TWIP has evolved into This Week in Photography with the old podcasts, and Photofocus with the old blog. Please see both sites (now in the Links here) for more info. Bottom line, in my mind, this is two, two, two for the price of one! These are awesome sites, and podcasts!
The My Twitter link went away, since it became redundant with my Twitter updates here. And there's a link now to soup2nuts, which is a photo journal of sorts, based on the journal gallery layout that Smugmug offers. In a nutshell, it's an expanded (and expanding) caption field, which allows room for further discussion on shots that I really care about. More info there in the initial posts.
22 April 2009
20 April 2009
Singapore-Nepal-Tibet trip 2001
In the Spring of 2001, I made what I then considered to be “the trip of a lifetime” to Tibet!
To put this in perspective, in 1973, I was taking a Hatha Yoga adult education class at Merion High School outside Philadelphia. At the end of the last class, I shared with the instructor (Don Wesley) that if I wasn’t back after the holiday break in January, that I’d be on my way to Tibet. I wasn’t back...
Somehow I remembered this, embarking in March 2001, to a land I’d heard about from my parents in the 1950’s. And more recently, I had been encouraged to go there and bear witness by the president of San Francisco Zen Center.
My son Tim had offered me his Canon SLR, but declined, saying I didn’t want to see Tibet through a viewfinder. He thought it was a good answer. It seems, indeed, silly in retrospect. Actually, I wouldn’t do a trip like this with borrowed gear (rented maybe), and only if it was insured.
What I did take along was my 5 year old Canon SureShot 80, a point-n-click film camera. The results are here.
I re-discovered these rolls of films their CDs with basic scans from Wolf Camera a few months ago. The scans are 1440x900 jpegs, so post-processing now is limited, although I do have the negatives, which could also be scanned some day.
I imported them into Adobe Lightroom and subtracted all the recognizable people shots. Was there anything left of value? For me, yes, some wonderful memories of sights and energies — extraordinary people and places.
Perhaps it will be my good fortune to return some day with our current Nikon DSLRs! Dharma gates are boundless, I vow to enter them...
To put this in perspective, in 1973, I was taking a Hatha Yoga adult education class at Merion High School outside Philadelphia. At the end of the last class, I shared with the instructor (Don Wesley) that if I wasn’t back after the holiday break in January, that I’d be on my way to Tibet. I wasn’t back...
Somehow I remembered this, embarking in March 2001, to a land I’d heard about from my parents in the 1950’s. And more recently, I had been encouraged to go there and bear witness by the president of San Francisco Zen Center.
My son Tim had offered me his Canon SLR, but declined, saying I didn’t want to see Tibet through a viewfinder. He thought it was a good answer. It seems, indeed, silly in retrospect. Actually, I wouldn’t do a trip like this with borrowed gear (rented maybe), and only if it was insured.
What I did take along was my 5 year old Canon SureShot 80, a point-n-click film camera. The results are here.
I re-discovered these rolls of films their CDs with basic scans from Wolf Camera a few months ago. The scans are 1440x900 jpegs, so post-processing now is limited, although I do have the negatives, which could also be scanned some day.
I imported them into Adobe Lightroom and subtracted all the recognizable people shots. Was there anything left of value? For me, yes, some wonderful memories of sights and energies — extraordinary people and places.
Perhaps it will be my good fortune to return some day with our current Nikon DSLRs! Dharma gates are boundless, I vow to enter them...
17 April 2009
Adding Twitter here, too & great music
It's all interconnected, right? Jeez, I’m finding folks on Twitter I haven't seen or talked in 10 years.
Listening to the new Indigo Girls Poseidon and the Bitter Bug — providing inspiration. The Deluxe Version has some terrific acoustic versions. Memories of Apple Austin circa 1993, when System 7 ruled, and the Apple Assistance Center was started at Ridgepoint.
R.E.M., Indigo Girls — Shady Thangs at Shady Grove, Sara Hickman recognizing Carl, as we're walking down the street next Shady Grove’s outdoor stage, and her asking us to come in for a drink, and getting us seats up front. Good days...
Listening to the new Indigo Girls Poseidon and the Bitter Bug — providing inspiration. The Deluxe Version has some terrific acoustic versions. Memories of Apple Austin circa 1993, when System 7 ruled, and the Apple Assistance Center was started at Ridgepoint.
R.E.M., Indigo Girls — Shady Thangs at Shady Grove, Sara Hickman recognizing Carl, as we're walking down the street next Shady Grove’s outdoor stage, and her asking us to come in for a drink, and getting us seats up front. Good days...
04 April 2009
Camera Dojo
Cameradojo.com I'm relatively new to this site, but I'm very pleased with the content, approach, and value-add, including Lightroom Presets. I'm checking out their podcasts. A little long for the bus, maybe good to listen to while working on photos.
Delicious.com (aka del.icio.us)
Delicious.com (aka del.icio.us) For me, this is one of the bigger Web 2.0 leveraging sites. It all began when I got my iPhone, and a friend cratered his, trying to import 400 Safari links. Yes, there is a better way, and this is it! Currently, after close to 2 years, I have 851 tags. Here's my top 10: photography 107, Apple 43, lightroom 38, iPhone 29, Adobe 24, osx 22, photoshop 21, smugmug 21. Like United used to say, "it's the only way to fly..." Here's my photog stuff: http://delicious.com/waldo647/photography
Twitter there's a lot of buzz about Twitter, both pro & humorous. How the heck can you say anything in 140 characters? That's what I said. Then the light went on: I'll just pick awesome photographers and follow them. So, he's my recommendation: don't bother following me — my posts are few & far between. But do check out the folks I'm following, because they're really on top of what's happening in Photography.
See also...
See also...
Links: Alltop — the online magazine rack
Alltop Guy Kawasaki was showing this off at MacWorld in 2009. It was my great privilege to sit down with the Grand Master and see his demo. I used to see Guy at Apple from time to time. He was already a legend, well before then. Check out my link for Alltop's online magazine rack on photography. There are dozens of sites feeds there, and a bunch that I could have listed here. Check their index of subjects, too, and consider requesting one, if it's not already there. And... now you can make your page, too!
Links: Nikonians
Nikonians.org If you shoot Nikons, you really owe to yourself to join up. Someday, if & when I retire, I'm going to spend a whole lot more time here. Don't miss the Image Doctors podcast (aka Nikonians Talk Road) every two weeks. I've been listening for the past two years. I also archive their podcasts to reference back to them. For instance: want to know how to use the AE-L button for AF-on, instead of focusing with the shutter button? (Short answer: it'll change the way you shoot pictures with a lot of the Nikon DSLR models.) Lots of good forums on Nikonians, too!
Links: TWIP (This Week in Photography)
TWIP Their weekly podcasts offer IMHO some of the best content available on photography. I learn at least one valuable thing, each week, and sometimes several. The participants all have really interesting ideas and suggestions, worth following up on. They also have an excellent blog, and more. Despite trying to cut-back on their jocularity, I find their humor refreshing, lively, interesting, and worth following with a laptop open with live web access. The show notes will include all the useful links, but why not follow it live? Any serious photographer should have some familiarity with TWIP. Lots of good content here. And then there's the blog. Check it out!
Links: The Digital Story
The Digital Story Derrick Story is a local guy (well sort of, Santa Rosa). I've met up with him several times at MacWorld, missed him a bunch of times at Stanford (unfortunately), bought and read a couple of his books cover-to-cover (be sure to check out his latest one The Digital Photography Companion), and I listen to his podcast every week. Sue and I try to participate in his virtual camera club, as much as possible. As a one-man band, Derrick does a super job! Great blog entries, and fun Twitter posts (including his trip to the Beijing Olympics last summer) are really worth checking out on a regular basis. You can't miss him at a conference, since he's about 6 foot 6, and you'll probably find he's one of the more interesting, and nicer guys there, too. I've learned a bunch from him and his site, and you can, too!
Moving the Useful Links page over here
I'm testing out yet another concept... Recently, I created a Useful Links page in my Google Page Creator space. This allowed me more control, and I was able to write short intros to each link that I was adding. I also ended it with a cool story about sitting on Carl's deck in Austin, drinking Shiner Beer, pondering the future of the web, circa May 1995. That story has since moved over here as a blog entry, and I've also set up those links over here, in a new Links section. The thought occurs to me that I can move the link intros over here, too, totally replacing the Useful Links page. It's making more sense to hang these links of this blog page, than have a separate page on the waldo•647•images site. I may change my mind about this later on, but right now, I'm thinking one less menu item there may be a good thing. As more photo shoots get added, the blue NavBar may get a little crowded. So we'll see how it goes...
02 April 2009
The future of the Web, circa May 1995...
I'm sitting on Carl de Cordova's deck in Austin, Texas. We're drinking Shiner Bock beer and pontificating about the future of the web. Carl put the first Apple home page on the web in early 1993, using the UNIX version of Netscape, and the second page was his resume. This is the God's truth. Carl knew anyone and everyone who was anything on the web then, and they knew him. And back then, his home page included links to, you guessed it, every single web page there was. And there'd be about 10-20 new ones a day. Carl followed them all.
So back to his deck... it's already hot — maybe early May. The kind of hot that deodorant was invented for. The kind Texas is famous for, along with incredible BBQ, great people, bluebonnets, and of course, Shiner Bock beer. So Carl says, "You know, I'm afraid the web is going to die. There's just not enough content. We're going need a ten thousand-fold increase in content to make this work. I sure hope we get it, or all this work will go to waste."
Well, the rest is history — there was a millionfold increase in content, and then it really started growing from there... And that was well before Google. So the next time you're pulling up your latest restaurant on Yelp or Urbanspoon, or checking out the Links here, say a little "thank you" to Carl and all those early pioneers whom you probably haven't heard of, who spent collectively zillions of hours making the real Information Super Highway. It was (and continues to be) the game changer of all game changers...
It's not about your computer hardware, or even the software — it's about all the people, who did all that work. Most of them didn't get rich, but like Steve said, they "made the world a better place."
So back to his deck... it's already hot — maybe early May. The kind of hot that deodorant was invented for. The kind Texas is famous for, along with incredible BBQ, great people, bluebonnets, and of course, Shiner Bock beer. So Carl says, "You know, I'm afraid the web is going to die. There's just not enough content. We're going need a ten thousand-fold increase in content to make this work. I sure hope we get it, or all this work will go to waste."
Well, the rest is history — there was a millionfold increase in content, and then it really started growing from there... And that was well before Google. So the next time you're pulling up your latest restaurant on Yelp or Urbanspoon, or checking out the Links here, say a little "thank you" to Carl and all those early pioneers whom you probably haven't heard of, who spent collectively zillions of hours making the real Information Super Highway. It was (and continues to be) the game changer of all game changers...
It's not about your computer hardware, or even the software — it's about all the people, who did all that work. Most of them didn't get rich, but like Steve said, they "made the world a better place."
01 April 2009
Follow me, don't follow me (on Twitter)
These words from the R.E.M. song Orange Crush actually make sense here. I've been on Twitter for about a year now. My use of Twitter is almost totally focused on photography. With the exception of a few friends, everyone I'm following is a photographer and generally making really useful contributions to Twitter (given the 140 character limit). So you don't need to follow me specifically, but do check out the folks that I'm following.
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