Tag: birds

We’re watching you

iampotassiumLeave a comment
I seeeeeee youuuuuuuuuu, Potassium….

Hi everyone! It’s been forever and a day since I last posted on here, and I really miss it. I think I was stressing myself out about having the most amazing prose accompanying the prettiest pictures from the coolest places on each post. And I’d put all this work in and wonder if it was even worth it. Who was I doing all that work for? So I stopped posting.

But I really missed having a place to record what I’m up to every week, even if it’s nothing glamorous. Chances are I’ve taken at least one photo that I’m particularly proud of or that I think sums up my week. And after all, this blog is supposed to be “a day in the life of an active metal,” so shouldn’t it be showing snapshots of my life? Really, this should be a place for me — a sort of online photo album, if you will. If y’all think my photos are cool, well that’s neat too.

So today you’re getting this bird on top of my bus stop. I posted it because I think it sums up the running story I’ve been writing in my head while I walk around Seattle lately: The birds are out to get me. I know, very “The Birds” of me. But seriously, let’s discuss:

  1. A few weeks ago, I was walking to the bus stop and a bunch of crows were cawing at each other on the power lines above my head. Then one of them swooped down so close to my head, I could feel the air moving. It was seriously like a scene out of The Birds. Crows continued cawing at me for the rest of the walk….
  2. Then, last week, I was walking to a meeting and I was suddenly swarmed by a huge flock of pigeons taking off.
  3. Later that same day, a crow tried to drop a shell on my head. It fell and broke near my feet. I looked up, and the crow was eyeing me from the top of a building.
  4. And then this photo: a crow on top of my bus stop. Its feet made really neat/ominous noises above my head… Yikes

See what I mean?

Anyway, that’s all for today. More posts to come soon (though no promises on any normal posting time. Life’s too crazy for that), as long as I don’t get attacked by birds….

Soaring back to photography

iampotassium1 Comment


Last weekend was full of fun and friends! We got to see a bunch of friends we haven't seen in a while and there was much catching up. Speaking of catching up, I also got to the chance to catch up with my DSLR (and my photography friends here in Boulder too). My poor Nikon D80 hasn't been on a shooting adventure in ages so this weekend, we headed up a trail by our houses and took our cameras for a spin.
It was interesting trying to get the creative juices flowing after not doing shooting adventures in a while. I definitely have gotten better at using my camera (I was shooting in manual mode the whole time and was decent at figuring out good settings for the lighting conditions around) but I was thinking waaaaay too much instead of just taking pictures! Part of it is that I really want my pictures to have a signature or a particular style. I feel like right now my pictures are just pictures. I want people to look at my pictures and go "yeah… Potassium took these pictures…" but I don't know how to do that. I guess just keep taking pictures… No more months between photo outings for me!

So yeah… this picture. I was creeping up to these birds in a bush (they were totally aware of me so I wouldn't actually call it "creeping" I guess…) and they kept hopping farther away from me. Eventually, they got tired of my seemingly endless interest in them and this one took off, conveniently flying past my friend G on the way. I like that G is not totally in focus, but enough in focus that you can get his facial expression…

What do you guys think? How do you get a "signature" for your art? How do you keep working at your hobby when you aren't feeling super creative? :)