… but I fell like I’m getting a lot better at editing the ones that I do take. Stephanie, my dad and I went to San Francisco a few months ago, here’s a selection of three images from that trip.
I’m really digging the sparse blue of the first two. Amazingly enough, the last one is unedited. It looked like that straight out of the camera. Actually, for the most part, there wasn’t much editing done on any of them.
Check out all my recent faves on my flickr account. In other photographic news, I posted a whole butt-ton of images in my general galleries. It’s the first images I’ve put up on a long time, and there’s still a lot more to go. This is due, in no small part, to the fact that we just got a table for the computer yesterday. For almost a year now I’ve been trying to use the desktop while it was perched on a cardboard box in a corner. Not the best working conditions; hence me not ever finding the time to organize and post pictures.
I’ve been taking pictures for years. I wouldn’t call myself a photographer, more like a dude with a camera. I’ve also been posting my pictures on my website in that time. I do very little editing: I remove pictures that are totally black or totally washed out, I remove pictures that are way too blurry, I remove pictures that make my close friends look like retards (sometimes)… but that’s about it. Everything else goes online.
The problem with an approach like this is that it’s tedious for people who aren’t my close friends (or weren’t at that specific party) to wade through pages and pages of photos.
A few years ago, my friend Mike suggested that I get a flickr account and use it to host only my best shots.
Honestly…I felt guilty about this for a long time. If I’m good at taking pictures, shouldn’t every one I take be a keeper? Why should I need to edit my pics?
Turns out, pros probably erase more photos in a year then I’ll take in my entire life. I mean, just watch these videos of Gerry Winogrand, dude goes through film like I go through PBR.
Part 1:
Part 2:
Mike’s advice was further validated today when I saw this blog today from 37 Signals. Matt talks about how he was once taught that if you get one good shot from a roll (for those younguns, you used to buy this stuff called “film” that came on “rolls”. You would pull out a little bit and put it into your camera and…. forget it. Go ask your parents).
To quote Matt from 37 signals:
What if these people picked out the five best shots instead? The five photos that are the cream of the crop. The five that undeniably kick ass. Then the whole thing shifts. Instead of it being a chore to see how their vacation went, it becomes a pleasure.
It’s true! I can post a link to my picture galleries on 100 different blogs and nobody gives a shit, but I pick out that one picture out of 100 that isn’t boring as hell and all of a sudden people pay attention.
And on that note, I think I’m going to go through my flickr account and remove the least interesting images. This way, when I send someone a link to my site it makes me look like a total badass. Though, to be honest, I really like some of those images. Screw those assholes if they don’t like my photo.
It’s actually a whole lot cooler than I thought it would be. I’ve only had it for about 24 hours now, but the three things that surprised me
The battery life is noticeably shorter than my MacBook. I used to be able to type until I was about to go blind without charging it, now I need to find an outlet right around the time my vision starts going blurry.
I actually miss the disk drive. I wanted to watch some AD last night and had to wait around another 15 minutes to transfer them over WiFi instead of just grabbing the DVDs before I left the house.
…and those are the only two things that bother me. I worried that the slower processor would be an issue, or perhaps the lack of ports or something. I haven’t thought about that stuff at all. Instead I’m wowed by the huge-screen, negligible weight, light-up keys (not used to that), BRIGHT display (it’s blinding, seriously) and the thinness. Oh…the thinness.
Kids going to business school are going to be buying these badboys up by the truckload. This guy is just begging to get tucked under your arm and taken to class. I’m thinking about taking mine to Easter brunch tomorrow, on the off chance I need to do any coding or something.
Wow, it’s fast, it’s sexy, it installed like a breeze.
Now, when I say “fast” I mean that literally. Windows open faster, the laptop wakes up from sleep faster. It connects to a network faster. I think programs even open faster, though I haven’t been able to fully confirm that yet. Biggest problem? FRONT ROW IS STILL BROKEN. Scroll through the Front Row support discussion pages and you’ll see quite a few posts about just this issue.
On a slightly positive note, Front Row 2.0 is also noticeably faster. I can browse for movies lightning fast and I even could remove the “alias to remote movie directory” hack I used to have to use to watch bit-torrent-downloaded videos remotely.
I’ll be honest with you, this will probably be the first of many leopard-fluffing posts I make, so please bear with me.
I was going to write some long-assed post, but nobody freakin’ cares anyway. Here’s what’s up:
1) I went to DC this weekend with Stephanie 2) We went to the National Air and Space Museum, it desperately needs to get some new shit. Other than GPS I think every exhibit in there is over 10 years old. 3) We went to the American Indian Museum. Gorgeous building, very nice exhibits, worth a visit. 4) We walked all around the capital building, looked at the protesters for a while, walked right up to the building. I’m surprised that you can get so close without seeing a trace of security, it’s pretty cool, though it is depressing that you can go have a picnic on the capital steps without so much as a 2nd look, but if you take a picture on subway you’re liable to get your camera confiscated. 5) Saturday night we went out to some bar in Dupont Circle for Stephanie’s friend Adam’s birthday party. We were both whipped by that point, so we didn’t stay long. 6) Sunday morning we went out for brunch at Luna Cafe (Dupont Circle) with Stephanie’s friend Alyssa. STJC and I both had the smoked salmon and capers omelet. Delicious. 7) After brunch we went to the Zoo. It was pretty cool, I took a lot of pictures of pandas and monkeys and other strange creatures.
And that was our weekend. It was a great time and really cemented my love of train travel. There’s something so nice about just sitting down for a few hours, then getting out of your seat in a completely new city. It’s like airline travel except without the all the BS that goes along with flying. If Amtrak only lowered their rates and sped up their trains I’d travel by train all the freakin’ time. I’ve looked into riding the train to Chicago, but it takes 4 times as long and costs just as much as flying.
edit: biggest disadvantage of train travel? Cell phones work and the bitch behind me is UNABLE TO CONTROL THE VOLUME OF HER VOICE.
I just downloaded the latest version of MarsEdit, so I hope to increase my blogging by amazing amounts…we’ll see.
In case anyone wants to know what I’ve been up to lately, I’ve been writing a unix script that will automatically download files onto my desktop in my office. I usually do my internet browsing on my laptop and whenever there’s some file I’d like to download I either save a link to the file to download when I get to my desktop, or have to leave my laptop open until the download finishes. Unix Script, Applescript. The Unix script takes the download link and downloads it to my desktop, the applescript lets me drag and drop webloc files onto a droplet to initiate the whole process. Both are pretty buggy, but they work for certain types of files. The biggest problem I have now is that there is no error checking, if the download fails I don’t know about it until I get into my office and find a .zip file that doesn’t work. I’ll make improvements and let yinz know.
Ok, that’s enough dorkiness for now, I’ll post some pics of me taking my bike off some sweet jumps next chance I get.
Movers just left. First thing I set up is the wireless network, of course. Stephanie is sleeping off the move on the bed, I’m drinking a Beck’s and enjoying the relatively nice view from our porch.
It’s actually a whole lot cooler than I thought it would be. I’ve only had it for about 24 hours now, but the three things that surprised me
Wow, it’s fast, it’s sexy, it installed like a breeze. 
