far out

I have always enjoyed space exploration... as science fiction. [Wasting tons of money and resources to eventually find out that God created everything just like He said... that's another story. I digress.]

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[USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D at Warp Speed]

Cool space ships, laser/phaser/disruptor beams, transporters, photon torpedoes, energy shields, scanners, warp technology, dilithium crystals, beryllium spheres, all these class M planets teeming with intelligent life, and blatant disregard for the second law of thermodynamics! Ah, what's not to love!

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[Cloaked Klingon Battle Cruiser]

My limitations with a 2.1 megapixel camera, a tiny flip-up flash, shaky hands, etc., have not prevented me from boldly going where I haven't gone before. Micro Machines, post editing and double exposures... these are so much fun to play with! I feel safe -- like I can't make mistakes. Sure, I can always do better, but it would only be wrong if I didn't try anything at all. Please, please, please-- if you have any tips or ideas for how to do new things or improve on what I already have, I'm all ears. Well, not like a Firengi... you know what I mean.

special effects

Sci-fi can be so much fun. And it's amazing how far special effects have come! Last night I watched Hancock, and there were probably less than ten minutes of that movie that weren't filmed with special effects of some kind. No... five. Cumulative. The story was unique, the acting was superb, and the effects were absolutely stunning.

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Do you remember the special effects from the original Star Trek television episodes? When I first watched those as a kid, I didn't give any thought to how realistic the effects were, since there was no practical way they could make things more true-to-life. But today, technology, techniques and budgets have improved to produce a quality that I could not have dreamed of as I watched the old black & white tube, back in the late 60's & early 70's.

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This photo was my own, low budget, special effect. I placed a toy upside down on a black shirt, and then created a multi-exposure collage with a moon picture from my archives. Neat, huh?