photography

All posts tagged photography

Sun was out, got up a bit before 6am, was out the door by about 6:20 and at work just after 7. It was hazy and looked like it may rain so I decided to go ahead and put the top up on the car while at work. Lots of thunder @ night but I don’t think it rained.

Took a short walk around the tributary of the Big Creek just off my office complex on the Greenway. Only took a few photos of some bugs, a beachball bug, a beetle of some sort and a damselfly.

Arizona

Arizona

Work was boring, getting another bug, the one I had was re-assigned to someone else.

Came home and made some chicken and rice.

Took some photos of my little pewter Star Trek ships, I’ve been wanting to document the silly things I collect, and that is one of them. I guess I need to make a “family” picture to showcase them.

jsc2012e051507_alt

Expedition 31 Flight Engineer Don Pettit relayed some information about photographic techniques used to achieve the images: “My star trail images are made by taking a time exposure of about 10 to 15 minutes. However, with modern digital cameras, 30 seconds is about the longest exposure possible, due to electronic detector noise effectively snowing out the image. To achieve the longer exposures I do what many amateur astronomers do. I take multiple 30-second exposures, then ‘stack’ them using imaging software, thus producing the longer exposure.”

ISS Star Trails – a set on Flickr.

released yesterday:

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4.1

The Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 4.1 update includes these enhancements:

• The ability to process HDR TIFF files. (16, 24 or 32-bit TIFF files)
• Additional Color Fringing corrections to help address chromatic aberration.
• Save photobooks created in the Book Module to JPEG
• Publishing photos to Adobe Revel is now accessible via a Publish plugin
• Additional camera support for several new cameras including the Canon EOS 5D Mark III, Fujifilm X-Pro1, Nikon D800, and Olympus OM-D E-M5.

• Corrections for issues introduced in previous versions of Lightroom. 

Adobe – Lightroom : For Windows : Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4.1.

[This post is part our ongoing series introducing Photosmith 2 which will be a free update for all users]

In preparing the press stuff for launch we realized that most people have never seen what version 2 looks like unless you bought Jeff’s book.  We’ve talked about it a great deal and offered a few glimpses but we’ve never shown full screenshots.  Well that’s all going to change right now.

via Photosmith 2.

I can’t believe I’m here again with yet another blown deadline. It’s bloody embarrassing, is what it is, and I’m absolutely gutted that today is not going to be the shipping date for Triggertrap v1 as promised.

via Further delays in Triggertrap v1 shipping | Triggertrap.

Yeah, this project has been one delay after another. I really think the idea is WONDERFUL and as good or better than any other device like this on the market.

But….. It’s plagued with delays, that’s working with China for ya.

I truly don’t understand why the shield deliveries are delayed by their enclosure issues. Sent them a comment on that, we will see what they say.

Update 27-April-2012: We’ve reduced memory consumption as much as is possible and gotten performance on iPad 1 to an acceptable level. Our internal testing team has their paws on it now and once we get their blessing we’ll send it out to the entire beta testing crew and submit to Apple.

via Final testing has begun.

Bit warmer this morning as well. Sun peeked out in the afternoon and the wind picked up as well.
 
 

Got up a bit slower than normal since I had the third beer and I had also gotten to bed past 11pm.

Messed with LinkedIN for a bit, updating some connections from the old days of NCR.

PhotoSmith is in it’s final stages, only about a month behind schedule, a bit more actually. I’ve been looking forward to this release for about 6 months so the extra month seems to have made this DRAGGGGGGGGG on. I predict that they may have it out by the beginning of May maybe closer to the mid-May timeframe. I will hope for that and therefore if it comes out earlier I’ll be ecstatic.

Went out for a small walk on the Big Creek Greenway about 12:30pm it was mostly overcast still but the sun popped out a few times and I even broke a sweat. A few bugs were out, the same ladybug that was on the bridge yesterday and then a few dragonflies and damselflies. The wind began to pick up a bit after I got back into the office.

Off to the BOTM @ Taco Mac after work. I usually go to the Johns Creek store and today was no different. They are premiering the newest Terrapin beer, the Easy Rider which is a Pale Ale brewed to be a bit lower gravity, ie. about 4.5 ABV. I first stopped in at Pop’s and picked up a couple of Great Divide beers, the 18th Anniversary IPA and a Oak Aged Yeti Stout. The dude, John who had his hip replaced a while back was there again and we talked quite a bit. No one else of interest was there. Had the 2011 Red Brick Vanilla Gorilla before the Easy Rider. Then I drove down to the Tilted Kilt on the way home and had a Drafty Kilt, TiffanyG and Jizzille were there along with Andy what’s his name with the ponytail. I remember now, his last name is pronounced “ki-yay” as in yippie ki-yay (motherfucker!).

Triggertrap Shield for Arduino

Just pre-ordered mine, the site says that they should be ready sometime early-mid April which means right about now. Maybe I’ll get my “invoice” very soon and I can play with this device along with my ‘duino. I’ll possibly need to get some things to allow my StopShot cables to work with this device.

via Shop « TriggerTrap.

Rainy and warm, only 59 when I woke up, started the day with shorts and a hoodie.

Brian called in the morning to tell me he had a small fender bender, but no fenders were bent. The lady who hit him in the rear just barely tapped him and neither saw any damage so they exchanged info and went along their way after the police got there.

PhotoSmith, a cool iPad program for importing photos and doing a bit before syncing with Lightroom, is delayed again. Looks like it’s going to be about a month behind schedule at a minimum. With a small Agile team they should be able to have added a few things and then released instead of holding so long, well at least in theory they should have been. I’m just a bit excited to get my hands on something that seems to be exactly what I was looking for to begin with when I purchased it about a year ago. I’m thankful they are giving v1 users a free upgrade, I know I would buy it anyway so I guess I shouldn’t be so impatient.

Due to my contact lens purchase I’ve messed up my finances for the beginning of the month, now I’ve taken out over $200 out of savings and need another $50 to $100 today to fill up the tank and then allow myself to have some fun on Wednesday @ Parma Trivia. Just about the same amount of money I spent on my contacts. I wish I had at least tried to use the Flex Spending Debit Card before using my Bank Debit. 🙁

I only weighed 212 this morning, not sure if I really am loosing weight or if I just didn’t eat well yesterday. I’ve also been a bit below the weather, a bit of back and forth from the bathroom today, and tummy not feeling well. I’ve only ate a McD’s breakfast boritto, two pears and some Tostitos corn chips.

Texted KimO about meeting up for some dinner tonight over at the Los Arcos, dinner a bit later than I would do but cool enough. Got the car washed and then had a beer over at the Shroom before, went home messed with the car some more and then went over to meet her. She was already there, and we sat down. I felt like I hold the conversation, not very give & take imo. They didn’t have Riesling, damn, the second place to be out of it, and then they didn’t have white zif either. I had suggested that we head over to the Shroom for another drink, she said something about messing up her routine or something on that order if she stayed up late, instead we said goodbye, with a hug outside near her car, maybe I should have tried a bit of something more, nothing too much but Damn It! I want a bit more from the relationship than friends, maybe some benefits but I really do want a true relationship. I’m really not sure if she is open to more or not, mostly I believe NOT.

Cool, almost cold today. Mostly sunny and clear skys.

Got a bit more going on the issue @ work. Just feel things don’t get tested well enough when we originally put them out.

I stopped in @ the Mellow Mushroom after work, had a beer and a Chicken Caesar Salad. Lauryn was a bit out of sorts today, school is taking it’s toll but her spring break is coming up. Margaret was there along with Erin, or at least I think it was Margaret, not sure any more, I can’t tell the difference even when they are right next to each other, I think Rebecca is a bit more laid back. When we talked she mentioned working out so I think that it certainly was Margaret.

Went home and drove around to see if Nicki’s car was still there, hoping it wasn’t. It had gotten too dark so I couldn’t tell at all since I was on the other side of the road and there isn’t a streetlight where they had stopped the car.

Watched the latest episodes of Shameless and then Californication, damn the cutie on the show that is the one dudes nanny is FANTASTIC!

I then finished up the photos from the wedding and got them up on the web, sent the gal Nicki a message with the link.

Heard some very odd news from Brian, the place we (he) shoots is Bull’s Eye over in downtown Lawrenceville, GA. He heard that a dude killed himself in the gun range last week, or in the last few days. Just rented a gun, got bullets and then from the cameras in the range they said he kept looking behind him so as not to possibly hurt another person and then finally just put the gun to his head a fired.

PS. It was on the 25th of Feb 2012, the guy got eye and ear protection, no targets and then did this around 5pm and by 8 everything was back to normal.

Work is speeding up a bit, got the final of my yearly Performance Review, got a 3 which is said to allow a bonus that is suppose to be paid out soon but ChrisC (my team lead/boss) says he hasn’t heard any numbers yet. If nothing comes out of it I guess I will need to start looking for another job, 3 extra weeks of vacation is a lot to lose though. But if I can get a raise that would balance that it may be worth it.


IR Star trails

Eeek, I placed some files in a directory on my key-usb-memory stick for work and walked over to a support gal, TB to send them to a customer, she failed to click on the correct directory and instead brought up a nice little GIF I had on the root of the drive, a bit embarrassing to say the least, at least she didn’t accidently click on the video I also had there of a gal very close up to the camera, I guess I need to get a USB drive that is ONLY for work.

Sunny out most of the afternoon, although it started out cold and overcast in the morning.

Worked a bunch to get some more trace code and helped a dude, John get his system setup for debugging Windows Mobile stuff. I think I’ll be helping him a bit more, maybe I can groom him for CPR and then get myself out of there.

I came on home, then Brian and I went out to Taco Mac after I became quite bored messing on the computer and hoping Nicki and Jorael would LEAVE so I could watch my TV, they have been watching it with NOTHING but bullshit E! crap.

Got a call on the way home from Dad about Richard and Deanne stopping by ATL on Friday, talked to Richard, they will be calling sometime about 4pm on Friday and we will be meeting up for some Dinner and then maybe they will stay her the night, it will be hard but I have no problem with them staying so long as they realize that.

Yeah, I got my Federal Income Tax Refund today, noticed when I pulled out $100 from the bank after work.

WANT!!! Problem is I only bought my D700 about 2 years ago.

More than twice the mega pixels of my D700 and better Dynamic Range. Maybe the D800e is what I want, only $300 more for no moire filter.

D800, built for today’s multimedia photographer includes a groundbreaking 36.3MP FX-format CMOS sensor, Full HD 1080p video at 30/25/24p with stereo sound, class leading ISO range of 100-6400, expandable to 25,600, 4 fps burst rate and Advanced Scene Recognition System with 91,000-pixel RGB sensor.

via youTube:

via Nikon D800 D-SLR Camera | High Dynamic Range Camera.

50 Reasons not to Date a Photographer

  1. They rather hold their bulky camera, than hold hands with you.
  2. On a romantic date, you’ll watch the sun go down and think “Wow this is gorgeous” and they’ll go “mirror lock, tripod, and stop down f/8 at 1/125.”
  3. You’ll never be able to enjoy tv, movies, or magazines because they’ll point out all the visual flaws.
  4. They like to sit in obscure coffee shop and voyeuristically watch people for great lengths of time.
  5. If you’re taking a walk outside and you come across some “interesting light” they will make you sit/stand/pose in public so that they can take a photo.
  6. You’ll never get to enjoy freshly cooked meals because they’ll spend 15 minutes taking 20 variations of the same dish with their iPhone.
  7. They get angry when your friends go up to them and say “I am interested in photography, can you recommend a good camera for me? Nothing professional I just want to take pretty pictures.”
  8. You’ll wait longer for them to finish analyzing art in a museum than you’ll wait at the dmv
  9. Same goes with old used bookstores.
  10. When you think they’re giving you their undivided attention, they’re really wondering how they could fix you with a little Clone Tool and Patch Tool.
  11. Or they are actually using you to not look so creepy as they people watch everything going on around you.
  12. They rather drop $1,000+ on new glass than a purse for you.
  13. You can’t take a photo with them without taking at least five more.
  14. If you ask them if you look fat, they’ll say “don’t worry I can photoshop you later.”
  15. They’ll never photoshop something simple for you if the content is not up to their “standards.”
  16. That photo they randomly took of you yesterday? Good luck getting them to send it to you.
  17. They spend all their time on the computer (and not for porn.)
  18. They can’t have a normal conversation without throwing acronyms and random numbers in.
  19. They still use film cameras.
  20. They spend a lot of time with people cooler than you i.e. models, actors, musicians, successful rich people.
  21. They’ll be fussy over the position of a common household object, like a coffee cup.
  22. They won’t return your calls or text messages, but you can bet they’re still posting pics on Instagram.
  23. They like watching old films that you’ve never heard or will ever understand.
  24. They like looking at weird things in general.
  25. Instead of having penis-envy, they have camera-gear-envy.
  26. If there’s a natural disaster in a far away land, they’re already on a plane going over there.
  27. Everything is watermarked.
  28. They think everyone else’s photos suck.
  29. They want to color correct a lot of scenes from Twilight and Jersey Shore.
  30. They hate rainbows, especially ones spinning in a circle.
  31. Whenever you’re in a group talking and the conversation goes deep, they’re taking notes in some form of Moleskine.
  32. They use over priced Moleskine notebooks.
  33. They like trespassing into old abandoned buildings filled with health hazards.
  34. They always want to show a new photo they took, but don’t really care if you like it or not.
  35. They hate your n00bie friend’s new artsy profile picture.
  36. Bright, sunny days make them sad, but cloudy, overcast days are apparently great!
  37. They’ll take you into places that have “culture” as well a high chance of getting mugged.
  38. Your birthday present will be a portrait that they’ve taken of you.
  39. You can’t go anywhere new without them stopping to take a photo of everything and anything.
  40. They will always bug you to be a test subject.
  41. Nothing can ever be naturally pretty, everything must be fixed in Photoshop.
  42. Bringing their camera means, bringing 50lbs of equipment.
  43. If you break any of their things on accident, you’ll owe them thousands of dollars.
  44. You can’t get them a birthday/Christmas present without spending at least $500
  45. They are natural hoarders, collecting and keeping piles of old newspapers, packaging, magazines, and other things that “inspire” them.
  46. They are weird and geeky.
  47. They have hard drives of photos, but probably have printed 10 images.
  48. They are always secretly judging your creativity.
  49. If you’re ever in auto mode, they laugh at you.
  50. They orgasm every time they learn a new lighting technique.

via Not A Starving Artist.