Future So Bright
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I hope your weekend is bright. :)
(Remember the sunscreen!)
A Castle and a Tale of Two Cameras
/A completely unscientific experiment follows. I wanted to share my results / thoughts.
I don't get to travel that frequently. I rarely travel for business. Heck, I work from home so I don't even commute to an office that frequently. Lets face it, I milk the locales available to be locally for all I can, photographically. Suffice-it-to say, getting to travel on vacation with the family once-a-year is a big/big deal to my photography aspirations.
Vacations are tough photo-outings, though. The kids, the wife, the crowds. It's important for me to keep in my mind that my family isn't on the same photo expedition that I'm on. They are on vacation. My wife graciously tolerates my f-stop bag full o' big camera goodies and rolls her eyes infrequently as I stop a million times from here-to-there and snap photos of random things. I have to keep myself in check.
I'm not a travel-photo-blogger (wouldn't that be cool), the amex in my pocket doesn't get turned in on an expense report. I have chocolate milk to get, a diaper bag to often hold. Kids that sometimes argue and bicker and a wife that would rightly like some assistance refereeing their matches.
However, I see these vacations as my only opportunity to snap photos of something different than my day-to-day surroundings. As such, I come geared up and ready for battle, so to speak. It is usually the D800, a 14-24mm (rented until recently), a tripod and a SB-700 speedlight. The body to get me mega-resolution, the lens to get me super-crisp landscapes, the tripod b/c the lens doesn't tolerate movement and the speedlight b/c the red-light, light-meter keeps me out of trouble in churches and public places that frown on white-light metering that looks like a flash.
It has always been the trusty Nikon. My D90, the D7000, now this D800. Until this time. This trip, I tried something radical (for me). I left the big camera in the room (most days) and the tripod in the car.
I gave the Sony NEX-7 a shot to prove its metal.
(and it did)
I thought it would be interesting to shoot one of my favorite spots of The Magic Kingdom with the NEX-7 one day and the D800 on another day. The results are interesting.
(Above)
Cinderella's Castle Shot Handheld in a Bracket of RAW at +2, m, -2 with a Sony Alpha NEX-7, Sony 10-18 E-Mount Lens. HDR'd, Filtered with a "ColorChrome" Filter. Some noise redux in Lightroom
(Above)
Cinderella's Castle, a different day - a bigger camera Shot Handheld in a Bracket of RAW at +2, +1, m, -1, -2 with a Nikkor AF-S 14-24mm Lens. HDR'd with the +2, m, -2 frames only with a preset created while processing the other image. Same "ColorChrome" filter. Some noise redux in Lightroom, some "cool" temperature adjustments
So, in the Red Corner, weighing in at the weight of a newborn baby, we have the D800. Its 36 Megapixel sensor paired with the 14-24 Nikkor comprise what is agreed by most to be the Landscape Photography Dream Team. Almost-medium format. The Thrilla in the Manilla!!
In the Blue Corner, weighing in at the weight of a half-empty margarita, we have the Sony Alpha NEX-7. Its 24 megapixel sensor paired with a rather-new and unproven Sony E-Mount 10-18 mm lens aren't a fully-proven platform for "serious" (ish) landscape photography. But it has potential.
The results are interesting. Was it an upset? I think so. Even though the d800 should have the NEX-7 beat in this, I actually like the NEX-7 image better.
To be fair they aren't the same image. I shot at different times of day (and on different days) and didn't stand in exactly the same spot. I used the 14mm zoom level on the Nikkor and the wider 10mm zoom level on the Sony.
All sorts of full-frame vs cropped sensor math that would put you and me both asleep could go here.
But at the end of the day, here's what I ended up with. I spent my vacation with a smaller camera. It was lighter, wasn't as intrusive. I took about 5,000 shots with the Sony and around 2,500 with the Nikon. Both performed beautifully but the Sony edged up the Nikon in that, it was with me on a wrist strap, at places I dared not tread with the huge Nikon body / lens.
..and the results are very usable.
The decision I've been weighing for awhile lately, is: Should I even still own a D800? I love the camera and the lens, don't get me wrong. But, if I could get (practically) the same results out of a camera that costs 1/3 the price and is 1/5 the size, Why wouldn't I? Especially, being someone who generally doesn't profit from photography output.
This little experiment put me one step closer to not owning a big DSLR anymore. Go ahead, talk some sense into me.
PS, My favorite compositional flavor of this shot is still last year's:
Which was the D800 and a 28-300 zoom lens, multiple shots - stitched together as a panorama.
I can relate to Driftwood
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I can totally relate to driftwood. You just sorta hang out and let the waves lap. The tide comes in and goes out. Driftwood doesn't have road rage, doesn't pay taxes, isn't a democrat or a republican, doesn't pay bills or have 12 bosses.
Doesn't seem like such a bad existence to me. :)
Stranded
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There's something about the enforcement of justice in previous centuries that is fascinating. Like this guy, marooned for his ship-board crimes.
Distant Castaways
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The Bahamas, Last Week
Walt's Kingdom
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I really had this text in my mind ready to blurt out to the keyboard before I had this shot picked out.
One of my fondest memories from High School was this field trip to Orlando (with the band)
I wasn't talented enough to actually play an instrument very well but I was tapped as the photographer to shadow the band on such trips. The band nerds didn't pick on me (as much) as the jocks. I guess for insurance purposes, it was the safest course of action to keep me busy, instead of my usual hours spent selling fake report cards and test answers..
Me and my friend Robbie Hurst went absolutely bat doo-doo wild taking pictures with our Canon AE-1's. Not just band nerds but camera nerds too! The lack of coolness here is limitless.
I remember between the two of us we shot dozens of rolls of film (personal) and a dozen + for the yearbook. I stumbled on a few rolls just a few weeks ago that I never did send off. I will with my next batch but who I'm skeptical in their condition given heat and storage.
Here I stood, today on the last day of, frankly, an exhausting vacation reflecting on what has changed since that field trip 16 years ago. Disney World is still very similar and.. so am I. I think my total camera roll for the 9 day trip was around 7600 shots. Of which, some were brackets and crap. 10-20 really good shots are hiding in there waiting to be discovered (I hope).
I wonder what Walt would think of his Kingdom in 2013? I remember these stories that I heard as a Wal-mart buggy-pusher about Sam Walton closing a Wal-mart, firing all of the "associates", because of a bad customer experience. Don't know if it was even true but it was legend among the Stockman back in 1996, the details ever-evolving.
I don't think that was Walt's style but I do believe he cared deeply about the customer experience. I believe Disney as a company, still does. I can only imagine how hard it is to try to make a million people happy. Just doesn't seem possible.
So how was the trip? Long, good. With high points and low points.
Sure, I'm a little annoyed at the $40 dining reservation cancellation fee that will be on my express checkout form because of a scheduling mishap. I'm pretty sure that isn't the kind of thing Walt would have been happy to hear about. But.... I think I'll eat this one. Isn't worth getting the ol' dander up, if you catch my meaning.
So would Walt approve of his Kingdom in 2013? Sure. I think he'd make some changes and have a broader vision for changing the world at large but yes -- I think he'd be satisfied with the result. I think the Make-A-Wish donations, smiling faces and genuine-article attempts to create positive experiences outweigh the $3 20 oz bottle drinks, long lines and seemingly lawyer-run policy driven behavior of the often rotational staff.
But hey, what do I know? I'm just a dude with $3 to spend on a coke. :) Have a great week..
Disney Cruise Impression (on Disney Dream to Nassau)
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I'll keep it short b/c I'm a short guy and short on time :) In short, Very Good (but not perfect)
The Ship: Quite large. Fun to explore at night. (as seen here) Well kept, near perfect functionally. Beautifully decorated and maintained. Three pools. Pools 1 and 2 in the family area are about half the size of a normal residential "bean" pool. These things are tiny. They have nice little "wet seats" on the edge and get covered by retractable decking during parties. The ship was way too crowded. I'll post pictures of the pool when I get back from off the road. The elevators were nearly impossible to manage at times with just too many people trying to get from mid-deck activities to higher deck lodging and common areas.
The Service: Very Good (but not perfect) Most, if not all employees were super helpful and one thing can be said about Disney, they aren't afraid to overstaff a situation. I'm a great tipper. Disney Cruise Line loves the "autogratuity" feature. We did boost all tips over the autogratuity amounts b/c they feel things were deserved. The one ding, I'd give service is that they say on a cruise like this, "Don't want what's on the menu? Ask and if its on the boat, they will bring it." I didn't find this to be true. My son wanted a Mickey Waffle at dinner. I give them a solid A- in that they did, after some eye-rolling and asking several times, eventually present him with a eggo waffle, probably from some employee break room, cut roughly into the shape of a Mickey Head. The score goes to ingenuity but they did try rather persistantly to get out of delivering little Miles' request.
The Food: Disappointing. They say cruise food, you'll inevitably gain weight because of all the great choices. I didn't but I'm already a fat dude. :) The whole cruise, I really just wanted a dang lobster tail and a ribeye. Neither was to be had. In fact, all of the evening-dining was a little like watching the food channel. Great presentation (almost), ingredients you can't pronounce, smallish portions. The presentation thing annoys me the most b/c it was half-assed in a way. Here you have this dish that looks way better than it tastes and some chef-guy has drizzled something on it as the last step. "VIOLA! My masterpiece is complete!"... But they'd fail to wipe the plate down so the drizzle of gravy or whatever-the-hell-it-was would be on a little portion of the plate. So, surprisingly all-in-all, I'd rate every single sit down dining event as fail. The service was great. They brought the mediocre food on time and kept it groovy.
On a side note of food: The open buffets were a little better but really, the feature there was seafood. Living on the Gulf Coast, their seafood was pitiful compared to the food we eat every day along the Causeway.
The Destination:
Nassau - A bit of a fail for a family outing, unless you go to Atlantis. Nassau just isn't that clean, family experience you probably have in your head. We did venture out on the streets and didn't have any major problems. The usual pushy (and frankly: desperate) vendors. Ironically, I think the Porters hired on contract (by Disney) at Port Canavaral were pushier than the Nassau locals, who have a reputation for being borderline dangerous.
I'd love to return one days without kids, some cash in pocket and try to get into some trouble there with the colorful local characters.
Castaway Cay:
Epic.
"Disney's Private Island" is only as private as any cruise destination can be but there were areas you could escape too and maintain 50 ft or so of privacy/buffer from mean kids and annoying co-cruisers.
Will definitely return here.
All in all, a Very Good trip with a family. ..and.. the adult-only sections of the ship were quite serene.
Will probably do again... in 2-3 years based on the final cost of the thing.
When it Rains in Paradise (It is still paradise)
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Our regularly scheduled fun in the sun will resume in 15 minutes. First, a quick rainshower.
On Holiday
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Well, as of this moment, I've off work for a week + a few days for some much needed R&R. I'll try to post mid-next week when I'm back in the range of the inter-tubes once again...
This was the setup for this shot..
..I show it because I thought the closeness to the beach chair was really interesting.
The first set, I shot sweeping from left to right with the camera in "portrait" orientation. My thought was that a super-huge panoramic would be nice. I may go back and try it again later but the natural single-frame, non-stitched shot looked better than the stitched panoramic. Much less obvious distortion, anyway.
I've been experimenting with this Lens (Nikkor 14-24) and a Sony 10-18. Looking forward to getting to put them both to work this week on vacation!
Have a great Memorial Day Weekend
The Beach Chairs @ the Apocalypse
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For some reason, every time I see these beach chairs (which were Eagle Scout projects along the Eastern Shore) I'm reminded of this:
Which, were these VIP observers of a Nuclear Bomb test during Operation Greenhouse at Enewetak Atoll in 1951.
I've even considered photoshopping in a mushroom cloud but it seems like that crosses a line. The good news is, the guy in the front, in shorts is finally going to get a tan on those legs.
.. I'm also reminded of the movie Deep Impact. I know it has Morgan Freeman and a bunch of other actors that didn't burn brightly enough to be exposed on the often dull photographic plate of my memory.
There was this scene where one of the main actresses, a skinny blond lady with the hint of a dutch accent and a strange tendency to to bite her lip while remembering her lines and her previously estranged bio-dad who strangely had some ukranian accent, hold onto each other in reconciliation as a tidal wave crushes them.
It was meant to be a touching moment, nerfed somehow by the hollow acting - just my opinion.
At any rate.. So here's the setup. The end is nigh and you can't escape it. You know it's coming, you know when. Be it an asteroid, a sunspot or any of the innumerable Hollywood envisioned horrors doled out by Earth to we, the poor stewards of this planet.. You have on your iCal/outlook calendar , The End of the World at some specific time. How do you spend it?
For me, I like the idea of the unbelievable dad and daughter on the beach from Deep Impact. Go get good seats for the end. Though, in practicality (being responsible for two school aged kids that need not know of such horrors) I would probably just hang at the house and distract the kids from the news by playing Mario and keeping them and their mom close. The last meal would be a steak cooked on my trusty ol' grill, grilled mushroom, onions and pan butter-fried potatos from Dad's recipe. A Jazillion calories! A nice Zinfandel or Cab/Sav in the glass.
But, if you are by yourself... I can think of worse ways to go out than sitting in one of these Eagle Scout project chairs on Mobile Bay, front row seats to Nature's show.
Grey and Blue
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Daphne, Alabama at Lake Forest Yacht Club. According to the signs, I was trespassing again.
This Weekend, in 2010
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It was Memorial Day weekend in 2010. I reference it as the beginning of this photography adventure for me.
That April, I had renewed my interest in photography, following the Deepwater Horizon Explosion and subsequent spill. I spent many mornings and afternoons (before work, at lunch from work or after work) on the beaches of Gulf Shores & Orange Beach, just shooting the oil spill cleanup.
It reminded me of that brief time in my life where I wanted to be a photo journalist. Columbia University didn't like my grades nor my parents' checkbook, so I did this computer thing, instead.
The Memorial Day weekend following the spill, we spent along the Gulf Islands National Seashore with out of town in-laws, riding jetskis, dodging lightning and drinking copious amounts of beer. I found some time alone to walk the beaches and shoot. See, I'd just released an iPhone app to allow people to share photography (it's down now, sorry) and these content contributors that I hired had submitted all of these amazing - looking HDR photos from several well known photobloggers , I was admittedly starry eyed. So, I can shoot a picture of this walkway, process it with some filters and it is.. ART?
That's amazing! Being someone that can't draw, paint or play an instrument very well, my robot brain has been super impressed by these people around me that can draw some seemingly original piece of art on the palm of their hand, play music by ear, paint or sculpt. Creativity is amazing.
So, I ran around with my camera and willy-nilly snapped photo after photo of boardwalks, piers and beaches. (Usually at high noon, :| ) It's Art! (Right?) Somehow I'd gone from just running around to capture content to seed my iPhone app, to being a full on "artEEST!". (or as Dina calls it, Artsy Fartsy) I say this tongue-in-cheek of course.
The bottom few images on this page: http://smu.gs/12UCN29 contain the fruit of those outings.
I was just excited to be out taking pictures again. I'm not sure where I thought it would take me but I think the idea of being a traveling photographer type was very romantic. Go see some parts of the world.. Get good enough and you get paid for it (somehow?).
I remember this because of this shot. I've stood in this spot a dozen times and taken this shot a dozen times. With different gear, while listening to different music, walking with friends, walking with coworkers.
Each photo.. amazingly.. is different.
That, I think is fascinating. I'm still not sure if it's art, observational experimentation or just obsession. But that's the great part. I just don't care. I'll keep right on doing it. :)
On the travel thing.. Headed to The Bahamas for a couple days, then Disney for a few more. Not as a jetsetting photoblogger but as a Dad, Husband and generally tired Programmer-guy in need of a break. Hopefully some good shots will come my way to share with you when I return.
PS. If you are a bad guy reading this and thinking "Great, I can go rob him blind, he'll be away..." I gotcha covered bubba. Do yourself a favor and sit this one out.
The Waves of Change
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Last week, Google Plus sprung a new site layout on us. I know some folks that aren't pleased with it, to the point of abandoning the service. At first I was resistant but I find it is more conducive to consuming photos.
Today, Flickr followed up with their new layout that seems to have caused quite a stir. I'm still getting used to it but I think I like it. Same reason, I think I'm seeing more of peoples' stuff than I usually did - so that will be a good thing. There are bugs that need to be worked out, it would seem.
I hopped over to the Flickr Forums, related to bugs with the new site in order to report a bug. (Chrome on a Mac, the 'k' button doesn't work in comments.. Wierd huh?) Wowzers there were some ticked off people in that forum.
One thing's for sure. As a developer, I feel for the dev teams working on these things, just doing their job. "Put it back." is pretty harsh, given the hours they've most likely put into it.
What do you think of the new layout?
The Gulf
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You should know that I'm generally almost entirely uneffected by advertisements, marketing, gimmicks and other corporate tomfoolery. It's my x-gene. I can stare at a website and the advertisements completely get blocked out by the content. I just don't see them. The second my mind detects someone - or something - trying to sell me something, the firewall goes up and very little gets through.
So, when a friend Mike txt'd me during his vacation about this restaurant called "The Gulf" and said I had to go check it out, I will admit I was skeptical. I know my friend wouldn't try to overtly sell me something and I trust his judgement but I just concluded in my mind that: yeah, yeah, yet another tourist trap gulf coast seafood place with a great view. They are dime a dozen, most serve frozen seafood and have mediocre food to accompany their great views.
His major selling point was, "they have these chairs, sitting right out on the beach!"
While beach chairs are among my favorite things to photograph because they generally stay still and seldom resist being photographed, I thought - Hey -- let's go check this place out, maybe it'll be worth a few pictures.
Boy was I in for a pleasant surprise. Finally, something different. Whether it was the wicker-covered furniture right out on the Gulf, the construction made of shipping containers or the salt air, this place definitely left an impression. It is strange that they've managed to take these elements of old furniture, metal trimmings, stark white furniture and shipping containers and managed to create an up-scale feeling, right on The Gulf. Maybe upscale isn't the right word. Hipster.. Maybe Yuppie.. Heck I don't know the difference but with lunch for two (ringing in at $40), this is typical tourist trap prices with unchararistically good food with a unique delivery.
The cheeseburger with swiss, pita chips and hummice was quite epic.
As for the hipster aspect, I used by best hipster-inspired instagram-knockoff filter so that from the comfort of your chair you can hear the vinyl spinning "Louis Armstrong Hello Dolly", smell the firepit and taste the salt air.
If the storms don't decimate this restaurant over the summer, I look forward to returning during the off season in better light for some interesting shots..
Oh, and to the super-impatient spaz lady behind us in line bitching that someone might have cut in line in front of us : You totally miss the point of a place like this. You gotsta chill. Go black friday shopping to relieve some angst, sheesh. :/
"A PIER"
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AIR QUOTES!
Well, I suppose the Social Media photo sharing rulebook states you should space out your posts from a given outing but I thought the last post would serve as a good segue for this one, since they were essentially consecutive.
As I stood there, to my left, a shirtless man in his mid twenties practiced forms from an un-named martial art. Another mid twenties man walked past me muttering something about my tripod and then pointing to other man and saying to his comrade, (rudely, loudly) "Hey Look, it's the Black Ninja Master!!"
The martial artist looked their way but continued his forms. He looked at me next, expectedly, ostensibly to take a picture of him. I smiled back, wrong lens for portraiture, anyway.. turned the headphones up and got to the business of shutter clickity clickity click.
A young couple in their thirties sat on the beach with a blanket with their adopted child. Mei Zhen, I believe her name was. Just chilling out - watching the sunset with their 4 year old.
All the while the atmoshphere painted these Air Quotes over the pier, as if to saying "A Pier".
The Light at the End of the Tunnel
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Something about these wooded pathway shots, I always have to add a touch of an Orton effect. I know the leading portion of the path is pretty dark. That's just the way it was in my mind..:)
For Saturday, Something Soft.
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My little girl picked these roses out for her mother, last weekend for Mother's Day. I thought she did great. At 7 she seemed to have this natural ability to pick out roses with good uniformity and minimal disoloration and damage on the outer petals. Which makes me wonder, "How did she know to do that?"
Is that nature, is it an instinct? If so, why don't my son and I have that instinct?
I go to pick flowers by quantity, by price (more is better, right?) or by some hidden misunderstood map legend in my mind that equates certain colors with certain conveyances.. (Red is passion / Love, White is friendship.. )
That's the extent we dumb guys get things and even that is a stretch for us.
Yet, as Jena looked through the flowers, she seemed to immediately recognize the attribute of each flower and in her mind score the collection in some Eidetic way as compared to the others. She just sort of waved her hand over them and said "these" with the same level of assurance that I would imagine a florist would have.
In fact, the extent of my analysis ended at the recognition that the concentric circle seems to recur in nature. Orbital patterns, the cross-section of the mantles of earth, the many layers of the atmosphere, the age rings at the cross-section of a tree trunk. Gobstoppers in nature.
Anyway, good job to Jena. Her mom liked the floweers and they lasted even til today, over a week later.
The Sky Bridge to Helios (plus, a big site update!)
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If you couldn't already tell, I've been working recently to come up with a more consolidated approach to my web-publishing activities. Typically, I build up photos and upload them to SmugMug via Lightroom over the weekend and then set up any posts for the week.
I have those scheduled to go out through the week to the Blog, Flickr, G+. But, Facebook and Pinterest have been a little more difficult for me to schedule up and required some on-hands work.
Now, I have a pretty good system for publishing across all (Smugmug, this SquareSpace Blog, Flickr, Google+, Facebook & Pinterest) so that I can do a better job of keeping them at parity whilst not getting in trouble at work for jacking around on the internet during the week. :/
Part of this, I've been working to consolidate my domains. Gulfcommunity, Gulf-Technology, Graffitilogic, Graffitivisuals are alot to maintain for one person. GulfCommunity is on autopilot and has been for years, now. So, I'm not so worried about that. But, Gulf-Technology & Graffitilogic both represented essentially the same thing: Software Development for Hire. I decided / hey -- why not just put it all here? So that's what I'm doing.
Part of this site revamp is larger pictures, a new site skin and some page updates.
The whole look and feel is meant to optimize for display of images and black background seems to work well for that.
I'd love to get your feedback on the changes, though!
Also, jump on over to: /prints-licenses/ some pretty big changes to my image-use guidelines. I feel this far- less - restrictive approach is more aligned with the spirit of what my photography is about.
As always, thanks for checking in! Stay tuned, I have some neat stuff planned for the summer, including a Canvas Give-awayl
I Paid a Visit to the Tree of Coastal Wisdom
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I paid a visit to the Tree of Coastal Wisdom (and all I got was this stupid shirt)..
.. and about 300 frames of photos to sort through, of which 10-12 will be pretty cool. :)
My Bionic Eye Looks On
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We had some really interesting atmosphere on the Bay this evening. Looking forward to going through these images -- always neat to see how the skies and the water play off of one another for an image..