Admire - Day 57 #CY365

General Douglas MacArthur was one of only five men ever to rise to the rank of 5 Star General of the U.S. Army, and the only man ever to become a field marshal in the Philippine Army. A hero of World War II, he received the Medal of Honor for his service in the Philippines Campaign, which made him and his father Arthur MacArthur, Jr., the first father and son to be awarded the medal. He officially accepted Japan's surrender on September 2, 1945, and oversaw the occupation of Japan and its rebuilding from 1945 to 1951. He led the United Nations Command in the Korean War until he was removed from command by President Harry S. Truman. The relief of the famous general by the unpopular politician for communicating with Congress led to a constitutional crisis, and a storm of public controversy. Polls showed that the majority of the public disapproved of the decision to relieve MacArthur. Truman's approval rating fell to 22 percent, it remains the lowest Gallup Poll approval rating recorded by any serving president.

This is the Douglas MacArthur Memorial in Norfolk, Virginia. The statue is a duplicate of the one at West Point where he recorded the third highest academic score ever and graduated first in his 93-man class in 1903. Following World War he served as Superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy leading a wave of academic reform and modernization. While his military career is also noted for controversy, his admirers continue to come to the memorial every day, many of them Philippine Americans and visitors from the Philippines. Source - Wikipedia.

iPhone 5, Camera+ app.

Bittersweet - Day 56 #CY365

Today's prompt - Bittersweet. I eschewed the obvious, chocolate, and went for liquor instead. Here my friends is a Rob Roy, a cocktail created in 1894 by a bartender at the Waldorf Astoria New York. Similar to a Manhattan, it is basically Scotch whiskey, sweet vermouth, a dash of bitters garnished with a maraschino cherry. The best part of today's project, drinking the prop. Canon 5D Mark II, 1/60sec @ f/4.5, ISO 400, illuminated with three LED Litepanels.

Predictable - Day 55 #CY365

They don't make pencils like the they used to, or maybe they do. Canon 7D, 1/200 sec @ f/13.0, ISO 1600, 100mm macro lens.

Crowded Around - Day 54 #CY365

My PEZ Army has my back as I work at my computer. This crowd of about 600 PEZ dispensers always blows visitors away. I must admit they are pretty awesome until it comes time to dust them off. Canon 5D Mark II, 1/60 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 800, 14mm wide angle lens.

Oh Boy! - Day 53

My grandson Robert was by today. I had a new "build-on brick mug" for my little Lego maniac. He built this rocket mug creation all by himself and he's showing it off for Grandpa's photo of the day. iPhone 5, 1/20 sec @ f/2.4, ISO 64, Camera+ app.

Notice - Day 52

Sometimes you just have to notice the unusual or different perspective. I was walking to Norfolk's City Hall for a meeting this afternoon and looked up to notice the reflection of the Bank America Building in the green glass of the Norfolk Southern Railroad's headquarters building. Just to left is Norfolk's Confederate Solder Monument, a.k.a. "Johnny Reb". Just about every southern city, town or county seat has one of these. There was a line of thunderstorms advancing right behind me and I got soaked on the last two blocks of my journey. iPhone 5, 1/60 sec @ f/2.4, ISO 64, Camera+ app with the Clarity effect and the vibrant filter applied.

Escape - Day 51

My escape today is performance art at the Chrysler Museum Glass Studio. I really enjoy art glass and have taken a few couses and made a few projects. But the Glass Studio takes appreciating the art of glass making to new levels with their Third Thursday performance art series. Tonight Hannah Kirkpatrick's performance of "Lights, Camera, Action" a created a giant camera obscura, 20 foot wide - 8 foot tall with hundreds of "lenses" for a dramatic live performance with music provided by members of Live Bison. In this photo we see Hannah and her team behind the "camera obscura" with glass neon lights she created. Below you see a photo of what the audience was seeing. Canon G15, 1/100 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 1600.

Canon G15, 1/8 sec @ f/2.2, ISO 1600.

These were challenging photos to capture given the almost total darkness in the studio. You can tell my Canon point and shoot was really pushed with a high ISO of 1600 and wide apertures of f/2.8 and f/2.2 and in the case of the second photo some camera blur resulting from a super slow shutter speed of 1/8th second. These were all taken using full manual control as the camera's light meter wasn't much use in the dark environment.