toddcarruth.com

Cleaning out my desktop and I ran across this picture….

seriously, how cute is that?

hi everybody Wow! So many things going on in the life of Todd Carruth. And it’s always the website that gets neglected. Well, let’s change that now shall we?

how about a quote and a picture for this week?

“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.” - Maya Angelou

Boy, ain’t that the truth? Changes are afoot all around. And now, here is your picture for the week.

I call “Ghost Photographer”. Can you see why?

I went to the Museum of Modern Art during my last trip to NY and tried to catch some decent shots of people. People doing ordinary things without noticing me taking a picture of them. Last week I showed you the guy with at the hot dog stand. This week we have the MOMA guard in the outdoor sculpture garden.

I call this piece “Focused Tai Chi by Bored Guard Outdoors”

As near as I could tell, his biggest responsibility was keeping people from eating on this side of the sculpture garden. You see, you could buy ice cream and candy and drinks on the other side of that big orange sculpture, but you couldn’t bring them to this side. An elderly couple learned that the hard way. I just noticed he has some sort of bandage on his left index finger. Maybe he pointed it too hard at someone eating a snowpop. BTW, I put some fancy “effects” on here using Google’s Picassa software. Yeah, I know it’s not photoshop but it can still do some neat stuff quickly.

Wow, the site is slow today. Must be all the Russian hackers trying to infiltrate me. Listen up comrade, do not make me unleash ze hounds on you, da?

Anyway, it’s around 11pm in Times Square and I am killing time on what I think is going to be my last night (ended up staying an additional day because of airport delays) and I come across a row of sketch artists doing caricatures and portraits. I tried to line up the shot so you could see the artist’s rendering as well as the subject and I think I did a decent job but the lack of light didn’t help out with the focus.

If you notice, the artist puts a slight smile on his face, even though he looks like he’s deep in thought. Deep, deep thoughts…like why is this strange young man taking my picture?

Still throwing out some lovely pics for you to check out from my vacation in Vegas last month.

Here is the lobby of the Wynn.

Quite lovely isn’t it? You would have a hard time walking down that hall without getting your picture taken because it HAPPENS ALL THE TIME! Seriously, every single time I walked by somebody was taking a picture. And really, could you blame them? Directly ahead is the parasol bar (which I kept calling parasail bar for some reason) and just to the left is the casino. I made friends with the roulette machine very quickly and turned 5 bucks into 20 bucks and then magically back into 5 bucks. I’m a regular Doug Henning!

Okay, it’s time to get back into the swing of things…Here is this week’s pic.
See, it’s a picture of a girl taking a picture of Lake Meade from the top of Hoover Dam. You see those white lines in the rock? That’s where the lake levels used to be. There has been a 6 year drought in the area and the locals are starting to get a little concerned.

Remember that scene in the first Superman movie and Jimmy Olson is taking pictures of a dam and Lex Luthor’s rocket hits the San Andreas fault and causes the earthquake on the west coast and then the Lois Lane’s car falls into a huge crack in the earth and the dam that Jimmy’s taking pictures of starts to crack and he almost falls in?

Anyone?

Well, this is that dam.

I wasn’t a big fan of the tour company (Airwalk Tours) that put together our Hoover Dam/ Lake Meade excursion but the dam itself is pretty impressive.

Although I kept imagining cracks appearing down this wall.

Hey Folks, I am just counting down the days before I lose all my money in LAS VEGAS!

Hey that’s me on the right! Trying to avoid those guys who hand out little pieces of porn. What’s up with that anyway? If you have never been to Vegas and you are a guy, at some point during your travel up and down the strip, someone will try to hand you a small card that has a picture of a scantily-clad girl advertising either a legitimate show or maybe even a personal visit. It gets weird especially when you are walking with your wife. Or girlfriend. Or both. By the way, click here if you want to see where I am staying.

Anyway, here’s today’s quote that I should have posted yesterday:

“Worry is a misuse of the imagination.”

- Dan Zadra/Business Exec

I like that one. I know people who worry so much that they have a hard time getting to sleep at night. Of course, I get accused of having such selective memory that I tend to forget about things that might make me worry.

Alrighty then, here is your NY Picture for this week:

Campbell’s Soup Cans -1962 by Andy Warhol on display at the MOMA

Andy Warhol (August 6, 1928 — February 22, 1987) was an American artist who became a central figure in the movement known as pop art. After a successful career as a commercial illustrator, Warhol became famous worldwide for his work as a painter; an avant-garde filmmaker, a record producer, an author and a public figure known for his presence in wildly diverse social circles that included bohemian street people, distinguished intellectuals, Hollywood celebrities and wealthy aristocrats.

A controversial figure during his lifetime (his work was often derided by critics as a hoax or “put-on”), Warhol has been the subject of numerous retrospective exhibitions, books and documentary films since his death in 1987. He is generally acknowledged as one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century.

I did a little bit of photo manipulation on this pic. Notice the black and white on the surroundings which brings out the intense red of the cans. FUN FACT: Did you know that the actual Tomato soup flavor from Campbell’s debuted in 1897? It’s true! Look it up if you don’t believe me.

You see what happens when you take the day off?  The whole city blows up!
 

I actually took a personal day at my 9-5 job and missed out on all the excitement downtown. What a mess.

 But in all the hubbub, I totally forgot about Wed NY Picture day so here we go:

I am sure this is how some of those people in downtown felt, when those gas explosions started rocking their buildings. This lovely lady is in the Museum of Modern Art’s outside sculpture garden overlooking a pool.  You can see a few wish-seeking coins have found their way behind her.  Look at the detail and perfect proportions on her face. Excellent.