Posting daily at 1pm central about all kinds of things. One day it's dating, the next it's TV commercials. I hope you're entertained. Professional photos on SmugMug – https://benwilder.smugmug.com
The other day I went to a car show and had no idea what to expect. I’m a self-proclaimed “not a car guy” so while I like seeing cool cars, I have no desire at all to get into fixing them or learning much more about them beyond their color and style. But this show was pretty awesome, and the cars were beautiful! My favorite was a yellow Lamborghini. I gravitated towards the antiques from the 1970s but there were all kinds of cool cars and motorcycles.
Of course, there were also a few that were perplexing. I’m thinking of a PT Cruiser. Why it was there, I’m not sure? But then I started focusing on headlights and close-up details. I love how these photos came out!
Check out more photos from the car show here and more close-ups for purchase here. Think about one of these images framed in your favorite room, they’d look great!
I came across this Amazon ad recently and I can’t decide if I like it or not. On the one hand, I *love* the 1970s mostly for the clothes, furniture, and cars. This ad clearly pulls from that decade, just check out the sweaters.
But ever since learning that Amazon helps pregnant employees travel to states where abortions are legal, I’ve kind of soured to the idea of ordering from them. On top of that, the ad is attempting to be funny but the only line I halfway chuckled for is “stuff to squeeze between your buns.” I *do* love ketchup, however I don’t know anyone who buys ketchup online! Ok, Whole Foods counts, I guess… but you have to be a Prime Member, not just a casual Amazon shopper.
Back to the ad, the harmonies are fine. The lyrics are clever. I guess I just wanted to laugh more. And, too, it bothers me a little bit that we’re not even through October and Christmas shopping is already being shoved in our face. They (they = corporations, advertisers) won’t ruin Christmas for me but I’m becoming less and less enthused about the greed surrounding the holiday.
I rather anticipate the excitement of lights, family, classic songs, and the most important thing- celebrating “the reason for the season,” Jesus. I’ll go ahead and give this commercial a thumbs down for those reasons and also that I’ve become somewhat of a minimalist. Living in a travel trailer will do that to a person! The last thing I want to do in a small, confined space is gather more stuff. That’s the habit of hoarders, right? I’ve seen a few homes where a hoarder lived and trust me, it ain’t pretty.
My home on wheels
Enjoy the commercial, but I’m going to think twice about where and how often I spend my money. Lately, I’ve enjoyed paying for experiences, not things. Like booking campsites in state parks where I took these pictures.
If you’re just dying to buy something, skip Amazon and head over to my SmugMug art gallery where you can buy framed stuff to keep or give to loved ones. That’s the best use of your money in my unbiased opinion… 😉
I spent way too much time working on an image after being inspired by a product ad on Facebook. There were these cool little light fixtures in the shape of animals and inside were forest scenes, Christmas lights, and color. It’s probably easier to just show you the ad…
Those are physical things in the picture so I knew it would be hard to recreate the idea in picture form, but I loved the idea of a scene within the shape of wildlife. I have a few butterfly pictures so I picked that as my starting point.
Butterfly outline
Next addition is Christmas lights so I found a picture taken last winter. The blurry lights in the image would work well enough so I used the warm color in my editing.
Blurry lights
I love silhouettes. I found a cute, plump bird silhouette to use. See if you can find the chubby bird in the final image!
Bird silhouette
I didn’t want a solid white background so I found another butterfly, a profile angle, to fill up the blank space.
Butterfly for background
I tried all sorts of different things to create a pleasing image but ended up only using 4 elements… the blurry lights, the bird, the second butterfly, and this flower:
Flower
Putting all of this into one image was hard. I had many errors and went over it again and again, trying different ideas but never quite being settled. Even the final image had 4 or 5 different versions. But none sat right with me so I went back to an early version just with the butterflies, the lights, bird, and flower. It’s simple, colorful, not too busy, and I love it. I hope you do, too. Here’s the final image of a butterfly scene…
You can snoop around more of my “created” images in this gallery. I also take photos of wildlife, landscapes, cemeteries, and more. Find them all on my SmugMug page where you an download and purchase them as framed artwork.
Before Snoop Dogg was starring in Corona commercials with Adam Samberg, he was a rapper. In fact, that’s what he was famous for. If your introduction to his music was the Super Bowl halftime show, I’m sorry. That was kind of a pitiful mish-mash of west coast rapper hits from the 90s and 2000s. But when it was good (like, back in the 90s and 2000s), it was real good. I guess somewhere in the late 2000s it went downhill because in 2009 Snoop released a song called “Sensual Seduction” that’s still being played on the radio. I heard it for the first time a few weeks ago and I’m grateful for the 13 years I didn’t know about this song.
I’ve actually forced myself to listen to it a few times just to make sure it’s terrible. As Joe Biden would say, I’ve got two words for you:
Terrible!
I guess Snoop should just stick to commercial acting. The song, “Sensual Seduction,” well, there are quite a few phrases I could pick that show how bad the song is but here’s one part of the lyrics:
I was all in the club havin’ a drink, blowin’ on a sweet When I peeped this little freak out.
Snoop Dogg “Sensual Seduction”
Again, I don’t think anyone’s dying to hear a guy in his 40s (Snoop was around 40 yrs old when the song was released) talk about hitting on women in the club. Equally concerning are these women he’s hitting on. Are they in their 40s? Because if so, there’s a good chance they have kids and probably grandkids at this point.
In his defense, I’ll share that I heard the song on SiriusXM’s TikTok channel, so *maybe* the song is a hit with the TikTok age group? If so, it would baffle my mind and disappointment me greatly in younger generations.
There’s a colorful new commercial from Lexus advertising the RX. It’s a nod and a remix of the classic 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz. Take a look then scroll down for more info!
The Location. Known as the “Crookedest Street in the World,” part of this commercial is filmed on Lombard Street in San Francisco.
Changing Colors. An editing trick was used to change the colors of Lombard Street, making it a yellow road to fit the theme of the ad. With that in mind, here is a little self-promotion of my best photos that have changed color from the original. Check out the rest in my gallery of photos available for download and purchase. I’ve got the colorful, the wild, and some extraordinary photos for you to enjoy!
The Music. The commercial uses “Follow The Yellow Brick Road” from the original movie soundtrack. The remix was created by Squeak E. Clean Studios and according to Lexus: “The track is based off of the song ‘Follow The Yellow Brick Road’ with a custom remix that was created specifically for the commercial that is not available.”
Darn! I love the remix.
The characters. Representing the characters in the movie… The driver of the Lexus is Dorothy. The passenger is the Tin Man. The boy in the back seat is the scarecrow. The girl in the back seat is the Cowardly Lion. For villains, the motorcycles are the flying monkeys, as shown by the logo on the bikes and helmets.
The Motorcycles. Motorcycles in this ad are Zero brand electric motorcycles.
More Credits. Full credits for this ad can be found here. Motorcycle stunts were performed by Driver, Inc., as shown in this Instagram post.
Out of the Wilderness 