About taking pictures
I love bags.
I guess it’s not that unusual. Now being a geek with no taste, I’m not very imaginative. But now that my camera is too big to fit in the bbp bags’s Biz bag (which replaced my Mamba booqbag whose strap I wore out at the stitching).
Because of this, it was pleasant to run across this on <a href="Timbuk2’s website:
[Thinking about Timbuk2 after the jump.]Continue reading
Blurb is hosting Lunch 2.0 today on Valentine’s Day!
Reading people’s twitter’s I think
Am I the only single person who loves Valentine’s day?
Oh the gifts, flowers, chocolates, singing telegram, and the the restaurant dinner reservation! I love watching the public trauma this day brings to two people in love. Sometimes it is like a romance sped up. Other times it is a romantic comedy in miniature, but mostly it is a complete disaster—still memorable in a “visit the inlaws” sort of way.
To that last one, I remember how my friend Jay broke up with his girlfriend by taking her to McDonald’s for Valentine’s—given how I love fast food, this would probably be my ideal date. 😀
I thank that I never have had to privately experience that public trauma. Historo-mathematically, it should have happened—I know that I’ve been in a relationship during some February 14th of the past, but somehow I’ve been spared any compulsion to participate.
Instead, I normally celebrate it by spamming friends and family with an e-card.
Not this year.
[Triumphs of the Human Spirit]Continue reading
I blame Merlin Mann of 43 folders. He’s the one who popularized Moleskines years ago.
How else can I explain that right after I wrote about my analog blog that Brian Moon pointed me to the very next xkcd about that. Which caused my friends to point out the sequel article:
Which gave me this weird flashback to the Kubrick and Cupcakes Get Satisfaction/Songbird party, where I caught both Ramon and Dave McClure as being one of the few without hats.
Nikon D70, Tokina 16-50mm AT-X PRO f/2.8 DX, SB-800, ultimate light box
1/20sec @ f/2.8, iso640, 21mm (31mm)
Ramon is almost always styling with a hat. Since everyone else is with hat, I suppose he is doing without.
Nikon D70, Tokina 16-50mm AT-X PRO f/2.8 DX, SB-800, ultimate light box
1/10sec @ f/2.8, iso640, 18mm (27mm)
Dave wears 500 hats, but the only one he has on this day is his party hat.
[Why Merlin Mann is the anti-christ after the jump.]Continue reading
Someone asked me today if I plan on attending the Sex Worker’s Art Show which will be hitting San Francisco tomorrow.
The answer is no because I’m working all weekend, I just added it to my upcoming because I thought maybe others might be interested in it. But in all honesty, I’m just an introverted conservative at heart and I’m just too shy. Heck, I feel uncomfortable walking home at night.
The book, which is an analogy of stories from strippers to internet models and phone sex operators, sounds very interesting…
See if the tour will be near you.
[More randomness after the jump]Continue reading
I stopped by the Lensbaby booth at Macworld and was talking to a rep there.
He let me mess with his Canon XTi and Lensbaby 2.0. Since I’ve systematically destroyed all my cameras, it has been a long while. When my hands grabbed the camera, it was electric—my hands were made for an SLR, my eyes were made to be behind the viewfinder. I snapped a couple of photos.
He then asked me a question he had been pestered with that day, “Why don’t you just use photoshop to do the same thing the lensbaby does?”
[My answer after the jump]Continue reading
I shoot Nikon.
Leica M8, Cosina-Voightlander Nokton 35mm/1.2
1/22sec @ f/2, iso 160, 35mm (47mm)
That doesn’t mean you should shoot it also.
After remembering how camera brand religious wars are waged, I am reminded of this outdated article I wrote—not really that outdated.
Basically in it I point out that, yes, there are differences in camera brands. They’re differences, not “betters.” Or…
“Photons don’t care what logo is on the front of your camera.”
A camera purchase is ultimately a personal decision. The best camera to buy is the camera that speaks to you, not someone else:
“Who is behind the lens? The shutter button only accepts one finger at a time.”
They’re not taking the photo, you are. Grow a pair; make a choice—it’s your choice, not theirs.
And remember, no matter what camera you chose, a camera you’d carry is its most important feature. My favorite saying:
“The best camera to have is the one you have on you.”
…and that advice never will be outdated.
Geez, all these aphorisms make me feel like the Poor Richard of photography. 😉
Leica M8, Cosina-Voightlander Nokton 35mm/1.2
1/10sec, iso 640, 35mm (47mm)
At a party recenty, someone said, “You’re that guy with the expensive camera.” So I guess I put the “poor” in “Poor Richard.”
…because I have facts on my side.
Here is a typical exchange:
Scoble: You put a 24 mm on my camera [Canon 5D] and it’s a 24mm. Put it on a [Nikon] D80, for instance, and it becomes something like a 28mm. (link)
Me: You’re smoking something. A 24mm on a D80 is still a 24mm. The FIELD OF VIEW is like a 36mm on your 5D. (link) The issue you are alluding to with wide angles being better on “full frame cameras” is related to something called retrofocal design. (link)
Scoble: …this shot wouldn’t be the same. (link TRUE). Look at that shot and see the guy to the left? He wouldn’t be there if I was using a non-full-frame sensor camera. (link FALSE)
[An explanation after the jump.]Continue reading
Just heard something about me that was completely ridiculous and, at the same time, very funny. (I only wish it were true.)
To set the record straight:
> Due to the ergodic hypothesis, social entropy, and a weird lensing effect, it may have appeared at that particular moment that the male-female ratio in my vicinity suffered a slight and short-lived population inversion.
Dave says that everyone eventually has their “supermodel moment” and I guess whatever caused that person to say that comment about me was mine.
Nikon D70, Nikkor 12-24mm f/4G, SB-800, Ultimate Light Box
1/20 sec @ f/4, iso 1250, 12mm (18mm)
I was photographing an event and asked these pretty girls if they wouldn’t mind me taking their picture. After I did, two of them said they’d give me something really worth photographing, which they did multiple times.
This photo appeared on my Facebook feed and Plaxo Pulse, and incidents like this is how rumors about me get started.
Not that I’m complaining!
I was browsing through Facebook and I ran across Andrew Mager’s profile photo again. This time it was taken at the CNET holiday party.
I’ve been saying for a while now that I’m just going to compile all of his Facebook profile photos into a book and make bank. But I had to blog this one, which gives you an idea of what I’m talking about:
Besides, Andrew Mager, the people in the photo are Jessica Dolcourt, Caroline McCarthy, and Erica Ogg—all writers at CNET Networks in SF.
I took one look at this and wanted to tell Libby and Linda that they should use this photo for CNET’s recruiting material, this way they’ll have no trouble hiring engineers. 😀 This reminds me that a little birdy told me that they’re looking for a PHP architect.
[more random thoughts after the jump]Continue reading
Today Flickr combined my two favorite things in the world: photography and my ego. 🙂
[observations after the jump]Continue reading
