Perfect Fit

Originally uploaded by Ezra S F

One of the gems from the photos I took in Haifa. Having not taken my dSLR, I am rather pleased with the photos I managed to take on this trip with a little digital point-n-click. Guess that shows: 1) How beautiful were the surroundings, 2) Equipment only gets one so far.

Clinton and the Tree

Originally uploaded by Ezra S F

We really wanted this tree in the photo. The problems: 1) illuminating the tree enough, 2) not over exposing Clinton, 3) hand holding the flash and trigger. Cranked the power up to full power. Wes aimed it at the tree. Clinton is essentially just getting the leftover light.

Strobist: Sunpak MZ-440AF-CA full power shot through 60 inch umbrella. Triggered by a pair of PocketWizard PLUS II.

Become a fan of Athens Strobist on Facebook.

We really wanted this tree in the photo. The problems: 1) illuminating the tree enough, 2) not over exposing Clinton, 3) hand holding the flash and trigger. Cranked the power up to full power. Wes aimed it at the tree. Clinton is essentially just getting the leftover light.

Strobist: Sunpak MZ-440AF-CA full power shot through 60 inch umbrella. Triggered by a pair of PocketWizard PLUS II.

Become a fan of Athens Strobist on Facebook.

I first noticed this yesterday morning. So through two full days this patch has survived. GDOT says the reason I-75 has had similar is because ground water is seeping up and freezing.

Project 365: Day 004

Originally uploaded by Ezra S F

So, I am day four into my participation in Project 365: One photo a day for an entire year.

I have to make it into May before I improve over the last time I tried this in 2007. Hope I make it. The last time resulted in some gems.

Day 1: Jeff and Kathy invited me over to watch all three Lord of the Rings (extended edition) for the 3rd year in a row. The collectible cup with lights in the base.

Time of Death Dec 27, 2009 at 2:34pm

Originally uploaded by Ezra S F

Didn’t realize it was still on when I put it in my pocket for 2 hours.

At least I still have my SLR.

UPDATE: Ordered a replacement. Hope it is as good or faithful.

Didn’t realize it was still on when I put it in my pocket for 2 hours.

Downtown Valdosta outside Bleu Cafe.

This was posted a while ago to Flickr, but I was reminded it has been a while since I posted anything here…

Sitting on a recliner playing with my new bank breaking toys.

Sunpak MZ440AF-CA on a light stand with a hot shoe connected to a PocketWizard II fired into a 60 inch umbrella with the reflector cover on it. Triggered by another PocketWizard II on my camera. Need to look at turning down the power or firing through the umbrella.

That may be because he is using them wrong. I liked photography as a kid, but I didn’t know any photographers. Flickr happened to come into my life just after I bought my first digital camera. My participation in photography exploded. Not because I had a way to post my photos but because I had a way to find other local photographers for mutual encouragement. Even better was forming local groups to encourage people to meet. The value of Flickr is developing the community.

Similarly, I got into Twitter because my community, peers at other universities running the same software as myself, were seeking help there. Any place with answers to the problems we face, which is where people with the answers are watching, is where we go. Twitter was the place to get the attention of the right people not a forum like phpBB. (There are already lots of email lists.) My other community, people using the software I run are also on Twitter. I’ve resolved issues for many clients by finding their public complaints and offering solutions. When my focus changed away from using Twitter for the community is when I stopped liking Twitter.

Personally, I have yet to find much sense of community in the phpBB, Google Wave, and Ning. So I find it strange these are the exemplars of community applications. They seem fractured so one finds dozens of groups to covering the same interest. Sometimes this is because some moderator upset a portion of the community with draconian behavior causing people to form an alternative community. Bad blood exists for a while. Other times people set up a new community unaware others exist.

As a young startup, we’re stunned, shocked, and unsure what to do next and need your support and suggestions.

The recent, popular advice seems to have not changed over the decade with the exception of sending a DMCA take down notice. From OnWired:

1. Contact the offending party.
2. Contact the offending party’s hosting company.
3. Issue a formal DMCA takedown notice.
4. Get your attorney involved. (It would be interesting to go to a lawyer about a site in China.)

At least the word is out about not disabling the right click button! Watermarks really are the better solution for images. Points to any of you who remember how I helped Mojan with blocking images from being saved off her site.

But… I am cheap. Photoshop was in my tool set back when work paid for me to do web design. Aperture and Light Room never entered it.

So I used Picasa as it did what I needed. Occasionally I used GIMP to perform more advanced edits. For example, I desaturated a custom area in the picture on the right to bring the attention back to who is important. Picasa can only do the same for a circle.

Considering GIMP is a image editor, it seemed quite concerning that it would fail to open Raw images. Surely Canon CR2 files from a 4 year old camera are supportable? Well, it turns out, GIMP needs help from a plugin.

1. A dcraw-gimp plugin based on dcraw has very simple options for profiles used convert Raw to Portable Any Map for opening in GIMP.
2. A ufraw-gimp plugin based on ufraw has much more cool tools for adjusting the levels prior to converting to Portable Any Map.

This morning I worked with F-Spot as my image manager and GIMP as the editor. This afternoon I switched to digiKam for the image manager and switched only to GIMP for things I could not manage.

I think I can use this workflow.

Happy (Con)trails

Originally uploaded by Ezra S F

Flickr member Zack Sheppard did me a huge favor yesterday picking this picture for a Flickr blog about Asterisks in the sky. So in one day this picture was exposed to 5,931 people.

Several of those looked at the adjacent picture and others for a total of 10,640 hits yesterday. Lots of comments on many of my photos.

Wow. Just wow.

Flickr member Zack Sheppard did me a huge favor yesterday picking this picture for a Flickr blog about Asterisks in the sky. So in one day this picture was exposed to 5,931 people.

Several of those looked at the adjacent picture and others for a total of 10,640 hits yesterday. Lots of comments on many of my photos.

Wow. Just wow.

Katie is All Smile

Originally uploaded by Ezra S F

Yesterday was another Athens, GA Strobists meet. Like the previous meets, there was lots of talk about camera capabilities, radio trigger capabilities, working the camera within the flash synchronization speed, etc.

I did stand in for some shots while we waited on actual models to show up. I think I’ll stick to behind the camera.

Caught this one when Katie’s friend, Sara, said something to make Katie laugh.

As this was mostly at night, my Canon wasn’t focusing, so I shot in manual. While the light was right, most were out of focus. Suggestions?

Yesterday was another Athens, GA Strobists meet. Like the previous meets, there was lots of talk about camera capabilities, radio trigger capabilities, working the camera within the flash synchronization speed, etc.

I did stand in for some shots while we waited on actual models to show up. I think I’ll stick to behind the camera.

Caught thisone when Katie’s friend, Sara, said something to make Katie laugh.

As this was mostly at night, my Canon wasn’t focusing, so I shot in manual. While the light was right, most were out of focus. Suggestions?

Was saving this for tomorrow. However, I noticed a photo of me taking this photo posted today. So I posted mine too.

I enjoyed exploring this house and environs with Team Shipaway.

Like a Post-Apocalytic Movie

Originally uploaded by Ezra S F

Yesterday I met with some other Flickrites to check out the Bostwick Cotton Gin Festival. There were easily a couple thousand people there, which is impressive for a town of 354.

(The photos I’ve posted so far at writing this post are just of Bostwick. Estimate I’ll end up posting another dozen before I’m done.)

We didn’t stay for the parade, but instead ventured over to the Nolan House (Evan’s awesome photo of the house). There were some donkeys and mules next to an old store. Then we stopped at Rutledge, a fertilizer factory in Newborn, and Mansfield. It was a fun, productive day.