Rick’s Rants and Raves

This weekend, we had an opportunity to go with Emily’s God Parents to see the Columbus Symphony perform the score to the Wizard of Oz, while the movie played overhead on a big screen. Nathan decided that he wanted to wear his non-clip-on tie (for the second time). Anne pointed out that if I wore a tie, and showed him how to tie it, that this would be a great photo opportunity. I would hate to let my wife down, so I grabbed a tie and handed her the camera.

Taken by Anne

We had a wonderful dinner, then headed for the theater. Of course, there is the obligatory sign above the entrances “No Cameras Allowed.” I grinned at the anachronism. I mean really, how many iPhones were in the audience? They’ve got amazing cameras built in. I couldn’t resist trying to snap a few photos with my own phone.

Yeah, it sucks. But hey, I took a picture where cameras weren’t allowed! Na ner na ner naa ner. The performance was great, the kids really enjoyed it and so did the rest of the audience. But I was a little irritated at the people who were dashing out as the movie was just ending and the applause was just beginning–the house lights weren’t even on yet. These folks were evidently so anxious to beat the crowd out that they couldn’t even show just a wee bit of appreciation for the performers? Would they leave a dinner party without thanking their hosts just to get home a couple of minutes earlier? Yes, we waited in the parking garage for a few minutes as the crowd thinned, but that was quality time that we could talk about and enjoy our memories of the show.

Today we had a big family birthday party where we celebrated our kids’, Anne’s dad’s, and Laura’s birthdays. And we finally had an opportunity to do some ice skating on their back-yard rink.

One of the many fun parts of the evening was when Laura opened a birthday card with an audio chip embedded in it. The tune was “Do your ears hang low” but the word “ears” was replaced with “boobs”.

Nathan was the only child sitting close enough to understand the words, and he said, just a little quietly after it was over, “That was awkward.” The adults started busting up laughing, again.

Kathy and Van had each received a set of Wizard of Oz Pez dispensers for Christmas (we saw them at World Market and contemplated buying them as gifts), so they decided to give the kids which ever dispenser they wanted. I, of course, wanted to photograph them.

This was one of those wonderful coincidences after having just seen the movie the night before.

The previous two pictures are examples of why I dearly love my new 35mm f/1.8 lens. More on that in another post.

I also took a picture of Kathy’s Welcome sign.

I took this picture because the Digital Photography School assignment this week is “Centered Composition”. I knew when I saw the assignment that I wanted to take a picture of an object framed by a nine-light window so that the picture would be about the rule of thirds while breaking it. Fortunately, Kathy had this lovely welcome sign hanging from her door.