I am currently packing for SxSW and decided to take a break.

After I loaded up the Washing machine and decided to headed to J&B coffee shop to visit with some friends before I head out of town.

Tonight I am packing up my gear for SxSW. This is my first year to attend so I have been searching other blogs to see what other first timers have learned.

Based on the recomendations I am taking:
1. Flip
2. MacBook
3. MacBook charger
4. iPhone charger
5. Ethernet cable
6. surge protector
7. Extra batteries
8. Kodak point and shoot (for situations where I don’t want to use my DSLR)
9. memory card reader
10. DSLR
50 mm 1.8
55-250 5.6/6.1
430 EX II
11. Snacks

Anything else I missed?

Tonight some storms came in to town, and I decided to grab my camera and run outside of town to see the sunset.

About two miles outside of town, I decided to turn down a dirt road, looking for the perfect spot to sit and wait.

I started taking some pictures of this pump while I was waiting, and this shot I really liked. I wanted my shot for tonight to sum up West Texas, and I think this does a pretty good job.

While I was shooting this, the wind picked up on me, and I got hit by a fast gust of wind. Unfortunately, I was not on the best footing when I was shooting, so down I went.

According to the weather, during this storm we were getting wind speeds up to 60 mph. and I felt it.

So maybe my little title filled with Doom and Gloom is a little off.

Truth of the matter is, I have always wanted to own a robot.

Ever since I saw Star Wars on VHS, and owned the audio book version of Return of the Jedi made for little kids; with the pop out story book to look at; I have desired to own a robot, own a lightsaber and marry Princess Leia.

Yesterday, while we were at the Science Spectrum, before Gnomegate happened; I spotted this little build your own robot car kit and decided I would buy it.

Now I am amassing an army of robots, and Auto the doomcar will be the first in a long line of robots bent on doing my bidding.

Unfortunately, it is overcast today; so Auto is without power.

But when the sun comes out. Doom shall occur.

Editors note: I think this post is funny. Not sure where I was going with this, but I am going to stand by it.

Today was a day of multiple photoadventures in a ton of exciting locations. We are about to play super mario, so I will post more of these for tomorrow.

This shot happened while exploring a new place near the tracks. We didn’t know if the tracks were still in use till this engine blasted through.

Was awesome. Always wanted to shoot a train. Will have to come back to this spot with more time and get more shots of trains.

Tonight is the First Friday Art trail here in Lubbock.

This is usually a fun event filled with exploring downtown, and getting to see different local artists.

My friends band prettygirlsglow & eddie performed a few songs at the Limelight theatre so I dropped by to get a few quick shots and record a short video.

Video will be posted tomorrow. I promise.

Scouts Honor.

You can follow prettygirlsglow & eddie on Twitter. Or the members Jacie, and Chrstine.

Tonight, my roommate and I went to Walmart to do some much needed grocery shopping.

While we were there, I went through the seasonal aisle, looking for Cadbury Bunny Eggs.

These eggs are my favorite treat. Every holiday has that candy that just sums up the holiday perfectly for me.

For Christmas I get those Taffy mint things with the little green tree on them.

For Holloween it is all about the Dots.

But Easter has the Cadburry Eggs, and they were excellent.

While on the candy aisle, I was shocked to see something. I can not remember who made the joke about Easter, questioning what the bunny has to do with the holiday.

However, he did make a valid point. We would not want kids eating candy versions of the symbols associated with the holiday.

Today, I saw these:

Personally, I would never consider myself religious, however I was a little shocked and offended by this find.

What do you think?

Not sure why, but she has been in an odd mood tonight.

Her moods tonight are: sleepy, hyper, talkative, goofy, playful and sweet. In any order you can imagine. Her emotional state seems to change every 5 minutes.

Here is an example of what I mean when I say talkative:

Naval Patel asked me on Twitter today what my inspiration was for my 365 project.

Since I could not figure out how to narrow down my thoughts to a single tweet, I thought I would spell it out in a nice blog post.

Because of others

A quick search on the internet will find tons of other people who have embarked on a 365 project. All of these people come with varying skill levels, and a preference for shooting different things.

This would be the first bit of inspiration from me. I go through Flickr and look at what other photographers are doing, and get ideas based around what they are doing.

The 365 can seem pretty daunting at first while you are doing it, but by looking at what others have done, I have the attitude of “They can do it, why can’t I.”

Variety is the spice of life

According to strengths quest, I am an input. This means that I like to learn new things, and try different things. This project encourages me to step outside my bubble and try new things; like developing my own film or building a pinhole camera.

Even if the experiment ends in a failure, I know there is something new to try; or I can learn what not to do next time I attempt this.

Also, this project has encouraged many photo adventures. There is something really fun about getting a group together, pointing in a direction and going there to find out what is over the horizon.

If I were to say I had an artistic statement for this project it would be: “I have never tried this before, so let’s see what happens.”

But I don’t.

Tons of Photos

I usually have at least one camera on me (I own 15 different cameras) and I take tons of pictures. A lot of these pictures are awful, but some of them are real gems.

I have an entire folder filled with slides and negatives next to an external hard drive filled with images. Have you ever seen any of them? Most likely not, because I never do anything with them.

One of the goals I have for this project, is to go through the folder and the Gigs of data I have and find some shots that are really worthwhile.

What does this button do?

My final inspiration behind this project is the equipment I use.

I have read the manual for my camera. I have read the manual for my flash. I read blogs and tutorials on everything from how to shoot this to what does this do in Lightroom.

However, I can not say this is how I learn.

I am one of those people that has to put something on its feet and try it out. Reading about it is great to get the idea started, but ultimately, I have to try and fail several times.

And now I am off to shoot my photo for the day.