This picture was taken with a Nikon D300 and an 18-200mm lens.  Zooming in on the subject probably helped with the possible reflections that could’ve taken place in the photo without zooming. 

Here are a few other links concerning taking photos through windows/glass:

1- Taking Photos Through Windows, Photocritic.org

2- Taking Photos Through Windows, PhotoHacker.blogspot.com

3- Photos Throug Glass, HomePhotog.com

So don’t worry too much about window/glass interferrance with your picture taking.   With a couple of easy tips from the links above such as, whether or not to use a flash due to the possible reflection, or manual verses auto focusing, you’ll find it’s not that difficult to take a good picture through glass… Besides, it’s better just to take the shot and see what happens, instead of missing the opportunity all together…

I went and saw the movie, “Green Zone,” starring Matt Damon last night at 9pm with a couple of “battle buddies” that I am attending some training with here at Fort Benning, Georgia.   All of us enjoyed the movie and were particularly surprised at how well the Army dialougue/lingo was portrayed.  Of course, other movies had it down as well, such as, Black Hawk down; but, again, it’s nice to see a movie that makes an attempt at ‘making it real.’  When I speak of the lingo, I mean words like: “Hooah, Sarnt (instead of Sergeant), SITREP (instead of Situation Report), etc. …  Only people / Soldiers in the Army (Military) would catch those minor things in a movie. 

The reason for the not-so-great picture of the Saddam International Airport / Baghdad Int’l Airport (BIAP)  above is to point out another of what ‘I’ thought was a key “attention-to-detail” element of the movie.  That was that they even made sure to include a brief shot of a destroyed Iraqi airliner while Chief Milller (Matt D.) was visiting the airport.  When I arrived at the BIAP myself back in March 2003, there were two destroyed Iraqi airliners on the runway (this is the only picture I could find – taken while in the gunner’s hatch of a M1097 HMMWV).  It’s a small Army, because later, after returning to the States I wound up working with the Officer who was responsible for their destruction…go figure…  This mess of metal had to have been cleaned up prior to the making of “Green Zone;” however, someone insured that it “came back to life” in the theatre… very nicely done…

Of course, throughout the movie, the three of us (one a Chemical Soldier, one a Mechanic, and the other a Supply Specialist) were trying to pick out places we had been during our deployments to Iraq.   Places like the Cross Sabers (used as a vehicle staging area for going back to Kuwait) and the Pool (though I never got to go swimming)…  It feels kind of strange watching those places, and others, on the big screen.

I had intended to read the book written by, Rajiv Chandrasekaran in 2006, prior to watching the movie; however, my friends were wanting to go see it and so off we went.  I will, of course, still snatch it off the shelf of some book store very soon though…  There’s always plenty left out of the movie.  I’m really regretting now that I did not follow everything that was happening in the Middle East as a whole as much as I should have.  I guess I got tired of hearing about it, seeing it on the news, etc. … But I feel now that, having been involved in the conflict personally, that it’s my duty to try and grasp a better understanding of the War and all of the events leading up to it. 

Realizing that we never found weapons of mass destruction, or WMD’s, and that ‘that’ was the reason for our going to war with Iraq, does put some doubt in my mind about our governments real intentions (always has).  All I can say is that, I’m an American Citizen, an American Soldier that volunteered to serve my country, to follow the orders of the Officers appointed over me.  I might not agree with the reasons, the how’s, the why’s… but as a Soldier, I still must fullfill my end of the agreement/contract and simply do what little bit of good I can along the way.  I certainly did not take any pleasure in witnessing some of the events that took place during my time in Iraq (2003 & 2005), but I’ve always hoped and prayed that some lives were spared and changed for the better due to our (U.S.’s) involvement…

Full Sail University has DEGREE programs in Music, Film, Gaming, Computer Animation, …you name it, or just go check them out yourself: FullSail.com >>>

The list of credits to this institution in phenomenal! … One of my favorites, ‘Flood,’ The Rock Band: U2’s main mixer on a few albums, graduated from Full Sail.  Also, there were several graduates that worked the movie: ‘TiTanic” with Lianardo DiCaprio… But the list goes on and on…

 It’s a rather expensive school, but it seems to probably offer the best overall education in the field of multimedia.  Years ago I had looked into going to this institution, but never did.  The loans I would have needed to take out would have been a considerable amount.  Also, it depends upon your skills and experience, but most intro audio productionists/engineers (that’s what I was interested in) do not start out making that much money.  So, like many others, I let the ‘money thing’ put a damper on ‘my dreams’… 

Today, there are many other options to help pay for school and the school itself has grown to offer several other degree programs.  When I was looking to go (back in the early 90’s) there were no degree plans, just certifications.  So the School has definately grown into a multimedia artist producing monster! …

If you are even slightly interested in a multimedia career, you should take a look > fullsail.com

Image: (one of my amps (line 6) controls)