Thursday, December 22, 2005

Rina Roo




Had to have a post about my girlfriend. I just wanted to have some pics up of her. This one was the first times I had seen her in a long time. Our friend Hannah Lafevers took it. It's a neat pic; I like the slow shutter speed.


Christmas time is coming and I only have her two very small things. This year really has been my defeat when it comes to buying gifts for people. My dad's present is the only one I'm actually thinking worked out well.







I took this pic in my dorm room. Of course, it has been photo-"shaped" on my computer, but that's only because I was playing with levels. It was really dark originally (one of those moments when excitement hits you and you just pic up your camera and don't even look at settings).

So now you've met my girlfriend. What are you going to do America?

Seriously, if those faces aren't happy to see each other, then I'd love to know what was behind that photographers camera to cause such a surprise...












Oh NO!!! It was a freaking...what is that thing?

Oh, it's Stitch, and he has come to take over the crappy dorms of UK and make all reunitings of long term boyfriends and girlfriends a terrible experience!

"Do you feel wucky?" the blue kitten asks with a strange but yet mega-motion picture familiar accent.

"Um...Sure..." Rina answers, not understanding what "wucky" was. I assured her it was luck, and that her heroically brave and strong boyfriend could battle the little blue alien.

"ROAR! I shay you no feel wucky! Stitch will rule de world, starting here in Lexietown!"






He eventually freaked out and morphed into a giga-stitch, and thrashed about campus casting mind bullets and terrorizing students and professors. 15 minutes later, and 1/3 of the way through campus, Brad and Rina heard the 76' tall monster answer his cell phone, and say one thing...

"Derk-derk-Allah. Derka derka, Mohammed Jihad"

"Brad, this isn't Stitch at all, it's an evil clone who is trying to take over the world one college town at a time!" Rina exclaimed.

That's it! Rina had figured it out. Stitch isn't really a terrorist. This clone must have captured him after the real Stitch went to Disney with his idea for a motion picture film, then, after convincing the country he really was a cute blue kitten-like alien thing, his clone would take over all of North America. Well, well, well Mr. Blue Kitten Looking Thing...your time is up...

It just so happens to be that my friend Alex has the world's largest gun collection in his office, and amongst that collection, he just so happens to have a Blue Kitten Looking Thing Transformer Gun that he bought for only 150 payments of $199.99 on a comercial while watching Star Trek reruns in his underwear and eating 17 pieces of sausage in less than four minutes. You better run now Stitch Cloned Evilness, you better run now.

"Hey Guys! What's up?"

"Alex! Do you still have that alien zapping thing?"

"You mean my Blue Kitten Looking Thing Transformer Gun? Of course!"

"Whatever...I have to borrow it, now. I need to save America from a giant cartoon. No time to explain...Where is it?"

"Come with me..."



"Alex, when do you actually use this thing?"

"What do you mean? My dad uses it for deer all the time."

"Nevermind. Thanks"

And so I took that gun...or whatever, to Lexington to fight off the giant evil Stitch before it was too late.

Upon arriving in Lexington, Rina and I began noticing more than just UK's campus had been torn apart. This thing was reigning all over town. I found him near Keeneland and Rina pulled the gun out of my car and was ready to end this.

"The jig is up Stitch. I'm tired of you ruining this town. If you want to try and ruin a life, come and get some." she said while holding the giant alien gun killing machine.

"Derka Derka? Mahammed Jihad Derka Derka, Derka!" he responded, I think it was a response anyways.


BOOM! Cloned Stitch was gone, just like that. The terrorist would no longer be able to reign upon poor, helpless, college students and interupt them from their preparation for life. It was a good day in Lexington. You know what, it may have just been a good day all around. Thanks Alex, you really helped out America.



So that's how my girlfriend and I saved the all of Lexington. The cloned monster was gone...but wait a second, who had the real Stitch?

Ah well, Karma I guess. I hope you enjoyed the story, and will remember it to tell your children. It's just another day America can rest easy knowing that blue kitten looking alien thing isn't destroying lives. What a country. I love you America.

Spot Coloring: Trick or Trade?

I recently learned how to do something that I've been trying to figure out for two years now. I worked for the yearbook when I was in high school during my junior and senior years, and always read over the yearbook yearbooks. Basically, for those of you who were not yearbook fiends as I (and I was the mischeivious one, always trying to sneak pics of my friends hanging themselves by another's pool and what not), it's basically the Who's Who of the yearbooks. I'm not saying all the best make it, because we had some material that should have made it into this book. But anyways, you have the idea, surely.
My reason for addressing this, is because in the yearbook yearbook, there was always the greatest trick that I had ever seen with photography. There were several pages, not many, with sports, or a large group in black and white, and only one small part of the picture was colored. The photos didn't even have to be that amazing for them to seem amazing. I had never seen this, not even in professional magazines. Now of course, I'm aware that it's a common trick of the trade, but I still wasn't aware of how to go about it until a few months ago.
I actually found this trick out right before finals week at school. Probably not the best time to discover something such as this, but whenever it had to be I didn't care. I wanted to learn how to do it so bad. It's actually a quite simple process. It actually only takes me around 15-20 minutes, for most pics, some are longer than others. This one was actually my first one that I did. It's of my friend back at school.



I haven't taken any photos for this technique, it's just been photos I had already taken. Actually I did take one photo specifically for this skill, but it didn't turn out quite as nice as I had hoped, so I suppose you may never see it.

It's kind of funny, Matt and Meagan are the only two people I have spot colored, and they're dating and they both are ready for Christmas in the picture.


It's a nice technique to be able to emphasize sports team's color's and moods. You can't force any picture to be spot colored though. You have to just have a good one with all of the right elements and something good to center your photo around. I've figured that out through trial and error. For example, this photo of all my friends at theKentucky vs. Tennessee football game. It has the right idea, the small amount of orange in Kentucky's student section. It has the idea, but the center of attention isn't really there.