Category Archives: Random

My friends notice the lull

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Last night, several friends expressed that they were sad (or frustrated) that I wasn’t posting photos like my days of yore. One of them said they were scared because they don’t see most of the photos I take. They might’ve been half joking, but I think there was a hint of seriousness in their jokes.

I tried to explain that I shifted gears. Quality over quantity. Of course, they wouldn’t have any of that.

Read “Rethinking my photography” and “Slacking off or more focused?” in other browser tabs, then come back here. I’ll wait.

Seriously, that’s the truth. Priorities have temporarily shifted because of school. Would you carry a DSLR camera and lenses when you have college textbooks to read through and homework?

When the motivation strikes me, I go into Lightroom and look for photos I overlooked the first time around. But, after work or a long lecture at school, I don’t want to do anything. I’m usually camped in Google Reader catching up with feeds, or going through email. Those are my low energy tasks. But, when I have free time at home, I should be processing photos since I can’t do that anywhere else.

I need to schedule chunks of time or adopt the procrastination hack. (It definitely works.)

Other than sporadic paid gigs, that’s not happening right now.

On some level, that might be the wrong mentality. Can you blame me?

In conclusion, sorry, and I’m trying my best. :)

Slacking off or more focused?

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Social lube

After my previous show on Sunday, I was talking with Arnold talked about how sad it was not being able to hang out and photowalk as much as before. In contrast, the Los Angeles [Flickr] group have constant meet-ups. You can never be bored when you hang out with them!

Perhaps this is my mellow and slightly more focused approach.

In 2008, I posted about 2,300 photos to Flickr. So far this year, I’ve posted 437 photos to Flickr.

On the other hand, 2009 has mainly consisted of work, school, and music. I didn’t go to Las Vegas yet[1. I went to Las Vegas twice last summer.], nor did I visit my cousins in Hawaii.

Wait. I photographed a protest, went on a few protests of my own. C’mon!

Arnold would scold me for not undertaking another year of 365. But, I’d like to justify that I’m looking for quality over quantity. Some photos in that 2008 set were forced. In contrast, I’m very happy with the majority of photos posted from this year.

Plus, I’ve photographed more concerts, and I’m aiming to photograph two weddings in a couple months.

Whatever. I do what I want!

The Pearls Before Swine blog

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Are you subscribed to the Pearls Before Swine blog by Stephan Pastis? Do it. Now.

A recent favorite post: “I Will Save The World.”

If you love his comic, his blog is…gravy to a turkey. A1 Steak Sauce to a steak. Ice cream to a chocolate chip cookie. A Drobo (with eSATA support) for a photographer. Wait, something doesn’t belong. My bad.

Anyway, you’re welcome.

Bill will record one song for you, pro bono

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Bill — friend and guitarist of our band, The Scarlet Paradigm — wants to improve his recording skills. He sent this status update on Facebook a few days ago:

If you or your friends are musicians, spread the word that I will record one of their songs for [free]!

How good can it sound? Listen to some of our songs on Myspace.

Interested? Email him — bill [at] thescarletparadigm.com

Let 'em know they rock

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Bill Wadman (OnTakingPictures) is one of my photographer heroes. I sent him an email just to let him know that.

Bill mainly focuses on portrait photography. But, he separates himself with sick lighting, composition, and wicked post-processing.

Creative types[1. Like myself] occasionally get depressed. Small words of encouragement and support do help.

Money helps, too, but that’s a topic for another post.

Who are your favorite photographers, writers, painters, musicians? Send them an email or small note!

Do you have a blog or social network account[2. e.g. Myspace, Facebook, Twitter]? Express your appreciation for them and direct (read: link) your friends to their work.

Most importantly: Don’t expect anything in return. :)

Dedicated fans from San Diego

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While waiting two hours in line for The Mars Volta concert at the Ventura Theatre, I met Chaz and Danielle.

This cute couple drove from San Diego. That’s dedication!

Chaz and Danielle let me catch a few precious moments of them. Very cool.

I gave them my card in case they wanted me to send them prints.

You can see this and two more on Flickr.

Don't let email spammers verify you

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Automatically viewing images from specific people in your Thunderbird address book is fine.

But, don’t add your own email address(es) into your address book and check that box. If a spammer ever gets your email address, and you open that email, images displayed inside the email will verify you.

Allow remote images in HTML mail within Thunderbird

I lasted about a year in minimizing spam. It’s starting to trickle now, but I hope it doesn’t get any worse.

For further information, read “Privacy basics [for] Thunderbird” at mozillaZine.

I know about Gmail. They appear to have the best spam filters[1. Compared to the other free webmail providers]. If you’re not paranoid about Google seeing everything, they’re the way to go. Do you have your own domain but want Gmail hosting? Look at Google Apps.

Related:

Are words a necessary companion with photos?

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As I continue taking photos into 2009, should I add a brief comment or description to each photo I publish [to Flickr]?

I don’t want to force the issue, but I know that it can sometimes enhance how we view photos.

For the record, I try pretty hard to conjure abstract titles for my photos whenever possible. I have Thomas Hawk, Karen Strolia and Andrew Moore to thank for that.

Behind on viewing Flickr contacts

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I’m overwhelmed with so many awesome Flickr friends and contacts. If you don’t upload photos on a regular basis, you’ll get shoved into page two.

I wish Flickr had a RSS feed for all your contacts. Can’t they integrate Yahoo Pipes with Flickr somehow?

It’s tedious to create imaginary friends on FriendFeed.

I guess I need to open each of my contacts’ photostreams, click the “Latest feed” RSS link, then organize it in Google Reader.

You can slap me for whining if there’s no other way. But, do you know something about this that I don’t?