Blog : January 2007

Things I Don't Like

Very short excerpt of a very long list:

Web sites whose navigation relies on the opening of new windows with each click.

Shockwave/Flash web site navigation. Talk about sending us back to the stone age of usability! My browser buttons, right mouse button and mouse wheel are rendered useless on these sites!

Sites that display the "loading 10%" animation. Sorry, if I have to wait for your shite [sic]site to load only to be presented with a shite navigation and stupid-ass animation, forget it.

And for the love of all that is sane, do not autoplay audio on your piece of crap site! Dammit! I browse in TABS, opening links in new tabs, and as a result I am bombarded with multiple pages trying to play me the latest and greatest "cool tune." Cut that shit out!

[ LINK ]

No Sleep

I've been in a bit of a funk lately. A number of reasons for it, and I'm sure it'll pass.

Had a great shoot this past weekend. It's taking me a bit longer to get through some recent edits since I decided last week to cut over 100% to RAW processing. I'm working on a 6 year old machine, so the processing time on JPGs was just at the breaking point. Moving to RAW images means moving to significantly larger file sizes and therefore significantly longer processing time. Has me evaluating moving back to JPG (which I don't want to do) or upgrading my machine (which my wallet doesn't want me to do).

I am Jesus

Tonight I saw a car with a bumper sticker that said "Honk if you are Jesus."

I honked.

RAW vs. JPG

The Canon 20d has been my weapon of choice in photography for the past two years. As with most digital SLRs, it has the option of shooting in either RAW mode, JPG mode or both simultaneously

When I first started shooting with the 20d I didn't have enough experience with SLRs in general to worry much about the difference between the two file formats. However, I've recently become more aware of some of the differences, but I'm struggling up the learning curve associated with gaining control over editing the RAW files.

It appears that one major benefit will be much more crisp photos than what JPG offers. Also, there appears to be a slight color shift between the two formats - not something I would have anticipated.

Shooting in both RAW and JPG requires quite a bit of disk space, but I'm not going to abandon JPG altogether just yet. There are significant conveniences built into the JPG format, one of which is the lack of need to convert every file you want to keep into some editable format. Another is smaller file size.

For now, I'm choosing to shoot in dual mode for serious shoots, and then flip back to JPG for fun shoots like social events and clubs. Perhaps one day I'll be deep enough into it that I go all RAW all the time.

PocketWizard?

Would someone be able to explain to me or point me to an article that would explain what the difference is between a PocketWizard and something like the Canon ST-E2 Transmitter?

I can't find a 101 tutorial on the pros & cons of either.

Spin Cycle

I have been party to conversations and privvy to information this week the likes of which I would never have been able to imagine on my own. And that's all I can say about that.

As Chicago weather would have it, yesterday was bright & sunny, today was grey and dreary.

Hey, did you know you can subscribe to my e-mail newsletter and receive information and updates right in your inbox? Sho nuff, it's true! You should do that. You'll learn more about why you should in the coming weeks, but for now, take my word for it, eh?

It's the Next Day

Ah insomnia, how do I love thee? Let me count the sheep...I mean, ways.

Stress-induced, I'm sure. But also helped by a generous dose of Mountain Dew with dinner. Nevermind the large iced tea at lunch.

Had a great shoot with Ann Marie on Saturday. Edits are in progress, but a preview is on display in the Photoblog.

Spent some more time in the photo studio tonight with a couple of models. Mixture of fine art and erotic art nudes. Next stop: editing.

Note to self: Talk through my workflow one day for the curious onlookers.

I get to do a little bit of traveling in the near future. Camera will definitely be in tow. I wanto to try a bit more walk-around photography outside, but the more I shoot people, the more I'm interested in shooting more people.

Winter finally made an appearance in Chicagoland.

Welcome BikiniLane Surfers

I recently learned that I'm linked on BikiniLane.com. I'd like to welcome those of you that stumbled upon my site via BL! Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoy perusing my portfolio.

Negative Positive

Do you think there is a difference in meaning between these two phrases?

That is not a bad idea.

That is a good idea.

Or how about:

I don't disagree with you.

I agree with you.

I've recently become more aware of what I can only describe as "negative positives," my definition being a word or phrase intended to communicate something positive on the surface, but actually driven by something negative.

If I think something is a good idea, then I should say that it is a good idea. But, if I have some reservations and think that it is an OK idea at best, but not a good idea, then I may say that it is not a bad idea so as to qualify that it's not bad, but also communicate that it is not necessarily good.

The problem here is that I hear people using the negative positive when they actually intend to use the positive positive. Becoming aware of this has caused me to become more aware of my own communication style and affords me the opportunity to learn more about how to manage my communication and to know when I should use the negative or the positive.

Am I on to something here?

Eisenhower Expressway: Recycling Center

Driving to work this morning I saw something I never would have been able to make up on my own. While cruising in the middle lane I noticed the driver's side door of a car in front of me open.

My first thought was that they were making sure their door had latched shut, but my second thought was, "Holy shit! They just threw an empty beer bottle out of their car!" Somebody nearby honked, and then we all continued our trek into the city.

I was truly baffled.

"Logic"-al Frustration

There's a saying out there somewhere that says if you give a man too many options he'll short-circuit and not do anything with any of them. Perhaps there is no saying ilke that, but if there isn't, maybe there should be.

It has been almost three years since I last produced any new music. One might think I've lost the desire to create music, but that is simply not the case. I believe that my ability to create music has been hampered by the many tools as my disposal, especially the components that have not been playing well with others.

Each time I felt inspired to create something new, I would sit down to attempt to capture it only to end up wasting countless hours trying to get my recording setup to work properly. After spinning my fruitless wheels, I would go find something else to do.

Of course, some distration has been caused in the past few years by my photography, but I believe that these two interests can somehow coexist in my life.

So tonight I sat down with the goal of learning some new things about my setup and trying to work out some bugs. I succeeded in the former, I won't know about the latter until I sit down again and try to create something.

My studio runs on a PowerMac G4 with an upgraded 1.5ghz processor (used to be 450mhz), Mac OS 10.3.9, and 1.5gb of RAM. Logic Pro is my primary audio & MIDI application while Pro Tools LE (PT) has been an excellent work horse for my straight audio editing needs. Although PT added MIDI capabilities in recent years, I chose to focus my attention on learning one app that could meet most of my needs.

The biggest problem I've had with Logic is being able to boot the system up, launch the application and play a sound through any one of my various MIDI instruments. My success rate was very low, and for reasons I could not determine no matter how much Googling I did or hours I spent running through menus, preferences and configuration changes. The good and the bad about Logic is that it is extremely complex. There are aspects of the application that I will likely never use, much less know they existed. Although Logic was very unstable for me on OS 9, I can say with confidence that my current set of problems became apparent with the upgrade to OS X. It's nice to have a stable application, but it doesn't do me any good if I can't get it to do what I need it to do.

Tonight I determimed that the culprit may well be a combination of the MIDI interface I'm using, the MOTU MTP AV and the Audio & Midi Setup utility built into OS X. My own behavior may even have something to do with it as well! But the thing that bothers me about all of this is that I cannot pinpoint the exact cause so as to eliminate or avoid the problem completely.

I have my MIDI hardware and the MTP AV all connected to the same power conditioner. I use the switch on this conditioner to turn all of my MIDI equipment on and off at once. I found that each time I turn the MTP AV off and back on again while the computer is running, the Audio & MIDI Setup utility "finds" the MTP AV (connected to the CPU via USB) again and adds it as a new device in the configuration screen. Now, why can't the utility just recognize that it's the same damn piece of hardware?!?!? As a result, Logic only sees the original, now-disconnected hardware and is therefore not able to trigger MIDI events through a supposedly-missing interface.

As an attempt to resolve this issue, I'm going to leave the MTP AV on at all times. Perhaps by leaving it on all the time the USB connection will be maintained and the Audio & MIDI Setup utility will not try to recreate what is already there.

I've actually considered selling the MTP AV and buying a more basic model such as the MIDI Express 128, but I wouldn't be able to get my money out of the current equipment and can't guarantee that I wouldn't have the same problem on the new unit. I originally purchased the MTP AV thinking I was going to be doing a fair amount of audio & video synching between various components, but those aspirations were never realized. Don't hesitate to contact me should you want to make an offer!

2006 Movie Analysis

At the beginning of 2001 I had an idea. I decided to keep a running list of every movie I watched from that point forward. This month marks the fifth year anniversary of my movie list. Being the analytical nerd person that I am, it was only a matter of time before I started to generate annual reports based on the information in my list.

In 2004 I began writing reviews of movies I watched. Here is a quote from an entry in a previous blog regarding my 2004 review performance:

2004 was the first year in which I posted reviews of movies I watched. I managed to post 29 reviews (32%) and recieved 0 comments in return.

I didn't write any more movie reviews after 2004. (By the way, if you do want to read some very well-written and highly-entertaining movie reviews, check out Eric Snider's web site.)

Following is my analysis of my 2006 movie watching habits.

VOLUME
2006 saw the third highest volume of movie watching since I started keeping track in January 2001. At 72 movies, 2006 represents 19% of all movies watched since 2001 and 80% of my highest movie watching year, 2004. 2004 remains a record year for my movie watching habits with a total of 90 movies watched (or 24% of all movies watched).

I watched 8% fewer movies in 2006 than in 2005. There are no specific events in 2006 that would give any indication that this was an abnormal movie watching year for me, whereas certain conditions in 2004 (my record year) significantly influenced my habits.

My average weekly movie watching rate in 2006 was 1.38. This equates to 6 movies per month.

Here is the annual summary of count of movies watched:

The following graph indicates the year-over-year trend of movie volume since 2001:

RATINGS
2004 was the first year in which I rated the movies I watched. I'm happy to say that, of the 72 movies watched in 2006, I really liked more than half of them (65% of movies received a 4 or 5 star rating), I didn't care for only a small portion (10% received 1 or 2 stars), and the rest were okay (25% received 3 stars). It is interesting to note that I rated the same number of movies (40) with 4 stars in 2006 as in 2004.

For reference, my ratings system is as follows:

- This movie should not have been made.
- I didn't like it, but you might.
- It was entertaining, though nothing spectacular.
- I liked this movie quite a bit.
- An excellent pick, one that I would buy on DVD and watch again.

EVENTUALLY

I maintain a running list of movies that I either want to see or that someone has recommended I see. I welcome your input.

What should I watch in 2007?

Here We Go Again

After more than a year of no blog and no gallery updates, I'm back! I'm starting fresh. The site design may seem familiar, but I assure you, everything behind the scenes has been cleaned up significantly. As a result, I will be able to maintain the site with much less effort, including posting news, photos and other random tidbits on a regular basis. This will then result in you, my visitors, having a much more pleasurable and hopefully entertaining experience as you peruse the bits and bytes that I post on this site.

Welcome to 2007. Welcome to my new web site.

What can you expect to find while you're here? I'll break it down for you:

Blog: Words (mostly). Maybe a photo or two if they're relevant to the words, but mostly words. My words, to be exact. Things that fall out of my brain and onto the keyboard. You will not agree with everything I have to say and I don't expect you to. Don't expect, however, to get into long, drawn-out debates on-line with me. I realized long ago that debating on the Internet is much like pushing on the door labeled "pull".

Photoblog: Photos (mostly). Maybe a word or two if they're relevant to the photos, but mostly photos. My photos, to be exact. You will not always like everything I point my camera at, but that's okay. Either way, I want to hear your feedback. I invite it, I welcome it, and frankly, I even cower in abject horror waiting for your constructive criticism to bruise my ego and remind me that I have a lot to learn and room to grow.

Wallpapers: For your computer desktop, not your wall. But should you decide to wallpaper your room with one of my photos, let me know and I would probably fund this effort for the first person to ask me for this pleasure.*

Photo Gallery: All of my best work showcased here for you to peruse, updated on a regular basis. The fact that you made it this far tells me you clicked through the Mature Content Warning on the front page. I wasn't kidding, so don't get your undies in a bundle if you see a woman's breast while visiting the gallery. Besides, why are you even wearing underwear? Haven't you heard that life is more fun naked? Oh, and keep reading because if you see something you like in the gallery, you might just be able to own a print of it.

Hair History: You know it, you love it, and it's been updated for the relaunch of my site. Granted, the current hair styles are not nearly as exciting as they were a few years ago, but that's what The Day Job™ will do to one's hair.

Subscribe! Sign up to receive e-mail updates from me. This includes news & events related to my photography as well as specials and discounts on fine art prints. No, I won't sell or share your information with anyone else. I'm selfish and respectful of your privacy like that.

Prints for Sale: Buy some prints! Most of the images in my gallery are for sale. While I don't have a shopping cart system set up just yet (PayPal has some issues with the content of my gallery, go figure), I'm happy to work with you directly to get you some quality prints to hang on your living room wall.

There is more, of course, but I think the navigation to the left is pretty clear. Oh, and if you haven't seen it yet, there is an RSS feed available for the Blog, Photoblog, Music and Wallpaper sections. They're all in one feed for your tracking convenience.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you around here often in the coming days, weeks and years.

* What I'm saying is, I would be so flattered that someone would want to cover an entire wall with one of my photos that I would probably be excited enough pay to have my photo blown up and printed on panorama wallpaper so that said someone could adhere it to their wall. Of course, without having researched the cost associated with such an effort, I reserve the right to back down from my offer at any time. On the other hand, if it's not overly expensive and you're interested enough to inquire, who knows what might happen. If I commit to buying the wallpaper of my photo, you have to commit to mounting the wallpaper to your wall. Yes, I will require signature on a notarized contract stating as such.

Last 10 Entries Things I Don't Like - January 31, 2007 No Sleep - January 30, 2007 I am Jesus - January 27, 2007 RAW vs. JPG - January 22, 2007 PocketWizard? - January 19, 2007 Spin Cycle - January 18, 2007 It's the Next Day - January 17, 2007 Welcome BikiniLane Surfers - January 14, 2007 Negative Positive - January 12, 2007 Eisenhower Expressway: Recycling Center - January 11, 2007

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