Time with Tom

Photo of the Week – Decoration

One of the things I promised myself when I was going to move into my current apartment was that I was going to decorate the hell out of it with my own pictures. It is now July, and although I have a fair amount up, there is still too much white space on the walls. Frames, of course, are expensive, but it’s all worth it to see something I took – sometimes very quickly, more reactionary than planned – hanging up where all my visitors can see it. I’m not a vain man, but that does give me a certain amount of satisfation.

This picture was taken last weekend, when HP and I went on a bit of a cleaning and decorating binge. It marked the first time I’ve combined pictures into larger frames, and I think it went rather well. The pictures in there were all taken in Boston – from the Public Gardens, the Christian Science Center, the 4th of July fireworks over the Charles, and after the fireworks, when I had a wonderful view of the skyline of Boston. If you’re interested in seeing full size versions, those links will lead you to the respective pictures.

Or you can always visit. Since I got this shot, HP hung up a poster-sized collage of pictures from his trip to DC. They’re all in black and white, and I rather think that our pictures class this place up pretty well. Don’t you?

Tom

Zombies Lurch Among Us

I have friends in weird places.

Back in May, I found out that there was going to be a Zombie Walk here in Boston. One of my friends was participating in it, and happened to comment offhandedly about her costume. I asked her what it was for, she told me, and I circled the date on my camera. Flash forward to the day: hundreds of people showed up. There were some like me (straight photographers), but there were also Survivors. The vast majority, of course, were zombies. Zombies of all shapes, sizes, and colors (I quite literally witnessed what may have been a full undead rainbow).  Some were disgusting and scary. Some were goofy (like the guy in a pink popped-collared shirt with “Zombro” written across him). Some were pop-culture mimics (like the guy dressed as Shaun and Ed’s roommate from Shaun of the Dead). All were pretty awesome.

From a practical standpoint, the whole thing was a rather interesting experiment for me. Outside of occasional airplanes, children, and animals, I don’t normally have anything moving to capture. Here, I had hundreds of people in one large mass moving rather quickly through the streets of Boston, interacting with each other, the environment around them (both city and natural), and the crowds of tourists gathered at Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market. It required some ingenuity and a whole lot of stamina on my part. It also required throwing away hundreds of blurry pictures, most of which occurred when the sky started pouring water on all of us at the beginning of the walk (luckily, it got sunny later on, and my pictures became a whole lot better looking).

Here are a few of the zombies up close, so you can get an idea of what people looked like. Oh, and one of the crowd, for sense of scale (the picture cannot do the group justice).

Tom

You Can’t Keep a Good Tom Down

Hi all. It’s been a little while, so I thought I’d let you all in on my future plans for this blog.

1) I’m going to start updating again. Regularly. I’m going to start a new project that will keep me doing that (more on that in a minute). It might take me a little to get going properly again, as I want to do some redesign stuff, but it’ll get going.

2) I’m going to put up a new theme. This one’s been okay, but…it’s time to upgrade. Keep your eyes peeled.

3) I have been photographing the shit out of things. I think Time With Tom may take a bit of a photography lean for a while, although I won’t neglect other neat things in life. I prefer to let this be organic and grow as it may.

4) I’d apologize for the hiatus, but how mad are  you at me? Honestly? Oh, that mad? Okay, well, sorry then. Sheesh. You could have called or something. I have a phone, you know.

5) In case you’re curious, my actions as of late have included hundreds of photographs, more short story and novel writing, and even creating mixed CDs again (which, in fact, led to a new story idea, but that’s for another time).

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Okay. Enough of numbers. You might be wondering what the special project I mentioned above is, yes? Well, I will tell you: I, Tom, will be embarking on a photo-a-day project. It’s a pretty straightforward concept: one photo each day for 365 days. Every single picture will be going up over at my Flickr account, so I suggest you get yourselves ready for this.

Before you start worrying, no I do not plan to update this blog each day. I’m pretty sure I won’t have time for that. I will, however, have time for a Photo of the Week. So, in addition to getting a picture each day, I will be choosing one out of every 7 (or so) and showcasing it here, for you to see. Some will have excellent composition. Some will be funny. Some might be terrible, yet striking. Whatever I feel is the most interesting that week gets its own special post over here. Mind you, that does not necessarily mean it will be my favorite, just the most interesting.

Those are not the same thing, after all.

What matters for Time With Tom is that I am making you a promise right now that I will have another 52 posts for you. At least. Because the once-a-week will not mean that I won’t write anymore – in fact, if I know myself, you’ll get a solid amount more than 52. But, 52 is a good start.

Some of the more astute of you may realize that I am by far and away not the first person to try this. You would be correct. However, I wasn’t the first person to write a novel, either, and yet I’m all over Nano Wrimo every November. This is very much a personal challenge, and one I plan on taking very seriously (or, as seriously as I can take a project that requires the taking of pictures for a Flickr account, for showcasing on a blog). From what I’ve seen, it’s not easy to get a new picture every day. But then, it’s not easy to write 1,667 words each day, either. And yet here I am, 3 novels later.

365 pictures. 52 Time With Tom posts. You heard it here first, folks. Keep your eyes open for the first of these.

Tom

Dust Some Cobwebs

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve been here. I have a great excuse, I promise. I’ve been busy.

No, really.

It’s called Nano Wrimo, and I’ve talked about it here before. And I know Brandon has mentioned it. We’ve been attempting to write a novel (each) this month. I’m up almost at 32,000 words, and Brandon is somewhere, but I don’t know his actual word count. You’d have to ask him.

The novel’s going well. Better than the previous two years, that’s for sure. When I started this back in ‘07, I fell horribly behind, and had to crank out 30,000 words in a week (somewhere around 9,000 the last day, I think). It was nuts. Last year was a lot better, but I still fell behind a few days, which is both very easy to do and very dangerous to do. This year, the most I fell behind so far was one day, and I caught up the next day. I did get ahead by entire days once or twice, which was nice. At the moment, I think I’m ahead by about 12 words, but it’s all good. The plot is insane, the characters are all nutjobs, and I’m not sure some of what I write makes any sense.

So I’m obviously enjoying myself a lot.

The only other news is that I still have the completely used roll of film from the old school camera sitting on my desk, waiting for processing. I have to ask around and find somewhere that’ll do it, because I would love to see how (badly) those pictures turn out. I promise, soon as they’re scanned, you’ll get to see them. Until then, though, you’ll just have to wait.

In the meantime, have some fall pictures from me.

Tom

Octoberfest

Columbus Day weekend saw me heading out to Harvard Square to check out their Octoberfest celebration. It was lacking a bit in German – or anything really noticeably Oktoberfesty – but there were amusing bands, a terrible Lobster Man, a scary Teddy Ruxpin, people with chicken hats, and a horrible person in a gorilla mask “giving birth” to kinds in monkey masks that then spazzed out on stage (I think it was called “dancing”).

All in all, a fun time. Here are a few pictures. If you want to see the full collection I took, just follow them to my Flickr account. As it were, Octoberfest was a hell of a time to put my “don’t stop shooting” mantra into practice.  Quite successfully at times, as well…

I hope your Octobers are going well. Are you getting as psyched for November as I am?

Tom