The Thieving Duck

A duck robs a poor innocent woman as she’s distracted by the cute ducklings. Moments later they all rush off with their ill-gotten gains!

What you don’t see is the camera crew, make-up and lighting people and a small crowd watching from behind them. This was for some advert and of course the woman in question is a model.
I shot this on State Street, Chicago after stumbling upon the shoot by accident. They didn’t seem to mind, and I even got a dazzling smile from the model!

I like this: xtreme (login may be required)

2006-10-03 – Welcome visitors from snopes.com, thanks Kathy B for linking here, I appreciate it. Please feel free to leave a comment!

Snopes.com have now published this picture and the joke description on a separate page linking to this blog. Thank you!

2006-10-07 – John Marguess pointed me at Organized Crime which uses the same image in another joke email! Thanks John!

Here’s the text of the joke email (via snopes) for those of you who go searching for the origins of it. I’d love to know who concocted it in the first place!

Seems the Better Business Bureau got a complaint the other day about a scam in which AFLAC allegedly was taking advantage of women on the street and stealing their money.
Now we all at one time or another have thought that INSURANCE Companies have stolen from us; however, this scam is netting COLD HARD CASH from unsuspecting individuals.
The way it works is the thief uses children to distract the target. While admiring the cuteness of the kids the target is robbed of her cash and never knows what hit her.
I’m sending this out for all to be aware that this is happening and it’s right out on the streets in front of the general public.
A passer-by with a digital camera phone happened to capture the photo attached.
Review it carefully and use caution when distractions like this come along.
Good Luck, and don’t say you weren’t warned.

According to Snopes, it was an advert showing how safe Western Union money transfer system was. I really should have asked someone..

Children, wait in line

Children wait for their teachers in down town Chicago last year. They were standing on the pavement (oh ok, side walk) near the Chicago Board of Trade. I presume on a school outing, hope they enjoyed themselves!

I’ve been holding on to this photo for months now and since I don’t feel like working a shot this morning, this image finally sees the light of day!

Aperture ƒ/8
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 55mm
ISO 800
Shutter speed 1/125s

Reflection on the Spire

O’Connell Street in Dublin is reflected in the polished surface of the Spire. A young teenager leans on the edifice in the shade away from the glaring sun. This was inspired by a shot I saw one another photoblog, can’t remember which one now. Does anyone know the image I’m talking about?

Here’s another picture of the Spire showing it’s full 120m height!

If you’re curious, the Spire can just about be seen from space as Google Maps shows!

Aperture ƒ/5.6
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/400s

Who’s for supper?

A mural on a wall in Dublin a few weeks ago.

We passed this while walking back to our hotel. I get the feeling there’s a story behind this picture. Does anyone know it?

Aperture ƒ/4
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/160s

Six Apart Mark

Niall Kennedy drove myself and Mark Jaquith around on a small sight seeing tour of the local attractions in San Francisco after WordCamp last Saturday.
A visit to the offices of Six Apart proved to be too good a thing to pass up so we posed for a few photos on their door step!

WordCamp was great, I met really nice people, I uploaded a set of photos to Flickr, linked to a few reports on it, and was very glad I got home on Tuesday. Imagine having to put your camera equipment into the hold of an airliner?

Aperture ƒ/4.5
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/40s

Honest Smoothies

We bought smoothies in Honest, a small shop in Dublin. They were having problems with their machines and gave us one of the smoothies free but they didn’t taste all that great unfortunately.

Aperture ƒ/4
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/6s

Ferry Building San Francisco

The Ferry Building, San Francisco on Friday night.

Aperture ƒ/4
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/2s

Four Buildings Skyward

Four buildings reach to the sky downtown in San Francisco. We had a great meal in a Thai restaurant shortly after!

Aperture ƒ/11
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/250s

Love messages

Messages of love scrawled on a wall in Dublin.


Apertureƒ/8
CameraCanon EOS 20D
Focal length10mm
ISO200
Shutter speed1/640s

Hop On, Hop off the Spire

The infamous Dublin Spire with a tour bus in the foreground.

“The Dublin Spire is one hundred and twenty metres tall, making it by far the tallest structure in Dublin city centre. It is three metres wide at the base and tapers to a 15 centimetre wide beacon at the top. The top section is perforated and lit by small LEDs.”

I like these: What Goes Up and Rosie and Nora.

Aperture ƒ/16
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/250s

Middle East War Protest

On Saturday afternoon, Cork Alliance Against War held a protest against the war in Lebanon.

After reading this story about the Kudsi family I have a lot more sympathy for them. Their house was bombed early one morning and most of the household was wiped out.
“In the early hours of the next morning, as Rayan, 30, slept near her daughters Alice, 6, and Celine, 3, an Israeli warplane dropped two one-ton bombs on their house in Hoshe, a village south of Tyre.

Rayan, her girls and her 78-year-old grandmother Um Zuheir were killed, probably when the first bomb struck the villa’s concrete roof just after 4.30am. The family’s tenants, a United Nations official from Ghana and his wife, also died.”

Branedy says it better than I could. Israel really has lost the war.

Aperture ƒ/10
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 20mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/100s

Strange on the street

A woman caught in an awkward step by my camera on Oliver Plunkett Street, Cork.

Aperture ƒ/6.3
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/200s