We had my dad over for dinner tonight. He’s 69 and wants for nothing except time with his son and grand kids. He’s recently made it a habit of paying for dinner every time we go out despite our frequent insistence that it is our turn to pay. So for his birthday this year, we had him over to our house for a quiet dinner of Country Captain Chicken (our favorite made-at-home curry dish) and Krusteaz pumpkin pie bars (they are devilishly good!).
The shot above was a “grab” shot. I spent very little time composing it and the only light is from the overhead ceiling fan with a mixture of incandescent and compact fluorescent bulbs. I like the result.
This year our vacation at the Chautauqua Institution was the second hottest in memory (for us). As a result, my memory of the week is a bit foggy, seeing as how my brain as a bit baked from the experience. Pictures have been posted to Flickr. I promise to write more later.
As I was walking into my local library to pick up a reserve, I was confronted with a “great parent” moment. This is in contrast to what Anne and I typically call a “critical parent” moment–where we see another parent acting stupidly/harshly/ignorantly, i.e. exhibiting poor parental skills. This “great parent” was walking out of the library with her three kids: a toddler in an umbrella stroller being pushed by a 3-4 year old, and another 3ish-year-old being led by the hand. The one being held by the hand was crying “Mommy, let go of my hand! Mommy LET GO of my hand!” The mother was reasonably calm looking, and was leading the young boy, not dragging him. In between his sobs I heard her say “I’m sorry, but it is time for us to leave now.” That was a “great parent” moment in my book. The parent was in control but not being rough, and they were both “using their words”. I smiled as I walked by her to attempt to convey a “good job” from one parent to another.
As I approached the reserve area in the library, I overheard a man ask an employee how much it cost to rent a CD. “You’re at the library sir” was her initial response. She went on to explain borrowing and late fees, but no, there are no rental fees. I almost laughed out loud at her first sentence. It made me think “I’m sorry if this hurts sir, but you clearly need to be hit by this clue-by-four.” After he left the area, I told her I loved her response.
This weekend is going to be busy as hell. I’ll kill every battery and memory card I’ve got. I just hope I can stay healthy enough to get through it all. But this is not a post about this weekend. Its a post about random stuff, mostly photographic, but none of which deserves its own blog post.
- I recently started following a blog of a photographer in Ireland. It was this post that struck me. I really liked his style and the how-to nature of the post. More recently, he posted his experience shooting his sister’s band on-stage. He had already impressed me as someone way more experienced than I was, so I looked forward to hearing how he overcame the challenges of shooting performances in dim, funky colored light. High ISO. Been There. Fast Glass. Done That. Monochrome. Bought the T-shirt. I also frequently do what he couldn’t have done at that performance–augment with flash.
- Last night I was at the local office supply store visiting their copy center to get some color copies made for a local band I’m helping to book. I also asked the manager (who happened to be behind the counter) about business cards. I’m very happy with my Moo.com cards, but they were a bit on the pricey side, and took several days to deliver. So I asked the manager about their premium stock cards and asked him if they were as thick as my current cards. When I handed him a Moo.com card, his reply was “Wow [awkward pause] uh, no, I don’t have anything that thick.” We agreed that he could get me cheap cards fast.
- I’m working with Anne on a reunion book project for my mom. We’ve got pictures from 60 of her high-school classmates to match up with pictures from their senior year. The senior year portraits were clearly all done by the same photographer. They nearly all involve an unnaturally heavy body lean. Most are looking away from the lens. And there’s almost always a little bit of background showing on the bottom edge.
In contrast, most of the “current” pictures are snapshots from family living rooms. A few are professional portraits (one was 15 years old!). My favorites are the ones where the flash glare in the glasses completely obscures the eyes of the subject. There was about an even mix of prints versus digital files sent in. One guy even mailed a print on plain printer paper–clearly someone has that digital file, but not us so his picture in the reunion book will be a scan of a crappy print. Oh well.
- One of the professional prints in the reunion “current” group was from Olan Mills, and had a copyright symbol right on the front of the image. I understand that the images are copyrighted, but it just seems obnoxious to put it on the print that someone paid for. Its like putting the copyright notice on the front cover of a book, or as the intro track of an album. I’m also a bit torn on the concept of copyright, but I’ll have to flesh those ideas out more fully in a separate post. And yes, I know I’ve put a watermark on some of my band photographs, but when I sell or give my pictures to someone, they get them without the watermark. Only the “teaser” version has a watermark.
- Nothing terribly significant to say about the horse picture up top. Used the Jive Thirty Five, ISO 800, f/2.8 aperture priority, and waited for them to walk by a north-facing door that opened to a perfectly cloudy gray sky. Done by request so that we have some “scrapbook-able” images.
