As I close, I wish to thank those in my Air Force family in no particular order.

MSgt Kendrick, MSgt Tango, MSgt Shipman, (M)Sgt Wahl, TSgt Roth, TSgt Arbogast, TSgt Bell (and his amazing wife Kristen and their two little shitbricks),TSgt Kaylor, TSgt Asplund, SSgt Wyrozynski, SSgt Russell (All three of them), SSgt Berning, SSgt Kretschmer, SSgt Keithly, SSgt White, SSgt Bell (and his amazing Canadian wife), SSgt Brown, SSgt Moody, SSgt Demski, A1C Stein, SrA Lasko, SrA Tapia, SrA Kennon and finally Mr Will and the Fabulous Mr George.

You lot have been amazing and have definitely kept me going throughout my six year USAF career. I will miss you all and if any of you need any help along the way, know you have an ally in me.

“Families are the compass that guide us. They are the inspiration to reach great heights, and our comfort when we occasionally falter.” ~ Brad Henry

Stand by Me

1. Bulb 2. This was an idea that at the time I was wanting so bad to play with. I kept seeing pictures of people drawing or writing things out using just a long exposure and a flashlight. But me, being me, I did it my own way. I had a pretty nifty background on my iPhone that was a pinup in a latex suit, with a bright pink background and a bright Tardis blue dresser. A few hours into it I was getting pretty desperate for something I was happy with. Different motions, different brigthnesses on my iPhone, I wasn’t getting anything I liked. I was damn close to calling it quits and scrubbing the entire set until I just hit what I wanted. It was about five or so in a row that I got that I was extremely happy with, and Bulb 2 being the one I was most proud of.

An experiment in using the Bulb exposure and my iPhone.

Bulb 2 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/ian_munroe/4084717394/in/set-72157604612632926

2. Mill 2. I had just bought my Nikon D40 maybe a week before this picture was shot. This was the first time I was home on leave from Germany and it was about two years after Katrina. I was driving around the Thibodaux, Louisiana area with my parents when in the distance I saw this, what looked to be like an abandoned factory of some kind. It could’ve been a fabrication facility, sugar mill, something. I don’t really know. But what I did know is that I wanted to explore the area and see what I could get. However, I was extremely limited in what I could do. I didn’t have a tripod so I couldn’t really do any long exposures of the darker areas. I didn’t have a stand alone flash to brighten up the dark areas. And I was still learning how to use my brand new little DSLR. So I was at a bit of a loss. However there are a few shots I’m really proud of and surprised that came out, and this one of the back of the main building really got my groove going.

From my first location "shoot".

Mill 2 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/ian_munroe/2424641112/in/set-72157604612632926

3. Venetian 1. During my first trip home, I fell head over heals in love with the “historic” area of Thibodaux, Louisiana. I only had my little Nikon D40 and while I took some awesome shots of the downtown area, the stuff I really wanted to do I felt limited with what I was using. When I had the opportunity to upgrade to a Nikon D90, I jumped on it and I made a list of what I wanted to reshoot with it. One of them was The Venetian Bar in downtown Thibodaux. Situated right on a corner on Jackson and West 4th street, and home to the best bar room and doughnuts in Thibodaux, I just had too. The first shot I did was at night, and from inside of my car, it was raining out, generally miserable, and I was flying back to Germany a few days later. So I really couldn’t get the shot I wanted the first time, so I made sure on the second go around that planned it out a bit to get what I wanted. One thing I didn’t count on, was that I hated every single shot I did, I must’ve spent hours on each one trying to get each one where I could be decently happy with it. But I just couldn’t, and on a whim I just a did quick black and white edit, and WHAMMO!

In black and white I find this picture amazing. In color, not so much.

Venetian 1 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/ian_munroe/3598709043/in/set-72157619104587054/

4. Dirt Road. Now we get to one where I got educated on. Not because of the content, the style, shot, edited, or anything like that, but on the title of the picture. My Great Uncle Norman who grew up in the area, who was wise beyond wise made sure I learned the difference between a dirt road and a gravel road, which this one is (which I cover greatly in a Eulogy I did for my Great Uncle Norman). The amazing part about shooting at my Aunt and Uncles house in the country, is that the weather is always spectacular. Between the sunny days and the stormy days, there is always something to shoot, and that day was one of the most amazing days I ever had to shoot. I think I walked away with at least 15 or so keepers (including my next one).

Dirt, gravel. There's dirt in it, right? I fail to see the difference.

Dirt Road - http://www.flickr.com/photos/ian_munroe/3633361321/

5. Union Pacific. If you are every gracious enough to visit my Aunt and Uncles farm, you’ll notice that you have to cross some train tracks and go down a dirt (or gravel ) road to get to their quaint cottage. One day I was driving with my Grandmother Alice back to her apartment to help her with a computer issue when we had to wait at the train tracks for a slow moving train. There are trains always going this track since it leads to a coal-fueled power plant in Lawrence, Kansas. So when a train goes by with a full load, it can take around ten to fifteen minutes for a train to pass, or at least that what it feels like. Luckily for me I had my camera with me and I just started snapping shots at the slow UP train chugging on by, I wasn’t really counting on any keepers since I thought that the railroad sign I got in frame was going to ruin it. But it just kinda grew on me and the bright yellow just seemed to make the picture pop more.

I think every one on some level likes trains. I really do.

Union Pacific - http://www.flickr.com/photos/ian_munroe/3638897983/

6. Brittany 3. This is a picture while I’m okay with it in digital form, it really pops for me printed. Literally taken on a whim, with her totally oblivious to me being there. I was just snapping away as Brittany was painting her headset. I nearly died twice taking pictures, because I kept tripping over a bench and nearly biffing my head on the solid concrete floor. And while not this particular edit, this photo kinda got me known around base. Which is nice, it’s nice being known as a photographer and not as a guy with a camera.

While we may not be as close as we once were, I'm still thankful for her.

Brittany 3 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/ian_munroe/4946244395/

7. Senior Airman Davis – Once you make Staff Sergeant in the United States Air Force, you have to do some “Professional Military Education” as they put it. Your first step to becoming an NCO is going through a four week course called, Airman Leadership School where you learn the basics of being a first line supervisor, writing performance reports, letters of reprimand/counseling, etc., etc. It’s basically a four week vacation from your duty section where you get to meet others in different career fields and pretty much have a blast. My class was pretty baller because it was mostly maintainers (like myself) and a few medical, we were lucky in that all the other classes were filled with cops and such. One person (of three) in my class that caught my eye was Senior Airman Davis, his quick whit, off the cuff humor and unique perspective helped make the class more enjoyable and the debates we had a bit more exciting. This photo was taken during our Thanksgiving dinner in the hallway outside of our classroom, I had no flash, the lighting was horrible and my camera was having a fit ALL day long, but this picture came out with minimal editing which is a HUGE plus for me.

This picture personifies the man perfectly.

Senior Airman Davis - http://www.flickr.com/photos/ian_munroe/4120260808/

8. Dane Ryder: early takes & mistakes. This was a cold day in Germany, bitterly cold. My buddy asked me to take some pictures of him for his debut country album, titled, “early takes & mistakes” (which you can preview on Reverb Nation). We were at a semi-abandoned railroad station just down the road from base, trying to stay warm and not get ran over by a damn train. We were a bit hungover from the night before, and when the sun kept poking out, it made sure to find our eyes and make us feel it. This is also part of the exclusive set I have on my Facebook page as well.

Boy has talent, legit talent.

Dane Ryder: early takes & mistakes - http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150166765782506&set=a.10150163175067506.363810.232703517505&type=1

9 and 10. These two aptly titled Cuties Pies and Picking Berries with Cosmo are two that I have long given away the rights for. If you knew me in or around 2008, you would know that it wasn’t a particularly good year for me. My first deployment and several other very stressful things led me to making some pretty bad decisions with someone I was with. Things ended, badly. Very, very badly. But, it was in these two pictures that I decided that I wanted to become a real photographer and not just one that does it part time. Real genesis. You’ll notice that these are not in my Flickr photostream, and that they will probably never be there, but I’m okay with that. I know who shot the pictures, that’s all that matters.

A typical fall German day.

First picture I took that I fell in love with black and white.

Cutie Pies - http://www.flickr.com/photos/18590873@N06/3140465302/in/photostream
Picking Berries with Cosmo – http://www.flickr.com/photos/18590873@N06/3140470382/in/photostream

Step One: Study what you like. (Check)
Step Two: Acquire  the goods you need to do what you like. (Check)
Step Three: Practice. Continually, and if need be, Goto Step One. (Check)
Step Four: Go. (In process)

I’m working on Step Four, I’m laying the ground work. I’m moving forward, giving up certain security for a career that most likely leave me as a starving artist. Why? Because I’d rather be happy and broke rather than rich and miserable. Besides, I’m taking a risk I wanna take and that might contribute to society a bit.

If not, well. Hell. I ain’t gonna let that happen.

Of course, I should heed my own advice. The days pass, and I don’t even realize it, each one that passed is too similar to the one coming. There’s no motivation, there’s no thrill. Success is private, failure is public. I hunt and peck for the little wins, hard to find, but they’re there.

I really haven’t been the same since December, I don’t like changes in dynamics, and I really don’t like it when I say one thing and don’t mean it. But in reality, it is what it is. Just keep trying to find my new dynamic, where I really belong. I read my tech blogs,  I pass along bits of advice on what to buy and what not buy, and I stand behind my camera with one eye opened, drinking my RedBull.

Snap, sip.
Snap, sip.
Snap, sip.
Snap, sip.
Snap, sip.

I have a new pet project. For the first time in weeks, I put my camera in my bag and took it to work. Portraits, while people work. I’m tired of seeing seeing stages sceneries, fetish and fashion photography. And while all of it is good, and make great wallpapers for my iMac, iPad and iPhone, get a little boring after a while. This is why I have always had a special place for photo-journalism in my heart. Every picture, a different story to tell.

That’s all I have ever wanted to do with my life. Tell a story. I know I can’t write (screw grammar!) worth a damn, like my beloved Uncle Norman (God rest his soul). But I know I can sure as hell take a damn good picture. I don’t know where the next few months will take me, I really don’t. Personally or professionally. I would say I’m scared, but that would mean I’m feeling something. But I’m not. I’m just numb. Numb, with my camera at my side and my drink in my pocket.

I’m gonna go massage my knee.

Bluing Up
Professionally, I started off the year being a fresh graduate from the Airman Leadership School, and instead of being, “blued up”. I found myself a little more jaded than usual after learning how the Air Force is supposed to run and what they preach there at ALS is a bit different than the actual operation.
I also found out that I was going to supervise two troops. Supervising someone on the outside is a very much different experience than it is in the Air Force. But I can see why they would take a different stance; they spend thousands of dollars grooming these kids (thousands of your dollars mind you), so they want a good ROI. Sometimes you get a good deal, other times you get the raw end of a stick. Which is a normal thing I guess, you learn quickly your strings and weaknesses and follow suit.
I learned quickly that this wasn’t going to be a cakewalk like it was for others. And by no fault of my own, my name became quite well known by the upper echelon of our squadron. At first it was a bit much, but i soon realized they were trying to help me out in really the only way they knew how. Some advice I took and applied, while other times I took their advice with a grain of salt.
There were bumps, trying to mentor someone to overcome a few hard spots is one of the hardest and most taxing things to do, but once they get above that hurdle, you get this profound sense of satisfaction.

Exercises
For Ramstein, 2010 marked the first time in so many years that we would have a base wide exercise. Many of us had served in Korea, where such exercises are commonplace and that such Operational Readiness Exercises ran smoothly and very little confusion was had. So you can imagine the seamless actions that took place, the first half would go off without a hitch. Sorties would be gen’ed up, planes would take off, and airpower was accomplished.
The second half, where you would pretend you were forward deployed and don your favorite chemical protection gear, would be a trying experience. The old gear was cumbersome, the mask would hard to breathe out of, and if you fell asleep you’d become easy prey. “Why,” you would say, “would that be a bad thing?”
You had one canister to filter out contaminants, so if your fellow maintainers wanted to have some fun and had a roll of tape handy. All they would have to do is take a piece of tape and put it over the one hole on the one canister. A rather rude awakening if you ask me, amusing to everyone else, but rude to you.
Halfway through the year, we have already had two exercises tests. The bulk of us had that ratty old chem gear, and we had gotten used to donning it rather quickly and pretty much had everything figured out for the big game. Well. Someone above had the idea that if we turned in our old gear and got the new stuff, not only would we all look, “uniform”. But we wouldn’t have to worry about serviceability issues with the old gear. This in all actuality is a good idea, with the old gear, people couldn’t or wouldn’t wear it correctly or had modified them to provide extra cooling or the top and bottom halves wouldn’t clasp together no matter how hard you tried. However, when you have an entire base trying to turn old gear and get the new gear you will run out of the new stuff.
You can always spot those people; they’d be walking along in the suit, mask and helmet, but no boots or gloves. Or they would have the helmet, mask, gloves and boots, but no suit. In wintertime, we would poke fun at those who had no suit, and in the summer time we would be jealous of the very same people. I would occasionally join in on the humor side of things, but I knew karma would strike me so I played it carefully. And the one time it did, was in the cold of winter.
The 2009/2010 winters in Germany was a cold one, ice and snow were prevalent from November all the way into mid March. Others and myself had our spot picked out, and it was a rather good one, as we hid pretty much in plain sight. We never missed any of the condition changes and we all made sure we were in the right gear at the right time. It was so good to be true, I knew it wouldn’t last.
One particular night it came to a head.
It was icing pretty good and we had all available de-icing trucks out keeping our aircraft ready incase we had to launch a simulated line. But, the one thing with the glycol used to de-ice the aircraft, it absolutely cannot get on any of the propellers or in the engines themselves for it would wreak havoc on all the electronics. Someone, somewhere high up in the echelon got the great idea of using portable heater carts to de-ice the propellers and use brooms to wipe off the melting ice.
I think all told, there was eight or ten of us on shift. We split up in pars and each took an aircraft. It was a beautiful disaster. We were out there in our chemical gear, trying to stay warm, waiting for the people to deliver our heater carts. After waiting an hour, they finally arrived, and as I was trying to unhook one I mistakenly dropped the hitch and it fell on my foot right where the steel tipped part ended on the top of my foot. I yelped, and my buddy just started laughing. I think in my hopping fit, I also fell, but I don’t exactly remember. A shock like that to a cold foot hurts. A lot. So trying to hold lines from the heater cart on propeller blades while wiping off the melting ice and snow with a hurt foot sucks, especially when you’re freezing your butt off. I think after one hour and getting one plane done, my buddy and I decided to just chill in the back of the aircraft and wait for the shift to end. Oh, another lesson was learned as well. Don’t leave your helmet in the way of one of the heater lines from the heater cart. It’ll melt everything off your helmet. The things you learn, am I right?
We all had fun though with the exercises, we had too. Between all the prep work, classes and sandbag filling we did, we had to find fun. Where I was stationed on base was nice, I wasn’t in the main hanger and was in a little building in between the ramps and the runways. So if the leadership wanted to come out to us, we would hear it over the radio so we could always clean up and be all-proper once they arrived.
I was one of two people in charge of morale for our shift in our little slice of heaven. I would load my laptop and iPad full of TV shows and movies and we would sit there for 12 hours and watch the media in between getting mock attacked. And sometimes, even while we would get attacked we would continue the TV marathons. We even worked out a secret knock if they would try and sneak their way out there to our little slice of heaven.
We all knew it was wrong, but you can only read the rules of engagement so many times before you start to fall asleep, or be bored, or go crazy. We would quiz each other in between shows to stay sharp and when changes came down we made sure everyone knew and understand it all. In so many ways, we told the leadership to, “Suck it, we got this.”
When the big game came down, we did our jobs flawlessly. We did our sweeps; we called in every bit of suspicious behavior. Not one of us got dummy killed, not one of us fell out, we got the job done all the while having fun and passing the time. While others didn’t have much success as we did, we still managed a passing score and we put the exercises behind us for another few years.
Game on.

Loses
2010 was also a year of losses for me. When I sat down and started to think about it, this was the year that I noticed I lost more than I gained. Personally and professionally. I knew this would be taxing on me, but I didn’t know how much it would get to me. We all gain friends, and lose friends; it’s a fact of life. People who near and dear to you, things either fall out between them for various reasons or they die. Losing friends and loved ones has always been hard on me, fear of being alone I guess. I had two losses this year that got me, one hit me hard quite a bit, the other took me by surprise.
My Uncle Norman was and will forever be a great man. We had grown close ever since I moved to Europe. We would share our experiences in Europe, his during World War Two, and mine during the War on Terror. The year’s change, but the heart of everything doesn’t. We would wax philosophical in our emails to each other, and we both enjoyed what the other had to say. It’s hard to find someone that you can enjoy conversing with.
I knew his days were numbered, he had the advanced stages of cancer and he was in and out of the hospital. In the back of my mind, I was feeling a little guilty. The last time I was stateside, we had arranged that he would drive down from Omaha and we would sit by, eat a delicious roast and just share stories. But I was horrible with how I managed my time when I was in Kansas. We didn’t nearly spend enough time as we wanted with each other, we shared a few conversations and only one meal. It still eats at me.
I sent him a print of mine, and I was hoping it would get there in time. It arrived the day after he died. It was the first time I cried since Christmas Eve of 2008.
I lost a good friend in Norman and needless to say it hurt me a lot. I always thought it was a bit clichéd when someone would say they felt a void in their life after someone left. But, there is a Norman-sized void in my life now. Norman talked me into continuing my passion for writing; he was one of the few that talked me into looking into photography schools. I know I have people that believe in me, and I thank them every day. But, it’s weird when you can feel when some one believes in you. It’s rare, and I get it from a few friends, and Norman is one of them.
When we have been hurt, we tend to lock ourselves away. We hide from the world and go into this self-preservation program. The brave ones still go out there, even while still hurting, because, life has no pause button. We must continue on, you will be okay eventually. I still hurt; my writing has suffered since his passing. My short story collection hasn’t had any additions in two months, and nothing worth a damn added in three. I miss my editor, my collaborator, and my friend Norman.

High School Still
In the eyes of loss, I have also made some gains. Rekindling old friendships with some old high school mates. It’s hard to imagine that it’s been eight and a half whole years since I graduated from Shawnee Mission North High School. But in that time I have pretty much kept up with my core group of friends, and in the past four years or so made more friends from that bygone era. It brings a smile to my face though. Some of those people I have known for over ten years and they are still apart of my life. You can be half a world away, and yet still experience new memories while sharing the old.
Life is good.

Tangible Media
I tried to do an experiment this year. After I acquired my iPad in April, I wondered how hard it would’ve been to lead a completely digital life. As in, acquiring no “old world media” or physical media for you common folk. Which means no newspapers, magazines, dvds, books, and video games. If this sounds familiar, Andy Ihnakto tried very same experiment last year and he did it. It was a bit harder for him, with his love of comic books and the like, the digital medium for that hasn’t really evolved with everything else.
I made it four months, and even then I only bought four physical media items. I do purchase the bulk of what I want digitally, so while I haven’t had the greatest of success with it. I have discovered that it could be easier to live a digital lifestyle, all the while reducing the amount of trash I generate. Of course it’s going to have to evolve over the next five or so years before I can recommend it for everyone else. Higher density hard drives, faster internet connections and more network friendly entertainment equipment needs to be more readily available for this to really take off.

Vacationing
This was also the first year, since I got to Europe that I did not travel back to the states for my annual sabbatical. At the time, I was debating if I should even take a vacation since I would be coming back stateside in mid-December. Even a two-week vacation sounded pretty good, you need time off to recharge your batteries. You need to time to relax, renew your priorities, and remember what’s important to you. More often than not, through out our journeys through the years, we generate so many agendas that we lose focus on some of the simplest of things. The simple things that we all want and really, need to survive.
I told myself I wouldn’t talk about it, out of respect of the other person. But, if you’re smarter than a jar of mayonnaise, you could see the bulk of this as a thinly veiled way for me to talk about it all. But I more or less lost what I thought was a good friend of mine this year, partly due to my own carelessness. Getting caught up in my own agenda, not practicing what I preach, going against my own values.
Why?
Because I let myself do something, go where, I didn’t want to go or necessarily ready. Now I spend part of my free time beating myself up over it. I ask myself why, how, and where it all went wrong. People tell me I’m crazy for letting stuff like this get to me, that I should just brush it off since it just wasn’t a failure on my part, but on both parties. I joke, I jest, try to make light of it all. But underneath it all, I don’t let myself forget. I don’t let myself forget that I will end up repeating history with someone I know, I care about, and most of all, I love. This is why we need vacations; this is why we need to take time for ourselves.

Renew.
Recharge.
Remember.

Photography
One of the biggest stages this year was that I realized how much photography means to me, how much bliss I get in me from behind that lens. Even in settling up the simplest scene to shoot on my desk, I get this geeky little smile. It amazes me how so many people really don’t pursue their passions. Why would you deny yourself of such pleasure? I keep asking that question to others and myself. I have made some concessions in the past few months to advance my skills, some I wouldn’t normally do. But in the end, it’s made me happier, and for my next goal I’ll have to make a few more.
It feels trite, clichéd, and heavily over said when I say this, but I want to show people what I see and how I see it. For most of the pictures this year, I feel like I have achieved that with moderate success. Not only do I feel pleased with the photos, but I feel when I show them off, that it is the best work I could’ve done with what I had available.
I made the leap and started development work on my photography website, and integrating that with my blog and Facebook page. Even in acquiring new equipment for me opening a studio, progression is uplifting. I still have much to do and more equipment to buy thanks to some setbacks.
Achieving my basic sense of photographic style was one, and took some work. Playing around with lights, lenses, editing techniques, but I believe I found the core of my language. It may not appear to be wholly original, as it is heavily influenced from some of the finest people I have ever had the pleasure to talk too. I know after some time, that my sense of photographic style will become more bespoke of myself.
While I do love shooting my own work, I do plan on making some money with this. There’s a bit of a challenge when taking on a client for a photography job, you have to try and capture someone else’s vision. A task that I have not particularly been good at. It’s almost akin to be a ghostwriter, the writer behind the writer. You get hired because you seem more likely out of the batch to relay the message the client wants but has failed before to get it. Lack of talent, equipment, clarity of message, something.
I know what I want, and I know how I want to convey it. But, if you, the reader, were to hire me for a job. It could turn into a bit of a faff rather quick if I didn’t bombard you with questions, or concept drawings or the like. I take a bit of pride on what I do, and if I don’t deliver on my promise it would feel like a break of not only the contract, but the trust of the client.
Is it a bit silly to think like that? I don’t think so, if you’re going to hire someone, you want him or her to deliver the goods and hit it out of the park. And to be honest, I want to be that guy that can deliver the goods and just blow away their expectations. Anyone can take a staged picture, edit it to hell and back and make it look good. But with out that little bit of soul, that little bit of love, it just can’t and won’t blow people away.
That is what I want to deliver, with my own little twist. Make it uniquely mine, so when it’s hanging up in a gallery or on a two-page spread in a magazine and I can say with pride, “That’s mine.”

2011 brings more changes, certain unknowns and more adventures. I’ll be moving back to the states in the summer after over five years in Europe. I’ll be purchasing even more photography equipment, try and open up a part time studio, even try harder to get published more. So I sit here and wonder what I will gain, where I will go, what will I lose and what will change.

The Cars.
If you’re gonna give me a thousand cars to choose from, do not give me 200 premium selections. All one thousand cars had better look amazing and not taken from a Playstation 2 game. This is one huge flaw with the game, 800 of the 1000 cars are normal cars given a little aesthetic boost from Gran Turismo 4. The other flaw that left me extremely disappointed, the normal cars are rotated around in the used car lot. So let’s say you wanna get your daily driver, lets say, a 2002 Ford Focus. You have to wait three whole game days for the used car lot to change, then you have to hope that it’s there! Not to mention if it is there, you have to change the oil immediately, probably rebuild the engine, and if it has a ton of miles on it, re-straighten the chassis. So your 12,000 credit car, is going to end up being 20,000+ after spending the money to make it worth a damn.
I’m not saying you have to do all that, but for a series with a motto of, “The Real Driving Simulator”, you’re not going to be that competitive with a car that has no power. So I ask Polyphony Digital, why have you spent 5 years between games to give me a game with only 200 premium cars? If you were gonna give me a game with premium and normal cars, why not set up two new car lots and the usual used car lot? Or keep it like Gran Turismo 4, have a little P or S in the corner and keep all the new cars in the same lot? I hate how I have to go through and check every game day or so to see if there is a specific Audi R8 LMP. I hate how monumentally wrong you guys have got it.
The standard cars. Okay, so you say there are 800 standard cars. Do you think you could’ve spent a little more time on them? So you couldn’t give me an interior, fine, okay. But do you think you could’ve done a bit more on the front and rear lights, and the textures themselves? Or is that just a bit too much to ask for? I don’t think so. I look at the standard cars and I think someone in your accounting department is stealing money. This does not feel like a game that took 80 million to develop.

The AI.
Still stupid, still don’t know where you are. I know I like to late brake into a corner if I’m side by side with someone. When racing against a human they’ll know you are there and wont be a complete clot and give you some room and take it wide. However, the AI will notice that you are there and still treat you as if you are behind it. It’s mildly disappointing, but I can live with it. There are bigger things that annoy me and I let the AI competitors go.

B-Spec… Be prepared to be endlessly frustrated, I know I am. Your driver will be stupid, your driver can not drive. You could take the same car, let’s say a front engine, front wheel drive Mini Cooper S with 277hp and with no problem win. Once you give it to your B-Spec driver, he will find the slowest driver on the track and stay behind it. I know Polyphony Digital says you can coach your driver to victory, but with 4 options of, “Pace Down”, “Maintain Pace”, “Pace Up”, “Overtake”, that’s not really coaching since he will find a wall and hit it, repeatedly.
Your driver has a personality, where it’ll be cool and calm, or a hot-head, his strength and mental strength will deplete over a race. So since you’ll start more often in mid-pack, your driver is gonna develop a hot head after the first few corners which is gonna deplete their mental strength faster. Which also means he’s gonna make more mistakes. Which means he’s gonna find the wall faster, or the sand pit faster, or anything else that’ll ruin your race day. You can tell him to pace down, but if he has a hot head he seems to ignore your instructions.
This is where I miss the B-Spec aspect of Gran Turismo 4, the AI was equally stupid so all you had to do was give it a slightly faster car and it would win. Oh, and you could fast forward it so you didn’t have to spend any longer watching the failing, than you had too. But at least it would still win.
What would’ve been nice is if Polyphony made it so you could train your driver to learn your moves and more advanced tactics, instead of being a mindless artard that can drive its way out of a paperbag. If I can win a same-make race without having to upgrade a car to fully race spec, then any driver I hire should be able to do the same. Basic concepts of drafting, late braking shouldn’t be that hard and you should be able to teach it to your driver.

The graphics.
90% of the game is visually amazing, and it’s the 10% you’ll notice. I don’t know about you, but if something doesn’t look right or seem right, it will pop out at me the entire time. One thing you’ll notice off the bat are the blocky shadows, maybe to remind it’s a video game and not real life? It’s a little annoying at first, but I was able to block them (haha PUN) out pretty quick. Another part are the standard cars, but I’m not gonna hit that again. But, the Premium cars. Yeah, I’ll hit those again. The interiors are beautifully done, every detail you could imagine is right there, it’s just a shame you can’t view them. In Forza 3, you can use the right thumb stick as you’re driving to look around the interior and check your mirrors, why couldn’t that be the default here? Why Polyphony, why? You give us these beautiful cars to oogle and drool over, but there is no real option to explore them.
The photo mode does an awesome job of being able to show off the exteriors of these cars. You can zoom in on any little detail of a car you want, or show off the whole car. You can tell they agonized over every little detail possible, but then all it just feels a little let down when you put it up against everything else. It makes you wonder why the entire game couldn’t be this good. It’s a graphical tease.
They do a good job on the tracks, the tracks brought over from Gran Turismo 4 are upgraded beautifully, and the new original tracks bring a delightful, visually pleasing challenge. Except for Laguna Seca, which is surprisingly bare. Usually at a racetrack you’ll find RVs, stands, control tower, something. Here you get the occasional hill, a smattering of trees, but little else.

The Sound.
The in game music is going to drive you mad. You’ll get the occasional rock tune, or electronic garbage that will over power the sound of your car. However, with most of the cars in game, you’ll want to mute your tv or surround sound system. A throaty muscle car v8 sounds nothing like a throaty muscle car v8, with most of the cars you’ll notice they are synthesized together, and while the car may look beautiful, it’ll sound like garbled ass.

The Physics.
I hated Gran Turismo HD for the physics alone, no matter what I did it felt like I was driving on ice.
Gran Turismo 5: Prologue was better, and I enjoyed it more, the physics were mildly annoying but they weren’t as bad as they were as in HD. They weren’t as I liked it in 4, but I could deal with it.
Gran Turismo 5, one of the reason I still play the game is because of the physics. Going from Forza to this wasn’t that bad of a change, a little bit of a learning curve since you have to brake a little bit earlier than in Forza. But overall the physics are actually quite good and keep up with what sets Gran Turismo apart from the other racing games. This is why I continue to play this game. Not the cars, not the AI, the sound, not the graphics, but the physics.

I’d like to write more, or even go over and edit this a bit, but actually talking about it gets me riled up. The game may treat you better than it has to me, and more power to you. However, get Forza 3. All the cars have interiors, it’s visually appealing all the way around, and they don’t spend 5 years and 80 million dollars wasting your time.

I dunno.

I feel like I’m hitting a bloc on every faction of my being. I need to find a new source of inspiration, my last source let me down.

http://ianmunroe.tumblr.com/ – Everything Else.

I really only imported 56 photos from my camera for the headset series, the rest I was not even satisfied with importing them.

I think I’ve touched around, 150 of the over 5000 photos I have taken in my library. The bulk of the edits are from a set that I’ve posted only 4 photos from, and they’re of a friend painting a headset. I was inspired from how intensely she was into painting her headset, we sat around for a few hours talked about the design, a little compromise here and there, and then it all came together. I broke out the paints, I did a little work. Then I let her paint the rest, it was obvious something was going on and that she was looking for a distraction.
Of course I enabled.
I reached for my camera as she was painting away, and started taking shot after shot after shot. All told I took around 130 photos with various lenses, including my beloved LensBaby Muse. However, the 56 shots I took with my 55mm FX lens were the ones I was most pleased with. The only time she ever knew I was shooting, was when I fell over nearly breaking my neck and camera. She saw what I was doing, smiled when she saw I was okay, then went back to business.
I went back to business.
I think from that point to now, I have only taken… Five photos. Other than being not inspired, my camera suffered a nasty Red Bull induced accident. Where an entire 16 ounce can was spilt on it. The camera itself still functions fine, however, all the buttons are all… Sticky and hard to actuate. To this day, I still spend an hour a day cleaning my camera and the accident happened over two months ago. I think I get it all clean, and then a button sticks and my OCD kicks in. I should get it professionally cleaned just to make sure there was no sensor damage, but I just haven’t got around to it.
Like everything else.
I’m actually interested in entering a photography contest, I have the entry form and rules sheet in front of me right now. There are six categories I could enter, well, three real categories subcategorized into colour and monochrome. I have 35 possibles I can enter. I know I could run away with every category, but I think I’ll stick to monochrome for two entries and one color. Black and white carries so much more than colour to me. I just think back to all the books I have collected with various shots from photojournalists, and the bulk of them are in black and white. I think back to my preference to vinyls rather than CDs or cassettes, the sound carries better on vinyls, plus you get that super awesome hiss and scratching.
I dream of a shot almost every night, little bit here and there comes more clear. I suppose every photographer has that one shot they want to take. Whenever I talk about it with anyone, I feel little bit like Captain Ahab, going after my white whale. For a while there, I was testing bits I wanted in the photo, different times of the day, different lens options, different camera settings. I had to stop myself cause I was driving myself a bit mad, so I started drawing the elements on paper. Then I just doodling placement options, model positions. And I had to stop myself again because I was going against my own fundamental principles.

Just wing it.

I’m sure someone somewhere just read that and cringed. I hate overly planning my photography, I hate analyzing every little detail, I hate making it perfect. I don’t want perfect. One thing I have always preached about my photography is that it is an extension of me. Broken, flawed, yet oddly lovable. I know my philosophy will probably not bring me much work, but I don’t really care. I’ve read too many blogs from too many people researching to get that “perfect shot”. That’s not me, it’ll never be me.

So I sit here, in my chair. Aperture is open, and when I’m done writing here I’ll go back to editing my photos. Admiring each quirk I find, each flaw in each photo. Playing with the quirks and flaws to see what I can create.

PS – The title came from tonights musical adventure thanks to The Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Friends become enemies.
Douche-bags beget douche-bags.
Enemies become acquaintances.
All relationships change.

What are you loyal to?
Acquaintances, friends, enemies, yourself?
An orchestrated game of loyalty.

For worse!

Pawns think they are Bishops.
Games and trust, hand in hand.
Rook takes Pawn.
Their dynamics change,
strategy erased.

For better!

Loyal to one or loyal to two?
Relationships change,
friends become more.

Change breeds change,
Friendship fosters loyalty,
Dynamics change.