Reptile-mania-insania

Taking pictures of kite festivals wasn't the only thing I did in my January photography class. You see, we had to make an entire project based off of a random subject line from a spam email, drawn out of a bag. Mine was:

533 reptiles stolen from wildlife park

So many possibilities, but obviously I decided to make shitty cardboard-duct-tape-pipe-cleaner costumes for my friends and coerce them into dressing up as reptiles. Seemed the most logical, right?

The first day I started to make costumes, I got my awesome friend Sarah to help. We both figured it would be easy to get people to wear our fantastic outfits, so we went excitedly to Brian's room after a few hours of working. His roommates were surprisingly reluctant.

Begging and pleading and begging a tad more did work eventually, and I got some pretty quality photos that day:

 

[Nick Ramberg was a  stegosaurus of some sort.]

[Brian was a sensitive dragon]

 [with a definite coy side.]

 [And good ol' Paul was a snake.]

Luckily my teacher found the combination of (admittedly crappy) costumes and sets really funny and urged me to keep going and make it even more elaborate and stupid. Hooray!

Shelby posed for me and hers turned out to be some of the best:

[Lady Gaga-esque? Chameleon.]

[Might be my ultimate favorite.]

My good luck kept coming when my mom agreed to play:

[A reptile shocked by its reflection.]

 Things got even better. A guest artist came to my college to help us make an on-site artwork. It was going to be a giant cardboard collard green, but there wasn't enough time to paint the leaves so we ended up with a hideous duct-tape and cardboard tree-like thing. This was my moment. Or should I say, Sarah and Chris's

[Shallow depth of field]

[Deep depth of field... "deep depth" sounds wrong.]

[At this point I have no idea what kind of reptiles they were.]

[But they looked pretty awesome.]

The final photo shoot was just a 23 minute free-for-all with random costume parts and set pieces all over the place. 

[Chris makes a good anxious turtle.]

Chris called the costumes "repties," a play on the little know cult/club of furries, people who dress in animal suits for fun. He wanted the subtitle of the project to be "Reptie Convention 2011."

Sometime this semester I might be able to print out more, if so, you will see them!

26 Excuses NOT to Blog

For some reason, the ever-increasing time gap between my last post and a potential new one has been making me nervous. I have a vague belief that my readers will expect the quality of the post to drastically improve when there is a large gap of empty time before it. As if the new post must take a really, really long time because THAT explains why I haven't been posting in such a long time.

Now, I know most of you read Brian's blog, so combined with the vague-yet-certain-expectation-of-greatness, you may also be disappointed to see another blog about not blogging.

Well, I say: too bad all ye naysayers! I must break the ice somehow! So enjoy this cliche ABC list of things to do instead of blog.

Ask Brian and Tess why they aren't blogging instead.
JennaRose, you are obviously not included because you blog all the time! Marina and Rau, you never blog so I am losing faith.

Bug my mom or dog or something.

[showcasing her love for preschool, as usual]

[not very photogenic]

Culvers: one could spend 3 hours there with some friends from high school.

Drawing suburban homes has become too time-consuming.
And painting them with watercolor, of course.

Eating is more delicious than blogging.

Forgot. Sorry.
"Typical Christie answer." some would say.

Grinches have stolen my computer, I think.

Hungry again.
My mom is a preschool teacher so all the kids still give her presents for Christmas. This means there is lots of chocolate around the house.

Ice has developed outside and I must slide on it.
After all, it will only be winter for like 2, 3, or 4 more months!

June is coming soon--then I'll blog about spring.

Kinnect for Xbox is too fun.

Liking things on Facebook is so much easier.
Just kidding, I don't really go on Facebook that often. What, don't believe me?

This was written after only a few measly comments on my part. So ha!

My back is killing me--perhaps a visit to the chiropractor is in order.
Didn't really help though, I think I should go back.

Narnia! The books and the movies, if you were wondering.
I have plowed through the first five (of seven) and they are so short I can read one in a day or two! However, this is because I spend ridiculous amounts of time on the couch reading.

Ox! I think I just saw one.

 [looks mischievous too]

Pow! That ox just punched me! I can't write for at least a week (he punched me in the hands, of 
course).
Note the brilliant foreshadowing on the last picture's caption.

Queer... I think it must have been a magic ox. Still hurts a week later.

Only magic boxes would show up when I searched Google for a "magic ox."

Rushing it would only produce bad work. I must wait for the ox's magic to sink in before creativity can strike.

Shopping for Christmas is obviously more pressing.

Christmas picture, anyone? I was too lazy to go find my mom's camera and load pictures so I stole one from Facebook :).

Teasing my readers with a short post is not worth it, I should wait to think of a nice meaty one.

Ugly girls blog--pretty girls go shopping! My new motto.
OMGeez! Totes.

Veto. I have all the time in the world.

Well... first I have to read all the others' posts I've missed.
Did it. It took hours.

X-ray! (that and "xylophone" seem to be the only words that start with X)

YOU think of something to blog about!

Zombies have murdered the zoo animals and I must go save them.