How to Write More Posts About How to Take Better Photos…

The “How to Take Better Photos” series has been moving along quite nicely, and I’m glad to see others getting so much out of it! Thank you so much for reading and commenting, it really is appreciated.

Moving forward, I have a few topics in mind for the next posts, but wanted to solicit your thoughts. Do any of the topics listed below strike your fancy? Or is there something I haven’t mentioned you’d like to see covered?

- RAW vs. JPEG – Which should you shoot and why?

- HDR Photography – Crash course in shooting and creating high dynamic range (HDR) images

- Shooting Food – Self explanatory…

- Photo Processing 101 – A rundown of what to do after you’ve taken your photos

The Unofficial Catalog of Dirty Diapers #1: The Duke Nukem

For all the upsides of fatherhood, there are certainly some drawbacks. Chief among them the seemingly endless variety of dirty diapers one encounters from day to day. This is an unofficial catalog of selected specimens.

The Duke Nukem

This diaper announces its impending arrival with raucous, bombastic fanfare. You kind of can’t help but be in awe, as though there’s something special in the making.

As you open the diaper, you hold your breath, anticipating insane action, over-the-top gruesomeness and some well-timed expletives.

Then you open the diaper to find that it was all hype, and that there’s nothing there.

A Skeptic’s Guide to Foursquare

Over the past few months, I’ve noticed several coworkers and Twitterers “checking in” from this location or becoming “Mayor” of that location.  Turns out it was this new social networking/location game thing, Foursquare.

My initial reaction was something along the lines of “that’s retarded”. But that was my initial reaction to Twitter, too, and I’ve since come around to the usefulness of communicating in 140-character tweets, so I figured hey, you know, keep an open mind.

As the months went on, though, I still couldn’t see the utility of Foursquare, apart from bragging about all the cool places you can go when you aren’t saddled with a toddler. In the Twitter feed, the Foursquare posts remained mildly interesting at best, and downright annoying at worst (no, I don’t care that you unlocked the “Adventurer” badge).

But hey, it’s free, it’s social, and it’s part of my job to be up on this stuff, so I figured I’d dip my toe in and try it out for myself. So I signed up for an account and downloaded the Foursquare app to my iPhone.

Adam Smith, Smart Dude

Came across this quote from the father of capitalism himself, Adam Smith, today:

“Businesses exist to serve the general welfare. Profit is the means, not the end. It is the reward a business receives for serving the general welfare. When a business fails to serve the general welfare, it forfeits its right to exist.”

Something to chew on. Something, perhaps, that we’ve lost sight of. Profit is the means. It is the motivator to create a business and do the work. That self-interest is at the heart of capitalism. But the conscience, the societal duty that balances that self-interest (and that one would think obvious to nurture the long-term health of a company) seems so frequently missing.

Eight Years Gone…

Today is the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The eighth anniversary of the day every American will remember for the rest of their lives.

I don’t have any great story from that day. All I have are my own recollections, where I was, what I was doing.

On September 11, 2001, I was a few weeks into my senior year at the University of Texas, and several months into an internship at GSD&M that would lead into a full-time job the following May. I’d been dating Jamie for eight months, was living with my best friend in an apartment complex off 360& Spicewood Springs.

My first memory of the day was Jamie calling me with news that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. My first thought was “so?”. Terrible, thinking back on it now, but at the time my closest point of reference was the Cessna that had been flown into the White House, and I figured something similar had happened. A tragic accident, nothing more.

I started getting dressed for work when I got a second call, news of the second plane. And that’s when it hit. This wasn’t an accident. It was an attack.

I drove over to Jamie’s apartment. The radio was buzzing with news of an explosion at the Pentagon, speculation it was a helicopter crash.

It was only when I got to Jamie’s apartment and saw the television that I understood the full horror of what was unfolding. We held each other and watched, terrified, horrified, as the two towers collapsed.

Somehow, after that, I headed in to work. Tried to look up news on the internet, but all the news sites were down. We had a pitch team in the air. Their flight had been grounded, people were working to find rental cars for them. Someone turned on a TV in the new biz pit. The talking heads were asking why we hadn’t heard anything from President Bush. I remember thinking at the time how stupid that question was. He was on Air Force One, probably had bigger concerns on his mind that issuing a statement just then.

I didn’t stay at work the whole day. I don’t think anyone did. On the way home I collected Jamie and we went to my apartment. My roommate, Mark, was frantic. His brother was working in New York at the time, was one of those who evacuated over the Brooklyn Bridge. But we didn’t know it at the time. Mark spent much of the day trying to get in contact, but the cell network in New York was overloaded. He finally did, late in the day, much to everyone’s relief.

Somewhere in there, I went and got us all dinner at Subway. Weird how something trivial like that sticks.

That night, needing to clear my head and try to digest the day’s events, I went to Mt. Bonnell. There were a lot of people there. Sitting quietly on the rocks, watching the sky above, Lake Austin below. I ran into Mark. He had gone there, too. We ended up talking long into the night.

Looking back, I think a lot of mistakes were made in the aftermath of that tragic day. In a moment of terror, we surrendered to our fear and embraced security over freedom. The security theater that is the TSA. The Patriot Act. I think a lot of it stems from the nature of the attacks and the attackers. After Pearl Harbor, the country had a very real enemy against which to mobilize. 9/11 was different. How do you retaliate against a terrorist attack?

It’s a question we’re, sadly, still grappling with.

Mission Impossible

Just tried to embark on a blog post with Nolan loose in the room. Yeah, not happening…

Revisiting Trek

I don’t know if I’d ever label myself a Trekkie, but I definitely went through a Star Trek phase as a kid. For me, it was The Next Generation. I was hooked on the adventures of Picard and crew and, by association, the original cast films. I caught a dozen or so episodes of the original series and even tried to invest myself in Deep Space Nine and Voyager, but then I discovered cars and girls and such and Trek sort of fell by the wayside. By the time Enterprise aired, I couldn’t be bothered.

Now, fifteen or so years later, Star Trek is being rebooted, and I’m chomping at the bit to see the new J.J. Abrams-helmed flick. After years of feasting on brooding sci-fi the likes of Battlestar Galactica, I’m finding the optimistic premise of Trek quite refreshing. 

In the runup to the movie’s release, I decided to go out and purchase the first season of the original series on Blu-ray. Now that Nolan and I have watched four or so episodes, I’m compelled to say a few words about it.

First, the transfer is amazing. I had no idea the original series could look so good. The picture quality is really quite good…easily a match for broadcast HD…and the enhanced effects are lovingly rendered to improve the space shots without distracting from the overall look of the show. I love how they managed to make the Enterprise look so good, yet still have the appearance of a model (albeit with far more detail).

Second, I can’t help but reflect on how far scripted television has come in the last forty years. The episodes I’ve watched have all been a variation on the exact same theme. Some infection or intruder gets its way aboard the Enterprise and drama ensues. Logic is defied. Characters fall prey to amazing stupidity. For example, one episode (“The Enemy Within”) features an away team stranded on a freezing planet because of a transporter malfunction. Why does no one think “hey, we’ve got a shuttlecraft”?

Third, even for the cheesiness, there’s no denying the show’s charm. Even if it doesn’t live up to the promise of its premise (and let’s face it, not many Treks have), the characters are so iconic that you can’t really help but smile to see them in action. 

Revisiting the original series, I feel now more than ever that a reboot is exactly what the franchise needs. It’s been drifitng aimlessly since the mid-nineties, and storytelling and effects have advanced to a point where I think the full promise of Star Trek may finally be realized. If the advance screenings are any indication, it has.

Things My Darling Wife Can’t Identify

If there were a Geek 101 test, Jamie would fail it. Hard. 

I can totally give a pass on not possessing random, arcane knowledge. I don’t expect her to be able to rattle off the types of fighters used by the Rebel Alliance or anything like that, but over the last month or so she’s drawn blanks on some biggies. Things that I just assumed anybody would know. She maintains otherwise…why should she be expected to know…but I just can’t buy it. We’re talking pop culture icons here. 

For example…Jamie could not identify any of the following:

I don’t see any of these as exactly stretching one’s geek cred muscles…but maybe I’m wrong?

A Quick Thought About Pirates…

Somali pirates have operated with impunity for several years. Then they made the mistake of siezing an American cargo vessel and holding the captain hostage. Since that’s not the sort of crap you just let happen, the Navy SEALs showed up and taught the pirates three powerful lessons in ballistics trajectories.

Now the pirates are vowing revenge.

To which I say…huh?

How hard can it be…seriously…to defend shipping against pirates armed with speedboats and assault rifles?

Not very.

Here’s the solution.

1) Form convoys (strength in numbers, yadda yadda)

2) Bring along a cruiser or destroyer or two

3) Profit

Look. We used the convoy system pretty effectively in a little conflict called World War II. And back then we didn’t have the guided munitions or state-of-the-art real-time surveillance that we have today. And instead of dudes with speedboats at AKs, were were fighting off U-BOATS driven by EVIL NAZIS.

How hard is this, seriously?

How to Take Better Photos, Pt 3

Take practice shots.

Batters take a few practice swings when they’re on deck. Pitchers warm up in the bullpen.

You should do the same.

Why?

Simple. Practice shots let you make sure you’ve got your camera set up the way you want. And if it’s not, well, you’ve got the chance to fix things before you start shooting for real.