First, I got a couple eye-level photos of the optimistic little shoe
that turned out about as badly as most eye-level shots of the ground
do. But, on review [always review the first few shots and zoom way in],
I thought the color looked cool on the dark street, so I got on one
knee to take another. Yeah, better. But, it still looked like a lame
overhead snapshot that was way too dark and noisy. So, I did something
that surprised me.

I laid on the sidewalk. All the way down. On my gut on 50° of western San Francisco concrete.

And, I took my time, thinking about the aperture (all the way open
for depth of field) and the available light (very little, so I put the
the camera right on the ground to steady it). I snapped a dozen or more
shots with slightly different settings. No idea what I was doing.
People walked by, cars passed, the L barreled by, but I kept shooting
until I was satisfied that I might have something. Then, I
grabbed the shoe, stood up, and trotted back up the hill, triumphant,
with a recovered piece of footwear, plus what I suspected might be at
least one pretty good photo.

I like how it turned out.

It brought back memories, that’s all. I remember lying down on my stomach on some nasty pavement to frame a shot, I remember risking my camera by resting it on some uneven surface hoping it won’t fall off the end of a cliff (just to get a sharp picture).

This theory applies to everything else you do; you’ll fail at first, but then you’ll get better. Here’s one I took in August:

“At the end of winter 2005, David Maisel traveled to a small city in Oregon. There were bridges, plazas, and gates. He was there to locate an old psychiatric hospital – a building now housing violent criminals – because the hospital held something that interested him.

Upon arrival, he met with the head of security, who already knew why Maisel had come. The two of them walked down a nearby corridor, where Maisel was shown what he’d been looking for. It was an isolated room behind a locked door – smaller, less official, than expected.

Within it was the Library of Dust.”

BLDGBLOG: Library of Dust

The Forbidden Island

In 1959, population had swelled, and boasted a density of 835 people per hectare for the whole island (1,391 per hectare for the residential district) – one of the highest population densities ever recorded worldwide. As petroleum replaced coal in Japan in the 1960’s, coal mines began shutting down all over the country, and Hashima’s mines were no exception. In 1974 Mitsubishi officially announced the closing of the mine, and today it is empty and bare, with travel currently prohibited. The island was the location for the 2003 film ‘Battle Royale II’ and inspired the final level of popular Asian videogame “Killer7″.

[10 Most Amazing Ghost Towns]

This is a comparison of the same picture taken with and without a Hoya 58mm PL-CIR polarized filter on the my Olympus Evolt E-510 DSLR. It costs $20 and changes a picture that looks like dirt to something that’s ready to be put in a magazine. I applied no post-processing at all to these two photos… This polarizer is worth every penny.

The rest are on my flickr gallery.

Check out this link, it shows pictures of the Google HQ. For a company that prides itself for innovation and technology, this really is the place to work. Personally, if I had a similar environment to work in, my creativity would shoot through the roof. There’s enough inspirational material around to even satisfy me… Good for them, it seems like it’s paying off, and I hope more corporate offices get the hint. If you want your employees to be productive, creative, and love working at your company, hire the same interior designer the guys at Google did.

Here’s the slideshow:

Yeah, I know, it’s pretty slick. It took a few stores and some crazy sales guys to get this thing picked out. Not only that, but this encouraged me to go out and buy a set of much-needed dress shoes. Well, above is a picture of the whole-shot. If you’re really interested, it’s a Joseph Abboud modern, fitted suit, complete with no-pleat pants and Johnston & Murphy Faulkner Moc Toe shoes.

Alright, so the shirt and tie combo is rather questionable, but I walked into Express and had to buy this shirt. Every time I have walked into the store, I’ve seen this shirt just staring at me, and every time I couldn’t justify buying it. Thanks to Olga, Olya, and Rodion, I used my birthday gift-card to buy a belt and uber-expensive shirt.

Anyway, so that’s me in a monkey suit, I know Popa wanted to see it. What do you think?