Category: cool things!

These things are cool!

Cherry Blossom time in DC!

It’s that time of year again, when the cherry blossom trees are in bloom! This year kind of snuck up on everyone, since it’s been so warm, the trees bloomed a bit earlier than usual. I managed to get down there this past weekend and got hundreds of pictures. I’ll be posting the best of them in a gallery in a day or so, but here’s one that I really like. I hope you all like it, too!

Some video silliness at Katsucon 2012

In an earlier post I showed some pictures I took of some kids cosplaying as characters from the videogame Final Fantasy (I have no idea who the characters are, but that’s not important!).  Here is a video with clips I took while I was taking stills (it really helps to have a DSLR that can do video!) and some music to highlight the silliness.  We all had fun and I hope to see them again at a future anime con!

More Katsucon 2012 cosplayers

Here are some more of the cosplayers I took pictures of at Katsucon 2012 a couple of weeks ago. Some of them didn’t turn out so well, and for that I apologize to anyone that I didn’t capture nicely enough, or if I made your excellent costuming come out looking not as good. Everyone’s creativity and skill was definitely fantastic (in more ways than one ^_^) and I hope you all get to see these!

Thanks to all who allowed me to photograph them, and I hope to see you at the next con!

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Katsucon end of con photo shoot

My friend John Nelson let me tag along on his photo shoot with a group of nice kids he’d met at other conventions, and so I snapped a few shots at the same time.  Here are a few of the best, I’ll be posting some videos to YouTube later, along with other pictures from Katsucon.

Note: to download a full-sized version, click on the thumbnail and when the picture comes up, right-click to save.

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What do you do when you have an unexpected singing partner?

Josh Williams was performing the Bluegrass song “Mordecai” when a little bird decided to land on his guitar! It’s not clear if the bird actually sang along, it might be he just wanted to get closer so he could hear better, or maybe he had a backstage pass and got ahead of himself! At any rate, Williams kept his cool and continued the song to the end, except he couldn’t play his guitar! Check the excitement around 1:45 in the video!

Crowboarding!

You’ve probably already seen this video, but if not, this is a Russian crow that has figured out how to “snowboard” down a snowy roof using some kind of miniature inner-tube-looking thing!

According to an article in Scientific American, “it’s further evidence that corvids (along with some species of parrots and other social birds) appear to engage in play-like behaviors.”

C’mon, guys, this bird is not just “playing,” he’s shredding that slope like a pro! Enjoy the video!