It’s come to my attention that the site has been experiencing some severe delays in load times. I am looking into the problem and will correct things shortly – in the meantime, please excuse the dust as I clean things up a little…and enjoy the simplified layout for a while!
Category: personal
Colorado – Not Just Sunsets!
While working through the material for today and next week, a friend called up and asked if I’d be interested in joining him for a stroll through downtown during sunset. Being one to never turn down a sunset, or a photo walk, or city architecture, I readily agreed. So, we met near downtown Denver. Gregg and I had been talking about setting up a sunset shot of the city skyline for some time now and we’d had some ideas for a good place to scout it out. But, tonight his motive was different. Continue reading “Colorado – Not Just Sunsets!”
What would you do?
Saturday was an interesting day. The dog had to go into the vet for a follow-up early in the morning, so off I went at the crack of dawn. It was early and nary a car on the road. I got to the vet office and without much of a line, went on in and saw the vet pretty quickly. The stitches needed to stay in for another two weeks, but a shot vaccination was due, so we got that taken care of.
The “big task” of the day now complete, we saunter out to the car – the dog very happy to be in and out so quickly. The front door opens to get the rear door lock (I don’t believe in power locks apparently), and in that instant, she decides she wants to hop in front. Why not, and up she goes. All happy-go-lucky, I decided to hit Starbucks for a cup of coffee. Since we didn’t have any co-pay thanks to the wellness plan for the dog, literally at the speaker I upped the ante to a Grande White Mocha. 3000 calories of delicious!
The dog is all shaking and quivering as she has never been in the front seat before…a little too nerve-wracking for her. With two cars waiting in front of me, I decide I have the time and put it into Park, trot over and let the dog go from front to back seat. Hopping back in, the cars start moving again.
On reaching the window, I hand a $5 for the breakfast, and am told:
“Your drink was purchased by the car in front of you sir – we see this happen sometimes.”
Stunned, I realize I was just given a very generous gift, for apparently no reason. The car was gone, and I am sitting there dumbfounded. Here’s where you get to guess the ending! Did I:
- Say thank you and drive away?
- Ask the total for the car behind me and pay it forward?
- Chase down the car in front and give them $5?
Vote in the comments – answer revealed tomorrow! 🙂
Delayed
Just as I start to insert myself back into reality, civilization and all that “real” stuff, the very real weather of the East Coast yesterday decided to extend my trip by another 24 hours against my will. Yes, the flight was delayed sufficiently from my starting city that I would have completely missed my connection flight back home. So, I must spend another 24 hours here with the family in upstate New York – oh the tragedy! 🙂
It does mean that my blog post schedule needs to adjust slightly, so consider today a pseudo “no blog” post day. I may have time to get the article finished that I had intended on putting together before too long, but in the event the traveling bug has other plans for me, decided to make a judgment call. Have a great weekend and we’ll see you back here on Monday with a lot of news and photo goodness to catch up on! Happy shooting!
Where in the world am I?
Thanks to the timely receipt of the Photoshop Guys Q&A sets, I was effectively able to go “off the grid” for nearly a week! That’s right – completely off the grid! No email, no Twitter, no Facebook, no phone, no internet – nada! It was quite the enjoyable experience. While a select few people did have a “need to know” before I left, I did try to keep this on the down low… Continue reading “Where in the world am I?”
Shooting From the Hip
While recently taking a reality break and visiting family in my old stomping grounds, I had a chance to tour the Farmer’s Museum in Cooperstown, NY. Viewing museums like these is a lot of fun for both kids and adults – kids because of the activities, and adults because I think as you get older, you can start to appreciate with more awareness just how tough things were (or how easy they are now). Continue reading “Shooting From the Hip”
eBooks on the iPad?
A few people have asked if I had plans to make the eBooks iPad-compatible. I hadn’t considered that before (the iPad prefers the epub format over PDF), but am willing to entertain the option, depending on interest (it’s a little pricier of a proposition, so the cost would have to be justifiable). So – you tell me…do you think it’s worth getting the ISBN, converting to ePUB and distributing through the iBookstore channels as well? Sound off in the weekend poll: Continue reading “eBooks on the iPad?”
A simple question is never simple…
I am putting together a DIY project that requires a tool which is rather pricey (roughly $50). So in the interests of keeping costs down, I’ve been contacting local glass cutting shops (although that might be telling too much) to see if they have the tool needed for the job. Specifically, the shop needs to have a 3 and1/8″ diamond tipped hole saw for this project. The first words out of my mouth are always:
“Hi, my name is Jason and I am trying to find a local shop that can cut a piece of glass for me, but it must be done with a 3 and 1/8″ diamond tipped hole saw bit. Do you have that specific size?”
Nothing But the Tail Lights
In the course of pursuing creative inspiration, I’ve often found that just picking a subject and sticking with it can be a good exercise in creativity. Taking something and focusing (no pun intended) on that subject and only that subject can help you see things differently. The exercise is good whether your subject is flowers, thumb drives, coffee mugs (which I’ve done in the past), or in this case – tail lights!
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As you can tell, some of the shots are pretty cool, others – well, not so much. Some are out of focus, some are boring, but a few just pop and stand out. Also note that I’ve not done any post processing of these. I just imported into Lightroom 3, re-sized for export uniformity, and boom! – done. While I grant you it’s not always showcasing the “best of the best” of your work, it’s is important though not to eliminate shots from the project, at least initially…because these “throwaways” can help you identify what works and what doesn’t work. What makes certain shots stand out and why? These are all things to look at when doing little mini projects like this. So, pick a subject and fire away! Feel free to share your own thoughts on what works and what doesn’t in the comments, and hopefully this will help kick-start some other projects! Happy shooting all and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!
What Flash versus HTML5 is really about…
Surely you’ve heard the whole ruckus about Flash versus HTML5, Apple versus Adobe, and the Conan vs Leno thing now, right? Well, before we all get too caught up in these heated debates, let’s take a step back and think about what is really going on here… Continue reading “What Flash versus HTML5 is really about…”