happy holidays! santa is dead.

Spotted a couple of reindeer at the zoo last week. Santa was there, too, but he had drowned in the polar bear pool with Frosty and his doppelganger.



photo set

w t f

Has anyone seen these PS3 commercials? Up until just now, I've only seen the eggs one. It's a little out there, but it's kind of cool. And so just now I saw the baby one. And, man, there's no "kind of" anything about it. It's just straight creepy.

I died three times.

This past weekend, Jennie and I were fortunate enough to tag along with her former coworkers and their friends to a Joshua Tree outing. And with the majority being rock climbing enthusiasts, we got the chance to partake in the festivities.

In the US, climbs are rated on a scale from 5.0 to 5.14. As a zero-experienced climber, I was somehow persuaded into trying a 5.7+ climb. And try I did, but once I got to the part that actually put the climb at a 5.7+ rating, I lost my grip.

Three times I tried.

Three times I died.

Okay, so it was only like 15 feet up and maybe I'm being a bit dramatic, but I'm guessing if I wasn't attached to a rope, I would've smashed my head on a rock on the way down. I think next time (yes, there will be a next time), I'll give it a whirl in a gym where I can gradually work my way up to the more difficult routes.

Oh, and this trip was also the first for my new pal, the Nikon D80.
enjoy the photos

Da plane, boss. Da plane!

We made it to the Miramar Airshow last weekend (10/14) for the 2nd time in two years. Last year we had box seats. This time we upgraded to the observation deck. (Apparently we're too good for the grandstand.) And so yeah, that makes me a week late with these photos. But c'mon. I took 571 shots, whittled them down to 122 keepers and settled on 50 for upload. I'm surprised it didn't take longer. Anyhoo...

Prior to the show, I perused through some forums to see if there were any tips on shooting airshows and also to see any sample galleries. I came to realize that these shows are more or less playgrounds for camera jockey's and their "great zoom lenses". These galleries show shot after shot of closeups of planes in flight. I mean, the planes might as well be on the ground. Granted there are some really awesome photos, especially those showing vapor trails and shock waves and what have you, but still, it's just not my style.

Lucky for us, it rained in the morning. Normally that'd be a bad thing, but being in San Diego and all, the rain stopped by the time the demostrations started and a ton of clouds remained. This gave me shots like this, this and this. And so I think it worked out for me. Especially considering I don't have one of those crazy zooms like this guy:



see the whole set

Almost Famous

Here's the story...

Yesterday morning, after logging off Flickr, I saw a little promo advert for the Yahoo! Time Capsule. I had some time before I had to get ready for work and so I check it out. It turns out to be pretty cool and I figure it'll be fun to contribute. Going through my photos, I settle on the shot above for the "Love" category (with my description being "What I love is having friends with you to explore the beauties on the other side of the world"). I submit it, get ready for work and leave.

Shortly after arriving to work, I check my email to see if the photo was accepted, which it is, but the first email I actually see is from Eva Freeman with the subject "ABC News - Request for an Interview". She apparently saw my submission and wanted to ask me some questions for a piece ABC News is doing for their webcast. Holy crap! Seriously though, what are the odds of me submitting a photo in the morning and then being contacted for an interview about it just a couple hours later? I was pretty stoked, but I figured I call my sis first (she works as a producer for the local ABC affiliate). She didn't recognize the name, but did note that is how she contacts people for interviews at times. I called this Eva after lunch and answered her questions (I didn't answer them too well, tho), but the conversation sounded more like she was just looking for permission to use the photo. Anyway, we finish and she tells me I should see it when they air at 3:30pm EST on their site. Holy crap!

Today rolls around. My spirits are up because I finally got my moo MiniCards (see previous post) and I have the webcast to look forward to. I've already emailed a bunch of people to tune in. I decide, however, to skip the live feed and wait until it's available again at 1:30pm. 1:30 rolls around. No webcast. 2 o'clock. Nothing. 2:30. Still nothing. Finally, it's up around 3pm. 13 minutes into the webcast and they do the time capsule piece. 2 minutes later, it's done. My photo is nowhere to be seen. :(

And that's my story.

moo.

Woo hoo! I finally got my free ten pack of moo MiniCards. What? You don't know what they are? You're not hip to the skinny, eh? You can go here to find out all about them or you can click the photo and look at it in a larger size or you can just read on...

These moo MiniCards are little cards (hence the name) that have a photo on one side and info on the opposite. My info consists of this blog and Flickrstream URLs and my email addy. Basically a tiny business card. So how small are they? Compared to standard business card, they're this small:



And now that I've got these, I'm tempted to order the hundo pack, but I'm not sure what I'd do with them. Well, obviously I'd want to give them out, but would people actually want them? I suppose I'd have to be more selective in the photos I choose since not everyone would want a little photo of my cats in their wallet.

Even though they should.

Cake Anyone?

Maybe I should have seen it coming (their flyer and the fact that half the performers for Sunday practiced in the arts of rasta were big enough hints), but MAN there were a lot hippies at the Festival Del Mar. (Not that there's anything wrong with that. I mean, there was a time where I wanted dreadlocks and a goatee, but I'm glad I grew out of that phase. Really glad.) At one point while were watching ALO, people were dancing, kicking up dirt and I thought to myself "I bet they'd keep going if it rained and this area got all muddy. In fact, I think they'd enjoy it more." Then I remembered Woodstock and let it go.

In any case, we were there for Cake and they were definitely worth it. VIP was also worth it. ALO, Dilated Peoples and moe. were all bonus. I was surprised that there wasn't a terrible amount of people there. Supposedly last year they had over 8000 attend over two days. So assuming half went each day, it sure didn't look anywhere close to 4000 when we went. Maybe it was the Adams Avenue thing or the Padres last regular home season game that thinned the crowd? Or maybe the hippies scared everyone away?

I'm telling you, they're not so bad. They're added entertainment even. One guy had a penguin suit on. And no, not a coat and tails type of thing, I mean a real penguin suit. The hood was a penguin head. And there were hula hoopers abound. One girl kept us very amused while attempting to hula while throwing and catching a frisbee at the same time. Oh alright, you had to be there, but in the end, it was fun times all around.

photos, as always. enjoy.

Return to Civilization

One day in Yosemite was not enough, but we made the most of it. The hike up to Vernal Falls was awesome; Upper & Lower Yosemite Falls were a bit dry, but still a site to see nonetheless; And Glacier Point at Sunset was spectacular. The cabin at Yosemite Pines seemed like it was practically brand new and it'll be interesting to see it again when we return one day.

On the way back, we stopped at Moaning Cavern where our $12.50 got us 165 feet underground onto a platform to look around. Still pretty cool, but the $100 adventure tour to go exploring probably would have been more fun.

Photos are up. enjoy.

Something's Missing Here...

Now entering...the late 20s

I've officially crossed that line between mid and late 20s about 8 days ago. I'm okay with that.

Some new photos up, including the Del Mar races (MakeMineVodka, baby!), a nice shot of Jag and a quarter that I got insanely close to using my new 50mm f/1.8 lens reverse-style.

Yosemite in two weeks. I'm stoked.

I AM SPIDER-MAN

You can't possibly understand how happy this makes me.



Click here to take the "Which Superhero are you?" quiz...

KAPLOW!

Happy 4th of July!

Friends from the North

It was a weekend o'fun with Phil, Carmen, Kevin & Brooke visiting from NorCal this past Friday thru Monday. Beach, beer, sushi & Shamu. Who could ask for more? The camera only came out Monday at Sea World and so I upped the photos for all to enjoy. So, uhhh, enjoy:

A Sea World Adventure

4 shots

Yes it's been awhile since I've posted, but I haven't gone as long as *some* people. You know who you are. Anyway, no updates. Except for this one. So I guess one update, then. I uploaded 4 shots I forgot about when I was at the zoo before my India trip. Enjoy.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dankit/

In other news...

I meant to post this before I left for India, but it's better late than never.

The new sign is finally up at the Anegada Iguana exhibit at the San Diego Zoo and one the pictures on it is none other than, you guessed it, Jennie!

She's famous!

We're Back!

Well, we've been back since last Wednesday, actually. It's just taken this long to get all the photos up. The trip was incredible. It was good meeting up with Em & Pete because I don't know how well we would have handled it by ourselves. All the people, pollution, traffic...it was a bit overwhelming. But we loved every minute of it. Except for the mosquitoes. Could've done without those bastards. Anyway, like I said, all the photos are up:

- Delhi (part I)
- Agra
- Jaipur
- Delhi (part II)

enjoy.

drink and be merry

I think it's about time I posted some 3d stuff that I've done since that was supposed to be the other half of the reason I started this blog. The first reason, of course, being a refound hobby.

Here we have a saloon. I referenced Desperado, textured in PS, built in Maya, lit in Unreal. This was my first crack at creating an evironment and I'm happy with how it turned out.

If I had a pet dragon...

I found this while rummaging through some boxes last week. There's no date so I can't tell you when it was written, but it's something that just had to be shared...

If I Had A Pet Dragon
by Daniel K.

If I had a pet dragon I would name him Fire. He would be my watch dragon and work for Burger King to heat up the burgers. His Burger King job would be a part time job. Sometimes he would cook my food and heat my hands. He woluld be married to Dolly Parton when he was grown up.

F the World

That's right. Spidey's had enough.

Mobilized

Blog test from my fancy schmancy LG VX9800 phone. (Too bad I can't check it until I get on a real computer.)

Swami's

We made it out to Swami's on Saturday, but it was a little over an hour past low tide so we didn't have too much time out there. Jennie captured a nice shot of a seagull in flight and also found two interesting looking sea slugs. The shot above was enhanced with a partial use of a LOMO script found here.

*Update: Apparently the good tide pool area is to the left of the stairwell down to the beach. We went right. I'm gonna have to go back soon.

desaturated

Here's something handy: Converting Color Images to Black and White

Apparently converting images from color to black and white isn't as straight forward as you would think (or as I thought, anyway). Back in the day, I used to just convert my image to grayscale mode and be done with it. Then I became more "sophisticated" and desaturated the image before doing any of the levels/contrast tweaks. And now I've been led to the link above.

I was a bit skeptical at first, thinking that this was some roundabout way of doing something I already knew how to do. But I tried it out against my methods and I was soundly defeated. Ah, the lessons we learn...

transform and roll out!

Have a gander at the Optimus Keyboard. The three button mini keyboard is available for pre-order this week (so says the site) for $100. After April 2nd, the price is going up.

$100. 3 buttons.

Geez. Makes you wonder how much the full-size keyboard is going to cost.

But MAN I want one. I want one so bad it hurts. It hurts inside me.

Rippling

This was taken in the San Diego Museum of Art's lobby area just past the front desk, which, by the way, is the only area you can do flash photography. I'm sure this goes for any museum. Next time gotta remember the tripod. Anyway, I liked the shot, so that's why I'm posting it. There, I said it.

Dog Days Are Here

Happy Chinese New Year! 2006 marks the Year of the Dog. So if you were born this year, 1994, 1982, 1970 and so on (keep subtracting 12), it's YOUR year. Live it up.

I've uploaded some new pictures from this past Sunday in Balboa Park. There was a small festival of sorts celebrating the new year. Enjoy.

Eye spy?

I posted 3 new photos on my flickr site. This one in particular was interesting. If you look at the bigger size, it looks like my eye is reflected in there. How it got there? I have no clue. I could only imagine that it was somehow captured through the lens.

open the box

Pandora

This site is amazing. You need to go there now. And don't worry, you won't be unleashing the misfortunes of man unto this earth.

nikon d50

I've uploaded some of the firsts shots taken with our new camera. Feel free to browse and critique.

1st post repost

I redesigned this here template and had to delete my previous posts to get the format working properly. So with that, here's my old first post:

I had a blog over at Xanga, but I decided to start this one mainly because Flickr supports this site. Jennie and I just purchased a Nikon D50 DSLR camera and I want to be able to easily post photos to the blog.

Btw, I'm not too happy with the fact that my usual username "dankit" wasn't available. After countless searches on the net, I'm certain I'm the only Dan Kit in existence, but then this guy takes *my* space, the bastard. Whatever, there you have it.