Day 19: You know what... I'm just gonna skip the Q & Punk 101

I've been spending the past 18 days trying to figure out what I have to do with the Q. I had most of the letters covered even before the 30 days started, but I had nothing for the Q. It's passed 11 pm and I'm just gonna skip it and continue with the R tomorrow. You'll have to do with a weird snapshot today. After 19 days, I try to get a decent picture every few days, but on the remaining days, I just shoot to stay in the game. Today wasn't a great picture day. I'm however amazed that some people create gorgeous photos day after day. I wish I could do that :)


Welcome to Punk 101. Today's lesson is on The Ramones. (So Kimbomac knows who they are when I put on my leather jacket next year ;) )

All the examples come from YouTube: crank up your speakers and enjoy! :D

The Ramones are an American punk band and are one of the grand daddies of punk. They did not have the minimalistic attitude of The Sex Pistols or the social commentary of The Clash (perhaps with the exception of My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down), but shaped punk as we know it today. Their songs mostly exist out of basic chord progressions, but played loud and fast, without any flashy playing or guitar solos. Clear examples of this can be heard in their covers of more famous songs like Do You Wanna Dance, What A Wonderful World and I Don't Wanna Grow Up. Ok, the last song isn't really famous, but they covered one of my other favorite artists, which i think is pretty cool; see here for comparison.

Their clothing style consists basically out of a rocker (leather jacket), tight jeans with holes in them, sunglasses and sneakers (often Chuck Taylor's). They wore long hair that looked a bit like an over grown mop top (Beatle's hairstyle).

And for those who can't get enough, here are some more cool songs:
Blitzkrieg Bop (probably one of their most famous song)
I Wanna Be Sedated
Sheena Is A Punk Rocker
Rockaway Beach

Gabba Gabba Hey!

Day 18: I Heart Punk

I tried to go with kinda the same idea as one of my pictures from last year. Sunglasses, leather jackets and tight jeans: the way The Ramones envisioned it.

Now where are my safety pins...

Day 17: I Heart Orange(juice)

What can I say, it's half an orange... lying on my kitchen counter. I'm not even that fond of oranges. They are nice once every while, but peeling them is a drag. I do like orange juice. There is only one thing I do before I drink coffee in the morning and that is drink a glass of orange juice. I tried making a cool shot of orange juice, but I failed... badly. I then tried taking a cool shot of an orange, but failed... badly. Just when I was about to give up, I thought to myself that I really wanna finish this entire month, so I shot a picture of half an orange... lying on my kitchen counter. I can always make cool photos tomorrow :)

Day 16: I Heart The Nifty-Fifty

The Nifty Fifty is the nickname for one of Canon's 50mm lenses. You can set the aperture as low f/1.8, allowing you to shoot in low light or play with very small DOFs. Canon has 50mm lenses of better quality, which can take on even lower apertures, but this one is cheap enough for a casual photographer to afford and it offers great bang for buck. I use my 50mm lens a lot; of the 15 days before today I only used a different lens twice!

Day 15: I Heart Music

Yeah, I know, I'm kinda repeating myself now. This challenge for me means trying out new stuff and for today I planned to shoot "I Heart Milk" as a perfect excuse to do one of those cliche falling drop shots (and I do like milk :-) ). I experimented with it and failed miserably. Since I'm not in a really creative mood today, I decided to throw a part of my ever expending cd collection on a stack and make a shot of that. Not really original, especially since I did the same thing yesterday, but I didn't know what else to do.

Day 14: I Heart License Plates

I like license plates, especially those from the US. Perhaps this is because they are generally more colorful than the license plates we have around here. My collection isn't huge, but they have a nice place on my wall.

Day 13: I Heart Kiwis

To continue where I left off Thursday: the K.
My all time top 5 favorite fruit (in no particular order) are: Apples, Pineapples, Kiwis, Mandarins and Mangos.

Today I experimented with backlighting a subject for the first time. This shot was the best of the series. I don't think it is perfect yet, but it is good enough for a first attempt.