In followup to this post
And yes, I had kimchi at Thanksgiving. đ
### Update ###
Nikon D3, Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G
1/320sec @ Ć2.8, ISO400, 28mm
I found [this comment][megan] amusing:
> Finally, [[Megan McArdle][megan mccardle]] as an approximately 6â tall, moderately attractive woman â who likes guns â libertarian, objectivist, and conservative fan-bois glommed on to her like a million sperm all trying to fertilize the same egg, which provides its own kind of mockworthy spectacle
The college I went to had a 6:1 guy:girl ratio at the time. Being an institute full of socially stunted nerds just like me, they had their own word for when multiple guys talking to or associating with a single girl: âglomming.â While it has morphed beyond its original meaningâit is short for âagglomerationââit has become part of our [urban dictionary][urban glom], and the above example shows it in its original definition.
One day during Rotation, I was hanging out on the Triple on the second floor, and watched âglom poolsâ forming around the night’s new batch of [Freshman][frosh] girls in the dormâs courtyard below. The image of âa million sperm all trying to fertilize the same eggâ is an especially apt description. I can trace a direct line to [my intense shyness][shyness] [around women][photographing women] to that singular and instructive moment.
– **glom** *v.t.* to accost a girl who is already surrounded by multiple guys
– **glommer** *n* a male who gloms serially
– **glom pool** *n* an aggregation of many guys around a single girl
Oh yeah, if any Techers at the time are wondering about all the hacked copies of [CrystalCaltech Quest][crystal quest] on campusâthe one where [ResEdit][resedit] to add Caltechisms like the infamous and indestructable “glom monster” toward the end? That was me.
[megan]: http://www.balloon-juice.com/2011/11/15/open-park-and-open-thread/#comment-2878747 “Open Park and Open ThreadâBalloon Juice”
[megan mccardle]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megan_McArdle “Megan McCardleâWikipedia”
[urban glom]: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=glom “glomâUrban Dictionary”
[frosh]: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=frosh “froshâUrban Dictionary”
[photographing women]: http://terrychay.com/article/photography-and-the-social-wave-function.shtml “Collapsing the female wave-function”
[shyness]: http://terrychay.com/article/ruby-photography-women.shtml “Ruby, Photography, and Women”
[crystal quest]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Quest “Crystal Quest”
[resedit]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ResEdit “ResEditâWikipedia. Hacking the game became so popular, they created their own tool which they built into later editions of the game.”
When I first moved to San Francisco, the PHP meetup group hadn’t had a meeting in a year. That was before [Touge][touge] took it up, and, along with [Mariano][mariano], does the hard work of actually scheduling people to come shoot the shit.
Apparently, it’s time for my shit to be shot.
[Tomorrow, I’m giving a talk][talk] at [SFPHP][sfphp] on [DevOps][devops] for PHP developers. I’ve giving this talk before as the [closing keynote][lineman phpcomcon] at [PHP Community Conference][phpcomcon] and [to sysadmins][lineman oscon] at OSCON.
> **Living without Your Linemen: The Programmer Becomes System Operator in the Cloud**
>
> If a website architect is the quarterback, then site operations is the offensive lineâoverworked, under-appreciated, and only noticed when it fails. They make you look good. However, four years ago cloud computing networks like Amazon Web Services and Slicehost have appeared. While deficiencies in frameworks in other languages have forced those worlds to adopt Infrastructure-as-a-Service, the PHP worldâwith itâs ultra-cheap shared-hosting (on one end) and tradition of dominance on some of the most trafficked websites (on the other)âhas been slow to move. But as the technology continues to disrupt, modern web engineers will be expected to use their programming skills to not only build, but also provision and maintain fast, scalable websites.
>
> The efficiencies of a web-based language and experience in scalable website architecture offer a unique opportunity for programmers to transfer their skills when wearing a sysop hat. Not to mention some of the best libraries for programming them are written in PHP! When going from a small pet project to a go-live site, maybe we can learn to live without our linemen.
Trust me, you’ll like it.
[Please come][talk]!
Also, If you are an American citizen, go vote! đ
[talk]: http://www.sfphp.org/events/33726032/ “Living without Your Linemen: The Programmer Becomes System Operator in the CloudâSFPHP”
[sfphp]: http://www.sfphp.org/ “The SF PHP Meetup GroupâSFPHP”
[mariano]: http://twitter.com/marianopeterson
[touge]: http://www.grepmymind.com/ “Grep My Mind”
[devops]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DevOps “DevOpsâWikipedia”
[lineman oscon]: http://www.slideshare.net/tychay/2011-07-lineman-opsoscon “2011 07 Living without your LinemenâOSCON”
[lineman phpcomcon]: http://www.slideshare.net/tychay/living-without-linemen “Living Without LinemenâPHP Community Conference 2011”
[phpcomcon]: http://phpcon.org/ “PHP Community Cpnference”
One brunch, I noticed that a trio of my friends all had single-letter twitter names. I asked them to activate their wonder-tweet powers. They obliged:
Olympus E-P1, M.ZUIKO Digital 17mm 1:2.8 Pancake
2 exposures, 1/60sec @ Ć2.8, ISO400, 17mm (35mm)
After discussing the [kissy ass face][kissy anus face] video, I asked my friends to pose one of the things that were “too dirty for [College Humor][college humor].”
Leica M8, Cosina-Voigtländer NOKTON 35mm F1.2 Aspherical
3 exposures @ 1/30sec, iso 320, 35mm (47mm)
One thing I like to do is keep shooting even after people are done posing, the smiles are more honest.
[kissy anus face]: http://vimeo.com/344008 “Jeff and I at the Rejection ShowâVimeo”
[college humor]: http://www.collegehumor.com/ “College Humor”
It’s been four years [since I last wrote about my cousin Juno][thanksgiving chicken]. I haven’t changed much but a baby grows up a lot in that time.
While technically he’s my nephew, he calls me “ěŹě´”âěŹě´ (sa-chon) means cousin in Korean, so I refer to him as my cousin Juno. And apparently I’m a big hit with himâJuno constantly pesters his parents before family get togethers, “Is Sa-chon Terry going to be there?”
The reason why is I have a secret weaponâŚ
Leica M8, Voigtländer Nokton 35mm F1.2
1/60sec, ISO160, 35mm (47mm)
âŚan iPhone loaded with [tons of free and $1 games][nintendo vs iphone].
Unfortunately because I never actually *play* the games, I hadn’t unlocked enough levels in [Krazy Kart][krazykart]. Marie had to help out:
Leica M8, Voigtländer Nokton 35mm F1.2
1/60sec, ISO160, 35mm (47mm)
What an amazing device, and an amazing cousin. Oh, to be a kid right now! Wait a minuteâŚ
We still are!
[thanksgiving chicken]: http://terrychay.com/article/thanksgiving-chicken-story.shtml “It isn’t Thanksgiving without the kimchee”
[krazykart]: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/krazy-kart-racing-us/id329373629?mt=8 “Krazy Kart Racing (US)âiTunes Store”
[nintendo vs iphone]: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2011/8/1/ “The FireâPenny Arcade”
The eyes are the most expressive part of a person.
One thing people forget about smaller-sensor cameras is that it is easier to do close-up photography. Even if the subject is a person, it’s okay to crop everything out, just remember to focus on the eyes. The closer the subject the smaller the depth-of-field gets so even with a small sensor, you have to get the focus just right.
Olympus E-PL3, Lumix G 20/F1.7
1/60sec @ Ć1.8, ISO500, 20mm (40mm)
What attracted me to photographing Marie was the way the light from the bay windows caught her eyes. Unfortunately, my camera blocked a lot of that.
This camera has face and eye detection. I can even select which eye to prefer (I always select closest eye of the closest subject), but it is not always accurate. This photo suffers a little because the camera mistakenly focused on the distal eyeâprobably because I am near the close-focusing limit of this lens (the sensor isn’t small enough and the lens is a pancake).
It is interesting my appreciation of this image is interrupted because as the photographer, I see my mistakes: the off-focus and camera [gobo][gobo], but my friends don’t.
### Other tips
Even though the image is highly cropped itâs okay. A closely cropped photo rarely suffers and you can crop a person anywhere as long as it isn’t near a joint. As with “focus on the eyes”, these sort of photographing decisions are derived from our evolution.
Just remember, you will have to retouch the portrait a bit. Soften the skin (a little, not too much) and add definition and saturation to the eyes and lips. You should probably remove some of the color from the whites of the eyes, but I didn’t need to in this photo. Note that retouching tools have gotten very good as computers have gotten very powerful. I didn’t even need to leave Aperture (or use the RAW image) to retouch.
[gobo]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gobo_(lighting) “Gobo (lighting)âWikibedia”
My new camera takes video, but unlike my previous ones, the highest resolution video (1080p) only writes in the should-never-have-been-invented [AVCHD specification][avchd].
AVCHD has weird support on Mac OS X. If you insert a card with it, iMovie will recognize it. However, Apple Aperture and iPhoto will not. Since the video and metadata for the clips are [split over many files][file structure], you can’t do a straight import into any of the above.
While there is [an excellent free tool for viewing AVCHD video streams][vlc], this means that in order to work with this video *as a photographer*, I need to transcode the video. This was not obviously done until I ran into [this post on AVCHD on the Mac][AVCHD video workflow].
There exists many other cheaper ([and free][handbrake]) solutions for transcoding, but I opted for the more expensive [ClipWrap][clipwrap] mentioned in the article for a couple reasons:
1. Most other transcoders, re-encode the video. On the other hand QuickTime is a container format, not a codec. What ClipWrap can do is re-wrap the AVCHD in a quicktime container without changing the codec. This is much faster, but, more importantly, *it preserves the original encoding with no loss*.
2. ClipWrap can also transcode the video like other converters.
2. In both cases, ClipWrap can preserves the video creation date.
There are some caveats though:
1. A rewrapped file may not be viewable on the computer without the free tool, [Perian][perian].
2. A rewrapped file cannot be directly worked with in iMovie, instead you need to transcode into [AIC][aic]. I think you are fine if you are a Final Cut Pro user, but I stopped using that product a long time ago since I’m not a videographer.
3. Be aware of the funky file structure. Look for the videos in /PRIVATE/AVCHD/STREAM/*.MTS, not your camera’s media folder. You lose any of the other metadata also (pretty much worthless)
4. Be aware that AIC files are uncompressed more than H.264 in a ClipWrap Quicktime/AVCHD . This means you want to store it in this format, only work with it this way.
5. I don’t (yet) have a workflow for converting from rewrapped Quicktime to AIC. đ
This means that I store:
1. In my archive originals folder, I keep the original *.MTS files.
2. In Apple Aperture, I import re-wrapped quicktime MOVs.
3. If I need to work on videos, I transcode the AVCHD MTS’s into AIC and then import into iMovie. I lose the Aperture integration this way. đ
I did get it to work this way. Here’s an example I edited from the [Plantronics][plantronics] Launch Party last week:
If you don’t have video working, here are two photos I took with my other camera:
Nikon D3, Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G
1/100sec @ Ć2.8, ISO3200, 28mm
Nikon D3, Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G
1/30sec @ Ć3.2, ISO5000, 48mm
Now if only I can come up with a work flow for the RAW images that doesn’t involve [a lot of work][unsupported RAW] or [exiftool][exiftool] [hacking][exifhack].
âŚ
[More photos and videos from the Plantronics Launch Party][plantronics photos].
[plantronics photos]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tychay/sets/72157627846839069/ “2011-0138 SF Potrero HillâPlantronics Launch Party @ Obscura Digitalâtychay @ Flickr”
[exiftool]: http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/ “Exiftool by Phil Harvey”
[exifhack]: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1041&message=39314992&changemode=1
[unsupported raw]: http://terrychay.com/article/unsupported-raw-apple-aperture.shtml “Unsupported RAW workflow in Apple Aperture”
[plantronics]: http://www.plantronics.com/us/ “Plantronics WIreless Heasets, Bluetooth Headset, Office and Contact Center, Enterprise Solutions”
[AVCHD video workflow]: http://echeng.com/journal/2010/07/08/avchd-hd-video-workflow-on-mac-os-x/ “AVCHD HD video workflow on Mac OS XâECHeng”
[avchd]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVCHD “AVCHDâWikipedia”
[file structure]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AVCHD_actual_file_structure.svg “File:AVCHD actual file structureâWikipedia”
[handbrake]: http://handbrake.fr/ “HandBrake”
[perian]: http://perian.org/ “Perian: The swiss-army knife of QuickTime components”
[clipwrap]: http://www.divergentmedia.com/clipwrap “ClipWrap”
[aic]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Intermediate_Codec “Apple Intermediate CodecâWikipedia”
[vlc]: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ “VideoLAN: Official page for the VLC media player: the open source video framework”
CNN informed me that[a photo of mine][amsterdam photo] was selected for [a slideshow about the World Bike Festival][cnn article]:
It occurred to me that this combines a ton of my passionsâphotography, internet, writing, cycling, and activismâwith my ethnicity.
Save the world, one bike ride at a time. đ
[amsterdam photo]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tychay/5700378467/ “Amsterdam bicycle parkingâtychay @ Flickr”
[cnn article]: http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/21/living/world-bike-festival/index.html “World Bike Festival highlights benefits of cycling around the globe”
“I want to tell you the most important tip I learned about photography.”
“What is it?”
“You have a camera.”
âŚ
Olympus E-P1, M.ZUIKO Digital 17mm 1:2.8 Pancake
1/60sec @ Ć2.8, ISO1000, 17mm (35mm)
Coley teases my habit of photographing my friends.
âŚ
Recently some colleagues had a contest: “Guess how many cameras Terry has on him right now?”
Even though I have one, too often, I forget I carry a camera.
Olympus E-PL3, Lumix G 20/F1.7
1/60sec @ Ć1.8, ISO500, 20mm (40mm)
Sean is embarassed to have my camera in his face⌠or happy that he guessed how many cameras I was carrying.
You have a camera, shoot it! You never know what will happen.
Overheard:
“This is another song from a Swedish band.”
“Are they Swedish or something else?”
“I don’t knowâsome Scandinavian country I think. The song isn’t bad.”
“I think it’s a bit overplayedâit’s featured in a lot of TV and movies.”
“Yes, I guess you’re right. Did you know that it’s played a lot in evangelical churches, even though it not about religion?”
“Oh really?”
“Yeah, listen to the lyrics⌠âSave me, I’m lost.â⌠âOh lord I’ve been waiting for you.â”
“Wow, he was asking for it!”
*Laughs* “Yeah. He probably shouldn’t have added âOh Lord.â”
(The fact that the lead singer looks like [White Jesus][white jesus] doesn’t help either.)
[white jesus]: http://www.stuffwhitechristianslike.com/2009/02/15-white-jesus.html “White JesesusâStuff White Christians Like”
Continue reading the lyrics to Show Me What I’m Looking For after the jump