Phototastic Bonanza

So I obviously bought a new camera recently.  You can tell, because every post has a ton of photographs that look like someone searched for 'stereotypes of Japan,' into google, and posted what he found.

This was an attempt at that whole blurred out writing thing.  I include it because it's a failure, on the way to a success later on.  Success in as far as it's a direct copy of ten thousand pictures you've seen before.

The middle school  façade

 So this is the front of the school.  It's a façade in that it both acts as the outward facing part of the school, and that it only purports to teach people.  Aha, see what I did there?

Anyway...

Paint peeling

 This shot was actually taken using the HDR option in the camera.  I won't get into what that means (maybe another time) but it can give a few different effects depending on how it's implemented.  In this case, I think it gives a kind of fill-in flash effect for the whole scene.  The shadows are much lighter than you would otherwise expect, and the sky isn't sheer white.  It takes a couple of seconds to adjust to it, for the reasons stated (at least that's why I had to look at it a couple of times - something does seem 'off,' about the picture).

This was taken in a cemetery.  Spooky.

This is the more successful of the two attempts at that asian characters all blurred out 'thing.'  What you can't (thankfully) see are the hundred other slightly adjusted shots.  I don't have the eye for sizing up a shot and just taking one picture; to be honest I think that's something the film generation will have over purely digital users.

This place is just down the road from me, but I don't know what purpose it serves

This is another HDR shot.  Both were handheld so I presume it's all blurred out in several places.  It makes this effect by under and over exposing a number of shots (3, 5 or 7 I think) which leads to the otherwise lost details being visible.

This is a picture

I don't know why I took this one.

A lot of the graves have these long lollipop sticks

Or why I took this one.

It was bicycle inspection day at the school, so all the bikes were out on the 'field,' to be inspected for defects and problems.  Notice how every bike is the same size, colour, shape and make.  The levels of conformity in this country are terrifying.  Everyone has to wear a helmet too.  Nerds!

Just another picture with no real story

Erm...

I liked the contrast between the colourful flowers and the greys of the gravel and stones.  It feels super asian with the designs, writing and pagoda things in the background; but loses some charm points for the stainless steel surround.

I just liked it

I took this because the design on the end-stop was quite interesting, but was too small to exist within the frame of a single picture (I kind of want a specialist macro lense for taking pictures of really tiny things like insects or flowers).

And that's it for pictures.

For other news, check this out.  We all know marriage is an antiquated idea designed to destroy the independence of both parties, while ensuring large organisation (church, government) can keep us towing their line (taxes, petty religious morality).  While the idea of marriage, and to a wider extent, religion, is obviously detrimental to the advancement of the human race - I respect a man who corners a woman in such a magnificent fashion.  Why propose in public?  To ensure the answer you want to hear.  Of course, if you want to propose you must be a complete lunatic with no spine, but that's neither here nor there.

In other news, one of the best ideas on the interwebs is in beta.  I've made a couple of sketches and am going home tonight to upload them onto my profile.  NotAllama, for all of you who dare to challenge my creations monstrosities abominations.