The Wharf @ Night

For Friday, I wanted to share a weird sort of shot I took at the Wharf in Orange Beach a few weeks back.

TGIF Friends..

The Shadow People

In the shadow world, the only people taking pictures are the Shadow Photographers..

Sorry.. didn't have anything too meaningful to write today.  Busy @ work :)  So here are some pretty pictures instead.

Disney's Safari Attraction

Speaking of vacations..   At Disney, have you ever wondered how they get the animals to hang around near the path of thei safari vehicles?      Disney Imagineering puts feeders inside of elements for the various types of animals in the area.   Such as thiis, half-tree trunk feeder.  

Always had mad respect for Disney Imagineering...

The Future is Here, Today: Some Assembly Required

With CES, this week, lots of eyes are on .. the near future.. of technology products and cameras.   Nikon showed us the D4 last week and may release another pro-level shooter in the coming month.  Canon, Sony, are all prepped to display their warez, coming off supply chain issues.  Heck, Fuji even surprised with a mirrorless potential game-changer of their own.

As I edited this post, I looked down at my desk and realized... sitting there, was the future of Photography.  Sitting  near one another on my desk, a Panasonic Micro Four Thirds Mirrorless, A Sony A77 "Transclucent Mirror" DSLR and a Light Field Camera. 

If the A77, the Lumix GF3 and Lytro could get a hotel room for the weekend and partake in some late-night-cable inspired, three-way nocturnal activities, I believe their offspring is what we will all be carrying in 5 years.  Bow-Chikka- Wow - Wow.

Trey Ratcliff editorialized, last week that DSLRs Are a Dying Breed and man, is he ever right.

The days of the flippy, clunky mirror mechanism must, inevitably be numbered.   I agree with assessments that mirror-less is the future but I take this whole notion to the next level. I think sensor technology can only improve in light sensitivity and resolution for so long.   Something new must come and maybe Light Field Imaging will be that "new thing."

I imagine a franken-device, with the sexy-sleek design of a Lytro but with interchangable lenses, mirrorless like a GF3 or V1/j1 or NEX, a very-high-resolution and light-sensitive light field sensor with a sleek OLED display like the A77.  RAW files will be more like Lytro's Living Pictures concept but your camera will post-auto-focus on what it imagines you wanted to focus on.   You can still change them, in-camera or in post.  It will generate normal images across varying apertures using the light field concept as a step in post processing.

Oh yes, I've been to the mountain and seen the future and it is a groovy-one lacking of mirror-flippy assemblies and clunking sounds.

The real question in my mind is what technology company will be the true innovator to usher in the next-big-thing in photography?  I'm wondering if the likes of my favorite camera companies are too close to the fire to see the smoke.   

Possibly, a young... up-and-coming start-up will rise to the challenge to remake photography.  It has to start somewhere and that somewhere... isn't in a professonal DSLR.  yet.

Or.. maybe we'll just all go back to Polaroid.  What do I know? 

Sunset Orange

Well, I wasn't going to do a post today.   But, I sit here at midnight babysitting a long-overdue SQL Database job - I thought "What the heck."

Speaking of Orange.  That is the color of the box Sony Alpha gear comes in...

I took a little time, this evening, to write a post on "The Verge" about my initial experiences with the Sony A77.  If you are Sony - Alpha Curious -- check it out, here:

http://www.theverge.com/2012/1/10/2695984/for-short-attention-spans-my-impressions-of-the-sony-alpha-a77

A long time from now, at a vacation destination, far-far away

 

During the first couple of weeks of the year, my wife and I have this unintentional, yet consistently timed habit of starting to make vacation plans for the following year.  It always starts very aspirational.   

"We're going to Europe this year!"

"We're going to California."  

"We're going to Niagara Falls.""We're going to Disney!"

.. 60% of the time, we don't end up going anywhere.   The other 40% of the time, we end up at Disney World.  So much so, that "Disney" has become a unit of measurement at our house.    

You can use "Disney" to describe how long it takes to get to Gatlinberg, from here.
  - "That trip is as long as Disney!"

or.. to describe how long it will take to get to my relatives in Indiana (whom I do love, dearly):

 - "Disney's closer."

This year, I used "Disney" as a unit of measurement for U.S. Currency.  My wife spec'd a trip for summertime and it was a full $1800 more than last year.   

  - "Geez, hon, for that much we could go to Hawaii!"

Turns out.  We actually can.   

Am I saying we're going to Hawaii this year?  Right now, we think we are. Based on available January-Family-Trip-Planning-And-Follow-Through metrics, there is roughly a 60% chance we'll stay home, drink Kona coffee and Pong Juice and watch Lilo & Stitch on the projector outside.

Still, it's fun to dream.  

Been to Hawaii?   What Island do you recommend and why?

Planning a trip this year?  Where to??

The Gulf State Pier, Panoramic

I've always been a little bit frustrated by my own shots of this pier, The Gulf State Pier.   

I think I finally have one, here, that I like.

Watching Flickr, G+, I see these beautiful shots of this and other piers.  People are just so much more talented than I am in composition, lighting,.. having "the eye."

My shots have always had the wrong light, shot mid-day, or at night with not enough light.   Too crowded, blue sky- no clouds.  Wrong Angle, wrong f-stop.   It's always something! :)

Not to mention that, architecturally, it is my opinion that the covered area at the foot of this pier, is kinda horrendous.   I mean, it probably isn't "that bad" but the surroundings are always so gorgeous that it strikes me as a bit of an eyesore, even compared to the rest of the pier, which is built quite well.   Alas, I know this covered area offers necessary amenities, a ticket office, restrooms, a place from which state park employees can tell at me from above "Get out of the water!!!"  (Standing in 1/2 inch surf, snapping shots)

I decided to try a few "different' things this go around.     

One, was to get a good ways back, frame the pier, as you would typically do, with the end near center, phi or a third.  Then, I shifted the camera up, wayyyyyy up.. so that the pier only inhabited the very bottom of the viewfinder.

The result looked really cool in preview but is kinda "meh" on my monitor.    I think with a wide angle, that should would have been better.  I'm still tweaking that image, maybe I can recover it for a post, later.  Not sure..  

It did give me an idea for a future experiment, though.   Shoot the pier, mostly sky, lone, small trail of pier at the bottom.   Then plop down in the sand and wait for the stars to come up.   Take the same shot with the starfield and mix the two shots.   Dunno -- I may try that when I have a little more time!

It occurred to me, on this trip, that maybe one issue, compositionally, was that I couldn't get "wide enough".   So, I went panoramic.    The geometric distortion is really obvious, even after I warped alot of it back into place, but I think it adds a sort of "mystique" to the image.

This thing is nearly 10,000 pixels wide.   Go large on the view :)

Of all my shots of this particular pier, I think this is the only one (of mine) that deserves to stand alongside the wonderful shots from other photographers before me that have captured it so very well!

I finally got one I thought looked pretty cool, yay!

A Nice Saturday Afternoon..

I started the day, thinking "darn, it's supposed to rain all day, no photos today."

Among my errands for the day was to take a dirtbike to Orange Beach R/C Hobbies and Powersports on Canal Road.    Their mechanic/owner, Matt is good people and does great work.

Since I was to be in Orange Beach, I took a canvas print, to Bravo Taco.  Really cool little upscale-taco place.  (Yep, there are such things).    The owners are great people and they have amazing food!   They were kind enough to display one of my canvases in their store, which I thought was super-cool.  They actually would like some more as, well..  I'll have to get those printed when I'm able..

Surprise, no rain so I made it to the Gulf State Pier in the last minute  for some sunset shots.   I'm pretty happy with a few.  Typical ratio, 3 or 4 out of 300 are keepers, I think :)

On the walk back to the car, after washing the wet sand out of my converse, this view caught my eye.   Clickity Clickity Click, as it were.

.. when they DO make them like they used to...... and.. the Nikon D4. I don't understand.

I suppose the exception to the "They don't make them like they used to" rule would be restorations.   I really admire the craftsmanship and detail that goes into restoring classic cars, antique pieces of americana, etc.   American Restoration has become one of my favorite shows.

Sidebar.  The D4.  Can someone 'splain something to me?

I'm going to show my ignorance on professional photography, camera science and many other things here, for a second.   So, the D4 was announced last night... everyone seems stoked about this $6k shooter.    <a href="http://nikonrumors.com" rel="nofollow">nikonrumors.com</a> has some great coverage on it.  As does, The Verge.

K, so I undersand the allure of speed.   And I'm sure it is an engineering feat to get the little mirror to flip up and down 11 times a second. bravo, smart guys at Nikon.    16.whatever megapixels is huge by wide and can print huge prints.   Full frame is awesome, though coupled with 16.whatever megapixels, I'd argue a "pixel density" issue but whatever.

The thing I don't get... is ISO.   Everyone seems thrilled about a camera that will shoot a 1 billion ISO or whatever.   I've never shot with a top-end Nikon, so maybe someone could drop the knowledge on me why ISO 16 bazillion is a good thing?   My frame of reference, is that I'm a guy that takes pictures of still things in good light or in bad light with a tripod and can't stand an ISO 6400 shot of my daughter because her eyes look like a drunk Picasso with all of the little jaggy noise fragments.   And noise reduction... helps.. but doesn't make it look much better.

I'd prefer to take a thousand pictures of her at the lowest ISO rating possible and pray they turned out okay.

So,... to the question... do the higher ISO images coming out of these super-expensive cameras look that much better than those coming from their Best Buy available Nikon cousins?

...or are people just paying through the nose for full frame, super-fast shutter, buffer..?

"They just don't make em' like they used to!"

 As I get a little older, I feel myself slipping, slowly, into that archetype of a crotchety, grumpy old man.    "Get Off My Lawn!", "When I was a kid...", "These kids these days and their ZZ-Top..."

K, so maybe not that last one.  

The "hardwiring of a person's habits", taught to me by the CFO of Standard Furniture, is one of the reasons I got back into photography.  I wanted to add some creativity to the nerv-y, grey-matter soup that makes up my brain.   

One of those hardwired ideals that has made its way into my thought patterns, is that they really don't make em' like they used to.

I became a homeowner at 18, kinda out of necessity.  The home situation with my parents wasn't quite ideal and
I needed a place to live, so we built a (small) house.    An 18 year old, should.. never.. be trusted to make decisions like that, by the way... But, I digress.   

 5 years into home ownership, the A/C unit started to die.   $1000 in maintenance and two years later, it died entirely.   $4,000 repair, cha-ching.  That (new) coil has been replaced, praise God - under warranty, 6 times now.

 7 years into home ownership, the grinder pump went.    I fixed and replace that myself, by the way. yuck.

At the 9 year mark, the good ol' trusty dishwasher blinks out and the parts are no longer available.  3 months later, the $600 Electrolux we bought to replace it went back in failure, we decided if these things are "disposable", get a cheap one, anyway. 

At the 11 year mark, washer and dryer.  I replaced with used ones.

I'd say we have a year before the Cycle starts over again.  Maybe less!

If I look at the debt that I've accumulated in my life, I would say that a strong 60% of it was in response to unexpected breakages that occurred at bad times.  (The other 40% is failed business attempts, "wouldn't it be cool", and gotta have that;  bad decisions.)

One of the reasons I tend to feel that "The Wal-mart Effect" is a problem for the World economic situation, is illustrated in this allegory.   How many people have debts associated with unexpected, big-item re-purchases of appliances that are shoddily built, yet considered necessary in today's society?    

What about cars?  Isn't this what got GM and Ford in trouble to begin with -- cars that died at 40k miles and the global recognition of Hondas and Toyotas still running the roads with 300k miles on them?

A CTO friend of mine confided in me yesterday that he felt like Apple products were a ripoff because of their high price.   I'm sure you could make the same claim about Nikons, Canons, Sonys...

Sure you pay a little bit of "name brand tax" and in the Apple example you pay for Jobs and Ive's design language but in the end, doesn't something that lasts longer and costs more up front, save you money over the alternative?

Companies building things with a focus on cutting costs means they make crappier gear, pay employees less, innovate less, all putting down pressure to reduce salaries and expendable income.

My personal opinion is that you can have your Wal-mart.   In my commercial utopian ideal, a refrigerator costs $4,000 and lasts your lifetime.  The guy who built it makes six figures, as does the guy who sold it, marketed it, delivered it.   

Yes- yes.. this would never work but a guy can dream, right?

In full disclosure I worked for wal-mart of several years. As an equal opportunity employer, they treated all employees equally, like crap. But, hey the prices are low.. so we keep shopping there, don't we?

I develop brand loyalty to companies that prove to me they can build quality products that last.   Right now, I love my iMac.  My 3 year Samsung notebook and televisions, my Nikon, my Canon AE-1, my foreign car with 120k miles on it that still drives like new, the 1980s Sears ColdSpot Freezer in my utility room -  have all earned my respect as a consumer.   

I really wish that "they" would start making them.. like they used to. 

Private Beach Somewhere..

 Wouldn't it be awesome for some mega celebrity to owe you a big favor and let you borrow their hookup for epic-secluded vacation destinations?    Notice, I went "the favor" route.  Because I think being a celebrity probably isn't worth the hassle, riches or not.

When I listen to Jimmy Buffet's song, Autour du Rocher, despite not quite fitting with the song-line, I often envision the servants, workers, groundskeepers and other help" of Necker Island partying in this secluded paradise when the celebrity guests and Richard Branson are no longer around.  

For me, Seclusion is an essential quality of what makes something paradisical. (That's not a real word.  I hereby INVENT it!! )  In fact, in my ideal fantasy beach, no one else is invited.   Not my family, not my friends, no mythical creatures, not Clark W. Griswold's hawaiian Pool/Lingerie counter babe.   No one!  No Soup for you!   It isn't that I don't like people, I often do find people whose company I enjoy to keep but the mental image of a tropical paradise sort of resonates with me as a comfy hut amidst a lush tropical surrounding with an open patio, mere steps away from the tide.    A couple of chairs to lounge in, catch a book or listen the ipod.

Endless fulfillment of drink and food orders without ever seeing another person. I'd like a Mojito.  WOW -- Lookie here, a Mojito.  As if Q from STTNG evacuated Oahu for a private stay with the twitch of his nose.  (Or was the Jeannie?)

But, I'm a resident of a small redneck town that lives in a small redneck house in a small redneck community.   These sorts of things aren't in my grasp... or... are they!?

I absolutely love our winters here.   After work on this day, I found my way to the public park at the foot of the Alabama-Florida state line.   iPod playing, it was just me, a tripod & camera with not a soul around.   In fact, I never saw another human being the entire walk.  

Standing by the Gulf, music playing, waves lapping in and not seeing another soul around... is a little creepy... and ... a lot of AWESOME.

I hope your return work week is going well! 

World Showcase Lagoon

 At Disney, Last year.  My son had fell asleep and my wife and daughter decided to shop for a bit.   I decided to geek out, so I wore a Go Pro on Time-Lapse mode, and walked around the World Showcase Lagoon for a "Speed Photo Walk".    I stopped a few times with a tripod and my Nikon for an HDR shot.  This was was on those stops.  

.. one of these days I'll cut together the helmet-cam footage into a video or something :)

The Sun Rises on a New Year

It is an exceedingly rare event for me to witness a sunrise.   I live about 20 miles from the Gulf and I am not a morning person :). However, this day I felt compelled to make my way to the Public Beach at Gulf Shores.    I envisioned this shot in my head on the way down but I was really surprised by the rays shooting up from the horizon.  I think it turned out much better than my "plan."  Though, I can take no credit for that..

I once heard it said that..

God is a master painter and the sky is His canvas.

..and I never really caught the meaning until I started this photography project and became a better observer of nature...

I suppose we all return to work, this week.    As such, my posts will be a bit more spaced, probably two or three days between posts for a week or so while I get back into the groove.

Catching Some Rays

On this first day of 2012, I just wanted to wish you and yours the absolute best!  I hope 2012 presents endless opportunities for you and your loved ones.    Thanks for stopping by!

Happy New Year,

Bill Dodd

The Road Ahead

This will be my last post for the year.   I wanted to spend the next few days off, focused more on viewing others' posts than spamming the world with my own.   Plus, it is time to go dark for a few days and enjoy the end of the year with my family.

2011.    Wow, this year delivered a diverse array of experiences and lessons!

I started the year, in negotiations with Microsoft for a life-changing, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to chase my development dreams.   My dad's cancer was supposedly cured, my mom's health was improving, opportunities around every corner.   I had a laser-focus on family & career.

As the Microsoft deal started to move forward, we got word dad's cancer was indeed, no longer in remission.  My laser-focus now shifted to being a goog caretaker.   I hope that I was.  This culminating in the most macabre experience of celebrating my Son's life (his 2nd birthday party) while my dad, literally days from death in my home and under my care during his final days.   Mom, fell ill with lung-related illness, and she - too, passed from this earth 3 weeks later.

In the midst of this maelstrom of life and death.  The passing of my parents as the yang, witnessing my baby son become a little boy and my little girl begin her education as the yin.  

I learned from the example of a few precious friends what it is to be a great friend to someone and I've learned the importance of culminating those relationships more carefully in my own practice.  I've lost the patience to wait until tomorrow to achieve my goals and I've gained patience in tolerating the ins-and-outs of life here on Earth.

I learned the importance of slowing down, on occasion, to take the scenic route home because, at the end of the day, our journey's all take us to the same place and the adventure is how we get there.

To old  and new friends alike and to you other like-minded travelers, in earnest I wish you a very blessed & Happy New Year.  May the road ahead bring out the best in each of us.

Orion Walk

I get the opportunity to stop and appreciate the night skies more than a lot of people but almost always from my back yard.   This evening I got to enjoy them on the epic gulf coast beaches, in epic weather, while photo-walking with friend and epic photographer, awesome-fun dude -- Mr. Brody, himself.   

I'm beside myself to see some of what he came away with from another great golden hour photo walk.

I had to get a little noisy on this one to get the light I wanted.   The effect is still kinda nice, I thought.

Looks alot better than most of my starry night shots, that have my backyard shed in the picture :)

Sunset, Beneath the Pier

Going with the Theme of some of my favorite shots from the year..

After work one afternoon, I went to the Gulf Shores Public Beach at the Gulf States Pier.   It was cold, clear and the tide coming out had created this interesting little 'island' to stand on beneath the Pier, which gave a perspective of being in the water when looking up and down the beach.

I remember the day, well - because I encountered another photographer during the trip.   I saw this guy in his Mid-20's with his camera on a tripod and rifling through his gear bag for something.    A wave surprised him and he nearly knocked the tripod in the water trying to get his bag to safety.   He was about 20 ft away as the wave started to roll back out and I could see the tripod starting to move as if it would tump over.   I took 4 steps and put my hand on one leg of the tripod to steady it -- didn't want the guy's gear to go into the Gulf.

At which point he came over and yelled at me to get off his gear and then jeered at me some snide remark about having a Nikon.    I hung around but he did not.    Angrily or frustratedly, he packed his stuff up and left.   

The patience paid off and I witnessed this wonderful sunset.

It was at this point I made the distinction between photographers and programmers.   Programmers can be jerks but it's likely just a social awkwardness wrapped in layers of self-consciousness.   I think some of the jerky photographers I've met probably fit this mold, too.    I have.. however.. met far more cool photographers and artists, than engineers, though..  

The Soldier and the Boy

Now that Christmas is over, I'm excited to get back to sharing out some non-Christmas-y things.    Back to the theme of sharing some of my favorite shots from the year..

In January, 2011 I visited the U.S.S Alabama for a really productive photo walk.   On the way back, driving down the causeway, I decided to stop at this abandoned hotel, the old Ramada Inn on the Mobile Bay causeway.

During the summer of 1993 my family experienced a house fire.  Our home in Indiana went up in the most curious and as it turns out: illegal, way.  We were on vacation in the area when the fire occurred and ended up staying in Foley for a few weeks.   My Dad found work in Mobile, AL - working in the used tire business with an acquaintance from the past. 

It turns out their meeting in Mobile wasn't quite so happenstance.

A months later, an insurance investigation led to the conclusion the house fire was the cause of arson.

I'll write more on that, another time. :)

So, homeless and transplanted to the beautiful Gulf Coast, we moved into the Ramada Inn in Mobile, Alabama - just down from the battleship.   My parents chose this location because it allowed pets (o, lord did mom ever have pets) and it was close enough for Dad's commute to Mobile.  

On the day of my Battleship photo walk, I wanted to explain all of this to the nice Spanish Fort Police Officers who stopped to question why I was trespassing.   I decided to just go the route of looking official and claiming myself to be a "photo blogger, reporting on the economic situation of tourism on the Gulf Coast". 

They bought it and I got this really cool exposure of some Banksy-esque tag work by a tag-artist called 'Priest'.

Oh yeah and to make this official... blah blah blah, "economy", blah blah blah, "Gulf Coast".  See, officer, I wasn't lying.  :) 

Merry Christmas!

To Santa and all of those many helpers who may have a long night ahead, I just wanted to send our warmest holiday wishes to you.   And to anyone that reads this, have a Merry Christmas!

Hazy Daze

(click through for full image)

I finally finished my Christmas shopping today and made my way to Gulf Shores Public Beach to find the strangest haze hovering around the entire city.

I couldn't help but think of the characters of a Stephen King book as I watched this couple stroll off into the mist. As far as I know, no tentacled creatures jerked them up and into the fog.