As Light Travels

As someone who fancies myself a photographer at times and general connoisseur of electron-equipped devices a-plenty, I know very little about light.    I mean, I know that light travels in waves and that different wavelengths are perceived on that part of the EM spectrum as colors by the gelatinous orbs in our skulls.  I know about some of the various units of measurement that humans have devised to describe it's intensity and other properties.

But to comprehend the movement, speed and dynamics of how light travels?   I just don't REALLY understand it.

I've read every possible simplified thing on relativistic speeds, the effects on light as it travels through space-time, as gravity distorts its path or as observers perceive it.

I don't REALLY- FULLY understand light.

I can look through a telescope and get that, yes -- that point of light I see is actually the state of that object millions - or - billions - of years ago.  I get that.. Kinda.

But.. what is light.  Can you describe it? I can try but I always fail.

Is light, merely the absence of dark?  What does it taste like? What does it feel like?

Maybe our senses weren't designed to really understand things like light or.. gravity.

Maybe even those highly educated PHD's you see on the History Channel describing physics to us, really don't understand light either.  

(or maybe they do.)

I'm comfortable in the fact that in the way that most artists don't know what their paint taste like, most photographers really don't "get" light..  Even if they say they do.
 
You can make - or capture - an image without being a physicist.   Don't let them tell you otherwise.

Casual

I was asked to speak on a panel this week with a group of professional photographers.    

Among those on the panel..

Probably the best nature and wildlife photographer in Alabama

A renowned, published-more-times-than I can count fashion and portraiture artist

A state-wide photography contest winner, accomplished photography trainer & portrait master

A well recognized & respected portrait & dance/arts photographer

Then me.

I really had no business being there but I sure had a good time.

The questions from members were strong, often too strong to honor with useful answers in a 1 hour panel.

The question about micro-four-thirds...   Easy big boy.. :)  I could speak for hours on interchangeable lens mirror-less cameras.   The goods, the bads, where I see this heading, which cameras I've used and what I thought of each. 

(I've used most of them)

Afterwards, I strolled down to the Fairhope Pier Marina to check on my sailboat, which has been waiting patiently to receive power from the City.   There amongst the slips, I saw parallels in the evening and my "career" as a photographer.

One boat, something near a 40-footer, houses live-aboard transient world-travelers.  Professional Sailors.

One boat, another 40 footer was decked out with two furling and all the rigging to be single handed by an accomplished sailor.

 

Then, there was my boat.  Freshly sailed but dirty.   In need of some canvas work, minor engine repair and some time-consuming cabin window cleanup.    Not even close to sunk like some of the other ghostly boats in the marina but not exactly a showpiece, either.

I think that describes me pretty well.   Not quite sunk but not quite "done" either.

Either way, I'm pretty happy being a casual photographer.  Those professionals have deadlines and expectations.  Every one of them are orders of magnitude better at this craft than I but hey - there's something liberating about being free to create and explore.  

The pool-side Moscato later on, pictured here, was pretty tasty, too. :)

Thanks for the invite!  It was totally fun!

In the Rain

After Last Month's Eastern Shore Camera Club meeting, the sky opened up briefly for a typical summer shower.    I snapped this shot of a park bench across the path -- I liked the water bokeh.

What about you?   Does your camera come out in the rain or stay safe in the bag?

Perspective

Last weekend I sailed from Orange Beach to Fairhope.   The straight-out-of-the-north wind made it a 10 hour Journey.  I'm not complaining, mind you.   It was a beautiful day, we made it safely.   Not much broke.

Here's a clip from that trip:

As you sail, expecially with a purpose, you spend alot of time looking up at the Windex.  Not the stuff you clean windows with but the little spinning arrow thingy at the top of the mast.  It denotes your apparent wind and helps you to locate and manage your points of sail.   This is where, when sailing, some finesse can come into play -- you try to balance the heading you wish to travel against the optimum wind angle.

As I'd stare at the Windex for minutes on end, switching between it and the compass, the rolling waves, dancing dolphins and playing gulls around the sails would disappear into the purpose of the moment.   Maintain a heading of 315 for 30 minutes, then tack the other direction, rinse and repeat as they say.

I suppose that's the trick of perspective.   We can sometimes see only what we let ourselves see.

We measure cold as an absence of hot, bad as a negative good.  Everything being relational. 

Against my own better judgement, I watched both the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention, this year via selective coverage points.    I shouldn't have.

I'm continually amazed how we, nieghbors, brothers and sisters can be so far apart on so many issues.   That too, is a trick in perspective, I feel.  The Republicans can't be all right or all wrong.  The Democrats can't be all right or all wrong.  If so, who'd follow them.

In my perspective as an independant, a sailor and a ponderer of things over my head I see things in the most simplistic of terms.   If I lived in a town with only two Air Conditioner Techs and my AC broke, I'd call the one with the most compelling offering.  If, after only four years, I found that tech's work to be lacking, I'd try the other guy.   At the end of that four years, what then?   

I know this.. I wouldn't be dumb enough to pay the same two guys to undo each others' work every four years.

Yet, that's where we are headed.   Alas, though, it's time for me to switch headings again, from politics to life we go, eyes on the Windex, not too far now...

Boarded Up (Kinda)

For us here on the Alabama Gulf Coast, the effects of Isaac have been pretty tame.   If nothing else, maybe it provided a good fire-drill for when a storm will hit us directly.

This shot is of Yardarm on Fairhope Pier, mostly boarded up. 

Silvery Strands of Falling Water

I took the camera out for some in-the-rain shots, while the first rain bands from Isaac started to reach the Eastern Shore.    In Daphne, the rain started to come down pretty hard and I talked a little with a nice couple about cameras.  "Hey, that guy has a nice looking camera, let's ask him what we should buy."  

What I thought was cool about this shot was that I didn't go through any heavy post processing to get this silvery effect.  This is essentially how it looked, due to haze and shooting through active rainfall..  I did tweak the contrast a bit but that's about it.  The result was neat I thought...

Isaac at the Gates

Today around lunch I found myself an hour to wonder the Eastern Shore with other gawkers, looking for interesting things related to the storm.  As a sail enthusiat I tend to gravitate to marinas.  I found marina life to be fascinating, especially with a storm on the way.  

This shot is from the Fairhope Pier, City Marina.   A couple things of note.   Two boats are already sunk in the marina, before the storm even gets here.  One boat owner, on the left, just off the frame from this shot, apparently thought it was clever to come, open the companionway of his boat and leave it, ostensibly to join the other two sunken boats and make his insurance claims.  

Why is the City Marina, a nice little marina in a picturesque surrounding with decent facilities and super-nice management, the place for people to take their boats to die?

At any rate, Isaac is at the Gates, I hope for those in his path that he doesn't turn to a Hannibal..

From the Ground Up

Evening Blues

 Not that I had the blues.. but there were some blues in the sky,.. so you know..  Blues..... :) 

meh

 It's not going to win any awards.. but this is what I have to share for now :) 

Mother Earth's Veins

A Break in the Darkness for Something Colorful

I was seeing a whole page full of Black & White images from my last few posts, so I thought it would be agreeably bipolar to post something extra-colorful, now.

This is another Disney Do-Over.  The original shot, in 2011, I show at ISO 6400.   It was uber-grainy, so here's a clearer re-do!

Into the black

Another kinda moody shot from after the Eastern Shore Camera Club Meeting the other night in Fairhope.   Wasn't feeling particularly moody just playing with some night-time scenes. :)

Darker Motives

 As a suspicious person, I can't help but question motives.    

Sometimes, that serves me well.   Like, the craigslist ad respondent who wants to paypal me the money up front.  See, he's buying for his son in Russia and will arrange to have a mover come pick up the item in the future.

I click Delete and move on.  If I'm feeling froggy sometimes I reply from my special Gmail account that looks like an official person. 

But, what of less nefarious, more subtle hidden motives?

The guy that friends you on facebook because he wants a job and feels you can make that happen.    The NRA robo-calls.   The seemingly helpful semi-famous photographers on social media who happen to offer training, ebooks, prints, iphone apps, camera accessories and cardboard stand ups of themselves for sale on their sites.

Look, I get it.  People gotta eat.  I don't hate commerce and I sell stuff too..     It is when that line between "content' that "commercial" get blurry is where my consumer spidey-senses begin to tingle.  I attended a webinar recently on photography as an art form.   It was a good webinar.  It was a paid webinar.  I enjoyed it, I got something out of it.  I like the person who put it on, I think he's honest and sincere, despite relative fame.
 
They had stuff to sell.  I bought some.   Everything was "above-board" and open.  I like that!

Then, I'm listening to talk radio the other day. Commercials start to take on the format of a "news desk".   "Hey, this is Art Artinson here from the Institute on Made-up made-upness.    This just in, there has never been a better time to invest your savings in a company that sells and processes information related to the acquisition of the details necessary to begin investing in Gold!!  Gold is at a 2,000/year high.  Not sense Cleopatra has gold been valued and as those evil democrats continue to kill our country, it will only go higher!!!!"

(I'm not a democrat or a republican)

..and the ads don't stop there.   "Food Insurance, Hero Tabs, e-Cigarettes"... and all manner of nearly-scam-seeming items for sale.    The ones that really get me are the in-midst-of-the-content ads.    "Let me take just a minute to tell you about (blah).  I use it, love it.   I keeps me (happy) and makes life better.   Go to (blahblahblahDOTCom) and use referral code (TalkingHead) for a .01% discount".

I kinda shudder to imagine the closed-minded demo-republicrat hanging onto every word with their check card in hand.   That's probably not the economic stimulus we needed.

I had a guy, awhile back, friend me on G+ to push on me the merits of Islam.  I think it is great when people are excited about their beliefs and this guy was a well-meaning soul.   But what was his motive?  To follow my photography and programming exploits? Nope.  Every day, I'd get these notes on how in Islam you can astral-project to some other time or location or the immense sense of peace it brought to his life.   The guy was a living breathing brochure.

Hey, cool man. 

I'm happy with my vacuum cleaner, I can pray for myself and I'm not looking for magazine subscriptions no matter how badly you deserve to go to college.  I'm happy with my Tupperware and I know where to buy soap.  

The sad part is.  When my virtual doorbell rings and the person standing there is simply inviting me over for coffee, I will miss at least the first 5 minutes of our conversation while I size them up for potential commercial dangers... 

One Night, by the Bay...

He sat in the sand, his knees pulled up to his chest and listened. 

In the distance, the waves crashed on the seawall.  The low growl of the wind was broken by the din of metal on metal as the chains and clasps of the swing crashed into frame.    At a nearby city marina, the masts of sailboats danced silently like ballerinas to a tune heard only by nature.

Behind him, the ascending and descending doppler pitch of a jogger's shoes as they pass by.  He doesn't turn to look. In the sky above, the clouds wisp by as if they were the spirits embraced by the first inhabitants of these lands. Motorists in the distance, a lightning crash on the north shore of the bay.

His cellphone is off.

Right now, he isn't a programmer or technician, bag boy or night stocker.  He isn't a cashier or a clerk, a photographer or mechanic.  He isn't a lawyer or janitor, isn't a pastor or Rabi.  He isn't a salesman or youth coach, isn't a writer or electrician. Not right now.

No desk phones, no pagers, no cellphones, no doorbells.   No lines, no credit checks, no grass to cut and no kids banging on the bathroom door. No emails, no text messages, no overdue bills, no checkbook to balance.   No utility bills, no double dates, no performance reviews and no coworkers or friends..

Just a human soul, brain rebooting, waiting to do it all again tomorrow.

On the Bayou

Last one for today.. Kind of a different sort of shot for me.  I went for a drive and found this along the way.   Was able to grab a couple shots and leave before angry camo-clad shotgun wielding people appeared to shoo me off.

The Coming Camerapocalypse

I feel as if we are on the edge of something.    It is as if, just under the horizon, the low rumblings of a societal change are starting grow in and amplify to something that will one day be deafening.

It is 2012 and almost everyone is a photographer.

You can’t hear my tone, so I should explain that is “everyone is a photographer!” with a tinge of nervous excitement not: “everyone is a photograper.” in the embittered tone of a  grizzled old photographer, resistant to change.

At first I thought it was my own transformation back to photographer from something else that was more cerebral and skeptical.  Someone less art-aware.
Finding inspiring images from others that have undergone a similar profession reassignment, from something to technical to something artful, I somehow went to bed one evening ignorant of art and woke the next morning seeing art in my cheerios.

Was it an awakening or a phase?  I’ll let you know in 33 years.

Around me within my non-photography related social circles I’m witnessing friends, colleagues and acquaintances taking the leap, “I’m now a photographer.”

It is as if I could flip through my Facebook contact list and safely put “Studios” or “Photography” after anyone’s name and not mislabel them.   The co-owner of the company I work for’s daughter, the lady at the deli I like to eat at, new friends, old friends.   Everyone’s a photographer.

...and the damn of it is... they are all good!   Many of them great and Most of them better than I.

I can’t help but be distracted by the endless stream of compelling photos, sometimes of visual wonders and other times of the mundane that are photographed with real, natural talent by the people around me.   

I love it.  I think.

I am really really good at derived repetition and I LOVE taking pictures of things.   As I get inundated with this ever overflowing stream of awesome imagery, I can’t help but absorb ideas that I apply in my own modest craft.

Which leads me to... where are we going?  What will the future be like with everyone and their brother carrying a camera and using them prolifically?   

I don’t know, for sure, but I know it will be well documented!

Extremes

I was following Trey Ratcliff's Art of Photography webinar, following The Verge's Paul Miller's Offline Experiment, working on an Android app, reading about Sharepoint and enjoying a decent craft beer last night while I processed this image. 

During the webinar, they talked about how your mood and experiences come through in the post processing of an image.   So true!  

Sometimes I sit down and think to myself "I want to see a monochrome image..  let's make one."
othertimes it is more subtle.   

After a rather "extreme" day yesterday, I felt like creating this... something a bit more extreme and whimsical.

Straight into Dusk

Simplicity

Over my career in IT, I've been continually amazed at how many of my IT brethren and (uhh.. sistren?) get bogged down in making things more complicated than need be.    I tend to expect that one day, I'll be in the position to see the need to overcomplicate things and that I'll look back and realize that "they were right all along."

 or... maybe they aren't.  Maybe the KISS principle is a sound philosophy.

I've worked with many bright (much smarter than me) developers who, when tasked to add a feature, decide to "rewrite it" because ...it.... wasn't in their coding style.   I've met many (most) system engineers that build out systems in complicated and convoluted manners in order to scale to future needs.

The future needs are important to take into factor, I agree.

But, how much is too much complexity?

Our social systems tend to have a gravity towards complexity.   Small groups turn into departments which in turn give birth to committees.   Before you know it, project champions and subcommittees are making decisions that are so far left or right of common sense that they border on the stupid.   

Then, there's the sin of complexity through protectionism.

A "network guy" that I've worked with repetitively sins in this direction.   He and his group wield all of the keys to access to all sides of the network (as they should).

The problem is that they are not benevolent gatekeepers.   Instead, he and his bunch are suspicious and paranoid, untrusting and uncommunicative.

"Hey look, the CTO says we need to make this thing happen ASAP.  Can we  work together on this, can you get me the systems resources I need?"

"Nope."

Where I come from, when your boss tells you to do something.  You do it.    If that something can cause harm, you add a carefully worded warning but you still do it.

One of these system guys once told me this story, the justification behind their madness.

A nefarious and evil software engineer (like me) built and packaged an update to a 911 calling system for them to deploy.   (Because.. ya know… developers cannot deploy their own code..   the result of that.. would be.. like the Keymaster and Gatekeeper making whoopy ala Ghostbusters' end times prophecies…) 

The code, when deployed to the production system, failed during the late night upgrade.   When the poor, pitiful sysadmin tried to contact that developer, their manager, nay : anyone, they were not able to.  The result was the Escambia County 911 computer system being down needlessly for hours until the necessary parties got to work the next day.

I was standing over his shoulder, asking to get my hands, temporarily, on the public-facing web server for the backend of an iPhone app that was not-yet-live and THIS was the reason I was not able to have such access.   Because someone else, year's ago, stranded him amidst a project and that person's job function matched mine.  The result?  To create a virtual machine copy of the production system, to move it to another V-Lan and to email me hours later when I could get into this sandbox to test the environment differences that caused the application to work incorrectly.

Fast forward a year and six months later.    A CTO came to me and asked, "hey, set up this software for us to try."   We needed a Virtual Machine to test with.   The request goes to IT and the response? -- "We don't have time."

It's funny..  they could make time to spin up Virtual Machine's in order to fulfill a protectionist agenda but when the Virtual Machine was needed for a project they didn't agree was important, suddenly delivering a Virtual Machine was an arduous task.

When I interviewed developers, I'd often look for those developers who have grown past the adolescent need to needless over-architect solutions for infinite scalability, to those who simply try to make the most pragmatic use of their time and can reasonably accept that the requirements of their project will change over time.

When I interviewed system administrators, I'd look for those individuals willing to work with software engineers towards a common goal.  Someone who could research and implement the necessary systems to drive the organizations' goals and still protect uptime and implement safe security practices.

Odds are, the companies you deal with on a day-to-day basis have IT Departments that do not work together with this degree of harmony.   This is the reason when you call a business, an automated system asks you for some information and the representative asks for the same information 5 minutes later.   Someone, in that company -- isn't working together and most likely aren't keeping it simple…