Horrible day today, snow at home and really heavy rain when I went into town.  So I was wondering what should I photograph today.  Then it hit me, I really felt like dropping a strawberry into a fish tank.

I had two problems though, I didn’t have any strawberry’s and I didn’t have a fish tank.  So I went shopping.  I actually brought a new fish tank from Petco ($13 for a 2 foot fish tank – seriously), and got some strawberry’s from Fred Meyre.

I got home and set up this ridiculously complex scene with the fish tank full of water, two speed lights, one on either side of the fish tank and my mac tethered to the camera which was on a tripod.

Then Lisa started dropping the strawberry into the tank, it took us a couple of go’s to get our 3, 2, 1, now system working and the result is below.

I remember when my dad used to say “DON’T PLAY WITH THE FISH TANK”!  I’ll grant you I was 18 at the time, but now I can play with it all I want (That’s what she said!)

Lisa collected 50 boxes of girl scout cookies today.  Then all day we had people coming by to pick up their orders.  It appears that the Halo guys stole their own stash, this is what I found them doing this evening.

I was trying to figure out what to post tonight (didn’t get home from work until 8:30) and I found this image below.  I took this one evening on the way home just after we had a bit of snow fall.  I literally saw this pond by the side of the road, pulled over and got my camera out.  I’ve been doing that a lot lately (and people look at me like I’m nuts).

The sun was setting and it looked nice over the water and I saw the long grass by the side of the road and thought it would add to the picture – something in the foreground to catch your eye.  Fortunately the snow wasn’t here for very long, having said that it’s forecast to come back again this weekend (not good).

I don’t know about you but I love to play Battleships and it appears that our Halo chums do too!

Microsoft campus is located in Redmond right on the Bellevue city border.  Just down the road from the campus (in Bellevue) there is an old Mall, which I was told is one of the oldest Malls in the state.  The Mall is really fun and full of eclectic stores.  It has a food court where old dudes play chess on the floor (with massive chess pieces) and outside the game shop (Uncles) you find guys (without girl friends) playing dungeon and dragon type games.

Anyway I digress, at the Mall is a movie theater (that’s a cinema to the Brits who read this) and at night they light it up and it looks fab!  A funny thing about this theater is that in the past Microsoft has hired out the whole place so the company can go a see a film (usually it’s something terribly geeky like Starwars).  The company calls it a team building event and I’ve been to a couple of these myself.  I just think it’s odd that Microsoft want us to “Build our team” in a dark room where nobody talks.  Odd eh?

Anyway I like the building at night and on the way home tonight I grabbed the shot below.

I don’t know why I like this one, maybe it’s what my imagination thinks the two guys on either side of Carter are saying!  I just think it’s funny.

What can I tell you, you can’t keep a good man down.  Even though they hate me in Redmond Town Center (see this posting) I went back and captured the image below.  I have no fear, nobody scares me…

Ok, so I made sure no security guards were around and was in and out in 30 seconds, but it’s the thought that counts.

This image was taken on the top floor near James’ favorite store (Game Stop).  Note the absence of people (and security guards) in the picture.

Tonight we find the Halo guys at a team event – they went bowling.  Carter is demonstrating his amazing skills.

Today I worked from home and had no idea what to shoot.  I had to pop out in the afternoon to go to Bartell’s to pick up something and while I was in the store I saw some bamboo potted plants.  Now those who know me will tell you I am useless with plants, I can’t grow anything.  There are those with green fingers, well I have death fingers.  If it’s a plant and I touch it, it has days to live.

But I have a friend at work (Eric) who has one of these bamboo plants on his desk and it’s thriving and has been growing for the last two years (it’s now nearly 2 foot tall) and Eric tells me he doesn’t have to do anything with it, just keep the roots under water.  So when I saw these plants I thought maybe I could keep one alive for a couple of weeks.  Being the kind of guy who is always up for a challenge I got one.

Anyway at 5pm I had to go and get Abi from school (who was rehearsing for her school play) and I’m still wondering what to shoot.  When I get home I walk in the door and see the bamboo plant and thought maybe I could make something interesting out of that.

Now I once heard the great Joe McNally say “If you want to make something look interesting, don’t light it all”, so I tried to keep the lighting low and subtle.  Having said that I actually went from one light to three and took loads of different shots, but ironically the one I liked the best was one of the first single light shots.

So here is my picture for today, a bamboo potted plant that will be dead in two weeks.

Tonight was Halo card night and as I walked passed I heard Carter say “All In” and if I had his hand I would have done the same.