Yeah, of course... That would've been my second guess :)

Did you mention photography at all? :)

(I'm just asking because there's a short story I love about an amateur and young film director who sees the two most famous directors regulaarly meet in a park and lead heated conversations. The story is about the young one's imagining how these two geniuses converse about their job, about directing. then, at the end it turns out that they talk about women - and, of course, in a much less nobler tone :)

who's the chick at our table? oh, it's King! The guy to my left was some homeless guy we invited to breakfast! King this is a funny image and well done, but not quite as compelling as the TV ballerina. YOu could have put VT's head on the chick!

Thanks for your comments.

Clockwise from top left, self-portrait of King, Jarrett Gorin, George Illes and Mark Kitaoka. We were having breakfast yesterday (Saturday, 4/7/07) at Sears Fine Foods in San Francisco before heading out to take embarrassing (and I mean *really* embarrassing) photos of one another. Vernon Trent was there in spirit, Tracy Martin was there by telephone (and we finally got straight who was pregnant, Tracy or Kyla).

We didn't talk about photography at all. We mainly talked about food (Jarrett's sister Jessica is a master chef). Mark kept changing the subject to chicks.

The camera was across the room on a cabinet and you can see that I'm pressing the remote release button. Jarrett directed the aiming of the camera. Mark and George helped by making goofy faces.

Mark was a great host and took us to several places around San Francisco to shoot photos. I'm working on another photo of Mark as I type this. I'll post a link here later.

@pursang...damn! I should have put Vernon's head on that out-focus woman bottom center.

I was quoting a song and now I know who took this. High marks by the way.

...but who the hell is this guy with a beard?
:o)

@philippe...and I was just wondering who you didn't recognize. :>)

pursang, et al,
...just for laughs:

http://www.kingdouglas.com/weeklyshot/us-five.jpg

Tracy...I'm happy. I just don't like my smile. Anybody else have that problem?

Seriouly: I didn't recognized Jarrett (but I supposed it could be him).

Not at all, I am smiling right now. ;-)

@King, I hate my smile and if I do smile I won't show teeth. I'm glad I'm not the only one.

I don't like my photographic smile either. It's forced and unnatural. If you catch me in a candid I'm fine with it though.

That was a great day yesterday!!! I like how this came out. Especially the pasted-on-head effect.

where Am I ??? hahahaha ..... love it this stuff.. cool king ;)

King, I just got home from visiting my daughter, so I cannot believe this lousy photo made the front page. And add to that it's a picture of all of us. I laughed my ass off at the other link you sent.

It was a great day and the image is indicative of the lack of brainpower in the group. Who was that gal and I think the only reason we didn't notice her was her table mate was hot!

Hummingbird,
yo say "@King, I hate my smile and if I do smile I won't show teeth. I'm glad I'm not the only one. "

Well, then at least three... You described my way of smiling, exactly :)

I mean three: You, Knig and myself :)

Folks,
Thanks for the generous ratings that helped this image get featured, and for all your kind comments. Mark Kitaoka (the frail and wasted old man in the bottom left corner) is the only one to have anything negative to say...except that Jack called us bozos, which is perfectly understandable. Brant even called us "gentlemen."

@pursang...I have *no* idea why this image was featured...the ratings are adequate, of course. Maybe the fact that one can see the actually *faces* of four contributors as opposed some of the great, artful and well done--but coy--mages being posted this week. I consider this to be a "courtesy" feature, whereas Vernon has to earn all his. I suppose age does have its privileges.

"coy" fits the discarded, at times.
at other times; no.

You flipped your head around. I just noticed that.
You should have done something more interesting with Mark's head. Maybe it could have been peeking out of a coffee cup. :P

@Ana...this is one of those times that I don't know what you mean by your statement above...the first two lines. So I'm asking for your clarification before I get all defensive and/or apologetic and such. By "coy," I meant "shy" as in "camera shy."

This was originally just a snapshot of our get together, with no intention of posting it. I had a little trouble getting the remote to work, but finally got three snaps. The plain-jane version was just too vanilla, so I decided to blend images, as you see, but I didn't have many to choose from.

Actually, Mark never changed his expression the entire time we were together that day.

I wasn't saying anything more than what I said. Sometimes coy works, sometimes not. Some posted shots without full 'in your face' faces (Attila, Gavin, Kyla, Myself, Justin) and got featured!
I was just replying to your statement about "actually seeing faces" as "opposed" to not.

I'm in awe at the folks that can post such bold shots of themselves.

I like Mark's expression, actually. :)

Ana...thanks, I see. I hope you noticed that I was careful to conjoin "coy" with all appropriate respect for the quality of the images submitted.

But what did you mean by "...fits the discarded.."?

Well, there are a lot of shots that aren't 'face' shots that are getting left behind in this theme, that are actually quite good and full of *who the person is without showing their face. There's even a 'hand' shot. :)

I think that some folks tend to look at the 'in your face' face shots, and the others sort of get looked over, instead of trying to be understood.
Not even talking about my in the 'wrong theme' shot. : )

Ana...thanks very much for your clarification. You know that I am very supportive of alternative self-portraits. I remember the support you gave one of mine in an earlier self-portrait theme where I had my back turned to the camera.

I also believe that a single self-portrait is not sufficient to know very much about a person. The poem you posted with your first shot was also a kind of self-portrait. So, to me, a hand here, a belly there, the stories we tell about ourselves--all contribute in a valid manner to a persons's self portrait.

Perhaps the "in-your-face" images simply make life easier for folks who simply want to know our faces, which is perfectly natural.

Perhaps. :)

King, my expression didn't change because I have a low IQ and the processing power of my brain is focused on life support tasks over facial expressions. It hurts me that you'd make fun of that knowing full well you are aware of my mental handicap!

@ Ana - Personally, I have to say I really enjoyed your self-portrait this time ;) I don;t think you have to see someone's face for it to be a good self-portrait. Of course, in the case of this image, you get four for the price of one.

Thank you, Jarrett.