thanks much guys!
@ Sam - Well technically I live in the southwest
(los angeles) but I recently took a road / camping trip to utah which is where some of those came from. The lamp & beam bottle photo came about because of the extreme sketchiness of that motel room - It was like something out of a Kubrick movie. So I broke out my tripod, dug out a camping cup and the bottle of beam, and viola photo. I need to update the version online though, I fixed the cropping and took out the sliver of pillow on the right side when I printed 16x20s. I don't know why on earth I didnt fix that the first time around. Bugs the hell out of me.
@ matteaton - heh. That's really funny you say that. I was kind of in a rush to get out of there when making that exposure - there was an extremely drunk redneck and his dogs somewhere (I couldn't tell where at the time, it was pitch black) who was screaming at the top of his lungs that all of America's problems were because of the !#!@$@!#%@ Mexicans and #@%!@$@!$%@ Indians, and they should all be sent back to where they belong q%@!#%$@!#~!~~!!!!! and throwing bottles and smashing glass. His dogs were kind of going nuts too, and while I am neither Mexican nor Indian, I didn't really want to meet the dude or his dogs in person to debate where exactly they were all supposed to go "back" to...
After seeing the result of these pictures I'm pretty sure that the white van/truck thing in the center of the photo down by the water was his car. Anyways, I guess that just means that a picture lies
@cheeky
Those are sweet! The texture of the 2nd and 3rd ones are awesome. I don't have a macro lens and should probably pick one up at some point. I've messed around with using close-up filters and they produce a TON of distortion when you stack them:
Which definately gives you a "look" I suppose, but it's not one I'm too crazy about. I should get a macro and do it the correct way at some point.