The best part about waking up. The affinity Seattle has for coffee is not over exaggerated. I tried counting the coffee options on the same block as my work downtown and gave up after nine figuring there are others I don’t even know about. Starbucks might be the reason Seattle’s coffee culture is known worldwide, but its the countless numbers of independent coffee shops and bean roasters that provides the soul. A note on the Photography Squared project and my adventures with the Holga in general. Twenty seven days in, I have far exceeded my expectations in terms of my creativity and success rate of what I deem to be decent photos vs. clunkers (25 good ones to 2 bad ones if your counting at home). While I don’t consider todays picture of a Starbucks a dud, it does exemplify my continued struggles to become used to the quarks of the Holga. For one the viewfinder of the camera only shows you 60 to 70% of what the lens actually sees. As such when I was setting this shot up I composed it so the coffee cup would be offset to the right, alas it ended up more in the middle becoming somewhat of a distraction. I have also yet to teach myself that the focusing range of the Holga is something around four feet (I think), and have far to often thrown close objects, such as the coffee cup out of focus because of it.

09/20/2011 AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 SKETCHES(or less) part 50 The way of the intercepting fist - "Empty your mind, be formless, shalpeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend." I was a big Bruce Lee fan as a teenager. I loved his style of no style. His philosophy works well for combat - don't anticipate, react, use your opponents strength against him - is not a philosophy of life. It is not good to be a chameleon in life, unless you are a rather large-sized semi-tropical lizard with a prehensile tail. Technicals about the photo - not pleased with how "Bruce" doesn't look like himself, but I do like the technique I tried. I also had a minor accident with the cup of water and I hope it hasn't ruined my camera or lens, so this was the best shot I had at the time.