Whenever anyone asks me how I got the photographs I did, why I was often the only photographer present or got such unique access I reply simply, ‘Trust’.
– Jim Marshall
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
…there isn’t going to be any turning point…there isn’t going to be any next-month-it’ll-be-better, next fucking year, next fucking life. You don’t have any time to wait for. You just got to look around you and say, So this is it. This is really all there is to it.
– Janis Joplin
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
A good general rule of thumb for photography in DC:
“Get Closer”
It appears to be an almost universal impulse for tourists to stop when they see a famous building in DC, and take a picture or have their picture taken in front of it. And by in front of it, I mean 5 blocks away. So many people stop halfway down the mall, to take pictures of the Capitol building.
Stop it.
Get closer.
On an average camera with an average lens, you can literally be on the grass in front of the capitol before you fill the frame. And no one is going to be impressed by a photo of the White House taken from Scott Circle, 6 blocks away.
Get closer.
Combine this with the whole “stop centering people’s heads in your photos”, and you can actually get quite a lot in your pictures.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
So…
after recently discovering that no one really knew what they were doing with my camera lens, I got a call yesterday about my other big toy that’s been in for repairs — the laptop. While replacing the case which had been cracking all to hell, they apparently damaged my screen. And since they’re doing all the repairs locally, they have to order in the part and take another 3 days.
Breaking stuff seems to be the easy part. Getting it fixed… not so much.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
We’re going on 7 weeks since I dropped off my broken lens at Penn Camera to be fixed. So I thought I would bug them again since I was out running errands. The promised me a week ago they would call Tamron and check on it, and call me. Never happened.
“oh… yes… let me call them… I’ll call you later when I hear back. Really.”
They did call this time. “Tamron sent us an estimate. But we didn’t get it. But now we know. So…”
So it can be repaired. But really… how fucking hard is it to remember to follow up on something you’re getting paid for? Either company. “We asked for an estimate a month and a half ago… I wonder where it is?” Or… “We got this lens sitting here. Not sure what to do with it ‘cuz we asked these guys what they wanted, like… a month ago!”
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
I’ve played 3 different video games recently. Two of them had great features I would love to see in more games; and one I could definitely do without.
Just to quickly get the bad out of the way:
I finally got around to playing Darwinia, a game put out by a company whose done some other great games. It’s got an interesting concept, nice graphics, (and once they dumped the gestural interface) was easy to use. BUT… I refuse to let any application call in over the internet to their manufacturer’s servers unless there’s something productive in it for me. And judging from the error messages I get every 30 minutes when the game crashes, it won’t run unless you let it connect. Deleted.
But the good stuff:
I picked up the complete Lego Star Wars. The name pretty much says it all. You get to play through all six movies done up in Legos. There’s a great sense of humor about it all. While it’s easy to play, it’s not simplistic.What I really liked though doesn’t even kick in until you ‘finish’ the game. Once you’ve gone through every mission, and you go back through again, playing different characters, you get access to new tools, capabilities, and areas of the levels that you didn’t have before. Rather than the typical method of going back and refining your game until you could beat any level in your sleep, you’re actually not even finished, and haven’t seen everything yet. It really makes for a more interesting game, spread out over a longer time.
The other game was Homeworld 2. It’s a pretty straightforward sci-fi, space-battle game. The graphics were pretty well done for their time. The 3D navigation was a little rough, (or I was just missing something). And it was WAY too short, with a truly disappointing last mission. But what I loved was the continuity. The exact fleet you built — or at least whatever survives the mission — is what you start the next mission with. Good or bad, this carries through for the entire game. It’s nice to see a game that can handle that kind of flexibility. It saves you from either having to waste time at the start of each mission building up a whole new force or from simply being handed exactly what you’ll need.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
“Do you think I’m a whore?”
Well… you know… not ME. I only wish I had that kind of problem. But it’s a topic that seems to come up on a not infrequent basis. Women asking me as a representative of the male gender, if I think so-and-so physical act or mental desire made them a whore.
My 2 cents:
First and most obviously, “if you have to ask”, you’re probably not. If you’re that conscious of it and concerned at the same time, then no, I doubt you could be a whore, no matter what happened.
You aren’t screwing around for sheer physical pleasure, regardless of whatever warm body it is. By the very act of asking the question, you’re showing concern for what the other person thinks about the act. I think what makes a whore a whore is when the other person (people?) involved in the act don’t matter at all in your mind.
But regardless of the length of time together or current intimacy of the connection, if someone makes you feel very good in any way, and you both know what you’re getting out of it, then I really don’t think there’s anything to feel bad about.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
My uncle is dying. He’s a good man. I’ve often said he’s the white sheep of the family. But I don’t really have much I want to say about that here.
It sounds like he’s out of it at least as much as he’s coherent. I don’t know which side of that is worse. While it’s awful to see your loved ones without any idea what’s happening around them, I can’t imagine being coherent enough to know that you only probably have a few days to live.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
When the hell did it get to be 4:30 AM? Last time I checked, it was 1:50. Then there was hawt chicks, and crepes. and music and …
Oh I give up.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
Often when I’m walking the streets at night, after being out with friends, (or while still in the act), I really have this urge to just wander and take pictures. Cities take on this whole new life at 2 or 3 AM on Fridays and Saturdays. Crowds fill the street like it was rush hour. And cars line up from corner to corner.People are loud and boisterous. Instant connections are made that last 30 seconds. The police can be seen around the edges, not so much strictly enforcing the law as encouraging people to keep the mal-drama to a minimum.
Sounds to me like the perfect place to take pictures.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
This week’s good Netflix:
Californication, S2
Jeeves and Wooster, S1
Lord of The Rings: Return of the King
John Waters: This Filthy World
This week’s so-so Netflix:
Interview
I’ll be there
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
This week’s bad Netflix:
The Blood of Heros
About Last Night
Police Academy 4
Gypsy 83
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
zombieland. sunday. 3:10. mazza gallerie.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
FWIW – this came from that last photoshoot I did that didn’t go so well. Obviously, my definition of “not so well” was pretty selective.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
It’s come up in several discussions with friends that they don’t always bring their cameras into questionable areas, or places they could get damaged. It’s reasonable. But for myself, my choice was always to bring the camera just about anywhere. I’d rather run the risk — especially since these are often the more interesting situations — and get some great shots. Cameras can be repaired, but moments can’t be relived.
Though honestly I wasn’t too worried about having my camera out in a nice hotel room in downtown Atlanta. But even so, while at Dragon*Con, a rather large, solid, intoxicated man landed on me, and knocked my camera to the ground.
A 3 month old lens. Ultra-wide angle, so not exactly cheap. By the next morning, when I went to pick up the camera, I noticed the lens body separating into two pieces. And it’s been getting slowly worse ever since. As of this afternoon, the auto-anything was dead. I couldn’t zoom, and it was still sagging.
Took it into Penn. $150 estimated repair, though that’s just their average for this kind of lens. 4 to 6 weeks wait. And even then, I won’t be surprised if it’s not salvageable.
Eh. I’m not really too upset. I did get plenty of wonderful shots that night with the lens. And none of the damage was intentional. Even in his drunken state, the first thing the guy worried about was wether he’d damaged the camera. It sucks, but life goes on.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
I naturally have no attention span. On one hand, it helps me keep an eye on everything going on around me. If you’re a designer, you have to be aware of a lot of things, since your work has to communicate with specific audiences, using mutually understood means. But when it comes time to do that work, I wouldn’t mind not going off on tangents every time something shiny appears.
But when I start drinking, it gets to be almost comical. In the time it took to ride the elevator 4 floors down to the lobby yesterday, i swear I turned around 2 complete times looking at various things. I’m certain I look like a paranoid pot smoker, with my gaze darting back and forth during a conversation.
Reinforcing this is a kind of eye flicker. It’s like someone went in and removed every other frame from what I’m seeing. My vision is no longer slow and smooth, but becomes slightly jerky, like a bad MTV video.
Walk across town like that, with music blaring in your headphones. In giant new boots. It made me very happy. Two weeks in a row of wonderful nights at Spellbound, talking with friends for hours. There was less with the beautiful woman this time, but I can let that slide this one time.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
Reminder:
DC Shorts starts tonight. If you want to mooch off my free tickets, speak now or forever hold yourself.
(Or … you know… buy your own tickets… they put a lot of work into this festival).
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
Okay… so I’ve now had my camera strap from My Funky Camera for about a month now. (See previous post on this topic). I’ve had one photo shoot, and a long weekend trip that is probably my most intensive camera use each year. And to give it the highest possible praise, I can just say that during those events and most other times, I never really thought about the strap.
I never worried that it would break. I never worried that it would damage the camera. I never worried that it would slip. I never worried that it would get in the way.
I never had to think about it.
Don’t get me wrong, it still looks good. And given the construction, I expect that will last for quite a while. At the absolute least, I don’t look like a walking billboard for a camera company. And it stores well in my camera bag.
My only thought now is that I wish I had the wrist strap as well, since I so often simply wrap my neck strap around my wrist to secure it. Will have to give this serious consideration.
I do wish there were a couple less girly imprint options. It doesn’t need to be guns or bikinis or beer bottles or anything. But maybe a few without lovebirds or pink polka dots on them? That, plus a little more detail on their website, and I’d be happy.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!
So I was in a fairly bad mood by the end of the photoshoot this weekend. Normally on these shoots I worry about many things, and they always turn out much better than I expected. But in this case, to one extent or another, every concern I had expressed in the previous months came true. And that’s about as specific as I’ll get about that. So I went home and fell asleep on the couch because I wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone.
When I woke up the next morning, I realized I had spent the day taking pictures like the one below. And no matter what was bad, it still beats sitting at home, playing video games or something.
Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!