Rick’s Rants and Raves

I work for a Fortune 100 company. I work on the second floor of the corporate headquarters of a Fortune 100 company. My cubicle number is 2D8369. I’ve had the same cubicle for 5 year. Until recently, I had a mail slot in the same copy room for nearly 7 years. Where is my mail slot now? I have no idea. I believe mail at my company routes like this: the Post Office (or UPS or FedEx or whatever) delivers mail to our loading dock. The guys at the loading dock then sort the mail using a cross between voodoo and tea-leaf reading into bins for one of the 25 administrative assistants in our building. The administrative assistants report to Vice-Presidents who have 50 to 100 people reporting to them. The ‘admins’ as they are known, then choose how to deliver mail to their intended recipients. Sometimes the mail is dropped on the recipient’s desk, sometimes delivered to a mail slot, sometimes delivered to a manager’s desk, or, I suspect, not delivered at all.

A couple of months ago the admin for my VP moved to a different building about a mile away. She sent me an e-mail saying that she had mail for me and asking how would I like it delivered. Somehow it made it to the copy room near my cubicle. It was a Christmas card from a vendor I work with. I got it in May.

About a year after I started working for this Fortune 100 company, I put my corporate address as the billing address on my American Express account. I quickly changed it to my home address after I was assessed a late fee due to the mail problems.

A few months ago, someone decided that a good way to publicize some corporate event was to put a flier in every mail slot in every copy room in the building. I took mine, and about 50% of the fliers disappeared from the slots in the copy room I frequent. The remaining fliers gathered dust, clearly in mail slots that no one was paying attention to.

About a month ago, my mail slot disappeared. Technically the label with my name on my mail slot disappeared. The slot is still there, unlabeled. I have no idea if I have a mail slot somewhere else, or whom I should ask. I don’t get anything except junk mail from vendors, so I don’t particularly care, except out of fascination that a Fortune 100 company could have such a crappy process for delivering mail. Clearly we do many things right to get to the size and scope we are. Mail delivery to employees is not one of those things. I had contemplated mailing stuff to myself to see what might happen to it, but it wasn’t worth the cost of a stamp to find out.

Today, I got the following message from someone in our out-sourced mail-room staff:

From: [Mail room dude]

Sent: Tuesday, August 25, 2009 4:49 PM
To: me and 31 other people
Subject: Mail

Hello.

We have some mail for you here at the [company] mailroom in [city, state].  We do not have your name in our mailing list.  Do you have an administrator who handles your mail, or do you have a mail stop near you where we can deliver it?

If you are not located in [city], do you have an associate here who can forward your mail to you?

Thank you.

How do I respond to this? “I had an administrator who likely moved my mail slot but failed to tell me its new location.” Or this, “I’ve been in the same d0g dam cube for 5 years, why can’t you figure it out?” or perhaps “I’ve been working for [company] for 7 years and my name isn’t on your mailing list?” or “There is a mail stop near me, but my name isn’t on a slot for you to put it in” or finally just “2D8369 is my cubicle. I have no mail slot.”

Seriously.

I was at the birthday party for an eleven-year-old neighbor today, and I saw a problem begging for a solution. There were three or four people taking pictures during all the key moments: presents, cake, games. Now of course this isn’t the first time I’ve witnessed this–it’s a pretty frequent occurrence at childrens’ parties especially. So there they were, all vying for a decent angle on the activities, with one uncle taking advantage of a nearby staircase to get aerial shots. So whats the problem with lots of people taking pictures at an event, you might be asking? Well, I see two.

First is the fact that the father, two grandmas and an uncle all felt the need to take pictures. With digital cameras and the super low cost of sharing pictures (can you say ‘Free’?), why have more than one person document the event? My first guess is that although it’s cheap to share pictures, unless a family (or other event) is highly organized and makes public use of a sharing site like Flickr, sharing pictures doesn’t happen all that often. Of course there may be other reasons, but given what I’ve seen in my family (all quite technically literate, yet we still don’t have a family Flickr group or anything similar) I think the reality is that people grab their own camera because they aren’t sure they’ll ever see the pictures taken by others at an event.

There is a possible technology solution for this problem, and its as simple as a PC. OK, I know they aren’t that simple to many people, but within 10 minutes a single photographer could easily download pictures off the camera and burn 4-5 CDs–one for each family unit. Years ago I did just that for at least one birthday party for my daughter. In fact, I did that for the Mentos fountains at the party today.

I’d like to think there is an opportunity for a smallish dedicated device for just such a situation. It would be about the size of a CD/DVD drive, with multiple card readers, an input USB jack, a small LCD screen with a few buttons and about 10 GB of internal memory. Then toward the end of an event, you get the memory cards from each photographer and pop them into the device. As each card is put in the device, the LCD would prompt for a label of some sort, then start copying pictures to its internal memory. Once everything is loaded, you would push the ‘burn’ button and start creating CDs or DVDs to hand out.

Yeah, I know. If I think people can’t be bothered to share the photos on-line, why would I think they would spend money on this device to share them off-line? I don’t really. But I can dream, can’t I?

On to the second problem. Perhaps not everyone is like me, but when I take pictures at a family event, I tend to be thinking more about photography than family. Sure, the family is the primary subject, but when I’m staring through the lens of a camera, I’m only partly engaged in the family part. For example, when I’m shooting my kids’ sporting events, I don’t really catch the whole game because I’m focused on the details that I’m shooting. And someone who’s shooting an event isn’t really engaged in conversation with a camera pressed against their nose (or held at arms length, as the case may be)–shooting takes concentration. So, in this particular case, rather than really enjoying the moment when an 11-year-old boy reveals that coveted Lego Star Wars logo,  we had three or four people engaged with their technology trying to capture the moment that they were only vicariously experiencing through their 2 inch LCD.

As far as I can tell, the only way to minimize the second problem is to designate one person as the family photographer. That’s happened to me on occasion, and I’m terribly flattered. But then of course, we run smack dab into problem number one.

The solution to both problems is to hire a competent photographer for the event. This could mean that everyone would get a CD or DVD of good photos, and that they could focus on having fun together. One resource suggests that free-lance photographers should charge no less than $400 per day (and advises no half days). This guy (randomly chosen thanks to a Google search) charges $150 per hour, with a $200 minimum. For most of the people I know, these rates are simply out of reach for family and other informal events. Maybe there’s a market here for an amateur looking to practice skills and augment his camera bag.

This year, friends of ours invited us to join them on their vacation to Parry Sound, Ontario. Their family has a cottage on a beautiful lake very close to Parry Sound. Given the combination of kids, water, and wildlife, I was sure there would be some great photographic opportunities.

The first opportunity came almost immediately. Our friends’ family cottage had three very tame chipmunks, and it took all of about 30 seconds for Emily to start feeding them.

I too found them irresistible, and set about trying to capture them in a somewhat more natural pose. Fortunately, they were happy to oblige in return for a few well placed peanuts.

Even Anne got in the act later in the week.

One of the other favorite activities of the week was swimming off the cottage’s dock. The water was clear and cool, and quite deep, so there was no risk of getting covered in goo. The kids had a blast goofing off in the water all week.

Every Tuesday night during the summer, the Parry Sound Cruzers Car Club has a drive-in car show at the town dock. We decided to visit while we were in town. I knew this would be a “target rich environment” but I also knew I didn’t want to take the typical pictures of the cars. As I tried to find some interesting details, I decided to focus on the hood ornaments/emblems.

I’m particularly fond of one other detail that I shot. This door-lock pull:

One of the photographic themes for the week seemed to be sunsets. Every time I want to take a picture of a sunset, I’m reminded of the phrase that they are “trite, overworked thematic expressions”. This was a judge’s comment on a sunset picture that my in-laws had submitted to a competition decades ago. So, as such, I try to break a few rules or find interesting aspects. My first is a somewhat typical sunset over the lake where we were staying. In fact, this shot was taken from their dock. I like the colors and the reflection.

The second sunset was a challenging moment after our stop at the Cruzers car show. We had walked to a nearby marina, and I set up the tripod waiting for some nice sunset shots. We were actually about 45 minutes from sunset, but that didn’t keep me from hoping. The kids started to get restless, and I could tell that my patience was not the one being tested. So I packed up the gear and started to head out. Then my wife said, “Honey, this would be a great shot!” from down on a little beach just a few feet from where I’d been. I like this one because of the sun on the water, the portrait orientation, and the clouds above. Yep, honey, it was. Thanks!

Just a little while later that same evening, when we were back at the cottage, I really liked the look of the clouds on the water. So I set up my tripod again.

On Thursday, we took a 3-hour sight-seeing cruise on the Island Queen. It was not cheap ($96 for our family of 4), but I found it very enjoyable. It took us on a tour of some of the islands and narrow passes near Parry Sound. The most disappointing part of the trip is that of the 96 pictures I took, I only feel like posting 5 of them, lest my blog post turn into an Island Queen photomentary (yes, I just made that up). Before the ship left port, I went exploring, looking for interesting detail shots. Here is a self-portrait.

Click the picture to see me a bit more clearly taking the picture from the middle deck. I also went looking for good family shots, but since one of our party wasn’t with us (he chose golfing over the boat ride), I decided to settle for a nearly candid shot of the group.

The views of the islands were spectacular. As just one example, here are a bunch of tiny islands called the “chain of tiny islands” or similarly pithy title.

The other theme for the week was wildlife. I’ve already mentioned the “tamelife” of the chipmunks. I also got a decent picture of a cormorant, a mediocre picture of some osprey, and this gorgeous shot of a sea gull. He had been following the Island Queen hoping to entice the tourists into feeding him. For the most part, he was able to glide along matching the speed of the ship as we motored along.

Finally, I was also able to capture a hummingbird. Not once, not twice, but about 10 times. Yes, there was a feeder, and the hummingbirds were accustomed to people in the area. I’m still very proud of this set of pictures: they were taken on a tripod, with the camera and flash set in full manual mode. I focused on the feeder, got the exposure settings, set the flash and took a few test shots to tweak the settings. I then stood near by with my recently acquired remote and waited. The flash took several seconds to recycle, so I got 2 to 3 shots each time the hummingbird came to feed. The flash seemed to startle the bird a bit since it backed away from the feeder a foot with each shot, but quickly came back. Below are the four best shots.

ISO 800, f/8, 1/250s, 170mm

Other random thoughts

I tried very hard to take the camera gear and tripod with me everywhere we went, even if I didn’t feel like taking pictures. The car show and sunset pictures afterwords are some examples–I wasn’t feeling much like taking pictures that evening, but I took the stuff with me anyway. I had the camera when we left the car show, but ran (literally) back to our vehicle get the tripod when I noticed the opportunity for sunset pictures approaching.

One of the sunset shots I desperately tried to make was a portrait orientation with an interesting rock in the foreground. So I had the aperture set to its smallest setting, camera on a tripod, and varying lengths of exposure, some using flash, but I just could not get the rock illuminated enough to provide foreground interest. I think this would be solved with a Cactus wireless transmitter to get the flash off the camera body.

I demonstrated better patience this week than in previous weeks. When Anne informed me that the rest of the crew was leaving the car show, I lingered to get a few remaining details. When shooting the hummingbirds, I kept at it until I was satisfied that I had a good bunch. However, I nearly missed the first sunset mentioned above because I ran out of patience waiting for a good shot–I packed up the gear, went up to the cottage, sat down with a beer, only to hear the host say “Wow, that one is really pretty. Rick, you should get a shot of that!” I heeded the advice and got better shots than in the previous 30 minutes of watching the dimishing light.

Finally, on our last day, we went to the beach, and I was very conscious that I had yet to take a family shot. I liked a beach that was rugged, and a bit removed from the public beach at which we’d been swimming.  The original shot was underexposed for our semi-shadowed faces. Fortunately I was able to adjust it enough to salvage a decent shot.

This weekend, Anne and I went to the Dublin Irish Festival for the second time. Last year, we took the kids and tried to experience as much of the Festival as we could, from eating and shopping, to music and goofing off. We had a fun time, but as the Festival approached this year, we were unable to convince the kids to go again.

As our schedule for the weekend unfolded, it turned out we really could only make it to one day of the Festival–Friday. Anne describes our time well, so I won’t repeat it here.

The approach of the Dublin Irish Festival offered me a dilemma as an aspiring amateur photographer: do I go in “photographer” mode with all my camera gear (which isn’t that much), constantly on the hunt for great photographs, or do I go as a husband and friend to just have a good time but without camera gear to worry about. About an hour before our departure, I told Anne I wouldn’t be taking the camera gear. She was suprised and strongly encouraged me to take the camera bag. She assured me that the friends whom we were meeting there wouldn’t mind watching the bag while we crushed into the crowds at the front of the stage. Thanks to her encouragement and the willingness of our friends, I found that the dilemma I had constructed was false–I was able to take a lot of great pictures AND have fun in the crowds dancing and drinking. The best of the pictures are on Flickr.

I shot the whole time using the 70-300mm zoom on our Nikon D60. Every once in a while I wished I had the wider angle lens on, but it was in the bag, and there were 10,000 people between me and the bag. Oh well.

The first group on the stage was Brigid’s Cross, whom I shot from a distance, and I didn’t really try to get good pictures.  The second group was Screaming Orphans, and I went up close to get some shots. No sooner had I come back to the table than Anne pointed out a great opportunity:

Next up was Scythian, one of our favorites from 2008. We also had a chance to see them when they came to Byrne’s Pub earlier this year. As they were setting up, I went up to the stage hoping to catch some nice candids.

As with previous performances, they did not disappoint. Their energy and showmanship are fabulous, and their music is just plain fun.

Toward the end of their set, the sun was low across the stage, giving the drummer an awesome back light mixed with the fog from the fog machine.

Next up was the Prodigals. I didn’t really get into their act as much, so I didn’t really try to get many pictures. Instead we ate and drank in preparation for Gaelic Storm. About 10 minutes before the end of Prodigals set, Anne and I started making our way up to the front of the stage. It was quite crowded, but we still managed to get to within 5 rows.

Shooting Gaelic storm proved to be the biggest challenge for me technically. The lights were VERY low, the performers moved a great deal (shocker), and the camera just was not getting good shots. Finally I changed to shutter priority, and set exposure compensation to under expose by a full f-stop. I then forced the shutter to shoot at 1/320 or 1/500 with the aperture nearly always wide open, and ISO set at either 3200 or 1600. Then I started getting some decent shots. This is my favorite of the night.

In addition to trying to get decent shots of the artists, I also wanted to see if I could get some fun detail or crowd shots. At one point I had noticed a very cute little girl on her dad’s shoulders during Scythian. I took a number of pictures of them because she was so gosh-darned cute.

Just before Scythian finished, I handed my business card to the dad letting him know that I’d taken some pictures of his daughter and that if he’d send me an e-mail I’d be happy to share. Hopefully he wasn’t freaked out by a stranger photographing his daughter.

Other fun detail shots: Scythian guitar tuning, Big Lens (ENVY!), Washboard from Columbus Ohio used by Scythian, Dancing Blond, crowd having fun at Gaelic Storm, Lights in the tent.

It was a great time, and I’m thankful I’ve got such a supportive wife that challenged my assumptions about what I could accomplish.