A Picture’s Worth a 1,000 Clicks

The camera never blinks.

This year I rediscovered my love for taking pictures and I have a cell phone to thank.

While the New York Times reported last week that people are increasingly leaving their point-and-shoots at home in favor for their cell phones, the HTC EVO 4G inspired me to purchase a Canon S90 point-and-shoot. I often take both with me when I leave home.

Clever Marketing from Whole Foods

Whole Foods Markets throws the best happy hour in town and nobody knows.

Every other Friday, from 5 to 7 p.m., for just $5, smiling Whole Foods employees will serve you five appetizers paired with five different wines or beers.  Of course they’re trying to sell you something. It’s called “Five After Five”.

At each station — they’re strategically located throughout the store —  there’s someone explaining how the food was prepared or answering your questions about the wine or beer. They also have recipes available for each item.

Tonight’s theme was “Cooking with Beer”. I ended up buying a Belgian ale I never would have bought without tasting it first. I paid $8.99 for the ale and will probably buy it regularly. I don’t know how much Whole Foods actually spent on me tonight — probably more than the $5 I paid, but they will recoup that marketing cost quickly, probably after I purchase another bottle of that ale.

Oh, and I left the store so impressed I am spending part of my Friday night telling you about it. Check out the photos I took at each station. (I used my new HTC EVO 4G from Sprint — it launches next Friday, June 4. For a cell phone camera — this is 8 megapixels — these photos are pretty good, especially when you consider I cropped them all really tightly so they would fit on this page.)

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