Santa Ana Zoo PhotoBlog and Film Fest Friday

If you read my last post, you know that I'm back at school and have resumed classes. Hence, my winter break is over. Not that that's all that terrible, actually. The break was fairly uneventful, with the exception of having my wisdom teeth removed. However, there was also something that occurred the day before my oral surgery, and that was a trip to the local Santa Ana Zoo. A friend from school received a camera for Christmas that was very similar to mine and wanted to embark on a photo excursion. Accordingly, we chose the Santa Ana Zoo.

Unfortunately, since most of the animals were in full enclosures, they could not be photographed without some sort of cage or fence getting in the way, and many of my shots have chain links in them. Even so, I was able to take a fair amount of pictures, and those that turned out well I will share with you here.

I know we're supposed to photograph animals at the zoo, but I liked the shot of this plant.


If you read any of my Wild Animal Park posts, you probably know that I love waterfowl.


I love plants like this. My photo partner hates them.


It's not an animal or plant, but I liked this jeep a lot.


This emu came right up to us.


But then he became shy.


We took quite a few monkey pictures, but most of them didn't turn out to well because of the cages.


So we got lots of parrot pictures instead.



These squirrel monkeys were fun.


Cactus!


I really like the narrow-angle lens affect I achieved in this picture.


So this porcupine isn't terribly exciting, but he made my day.



Llamas!


Is your mama a llama?


After wandering around for a bit, we stumbled across this cool aviary. Normally you go to an aviary for the birds, but I was there for the plants...
..

...such as this interesting specimen...


...and this fern.


These berries were kinda cool.


I like ancient ruins.


That's my photographer friend.


Tree canopy!


This rabbit was HUGE!


Hi!


Pigs are cool.


Pansies!

And with the pansies, we conclude.

But we're not done yet! It's Friday! And you know what that means!
This week's feature is a classic Bugs Bunny cartoon called Long-Haired Hare.
This film is rated G by ME. It's Bugs Bunny!



That's all folks! Sorry this post was late, but I had a busy day. School you know.

S'long for now!
T.H. Excellence

Regarding the 28th of January

According to my MacBook's clock, the time as of writing this is 9:10 a.m. The date is January 28th, 2008.

This is it.

This is the day.

The day I resume classes.

Oh, the horror.

Not really. My first class isn't even until 10:30. That's my earliest class for the entire week, actually. Except for on Fridays. Then I have a class at 8:00.

But it's a bowling class.

Good day, everyone
T.H. Excellence

Film Fest Friday - Disorder in the Court

Bah. I have jury duty today. And on the day I was hoping to move back into my dorm, too. Well, that doesn't mean we still can't have Film Fest Friday. Today's feature is an old Three Stooges short film titled "Disorder in the Court", something I thought fitting considering my required service. In this film, Larry, Moe, and Curly are brought in as witnesses to a murder case, but can't help but cause the usual mayhem.

This film is raged G by ME. No explanation necessary.

Part 1


Part 2


Okay, off I go to jury duty.

That's all folks!
T.H. Excellence

Ratatouille ~ A Fine Show of Excellnce

Remy: "What is that?"

Emile: "I don't really know."

Remy: "You don't know... and you're eating it?"

Emile: "You know, once you muscle your way past the gag reflex, all kinds of possibilities open up."

Remy. "This is what I'm talking about..."


Earlier this morning I opened up the newspaper and examined the Oscar nominees for the year. To my surprise and great delight, Pixar's most recent release Ratatouille was nominated for five (yes, FIVE!) Oscars, including "Best Animated Feature Film of the Year". I love Ratatouille, just as I love all of Pixar's films, and I must say that seeing this happen is quite a thrill, and definite proof of the superiority of Pixar's films to other films in the computer animation genre. The only other similar film to be nominated for an Oscar was Sony Picture's Surf's Up, and that motion picture was only nominated for one award: "Best Animated Feature". Quite frankly, I'm not even sure how it could possibly beat out Ratatouille. Maybe the Academy wouldn't allow the latter to be a shoe-in and needed another animated film to give it a little competition.

At any rate, all this award excitement has made me think about Pixar's work as I often have in the past. Out of all the motion picture companies that produce computer-animated films, Pixar is the only one that consistently releases films that are high quality and put an emphasis on story. Every other film attempts to get by on some combination of crude humor, overly quirky characters, or superstar voice talent. Apparently the team behind these films think that those things are the only film elements that will catch the movie-goer's eye. They seem to be afraid to put any sort of heart or quality theme into their work. Yet every single one of these films fail to thoroughly please, and at best only come across as "decent".

Not only does Pixar soar in the astounding quality of their films, but they also have yet to present anything less than a major hit.

Okay, so maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm just biased because I really like Pixar. So recently I did a little research, just for personal gratification. I looked up all of Pixar's films on Yahoo's movie site as well as rottentomatoes.com and noted the critics' average ratings for each one. With the exception of Cars (for some reason) each film ranked in the "A" range on Yahoo and the "90-100%" range on Rotten Tomatoes. Afterwards, I carried out the same procedure for other popular CG films, such as Shrek and Ice Age. None could compare, remaining in the "B" and "80-90%" ranges at the highest. Even Shrek, one of the most popular and successful animated films of recent history, could only garner an 89% from Rotten Tomatoes. Pixar and their storytelling are objectively superior. Facts don't lie.

Mind you, though, I only compared the ratings of critics, a fairly limited field, and failed to note the ratings of the general public. Even so, the critics are usually the most sensitive (and, in my opinion, overly so) to the quality of films these days, likely because their occupation demands that they view so many. They often label motion pictures of all kinds as "average" or "poor", and occasionally "decent". It is a rare event in deed in which the critics unanimously declare "Excellent!" as they have so often done with each and every one of Pixar's feature films.

And when the critics do pronounce a film as "Excellent!" the opinion of the general public usually does not depart too far from it...

Good luck, Pixar! Ratatouille is a most excellent film, and I sincerely hope and believe it will win all five of its nominated Oscars.

Au revoir
T.H. Excellence

When I Grow Up...

Whenever someone asks me what I'm majoring in, I know just what to tell them. "I'm a film major," I reply. Easy enough. However, if the conversation goes further and I'm asked about what I want to to in film, I usually have no answer other than, "I don't know." I've had a little experience in film, and I've enjoyed it enough to know I'd like to make a career out of it, but I haven't been able to nail down the specific role I desire to play in the filmmaking process.

That changed last night.

My dad and I watched "To Kill a Mockingbird", a film I had not yet viewed. "To Kill a Mockingbird" is considered a classic, and for many reasons. The script is excellent, and actually won an Academy Award. Gregory Peck excellent portrays his character "Atticus Finch", and is listed as such on the American Film Institute as the number one film hero.
However, my reason for enjoying the film was a bit more subtle, and most people may not even acknowledge it. I found the cinematography to be EXCELLENT!

Wow, that's a big word. Some readers may not even know specifically what that is. That being the case, I'll define it: the cinematographer (also known as the director of photography) is in charge of the photography that will take place during the shoot. In other words, he arranges the lights, establishes the composition, and sets up the frame. Essentially, a cinematographer is basically just a photographer, except he's involved with projects of a much larger scale and is dealing with moving pictures instead of stills.
And I'm thoroughly convinced that the cinematographer for "To Kill a Mockingbird" was a genius. Each and every scene was very well done. The lighting excellently reflected the mood, and the frame was composed fantastically. Even when the film was over, I couldn't get over how spectacular, yet subtle, the imagery was.

Then it hit me. I love photography. I'm fascinated by any movie with good cinematography. And I'm a film major. All those spell "cinematography career"!

So now I know what I want to be when I grow up, at least for the time being. I'm definitely going to have to watch for any chances to be a director of photography for any student films on campus, and I'm going to have to study up on cinematography techniques.

Even so, at least I've got a bit of direction now.
T.H. Excellence

Film Fest Friday - Superman: The Mechanical Monsters

Recently I've been reading through many of Superman's earliest adventures in the old fashioned medium of the Sunday newspaper comic, and so accordingly I decided to present one of Superman's earliest cartoon adventures for Film Fest Friday. This was the second of Max Fleischer's Superman cartoons and is titled The Mechanical Monsters. In this adventure, Superman must stop a crook and his band of robots to save Lois Lane and recover a million dollars worth of stolen valuables.

This film is rated PG by ME for the expected action and adventure. Not that a little of that ever hurt anyone.



That was quite fun. Some people may say otherwise, but I still think these earliest adventures of the Man of Steel are some of the best.

Up, up, and away!
T.H. Excellence

Fun-Sized Candy Bars: Not Fun!

I'm just gonna flat-out say it: what is so fun about fun-sized candy bars?! I don't know about you, but when my candy bar is a quarter-of-an-inch long, I'm not having a good time. One bite, and BAM! The candy is gone. One taste is all you get.

Not that I think fun-sized candy bras themselves are bad. Since they're very small, you can have quite a few. Even weight-conscious people will think nothing of having two or three. And you can easily buy them in bulk for Halloween. There is a time and a place for fun-sized candy bars in this world. I just think we need to rename them.

How 'bout "bite-sized"? Or "mini"? Or better yet, "micro-scopic"? Yeah, I like that one.

So next time you need candy in bulk, head to your local warehouse store and pick up a bag of handy dandy micro-scopic candy. Because little candy bars aren't fun.

S'long
T.H. Excellence

Film Fest Friday - Ewok in an Elevator

Hi everyone. I just got my wisdom teeth out today, but I'm still feeling dandy enough to post a short film for y'all. This week's selection is "Ewok in an Elevator", a short look at what happens when a busy businessman encounters and Ewok during his day.

This film is rated PG by ME, but only for a minor four-letter word quietly uttered by a lead character.



Okay, that's all. I have to get back to my low-activity entertainment. Getting teeth pulled is incredibly limiting.

Good-bye for now
T.H. Excellence

So Old It's New

Today I drove out to a small zoo in Santa Ana for a little photographic excursion with a friend from school (look for those pictures soon). I passed Disneyland as I drove down the 5 freeway, and as I looked towards the Magic Kingdom, I caught a glimpse of something that made me very excited: the brand new Mark VII Monorail, as seen in the concept art above.

So why does this make me excited? Well, for one, it looks flat-out awesome! More important to me, however, is the retro design. It's a wonderful homage to the younger Disneyland of the 50's and 60's. Walt Disney was still alive in those days, and the park was truly his park. Walt's original vision for the park was to be a place where parents and children could have fun together as imagination and reality were joined. While that original vision was still maintained for a very long time even after Disney's death, I think recently more and more effort has gone into making Disneyland a bit more of a commercial success.

A good example of this is the recent addition of the smarmy "Year of a Million Dreams" promotion. This poorly marketed event has turned the park into a sweepstakes destination, planting cheap banners and displays all over the resort. Even the monorail trains suffered when their sleek white exteriors were done over with a dreamy blue paint job, complete with clouds, pixie dust, and the "Year of a Million Dreams" logo, transforming the elegant vehicle of the future into another means of cheap advertising. The park may still be a place of imagination and fantasy, but the addition of commercialism such as the "Year of a Million Dreams" makes it reek in places.

Needless to say, I was thrilled to hear that Disney was adding a new fleet of monorails, each with a spiffy retro design. Not only does this mean the end of the cheap advertising, but it could be a herald of many great things to come into the park, things that may fall into line more with Walt's vision and less with commercial success. I cannot wait to see these new monorails traveling through Disneyland's highway in the sky.

So long, everyone
T.H. Excellence

PhotoBlog - Snowy Edition

I'm back! Actually, I've been back for several days, but I had some things to do after returning from vacation, so I'm writing just now. Anyway, the day after I went snowshoeing, I left the lodge and went to visit some friends nearby, but not before a quick excursion to see the magnificent General Grant tree. Along the way, I captured more dazzling shots of the snow-covered forest, as well as shots of the tree itself. Come along!

Another peek outside my window. A bit overcast today.


I love how great winter shots look after you crank up the contrast a little.





This is like a rock slide waiting to happen. No, not really. It's just a photographic trick.



Fun angle.


I thought this would make a good shot, but unfortunately I had to take it really quickly and didn't get the desired coloring and exposure. Drat!




I gotta give my dad a little credit for this shot - he's the one who pointed it out to me.


And there she is - the General Grant tree.


She's a beaut, ain't she!


And one more shot will close this post.

Ah, it's good to be back home. Hope you enjoyed these two sets of winter pics I've posted. It's been fun experimenting with shooting in the snow.

I also must apologize for the recent disappearance of Film Fest Friday. The Friday after Christmas I chose to refrain from posting a film, feeling that everyone would be too busy to log on and watch it. As for last Friday, I simply wasn't home and had no Internet access. But fear not! The Fest will resume again this Friday!

That's all - 'bye now!
T.H. Excellence