The second thing I wanted to mention, and really it should have been the first is, how much I appreciate you taking the time to sit down and read this. I never really expected that anyone would want to read any of what I wrote here, and I know that I can get a bit long winded at times, so thank you very much for your time.
Now on to the shenanigans. Well, on to the, what happened this weekend that really wasn't shenanigans. As you know, I worked Friday, and it was good to do that for the first time in a very long time. When I got home, I cleaned up, and got on Saki for my ride to the bank. The weather report lied again, so I drove into work thinking that it was going to rain most of the day. Guess what it didn't do at all? I took Melvin along for the ride, because I think the bank tellers will freak out a little if they don't see Melvin. It's more about Melvin than it is me with them. When I was walking out of the bank, and older woman stopped to hold the door open for me. She saw Melvin, and mentioned that they followed me up the road and that her sister wanted my helmet. When we walked out she yelled over to her car full of people, and they went crazy. They called me over so they could get a good look at Melvin. They all had big smiles on their faces, and that is what it is all about. As I walked away from that car, another woman was getting out of her car, and said, "Look it's the guy with they frog head.". They had also followed me. I got in a conversation with a woman that was in the car with her, she was having a blast telling me how Melvin was going to, "really mess with people". We chatted briefly and then she wished me to be safe. After that, I went for a quick ride, and had a large number of people honking and waving at me. It was the most people that took notice of Melvin before. They all had smiles and were laughing and just enjoying it, and that made me happy.
I went to be early after watching the first 4 episodes of the newest season of Unbreakable Jimmy Schmidt. I love that show, and was not disappointed in the new episodes. They are hilarious, and I need to find the time to watch the rest of them. The inside jokes on that show are off the chart, and I love humor like that. It turns out that SyFy was releasing all the new episodes of 12 Monkeys this weekend, so I needed to watch those so that my DVR wouldn't get overloaded with stuff. I think the final 2 episodes of that are airing tonight, so I will be recording those. I really enjoy that show, but I can't explain why. I think it is just the time travel aspect of it. It just leads to so many open story lines.
I washed up after that and waited for my friend to call me saying that he was up. We still needed to go get supplies and build a backdrop for the shoot if it ended up in his backyard. He didn't call until just before noon. I was expecting his call around 11, so we were already off to a late start. I wasn't going to ride over to build the backdrop, because it was just too hot. I figured we could get the stuff, build it, and be done with a few hours to spare. I would go back and get Saki and then meet up at the primary location for the shoot. The plans did not go off anything like that. It took us a couple of hours to formulate a plan for the build, and then when we finally had all the stuff, and I cut the PVC pipe down to the sizes that we needed, I ended up building the entire thing by myself. I did have help when we put the tarp on it. We didn't think about one very important thing, and that was the wind. Even though the weather report was once again wrong, and it was sunny all day, the wind was pretty strong, and it kept blowing the backdrop over. We decided we would deal with that when we got to it though. The first model had showed up. Turns out we were having two models for the day. I still needed to get cleaned up and ride Saki over. I hurried home and cleaned up as fast as I could, got on Saki and headed back to his house. Then I waited, and waited, and waited. The first model had to run and get something that she forgot, and the second model kept saying she was 10 minutes out every 20 minutes. I was in full on business mode, and I wanted to get things done.
The first model made it back, and the second model finally showed up. After another 15 minutes of dealing with costumes, we headed out. I road up to the spot and parked Saki on what I thought would be a great spot for the shoot. The photographer wasn't having it. I positioned Saki where he wanted and we go started. The asphalt was uncured and soft, so the kickstand began sinking in with the model sitting on the bike. I found a random board that was laying around, and broke it into pieces to make a kickstand plate. It kept the kickstand from sinking in, but, if we would have left Saki where I wanted to, we wouldn't have had that problem. If you are starting to sense a little aggravation in my typing, you would be right. Here is how I was looking at myself that day. I was an assistant there to facilitate the photographer for what he wanted. I had to put away my concerns for Saki and what was happening to it, and worry about getting things in order for a good picture.
I rarely touch Saki on anywhere other than the handlebars and the seat. I don't touch the painted areas of I don't have to, and part of the photoshoot, meant that hands and body parts where all over the painted parts. I had to turn a blind eye to that, and having OCD doesn't fully allow me to do that. I managed to get through the shoot out at the first location without going crazy. I didn't take any pictures with the models on the bike because I was more worried about making sure things were in place for the shoot. The photographer moved over to doing some shots with a car, and I moved Saki back on the first spot. I did grab a picture there.
I think the shot looks great, but he didn't like the lighting. That seemed to be a theme for the day.
Also he didn't like the manhole cover or the drain. In my opinion, he was thinking to one dimensionally, but that is just me.
We finally left that area and headed back to his house, where there was a loose plan to put Saki in his living room and forget about the backdrop. I didn't think this was going to work, for several different reasons. I won't get into all of them, but the one that killed that entire idea, was that there was no room to get any distance on the shots that would get the girl and the bike in them. Something I tried to point out, but was ignored. That meant the backyard with the backdrop was the only option. I wrangled through branches and other things and got Saki in the backyard. Then he decided to move where the backdrop was to a place that was difficult to get Saki to. I can't maneuver Saki in the grass well, and I also have to think about stability in soft ground. He was beginning to get frustrated and decided to move the entire thing to the side of his house which was nothing but soft sand. We put a paver down to set the kickstand on, and I maneuvered Saki into a place that was good for him. I had to end up holding the backdrop up, which began to get tiring after a while. That lead to a bit of an outburst. He was asking for ideas, and I kept my mouth shot for most of the time, but from where I was I happened to notice a really great artsy type of shot. I could see both girls faces in the mirror, and thought that if he got just a shot of the mirror, it would be fantastic. I mentioned it, he went behind them to try and get the shot, but he didn't understand what I was saying, and he didn't see what I saw, so he gave up, I just said that you are missing the shot, that's when the outburst came. He told me I didn't know anything about photography, and that he was doing his thing. Then he began asking me questions about my own experience with photography. The thing is, I have quite a bit of experience with photography and have been doing it for a very long time. I studied to know exactly what to do in what situation. Although I haven't broke my camera out in a little while, I still know how to get a really great shot. It is just more convenient and a bit lazy to just use my phone. I am going to get the camera out again soon though, but that will be a story for a later time.
I was done at that point. He had his idea of what I knew, so I was just fine with letting him think that. He kept asking for ideas, and I just shut up. My ideas didn't matter anyway, so why spit them out. I haven't seen any pictures from the shoot. I'm sure they will be fine. Listen, he is good at what he does, but sometimes you get so focused on what you are doing, that you miss things that are around you, and that was the case with the shot in the mirror, and he wasn't going to listen to me on how to get it. I got Saki home, and did another thorough cleaning to get all the fingerprints and body prints off of it. I apologized deeply to Saki, and promised to ride the next day, which was this morning.
I set the alarm, and woke up an hour or so earlier than the alarm went off. This of course made me tired, and when the alarm finally did go off, I planned on just sleeping in again. I couldn't get back to sleep, and I think it was the promise I made to Saki that kept me up. I got out of bed just in time to quickly get dressed and head to the beach. I would get there just a little after sunrise. Oh, quickly. I got a couple of balaclavas so that I could where my AirPods while I was riding. In case you don't know what a balaclava is, it is kind of a ninja mask. It only has an area cut out for the eyes. I got this for two reasons: one the headphones, and two, I've been getting a strange tan line on my neck. It is a thin area above the collar line and below the chin. It is the area that is not covered by my helmet and my jacket. It's just weird looking. This covers my neck and keeps the headphones from popping out when I take the helmet off. Back to today. I headed to my favorite spot to see the sunrise. It also is the best spot to get a picture of Saki that is actually close to the beach. There is no dune blocking the view to the water. I got a few pictures there.
That last one there, is a result of looking at things from a different perspective. Kind of my point about Saturday. I was up on the small wall, so that I could get a picture of the water and a couple of surfers, those shots didn't turn out well because the surfers seemed to be learning and never really got up. When I turned around to get down, I saw Saki sitting there, and it was a view I had never considered. It's just such an interesting perspective, that I had to get a shot of it. After those shots, I had one more shot in mind. I've had this idea since the last time I was there, and hadn't taken the shot when I was there but this time I was getting it. That shot is of the sign for the name of the beach. Here is the thing though, when I was growing up, and going to that spot to surf, we didn't call it Blockhouse Beach. We called it by the name of the landmark closest to it, which was the Officer's Club. It was damaged in a fire several years ago, and rather than rebuild it, they just tore it down and left it for parking. There is a small Blockhouse there now, hence the new name of the beach. If you blow that picture up though, you will see that it is the home of the 45th Space Wing of the United States Air Force. How cool is that. It's little things like that that remind me how much I love where I live. Not far from that very spot is the building that was featured in the old TV show "I Dream of Jeanie". Whenever they would show the Major going to work, the would show a large boxy building with rockets outside. The rockets are gone now, and it's behind a wall, but ash building is still there. In the other direction from there, the actual house is in a neighborhood in Cocoa Beach. When I get the GoPro and start the motovlogging, I'll ride by there and show it to you. Which reminds me of something I do have to get to tonight, while it is on my mind, but first I have a couple more pictures for you.
As I was riding home, I saw one more spot with a good opportunity. It was right on the river, and there was a small opening between the plants at the edge. Here are those shots.
That last shot was my favorite of the day.
I was watching a local motovlogger today, and he went to a place called Blowing Rock. It turns out that it is a preserve in Hobe Sound, Florida. This is a place that I didn't know anything about, and it looks amazing. I found a link to a good site that shows off all it's glory. Take a look here Blowing Rock Preserve Needless to say, this is going to be a future location for the Adventure Time Series. I mapped out the ride already. If I take I-95 the entire way down, it will only take an hour and 49 minutes, but that is no fun. I would rather take A1A all the way down. That of course extended the time to 3 hours and 17 minutes. I don't mind that, but it might be hard to find anyone that wants to ride along with me. I need to go to this place. He went there with a videographer that has a drone, so I'm thinking, this would be an incredible reason to get a drone. I've looked into drones before, but I really don't know much about them, so I don't know what is a good one or a bad one, so research is needed. Well, that and money. I don't think I can wait for the drone, but I could always make a return trip after I get one eventually.
Speaking of the Adventure Time Series, next Saturday is the next ride. I'll be doing and Instagram story along the ride, so if you follow me there, you will get the first look at it, and find out where I chose to go. Yeah, I'm still keeping it a secret. It does look like I'm alone again, so it will just be me and Saki. We will have a blast. With that, I will stop taking up your precious time, and say, peace in and goodnight.
These are great!
ReplyDeleteThank you.
DeleteThe pictures are great
ReplyDeleteThank you.
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