Monthly Archives: November 2009
Where in the World is ???
Yes, the blog has been silent for way too long and no new images on top of that. I have images ready to go and will get those up.
As for the lack of anything on the blog, perhaps the easiest way to describe it is a change in workflow. Or more importantly, a change in life’s workflow. I’ve been reading quite a bit lately about vision and realized that I had none. Okay, not quite none but not a lot. If you asked me “What do you want to do when you grow up” or “Where do you see yourself in five years” I couldn’t give you a decent answer and that includes my photography. I’m in the process of jettisoning the things that aren’t important or are time-wasters and focusing on the things that are.
So what changed? This post by David duChemin was pretty much the catalyst to make some moves in my photography. What that led to was a change in everything, work, family, etc. Everyone has the same amount of time in one’s day to get stuff done. We complain we never have enough time yet there are many people who use their time effectively and enjoy life rather than bumbling along in the rat-race.
As it pertains to photography, I’m setting aside time everyday to practice. Practice taking pictures, practice in editing, spending time looking at other people’s pictures for inspiration and to gain knowledge, and following blogs and using Twitter to find articles that will help me get better as a photographer. As for the blog, I’ll be posting more, not daily but several times/week with articles, links and images as I feel the blog allows (and sometimes forces) me to focus on what’s important with my photography.
Happy Veterans Day
Happy Veterans Day to all who have served our country. Thank you for your service and sacrifice. Special thanks go out to my dad who served in the USAF.
Also, thank you to the combat photographers who risk their lives in order to document war through their pictures. You can read more about them here, here, and here.
To Bring or Not To Bring Plus Other Thoughts
Just a warning in advance that this post is somewhat random. You could even say it is rambling. If you have better things to do, by all means stop now and go ahead and take care of your business. If not, read on (you’ve been warned)…
Bringing my camera on a business trip is usually a no-brainer as I drive just about everywhere and it’s no big deal to toss my camera bag and tripod in the car. Occasionally though, I have to fly and that’s where I start to weigh the advantages vs. disadvantages to bringing it along. I’ve brought it with me before on trips and never used it although that is pretty rare. In the past, I’ve almost felt I had to use it since I took the time and “effort” to drag it with me.
Recently though my outlook has changed. While I debated again about bringing it, rather than thinking about the reasons not to bring it, I was more focused on what would happen if I didn’t bring it. I certainly have enough to do without taking time out to go shoot (plus the potential for post-production work after that) but the practice of just getting out and shooting was too much to pass up. The potential of the next shot and what I might miss as well as the process of learning something new ended up being something I didn’t want to miss out on. Oh, FWIW, I took a whopping total of five pictures.
Speaking of something I could have taken a picture of last week but didn’t was an honor guard of soldiers that came to the Omaha airport. On my flight was a member of the US Navy and the captain of the plane made a comment about letting him off first plus something else (I didn’t hear the entire message). When I got down to baggage claim, there were several older members of either the American Legion of VFW waiting there as well as an Army honor guard complete in dress uniforms and white gloves. Not sure what the protocol is for taking a picture of this but out of respect for them, I left the camera in the bag.
One of the things I’ve been ignoring is putting together a contract for services. I have several good examples to draw from but to take the time to sit down and hammer it out isn’t overly appealing to me right now although paying a lawyer to do so is less appealing. Safe to say that I never see myself ever having the urge to go to law school.
That’s it for now…
Picture Size
Right now I’m sizing my pictures 650 pixels wide and what I would like to do is to make them a bit smaller to fit various sized screens and then use a Lightbox to make it bigger. I’ve looked at a couple of WordPress plugins that I could use but wanted to find out if anyone had suggestions/recommendations prior to trying those out.
This appears to be the popular choice and the basis for most plugins.
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