Taubin's Photography

Felyne and I got a new car :D [Flickr]

2012-02-13T19:12:04-08:00

taubinphoto posted a photo:

lightbox.com/photo/7e3VIND

Rochdale Juicy Pear Cider. [Flickr]

2012-01-29T19:46:54-08:00

taubinphoto posted a photo:

Rochdale Juicy Pear Cider

Felyne had this with our dinner tonight. It was quite good!

Breakfast [Flickr]

2012-01-27T13:38:00-08:00

taubinphoto posted a photo:

Fruit over top of blueberry pancakes

Auckland sky tower [Flickr]

2012-01-21T20:47:58-08:00

taubinphoto posted a photo:

The Auckland Sky Tower (or "Dirty Hypodermic" as people in the area call it) on a typical Auckland day

Deep creek flight [Flickr]

2012-01-21T12:50:24-08:00

taubinphoto posted a photo:

Tasting flight at Deep Creek Brewing Co in Browns Bay NZ

Left to right:
The Leprechauns Belle - Irish Red Ale
Dirty Gringo - Brown Ale
Zeffer Apple Cider (substitute for Little Armoured One) - Cider
Pontoon in a Monsoon - India Pale Ale
309 - NZ Pale Ale
Undercurrent NZ Pilsner - Pilsner

Overall, very good. The cider didn't really fit the tasting, but, that's okay, the rest was great. The Pontoon in a Monsoon was AMAZING. If you ever make it out to Browns Bay Auckland, check these guys out!

A travel companion

2008-03-07T03:49:00.006-05:00

One of my friends from Opacity has a beanie baby she travels with by the name of Pierre. He has become quite the star on her blog. After seeing many of Pierre's adventures, and reading many of his blog posts, I decided I need a travel companion also. Someone to keep my company on my photo shoots.

So, I introduce to everyone Lucky:

The bear with attitude... His motto?

He will be shipping from TY in about 2-4 weeks. I hate to admit, I'm actually excited...

Boredom

2008-03-07T12:38:00.008-05:00

Boredom kicked in, found an old candle holder from Halloween

Hey Jim

2008-03-07T14:45:00.001-05:00

"Hey Jim, ever get that feeling you are being watched?"

"Yeah, I kinda know what your saying..."

Museum Weekend

2008-03-10T21:10:00.002-04:00

I took my nephew to the museum this weekend, here are some shots.

A Solar Compass

1903 Curved Dash Olds

Model T

1925 Flint Motor Touring Car

Military Jeep

Norden Bombsight

B-24 Bomber Engine

The Nose Cone of a B-24 Bomber

And, some old Cameras, these were in the "green stamp store"

A flame of wrath for squinting Patrick

2008-03-11T03:38:00.001-04:00

This happens to be one of my favorite songs on the pipes. The story behind it is as thus:

Donald Mor MacCrimmon, then-occupant of the position of hereditary piper to the MacLeods, had a brother, Padruig Caogaich. This brother’s facial tics earned him the derogatory nickname Squinting Patrick. Patrick was slain by his foster brother following a dispute, and Donald Mor MacCrimmon was hell-bent on revenge. His patron MacLeod interceded, and guaranteed Donald Mor that justice would be delivered within a year’s time. When 12 months came and went without satisfaction, Donald Mor resolved to take matters into his own hands. He traveled with friends to Kintail, the village of Squinting Patrick's murderer, and knocked on many doors demanding his surrender. At each house, he was told that the murderer had gone out. This was the last straw for Donald Mor and his friends; they nailed the doors shut and set fire to 18 houses, at a cost of several lives. Donald Mor’s song inspired by these events, A Flame of Wrath for Squinting Patrick, is said to demonstrate the power of bagpipes to invoke any of the human emotions, even rage and anger.

Off topic

2008-03-14T03:11:00.002-04:00

This is completely off topic, but, I saw this and it made me laugh... allot...

I love Cyanide and Happiness, check them out...

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

The old coal drop

2008-03-15T21:11:00.000-04:00

I finally made it up to it. It's pretty neat. I of course grabbed some photos to share ;D

Some old friends greeted me on the way up

An old switch box

Finally there

There was graffiti everywhere

Looking up to where the coal came down

Some of the pullys

And some exterior shots

All images are clickable if you wish to see them full size. Enjoy ;D

Lucky!!!!

2008-03-17T14:51:00.002-04:00

Happy Saint Patrick's day everyone!!!

Someone came home today, and wanted to say hi

And what better day than today!!!

I introduce to everyone, Lucky!!!!

Arrival:

He came wrapped in Irish Green for St. Patrick's day

He of course insisted he make his photo debut atop a proper Irish flag...

So, I finally got Lucky! YAY

My Birthday...

2008-03-29T21:45:00.000-04:00

So, today is my birthday, and it's been a crazy one.

I work overnight for those that don't know, so, I sleep during the day. Today, I stayed up quite a bit later than I would have so I could run some errands. I was just getting ready to head to bed at about 9 this morning for a quick nap, when I heard a POP sound.

I went to the window to investigate, and this is what I saw:

The first pop was a propane tank in my neighbors house exploding!!!

Thick black smoked filled the neighborhood...

More explosions as more propane tanks in the garage exploded...

And yet more as his Camero he had bought 2 weeks ago went up...

It took the fire department (which is 4 blocks from my house) 10 minutes to get there to start fighting the fire...

My dad called me, he could see the smoke from his house a mile away, he knew it was close and wanted to make sure I was safe.

The fire department called in re-enforcements. We had 2 ladder trucks, and 3 fire engines from 4 departments here. They fought the blaze for 3 hours before giving up, and just doing control work to make sure it didn't spread.

I am happy to report, all 5 people and the chihuahua made it out of the house safe. The house is a total loss however, with 3 cars, and a huge 5th wheel RV that didn't survive.

I did my running (no sleep), and came back 3 hours later. The roof was still on fire, and the fire department still had 3 trucks there. It was a crazy day. One firefighter did go to the hospital for smoke inhalation, but, he is ok.

I just wanted to share my day with all of you, and remind you to check your smoke detectors, and have an escape plan. Make sure that if this happens to you, you get out safe. I will post aftermath photos sometime soon. I am just glad everyone is safe.

Flickr: We Say NO to Videos on Flickr

2008-04-10T00:11:00.002-04:00

Flickr adding video. Users saying, "Please no!"I wanted to add this on here, as I am fully against flickr adding video to their site. Flickr was made for photographers, not for videographers. I am fully against this change, and wanted to make the few of you that read my blog aware of it. If you are against it also, please do me a favor and sign a petition against it.

The "Say no to video" petition on Flickr

read more | digg story

A moment

2008-04-10T10:41:00.001-04:00

A moment to think....

A flickr video protesting flickr videos...

2008-04-11T03:34:00.003-04:00

This was posted to flickr by RONENV.com | cinemalog you can check out his website here

I found it amusing, and he was kind enough to allow me to share it.

Henry Ford Musuem

2008-04-14T05:09:00.000-04:00

Sked (from Opacity) was kind enough to invite me to the Henry Ford museum. I had a BLAST down there. I didn't realize how huge the place is, and there is something for everyone.

Thank you Sked for showing me a great time, and being an awesome kick ass tour guide!!!

I'm not going to label (most) of these, I'm exhausted. Here is my take on the Henry Ford museum ;)

1.

2. This turbine was MASSIVE...

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7.

8.

9.What a big fokker

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11.

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25. Very Kirkbridesk no?

26.

27. I wonder who has to pay for this pretty little dent?

28.

I hope you all have as much fun looking at these as I did taking them. And thank you again Sked, I had a great time. Thanks for the tour, and the opportunity to take these shots.

As always, clickable for larger views. Enjoy =D

R.I.P Cuff

2008-05-12T23:27:00.002-04:00

Not my typical blog post, however, I wanted to add this here.

For those of you that don't know, I play EQ2 quite a bit. It is another way for me to relax. It's my other way out, aside from photography. I recently found out that one of the people in game passed away of a heart attack at the young age of 33. Cuff was quite well known on the server I play on, and was a very friendly, kind person. May he rest in peace.

Geocache

2008-06-04T17:21:00.003-04:00

I found something fun to do, that will allow me to get out more, and take more photos. It's called Geocaching. It's quite a bit of fun. Almost like a treasure hunt. People hide "caches" of items, and give a GPS coordinate on where to find them. I took my GPS out today, and found my first cache!!! The awesome part of this is, there are sometimes travel bugs in the caches. What's a travel bug you ask? Well, below is one. People pick up travel bug tags, and can track them on the geocache site. It's pretty neat.

Today, I found this little guy in the cache, he will be going with me when I go out camping next week, and dropped into another cache. So, please, if you are wandering around through the woods, and see an ammo can, or some other object laying on the ground (usually hidden below rocks, or fallen trees etc...) Don't be alarmed! It's probably a geocache waiting to be found. Check it out, write something in the notebook, but, please, don't remove items from the cache unless you are geocaching.

And one more thing, if you do find one of these tags around, and you take a photo of it, PLEASE do NOT post the side that has the code. There are people that create false locations for the codes, and it screws up the tracking.

More Cache

2008-06-07T12:18:00.003-04:00

Did another cache site this morning. Took my crappy point and click camera, so, allot of the photos didn't live up to my specifications, but, this will give you somewhat of an idea what it's like.

After wandering through the woods a while, my GPSr got me close to a cache. Let's see if you can spot it... This one was an extremely easy find.

No? Let me help you a little...

How about now?

No? Well, let's have a closer look...

Here, I'll make it easy for you...

It was a pretty fun walk through a local nature center. It was extremely hot though. I found 2 out of 3 caches I was looking for, but, the last one, I ran out of water, and didn't want to get too dehydrated. All told, I spent 2 hours walking around out there. Total walking distance was about 3 miles or so. Including walking around trying to find the actual caches. Picked up a geocoin that will be heading to the campground with me on Friday to be put into another cache with the camping buddy I picked up.

First geocoin!!!

2008-06-10T20:46:00.002-04:00

So, I got my first geocoin today, one of my very own that is. I thin I'll keep it, or trade it, not sure yet. It's a really cool coin though...

The Edmund Fitzgerald:

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy.

With a load of iron ore - 26,000 tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early

The ship was the pride of the American side
Coming back from some mill in Wisconson
As the big freighters go it was bigger than most
With a crew and the Captain well seasoned.

Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
And later that night when the ships bell rang
Could it be the North Wind they'd been feeling.

The wind in the wires made a tattletale sound
And a wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the Captain did, too,
T'was the witch of November come stealing.

The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the gales of November came slashing
When afternoon came it was freezing rain
In the face of a hurricane West Wind

When supper time came the old cook came on deck
Saying fellows it's too rough to feed ya
At 7PM a main hatchway caved in
He said fellas it's been good to know ya.

The Captain wired in he had water coming in
And the good ship and crew was in peril
And later that night when his lights went out of sight
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the words turn the minutes to hours
The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
If they'd fifteen more miles behind her.

They might have split up or they might have capsized
They may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters.

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the ruins of her ice water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams,
The islands and bays are for sportsmen.

And farther below Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the gales of November remembered.

In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed
In the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral
The church bell chimed, 'til it rang 29 times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
Superior, they say, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early.

Coinage

2008-06-15T13:07:00.003-04:00

Ok, so, I found a new obsession to go with my Geocaching. They are Geocoins...

I love em...

Here are the ones I have so far:

Edmund Fiztgerald

Ghosts of Geocaching past

FTF Celtic

Titanic

Blarney

Cache Police (Silver pictured, I have gold also)

Celtic Shamrock

I'll post more as I get them, but, this is what I have so far. There is a second Edmund on it's way to me for a trade, and I will trade on of the cache police ones also. Good times = )

Too cool to not share.

2008-06-23T18:02:00.002-04:00

The USMC Silent Drill Team

More new coins

2008-06-25T22:24:00.003-04:00

Team ECCS21
Tim and Marie

Special Parkinsons Awareness coin

Yáahl's feather, tis a beaut

Geocoins dot net members coin

Cool stuff

2008-07-01T20:59:00.002-04:00

Chronotopic Anamorphosis from Marginalia Project on Vimeo.

Happy independence day!!

2008-07-03T20:08:00.004-04:00

Happy independence day gang. I won't be around this weekend, so, I wanted to post this tonight
= )

Happy (belated) 4th of July

2008-07-06T20:29:00.005-04:00

Happy Independence day. Some photos from Dad's cottage.

Sorry

2008-09-04T05:06:00.003-04:00

It's been a long time since I've posted and I wanted to apologize for that. I have been quite busy lately, taking photos and doing some other things. I will try to update more frequently as time goes on.

One major update I wanted to note is the fact that I had to put Bozo down a couple of weeks ago. Honestly, it's the most painful thing I've ever done, and it's still hard to write about. I will always remember her, and she will always be my babygirl. She is highly missed...

Rest in peace Bozo, I love you.

No more updates

2008-09-06T02:10:00.002-04:00

I will no longer be updating this site. All new updates can be found here.

This site is archived there also. Sorry for the inconvenience.