Self-portrait - 10-31-08
Oct. 31, 20:42 p.m., In Food City Parking lot,
19th Avenue and Indian School Road
Archive for Photography
Falling Behind, Photos
No, there’s no pictures of behinds falling or low-rise jeans falling below cracks.
Just that I have about 9GB of photos I took in just the past two weeks - translation, um, I lost count of how many that might transalate to. I’ve got the new camera some dimensions” standard cameras just can’t take straight through the lens. That doesn’t mean getting too fancy. It does mean toning the photos so they look at their optimum.
And, of course, winnowing down the repetitive, the bad, and the blurry.
I’d like to try a few quality prints. Then I want to transfer some to Facebook and MySpace as well and well, whoosh.
9MB and growing like a jungle full of exotic weeds.
PHOTO: Mikayla Rose, 9
This is my youngest niece, Mikayla, who was at the Living Desert Zoo in Palm Springs. There were wide ranging areas for animals as well as active 9-year-olds. I had not seen her in a few years, but she remembered me wholeheartedly and unabashedly, which felt good. The second photo here - unposed - may be the best one of her I took during the entire week.
Enjoying the new camera. There are so many more photos of Christmas vacation. These were on Day 2.
PHOTO: Laid Over In L.A.
I was laid over for two hours in L.A. at an opportune morning time.
There are so many more photos to come about my Christmas vacation - but this was the beginning.
Canon Rebel XSi: First Day Shooting, 83 Down To 38
At 12:10 today, having decided against riding my bike for two reasons I walked out the door for a photo session. At 16:08 I walked back in, limping but happy and eager to see the results.
The bike was an option until I realised I didn’t have my bicycle clips and my pants would get snagged on the chain. And the camera case wasn’t fitting comfortably. So I walked.
For about 20 minutes, I felt no urge to take my camera out. I looked around. As I walked east along 19th Avenue, I just waited until something caught my attention as worthy of a photo. I almost took a photo of a sign that said Rude Family, Morticians. They also had a very large Season’s Greetings at the top of their two-storey building. I talked myself into agreeing to take it on the way back home, knowing I’d more than likely wind my way back along a different street.
I think I walked about five miles, with photo stops. As well, when I passed the Arizona State Fairgrounds, I saw there was an antique show going on. Importantly, free admission. I walked in, having never been inside the grounds, either, and spent some time somewhat entranced. There were, strikingly, a lot of Shirley Temple items. With my name, let’s say I have an affiliation, not too mention similar dimples.
I had a blast. I’m so still learning my camera and my 300mm lens. I will need a good flash. i will have to use my tripod more. I tried a couple of filter shots but decided to save the juggling of lens and filters for another day.
Something that continues to plague me is getting dust on the lens / filter surface and finding a good way to get it off. Auto rotate when moving from camera to laptop - WIN!
I took 83 photos. Once uploaded to my laptop, I deleted that down to 38. Big files here, so I have to have the discipline to delete the flawed, the less good, the repetitive. Survival of the fittest.
These three here have only been cropped, and sharpened (with the exception of the tattoo guy, shadows removed. Those photos on Flickr are the untouched images. I can play with the images best for print, but I’m weaker on how they might look on different monitors. What do they look like on your monitor? Please tell me and let me know, so I can adjust accordingly.
Oh SNAP! - Temple Has A New Camera
I am pumped full of energy, I gave a big - ok medium - woohoo as the cash register dinged my purchase and after thinking about it for far too long I am the very stoked and excited owner of a brand new DSLR camera.
With amazing restraint - ok, and because it’s dark outside - I haven’t yet taken a picture.
But I do have it in its new camera bag; I do have the UV skylight filter in place to keep nasty nasty dust and fingerprints off the lens; I do have the strap attached and everything is now ready.
What? Oh, it’s a Canon Rebel XSi (aka by nobody as an EOS 450)
Camera $649
18-55 mm Image Stabilizer Lens - $49.99
75-300mm EF f4.5 Lens - $49.99
(Lens cost when buying camera)
UV Skylight ($18.99), Diffusion ($15.99) and Spot Focus ($15.99) filters, by 2 get one free.
Rounding it out with a camera bag, 2GB Sandisk extreme memory card, and 1 year full coverage insurance - Total $1,062 (By not-quite-accident it’s just about the same price as Digicombos’ package deal on the same camera, with bonus of having it in my hands seconds after money is drained from my account)
(Plus, I already have a tripod, courtesy of a Twitter friend, C.A. Sizemore)
I bought it all from Ritz Camera (They have a good reputation - from people I know in Seattle and here - and they just happen to be down the road from where I work). I’ll have to try their online photo processing too, to see if the colors are how I like them.
And the battery charger + battery came with. Charging the battery was my 1st step. Now I have everything set up for a little walk around later today (Saturday). And, as I understate it, it just feels really good to, after using newspaper-owned quality cameras for some many years, to have a real camera in my home again.
A quality SRL camera is a natural extension and I hope its growth, and my ability to use it, is strong.
Meme: 6-6 Photograph
Dani Cutler, on a different blog I didn’t know she had, tagged me up for this one. I know her from Twitter and her comforting voice as she heaped scormn on both Democrats and Republicans in the later part of this election season.
Her meme is to pick the sixth photograph on the six page of your flickr photos and write about what the hell’s going on there.
I have a couple of private-only photos, but took most of those out so they wouldn’t mess with the count. Then I realized that later today I’m adding about 50 more photos so the actual count is useless. It’s late and the photo happens to coincide with a long blog post I wanted to write anyway. So here’s the photo and a shorter - IE, well edited - post on the context will follow tomorrow.
If You Cut Off Their Heads It Doesn’t Matter If Their Eyes Are Closed, Too
Half asleep; since my post would be half complete anyway why not start it at 5:43 on a Saturday morning before I go to sleep. …
As widely general statement:
People create and try new things. Obviously it’s a good thing, and big picture, if it makes that person happy then it means more people are creating and there are more happy people in the world. But that doesn’t mean when you present it to the world, I or a larger audience has to like the result. And invited to comment, you may not always like what I say.
Harsh? Perhaps. Certainly in contrast to empty praise it’s so.
This seemingly rare (and murder is rare so rare isn’t always good) urge to say what a person actually thinks comes foremost, from not really not liking whatever you just created. For me it also comes from how I like to be treated. When something doesn’t work, I like to be told that. I may still disagree, I may not have provided enough context for broad interpretations, or I may completely agree. In any case, I know something is lacking in getting my point across.
An exception, however: If all you can think to comment about is what you don’t like aboout something then you need to stop commenting.
I am a trained journalist with 12 years of experience (which isn’t to say life can’t train journalistically). i didn’t dick around writing what I wanted to write. You keep the reader in your mind at all times and you make sure you can be understood quickly and easily. No mystery. Inform and secondarily entertain as much as possible. I’m not saying through the thousands and thousands of articles written that I always succeeded.
Journalism. Feature stories are a little bit more about the journey; about using language well to describe something. But oh hell yes, that can be overdone. In the hands of someone who does it REALLY well, it can work, and even boring, mundane subjects can be made to come alive. But even then yammering on at length, however beautifully, is most often a yawner. (Leaves Of Grass - has moments of bliss but how often does anyone read the entire effort? It perseveres primarily as an example of obsessive attempted perfection).
Hard news stories are just reality. This is it, this is what happened. You are informed. Often it can take a very skilled reporter to get those facts.
In a slightly different direction, a good film critic, won’t necessarily get off on being a mean bastard or even using language well to make a basic - “this sucks” - point. Mostly they’ll just say this sucks. The stricture here is that they are employed and need to earn. As a requirement of their job they have to have to write more because they won’t get paid for two-word “this sucks” columns.
In contrast, political punditry is all about repeated attempted at wittery and acerbic bon mots that exist ONLY to try and impress the easily impressed.
Somewhere in the middle is my angle, my take. With writing. With photography. You have to work a few elements but basically keep your skill set contained and get better and better at that. There is skill involved.
Finding less boring and mundane subjects is a key, as well, and makes creativity easier; with writing that may be about a third to half the exercise.
Generally, I love photography like I love sex; why experiment around with everything demeaning when you can become really really good instead? (The trick there is defining demeaning, of course)
And this comes down to an approach to friendship, as well. To some, being friends is being completely supportive of everything that person does, no matter thw quality of the photo, the story, the painting, the life-changing decision.
Frankly, most intelligent people don’t take this approach. They may have less friends, but those they have are closer. Closeness, oddly, often doesn’t necessarily translate into frequency of meeting. It comes about by a great understanding.
****
None of this was generated by one blog or even blogs. This started as a comment left on Flickr to a set of photos from a person here in Phoenix. They seemed like OK photos gussied up through process and art. Perhaps it was because they were photos of a place I’d been to many times and have seen so many beautiful, humorous, exciting, intriguing, photos of, that I was not that impressed. Or perhaps I just missed the difficulty of what was being attempted?
And none of this is to say, don’t experiment, quite the contrary. Experiment, but be prepared for failure and be prepared for people to not like it. And people out there need to be prepared to say “this ain’t so hot,” though they don’t have to be Simon Cowell about it, because he’s paid to be that way, while friends don’t have salaries.
That’s the context that was missing from the comment I left. It didn’t deliver that purpose, which is why I deleted it. Call it a failed comment experiment.
*** Deleted out some phrases about 15 hours later, because they needed to be deleted. (E-mail me and ask and I’ll probably explain.
Nothing Done But Life And Fighting To Live
At about 7 p.m. I sit looking into the face of a VERY long Monday at work. Deadlines that require not merely the cooperation of many other people but that they will be present at the right times and in time.
I don’t feel I’ve done anything - except I have, I watched Alexia Marie Roberts birth and I took a walk with a few thousand other people to help raise money for breast cancer research at the start of Breast Cancer Awareness Month (and wondering if the two OOs on October is why October became BCAM, because I don’t know why October except, it had to be some month ….
I look back at this morning’s early Cancer Walk, where, upon seeing photos I humbled myself by how bad I look physically at the moment. Except, I didn’t mind too much today because I was having a lot of fun greeting people like I owned the place and taking pictures like, well, like I usually do. That is, using my long legs and general speed to walk fast ahead and focus back, to position myself to get the angles, the motion and the expressions - and to take a mix of posed and mostly non-posed photos.
This time it wasn’t for a newspaper, but I treated it just the same. … I was the “unofficial official” event photographer for Sprouts, as part of the 30-plus strong team. Naturally, I volunteered myself for the position.
Alexia Marie - Now 9 Hours Old
I was at the birth of Alexia Marie Roberts, born at 13:10 p.m., today, at 7:11 ounces and 20.5 inches long. I was there to as a friend of the grandmother, who desperately needed a ride to Casa Grande. I also knew the mother and especially the father fairly well.
Mom is 21. Dad is 27.
I had been taking photos beforehand, getting used to a new camera. I was kicked out of the room regularly as the mom-to-be was examined. I didn’t expect to be called in to take pictures during the birth, but there I was, attending my first. I was told to stop taking pictures during the actual delivery itself, though if you set it up more you certainly can. I stood at a discreet angle off to the mom’s left side and took some some shots.
Here’s one of a 5-minute-old Alexia Marie Roberts.
Not sure it’s the best one but I need to seriously snooze because I have to wake up bright and early at 4:30/5:00 for a short Cancer Walk.
Mini-Shopping Spree And FlickrPro
I’ve JUST signed up and bought a FlickrPro account and 131 photos of today’s baseball game (about four of which are actually game action) are even uploading. OK, as I look at the clock I realize it’s yesterday’s game.
4 is, very generally, considered an unlucky number in China and Japan, like the number 13 is here. So I noted the odd 444.4 MB total of the images I’m uploading.
There’s things I know about Flickr I don’t like and things I wonder about their future and that of Yahoo’s. But now was the time because I could afford it.
Speaking of that, I’ve just spent the last several months being relatively austere and not by choice, though I aspire to that as well. Just not quite, yet.
Now though, in the last couple of weeks, I’ve been on a DVD-buying binge, which for me means 6. Though it’s odd timing. Not odd because I just ended DISH Network or any TV-connection hookup - austere! - but odd because the TV itself doesn’t work without that middle box.
It could also just be the old remote; I was using the DISH one.
I found this out the hard way after buying a couple, yet I still bought more. So yesterday (Saturday) I played Phone Booth b/c it’s deliberately centered around Kiefer Sutherland’s timbresque voice, and therefore it’s a film where video takes a secondary role - especially if you’ve seen it before.
Last weekend I bought three shirts, a new pair of shoes and some tire care things for a front tire that had a fairly unfortunate leak, now currently stopped with handy sealer gook.
I did walk out of Costco having purchased exactly nothing - I wasn’t sure that was legally allowed according to CostCo terms of use or that there wasn’t a penalty of death but I left - with the ex-girlfriend now “just friends” - unmolested and even with a smile on the greeter’s (exiter’s???) face.
I wanted new pants, which I still haven’t bought and I was fairly disgusted that no pair in the entire Costco building went beyond 34″ inseam. FU shorties, a (B&T) man has to have some material extension. (I also don’t remember size 14 shoes being so rare; that stores flat out didn’t carry them or, in the case of Big 5 Sporting Goods had just three pairs. That’s where I bought mine.
I also bought today’s baseball tickets, $42 a pop, because I don’t go that often so when I go I like to be in good spots. I wanted the $130 tickets, but it was the last game of the season and the Dbacks had already clinched being done for the year after the game ended. Also, that’s just too much money with the only benefit being one a zoom lens can fix (though I didn’t have that today).
I also spent $50 so I could walk 5k on Sunday in support of breast cancer, with my Sprouts Farmers Market team. So it’s not all about me.
I generally haven’t enjoyed spending large wads of cash - and though I didn’t actually spent large wads - maybe just one wad - I enjoyed and am enjoying the money I spent and don’t feel bad this time around.
Well, except for the DVDs, I’m not yet enjoying those. Tomorrow, pics and a little camera discussion.
(Photos now 75% loaded, fast it’s not.)
I’m Related To This Guy @ Onasia.com
Peter Charlesworth**, news photographer with Time and Newsweek covers, is the nephew of my stepdad, Michael Charlesworth. My mom and stepdad have a few $100,000 worth of seed-money invested in the Onasia Photo Agency, based in Asia and the south Asia region - and a little beyond to Australia. The company is less than 10 years old.
They were, apparently, all over the Beijing Olympics.
I actually subscribed to both Time and Newsweek when I saw several Peter Charlesworth images in the magazine. I’ve kept them all from that time and need to filter through and toss a few that don’t have his name in them.
I know Peter has a copy of several 100 high-quality images of old, colonial India - all sepia-toned that i would like to talk to him about in relation to Desicritics.org I could understand not giving over the images, but to my knowledge they are not part of a for sale library of images.
I like this notice at the site, pushing the rights of photographers and the often taken-for-granted work and danger they put themselves in:
Copyright and Our Photographers
Each photographer’s work represents a valuable creative legacy that should remain their own. We are committed to protecting photographers’ copyright. By safeguarding photographers’ copyright, we seek to support the essential independence photographers need both artistically and journalistically to produce great stories and images. Each of our photographers represents a unique area of specialization. Some are new talents, while others are established names. All are making important contributions to the world of photography in Asia.
** NOTE, I can’t get a direct link but cscroll down the list of names at right to Peter. UPDATE, I found a direct link - hooray …….
Trip: Cloud Kodachrome
UPDATE, OK, now I know, Twitpic sucks for posting photos to blogs; it won’t let me do anything but these square thumbnails. Also on my Flickr
My Camera Situation
___
My camera situation? Pretty dire. Pretty down and out in Beverly Hills. Pretty ghetto. Pretty rotten egg. Pretty not pretty.
I have 10 film cameras mostly old, most don’t take 35 mm film. But I’m not talking about them, I’m talking about the wonderful world of digital. Is there anything worthy in the world that ISN’T digital these days?
Well, yes, anything worth taking a picture of as it happens. Funny how that works, isn’t it. Discussion for another post, another time.
