Photo Friday: Accidental

An accident waiting to happen. 'Pre-accidental', we could say.

Meet your public, Mandy Hall

Next in our series of interviews with the people you've been dying to know more about is a Q&A session with Ms Mandy Hall, of Pixels & Bandwidth and cockatoo fame. Mandy was one of our very first lost lambs but has seen the error of her ways and we love her like family.

Who are you and why are you doing this to us?

I live in Melbourne, Australia. I run a web company (http://www.ddsn.com/). I have a degree in ceramic design, but don't do too much of it these days. I also make jewelery and draw a little bit. I started my blog about 3 years ago. I think I found Photo Friday just after that. Photo memes have helped encourage me to keep the blog up to date. I've always taken photos. My mum also takes photos as a hobby, so I spent a lot of my childhood following her and taking photos, then working with her in the darkroom.

Why so many birds? Are you a bird? A cat?
Hmm. You guys are a little obsessed with the birds, aren't you? Were you stalked by Alfred Hitchcock at some point? Ok, I admit I had a bit of a mental blank at some point and started submitting cockatoos to everything. I still don't know why. But then I found the Hall of Shame and I'm all better now. It couldn't have come at a better time in my opinion. I'm glad someone is out there keeping us honest, or if not honest, shamed.

What did you have for breakfast?
Peppermint tea. If you were here we'd have bacon and eggs - drop in any time, but not too early.

Have you ever been to the bloody big rock? No? How about Vegas?
Nope, I've flown over Ayers Rock in a plane a few times. Never been to Vegas. Is that an invitation? I'd choose Vegas, just so you know when you get the tickets.

Do you know Kerrin? Is she you? Does she owe you a life debt, perhaps because you saved her life or something?
No, never met Kerrin, except in the memes. Us Aussies stick together though, especially when it comes to birds. Everyone visit her site and tell her how nice she is: http://kerrinsdailyphoto.blogspot.com/.

What gear do or have you used? Are there any manufactures you'd like to praise or bad mouth here?
I've got an old Minolta 35mm SLR and all the darkroom stuff. I can't afford to use film these days and I can't be bothered setting up the darkroom any more. It was fun back in the day though. I'm glad I learnt to do all that before Photoshop came along. My first digital was a Canon Digital IXUS - it had no zoom and was only 2 MP, but it did the best photos in low light. Someone stole it :( Then I got a Pentax Optio 555 which is great. I like it cause it has a great zoom and people don't notice you using it. I use it as a backup camera now, cause it has an excellent macro. I currently use an Olympus EVOLT E500 with a wide angle 35mm lens & a 40-150mm lens. It's very good in low light conditions, which is what I wanted. The zoom is fun. I'm saving up for a dedicated macro lens for it, which costs almost as much as the camera, unfortunately.

What other hobbies do you enjoy or enjoy inflicting upon others?
I love live music. I inflict it on my friends and family by dragging them along to gigs or making them watch DVDs.

Where else can we see your photos? Do you have any side projects?
I have music photos on these sites:
http://www.martincilia.com/ (homepage images and a bit of the gallery)
http://www.kimhumphreys.com/ (about half of the gallery)
http://www.davidjonesdrums.com/ (main image on inner page)
http://www.oxocubans.com/ (a few of the photos in the gallery)
I enter stuff in DP Challenge when I have time:http://www.dpchallenge.com/ (my username is Mandyp) .
Entering challenges like this has really improved my pictures. I sell some photos here: http://www.dpcprints.com/, but I don't have many up there yet. My side project these days, which is rapidly becoming my main thing, is creating websites for musicians (see the top two URLs above) and photographing them. I've got a few of these photos going onto CD covers and a book. It's fun.

What is the best photo that you missed?
Mick Jagger - I was 10th row at the Stones last year, but security were SO tight. As soon as I pulled out my camera they were onto me. I got 15 shots off. He came over right in front of us just as security came to tell me off, so I missed him. There are lots and lots of others. I'm sure I'll think of them tomorrow.

Tell us your worst habit.
I'm not telling you! You never know where it might turn up! Haven't you heard of the internet? It probably involves chocolate...

If you weren't doing what you do now, what else WOULD you be doing? Photographer doesn't count.
Probably something that involves traveling. I'd like to be a writer, but I'm not very good at it. I'm pretty happy with what I'm doing right now.

What are you wearing?
Feathers

And here are a few of Mandy's photos (birds not included):




















01-Toadstool.jpg - little toadstool on my front porch, about 5cm high.Taken with my old 2MP Canon digital IXUS.




















02-Lioness.jpg - Taken at Werribee Zoo in Melbourne. Taken on the Pentax.







03_Joe_Camilleri.jpg - Taken at Mordialloc festival in March this year,in late afternoon, so the light was great. Joe is pretty well known in Australia, has been in bands such as the Black Sorrows and JoJo Zep &the Falcons. Taken with the Olympus E-Volt.











10-St-Kilda.jpg - Sunset in St Kilda, Melbourne. Taken with the Pentax.








11-Mal.jpg - Mal Webb, solo performance at Revolver nightclub. Thescreen behind him was on a 5 second delay, so it looked like he wasyelling at himself. Taken with the Olympus E-Volt.
















12_Oxo_Cubans_Mal.jpg - Mal Webb with the Oxo Cubans at the Mordiallocfestival in March this year. Taken with the Olympus E-Volt.










13-St-Kilda.jpg - Boat Ramp in St Kilda, Melbourne late afternoon justbefore a storm (no colour correction was used in this photo). Taken withthe Pentax.








15-Blue-Lounge.jpg - Promo shot for the swing/jazz band Blue Lounge.Taken underneath the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Taken with the Olympus E-Volt.









18-Gerbera.jpg - One of my favourite photos. Lit with a small blue LEDtorch, which is what is creating the purple patch. Taken with the Pentax

PhotoFriday: NOT SO INNOCENT!

Mememonitor and I were sitting up on the bare mattress of love, reading the morning paper, eating cold pizza from the night before and waiting to post our Banana to PhotoFriday when we saw this curious post.

This is that crafty devil Dream Awakener's entry for Innocent. We sat with our gaping pizza holes hanging open and scratching each other's heads like monkeys will as we tried to make some sense of it and, well, a scratch becomes a slap, which becomes a tickle, and then 3 minutes later, when all is said and done, our little Photo Meme Hall of Shame mailbox is overflowing with comments, mails, offers for cheaper viagra (saved in a special folder), and SCREENSHOTS! One of our little industrious Shamers actually sent us a SCREENSHOT! Which you can see here in our forum.

And here is the link to the image which appeared moments later: http://www.jrwoodward.net/jrwoodward/2006/10/photofriday_1.html
The same sort of image that got Mr Rich Legg dragged before our Kangaroo Court, so many weeks ago. We are sure this young girl is innocent. But Mr. Jr Woodward is NOT!

And our biggest annoyance? We tried the same trick with the Banana several weeks ago and failed.

Speaking of PhotoFriday Annoyances:

I know marc and nick have addressed this ad nauseum as we discussed once over a lamb barbecue for photomeme moderaters and critics...

ATTENTION: _______ms______ , *FUZZY POINTS* , :ZoomVienna:: , ~carolbrowne~ , * Sakomaniak * , *****mien***** , ***Swaity*** , ++++LwS++++ , -dongga.ch- , **Sugarsnaps** , ...neene... , <>like-ness<> , **AkPhotoblog** , [ a n d r e s ] , ^ UPSIDE UP ^ , :: thesmooch :: , ~AprilStearns~ , *JC*Photofolio* , ::THEDOTS:: , --Dieta-- , [terrorkitten] , *****ChP******* , ++JavaCurls++ , **Shutters** , ~MadSunCaribou~ , CANTI + , >wideangle.ca< , _niederhauser_ !

Have you ever seen ~~Annie Leibovitz~~, .:Richard Avedon:., +++Robert Mapplethorpe+++, ^^Bob Barker^^, <<>>?

No. These artists never used symbols in their names.

Who did?

The artist formerly known as Prince. I rest my case.

We understand that it is hard to be noticed in PhotoFriday as the above desperate (but effective) tricks show. It is hard to be noticed in public also. Do you walk around with giant horns attached to your heads?

Photo Friday: Innocent

It's been a busy busy time of the Photo Meme Hall of Shame. Consider this banana your key to education and enlightenment. You are welcome. Take a look!

Your noisy upstairs neighbors,

Memes Monitor and Shame, Esq.

Now We Lay Us Down To Sleep

This is how mememonitor and I start our prayer each evening before we retire to the bare mattress of love. We kneel and fold our little hands and squint hard as we pray fervently throughout but especially at the end when we say "and in particular God Bless and Protect Cuidado (who we shall deal with later) and Welshwitch, (who is in for it now) Amen."

Sorry Welshwith, your God isn't here to protect you now.

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE??? DO YOU NOT KNOW THAT WE EXIST???

http://welshgingerasthmaticandalady.blogspot.com/2006/10/camouflage.html

Unless this is a photo of a Scandanavian Volleyball Team sunning themselves on the beach dressed as stones or perhaps these aren't stones at all and are cleverly camoflaged Weapons of Mass Destruction (Which would explain a lot!) then you are hereby named and shamed.

You even admit this is 'all you have.' Nay nay, little Welshwitch. You also have you dignity. Let's try to preserve it. We like you, we really like you. As you can see on our sidebar.

So this hurts us more than it does you, as I tell mememonitor before her switching.

Love,

Your noisy upstairs neighbors,

Memes Monitor and Shame, Esq.

PS. Here are the PhotoFriday submission that best never were.

PhotoFriday Destruction
KevinTHoule http://www.houleweb.com/2006/06/sphere.html
Rhodyl http://www.rhodyl.com/photoblog/?p=329
Daniel Harvey http://flickr.com/photos/dancharvey/29628695/
Solar-Flare http://www.solar-flare.us/index.php?showimage=55

A Call To Arms

Thank you, readers, for finally knocking off the stones-through-our-windows thing for, while I'm all for ventilation and less window-cleaning, I do worry about the titanium plates in Memeshame's head getting dented. Your latest missive arrived this afternoon by carrier-pigeon. I do hope you weren't expecting this rat-of-the-air back in its coop anytime soon 'cause the kids are still going through their genetic engineering phase and are currently in the kitchen testing its DNA.

The note, tied to one of said pigeon's now three legs, had been engraved in biro into the paper by the hand of a very indignant, very embittered sore-loser, and drew our attention to the success story of three See It Sunday participants who between them have won every week but 2 for the last 3 months. 'Hmmm', Memeshame said, as I had him give me a foot-massage, 'some people have all the luck'. 'But no', I exclaimed, jumping up and knocking both Memeshame and the Bodyshop Peppermint Foot Lotion flying, 'we must investigate'. And thus are our findings:

Theme 'leaves' won by Frozen Moments
Theme 'bathroom' won by The Thing of the Moment
Theme 'blue' won by Frozen Moments
Theme 'sepia' won by It Looks Like Rain
Theme 'crazy' won by Frozen Moments
Theme 'Autumn' won by It Looks Like Rain
Theme 'angle' won by It Looks Like Rain
Theme 'mirror' won by Unart
Theme 'speed' won by Unart
Theme 'toys' won by Frozen Moments
Theme 'power' won by Unart
Theme 'playful' won by Andrew Morrell
Theme 'art' won (ironically) by Unart
Theme 'water' won by Frozen Moments
Theme 'macro' won by Blue Sandman
Theme 'wood' won by Frozen Moments

And deservedly so. In fact, while we were investigating, we came across some entries so dubious, it would have had us multiple-vote-clicking on Messieurs I.L.L.Rain, F.Moments and U. too. And it's not the winning that counts, it's the taking part, right? And we can see your little faces glowing with the thrill of having taken part so that's OK. Huh? What? No? Well, get off your arses and go vote then. Just to show you how it works, we at Chez Meme will choose our (unofficial and unsponsored by anything) See It Sunday second-place winner every week until you get the hang of it. The winner will be notified and glorified on this here page. And who could ask for more?

After compiling the votes for SeeitSunday (Or as Memeshame calls it SuckItSunday, he dislikes the speed of the link transfer and gets quite irritable.) from we memes and a handful of Shamers we have concluded that the Unofficial, Unsponsored Second Place winner of sepia is 'ottok'

Congratulations go out to him from we here at the Photo Meme Hall of Shame

*update* Given that Blue was won by Frozen Moments for the posted image, we see that you still have not mastered voting. This weeks unsponsored, unofficial SECOND PLACE finish goes to: Eclectic Blue was a terribly difficult theme to moderate, but the chosen image was stunning and awe inspiring.

We now submit our Banana to See it Sunday.net Bathroom. We love eating bananas in the bathroom.

*update* We have a new winner for SeeitSunday: Bathroom. A shower ring submitted by prior Shamee jkirlin. Voting is either corrected or jkirlin's mother boosted the votes. It's certainly a fine looking multipupose showerhook. Just in case, our second place choice is the shower head by the lovely Frank of :photoschau. Congratulations go to both of them.

We now submit our Banana to See it Sunday.net: Leaves because as that esteemed botanist mememonitor points out when I asked if bananas have leaves "Yeah, of course."

*update* Congratulations again go to Frozen Moments for his win of the category 'leaves'. Now, Voters, sit down for a second, as we talk to you like a good pastor. Leaves was a very difficult theme for you to vote on, we understand that, because they were ALL VERY GOOD. They were nearly ALL the same and quite excellent. That means you could have voted for ANYONE, but alas, the simple inertia of voting for the same participants week after week has tired your little mouse fingers. It's ok, do not weep. We are here to help.

The Photo Meme Hall of Shame Secojnd Place Award for See It Sunday in the Category of Leaves goes to Atomische for his posting of Leaves as present tense verb rather than a noun, and making us think 'Shoot, why didn't we do that.' Congratulations Atomische, you mould breaker!

We now submit our entry to See It Sunday. LOOK Fellow SeeItSunday Participants! That cloud looks like a banana!!!

Banana in the Dark

THIS JUST IN!

It is not even Thursday everywhere in the world yet the lovely Thomp of *fuzzy*points*of*light* , a nice Aussie blogger and neighbour, has used the International Dateline to bludgeon you poor American wags and has so far submitted 3, THREE!, entries for this week's Thursday Challenge of Dark.

Dear Thomp, do you suspect everyone else enters ONE dark photo because that is all they HAVE!?

SOME RESTRAINT, SIR!

I will stand slack jawed and watch the continued posting for the evening.

Memeshame, Out.

We Like Ours Green

Ahhh, a green banana will take you everywhere. Why, it's practically like Mastercard!

Shakin' It Up

So winter is over and spring is just around the corner (..oh yeah, except for you all in the northern hemisphere. Bummer, huh?) and the time has arrived to air out our mattress, vacuum the laptop keyboard, replace the newspapers on the floor, dust off the kids, and while we're at it, we thought we'd spruce up the old Hall of Shame a little. Out with the old 'Top 5' and in with the new 'Named and Shamed'. Shamees will be listed here, with more recent crimes against memanity replacing those who have served their time and are deemed fit to rejoin meme society.
Note to shamees listed here: want to get yer name off of here as quickly as possible? We'll cut you a deal. Mail us (confidentiality assured) with your nominations and work your way down the list. Simple. Had to be. Memeshame came up with the idea first thing this morning. Sharp as a tack, my man.

What the hell has been going on here?

You poor, poor people. I just got back from my annual trip to catch up with our old buddies from the Légion Étrangère (Bonjour, Albert. Lots of mercis and kisses from Le Memeshame for the new kapi) to find that Shame had managed to hack his way into the password- and child-lock-secured laptop again and has been doing a lot of male-bonding of his own. Well, he does miss me so when I’m away and I couldn’t take him with me this time because of the tightened security at the airports. I’m just sorry you all had to witness his undiluted genius like that. I did leave instructions with the babysitter but the kids tell me she emptied the medicine and the drinks cabinets within the first 24 hours and hasn’t been seen since. Anyway, Memeshame is back with the programme and we hope to have normal service restored presently.

One of the first things I did when I got back was, of course, check the bathroom walls for new e-mails and I want to thank you all for your continued correspondence and apologise to those of you whose messages got flushed (it seems the babysitter emptied the petty-cash, too, and certain daily necessities didn’t get replace and then Shame ordered in that vindaloo one night… if it was anything important and you haven’t already had a response from us, can I ask you to mail again? Thanks in advance). I was particularly delighted to see we had heard again from an old friend of the Photo Meme Hall of Shame and that his long list of recommendations had survived intact. We value our little helper’s assistance in tracking down infractions like an excitable little truffle pig and reporting them to us with conspicuous glee, but understand that to thank him publicly would be to rain untold horrors upon his dear little head. We were watching ‘V for Vendetta’ last night and inspiration struck; we’ve decided to give him and the rest of you who are fighting the good fight a code name: S for Shamer. Thank you, S, for your efforts. Justice shall be your reward, that and the knowledge that the more names you give us, the less likely we are to pay attention to your own meme entries.

So, I haven’t done this for a long time and it’s not easy to sit here on the mattress after that switching I got the other night on my arrival home (not that I’m complaining) but let’s see if I can pick out and pour scorn on a few of S’s suggestions. Photo Friday always provides us with plenty of shaming fodder and the recent theme of ‘thin’ had the little hamster in S’s head doing somersaults. Here are just a few of the motes in his eye:

415: Ladybug's Leaf
http://leaf.slpro.com/archives/2006/09/come_over_to_my.html#000901
Hmmm. Yes. At first glance, this is a true-blue WTF meme entry but behold! The lily-pads are thin when viewed horizontally, the lily petals are kind of thin in a pointy, non-fat way and the water meniscus is so damn thin you can’t even see it with the naked eye. So, in summary, this whole composition is a big fat photo full of thin things. Nice try, S, but we gotta let this one go, although it is breaking our stony little hearts.

413: DFL
http://www.photomillard.com/photos/displayimage.php?album=2&pos=14
Thin...must be…the snowboard. I guess that’s it. Or maybe the guy’s hair under his woolly hat. Or maybe the tree branches. I don’t want to be too damning here because this guy is allowing voting at his site and this pic only gets 2.5 out of 5 so he’s probably feeling miserable enough about it. Everybody go and vote. Bump up the total so we can do a job on it.

404: Team Wet Dog
http://www.teamwetdog.com/indexes/index318.htm
We heartily congratulate Teamwetdog (that’s what the smell was. Meme Shame has been a bit gassy of late due to his being on the Atkins Diet and I was blaming him. Sorry, sweetie) on their becoming ‘a little more adept at making something crappy and pixilated look a little less crappy and pixilated’. That’s never a bad thing. But ‘thin’? Nope. You’ve got the less crappy and pixilated down pat. Now try and work a bit on the ‘relevance’ side of things.

397: orricle
http://www.pbase.com/0rr1cle/image/38533334
I’ve been gazing at this photo for the last 5 minutes trying to work out what exactly Orricle misread ‘thin’ as. I could only come up with ‘shin’ since there are one or two exposed in the foreground of the photo. Or perhaps it was ‘thing’, as in ‘post the first thing in the archives your mouse falls on but do it QUICK’.

387: Journey of the Mind
http://rqchen.blogspot.com/2006/10/bikes.html
In Mr RQ Chen’s defence, I will have to confirm that of all modes of transport, bikes are up there amongst the thinnest, especially compared to, say, elephants and 747s. This one stands.

372: m a r p e s
http://www.flickr.com/photos/82548931@N00/265987979/
As I’m always telling Shame, ‘Dressing in black, bending over backwards and moving in slow motion does not make you Keanu Reeves. It just makes me perkier when I call you Keanu now and again’. Likewise, labeling a photo ‘thin’ in Flickr does not magically render it a suitable meme entry. Yeah, yeah, broken glass, yeah.

As I type, the pings of new mail coming in from Shamers everywhere is deafening. I’ll deal with that later. Right now I need to go umpire the game of Twister Memeshame is playing with the kids. *sigh* He's cheating again.

What is it about Tuesdays?

Back when Mikhail Gorbachev was overthrown in that little coup that signalled the beginning of the end of Communism as we knew it, or perhaps it was when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, Dan Rather asked plaintively from under his desk: "What is it about August?"

We reach out from under our desk to ask the same of Tuesdays. Surely it has to be the work of the Heavens but can't they keep a meme in one place??? How can we find a meme if they keep moving it around on us? Well, ok, granted, the auto referral thingy does help, BUT STILL!

Whither Photo Tuesday or Frank's Tuesday's Photos or this new Tuesday Challenge, (Which you dare not confuse with Dale's Thursday Challenge) we will continue to fire up the Commodore64 and check out your posts. Fear not. Posting to new and hidden memes will not help you escape our self righteous wrath!

Mememonitor is in the corner and attempting to contact Frank by telegraph. The dot dash dots are driving me clean out of my skull. FRANK! PICK UP! dit dit dit dot dit dit....

Mr Rich Legg of Leggnet's Digital Capture

We here at the Photo Meme Hall of Shame are looking to begin publishing short interviews of photobloggers and photo meme participants much like Dale of Thursday Challenge was doing. It give us and the Hall of Shamer Community (The Shamers) a chance to know the photographers a bit better and they, a chance to explain themselves and make Mememonitor and myself look a bit more dense. We are nothing is not sporting, here at the Photo Meme Hall of Shame.

Todays interviewee is (surprisingly) an early supporter, and dare we even say, an inspiration to us here. Mr Legg has always treating us with grace and dignity which bothers us to no end because we were prepared for such a dogfight.

MemeShame: Who are you and why are you doing this to us?

Mr. Rich Legg: I am a real estate broker and own my own brokerage in Salt Lake City. I have always had a passion for photography. I was the guy in high school who usually had a camera with me (I was on the newspaper and yearbook staff). After high school, I worked for four years in a photography studio in Eagle River Alaska shooting family portraits, weddings, senior pictures and such. I then moved on to a non-photographic career and got away from serious photography. Part of the reason for the move away from photography was that I no longer had access to the photo-labs and equipment and didn't have the $$$ to have my own darkroom - not to mention the fact that I was very busy with family and work. I began shooting digital around 1999 but didn't get seriously back into it until I got a digital SLR. Digital cameras just didn't seem real to me, but with an SLR it felt similar to what I had learned on in the eighties. I began photoblogging as a way to try and show my work to a larger community. I get a fair amount of visits and such on Flickr, but my blog attracts a completely different audience - one that tends to be a bit less tech and camera savvy (with the exception of the photobloggers that visit). As for the meme's, I found it to be an entertaining way to advertise my blog.

MemeMonitor: Why do you call them captures and not photos, images, pictures, etc?

Mr Rich Legg: I have owned the domain LeggNet.com since the mid-nineties (it was the first domain I ever purchased - legg.com was already taken). When I decided to start the blog I wanted to integrate the name LeggNet into it. As for the "digital capture" part, I wanted a descriptive phrase that was a bit less generic then terms such as photography or photoblog. It has worked somewhat. If you search the term digital capture in Google right now, my site is the seventh site listed in the results.

MemeShame: What did you have for breakfast?

Mr. Rich Legg: This is sad to say, but most days I don't eat until around lunch (today included).

MemeMonitor: We read your comments. Are you commenters employees, dependents. or just well meaning strangers?

Mr. Rich Legg: With the exception of the occasional comment by my mother, I generally have no idea who the commenters are. There are a few folks who post fairly regularly, but these are people I have met through the site (JKirlin & Genevieve come to mind).

MemeShame and a Shamer: Speaking of dependents, your daughter. Please tell us she is not common and free us from this belief and also, her photoblogging, her work or a chance for a second post to the memes?

Mr. Rich Legg: No, she's not common - quite the opposite in fact (but I did think a shot of a child was 'common). She asked me this past summer if she could start a photoblog like mine. Hey, immitation is the sincerest form of flattery so I helped her set it up. Any posts she makes to meme's are definately hers. That is why we don't see much participation from her lately, since school is back in session. Her blog posts have dropped off considerably as well. Here's a plug for her site: elisarae.com

MemeMonitor: What gear do or have you used? Are there any manufacturers you'd like to praise or bad mouth here?

Mr. Rich Legg: Back in the eighties, my gear consisted of a Nikon FE, FM2 (with various lenses) and a Mamiya 645 medium format. The studio gear I used was mainly a Mamiya RB67, Mamiya 645 and a long roll 70mm camera.Nowadays, I am a definate Canon fan. My primary camera is a 30D with battery grip (the grip gives me the feel I used to get from having a motor drive on my Nikon film bodies). My most used lens is a 24-105 f/4L. Other lens' I use: 70-200, 18-55, 28-105, 100-300 and 50. I also have a Canon XT body, but my wife and/or daughter usually use it.

MemeShame: What other hobbies do you enjoy or enjoy inflicting upon others?

Mr. Rich Legg: Since I play electric guitar and bass in a church band, the wording of this question fits... I also spent this morning at the shooting range with a friend firing various Glocks, if that counts.

MemeMonitor: Where else can we see your photos? Do you have any side projects?

Mr. Rich Legg: I have some photos on iStockPhoto and so far have accumulated a whopping $85 in sales. I get contacted a couple times a month from people wanting to use my shots. If it is not for profit, I generally allow usage without compensation. I did have an ad agency purchase a photo I took of the Salt Lake City skyline for use on a promotion for the new Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. That was pretty cool. I have also had a few shots used on Salt Lake City's CBS affiliate during their weather segment. Also cool.

MemeMonitor: What is the best photo that you missed?

Mr. Rich Legg: Missed photos? Probably anything that happened between 1989 and 1999 since I rarely had a camera near me during that time.

MemeShame: Any bad habits?

Mr. Rich Legg: Fast food, preferably mexican.

MemeShame: If you weren't doing what you do now, what WOULD you be doing? Photographer doesn't count.

Mr. Rich Legg: I would love to be more than the mediocre guitar player that I am. I get the chance to play with fantastic musicians and that is something I would love to advance more at. It is so humbling to hear these teenagers that can play whatever they want on a guitar and play it well. Of course, they have no idea of the relation between f-stops and shutter speed.

An Unnamed Shamer: What do YOU think your worst photo meme submission is?

Mr. Rich Legg: One of my favorite shots, but one that is definately an offender is the Dripping Fence shot posted for the theme electric. I was stretching the theme a bit since it wasn't an electric fence. But, without that shot (and the Common one), we probably wouldn't be having this conversation.

Very true indeed.

The Rich Legg Photo Meme Hall of Shame Gallery

Interviewed photographers are asked to present a few photos (captures) and here are Mr Rich Legg's submissions:

http://leggnet.com/2006/05/whos-travis-barker.html

With all the photos that I have taken that I consider interesting, this is, frustratingly, my most visited page on my blog. I guess there are a lot of people who actually care "Who Travis Barker is".

http://leggnet.com/2006/07/points-in-sea-of-color.html

This is my most popular photo on Flickr with over 4,000 views. This is one of my favorites since it was taken with my daughter as we were killing time on a Saturday afternoon.

http://leggnet.com/2006/03/look_27.html

Of course, we've got to include Jenna's "Look". One thing about this shot that adds greatly to it (in my mind) is that this look is so opposite to how sweet and wonderful this young lady is.

http://www.leggnet.com/2006/10/buried.html

And since we are in the "spooky" time of year, here's one I did just this week of my daughter. As JKirlin commented, this is a bit different than my normal style.

Talking One Straight in the Piehole From Mr. Snappiepants

And we are glad that's the hole he decided to give it to us in!

Below is an opened letter wrapped around a stone and tossed through our window from a one mr.snappiepants who regular readers of this blog will recognize from earlier post and our answers to him.

Why would I want you thinking I was sane? I'm delighted (truly) that my technique worked.

Worked? It scared the bejesus out of us! I say us, but mememonitor just laughed it off. She wasn't dealing with you as directly as I was and she enjoyed seeing me trying to type whilst hiding under my desk.

I have no need for traffic from your site. I get plenty for the simple fact that I take good photographs. Thank you for your consideration though.

Good, because we have none to share really. Your twice daily visits to this site have more than doubled our regular daily traffic. And you do take very nice photos and I'm sure they generate plenty of traffic. In fact, you know, if perhaps you wouldn't mind linking us. (nudge nudge)

No, you are right. Not a good idea.

In your various ramblings about my "Four" entry (I've noticed several on this site), you fail to mention that I've actually been a noteworthy in three other categories. I think all in all I've submitted to maybe 10? I know it's not that many... and I've only been part of this 'photoblog' nonsense since January. My ADD tends to lead me many places on the internet and photofriday is sometimes on that list. It also appears your site is on that list.

Not only did we not know you had some many noteworthys which now makes us green with envy, we actually hadn't even heard of you until you were nominated by a person we are TAKING TO THE WOODHSHED IMMEDIATELY FOR NOT INFORMING US THEY WERE REFERRING A POWDER KEG! (NO MORE REFERRING POWDER KEGS WITHOUT PRIOR WRITTEN CONSENT, PEOPLE!) But, I digress.

Regardless, a batting average of .300 isn't that bad, especially considering I'm not juicing. I certainly don't see how that's "photo spam" worthy.

Isn't bad? That's GREAT! My own batting percentage with the lovely mememonitor is a measely .176! We aren't convinced about the lack of juicing however, and fully expect your name to appear in an upcoming Photoblogs Balco Commission.

I guess in some respects I can appreciate what you're trying to do. I just think you should have done some more homework before spotlighting my site.

We do no homework. And never have. We don't know anyone and shoot completely from the hip. Which is why we collapse like a cheap suitcase when confronted with the most tepid of defenses.

My guess is that you're simply having trouble drumming up entries to spotlight so you take anything you can get without showing much prejudice. Assuming that perspective, I can only say that I'm glad I could help. I'm sure my antics haven't hurt business much.

We are glad you see our predicament. We needed to fill out a top ten list and began to chose randomly from our emails. Notice that you were 10th and not even 1st!!! (pleading for our collective lives) (although items are listed in no order so maybe you WERE first, that's mememonitor's department and when she gets home I'll find out after giving her a good switching! Which, just this moment makes me think that maybe that was what prompted this, she does so enjoy a good swiching. That's why my percentage is .176 and not .017)

Our collective antics have certainly helped traffic, although half has been from you and the other half from me. But it still makes a nice spike in the old Sitemeter.

My dinner just finished cooking but I just had an interesting thought. One of your arguments is that your site helps generate traffic to the sites you list. You also claim that one of your goals is to eliminate the 'photo spam' on these memes. Are those not conflicting arguments? You seem to be rewarding the offenders. Am I missing something?

What was your dinner? Have us over when we are in country. You are right as to the contradictory nature of giving more traffic to photographers who we think are photo spamming the memes. However, it presupposes we have traffic to offer which we, in truth, do not. Check your own stats, you'll see! No big spike! So you miss nothing.

Hugs and kisses,

(Muwaaaah)

Snappie "Straight in your piehole!" Pants

So much nicer than the Ultimate Warrior Pants.

So there you have it. We Memes are posting our chastisement in the light of day for all to see. We consider mr. snappiepants to be a friend of the Photo Meme Hall of Shame and a Photographer and/or Photoblog that we like (although we dare not list him on our sidebar until he tells us it's ok.) (no link back needed, of course)

Serious Is As Serious Does

It was a wild weekend in the Meme Household what with our fierce bidding war with Google for YouTube and opening our doors for the package delivery men dropping off all our Star Trek artifacts that we won at Cristie's.

No eBay, Cristies, but fun just the same.

We also spent part of our weekend answering reabid dog like comment from a meme participant who shall remain nameless. The interaction takes place in the comments section of our post dates 09.29.2006 or 29.09.2006 as is correct.

Be that as it may we are finding again and again that there are participants who take this little project far too seriously.

I enclose the following guide to assist you....

Here a scale list showing how seriously we are taken by some.

1 The Photo Meme Hall of Shame
2 The US Congressional Page Scandal
3 The International War on Terror
4 Genocide
5 Global Warming
6 Poverty
7 The Rise of Religious Fundamentalism...

and so on....Here is how serious the Photo Meme Hall of Shame SHOULD be taken

94537683 If dogs chase their tails, but I don't have a tail, what can I chase?
94537684 Wha? Huh? Duh?
94537685 How did all this lint get in my navel and what do I do with it now?
94537686 Will I ever find love?
94537687 The Photo Meme Hall of Shame

I hope this helps. You may cut these out and laminate them and carry them in your wallets, purses, camera bags for quick study later.

So why do we do it if we aren't serious about it?

We aren't serious about this little project but we are serious about the Photomemes.

And because we amuse ourselves.

We also find that the posting of off topic photos to photo memes is no worse than the frequent postings of Mr Viagara and Mr Cialis at poor lensday.com or the posting and voting of Mr Pix66 at Pxite.com

And the result? On topic entries are buried in so much photospam that the meme nearly becomes untenable. Frequent early postings to Photo Friday, which has grown so huge that if you are not in the first 20 or so posts, you do not get noticed. Additionally, the first 20 or so posts will get hundreds of hits making it all the more valuable to place PhotoSpam.

This blog arose out of a conversation among other photobloggers after a few weeks of particularly heinous and off topic entries.

If you think you listing in this blog brings you undue attention, you are incorrect. It only brings to your attention the attention that it is getting and talked about behind your back. And it IS talked about.

This little project lets you know that you are noticed and may respond if you like. We are as dense as lead many times and often completely miss the point as with Gardenlevel's privacy post.

And other times, when the defense consists of calling us and by extension, the photoblogging community, who talk about you behind your back,name, we will continue to call an entry what it is.

PhotoSpam.

If you have a post that you are particularly proud of, post it to your site, email your friends, join a flickr group.

But if you are only posting at random to photomemes just to have it seen - you will be called on it.

Why should Carlos have to remind people week after week as to what the Macro in macroday is about? It must drive him completely bonkers. It does us. How many time do we scream at our computer monitors "DAMN, THIS NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION - Oh...not...that. Wait..we scream: "DO YOU NOT KNOW WHAT A MACRO IS??"

So, our suggestions: Do not take a listing here seriously, take your photography and/or your entries seriously. If you do choose to take this silly venture seriously, then heed it and stop posting off the theme or explain why it fits the theme to enlighten your dense as lead audience, because it is being talked about.

As an added service, if you are only posting PhotoSpam for exposure, then consider us to be more exposure.

Love,

Your noisy upstairs neighbors,

Memes, Monitor and Shame, Esq.

Tied To a Rock and Thrown Through The Window, Part Second

We had barely finished unpacking our steamer trunks of dirty laundry and canned foodstuffs when we were nearly struck by the following missive/missile from Dave at Gardenlevel

Subject: Why Me?

Hey, I wanted to give a response (defense) since you found it fit to post a link to my entry for "private" on photofriday. http://www.gardenlevel.com/index.php?showimage=12 First, I tend to agree with you that there are far too many unrelated entries, I'm just not sure why you think mine is one of them. Photofriday is the only meme I enter, and every week there are dozens of photos of cats, no matter what the subject. There are always individuals who have to add long explanations on how their photo fits the subject, and usually a bunch of photos that I can't relate to the subject no matter how hard I think about them. How did you come to ignore those photos and focus on mine? Is it a huge stretch to see that this man wants to keep his identity private? I realize that the concept is a little confusing since he's clearly in a very public place, and yet, he's maintained a level of privacy. Here's a few of the definition of private from Dictionary.com:
pri‧vate  /ˈpraɪvɪt/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[prahy-vit]
7.
removed from or out of public view or knowledge; secret: private papers.
12.
preferring privacy; retiring: a very private person.
19.
in private, not publicly; secretly: The hearing will be conducted in private. I'm just saying, I think mine worked. Not the best photo (by far not the worst), but I think it fits the concept. A handful of visitors have come to my site through yours, so I appreciate that. I just couldn't let this injustice stand.

dave.
gardenlevel.

First allow me say: WELL DONE, DAVID!! I, memeshame, was hooting and hollering for you like you were a Notre Dame Footballer dodging and weaving around the Forces of Injustice on your way to that Goal Thing at the end for some points or whatever when mememonitor whacked me with the end of a rolled up Times and reminded me that the Forces of Injustice that we had just met was Us, your noisy upstairs neighbors.

But I still appreciate a vigorous self defense. Allow me to address your point by point...let me find my bifocals...

GOOD GOD MAN! Hmmmm Mmmm....Yes......Ok....Hmmmmm.....

Ok...

First, Not only are there too many unrelated entries on PhotoFriday, there are too many entries altogether, unrelated, related, fictive kin and even just friends. If not for the fact that WE have nothing to do all weekend, we'd never get through the list of Six to Nine Hundred entries it receives. AND it's a vote based meme? Who in their right minds has looked at every entry and still had a finger left to click their mouse to vote? Surely not us.

Which brings us to the title of your missive/missile. "Why me?" As a German concentration camp guard said to Victor Frankl, founder of Logotherapy, after a particularly nasty beating, "Why NOT you?" No forces aligned against you but we simply clicked several dozen PhotoFriday entries and yours apparently confused us enough so that we added you to our list for further review.

Here is what has forever earned you a place in our (my) collective (uncollective? single?) heart(s) Young David (or Old, whichever the case may be) WE HATE CAT PHOTOS!

We have begun a letter writing campaign to the various digital camera producers to please-please-please-please-we-beg-of-them-in-the-name-of-all-that-is-HOLY-please invent a CCD which burns out upon taking a photo of a damned cat. I mentioned this just today to mememonitor and said we should address this very issue and she recoiled in fear (much like on our wedding night) and said "we simply CAN'T "(Again much like...) because of the BACKLASH from these cat loving LUNATICS!!! Now we don't mind a nice cat (photo or real) now and then and have even been known to SOMETIMES not swerve at them in the road but....people...please...some self restraint.

Speaking of, back to your letter.

Huge stretch, private, public....ummmhmmm....ok....DONE!

Ok, David of Gardenlevel. I am so exhausted from my rant on our common hatred of cats that you may consider your photo adequately defended and we just a little bit more educated.

Please consider doing other photomemes besides PhotoFriday. We DID enjoy your photo although not as much as your reaction to finding it here on our Post Office Wall. We also deem you a Photographer/Photoblog that we like and as certain as we are that you are now saying to yourself, "Piss off, wankers, I don't want you looking at my bloody site, again" we are listing it anyway.

Love,

Your noisy upstairs neighbors as mentioned above,

Memes, Monitor and Shame, Esq.