You Might Be a Camera Nerd If...
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While cutting the grass in your back yard, after work - near sun-down, you stop to snap photos of light rays cutting through the dust cloud kicked up by your mower. ;)
Chain Letters
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I've often thought about theming my blog posts as the reminiscent ramblings of an older - crotchetier version of my future self, telling tales to my grandchildren on how life once was. Doogie Howser's WordPerfect Diary meets How I Met Your Mother plus a camera.
If I were doing that theme, today would be the day when I would tell them about Chain Letters.
"You see, kids.. back in my day, we didn't have tweets and Facebook status updates.
The only Spam we were knew about, we ate for lunch with a can of Pringles and a Big Red. We had these annoying things called Chain Letters.
Out of nowhere, you see -- this letter would appear addressed to you but without a return address. It would often be handwritten (we used pens back in those days) and would promise that if we were to distribute the message of the chain letter to 5 or 10 other people, then we would be granted a windfall of riches, avoid some calamity or other such nonsense..."
But, today… the chain letter comes in the form of a Facebook status, "Share this on your timeline if you agree. / If you don't I'll unfriend you / know you don't really care about me. Signed: Your third cousin-in-law's dog walker, twice removed, in Albania."
(sigh) At least when I was a kid, it cost the price of a stamp to be stupid. Now, it's free.
With Love on Labor Day,
Crotchety Bill
:)
.. they rode off into the sunset...
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I've still been following the search efforts to find The Nina and her crew, who went missing around the Tasmin Sea, back in June.
Officials have long since called off search and rescue efforts, yet family members and supporters continue to commission private search flights, coordinated with a crowdsourced satllite imagery analysis effort powered by Tomnod. (http://tomnod.com/nod/challenge/ninarescue2)
It is a real-life drama unfolding and I very much feel for the families of the crew as they look for answers regarding their missing loved ones.
Following the comments on this and other sites you can see the different sides of humanity at play. In one corner, the desperate family members keeping faith against all odds that the crew could still be rescued.
In another corner well-meaning and good spirited supporters aiding the efforts through donations and other efforts.
In another corner, occasional, inevitable naysayers who cloud their efforts with a cynical blend of gloomy realism.
..
However it turns out, I think it is a glimpse that people can come together in selfless ways to be decent. If the big-hollywood style near-apocalypse were to strike tomorrow, maybe we'd all be alright.
.. or maybe we wouldn't :|
You can follow the family and supporter efforts at: https://www.facebook.com/ninarescue?ref=br_tf
... of shadows, glass and breeze
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I've been to this spot a few times, this time I came with a photographer friend. There is this narrow(ish) bridge on Hwy 225 not far at all from my house, as you head north towards Saluda Hill Cemetery and the new Veteran's Cemetery in Spanish Fort.
We perched up on the guard rail and snapped a few shots as the colors started to come in.
Thankfully, we were not squished by cars during our real-life frogger reenactment.
A Room With a View
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The clever people on the internet could easily come up with a funny meme about this property. I can hear them now, "A-LABAMA!" .
And... yes.. this picture is from Alabama. But, before you make wisecracks about the split-level home from The Board Game LIFE or about Duck Dynasty, let me explain to you why this man is a genius.
Sitting at the foot of a bridge on a less-crowded Alabama Highway is this small boat launch and bait shop. The owner (and I presume, son) occupy this piece of land and if you can get the older man to speak with you he'll tell you: "Yep, I think I have me a piece of God's country here."
and he's right.
The sunrises peak through the trees and you get a good sense of how the sun moves through the seasons. In the evenings, the sun sets across the Delta near the Mobile, Alabama skyline. If you're sitting on this porch, you have only to look across a picturesque bridge up the inlet into the Delta.. The only thing blocking his view is his own pontoon boat, which he uses to explore these waters that he has lived at nearly all of his life.
Sometimes, the sun will set between the buildings in the far distance of the Mobile, Alabama skyline. Other times it cuts through the trees and casts orangey rays across the bridge onto near-perfect reflections in the water, here.
So, some folks might look at this and say "Yep, that's Alabama for you."
I look at it say, "This man is a genius." :)
Coastal Towns
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There's nothing like hanging around a Coastal Town after dark... The blues come and and subtle details start to fade away. Music, voices, the lapping of waves. Not a state of affairs..
Nokia, Meet Meade
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Nokia, Meet Meade
Last week I walked into an At&t store and asked,
"Can you sell me a Nukia 1020 without a contract?"
"Sure, what's your number?"
"I'm a verizon customer, I don't want service - just the device."
.. They looked at each other in a puzzled way, made some calls and eventually.. sold me the phone..
The real reason was for a development project I'm on (porting an Android App to Windows Phone)..
The secondary reason in my mind was this... A 41 megapixel sensor paired with my telescope. Lightweight and easy to attach to an eyepiece.
My first attempt here, isn't perfect but the phone did well and the experience was enjoyable. I'll just get better from here. Can't wait to try for some planets as the cool nights kick in..
One of those Dreary Days..
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Because weather is the polite and safe topic with which to fill silence.
Nearly every August on the Gulf Coast it is nearly guaranteed that someone will mention to you, "Crazy, All this rain, right?? They are saying it is going to be a record."
With statisticians maintaining such records it isn't hard to find one. "Today.. our 2-hour rainfall averages are the highest on record for this date, year over year."
Huh?
Anyway... it's a dreary, rainy day here on the Gulf Coast, a good day to sit inside and look through some images. Here's one I found that seemed like it had some qualities worth sharing.
...
Er, umm..How about that weather?
:)
Away
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This scene seemed a bit more appealing than my actual day of sitting behind the glow of two monitors struggling to get caught up on a backlog of work before the weekend.
:)
Orange Beach, Alabama
All Work and No Play
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As a change of pace, I thought I'd let you guys in on one of my latest projects that has been a real trip down memory lane.
Dumb luck led me to a lead on this 1992 Data East Star Wars Pinball machine. A very nice medical professional in Daphne was cleaning out his storage unit and sold it to me for a deal.
I bought it without even seeing it. I'd been looking for this particular machine for over a year. Had found them but boy were they pricey.
When I did meet him up, he fired up the machine with a generator in his storage unit. All the major stuff worked, it just needed a little TLC. So, I ordered a bunch of parts and last weekend, knowing very little about pinball, I stripped all of the plastics from the machine, cleaned them, cleaned the playfield and waxed it, then proceeding to replacing every single lightbulb in the machine with new, LED's that will (mostly) never go out and will reduce heat on the machine.
I gained new respect for the techs in the 90's that did this for a living. The overall project took an entire Saturday but the result is pretty awesome, in a nerdy way. :)
At any rate, this machine should get another 20 years of play if all goes well! I guess, they really don't make them like they used to.
(Literally. As far as I know, only one pinball manufacturer remains in business today.
State of Decay
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..one of my first shots done with a Nokia Lumia 1020. I'll post more on this phone soon!
Perseid Meteor Shower
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The big camera and I spent a little time in the back yard after midnight watching the meteor shower. I saw only a handful of streaks and shooting stars during the event. It could be that we were not in the most ideal location or the wrong times. At any rate, the shutter happened to be open for this one, so I thought I'd share.
Bayside Illumination
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The quiet nights like this one on the bay, give a person a good opportunity to reflect. On this particular night I was thinking alot about my career and the industries that I'm part of.
I thought alot about how I use photography as an escape from software development / IT work. It isn't that I don't enjoy that work but I think it is a way to prevent or delay my inevitable burn out.
For instance, I'd like to have been in a position to lead a small team of developers, by now. Either as part of my own company or as an IT department. That hasn't panned out; but when I really dig deep and think about it:
I'm way happier than all of the managers I know.
So, maybe being the awkward, technical dba, programmer, mobile developer guy that is a 'doer for hire' isn't so bad so long as it affords me the ability to be a good dad and husband along the way.
...Then I think about photography...If I were to quit IT work tomorrow, could I make a full time go of photography? (And what would THAT look like?) Would it be portraiture? Continued adventures in "photography art"?
... It seems in photography, the really-super-successful folks on the national stage are making their piles of cash from photography education. Trey Ratcliff, Scott Kelby and his team, there are dozens of others. All great / no / world-class photographers who found more of a market in selling the secrets of their trade than the fruit from the trade itself...
So maybe this imagined Bill Photography Inc would be something along those lines. Training of some sort.
Which let me to this revelation.. Don't sweat posting a photo-a-day like those guys. Post a photo when you have one. 365-projects are all well and good and fun and challenging. But, the 24 hour "keep viewers engaged" shouldn't weigh more than "creating images you're happy with."
I look back in my own body of work and I've seen so many examples of things I've put out that I'm not happy with today, in terms of finished quality. Some, because my skill has grown or my tastes have changed. Some, because I felt the invisible pressure of the clock.
"Gotta get a post up today! umm.. Here's a rock. Click. Add a filter. Save. Upload!!"
Screw the clock. Post as many or as little as your work calls for and as fits your desired sharing exposure!
