry today”…. so, why not shoot what detracted me all day? My damn computer:

This is what happens when work distracts you all day! #photoadayfail
This is what happens when work distracts you all day! #photoadayfail

     Have I mentioned how much I love Pho?! I mean seriously…. its a bit of an addiction! So today when we took a lunch break out in Ashburn, VA one of the guys remembered there was a little pho place right near out datacenter that we had been to the last time they were out there and we jumped in the car and headed straight there. Granted this was a pretty simple shot, but I just love this bottle…. elliptical tilt shift  and the dramatic filter in Snapseed were the only things done for this image but the good part was: I did get some GREAT recipe suggests in the comments on Facebook after posting it!

Today it was a pho-king life saver!
Today it was a pho-king life saver!

     FINALLY…. we had made is past the hump. Wednesday was over and the end of the week had begun… thank god too cause it was all lookin up from here. A good friends band was in town, Breaking Laces, and I was going to see them both Thursday and Friday night. The next few images are from those little mini road trips.

     The first is from Thursday night out in Annapolis, great little spot called Red Red Wine Bar. A little tilt – shift, vintage filter and increased saturation and here’s what you get:

Here to see @BreakingLaces rock the house!!! #ifoundtherobot
Here to see @BreakingLaces rock the house!!! #ifoundtherobot

     Then of course, I needed a shot of the band too. This one was a little more fun, since it was SO dark in the venue, I used the SlowShutter app, then grunge filter along with the center focus filter in Snapseed to make the slight blurring from the long exposure look ok. Up the saturation a bit and give  funky frame and I think it came out ok:

@BreakingLaces at @RedRedWineBar!!! #killinit #godsintraining
@BreakingLaces at @RedRedWineBar!!! #killinit #godsintraining

     Of course there is not getting enough of this guys… so the next night, we hoped in the car again (thanks Jenny for driving) and headed up to Baltimore to catch them at Joe Squared – Power Plant and snapped a few more pics along the way. It always seems like I take more pictures when I’m in a good mood… not sure what that means, or if its normal…. any shrinks out there reading this with any ideas?? anyway….. I did just love the way the dash clock in Jen’s car looked so here it is too. Nothing but a dark shot with the grunge filter for some texture here:

Ridin in style to Baltimore to @BreakingLaces tonight! #rockintwonightsinarow
Ridin in style to Baltimore to @BreakingLaces tonight! #rockintwonightsinarow

     Got to the bar to see the band… tilt shift and nothing else here:

@BreakingLaces brought the house down!! As expected!!! #rockstars
@BreakingLaces brought the house down!! As expected!!! #rockstars

     and of course, after the show… grabbed some beers with the band. This shot had to be brightened up a little by increasing the ambiance in Snapseed, adding the tilt shift again and using the grunge filter for the nice gritty look:

Band is done.... Beer is on! @BreakingLaces was awesome!!!!
Band is done…. Beer is on! @BreakingLaces was awesome!!!!

     Then finally….. Saturday night was a little less travel, just down to Clarendon for a friends birthday and, of course, with a birthday comes…. birthday cake! This is just a perfect example of how a simple close up shot with minor tweaking can be kinda fun. Nothing in this shot but a little tilt shift and frosting:

Happy Birthday Matt!!! #everybodylovescake
Happy Birthday Matt!!! #everybodylovescake

     There you have it folks….. another week in review!! I hope you saw some things you liked and as always, I welcome questions, comments and suggestions! 🙂 Happy shooting!

 

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