bodhi tree swaying

Last year, a week after returning from Ethiopia, I got roped into narrating a movie that was being submitted to the 48 Hour Film Festival in New Hampshire. As well as narrating, I helped brainstorm the plot and had a small onscreen role. I was asked to participate again this year, but since my wife works at weekends, when the competition takes place, I had to say no. But Newmarket is a small place…

So when the kids and I went down to Crackskulls Cafe for icecream, I bumped into the crew and was invited to be an extra. Fame! Again!

So here are two shots of my brief appearance onscreen. You really need the stills, otherwise you’d miss me!

…

Sunday was the day for the monthly New Hampshire Media Makers meetup in Crackskulls Cafe and Bookstore in downtown Newmarket. Shrijnana had Maia at the inaugural young Sangha meeting at Aryaloka, so I took Malkias along with me. Considering it was a two hour meeting with lots of adult chatter, he did great. He even fell asleep for 40 minutes or so.

In the photo above, I’m sitting with the Nebula Award-winning author, James Patrick Kelly.

The guy above with the yellow t-shirt is a filmmaker, although I can’t remember his name. There are a lot of amazing people at NHMM.

Both photographs are stolen from John Herman‘s Flikr photostream.

Update: And here are three more pics from the mighty E. Christopher Clark (“Geek Force Five!“)…

Ladybird, ladybug. Take your pick.

This wasn’t the greatest photo since the ladyinsect was moving almost continuously and the light levels were low.

One of the joys of the fall: backlit maple leaves.

Another of the pictures I took yesterday of a dead dragonfly’s wing.

I like this one too. I cropped it so you can see more of the detail.

I couldn’t resist playing with the macro function on my camera this evening after finding a dead dragonfly on the back porch. The picture came out rather well, I thought.

So last night I went to Londonderry (New Hampshire) to watch movies that had been submitted as part of the New Hampshire 48 Hour Film Project — including the following short, film, in which I did the narration:

The 48 Hour Film Project is a worldwide enterprise where on Friday evening teams of filmmakers (usually amateur and often first-time) are given a genre (in our case fantasy — others included musical, suspense, cop, and buddy movie), a character (either Marie or Max Otterbein), the character’s profession (waitress/waiter), a prop (sunglasses), and a line of dialogue (“Don’t just stand there. Move it!”). Teams also had t include a New Hampshire landmark in the movie. By Sunday evening the film must be handed in.

John Herman was the force behind our effort. He’d asked me to do the narration, …

Shrijnana and Maia at Rye Beach, almost a year ago, in April 2008.

This photograph is part of Monochrome Friday.

Canterbury Shaker Village in New Hampshire is full of little details like this. These are wooden sock stretchers in the laundry drying room.

This photograph is part of Monochrome Friday.

This picture is part of Monochrome Friday.

One day recently Maia wanted to play in the car, where she likes to twiddle knobs and pull levels, but I decided it would be more enriching to go for a walk in the woods. It turned out to be a good call, and she had a great time even though she was still getting over a cold.

This was the view from my rear porch a few weeks back on one misty morning.

I thought about posting a nice jolly sunflower or some lively kids playing in Ethiopia, but then I remembered it’s Halloween and I thought this rather gruesome image might be most appropriate.

My parents and I had just got back from a whale watch in the Gulf of Maine a couple of weeks back, and as our boat pulled into Rye Harbor a few people started pointing towards the dock. It was the shark, which was hanging from a crane by its tail, that was drawing their attention.

Yeah, yeah. I know I’m early. But I was late last week so I’m making sure I’m on time.

Anyway…

Twilight. Rocking boat. Low light levels. Long lens. No tripod.

It can only add up to one thing. Impressionism!

Click on the image for a larger version.