-Kore Wa Zombie Desu Ka, ep01

Okay, let's see if I've gotten this straight... our hero is dead, murdered by a serial killer.  He was brought back from the dead by a loli necromancer (necrololi?  Lolimancer?), as seen above.  The two of them are joined by a magical-girl-in-training who uses not a wand but a magical chainsaw... a pink magical chainsaw.  She loses her powers after fighting a giant bear in a school uniform.  Later, the magicless girl and the zombie schoolboy face off against a giant crayfish... and the zombie winds up having to crossdress in her magical girl outfit to defeat it.  Do I have that right? 

I do?

I'll admit that I was greatly amused... finally, a show I might actually watch this season.

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While we weren't watching, it seems that the F1 teams have pretty much locked down their driver lineups for the 2011 season.  Let's take a look, shall we?

RED BULL: Seb Vettel, Mark Webber.  No surprises here, though the drama continues behind the scenes in the Red Bull camp.  A few days ago, Webber in an interview pretty much came out and said he knows he's not going to get any help.  "You think there's a camaraderie, but in the end you know you're on your own," said the Aussie.  He also said that he drove the last four races of the season with a broken shoulder, suffered in a mountain bike accident... and he didn't tell the team.

MCLAREN:  Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button.  Again, no surprises.  What, you expected the team to fire one of their champions?  I don't think I'd take any team's lineup over these two.

FERRARI: HWMNBN, Felipe Massa.  Massa's job is on the line.  First Ferrari President Luca di Montezemelo said that Felipe drove "like his brother" in 2010.  Then di Montezemelo confirmed that, while the rules on Team Orders have been removed in 2011, both drivers will start on equal footing.  "I don't want to have a person that is frustrated from the first race because he knows he has less power.  I want two drivers in a condition to win."  He's not talking about HWMNBN, by the way.

MERCEDES GP: Nico Rosberg, Slappy Schumacher.  Once again, no surprises.  Rosberg is a coming young talent, Slappy's an old talent who improved as the season went on.  If this team doesn't win a few races in 2011, I'll be very surprised. 

LOTUS RENAULT GP: Robert Kubica, Vitaly Petrov.  Big surprise here, in that Petrov was just bad last year.  He did have a heckuva drive in Abu Dhabi which might have shown his true ability level, but all in all I'd've let some other team find it.  His Russian financial backers must have coughed up a lot of cash, and to be fair he'll be quite the draw when the Russian Grand Prix goes off in 2014.  Maybe by then he'll be good.

WILLIAMS: Rubens Barrichello, Pastor Maldonado.  Maldonado, the reigning GP2 champion, replaces Nico Hulkenberg.  The team swears up and down that the Venezuelan isn't a pay driver; the financial backing he brings is just a bonus, I guess.  To be fair, he is supposed to be quite skilled.  Barrichello, of course, is the most experienced driver in F1 history, but the only race he won last year was against The Stig.

FORCE INDIA: TBA, TBA.  Vitantonio Liuzzi has a contract through the 2011 season. Rumors have Scotsman Paul di Resta, the team's 2010 test driver, taking his seat however, with Nico Hulkenberg in the test driver's seat.  With Adrian Sutil almost certain to be returning to the team, that leaves Liuzzi out in the cold.  Without an announcement from the team though, we have no idea what's going on.

SAUBER: Gandalf Kobayasahi, Sergio Perez.  Perez comes to F1 via GP2, where he finished second to Pastor Maldonado in 2010.  A native of Mexico, he comes bearing financial backing from Telmex and Carlos Slim (aka 'The Richest Man In The World').  If it came down to pure skill, I suspect that Nico Hulkenberg would deserve this seat more, but money always plays a part.

TORO ROSSO: Seb Buemi, NKOTT.  No changes here, and no reason to.  Both drivers fall into the category of 'useful', and the Red Bull junior team is hardly hurting for cash.

TEAM LOTUS: Jarno Trulli, Heikki Kovaleinninninninninninnie.  At the end of the 2010 season, reports surfaced that Lotus wanted to jettison Trulli.  The Italian's contract supposedly contained a clause that read (in effect) that the team had to let him know by... I think it was Singapore... that they weren't going to bring him back, and they forgot about that.  So we've got a team with a driver that they don't want.  That can't be good for team chemistry, and it's not like the Malaysian team is swimming in money to buy him out.

HRT: Narain Kittylitter, TBA.  I'm quite enthused about the return of Kittylitter, F1's first Indian driver.  He drove for Team Jordan (which became MF1/Midland, Spyker F1, then Force India) in 2005, in which season he finished as high as 4th place (though it was in the US Grand Prix, contested by six cars).  Since then, he's driven in A1GP, the European LeMans series, SuperLeague Formula, and in 2010, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.  Amazingly, he won the "most popular driver" award, as voted by the fans, in the Truck Series.  He did pretty darn well there, though he didn't win a race.  Not bad for a guy used to open-wheel cars that literally weigh less than half of what a NASCAR truck does.  He comes with the backing of the TATA Group, the Indian auto manufacturer... perfect, since we'll have the first Indian Grand Prix this season.

VIRGIN RACING: Timo Glock, Jerome d'Ambrosio.  Glock is exactly what a newbie team needs, and I think he's one of the most underrated drivers on the grid.  Belgian d'Ambrosio was Renault's third driver for the 2010 season so he has some skill, but his racing career is hardly distinguished.  He finished 2nd in the GP2 Asia 2008-2009 season, but that's about it.  We'll see.

So three slots technically remain open for the 2011 season... will Nico Hulkenberg, who really deserves a seat, be offered one of them?  And, considering that the two Force India seats probably aren't really open, would he even accept a drive with HRT?  Or will he become a third driver?  Only time will tell, and as soon as we know, I'll let you know!

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Back in 2007, my Chicago Bears were scheduled to have a playoff game against the New Orleans Saints.  Knowing that Ubu Roi was a fan of the Fleur-de-lis, I issued a challenge to that worthy blogger, with our respective blogs' front page as the prize.  If the Bears won, he'd have to put the legendary Bears' navy blue and orange on the top of Mahou Meido Meganekko, and if the Saints were victorious, I'd put the gold-and-black here on The Pond.  Ubu accepted the terms of the bet, and the first Anime Blog Football Throwdown was on.

After Saints rookie Reggie Bush scored a TD, taunting Bears' linebacker Brian Urlacher in the process, the Bears defense wound up crushing the Saints under their cleats.  Ubu, ever a class act, wound up not just changing the blog header picture, but the entire theme of his blog.  Even the name changed to "Chicago Bears Meganekko."

Because of that show of sportsmanship, I've been something of an unofficial fan of the Saints ever since... as long as they weren't playing the Bears, that is.  When the Saints won the Super Bowl last year (in wonderful fashion, I might add), I was quite pleased... though nowhere near as happy as Ubu. 

It's been four years since then, and both the Saints and Bears made it into the NFC playoffs this season... and were pretty much scheduled to face each other in the second round.  The Bears, being the #2 seed would face the highest-seeded winner of the wild card games.  The Saints, despite being seeded #5, were almost certain to beat the #4 seeded NFC-West champion Seattle Seahawks... who managed to get into the playoffs with a 7-9 record.  Assuming the #6 Green Bay Packers would beat the #3 Philadelphia Eagles (quite likely, in my opinion), that'd put the Saints in Soldier Field next weekend.

I had already contacted Ubu regarding a return of the Anime Blog Football Throwdown, and he responded favorably.  Once again, our front pages were the prize.

And then the World Champion Saints went out and peed their game against the Seahawks right down the leg of their uniforms.  Forgetting how to play defense, they lost 41-36.  Well, to be fair the Bears lost to the 'Hawks early in the season, back before their offensive line learned how to block, so I guess the phrase "...on any given Sunday..." applies.  But gosh darn it, I was looking forward to the Saints vs Bears.

I'm sorry, Ubu... I really am.  With any luck, the Bears'll get the chance to avenge your fallen heroes next week... and we'll do so.

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1 F1 and anime. What great taste.

Love your blog so much, I added Ubu's. Pretty good!
Go Bears!

Posted by: skyhack at January 15, 2011 08:42 PM (pF+iU)

2 If you like F1 and anime, skyhack, you should take a look at this post.

Posted by: Wonderduck at January 16, 2011 12:03 AM (W8Men)

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-The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya movie

I have a secret to reveal.

I love it when an author, or a tv show, or an anime, gives substantial time to a series' secondary characters.  I'd much rather read about Wedge Antilles, normal guy (though an extremely talented pilot), than Luke Skywalker (Jedi God).  After who-knows-how-many pages/hours/whatever we've spent learning about Our Heroes, there are times when I really like to find out more about the Second Spearcarrier On The Left... which is one of the (many) reasons I really like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.  I think that's why I prefer the second and third series in the Nanohaverse over the original: in many ways, the namesake of the show isn't the focus of the show.  Instead, the wolkenritter (in A's) and Riot Force 6 (in StrikerS) become the primary characters. 

And then I read the book, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya... and nearly wept with happiness.  No lunatic Haruhi and a story based around Nagato?  Sign me all the way up for that, please and thank you very much.  I think the book is the best of the four light novels translated and released here to date, but your mileage may vary.  Then I found out about the movie... and that Kyoto Animation was doing it, and I began to hope for the best, but prepared for the worst.  Because to put it simply, KyoAni's recent shows have been pretty 'meh' in the artwork department. 

I need not have worried.  KyoAni has returned to their pre-K-On!ification days, and the whole thing looks gorgeous as a result.  If you liked KyoAni's style from before they started to get cartoony, back when they were doing Kanon '06, the first Clannad, and the original Haruhi series, it's worth watching for that alone.

And, hey, Yuki shows actual emotion in the movie... which can't be bad, right?

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Okay, so production house Xebec decided to make an anime based on a character from a series of pachinko machines.  Well heck, I've heard of stupider ideas I suppose.  I think it's safe to assume that there was some financial assistance forthcoming from the makers of the machines, but if JAXA can sponsor an anime, why not?  The question is, was it money well spent?  Could we have a sleeper hit on our hands, despite the overwhelmingly negative reaction from the usual suspects?



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There comes a time in every duck's life where one feels weak, and gives in to their baser instincts... a desire to cause such incredible pain that it becomes uncontrollable. 

Well, my fine readers, that time has come and boy, are you gonna hurt.

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In my own personal shorthand, there is a category I call 'hero ships.'  These vessels, for one reason or another, just stick in the mind as incredibly important... even if they really weren't in the grand scheme of things.  Sometimes it's just because they have a cool name, sometimes it's because they seemed to be in the midst of all the action, sometimes it's because they were particularly influential.  Ships like USS Enterprise, or HMS Ark Royal (the greatest name for a ship ever).  The IJN Yamato is a 'hero ship,' even though it didn't do much in WWII.  So are the Bismarck and the HMS Hood, fated to be forever joined on history.  The doomed USS Indianapolis and USS Arizona.  There are probably dozens of others in my head, ships that anybody with any knowledge of WWII have heard of.

Then there's the ship we're discussing here.  Imagine if you will a vessel that was present at the following battles: the Doolittle raid; Midway; the attacks against the Solomons; Guadalcanal; New Georgia; Wake Island; the Gilbert Islands; the Marshall Islands; Truk; the Marianas battles; Luzon; the naval raids on the Japanese home islands; Iwo Jima; Okinawa; Tokyo Bay.  She also just missed the Coral Sea.

And yet, nobody considers her a 'hero ship'... and they really should.  For without her and her sisters, the US would have had a much harder time of it in the Pacific War.


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In a few hours, 2010 heads into the record books and we'll take the shrinkwrap off of 2011.  With 326 posts (including this one) added to The Pond, what were the highlights of the year?

Formula 1 didn't really get going until February, with the rollout of the cars for the new Lotus and Virgin teams.  The death of the proposed American team, USF1, came as a sadness that deprived us of a full 26-car grid.  Still, the debut of the HRT entry a week before the first race of the season gave us 24 cars to lead into the 19 race season.  The first race, in Bahrain, saw HWMNBN win in his first race as a Ferrari driver, with the returning Slappy Schumacher finishing 6th in his first race back after retiring a few years ago... in a Mercedes this time.  Strange to see him in something other than red.  Fortunately, we never had to see him on the podium dressed in silver as he had a mediocre season.  Jenson Button earned a strategy win in Australia in what was probably the reigning World Driver's Champion highpoint for the season.  Button's involvement in horrific F1 accident was one of my personal highlights, however.  In Malaysia we saw HWMNBN put in the drive of the year, managing to keep his car in contention despite a clutch that stopped working on the parade lap... at least until there were two laps left, when his horribly abused engine grenaded itself.  The race in China brought us the Moooooo-oove of the Year, but it was in practice that we saw the strangest accident ever when Seb Buemi's Toro Rosso shed both of its front wheels at the same time.  A Formula 2 race in Marrakech introduced us to the concept of open-wheel "formula"-type cars going for a flight, something that we would revisit later in the year.  Monaco saw the rise of Birdy Ecclestone and the incredible disappearing Williams steering wheel, along with a contender in the Crash of the Year contest.  The Turkish Grand Prix saw the Red Bull team lose an easy 1-2, and the McLarens almost (but not quite) do the same thing in one of the more amazing races of the season.  The Red Bull unbroken string of pole positions came to an end in Montreal at the hands of Lewis Hamilton, who wound up having to push his car into the pits after he ran out of fuel on his cooldown lap.  That race will go down in history as having the worst coverage of all time.  Mark Webber had a very very bad day at Valencia.  McLaren continued to show that they have a sense of humor behind all the chrome and stern faces when they let Jense and Lewis build their own car.  I got quite het up over HWMNBN's whining and moaning at the German GP, which then led to Ferrari telling Felipe Massa to let his Spanish teammate go by.  We finally got a look at the track map for the new US Grand Prix circuit in Austin, TX, which has me jazzed beyond belief.... and a couple of weeks later, we got a car on the new Korean circuit for the first time, which brought a lot less enthusiasm from me.  The Japanese Grand Prix brought us the Great Suzuka Boat Races in quals and a parade of FAILs from the mechanics during the race.  I had my first try at liveblogging during the first ever practice session at Korea, which was run in the dry.  But then it rained for the race.  It rained a lot, and the race ended in the dark.  Red Bull won the Constructor's Championship in Brazil, complete with silly hat.  The final race at Abu Dhabi saw four men with a chance at winning the Driver's Championship, which was eventually taken home by Seb Vettel, becoming the youngest Champion in F1 history.  It was also the longest F1 season ever, with 19 races, and boy did I feel it.  I've never been happy when a season came to an end, but I was this year.  Despite all odds and a running joke, I did do an Awards post, so there's that.

In the WWII category, which doesn't actually exist and should, I had a decent enough year.  The SB2U Vindicator got itself a little bit of glory for once.  The USS Wasp, on the other hand, earned the distinction of the worst American carrier in the Pacific.  The USS Wolverine actually had three posts devoted to it, as befits the unsung hero of Naval aviation.  Much to my surprise, the "Name That Mystery Ship" contests were actually a hit, leading to posts on the USS Hammann and the USS Shaw.  Somehow I managed to wrangle a visit to Courtesy Aircraft, a seller of classic warbirds, and took my camera along.  What was to be a short post on some of the books in my WWII library became something a little longer.  The Royal Navy's Nelson-class battleships got some attention despite a lack of recognition from history, and I finished up the category's year with the fourth entry in the "What If..." series.  That amuses me somewhat, since the carrier battle of Wake Island had been percolating in my brain for a couple of years and I could never get it to come out right... the biggest problem being Admiral Fletcher's order to pull back.  He'd never violate that, and I couldn't come up with a good way to circumvent it.  In the end, I just said "to hell with it."

On the anime writing front, this might just have been the best year ever here at The Pond.  It began with the episode-by-episode recap of Ga-Rei Zero (link goes to an index post), an epic series of Pocky, cute schoolgirls, swordplay, Pocky, magic, rocket-powered wheelchairs of awesome, and Pocky.  What's not to like?  My Favorite Moments in Anime got a post, I analyzed a creepy girl, and gave Sora no Woto some love, too.  On the other hand, Angel Beats got a well-deserved "meh" for being a big ball of frustration.  WWII and Anime came together when I gave a long hard look at the ships of Strike Witches II ep11 and discovered a couple of unexpected and completely out of character mistakes.  It may have taken three years (and being reminded about it), but I finally got around to explaining why I hated the ending of Rocket Girls so much.  The Hidamari Sketch franchise is one of my favorites for many reasons, not least of which is that one of the main characters owns a rubber duckie.  I wound up writing an Appreciation of Yuno's Duck in one of many collisions of Anime and Rubber Duckies.  A surprisingly fun little OVA called Megane no Kanojo got a thumbs-up.  Finally, to bookend the epic Ga-Rei Zero series of posts came the not-quite-as-epic-but-more-important series, Wonderduck's Favorite Anime Series Of All Time.  Here's the links: Honorable Mentions, Number Four, Number Three, Number Two and Number One.  A fitting way to end the year, that.

In many ways, a good year for The Pond.  Thanks to all of you, my readers, for taking time from your busy schedules and dropping in.  We'll see you in 2011!

Now it is time for the party hats and noisemakers!

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What makes a favorite?  There should be something about it that keeps bringing you back to it, obviously.  The characters, the story, the drama or the comedy, something.  But lots of shows have great characters, or an outstanding storyline, funny jokes or gripping drama... what makes one series stand out above all others to become a favorite?  And what elevates a favorite to The Favorite?  Sometimes... rarely... the entire package is so outstanding that it's hard to point to one part and say "there, that right there makes it just that good."  And yet, that's the case of my Number One Favorite Anime Series Of All Time.  It's the rare situation where everything is so good that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts... and the parts are all excellent.

Even if it's a show about nothing.

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The Red Bull F1 team sent out their annual Christmas card, and... well, Ferrari must be spitting nails right about now.

Nice, very very nice....

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And so another year's round of Duckmas pictures comes to an end with Santa duckies on a snowdrift.  Thank you for coming by every day to take a look at what my lil' buddies were up to, and thank you for reading The Pond!

Merry Christmas everybody!

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1 Merry Christmas! I really enjoyed this Christmas set

Posted by: Digicolleen at December 25, 2010 02:36 PM (y3twI)

2 Thank you Wonderduck!  It's always fun to visit your Pond, but 12 Days of Duckmas is a holiday joy I truly look forward too. 

Posted by: Gerberette at December 26, 2010 12:11 AM (FfGmL)

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Star of wonder, star of light,
Star of royal beauty bright,
Westward leading, still proceeding,
Guide us to thy perfect light.

Told you we'd be seeing the three Wise Men Ducks again.  Click "more" for an alternate version of this entry.
^{Thanks to the manager of the Duck U. Bookstore for providing the artwork!}

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1 * Its all so magical!* Great concept and ingenuity....and yes, still love the blue-light special one the best! Merry Christmas Wonderduck!

Posted by: Duck U Bkstr Mgr at December 24, 2010 10:42 AM (uDSe4)

2 Agreed, the blue-lit version is definitely better. Well done again!

Posted by: GreyDuck at December 24, 2010 11:04 AM (7lMXI)

3 What they said. Pretty!

Posted by: ButMadNNW at December 24, 2010 04:41 PM (YbiO2)

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"Mercy! Dreadful apparition, why do you trouble me? Why do spirits walk the earth, and why do they come to me?"
-Ebenezer Scrooge from A Duckmas Carol.

I'm inordinately proud of this picture.  No photoshopping involved, other than reducing it to fit The Pond's formatting... this is how it looked out of the camera.  But how?  Read on to see the behind-the-scene story of A Duckmas Carol: The Picture.

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Rudolph and Santa knew that there was just enough time for one last walkthrough before the big day.

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It's not that I ever intended The Pond to become totally devoted to the Twelve Days of Duckmas, it's just happening that way.  Life has been a little busy recently, what with Christmas and the end of the semester at Duck U. and getting ready for the beginning of next semester and all.  Really, I haven't even had time to watch any anime at all.  Other than HoiHoi-San that is, and that was only 10 minutes long.

I've got Thursday off (yay Holiday Break!), and I've got everything I need to get done done, so I fully intend to crank out the Number One entry in Wonderduck's Favorite Anime Series Ever then.

Or just sleep.  One of the two.

(note: the next few entries in the Twelve Days of Duckmas are gonna be doozies)

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The Duck U Choral group loves this time of year...

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Did you know that dropping a candy cane into some hot chocolate is very, very tasty?

Conversely, dropping a rubber duckie into hot chocolate is not tasty at all.

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On December 11th, 1941, a Japanese invasion force assaulted US-owned Wake Island and was repulsed.  Shortly thereafter, a relief force consisting of Task Force 11 (Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher, commanding, aboard USS Astoria), based around the USS Saratoga and the USS Tangier set out from Pearl Harbor.  The Tangier was a seaplane carrier, but had embarked the 4th Marine Defense Batallion as well as a vast amount of ammunition for the besieged island garrison.  The Saratoga carried her air wing and VMF-221, a Marine fighter squadron, which was to reinforce Wake's VMF-211.  As planned, TF11 would reach Wake Island on December 23th.

They never got there.  American intelligence sources thought that there was at least one Japanese carrier in the area, and possibly two.  Early on December 21st, planes from the IJN carriers Soryu and Hiryu, detached from the Pearl Harbor raiding force, appeared over the island.  While opinions back at Pearl were mixed, acting Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Fleet (CINCPAC) Admiral William Pye, thought the risks too high and cancelled the reinforcement mission.  

There was quite a bit of anger over this among the ships and crew of the US Navy.  The unofficial war diary for "Fighting Six" (VF-6) aboard the USS Enterprise, providing distant cover for TF11, reads "Everyone seems to feel that it's the war between two yellow races."  On board the Saratoga, the bridge crew reportedly was so angry that Rear Admiral Aubrey Fitch was forced to leave the bridge so he couldn't hear the near-mutinous talk.  Her commanding officer, Captain Douglas, nearly begged Fitch to contact Fletcher on the Astoria to ask for permission to raid Wake.

But What If....

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All together now: "Four EIGHT wings!  Four Eight freakin' wings!"

I'm not as happy with this picture as I was when I was taking it.  At the time, it looked incredibly dramatic with the long, long shadows and the leading edges of the wings glowing in the setting sun.  Somewhere in the dark recesses of my camera, a lot of the drama disappeared.  I suppose I could have photoshopped it, but for the Twelve Days of Duckmas I try to stay away from such things... other than contrast adjustments and color correction, and I don't even do a whole lot of that.

Still, hey!  Eight wings!

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1 It looks fine, honest. One of the things that always gets me when doing shots for the comic seems to have cropped up here, though: Eye reflectivity. "Crap, I need to turn her just a few degrees and shoot again..."

I vaguely recall reading a tutorial on one of the digital photography sites about getting the most out of high-contrast shots like that, where you're trying to get proper shadows instead of pale blue swaths of less-light. I can't remember which bits you have to fiddle with, though.

*googles*

Ah. HDR, High Dynamic Range. It was a three-part tutorial involving lots of specialized software tools on top of all the other setup. Maybe someday when I have extra time & money...

Posted by: GreyDuck at December 19, 2010 11:22 AM (7lMXI)

2 Actually, the angel with the gold wings is a little shiny all over, in comparison to the angel in white.  Short of spraying it with a matte finish, the shiny eyes would have happened under any light.

Posted by: Wonderduck at December 19, 2010 11:43 AM (W8Men)

3 Maru the cat meets a duck, it's very something http://sisinmaru.blog17.fc2.com/

Posted by: Tony von Krag at December 19, 2010 10:40 PM (VGXAE)

4 Eight wings! That never even crossed my mind..hilarious, though. I bet those ducks can fly pretty fast

Posted by: Digicolleen at December 21, 2010 01:14 PM (y3twI)

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