Frank Caico's Blog

The Swamp

Okay, so yesterday I was out at Best Buy waiting for a stereo un-install. While I was waiting, I decided to walk around outside and take some pictures. So I walked out by the "swamp" which exists next to Marketplace mall and took some pictures of thistles, flowers the occasional pallette mired in mud etc. I wasn't there 15 minutes when a Security guard stopped and came over to me and asked me what I was doing. When I told him I was taking pictures he laughed, paused and then said; "Well, you can go ahead and take pictures, but we can't be held responsible to anything that happens to you.". To anything that happens to me? What does he think is going to happen? Will I be swallowed by an alligator?

Its just nuts. This (the USA) society is so paranoid about legal repurcussions, security, and privacy that its getting to the point that I sometimes don't feel comfortable taking pictures even in places where people don't want to look at, much less care about. I hear people in London are having trouble just taking candid shots on the street without being accused of casing a joint for terrorist purposes.

Madness!

For those of you that care and are still checking, I am still here. I've just been pretty busy getting things back to normal here at the Caico homestead. The home rennovations are finally slowing down. The painting is mostly done and all the furniture I have been expecting is finally here.

I have also been spending alot of time getting acquainted with my new camera. I'm having a blast! Its so nice to be able to shoot with an SLR and still have the convenience of digital. Hopefully you will see an improvment in my own pictures-of-the-day.

Well, I finally broke down and got myself a Canon EOS 20D. For those who aren't familiar with this camera, it is a digital SLR compatible with my old Canon lenses. I haven't really gotten to shoot much with it yet (pretty much just taking pictures of stuff in the house - nothing exciting) but I can't wait to really try it out.

Angela was messing with it a bit while I was looking for some old equipment. Later on, when I was going through the pictures on the compact flash, I was surprised to find a couple of pictures of a stuffed bunny Angela has in the guest bedroom. I really liked the one and have made it today's "picture of the day". Its not amazing technically, but I really liked the composition and I see where she was going.