Weekly Photo Challenge: "Belvedere"

[... "next week's photo challenge will be another easy one: belvedere," he says... easy my ass, easy if you live in New Orleans, maybe... like I can just leisurely walk down the streets of Miyazaki and take my pick of all the lovely belvederes... how would those guys like it if it were my photo challenge and I picked a theme like kotatsu or butsudan or something... damn, I'm gonna need gas soon... bastards... Huh? Oh!...]

... Er, time again for Glenn and Dave's Weekly Photo Challenge. The theme this week is "belvedere." This one really was a bit of a challenge, but thanks to my intimate knowledge (my "photographic" memory, as it were, har har...) of every architectural structure in Miyazaki Prefecture I was able to come up with this photo:



[What? A picture from a "fair view" would have been OK? Dohh!]

"Oh, Belvedere, come here, boy!"

Weekly Photo Challenge: "Ephemera"

This week, for Glenn and Dave's Weekly Photo Challenge, the theme is "ephemera."

I guess the image below might be considered cheating, because it's not really a photo. It was the first thing that came into my head, though...


Did you catch my little double-edged joke there? No? Well, OK, how about some advertising fliers from the newspaper?

Here's one for a toy shop:


Hungry? Do you like sushi?


Here's one for a pachinko parlor:


And, of course, what could be more ephemeral (and eternal) than this?

Weekly Photo Challenge: "Tatterdemalion"

Glenn and Dave are back to their dictionary-busting ways with this week's Photo Challenge, "tatterdemalion."

How about a creature who consists pretty much entirely of rags? The fellow below, "kuma-san" (Mr. Bear) has been my daughter's faithful companion since the day she was born. Admittedly, he's seen better days...

JapanEZBEAR (!)...

Weekly Photo Challenge: "Music"

Without any further ado, it's time again for Glenn and Dave's Weekly Photo Challenge. This week's theme is music. (Be sure to check out Glenn's interpretation of the singing frog from the old Bugs Bunny Show... What? You clicked and there was no music...? Hehe...)

Here's music to my ears:

Weekly Photo Challenge: "Mundane"

This week the theme for Glenn and Dave's Weekly Photo Challenge is "mundane."

Weekly Photo Challenge: "Women"

Time once again for Glenn and Dave's Weekly Photo Challenge! This week's theme is "women."

My "big three":

Weekly Photo Challenge: "Poison"

This week for Glenn and Dave's Weekly Photo Challenge, the theme is "poison."

I couldn't resist (click to enlarge)...



Which will kill you first?

Weekly Photo Challenge: "Tawdry"

[Wow. The boys are off and running early this week!]

This week the theme for Glenn and Dave's Weekly Photo Challenge is "tawdry."

In Japan (and I suppose elsewhere) there are entire sub-cultures based on tawdriness. Here are a couple of random examples from my (near inexhaustible) files:


[Read about my adventure in Hell!]


[I've never been able to bring myself to write about the horrors of Tokyo Disneyland, which I've been to twice. I know, with the dread certainty of a man with a 5-year-old daughter, that I'll return there one day...]

Alice Cooper-Welcome to my Nightmare

Weekly Photo Challenge: Anything Goes!

Time again for Glenn and Dave's Weekly Photo Challenge. This week, anything goes!

Here's a messed up shot of some guys playing rugby today in the field behind my condo.



I know what you're thinking, so really, there's no need to articulate it...

Weekly Photo Challenge: "Friday, March 30, 2008"

Weekly Photo Challenge: "Liquid"

The theme for Glenn and Dave's Weekly Photo Challenge this week is "liquid."

I just can't start the day without a cup o' coffee...

Weekly Photo Challenge: "Attitude"

Time again for Glenn and Dave's Weekly Photo Challenge. This week's theme is attitude.

I wouldn't mess with the pair below...

"Hey Pops, what say we kick some butt?"

Weekly Photo Challenge: "Restaurant"

[Note: I'm out drinking this evening so I've utilized the future-dated posts thingie. Apologies if I've jumped the gun!]

The theme this week for Glenn and Dave's Weekly Photo Challenge is "restaurant."

I didn't have to go very far to get the two pics below. These two restaurants are situated beside each other directly in front of my condo. The shop in the first pic specializes in yakitori (basically skewered chicken cooked over a barbecue-style grill; they also serve other stuff). The first restaurant in Japan that I had a meal in (excluding the airport) was a yakitori-ya and, much like a baby at it's mother's tit, I was "impressed." Yakitori is my absolute favorite Japanese dining experience. Good food, good conversation, and lots of beer--who could possibly ask for more than that?

Somewhat strangely I've never been in the shop pictured below. According to my wife they don't allow kids, and they also have somewhat irregular hours of operation. I've developed a minor fantasy (based on nothing) about this place being a hang-out for yakuza types.



I have been in the shop pictured below (but only once). It's more of a "traditional" Japanese restaurant--a bit fancy, with meals consisting of several courses of small, ornate, and somewhat expensive Japanese dishes whose names I couldn't tell you. Older people and women seem to like these kinds of places. I think a typical guy has to be dragged to these types of places by his wife, who has coerced him with speeches about social/familial obligation, that sort of thing. I'll take the grilled chicken and beer over this any day of the week...

Weekly Photo Challenge: "Roister" (Kyklops Komix Version)

In this week's Photo Challenge, Glenn and Dave, in their unending quest to expand your vocabulary and confound your photographic abilities, have chosen the word "roister" (1. To engage in boisterous merrymaking; revel noisily. 2. To behave in a blustering manner; swagger.)

Sigh... You bastards asked for this (heheh)...

Introducing "Kyklops Komix" (click images to enlarge them):











[Inspired by My New Fighting Technique Is Unstoppable.]

Weekly Photo Challenge: "Crapulence"

The theme for Glenn and Dave's Weekly Photo Challenge this week is "crapulence" (sickness caused by excessive eating/drinking--not what you thought it meant, is it?).

I tend to lose my head when I drink too much...



So I usually just lie down and sleep it off...



Yeah, yeah, pretty lame, I know... (on the off chance that anyone is curious about these pics, there's more info here and here).

Weekly Photo Challenge: Pictures You Take When the Other Guy Doesn't Come Up with a Theme

This week the theme for Glenn and Dave's Weekly Photo Challenge is... well, you can read the title...

Here are some shots from my hard drive (never published before!):

A couple of parrots. At least I think they're parrots...)

A bust of some old lady. I don't know what she was holding...)

My daughter at the beach.

My daughter sleeping (tonight).

Weekly Photo Challenge: "Ostentation"

This week the theme for Glenn and Dave's Weekly Photo Challenge is "ostentation" ("pretentious display meant to impress others; boastful showiness").

Here's how it went down, folks:



No doubt somebody will be pissed off by this, but I am Kyklops and I fear no man! Besides, can you prove it didn't happen?

Weekly Photo Challenge: "Conversation Piece"

The theme this week for Glenn and Dave's Weekly Photo Challenge is "conversation piece." Below is my rather lame contribution:

A Japanese cell phone (keitai) is much more than a "conversation" piece!
(Click images to enlarge, if you must!)

Weekly Photo Challenge: "Spring"

Time once again for Glenn and Dave's Weekly Photo Challenge. This week, Glenn has (not so randomly, I suspect) chosen the theme of "spring." I imagine we'll be seeing lots of flowers and such in this batch of posts. My post is no exception.

[Hmm... looks like I jumped the gun a bit!]

Click images to enlarge them.

Weekly Photo Challenge: "Juxtapose"

For Glenn and Dave's Weekly Photo Challenge this week, Dave has randomly selected the word "juxtapose" (to place close together or side by side, esp. for comparison or contrast).

I hadn't really given much thought to what I was going to do with this one, but last night as I was looking over a bunch of disappointingly crappy photos I'd taken at the beach in the afternoon it came to me: why not take a few of these pics and see if I can improve them, or at least make them a bit more interesting, and then juxtapose the "raw" images with the "finished" ones?

A couple of things before getting to the pics. Firstly, I'm not a professional photographer (and there's a very good chance that many who see this aren't either). The biggest problem I have with my shots these days are usually related in some way to lighting. There's a lot of freely available software out there that can help people fix problems with their pics. I use something called GIMPshop (it's like a freeware version of Adobe Photoshop). I'd put myself somewhere between novice and intermediate at using this stuff; this software has a lot of features and functions, so it takes a bit of time, patience, and practice to start getting the hang of it--don't give up! I first started with basic things like rotating pics (to "straighten" them out) and cropping (useful for getting rid of peripheral stuff and/or centering the subject, etc.). I think generally the most serious lighting problems on typical shots can be fixed by tweaking the brightness and contrast (duh!), but you can also do a lot with "curves." The only other function I use (I'm still trying to figure out all the other ones!) is color balance. Get the hang of this one and you're on your way!

As I said, I'm no pro (far from it!), but believe me, it is possible to save a lot of pics that you might have thought were shit. Whether or not I've "saved" the pics below I'll leave up to you to decide. Hell, maybe you like the "before" shots better!

Please click shots to enlarge them.

Before 1

After 1

Before 2

After 2

Before 3

After 3

Before 4

After 4