Chad Norman » Art

Just A Few of Our Favorite Things from 2011

Chad Norman — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 03:34:30 +0000

Every year on January 1st, our little family sits around the kitchen table and talks about the highlights from the year that’s just passed. Then each of us takes a peice of paper, and writes down all of our favorite things from the previous year. After that, I type them up, upload them to Wordle.net, and create a tag cloud of the year. I keep saying I’m going to make t-shirts for us, but hey – we only want to look back a little. Onward and upward to a great 2012!

Check out the tag clouds from previous years…

Enjoy!

The Sugar Plum

Chad Norman — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 21:58:08 +0000

I got to shoot a ballet rehearsal during Nutcracker season this year, and caught the Sugar Plum Fairy (my better half) having a good time. Bunheads rule!

Just a Texturiffic Wall

Chad Norman — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 18:07:27 +0000

This wall really caught my eye this morning, and this crop makes it look a bit like a flag.

FOUND :: Rare Purple Lego Brick

Chad Norman — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:43:10 +0000

Have you ever seen a purple Lego brick? Seriously, think about it. Have you ever seen one?

A couple of years ago, my friend Rachel gave us a big box of Duplos. We love Duplos, and this batch came with a few regular Lego bricks trapped in the nooks and crannies of the box. I happily integrated the entire lot into our family stash, and went about my business.

Over the next few months, this 8×1 purple brick kept turning up, and eventually it caught my eye. We have thousands upon thousands of Lego bricks, but only one of them is purple. How could this be? Lego bricks are some of the most creative, thoughtful, brain-growing toys out there. Had they simply neglected to make purple bricks? How rare are they?

Apparently, purple Lego bricks ARE very rare! As this Yahoo Answers thread indicates, the missing color has definitely been noticed by fans. I’ve learned that most of the purple bricks in existence probably came from a Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Bus Set. One observant brickhead noticed the purple cone lampshade in the Sunshine House Set. The color is noticeably absent from the Lego online store, so clearly there is some kind of concerted effort to keep purple bricks oppressed – right?

Hey Lego: Set the purple bricks free!!! People want purple Lego bricks, so why not make it happen? I mean, look how happy this woman was when she found some in a Chicago store.

Until Lego can make it happen, feel free to bask in the glory of my 8×1 purple Lego brick:

Bobbleheadapalooza

Chad Norman — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 22:23:12 +0000

I totally dug this massive aisle of bobbleheads in Chinatown, SF.

Look Kids, Just Parliament

Chad Norman — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:57:11 +0000

There was no Big Ben, but I couldn’t help think of that line from European Vacation every time I walked by the Canadian Parliament building. Sitting in downtown Ottawa, this is a great building and property to wander around. I really dug the feral cat colony back near the river. More pics on my Flickr page.

99 Luft Lanterns

Chad Norman — Sat, 09 May 2009 03:18:08 +0000

These lanterns caught my eye near Chinatown on my latest visit to San Francisco. You can check the rest of my pics in my SF set on Flickr.

Strange Garden Shot

Chad Norman — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 03:37:59 +0000

I bent down into one of the beds the other day, and came up with a spattering of chigger bits. I also ended up with this weird shot, where the wide open 1.2 aperature delivered some unexpected goodies. This is a like some kind of bizarro bokeh.

Out There in Montréal

Chad Norman — Tue, 06 May 2008 01:28:39 +0000

I spent most of last week working on Montréal (which was possibly the most fun I’ve ever had working on the road), and I’m thankful to have survived the city’s bleak weather and souring mood (The Canadians were eliminated at home that night). With the hockey Habs on life-support, my Canon followed suit and went through customs for my return flight with very few photos of the city. My only day off was a downpour, so I had no chance to really hoof it around Old Montréal. I still got a few snaps off while we worked elsewhere in the city, and here are the first three.

Dean and Doreen in The Sports Car

Chad Norman — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 04:27:12 +0000

Ahh, another vintage odd-shaped children’s book – and only 29 cents! I found this morsel in the same stack as my Golden Shape Books, and it’s got a whole different vibe and style. This is probably because it was published in 1970, and was printed in the Netherlands (so how did I end up with it in Indiana?). It seems rather rare, as Google is only returning 10 results.*

*UPDATE: Now I’m the #1 result. Nice.