12/31/2005
12/30/2005
Silver Rag
Thought this was worth a separate post
Hi Guys
Just a quick comment.. First of all curl - Take a look at The D-roller www.d-roller.com
You can make One or just buy the real thing.. It works great! Second Crane Museo Is coming out with a new paper called Silver Rag in January. 100% Semi / Gloss Rag paper meant to be used with Photo Black.. I have Tested The paper and its awesome.. I think that it might be what you're looking for...
Good Luck
Jim Doyle
http://www.shadesofpaper.com
--
Posted by Jim Doyle to Dave Beckerman Photography at 12/30/2005 05:45:01 PM
And here's the blurb from Museo
Also provided at the show was a sneak preview of the revolutionary archival glossy fine art inkjet paper, Museo Silver Rag, which will be available in the coming months. Designed to match the look and feel of traditional fiber based photo papers, Museo Silver Rag was the hit of the show.
* * *
I e-mailed Crane & Co. asking if I could get some samples of the paper and they said they would mail me some next week - that they are still testing it - and it should still be considered beta and would like any feedback. Can't wait to try it.
Hi Guys
Just a quick comment.. First of all curl - Take a look at The D-roller www.d-roller.com
You can make One or just buy the real thing.. It works great! Second Crane Museo Is coming out with a new paper called Silver Rag in January. 100% Semi / Gloss Rag paper meant to be used with Photo Black.. I have Tested The paper and its awesome.. I think that it might be what you're looking for...
Good Luck
Jim Doyle
http://www.shadesofpaper.com
--
Posted by Jim Doyle to Dave Beckerman Photography at 12/30/2005 05:45:01 PM
And here's the blurb from Museo
Also provided at the show was a sneak preview of the revolutionary archival glossy fine art inkjet paper, Museo Silver Rag, which will be available in the coming months. Designed to match the look and feel of traditional fiber based photo papers, Museo Silver Rag was the hit of the show.
* * *
I e-mailed Crane & Co. asking if I could get some samples of the paper and they said they would mail me some next week - that they are still testing it - and it should still be considered beta and would like any feedback. Can't wait to try it.
Got Out
Matt got me out of the house by offering to meet me at the Howard Greenberg gallery to see the Saul Leiter exhibit. Color no less. And I loved it. I remember saying something stupid to Matt like, hey what do you call this style - because it reminded me a lot of my own style and maybe if someone knew what to call Saul Leiter than I would know what I was doing.
Of course, Matt didn't know what to call it anymore that I did, so when I got home I looked at the gallery card for some clues:
"[Saul Leiter has] a way of reformulating the random disjuntions of the urban mores and turning them into decisive artefacts of beauty and fascination..."
"Leiter's essential modernity resides in the dialogue he sets up between an abstract language of flat planes of color and the fragmented unfolding of life in the city. "
"...these street-encounters are transformed into improvisational images of an eloquent, often heart-wrenching poignancy." - Martin Harrison
I expect that this language can be applied to a lot of photographic work.
But whatever you call it I gravitated towards the most expensive prints which were going for $4,500. A very brief image flashed through my mind of having some very expensive piece on my wall - and with the humidity in the apartment I'd wake up and see it starting to ripple.
I told Matt that after the Kertesz exhibit he was now batting 1 for 2.
The good thing, besides the exhibit, was that it at least got me out of "printing mode" which I've been in for the last few months and I actually shot a roll of film. If you haven't shot on the street for a while, it feels very strange. You feel like people are looking at you. But that wears off and 57th and Madison is a great corner for street shooting.
Of course, Matt didn't know what to call it anymore that I did, so when I got home I looked at the gallery card for some clues:
"[Saul Leiter has] a way of reformulating the random disjuntions of the urban mores and turning them into decisive artefacts of beauty and fascination..."
"Leiter's essential modernity resides in the dialogue he sets up between an abstract language of flat planes of color and the fragmented unfolding of life in the city. "
"...these street-encounters are transformed into improvisational images of an eloquent, often heart-wrenching poignancy." - Martin Harrison
I expect that this language can be applied to a lot of photographic work.
But whatever you call it I gravitated towards the most expensive prints which were going for $4,500. A very brief image flashed through my mind of having some very expensive piece on my wall - and with the humidity in the apartment I'd wake up and see it starting to ripple.
I told Matt that after the Kertesz exhibit he was now batting 1 for 2.
The good thing, besides the exhibit, was that it at least got me out of "printing mode" which I've been in for the last few months and I actually shot a roll of film. If you haven't shot on the street for a while, it feels very strange. You feel like people are looking at you. But that wears off and 57th and Madison is a great corner for street shooting.
12/29/2005
Staten Island Ferry
Staten Island Ferry - 1996
I always get this feeling that there's something religious about crossing a river. I'm not sure why. River Hades? I was riding the Staten Island ferry back and forth without ever setting foot on Staten Island. Eventually the man and woman on the left stepped aboard and took their seats. Now I felt as if we were either in a church, or on the way to church (and I do remember that it was taken on a Sunday).
Shopkeeper of the Year
Sales continue to be quite brisk. I don't whether this is because I've been moving the stuff that has never sold out of the Print Store and adding prints that I think are more sellable - or it's just the season. When I told my younger sister about the idea of altering the photography store so that it featured what I thought would be more sellable prints she said, "And it took you how long to come up with that idea... six years?" "More or less," I laughed.
She then went through the store and suggested that I stick the more popular prints in the beginning rather than having them listed alphabetically. She further suggested that I put some sign or title next to the most popular prints such as "Photographer's Favorites."
"But the best-sellers aren't my favorites," I said. "Some of them are, but -- "
"That doesn't matter. You want to have them in front of the gallery - that's for sure. Look at this one - reservoir night - all the way at the end. I wouldn't have even seen that one. Move it to the beginning. And say it's one of your favorites."
"What about calling them best sellers," I said.
"No. That won't be as good. A lot of people want to feel they've discovered something on their own and they don't want what everybody has. Call it - Photographer's Favorites. That way people may look at them twice and say, 'maybe he sees something in it that I don't.'"
Then, to finish me off she said, "Six years?"
Me: Six years.
Her: O.K. gotta go now.
It's fortunate that we have a good relationship because I know she is only half-teasing me. But what is scary - if I don't have the shopkeeper gene (as my sister seems to) then how many other techniques have I missed.
For example: the newsletter seems to be a big "keep your audience" thing - and I get them from a bunch of stores I've bought from but I just find them annoying. There are some shopkeepers if I go back through the family tree - but they were, as best as I can figure, in the grocery business and they generally went out of business and turned to something else.
My father's parents owned a small grocery store in the Bronx. Grandpa Max was a nervous guy who snapped at customers; and made bad business decisions. The story my father tells is that one day during WWII he was talked into buying a huge number of canned pineapples. The sales guy told him that these were going to be very much in demand because of the war in the Pacific and the inability to get pineapples.
At some point, when his little grocery store went bust, the bank officers arrived to divide the spoils and discovered hundreds of pineapple cans in the basement which hadn't sold and gave him a penny a can. Just one a million stories about Grandpa Max and his business ventures.
After that he delivered milk from a horse-drawn cart with a horse that has a gaseous disorder. Then he made hats for a factory that went bankrupt. It goes on and on. The "teaching gene" is pretty strong in the family since just about every living family member is a teacher. But I assure you that none are teaching business techniques.
She then went through the store and suggested that I stick the more popular prints in the beginning rather than having them listed alphabetically. She further suggested that I put some sign or title next to the most popular prints such as "Photographer's Favorites."
"But the best-sellers aren't my favorites," I said. "Some of them are, but -- "
"That doesn't matter. You want to have them in front of the gallery - that's for sure. Look at this one - reservoir night - all the way at the end. I wouldn't have even seen that one. Move it to the beginning. And say it's one of your favorites."
"What about calling them best sellers," I said.
"No. That won't be as good. A lot of people want to feel they've discovered something on their own and they don't want what everybody has. Call it - Photographer's Favorites. That way people may look at them twice and say, 'maybe he sees something in it that I don't.'"
Then, to finish me off she said, "Six years?"
Me: Six years.
Her: O.K. gotta go now.
It's fortunate that we have a good relationship because I know she is only half-teasing me. But what is scary - if I don't have the shopkeeper gene (as my sister seems to) then how many other techniques have I missed.
For example: the newsletter seems to be a big "keep your audience" thing - and I get them from a bunch of stores I've bought from but I just find them annoying. There are some shopkeepers if I go back through the family tree - but they were, as best as I can figure, in the grocery business and they generally went out of business and turned to something else.
My father's parents owned a small grocery store in the Bronx. Grandpa Max was a nervous guy who snapped at customers; and made bad business decisions. The story my father tells is that one day during WWII he was talked into buying a huge number of canned pineapples. The sales guy told him that these were going to be very much in demand because of the war in the Pacific and the inability to get pineapples.
At some point, when his little grocery store went bust, the bank officers arrived to divide the spoils and discovered hundreds of pineapple cans in the basement which hadn't sold and gave him a penny a can. Just one a million stories about Grandpa Max and his business ventures.
After that he delivered milk from a horse-drawn cart with a horse that has a gaseous disorder. Then he made hats for a factory that went bankrupt. It goes on and on. The "teaching gene" is pretty strong in the family since just about every living family member is a teacher. But I assure you that none are teaching business techniques.
12/28/2005
International Shipping
I took the plunge into my code for the cart and expanded it so I can take orders from Canada and England. Frankly, 90% of the international orders I get are from these two countries, so that should be enough for now and let's see how that goes. I haven't upped the shipping charges, but since they go to Canada or England through USPS rather than Fedex - the shipping charges are close enough for now so that I'll eat the difference. This was something on my todo list from about 1999.
12/27/2005
Epson Luster
My apt. has been has humid as a hothouse. I put a stack of the Premium Luster in the 4800 tray yesterday morning. There is an ever so light tendency to curl (away from the printing side). But so far nothing as pronounced or as uneven as what the smooth pearl was doing.
The two prints I did on it yesterday are sitting in a cabinet, and so far no curl at all. I could be wrong but the paper does seem to pick up more detail than the smooth pearl. I can't quantify it, but that's the feeling I get looking at it closely.
***
Couple of days later and the Luster is holding up well in humid conditions. I'm going to stick with it as my main paper.
The two prints I did on it yesterday are sitting in a cabinet, and so far no curl at all. I could be wrong but the paper does seem to pick up more detail than the smooth pearl. I can't quantify it, but that's the feeling I get looking at it closely.
***
Couple of days later and the Luster is holding up well in humid conditions. I'm going to stick with it as my main paper.
Wall-Worthy
That's easy - sell out. I'm going to try a modest experiment. I will go through my records and remove prints that have never sold - some not even in six years - and replace them with images that I think are more sellable.
Ah, don't fret - I will then create a second gallery with all the quirky prints that I enjoy that have never sold a single one and call it the Unsellable Prints That I Like. The purpose of this commercial experiment is not to deprive the reader of fascinating images, but to see whether there's any merit in my previous post about what is "wall-worthy."
As with any scientific theory the proof will be in the pudding. If sales of these less challenging pictures soar or even if people stay longer and purchase more of the usual suspects - then mission accomplished.
The reverse of the coin is that the previously unsellable pictures will continue to not sell but be warmly admired by photographers, students and a few eccentrics like myself.
Ah, don't fret - I will then create a second gallery with all the quirky prints that I enjoy that have never sold a single one and call it the Unsellable Prints That I Like. The purpose of this commercial experiment is not to deprive the reader of fascinating images, but to see whether there's any merit in my previous post about what is "wall-worthy."
As with any scientific theory the proof will be in the pudding. If sales of these less challenging pictures soar or even if people stay longer and purchase more of the usual suspects - then mission accomplished.
The reverse of the coin is that the previously unsellable pictures will continue to not sell but be warmly admired by photographers, students and a few eccentrics like myself.
12/26/2005
12/25/2005
Hahnemuhle Paper arrives
Heath's samples of Hahnemuhle Satin paper arrived (thanks Heath). Several black and white prints done either with the 2200 and ImagePrint or the 4800 with Mat Black Ink and the 2200 profile. I can see that the tonal rendition, especially in one wedding shot, is excellent.
But it still has that thick watercolor paper feel to me with an attempt at some shine, but I don't like it much better than the regular photorag paper (which I know people love but still doesn't feel photographic to me). Matter of taste. What I would like is a thicker Ilford smooth pearl. Anyway it's a good thing that I didn't care much for the Satin paper because to really test it would have meant switching to mat black ink in the 4800 which is not something I relish.
But it still has that thick watercolor paper feel to me with an attempt at some shine, but I don't like it much better than the regular photorag paper (which I know people love but still doesn't feel photographic to me). Matter of taste. What I would like is a thicker Ilford smooth pearl. Anyway it's a good thing that I didn't care much for the Satin paper because to really test it would have meant switching to mat black ink in the 4800 which is not something I relish.
Paper and Street Shots
This year for Christmas, I took about 30 matted 5 x 7's with 10 frames (different types) - spread them out on the table and let anyone mix and match and grab what they wanted. Big fight over a couple of the frames.
What I found fascinating: the same images that sell on the web were snatched up first.
"Isn't this that famous place in Central Park, what is it called?" (Promenade)
"Is this picture on the Seine? (Hug), "Wow, that's the Flat Iron, I never saw it from that angle before..." (Flat Iron Tilted)
People shots that were picked up usually had a sweet feeling (Man with Accordian & Monkey) from Paris. A kiss. A hug. Holding hands. Skipping girl. The faces are usually in profile and not important.
I'm beginning to get an idea about why hard-boiled (let's call it that) street shots are so hard to sell and it's not just subject matter or style. It has something to do with how present the feeling of the time period is. There's some sort of psychic distance that the viewer needs before it gets appreciated, i.e. if you show the shot 40 years later, when it doesn't feel so current in time and fashion - the photograph becomes easier to approach. So that's what New Yorkers looked like in the 40's. Cool.
Let's say that there is a temporal place that make it harder or easier for people to appreciate the the image.
What is Van Gogh's most popular print? Starry starry night? No people in it.
Sunflowers? No people from his time. The reason his paintings didn't sell within his own time was that his painting style was not accepted.
One of the problems with people is that their clothing places them so quickly in a particular time.
Even with nudes, the hairstyle and even the type of model considered attractive changes.
But the clouds you photograph today, will be recognizable today, tomorrow and a hundred years on. The photographic medium may change. The style may change. But half-dome isn't going to change much during man's span on earth.
Poet's Walk - though it may eventually change - is going to be pretty much the same for a long time. If I had included many people walking around it would not have been as immediately appealing, though it may have become even more appealing n years from now. The two small figures in the shot are just there for scale.
What are you saying - people aren't appealing subjects?
That's right. Not everyday people. Not today, unless they're expressing something that you want to see every day as you sip your morning coffee.
That's crazy? What about the Mona Lisa?
The enigma transcends time, but there are a couple of things I'd note about the painting:
Everything in the painting moves you to the face. Clothing is dark and simple. Nothing in the hair. The gown she's wearing is so dark and lacking in details that there's almost nothing to look for there, but where there are some ripples, they move you towards the hands which are also unadorned.
Van Gogh painted lots of "everyday" people but of course his work was deemed worthless while he lived. It wasn't just that he painted "everyday" workers, but his style which was new, made it equally impossible for the average Joe to get into it at the time.
I'm thinking, according to this theory, that the most popular street photography would be the most abstract. What jumps into mind is HCB's big shot of the guy jumping the puddle. I don't think you can read details in this guy, which makes him more universal.
Well what about the famous street photographers like Garry Winogrand? Maybe someone else could answer that one and see if he's the exception or whether there was something about his photographs which during his own time made them accessible to the average Joe - or whether they were at the time.
You know what really got me to thinking about this was listening to the Allman Brothers Band last night. The music did not seem dated at all, whereas if I put on an early Beatles song it brings back a specific time. The style of the Allman Brothers goes back a long ways - very pure and innovative blues riffs - and it's the riffs and to a lesser extent the singing - that are timeless. Not the arrangements (these are damned good as well), but the actual playing and singing that lives on and doesn't seem dated. Nothing new in the Allman Brother's lyrics which have their roots and sometimes more than their roots in Elmore James songs.
The Beatles are dated for me. They they were fantastic song-writers and arrangers, but not known for their instrumental virtuosity. The ability to find expression through virtuosity will live on long after the subject of the song (the lyrics) are forgotten. But that may take a generation or two to discover.
Which brings me back to street photography: today's virtuoso of the street will be tomorrow's genius - once the proper amount of aesthetic distance is achieved. And conversely, today's most popular photographers may be forgotten because they are so caught up in the current style of the times.
What I found fascinating: the same images that sell on the web were snatched up first.
"Isn't this that famous place in Central Park, what is it called?" (Promenade)
"Is this picture on the Seine? (Hug), "Wow, that's the Flat Iron, I never saw it from that angle before..." (Flat Iron Tilted)
People shots that were picked up usually had a sweet feeling (Man with Accordian & Monkey) from Paris. A kiss. A hug. Holding hands. Skipping girl. The faces are usually in profile and not important.
I'm beginning to get an idea about why hard-boiled (let's call it that) street shots are so hard to sell and it's not just subject matter or style. It has something to do with how present the feeling of the time period is. There's some sort of psychic distance that the viewer needs before it gets appreciated, i.e. if you show the shot 40 years later, when it doesn't feel so current in time and fashion - the photograph becomes easier to approach. So that's what New Yorkers looked like in the 40's. Cool.
Let's say that there is a temporal place that make it harder or easier for people to appreciate the the image.
What is Van Gogh's most popular print? Starry starry night? No people in it.
Sunflowers? No people from his time. The reason his paintings didn't sell within his own time was that his painting style was not accepted.
One of the problems with people is that their clothing places them so quickly in a particular time.
Even with nudes, the hairstyle and even the type of model considered attractive changes.
But the clouds you photograph today, will be recognizable today, tomorrow and a hundred years on. The photographic medium may change. The style may change. But half-dome isn't going to change much during man's span on earth.
Poet's Walk - though it may eventually change - is going to be pretty much the same for a long time. If I had included many people walking around it would not have been as immediately appealing, though it may have become even more appealing n years from now. The two small figures in the shot are just there for scale.
What are you saying - people aren't appealing subjects?
That's right. Not everyday people. Not today, unless they're expressing something that you want to see every day as you sip your morning coffee.
That's crazy? What about the Mona Lisa?
The enigma transcends time, but there are a couple of things I'd note about the painting:
Everything in the painting moves you to the face. Clothing is dark and simple. Nothing in the hair. The gown she's wearing is so dark and lacking in details that there's almost nothing to look for there, but where there are some ripples, they move you towards the hands which are also unadorned.
Van Gogh painted lots of "everyday" people but of course his work was deemed worthless while he lived. It wasn't just that he painted "everyday" workers, but his style which was new, made it equally impossible for the average Joe to get into it at the time.
I'm thinking, according to this theory, that the most popular street photography would be the most abstract. What jumps into mind is HCB's big shot of the guy jumping the puddle. I don't think you can read details in this guy, which makes him more universal.
Well what about the famous street photographers like Garry Winogrand? Maybe someone else could answer that one and see if he's the exception or whether there was something about his photographs which during his own time made them accessible to the average Joe - or whether they were at the time.
You know what really got me to thinking about this was listening to the Allman Brothers Band last night. The music did not seem dated at all, whereas if I put on an early Beatles song it brings back a specific time. The style of the Allman Brothers goes back a long ways - very pure and innovative blues riffs - and it's the riffs and to a lesser extent the singing - that are timeless. Not the arrangements (these are damned good as well), but the actual playing and singing that lives on and doesn't seem dated. Nothing new in the Allman Brother's lyrics which have their roots and sometimes more than their roots in Elmore James songs.
The Beatles are dated for me. They they were fantastic song-writers and arrangers, but not known for their instrumental virtuosity. The ability to find expression through virtuosity will live on long after the subject of the song (the lyrics) are forgotten. But that may take a generation or two to discover.
Which brings me back to street photography: today's virtuoso of the street will be tomorrow's genius - once the proper amount of aesthetic distance is achieved. And conversely, today's most popular photographers may be forgotten because they are so caught up in the current style of the times.
12/24/2005
Peace on Earth
I know that when I turn to the pages of the newspaper on Christmas day there will be a story about a homicide in New York; a robbery gone bad; maybe a hit-and-run killing. But maybe for just one day the people of the earth could stop killing each other in the name of God and Country.
History will prove this to be a hopelessly naive wish, but perhaps with all the praying that's going on a miracle will happen. After all, as far as I know, we all began in the same way, and most probably will end up the same way.
Metropolitan Museum and Tree
History will prove this to be a hopelessly naive wish, but perhaps with all the praying that's going on a miracle will happen. After all, as far as I know, we all began in the same way, and most probably will end up the same way.
Metropolitan Museum and Tree
12/23/2005
New PC, Almost
Okay, the dirty deed has been done. Don't know why buying hardware makes me nervous but it does. Here are the basic components:
Asus® A8N SLI - NVIDIA® nForce™ 4 SLI MCP, PCI Express Motherboard with DDR
AMD ATHLON 64 X2 3800 Processor with Dual Core Technology
On-Board ATA Raid
2 GB RAM
2 x 200 GB Western Digital Hard Drives Level 0 Stripe (7200) 8 MB cache
16x/48x DVD ROM
52X/32X/52X CD-RW
I could have bought two 10,000 rpm drives or upped the processor speed, but this was about as far as I could go without needing a good stiff drink. As it is buying hardware makes me gulp, whereas I could walk into a camera shop and spend $2500 on a lens without blinking an eye. Okay, maybe one eye blinks, but it doesn't cause me this angst. I think what makes me nervous is going through all the new jargon and trying to figure out what will actually makes a difference in my workflow. For example, I still don't know what the hell PCI Express is, but it sounds good.
No tax. No shipping charges. Total: $1915. Phew. Glad that's over with.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERONE! AND THANKS FOR THE ADVICE.
* * *
I'm getting closer. First off, I've decided not to go with Dell for the next one. The main reason is that I want to use OEM parts so that upgrades are easier plus their idiotic support is irksome. I'm looking seriously at the Velocity Micro pcs - in particular the: W310
Other conclusions:
the high end graphics cards aren't necessary for Photoshop.
There's really only one area of working in Photoshop that has to be improved, and that's stuff like doing a merge visible on a 16-bit RGB file where there are lots of layers; or applying Sharpkit non-destructive layers. Right now, if I switch to 8-bit, things are acceptable, but I'm not willing to go that route.
The important stuff is to get as much RAM as I can, at least 2 GB; the fastest level 0 RAID drive(s) for scratch disk; and at least a semblance of dual-processing which in this case means the AMD Althon 64 X2 dual core. I'm really not interested in doing other things while the cpu is processing, I just would like it if the PC didn't go completely dead while I'm doing some CPU / RAM intenstive activity. In other words, right now it's all about throughput.
Level 0 RAID should give me a read / write increase (no redundancy though). I don't care about redudancy on what is going to be mostly scratch disk and OS. Data is all stored on various external drives right now and I just plan to hook them up to the new box.
I'm in the $2000 range right now. Whether I should do it now or wait for the new year - dunno.
Asus® A8N SLI - NVIDIA® nForce™ 4 SLI MCP, PCI Express Motherboard with DDR
AMD ATHLON 64 X2 3800 Processor with Dual Core Technology
On-Board ATA Raid
2 GB RAM
2 x 200 GB Western Digital Hard Drives Level 0 Stripe (7200) 8 MB cache
16x/48x DVD ROM
52X/32X/52X CD-RW
I could have bought two 10,000 rpm drives or upped the processor speed, but this was about as far as I could go without needing a good stiff drink. As it is buying hardware makes me gulp, whereas I could walk into a camera shop and spend $2500 on a lens without blinking an eye. Okay, maybe one eye blinks, but it doesn't cause me this angst. I think what makes me nervous is going through all the new jargon and trying to figure out what will actually makes a difference in my workflow. For example, I still don't know what the hell PCI Express is, but it sounds good.
No tax. No shipping charges. Total: $1915. Phew. Glad that's over with.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERONE! AND THANKS FOR THE ADVICE.
* * *
I'm getting closer. First off, I've decided not to go with Dell for the next one. The main reason is that I want to use OEM parts so that upgrades are easier plus their idiotic support is irksome. I'm looking seriously at the Velocity Micro pcs - in particular the: W310
Other conclusions:
the high end graphics cards aren't necessary for Photoshop.
There's really only one area of working in Photoshop that has to be improved, and that's stuff like doing a merge visible on a 16-bit RGB file where there are lots of layers; or applying Sharpkit non-destructive layers. Right now, if I switch to 8-bit, things are acceptable, but I'm not willing to go that route.
The important stuff is to get as much RAM as I can, at least 2 GB; the fastest level 0 RAID drive(s) for scratch disk; and at least a semblance of dual-processing which in this case means the AMD Althon 64 X2 dual core. I'm really not interested in doing other things while the cpu is processing, I just would like it if the PC didn't go completely dead while I'm doing some CPU / RAM intenstive activity. In other words, right now it's all about throughput.
Level 0 RAID should give me a read / write increase (no redundancy though). I don't care about redudancy on what is going to be mostly scratch disk and OS. Data is all stored on various external drives right now and I just plan to hook them up to the new box.
I'm in the $2000 range right now. Whether I should do it now or wait for the new year - dunno.
12/22/2005
New Prints Added
I hit the 150 print mark in the Photography Store. I also did something interesting (at least to me). I figured out how to outline the thumbnails in green if the prints have been recently added for sale. That way you can skim through the thumbs easily looking for new stuff. For those who care about such things, this is all being done with a combination of CSS and custom fields in iView Media Pro.
* * *
Next task for today, I'm going to setup an account with Stamps.com so that I can print postage for USPS from desktop and bypass the Post Office completely. I'll still use Fedex for the larger orders, but I would like to be able to speed up the process of selling the small 5 x 7 prints and unless someone buys a lot of them at once, no way that's going through Fedex.
* * *
Next task for today, I'm going to setup an account with Stamps.com so that I can print postage for USPS from desktop and bypass the Post Office completely. I'll still use Fedex for the larger orders, but I would like to be able to speed up the process of selling the small 5 x 7 prints and unless someone buys a lot of them at once, no way that's going through Fedex.
12/21/2005
Buddy Profile
Cat Profile
"I'm ready for my closeup Dave."
A while back I photographed "buddy" walking in front of my lightbox (my version of a softlight). He was a good model in those days - easy to fool. I would put some catnip on the counter and tap it and eventually he'd walk by to find out what it was.
Nowadays, he's not so easily fooled. At any rate, I was working on this print today with my "new" printing techniques and it turned out well.
Speaking of printing, Heath mentioned that he's done some b&w prints with the Hahnemuhle Satin paper (with mat black ink) and he's going to send me some samples. Can't wait to see them. Not to mention that we've been helping eachother out (at least I like to think I may have helped him out once or twice) all these years and I haven't even put a link to his website on my photographers' page. How did that happen? Sorry Heath. Will put one up now.
12/20/2005
DELL CHAT
BRAVE NEW WORLD PART SEVEN, TRANSCRIPT FROM "CHAT WITH DELL"
Connection terminated.. |
Transit Strike
Yikes this is a disaster! I'm glad I'm not at Penn Station. This might very well destroy the local union which has just been fined a million bucks a day. My neighbor believes that this will give the union leader a face-saving out. That he can come back and say that because of the court decision (which he must have known they'd get) the union should go back to work and the thing goes to binding arbitration.
Bloomberg was totally pissed during the news conference today.
If this thing goes on much longer they'll have to declare NYC a national disaster and get the new and improved FEMA in here.
Somehow, to my surprise - Fedex managed to get through and just delivered extra memory for the laptop. And when I went to drop-off some prints at the local Fedex drop store they told me that they didn't think there'd be any delays with Fedex shipping.
Before the strike, I did a little poll of my neighbors and family and no one thought there would actually be a strike. Everyone believed it was just a case of brinksmanship. That the union would get close to the strike but wouldn't actually do it.
Everyone was wrong.
Bloomberg was totally pissed during the news conference today.
If this thing goes on much longer they'll have to declare NYC a national disaster and get the new and improved FEMA in here.
Somehow, to my surprise - Fedex managed to get through and just delivered extra memory for the laptop. And when I went to drop-off some prints at the local Fedex drop store they told me that they didn't think there'd be any delays with Fedex shipping.
Before the strike, I did a little poll of my neighbors and family and no one thought there would actually be a strike. Everyone believed it was just a case of brinksmanship. That the union would get close to the strike but wouldn't actually do it.
Everyone was wrong.
Words
I know that many of you are concerned about the recent takeover of the American states by the British, but I assure you children that this takeover is for our own good. Now the British have asked me to teach a class on some of the new words they've introduced into our language so you can understand what they mean. Are you ready class?
Yes, Mrs. Landers.
As you know, some of our citizens have still not accepted the presence of the British on our soil. The British, have assured us that they will leave as soon as they can. In the meantime they are helping us setup a Parliament like they have. And as you know there are a few words that might help you understand what's going on:
Today's word class is: rejectionist.
Let me write it on the blackboard for you kids.
No Jimmy, you won't find rejectionist in the dictionary. The new dictionaries haven't been printed yet, but the next Oxford English-American dictionary will include the word rejectionist.
If you kids continue to hold onto the old ways - if you don't accept the presence of the British - you will be considered a rejectionist. Be careful not to be one of those, at least not while the British are still here. Our official policy is to be an acceptionist. That too is a new word, but it just means that you want our country to be helped out by the British. That is the only reason they are here. Let me repeat that: The British are here to help us because it is clear that we can no longer govern ourselves.
Also, remember kids, that since the British discovered a new process for manufacturing oil, they have once again become world rulers and that you are now a part of the Britanian Empire.
Yes, Mrs. Landers. But they're forcing us to drink tea again.
Well class. I would suggest that you drink it and like it. Their new synthetic Earl Grey is an excellent beverage even if it is a side product of their new synthetic oil manufacturing process. Now Tommy - a simple remark like that about your dislike of tea would be considered a rejectionist remark.
Yes, Mrs. Landers.
Now I know this is a hard transition for you, but the new Prime Minister, Mrs. Thatcher II, has made it quite clear that these new words be explained to you.
The next word is, Bushist. I'm sure you know what that means?
Yes - Marge. I see your hand Marge. Yes, that's correct. Someone who still follows, either in their heart or mind the former President Bush. As you know, President Bush is no longer President and we must pay attention to what our new Prime Minister says. Remember, we don't want to go back to the days of the republic where our own politics were disfunctional.
The Prime Minister has a lot in common with our former President. Both had parents who ruled their countries for a while. So don't be a Bushist; don't be a rejectionist; be an acceptionist.
Now there are two other words that she asked me to explain to you, terrorist and insurgent. But that will be for our next class. Now everybody please stand up, we are going to sing God Save the Queen.
Yes, Mrs. Landers.
Mrs. Landers?
Yes, Beaver.
Mrs. Landers, my dad can't sign my homework tonight because we can't find him. Some men came into the house last night and took him away.
Beaver, I'm sorry to hear that. That brings us to another word: renditioned. Have you heard of that? You haven't. I'll explain that to you tomorrow.
[As far as I know, Dave wasn't smoking mushrooms when he wrote this but I can't keep track of him 24 hours a day. He also missed the main news of the day: Transit Strike in New York. He told me that he wasn't interested in photographing the transit strike and I asked him why not. He just said it was like photographing something not happening. My own take is that it was too cold for him. -- ed. ]
Yes, Mrs. Landers.
As you know, some of our citizens have still not accepted the presence of the British on our soil. The British, have assured us that they will leave as soon as they can. In the meantime they are helping us setup a Parliament like they have. And as you know there are a few words that might help you understand what's going on:
Today's word class is: rejectionist.
Let me write it on the blackboard for you kids.
No Jimmy, you won't find rejectionist in the dictionary. The new dictionaries haven't been printed yet, but the next Oxford English-American dictionary will include the word rejectionist.
If you kids continue to hold onto the old ways - if you don't accept the presence of the British - you will be considered a rejectionist. Be careful not to be one of those, at least not while the British are still here. Our official policy is to be an acceptionist. That too is a new word, but it just means that you want our country to be helped out by the British. That is the only reason they are here. Let me repeat that: The British are here to help us because it is clear that we can no longer govern ourselves.
Also, remember kids, that since the British discovered a new process for manufacturing oil, they have once again become world rulers and that you are now a part of the Britanian Empire.
Yes, Mrs. Landers. But they're forcing us to drink tea again.
Well class. I would suggest that you drink it and like it. Their new synthetic Earl Grey is an excellent beverage even if it is a side product of their new synthetic oil manufacturing process. Now Tommy - a simple remark like that about your dislike of tea would be considered a rejectionist remark.
Yes, Mrs. Landers.
Now I know this is a hard transition for you, but the new Prime Minister, Mrs. Thatcher II, has made it quite clear that these new words be explained to you.
The next word is, Bushist. I'm sure you know what that means?
Yes - Marge. I see your hand Marge. Yes, that's correct. Someone who still follows, either in their heart or mind the former President Bush. As you know, President Bush is no longer President and we must pay attention to what our new Prime Minister says. Remember, we don't want to go back to the days of the republic where our own politics were disfunctional.
The Prime Minister has a lot in common with our former President. Both had parents who ruled their countries for a while. So don't be a Bushist; don't be a rejectionist; be an acceptionist.
Now there are two other words that she asked me to explain to you, terrorist and insurgent. But that will be for our next class. Now everybody please stand up, we are going to sing God Save the Queen.
Yes, Mrs. Landers.
Mrs. Landers?
Yes, Beaver.
Mrs. Landers, my dad can't sign my homework tonight because we can't find him. Some men came into the house last night and took him away.
Beaver, I'm sorry to hear that. That brings us to another word: renditioned. Have you heard of that? You haven't. I'll explain that to you tomorrow.
[As far as I know, Dave wasn't smoking mushrooms when he wrote this but I can't keep track of him 24 hours a day. He also missed the main news of the day: Transit Strike in New York. He told me that he wasn't interested in photographing the transit strike and I asked him why not. He just said it was like photographing something not happening. My own take is that it was too cold for him. -- ed. ]
12/19/2005
All Day Parking
One of the crappiest parking lots in New York is under the 59th street Bridge (Manhattan Side). The gas pumps are covered with flakes of rusted something - probably lead - from the shaking of the bridge. If you stand there long enough you'll need a good cleaning too.
12/17/2005
I Love Everybody
I've been forcing people to listen to Lyle Lovett through my iPod wherever I go, but I haven't made any converts yet. Why, these are all ballads, they say. This is like your other country stuff. What's that guys name -- John Prine? How come you like this country stuff anyway. Huh?
The song that is especially hard to find appreciation for is "I Love Everybody" which is the title song of the CD. I realize it's a little sappy, but it makes me feel like I'm sitting in a little mythological bar in a mythological town with a bunch of good ole boys - waving mugs of beer around. Many of us in the bar are crying over lost love. Some are silent, staring off into space with a funny look - maybe thinking about their wives.
There's a John Ford western bar room mirror with a crack in it and a picture of Lilly Langtree. The trouble between the cattle owners and the sodbusters has momentarilly been put on pause.
If you look through the mirror - you see a dusty road that turns into a highway and then into a modern city. Did you know that 100 years ago nearly everyone lived in a town or on a farm and now they're all crammed into the big metropolis?
I love everybody, especially you.
* * *
Four more prints to do for Matt's gallery and then I think I may actually go out and do some shooting. Especially if there's a subway strike (which I still doubt).
Lenox Lounge, © Matt Weber
The song that is especially hard to find appreciation for is "I Love Everybody" which is the title song of the CD. I realize it's a little sappy, but it makes me feel like I'm sitting in a little mythological bar in a mythological town with a bunch of good ole boys - waving mugs of beer around. Many of us in the bar are crying over lost love. Some are silent, staring off into space with a funny look - maybe thinking about their wives.
There's a John Ford western bar room mirror with a crack in it and a picture of Lilly Langtree. The trouble between the cattle owners and the sodbusters has momentarilly been put on pause.
If you look through the mirror - you see a dusty road that turns into a highway and then into a modern city. Did you know that 100 years ago nearly everyone lived in a town or on a farm and now they're all crammed into the big metropolis?
I love everybody, especially you.
* * *
Four more prints to do for Matt's gallery and then I think I may actually go out and do some shooting. Especially if there's a subway strike (which I still doubt).
Lenox Lounge, © Matt Weber
12/15/2005
My Door
I often leave my front door open so the cat can stake out some territory on the top of the stairs. He does like to roam around.
Yesterday a real-estate agent with a prospective tenant stopped by. They saw my opened door and the young woman who was contemplating an apartment in the building wanted to ask me a few questions.
How's the super here, she asked. He's okay, I guess when you can find him. He doesn't live in the building though.
How's the heat in the winter? It's okay. I remember using the word okay several times.
She looked hopeful. Wanted to know about the neighbors. I didn't tell her that they generally came in young and fresh like her and left for something better after a year. There are about five or six of us in the building that have been crammed in here for a few years or more.
Then she made the mistake of asking if she could come in and look around. Okay, I said. And she took a few steps in and couldn't get much further because the vacuum cleaner hose was blocking the way. But she stepped over it. Took a look around. I could see her jaw drop. Not exactly the model apartment she was looking for.
She politely thanked me (doubt if I'll ever see her again) and left. I looked around after she left through her eyes. What I saw was a workshop. Cramped. Messy. Not a touch of anything remotely feminine, or homey to be seen.
I saw that every square inch has something to do with film or printing. I recently moved my liquid chemicals into the only kitchen cabinet because in the bathroom they were too close to the steam pipe. I left the photoflo bottle in there though thinking it's just soap.
Open the fridge: batteries, juice, some ancient olives - and film. I don't cook here anymore. There's no room.
The kitchen counter is just a mass of wires, extensions, scanners, and a printer (2200).
What was once a spice-rack has tri-x boxes in it.
Look up and you'll see the loft - more boxes with packaging supplies. I don't really mind the place until someone new and fresh stops by and then it seems like a peculiar way to live. I once read an article - I think it was in Lensworks about a photographer who didn't even have a bed and slept in a sleeping bag on the floor of his apartment. Looking at it from that point-of-view I consider myself well off.
I didn't always live this way. Before moving up here I lived in a five room apartment on the lower east side with my girlfriend. There was the one room for darkroom equipment and the rest of the house was like your usual house with a bedroom and living room. Sometimes we'd have guests over for dinner and open a table. I once did Thanksgiving at that house for both her and my family. When we split - I let her have the apartment (and was glad to get out - you know how those things go).
Sometimes, as I'm falling asleep - I think about what it would be like to just pick up and move someplace cheap and homey. Someplace with wide open skies and vast horizons. Big rooms where you could stretch out and watch the sunset through panormic windows.
The grass is always more saturated someplace else. There are people out there saying: Gee - wish I could do what Dave is doing. And then there's Dave thinking - I wish I could get a job at a filling station in Mayberry and come home - pat Opie on the head - and sit and smoke my pipe on the front porch. Mayberry and the photographer's life - all a dream. Might as well keep it beneath closed eyes.
Yesterday a real-estate agent with a prospective tenant stopped by. They saw my opened door and the young woman who was contemplating an apartment in the building wanted to ask me a few questions.
How's the super here, she asked. He's okay, I guess when you can find him. He doesn't live in the building though.
How's the heat in the winter? It's okay. I remember using the word okay several times.
She looked hopeful. Wanted to know about the neighbors. I didn't tell her that they generally came in young and fresh like her and left for something better after a year. There are about five or six of us in the building that have been crammed in here for a few years or more.
Then she made the mistake of asking if she could come in and look around. Okay, I said. And she took a few steps in and couldn't get much further because the vacuum cleaner hose was blocking the way. But she stepped over it. Took a look around. I could see her jaw drop. Not exactly the model apartment she was looking for.
She politely thanked me (doubt if I'll ever see her again) and left. I looked around after she left through her eyes. What I saw was a workshop. Cramped. Messy. Not a touch of anything remotely feminine, or homey to be seen.
I saw that every square inch has something to do with film or printing. I recently moved my liquid chemicals into the only kitchen cabinet because in the bathroom they were too close to the steam pipe. I left the photoflo bottle in there though thinking it's just soap.
Open the fridge: batteries, juice, some ancient olives - and film. I don't cook here anymore. There's no room.
The kitchen counter is just a mass of wires, extensions, scanners, and a printer (2200).
What was once a spice-rack has tri-x boxes in it.
Look up and you'll see the loft - more boxes with packaging supplies. I don't really mind the place until someone new and fresh stops by and then it seems like a peculiar way to live. I once read an article - I think it was in Lensworks about a photographer who didn't even have a bed and slept in a sleeping bag on the floor of his apartment. Looking at it from that point-of-view I consider myself well off.
I didn't always live this way. Before moving up here I lived in a five room apartment on the lower east side with my girlfriend. There was the one room for darkroom equipment and the rest of the house was like your usual house with a bedroom and living room. Sometimes we'd have guests over for dinner and open a table. I once did Thanksgiving at that house for both her and my family. When we split - I let her have the apartment (and was glad to get out - you know how those things go).
Sometimes, as I'm falling asleep - I think about what it would be like to just pick up and move someplace cheap and homey. Someplace with wide open skies and vast horizons. Big rooms where you could stretch out and watch the sunset through panormic windows.
The grass is always more saturated someplace else. There are people out there saying: Gee - wish I could do what Dave is doing. And then there's Dave thinking - I wish I could get a job at a filling station in Mayberry and come home - pat Opie on the head - and sit and smoke my pipe on the front porch. Mayberry and the photographer's life - all a dream. Might as well keep it beneath closed eyes.
12/13/2005
Ilford - Kodak
Barrett e-mailed this link
"Dear Customer,
Mono Paper, Film and Chemical Equivalents Charts
ILFORD Photo has produced a pair of charts showing the ILFORD equivalents for Kodak and Agfa Papers, Films and Chemicals, thus enabling users to switch with no problems and no need to experiment to find an alternative product. "
Do they know something we don't?
"Dear Customer,
Mono Paper, Film and Chemical Equivalents Charts
ILFORD Photo has produced a pair of charts showing the ILFORD equivalents for Kodak and Agfa Papers, Films and Chemicals, thus enabling users to switch with no problems and no need to experiment to find an alternative product. "
Do they know something we don't?
12/12/2005
Rent Demonstration
I'm always asked - so what do you shoot? I shoot:
I shoot looks. Glances. Sunrises and sunsets. Trees if they lean towards me properly. Demonstrations when a kid's tongue sticks to a railing. Shadows if they have the proper politics. Mystery and mayhem. Night floating down the river with a diamond necklace made from gleaming bridges.
I specialize in kids and old people. People my own age are 2-dimensional beings. They specialize in hiding during the middle decades. You can't appreciate them until you are in your eighties.
I shoot whatever presents itself to me, whether it exists or not. Sometimes I just sit and wait by the river and wait until the great moment approaches from behind me and taps me on the shoulder with cold steel fingers. The fingers have an ancient patina on them. They reach out from the monumental factory that once manufactured faucets. The faucet fingers are all that's left of the ghosts walking through corridors in the open sunlight near the river, near the piers where a father and son fish the now polluted waters.
That's the sort of thing I shoot.
Matting Info
The museum 4-ply board arrived from Stu-Art (sort of). They sent it to the building next to mine but the woman who got it let me know and so all is well. The mat and cuts looks great.
Remember - when comparing these prices - the Stu-Art window mats are custom cut to my specs. the Light Impression Boards are not.
So - the window mat is 4-ply archival M11 Museum White with custom bevel window cut. Backing board is MM type.
Stu-Art
8 x 10 mat size = 1.91 ea. + .39 backing board = $2.30 ea.
11 x 14 mat size = 3.50 ea. + MM back .74 = $4.24
16 x 20 Museum Board with any opening: $5.00 ea + $1.25 back = $6.25 ea.
Light Impressions (not custom cut):
8 x 10 board and back with 5 x 7 opening = $4.59 ea.
11 x 14 board and back with 8 x 10 opening = $5.99 ea.
16 x 20 museum board and back with 11 x 14 opening = 7.59 ea.
You can see - the biggest savings with Stu-Art is with the 8 x 10 inch size.
Remember - when comparing these prices - the Stu-Art window mats are custom cut to my specs. the Light Impression Boards are not.
So - the window mat is 4-ply archival M11 Museum White with custom bevel window cut. Backing board is MM type.
Stu-Art
8 x 10 mat size = 1.91 ea. + .39 backing board = $2.30 ea.
11 x 14 mat size = 3.50 ea. + MM back .74 = $4.24
16 x 20 Museum Board with any opening: $5.00 ea + $1.25 back = $6.25 ea.
Light Impressions (not custom cut):
8 x 10 board and back with 5 x 7 opening = $4.59 ea.
11 x 14 board and back with 8 x 10 opening = $5.99 ea.
16 x 20 museum board and back with 11 x 14 opening = 7.59 ea.
You can see - the biggest savings with Stu-Art is with the 8 x 10 inch size.
12/11/2005
Google Image Search
You might find this interesting - I remember that Heath was looking for something along these lines. If you leave the field blank, it will bring back every grayscale image in the Prints-For-Sale directory - though I'm still trying to figure out how to get it not to pick up the index files though. But generally if the text you are looking for is in the page, it's picked up.
Here's the search page using google image search. It's still pulling up the index pages (which I don't want), but this is about the most useful thing I've found for searching particular parts of the site and returning images. It only returns jpgs that are "grayscale." There are some other parameters I can fool around with as well.
Here's the search page using google image search. It's still pulling up the index pages (which I don't want), but this is about the most useful thing I've found for searching particular parts of the site and returning images. It only returns jpgs that are "grayscale." There are some other parameters I can fool around with as well.
12/09/2005
Update
This has been a long and tiring few weeks. In the middle of the busy season I was trying to do too many things at once: calendars, books, new scanner, re-scanning and re-working old images, new PS techniques, and of course trying to get prints out.
The calendars and books came to nothing - though I learned a few things. I re-did the Photography Store so that images that are available in smaller sizes appear in the main Photo gallery.
This morning - as I walked to the corner through huge snowflakes - I noticed how beautiful the city looked but had no desire to pick up a camera. I would rather sit at home and work on some older images and finish the book I'm reading (White Man's Grave - which I think is giving me nightmares, but I can't put it down).
I'm planning to spend the next week really re-organizing negatives. There are many good ones sitting around that have never been printed.
Along the way - I sometimes look through some of the digital captures - and there are good images there as well but as soon as I start to work on them - there is almost always some damned thing in it that annoys me and I curse myself that I didn't get it on film.
Maybe some overly smooth highlight - or last night I was working on this shot of two people on an escalator and at the point where their feet touch the elevator grating there is this annoying jagged design that wouldn't have been there with film. I'm not sure what you call that - fringing? Whatever it is the sensor was confused by where the persons foot and the escalator met and it wasn't captured properly. I can fix it - mostly with a bunch of PS techniques - but - there's no reason I should have to.
Other digital shots are perfectly fine. I've been adding grain to them with PhotoKit Sharpner and it's not a bad look. But there are some shots that I can't fix.
The calendars and books came to nothing - though I learned a few things. I re-did the Photography Store so that images that are available in smaller sizes appear in the main Photo gallery.
This morning - as I walked to the corner through huge snowflakes - I noticed how beautiful the city looked but had no desire to pick up a camera. I would rather sit at home and work on some older images and finish the book I'm reading (White Man's Grave - which I think is giving me nightmares, but I can't put it down).
I'm planning to spend the next week really re-organizing negatives. There are many good ones sitting around that have never been printed.
Along the way - I sometimes look through some of the digital captures - and there are good images there as well but as soon as I start to work on them - there is almost always some damned thing in it that annoys me and I curse myself that I didn't get it on film.
Maybe some overly smooth highlight - or last night I was working on this shot of two people on an escalator and at the point where their feet touch the elevator grating there is this annoying jagged design that wouldn't have been there with film. I'm not sure what you call that - fringing? Whatever it is the sensor was confused by where the persons foot and the escalator met and it wasn't captured properly. I can fix it - mostly with a bunch of PS techniques - but - there's no reason I should have to.
Other digital shots are perfectly fine. I've been adding grain to them with PhotoKit Sharpner and it's not a bad look. But there are some shots that I can't fix.
Christmas 2005
It's Christmas. No doubt of it.
The Victoria's Secret mannequins are in skimpy Santa Clause outfits. The emblazoned slogan on the windows proclaims: Have A Very Sexy Christmas.
The landlord (that we've been fighting with to put a lock on the front entrance) has placed a green plastic wreath on that door.
The office-workers are listening for rumors about their Christmas bonuses.
The CIA is sending Christmas dinners to secret inquisitions drops overseas.
In the old days - He drove the money-changers and merchants out of the temple. Now He returns to find that the entire economy of the country is based on his birthday. He finds everything from underwear to electric screwdrivers being sold in his name.
So He stands on the corner of 59th and Park Avenue and begins to rail out against how his name has been commercialized. He still has his old clothes on, and looks somewhat scruffy. The local cops aren't even sure what language he's speaking but it sounds like something middle-eastern. Definitely not English. No identification. He has picked up a few words and he's apparantly angry about Christmas. Angry about Christmas? Foreign? Could be a terrorist. Better check him out.
New York's Finest pick him up and notify the FBI.
He's brought in for questioning.
Next thing he knows, he's on a plane headed for a secret drop point in Jordan. At first he thinks he's being taken back to his birthplace, only to find himself deposited in a small cell where he's pumped with drugs.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch - there's a big brouhahah in D.C. about whether they've got a Christmas tree or a holiday tree in front of the White House and whether or not Pres. Bush can say "Merry Christmas" in his greeting cards or not.
Oh the point. If there is one. If Jesus ever did re-appear he'd probably just get himself into trouble again. He'd be denounced by the Christian right. He'd be seen as anti-American. And before you knew it - he'd be out of the way. I don't think he'd be allowed to be martyred again. Just disappeared.
The Victoria's Secret mannequins are in skimpy Santa Clause outfits. The emblazoned slogan on the windows proclaims: Have A Very Sexy Christmas.
The landlord (that we've been fighting with to put a lock on the front entrance) has placed a green plastic wreath on that door.
The office-workers are listening for rumors about their Christmas bonuses.
The CIA is sending Christmas dinners to secret inquisitions drops overseas.
In the old days - He drove the money-changers and merchants out of the temple. Now He returns to find that the entire economy of the country is based on his birthday. He finds everything from underwear to electric screwdrivers being sold in his name.
So He stands on the corner of 59th and Park Avenue and begins to rail out against how his name has been commercialized. He still has his old clothes on, and looks somewhat scruffy. The local cops aren't even sure what language he's speaking but it sounds like something middle-eastern. Definitely not English. No identification. He has picked up a few words and he's apparantly angry about Christmas. Angry about Christmas? Foreign? Could be a terrorist. Better check him out.
New York's Finest pick him up and notify the FBI.
He's brought in for questioning.
Next thing he knows, he's on a plane headed for a secret drop point in Jordan. At first he thinks he's being taken back to his birthplace, only to find himself deposited in a small cell where he's pumped with drugs.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch - there's a big brouhahah in D.C. about whether they've got a Christmas tree or a holiday tree in front of the White House and whether or not Pres. Bush can say "Merry Christmas" in his greeting cards or not.
Oh the point. If there is one. If Jesus ever did re-appear he'd probably just get himself into trouble again. He'd be denounced by the Christian right. He'd be seen as anti-American. And before you knew it - he'd be out of the way. I don't think he'd be allowed to be martyred again. Just disappeared.
12/07/2005
John Lennon
Should I go out to the John Lennon thing tomorrow at Strawberry Fields. Starts so late: 10:52 p.m. or something like that (time he was killed). Is it going to be snowing? I'm getting lazy. Plus there's some talk that the park authorities are going to close the park at one a.m. and the fans may want to stay longer. Guess I'll play it by ear. Or play it by fatigue factor. This has been a long couple of weeks. If I go - than it'll be Tri-x in Microphen at 1600 all the way.
Cat, Factory Window
Have you ever tried to photograph a feral cat with a view camera? This is from a 4 x 5 negative. The cat crawled out from the rusted hole in the factory and sat there watching me long enough for to get one shot, then turned and jumped back into the factory. The right eye is bright and curious, but the left eye is wounded.
12/06/2005
Grand Canyon
At the end of the day, after matting and printing all day, I get to do a new scan for myself. This is another 4 x 5 shot. The 4990 is really working out well. I could do some close crops and all that but I don't have time. In this shot, the scanner picked up quite a bit of detail in these shadows.
New Mat Order
Just got sick of cutting mats, and John C. had mentioned
http://stu-artsupplies.com/
Called them. Spoke with a person. And I ordered Museum 4-ply beveled (custom cut opening) with 2-ply backing. They ship next day. And it's at least half the price - maybe more - of Light Impressions. Let's see how it goes.
John, the mats you mentioned in your e-mail are really cheap, but they are not bevelled opening (die cut). But at their prices I may finally be able to stop all this damned cutting which is getting on my nerves.
http://stu-artsupplies.com/
Called them. Spoke with a person. And I ordered Museum 4-ply beveled (custom cut opening) with 2-ply backing. They ship next day. And it's at least half the price - maybe more - of Light Impressions. Let's see how it goes.
John, the mats you mentioned in your e-mail are really cheap, but they are not bevelled opening (die cut). But at their prices I may finally be able to stop all this damned cutting which is getting on my nerves.
MINI-MART
MINI-MART
Open 24 hours, except after it's been abandoned. I just remember walking across the road and looking through the screen door. It spooked me as most things out west do. And what was that spiral in the foreground. Symbol to keep going and don't look back. That's what I thought.
12/05/2005
Manic MTA Morning
I was thrilled to learn that the MTA has finally put some useful laws into effect:
- Coffee cups must have lids on them.
(I feel safer already)
- No crossing from one car to the other.
(Catch me if you can.)
- No taking up more than one seat.
(This is critical to New Yorkers' safety. But there are a couple of New Yorkers that are going to have trouble with this. I believe they should paint yellow strips on the seats so you know exactly how much space your butt can occupy.)
And on top of that - there may be a subway strike. I'm glad to see that the MTA has its' priorities straight.
The only problem I have with these laws is that the other day, a big fat guy taking up two seats was drinking a huge cup of coffee with no lid and bits were sprinkling on me - so I decided to get away from him and went into another car. So if someone is endangering your life by drinking coffee near you - or taking up too many seats - under those circumstances - is it okay to move between cars. What if while you are moving between cars you fall through. Will they ticket what's left of you?
- Coffee cups must have lids on them.
(I feel safer already)
- No crossing from one car to the other.
(Catch me if you can.)
- No taking up more than one seat.
(This is critical to New Yorkers' safety. But there are a couple of New Yorkers that are going to have trouble with this. I believe they should paint yellow strips on the seats so you know exactly how much space your butt can occupy.)
And on top of that - there may be a subway strike. I'm glad to see that the MTA has its' priorities straight.
The only problem I have with these laws is that the other day, a big fat guy taking up two seats was drinking a huge cup of coffee with no lid and bits were sprinkling on me - so I decided to get away from him and went into another car. So if someone is endangering your life by drinking coffee near you - or taking up too many seats - under those circumstances - is it okay to move between cars. What if while you are moving between cars you fall through. Will they ticket what's left of you?
Photoshop Learning Curve
There are points in the Photoshop Learning Curve - that you can point back to and say: Oh - that's how you use that. Wow.
I can remember these points:
1) Adjustment Layers as opposed to working on the background layer
2) Related to that, getting a real feel for various blending modes, and going beyond that to only blending within a certain range
3) And during the last week: Layer Masks have really kicked in.
It probably came out of working with PhotoKit - especially in what they call the Creative Sharpener step - where they'd set up a black mask for you and let you paint the parts in that you wanted to reveal.
There were a number of times that I wanted certain areas to be sharped - but not others. And I began to get a feel for layer masks. Soon the adjustment layers - whether levels, curves - whatever - had their masks nicely feathered. Feathered, feathered, feathered. How much do you feather? Even that began to kick in when thinking in terms of the dpi of the print. If I feather this much I'm talking about 1/4 inch on the final print.
So you sit there and say, oh it would be nice if the foreground wasn't quite as sharped up as the background. In fact, that would look more natural.
Or I'd love to just make some area less contrasty. The layer mask power is incredible.
I don't think that everyone hits the various Learning Signposts in the same order. But when you do - you remember the moment.
I suppose that I should have taken a course in PS and could have compressed the learning curve - but that idea never dawned on me. On the other hand, I do get the "rush" when one of these signposts hit me over the head.
I can remember these points:
1) Adjustment Layers as opposed to working on the background layer
2) Related to that, getting a real feel for various blending modes, and going beyond that to only blending within a certain range
3) And during the last week: Layer Masks have really kicked in.
It probably came out of working with PhotoKit - especially in what they call the Creative Sharpener step - where they'd set up a black mask for you and let you paint the parts in that you wanted to reveal.
There were a number of times that I wanted certain areas to be sharped - but not others. And I began to get a feel for layer masks. Soon the adjustment layers - whether levels, curves - whatever - had their masks nicely feathered. Feathered, feathered, feathered. How much do you feather? Even that began to kick in when thinking in terms of the dpi of the print. If I feather this much I'm talking about 1/4 inch on the final print.
So you sit there and say, oh it would be nice if the foreground wasn't quite as sharped up as the background. In fact, that would look more natural.
Or I'd love to just make some area less contrasty. The layer mask power is incredible.
I don't think that everyone hits the various Learning Signposts in the same order. But when you do - you remember the moment.
I suppose that I should have taken a course in PS and could have compressed the learning curve - but that idea never dawned on me. On the other hand, I do get the "rush" when one of these signposts hit me over the head.
Last Prints for Sale
My friend Paul read the lines: "Last Prints for Sale" on the home page and told me he thought it meant I was throwing in the towel. I'd better change that to "Recent Prints Added for Sale Even though They Are Old Negatives; More to Come"
No towel to throw in unless I go to the hamper. Nothing left to wear. While I'm hooking up the new scanner orders continue to arrive. Someone is coming by to pick one up. I woke up at the last moment and quickly matted it and swept the floor and tried to tidy up a bit - but place needs a major cleaning.
Paul also told me, why don't you put some of your own prints - nicely framed and all that - on the walls?
Good idea. Meant to do that about ten years ago.
As far as the 1600 goes: I'm going to hold on to it as a backup scanner. I don't think it's worth very much in the marketplace.
No towel to throw in unless I go to the hamper. Nothing left to wear. While I'm hooking up the new scanner orders continue to arrive. Someone is coming by to pick one up. I woke up at the last moment and quickly matted it and swept the floor and tried to tidy up a bit - but place needs a major cleaning.
Paul also told me, why don't you put some of your own prints - nicely framed and all that - on the walls?
Good idea. Meant to do that about ten years ago.
As far as the 1600 goes: I'm going to hold on to it as a backup scanner. I don't think it's worth very much in the marketplace.
Time
Someday - I keep telling myself - I want to write about time.
Someday - I say I want to describe the refracted paths that time takes through the mind, soul and body.
And to sing about the ratio of each individual day lived to total days lived. This is my explanation for why the time sense of a child is so much slower and longer than for an adult.
The child who has only seen one summer. The adult who has seen 50. One-to-one. One-to-fifty.
It speeds by now like a - like a what? Like speeding simile. Like a smile. Like a mile.
And someday - to draw a picture of the relationship between time and intensity of purpose.
The watched pot that never boils. The watched day that never ends. The wait for the weekend. The vacation. The trip. The retirement. You can slow time down and counteract the speeding life ratio if you make sure to remove all meaning from your daily life.
The weekend - you say - goes so fast. The rest of the week is just a long bore.
Combine your own fascination with life - combine that with your time ratio here - and you can't get any grip on the flow. Faster than a speeding bullet and just as deadly.
Someday - when I get the time - I'd like to write about such things. But not now. Too much to do.
Someday - I say I want to describe the refracted paths that time takes through the mind, soul and body.
And to sing about the ratio of each individual day lived to total days lived. This is my explanation for why the time sense of a child is so much slower and longer than for an adult.
The child who has only seen one summer. The adult who has seen 50. One-to-one. One-to-fifty.
It speeds by now like a - like a what? Like speeding simile. Like a smile. Like a mile.
And someday - to draw a picture of the relationship between time and intensity of purpose.
The watched pot that never boils. The watched day that never ends. The wait for the weekend. The vacation. The trip. The retirement. You can slow time down and counteract the speeding life ratio if you make sure to remove all meaning from your daily life.
The weekend - you say - goes so fast. The rest of the week is just a long bore.
Combine your own fascination with life - combine that with your time ratio here - and you can't get any grip on the flow. Faster than a speeding bullet and just as deadly.
Someday - when I get the time - I'd like to write about such things. But not now. Too much to do.
12/04/2005
Epson 4990
Just a couple of quick notes:
I have it hooked up. Had problems with my USB sh*t and hooked it up to firewire. No problems after that - though I may have to chain something or get another firewire card.
The differences in the scans between the 4990 (at least on the one test print I've been doing: Crossing Brooklyn Bridge) - are minor.
- VueScan has a setting for the 4990 FILM HOLDER: NONE (i.e. you are going to stick it on the glass). The 1600 didn't have that setting or I didn't see it. The initial scans I did seem - oh - just a bit sharper - but I can't quantify yet.
- It's a bit faster - though I'm not sure how much since I didn't time the 1600 while it was attached.
- You can get a larger file without interpolation.
In general - the 4990 seems better suited for film scanning. The negative lies closer to the glass. The cover shuts better (I had to put a book and some weight on the 1600 to keep the cover flat). I doubt that the dynamic range difference is something you'll pick up on between the two scanners.
I'm looking at unsharped images at this point so - you know how that goes. It's crazy what you'll go through for just that extra little bit of whatever. One other nice thing - it's smaller and lighter than the 1600 - and that by itself may be worth something. Give the poor thing a little breathing room on the kitchen counter.
- Now I need to see if my Dimage is still working - probably not since I hooked it up with USB. I haven't chained firewire before - but looks like the Dimage and either of the two Maxtor one touch drives can be chained. The 4990 only has the one firewire port.
I have it hooked up. Had problems with my USB sh*t and hooked it up to firewire. No problems after that - though I may have to chain something or get another firewire card.
The differences in the scans between the 4990 (at least on the one test print I've been doing: Crossing Brooklyn Bridge) - are minor.
- VueScan has a setting for the 4990 FILM HOLDER: NONE (i.e. you are going to stick it on the glass). The 1600 didn't have that setting or I didn't see it. The initial scans I did seem - oh - just a bit sharper - but I can't quantify yet.
- It's a bit faster - though I'm not sure how much since I didn't time the 1600 while it was attached.
- You can get a larger file without interpolation.
In general - the 4990 seems better suited for film scanning. The negative lies closer to the glass. The cover shuts better (I had to put a book and some weight on the 1600 to keep the cover flat). I doubt that the dynamic range difference is something you'll pick up on between the two scanners.
I'm looking at unsharped images at this point so - you know how that goes. It's crazy what you'll go through for just that extra little bit of whatever. One other nice thing - it's smaller and lighter than the 1600 - and that by itself may be worth something. Give the poor thing a little breathing room on the kitchen counter.
- Now I need to see if my Dimage is still working - probably not since I hooked it up with USB. I haven't chained firewire before - but looks like the Dimage and either of the two Maxtor one touch drives can be chained. The 4990 only has the one firewire port.
Oh what the hell
After doing more scanning with the 1600 and not happy with the focus - and reading an article where a guy said that VueScan was able to focus with the 4980 - I ran out of the house at the last minute and headed for B&H. The place was a madhouse. Made my way to the counter. They only had the Pro model in stock.
Grabbed a cab and got over to Adorama. They had it in stock. Waited a while and finally they brought out a box that looked like a spear had gone through it. The salesman told me that it was only the box - the scanner was fine.
I said: I want another one.
Waited. And got it and left with some other sundries. Not sure if I'll even have time to set it up tonight - there's a bunch of things I have to get prepared for tomorrow. But as I say - what the hell - it's only money.
Grabbed a cab and got over to Adorama. They had it in stock. Waited a while and finally they brought out a box that looked like a spear had gone through it. The salesman told me that it was only the box - the scanner was fine.
I said: I want another one.
Waited. And got it and left with some other sundries. Not sure if I'll even have time to set it up tonight - there's a bunch of things I have to get prepared for tomorrow. But as I say - what the hell - it's only money.
New Filing Project
After spending most of the morning searching for another negative - I've decided that I'll give up shooting and spend the next five years organizing the ten-thousand plus negatives I have so I can just put my fingers on them when I need them.
I think this will be more productive than spending money on cameras and lenses and scanners. Yes, it will be tedious but my plan is to meditate for 2 hours a day - and in between - as my Zen project - will be the filing.
I'm also going to attach an elastic string to my loupe and hang it from the ceiling so that it doesn't disappear.
Then I'm going to spend the next year filing vendor bills, and getting my taxes done on time.
All kidding aside - I did spend a lot of time again looking for a neg. and what is scary is how many other shots that were never printed pop up. I mean, I never even did contact sheets of them. I probably have 1000 medium format and 1000 35mm negatives from Paris alone (three trips there). And I look at some of them and say - yikes. I remember that shot. How come I never even did a proof of it? Reason - at that time I was working full-time and after developing film I'd put it away somewhere and forget about it. A lot of the shots that are appearing recently in the blog are a result of looking for some other negative (that's how the tree with light and 3+3 made their appearance).
Matt - that is great title: 3+3.
I think this will be more productive than spending money on cameras and lenses and scanners. Yes, it will be tedious but my plan is to meditate for 2 hours a day - and in between - as my Zen project - will be the filing.
I'm also going to attach an elastic string to my loupe and hang it from the ceiling so that it doesn't disappear.
Then I'm going to spend the next year filing vendor bills, and getting my taxes done on time.
All kidding aside - I did spend a lot of time again looking for a neg. and what is scary is how many other shots that were never printed pop up. I mean, I never even did contact sheets of them. I probably have 1000 medium format and 1000 35mm negatives from Paris alone (three trips there). And I look at some of them and say - yikes. I remember that shot. How come I never even did a proof of it? Reason - at that time I was working full-time and after developing film I'd put it away somewhere and forget about it. A lot of the shots that are appearing recently in the blog are a result of looking for some other negative (that's how the tree with light and 3+3 made their appearance).
Matt - that is great title: 3+3.
2 Inches of Snow
2 inches of snow this morning and I think that's enough for me. I don't find myself looking forward to the New York winter the way I used to. In fact, yesterday I got a color brochure for a retirement village called Sunny Senior in Florida and it looks inviting. The only thing is that I'm not old enough yet to qualify, though they said they would fly me down there to have a look if I was 62 or over.
My friend Murray told me that there are three women for every man and that he's treated like an Adonis down there even though he's 40 pounds overweight and walks with a cane.
He also reminded me that I was the shuffleboard champion at camp Wanna-Howie when I was 12. I haven't played since then but friend Murray tells me that shuffleboard is a skill you never lose and they have new lightweight pucks that you can push with just a touch called Whisper Pucks.
My friend Murray told me that there are three women for every man and that he's treated like an Adonis down there even though he's 40 pounds overweight and walks with a cane.
He also reminded me that I was the shuffleboard champion at camp Wanna-Howie when I was 12. I haven't played since then but friend Murray tells me that shuffleboard is a skill you never lose and they have new lightweight pucks that you can push with just a touch called Whisper Pucks.
12/03/2005
Don't Worry, Be Happy + Flatbeds
From "How VueScan Works"
"If single-pass multi-scanning is enabled, each line of data from the CCD is read multiple times and combined (averaged) while being stored in the memory buffer. If multi-pass multi-scanning is enabled, the whole scan area is read multiple times and combined (averaged) in the memory buffer."
Unlike the Dimage 5400 film scanner - the Epson 1600 is not capable of "multi-pass scanning" - so what VueScan is set to do is "Single-pass multi-scanning."'
Nor, from what I've read is the 4990 capable of multi-pass scanning. There is an interesting line in the manual for the 4990 where it says: Hardware Resolution: 4800 x 9600 with Microstep Drive Technology
I'm not sure what that means either. I don't even know what the scale of 4.0 means. I see that the Dimage 5400 has a higher optical d-max. I see some very large numbers for high-end drum scanners. Is it a straight linear scale where each decimal point is just a little bit better, or is it like the earthquake scale where you are talking about magnitudes of improvement? I have no idea.
At any rate - I looked through the 4990 manuals and screen shots and don't see anything about multi-pass (or focusing for that matter).
So here's the hub of the question: I have setup VueScan with the 1600 to do single-pass "multi-scanning."
And the results are that more detail in the shadow areas (by far) are picked up using say 4 samples than 1 sample. The results are by far the best I've ever gotten for the MF and large negatives out of the 1600.
So - what does this mean? Does it mean that VueScan has effectively increased the Maximum Tonal Range the 1600 can pull from a negative? The empirical answer to that is - yes.
So if you began with a scanner capable on its' own of picking up higher d-max (the 4990 is listed as 4.0, the 1600 is listed as 3.3) - you would need less sampling to achieve the same results.
And to further confuse you (as well as myself) in several tech. sheets for the 4990, the d-max of 4.0 has next to it the phrase "computed."
This is one of those posts where you just want to say to yourself - oh get the damned thing and see how it works. But I have to admit - I have learned a little bit in the process so maybe that's not such a bad thing - though you know what they say about that, a little knowledge being a dangerous thing. But that's a dumb phrase since you always start with a little knowledge at some point and like the aforementioned scanner - you apply micro-stepping to improve on it.
* * *
BILL EMORY EMAILED ME THIS EXCELLENT LINK EXPLAINING DMAX which answers a good deal of my somewhat fuzzy post:
Dynamic Range
By Bob Atkins
"Since the dynamic range of solid state detectors is limited to something like 3.4-3.6, that's all you get. The better the sensor and the better the electronics, the better the dynamic range, so it could be anywhere from 2.8 to 3.6. You just don't know because the manufacturers don't publish measured numbers, just "theoretical maximum" numbers based on a perfect noise free sensor and perfect D/A converter - which of course don't exist!" - Bob Atkins
A lot of fascinating - clarifying info in this article. Explains why, for example the Epson 1600 lists dynamic range at 3.6
Also - explains that without either reading a hands-on-review - or testing it yourself - you can't really know how good (low noise) the sensor is.
"If single-pass multi-scanning is enabled, each line of data from the CCD is read multiple times and combined (averaged) while being stored in the memory buffer. If multi-pass multi-scanning is enabled, the whole scan area is read multiple times and combined (averaged) in the memory buffer."
Unlike the Dimage 5400 film scanner - the Epson 1600 is not capable of "multi-pass scanning" - so what VueScan is set to do is "Single-pass multi-scanning."'
Nor, from what I've read is the 4990 capable of multi-pass scanning. There is an interesting line in the manual for the 4990 where it says: Hardware Resolution: 4800 x 9600 with Microstep Drive Technology
I'm not sure what that means either. I don't even know what the scale of 4.0 means. I see that the Dimage 5400 has a higher optical d-max. I see some very large numbers for high-end drum scanners. Is it a straight linear scale where each decimal point is just a little bit better, or is it like the earthquake scale where you are talking about magnitudes of improvement? I have no idea.
At any rate - I looked through the 4990 manuals and screen shots and don't see anything about multi-pass (or focusing for that matter).
So here's the hub of the question: I have setup VueScan with the 1600 to do single-pass "multi-scanning."
And the results are that more detail in the shadow areas (by far) are picked up using say 4 samples than 1 sample. The results are by far the best I've ever gotten for the MF and large negatives out of the 1600.
So - what does this mean? Does it mean that VueScan has effectively increased the Maximum Tonal Range the 1600 can pull from a negative? The empirical answer to that is - yes.
So if you began with a scanner capable on its' own of picking up higher d-max (the 4990 is listed as 4.0, the 1600 is listed as 3.3) - you would need less sampling to achieve the same results.
And to further confuse you (as well as myself) in several tech. sheets for the 4990, the d-max of 4.0 has next to it the phrase "computed."
This is one of those posts where you just want to say to yourself - oh get the damned thing and see how it works. But I have to admit - I have learned a little bit in the process so maybe that's not such a bad thing - though you know what they say about that, a little knowledge being a dangerous thing. But that's a dumb phrase since you always start with a little knowledge at some point and like the aforementioned scanner - you apply micro-stepping to improve on it.
* * *
BILL EMORY EMAILED ME THIS EXCELLENT LINK EXPLAINING DMAX which answers a good deal of my somewhat fuzzy post:
Dynamic Range
By Bob Atkins
"Since the dynamic range of solid state detectors is limited to something like 3.4-3.6, that's all you get. The better the sensor and the better the electronics, the better the dynamic range, so it could be anywhere from 2.8 to 3.6. You just don't know because the manufacturers don't publish measured numbers, just "theoretical maximum" numbers based on a perfect noise free sensor and perfect D/A converter - which of course don't exist!" - Bob Atkins
A lot of fascinating - clarifying info in this article. Explains why, for example the Epson 1600 lists dynamic range at 3.6
Also - explains that without either reading a hands-on-review - or testing it yourself - you can't really know how good (low noise) the sensor is.
12/02/2005
International Shipping
I'm getting more and more international orders and the thing is - there's only two possible postal custom forms to fill out. One is big and white. The other small and green. So everytime I go to drop off the package at the post office (usually after waiting on a long line) the clerk tells me I've filled out the wrong form.
I mean - it's a fifty/fifty chance. I should be right once in a while.
And I always get the same clerk who seems to have all the time in the world. So I had asked him last time which form was for which. He told me the white form was for larger packages. Also, to make it more complex - I do try to save the customer at the other end the VAT tax or whatever and I'll mark the thing gift or sample sometmes with a low price, unless they've been a pain and then I just let it fly and let 'em pay.
So just back from P.O. and of course - wrong form again. I used the green small form but marked it sample. Oh, he says - sample means you need the big white form.
Well, what are the exact dimensions that make it want the big white form?
He's not sure, but since it's maked sample and looks like a sample package - it gets the big white one. I'm going to fool them next time and fill out both forms ahead of time and when he tells me I've got the wrong one - I'm going to produce the other one - with a flourish - and give him that since I'm convinced that he's doing this to mess with my head.
OR - I should go and check out their online site which will probably guide me to using the right forms and print the postage and all that.
Compared to the P.O. experience - FEDEX is a dream. Okay, back to packaging. Just had to get that off my cluttered chest.
I mean - it's a fifty/fifty chance. I should be right once in a while.
And I always get the same clerk who seems to have all the time in the world. So I had asked him last time which form was for which. He told me the white form was for larger packages. Also, to make it more complex - I do try to save the customer at the other end the VAT tax or whatever and I'll mark the thing gift or sample sometmes with a low price, unless they've been a pain and then I just let it fly and let 'em pay.
So just back from P.O. and of course - wrong form again. I used the green small form but marked it sample. Oh, he says - sample means you need the big white form.
Well, what are the exact dimensions that make it want the big white form?
He's not sure, but since it's maked sample and looks like a sample package - it gets the big white one. I'm going to fool them next time and fill out both forms ahead of time and when he tells me I've got the wrong one - I'm going to produce the other one - with a flourish - and give him that since I'm convinced that he's doing this to mess with my head.
OR - I should go and check out their online site which will probably guide me to using the right forms and print the postage and all that.
Compared to the P.O. experience - FEDEX is a dream. Okay, back to packaging. Just had to get that off my cluttered chest.
Lava Fields
National Crater Park
I guess I'll become a nature photographer for a while. Too busy to do any new shooting. Somewhere near Flagstaff, sometime in the last century. I justed wanted to try something with the VueScan software and this jumped up and said, "Scan me."
12/01/2005
Tree, Prospect Park
Tree, Prospect Park
About 15 years ago, I was with a friend who introduced me to an artist who lived in Brooklyn. We went out to Prospect Park. The two of them sat down and lit up the usual illegal substance that I was discovering all Brooklyn artists carry around. I had a few puffs and we went for a walk in the woods. I was carrying a heavy tripod and the Mamiya 6.
There was a small stream with a log across it. The two of them had been reading the don Juan sagas and wanted to find the warrior in themselves - or something like that. I hadn't read those books and was nervous about crossing the stream because I had been suffering from vertigo - which still comes and goes (some inner ear thing that was diagnosed as Labyrinthitis). I took a few steps onto the log and thought I'd fall in with the camera stuff. They were both on the other side already and laughing and shouting that I should concentrate on my naval and I'd find the courage to make the crossing. The illegal substance was making my vertigo worse.
When I concentrated on my naval I only found a great big coward lurking there. So I told them to go on ahead and I'd meet them later. I'm a great believer in finding the coward in yourself.
So off I went into these dark overcast woods. I wandered around - more paranoid than relaxed until finally I just sat down across from this tree. As I stared at it, I realized it was the only thing with even a dash of light around. There was a storm coming. Still somewhat dizzy - I setup the tripod and took this shot.
Later they came back and found me sitting peacefully against the same tree - the light now gone - sound of thunder in the distance. The artist was soaking wet and had fallen in on the way back. He blamed it on the divorce he was going through which had defeated his inner warrior.
I always liked the print - but I don't know if it communicates the mystery I felt about it or just looks like light on a tree.
Newton Ring
Hey, that was exciting. Got my first Newton Ring. Cool. I taped a 4 x 5 neg. to the glass.
One other thing: the d-max with the 1600 is 3.3, and with the 4990 it's 4.0. It is supported by VueScan. Still doing my research.
One other thing: the d-max with the 1600 is 3.3, and with the 4990 it's 4.0. It is supported by VueScan. Still doing my research.
11/30/2005
Quote of the Day
Blog Goblins & VueScan
I heard - el Bloggo was down. I told Heath that sometimes my ISP likes to delete files just to make life more interesting. Since you're reading this - it's up again.
* * *
All morning spent with VueScan. Yes. Quite the program. I still think I'm going to end up with the 4990, but maybe it isn't quite the rush I thought it was. One thing for sure, VueScan blows away the Epson scanner driver. And of course - I'm sure that Barrett mentioned it years ago to me but I'm a slooow learner. Or maybe it's that until I hit a brick wall, I don't start listening.
* * *
The only problem I had with VueScan and the 1600 is that when the negative was in the negative holder, the scan was soft. Also - you can't - at least I can't - figure out how to focus the scanner through VueScan since the Focus Title is always grayed out - which I figure means that the scanner itself doesn't support manual focus. What the scanner does have is a switch for setting whether the focus should be at Zero or 2-point something (the latter is for when it's in the negative carrier, i.e. the film is farther away from the scanning table).
Anyway - to make a long story longer - I just took the negative out of the holder and stuck it on the glass - and then the scan through VueScan was considerably sharper. (I'm not using any sharpening settings in VueScan, nor am I decreasing grain appearance etc.) All the sharpening is done post-scan. The other cool thing - is the RAW scan. What a concept. More later...
* * *
Thank you Barrett, Markus -- VueScan did the trick. I'm going to hold on to this 1600. Getting great results now.
* * *
All morning spent with VueScan. Yes. Quite the program. I still think I'm going to end up with the 4990, but maybe it isn't quite the rush I thought it was. One thing for sure, VueScan blows away the Epson scanner driver. And of course - I'm sure that Barrett mentioned it years ago to me but I'm a slooow learner. Or maybe it's that until I hit a brick wall, I don't start listening.
* * *
The only problem I had with VueScan and the 1600 is that when the negative was in the negative holder, the scan was soft. Also - you can't - at least I can't - figure out how to focus the scanner through VueScan since the Focus Title is always grayed out - which I figure means that the scanner itself doesn't support manual focus. What the scanner does have is a switch for setting whether the focus should be at Zero or 2-point something (the latter is for when it's in the negative carrier, i.e. the film is farther away from the scanning table).
Anyway - to make a long story longer - I just took the negative out of the holder and stuck it on the glass - and then the scan through VueScan was considerably sharper. (I'm not using any sharpening settings in VueScan, nor am I decreasing grain appearance etc.) All the sharpening is done post-scan. The other cool thing - is the RAW scan. What a concept. More later...
* * *
Thank you Barrett, Markus -- VueScan did the trick. I'm going to hold on to this 1600. Getting great results now.
11/29/2005
hex AFC3E8
I don't know what happened to me the last month. I became infatuated with this #AFC3E8 pale shade of blue. The whole site is slowly turning blue. What would you call it - China Blue? I also became overly infatuated with the ads to the point where I plastered them up on the sales pages. It didn't really seem to hurt sales but I removed them. They were ruining my own enjoyment of viewing the images.
My bedroom, as I remember it (probably faulty) was this shade of blue when I was a kid. So maybe it's some form of regression. I'm thinking that hex RGB colors might be good for domain names. Please visit #AFC3EB to view Dave's Blue Period.
I might go and get the Epson Scanner tomorrow. I don't usually act this fast with a piece of hardware but more and more of my medium format stuff is being ordered and and the 1600 is not up to the job. Besides, I have about 30 MF shots that I've never been able to do properly with the 1600. I'll let you know if I get it; how it works out; and then if anyone in New York wants to pick up the 1600 - let me know.
Everything has worked out well so far this season. I also have a couple of offers from retailers from various places around the country wanting to know if I'll sell prints wholesale. I have to figure that part out. Definitely cheaper mats (thanks for the mat tip John C.) if I'm going to do that sort of thing. As is it - I'm printing away as fast as I can. That will end in a week I'm sure and I'll be back to shooting. I see things all the time these days as I walk around - but don't want to think about shooting. I mostly think about ordering packaging supplies and drudgery like that lately. Should I get the 200 lb carton or the 150 lb carton.
The weird thing is that I seem to relish the rote work. Maybe it's a Zen thing. I don't know.
There's a passage in the new book by Frank McCourt (Teacher Man) where one of his students tells how he went to learn Karate and the teacher only told him to go and clean the toilets during the first session (which the kid did). Next week, the kid comes back and the Karate teacher tells him to clean the toilets again. Only after several weeks of this did the karate teacher begin to get into Karate technique. Zen, Zen, Zen. The sound of hands folding cartons and slapping tape around same.
P.S. Barrett recommended trying VueScan with the 1600. Wow. Very promising. That's what I call a driver.
My bedroom, as I remember it (probably faulty) was this shade of blue when I was a kid. So maybe it's some form of regression. I'm thinking that hex RGB colors might be good for domain names. Please visit #AFC3EB to view Dave's Blue Period.
I might go and get the Epson Scanner tomorrow. I don't usually act this fast with a piece of hardware but more and more of my medium format stuff is being ordered and and the 1600 is not up to the job. Besides, I have about 30 MF shots that I've never been able to do properly with the 1600. I'll let you know if I get it; how it works out; and then if anyone in New York wants to pick up the 1600 - let me know.
Everything has worked out well so far this season. I also have a couple of offers from retailers from various places around the country wanting to know if I'll sell prints wholesale. I have to figure that part out. Definitely cheaper mats (thanks for the mat tip John C.) if I'm going to do that sort of thing. As is it - I'm printing away as fast as I can. That will end in a week I'm sure and I'll be back to shooting. I see things all the time these days as I walk around - but don't want to think about shooting. I mostly think about ordering packaging supplies and drudgery like that lately. Should I get the 200 lb carton or the 150 lb carton.
The weird thing is that I seem to relish the rote work. Maybe it's a Zen thing. I don't know.
There's a passage in the new book by Frank McCourt (Teacher Man) where one of his students tells how he went to learn Karate and the teacher only told him to go and clean the toilets during the first session (which the kid did). Next week, the kid comes back and the Karate teacher tells him to clean the toilets again. Only after several weeks of this did the karate teacher begin to get into Karate technique. Zen, Zen, Zen. The sound of hands folding cartons and slapping tape around same.
P.S. Barrett recommended trying VueScan with the 1600. Wow. Very promising. That's what I call a driver.
Epson Scanner
Was this the scanner you guys were talking about a while back:
Epson Perfection 4990 Photo, 4800x9600 dpi
I need to get something better than the Epson 1600 I'm using now for scanning medium format negatives. I see it listed at B&H for $409. I've never been happy with the d-max of the 1600 for negatives. I'm too pooped to go back through the blog and look for what you said but I remember things like: it's almost as good / as good / as a drum scan. Things along those lines.
For $100 more you get:
"With an included professional software suite including LaserSoft Imaging SilverFast Ai, the Epson Perfection 4990 Pro provides a total digital imaging system right out of the box. It also offers expansive color management with an IT8 target to consistently color match photos. And, it incorporates leading-edge image acquisition software for maximum scanning control, plus high-speed connectivity options."
Do I need any of this extra stuff?
Epson Perfection 4990 Photo, 4800x9600 dpi
I need to get something better than the Epson 1600 I'm using now for scanning medium format negatives. I see it listed at B&H for $409. I've never been happy with the d-max of the 1600 for negatives. I'm too pooped to go back through the blog and look for what you said but I remember things like: it's almost as good / as good / as a drum scan. Things along those lines.
For $100 more you get:
"With an included professional software suite including LaserSoft Imaging SilverFast Ai, the Epson Perfection 4990 Pro provides a total digital imaging system right out of the box. It also offers expansive color management with an IT8 target to consistently color match photos. And, it incorporates leading-edge image acquisition software for maximum scanning control, plus high-speed connectivity options."
Do I need any of this extra stuff?
Hey Dave
what happened to that print you had of the guy walking through the gate in the snow by the river. i wanted to purchase it but can't find it anywhere. j.b.
That's my bad. When I began to redesign the site, a bunch of old prints got lost in the shuffle. Here you go:
The Road Ahead
That's my bad. When I began to redesign the site, a bunch of old prints got lost in the shuffle. Here you go:
The Road Ahead
11/28/2005
Yosemite after Rain
Yosemite after Rain
If you've ever gone on a vacation with someone who isn't a photographer - and is impatient to boot - you sort of know what it was like. I kept wanting to stop to shoot stuff and my friend who had just left a programming job was depressed and wanted to explore the edges of cliffs. It was a tense time all around. I was afraid that only one of us was going to come back from this trip.
This was shot while I was alone. Mamiya 6. I had borrowed wading boots and was in the muck waiting for the tripod to settle down.
Content Ads
Someone should write an article about how content-driven ads effect what you write about.
I'll give you an example. I was going to write an article about how I used to use a JOBO rotary tank on top of a Besseler (sp?) motor; sort of a hybrid thing to do rotary processing. Rotary processing is actually a great thing if you want to do a lot of film processing, because besides a certain amount of automation - you use very little chemicals since the tank lies on its' side and rotates the film through the chemicals. In other words the whole tank doesn't need to be filled up. I tried it on the cheap. Instead of buying the whole JOBO rig, I bought the rotary tank with their reels and put it on top of a motor made by Besseler that turned the tank.
The motor drive had a button on the front so that it would go first one way, than reverse itself. That broke the first day. But the basic concept worked pretty well, though you had to keep an eye on the tank that it didn't wobble off onto the floor. The other problem is that chemicals tended to leak out of the top, and sometimes get into the motor.
So one day, while the tank with six reels is spinning - the motor burns out. Dead. Not such a terrible thing if it was in the hypo stage - but it was still halfway through the developer stage.
What to do. Think fast.
Did the only thing I could think of: take it off the motor base and begin rolling it across the apartment floor (which at that time had a rug) trying to approximate the rotation speed of the motor. Bad for the rug. Well, that's what I was going to write my article about but then I'm thinking:
Is JOBO even in existence anymore? Does Besseler even make that motor drive? Do people still do rotary processing? This is like writing a story from the dark ages. Who's going to buy advertising for this?
So I hop on the web and try and find out what JOBO is up to. Like every other film-based firm, they are called JOBO DIGITAL now or something like that and their official distributor in the U.S. is so-and-so. I went to several official distributor sites they mentioned and either the processors were out-of-stock or a search of the site doesn't even mention the rotary systems.
So - I figure, this is stupid to waste my time writing about some system that isn't going to generate ad revenue. And this was conscious. I wonder - as I said before - what the effect of content-driven ads is on writers?
You can see it in action if you look at successful sites based on content-driven ad revenue. What do they write about? The latest and greatest digital products. They try to scoop their competition with the first review. And digital is perfect for this since new products are hatched quicker than you can write about them. New "content." New ad revenue. They feed well on each other.
I can't compete there. My pc is nearly five years old. My camera was made in 1965 or something. In a year or so they'll have a replacement for just about everything that I'm using.
But there is something pernicious about it; though no more so than the relationship that has always existed between advertising and magazine writing. Don't bite the hand that feeds you. I always felt that when I was reading reviews in Popular Photography. Very rare they'd say, now here's a product by a major manufacturer that buys tons of advertising space in our magazine and what they've just turned out is a POS.
Oh, about that article about the effect of content-driven ads on writing - maybe I just wrote it.
I'll give you an example. I was going to write an article about how I used to use a JOBO rotary tank on top of a Besseler (sp?) motor; sort of a hybrid thing to do rotary processing. Rotary processing is actually a great thing if you want to do a lot of film processing, because besides a certain amount of automation - you use very little chemicals since the tank lies on its' side and rotates the film through the chemicals. In other words the whole tank doesn't need to be filled up. I tried it on the cheap. Instead of buying the whole JOBO rig, I bought the rotary tank with their reels and put it on top of a motor made by Besseler that turned the tank.
The motor drive had a button on the front so that it would go first one way, than reverse itself. That broke the first day. But the basic concept worked pretty well, though you had to keep an eye on the tank that it didn't wobble off onto the floor. The other problem is that chemicals tended to leak out of the top, and sometimes get into the motor.
So one day, while the tank with six reels is spinning - the motor burns out. Dead. Not such a terrible thing if it was in the hypo stage - but it was still halfway through the developer stage.
What to do. Think fast.
Did the only thing I could think of: take it off the motor base and begin rolling it across the apartment floor (which at that time had a rug) trying to approximate the rotation speed of the motor. Bad for the rug. Well, that's what I was going to write my article about but then I'm thinking:
Is JOBO even in existence anymore? Does Besseler even make that motor drive? Do people still do rotary processing? This is like writing a story from the dark ages. Who's going to buy advertising for this?
So I hop on the web and try and find out what JOBO is up to. Like every other film-based firm, they are called JOBO DIGITAL now or something like that and their official distributor in the U.S. is so-and-so. I went to several official distributor sites they mentioned and either the processors were out-of-stock or a search of the site doesn't even mention the rotary systems.
So - I figure, this is stupid to waste my time writing about some system that isn't going to generate ad revenue. And this was conscious. I wonder - as I said before - what the effect of content-driven ads is on writers?
You can see it in action if you look at successful sites based on content-driven ad revenue. What do they write about? The latest and greatest digital products. They try to scoop their competition with the first review. And digital is perfect for this since new products are hatched quicker than you can write about them. New "content." New ad revenue. They feed well on each other.
I can't compete there. My pc is nearly five years old. My camera was made in 1965 or something. In a year or so they'll have a replacement for just about everything that I'm using.
But there is something pernicious about it; though no more so than the relationship that has always existed between advertising and magazine writing. Don't bite the hand that feeds you. I always felt that when I was reading reviews in Popular Photography. Very rare they'd say, now here's a product by a major manufacturer that buys tons of advertising space in our magazine and what they've just turned out is a POS.
Oh, about that article about the effect of content-driven ads on writing - maybe I just wrote it.
11/27/2005
New Print
Funny how a new print makes it into the world. A couple of years ago I was doing my pilgrimage to the Bronx and figured I'd take in the 2nd most popular tourist attraction: Bronx Botanical Gardens even though flowers don't move me in the least.
My uncle Joe spent year after year at these gardens - returning with millions of flower slides which he'd then project for us in long boring sessions filled with Latin names. You know, sometimes photographers get caught up with one subject and just beat it to death. (Sorry Joe).
I've done it myself with benches. Can't pass a bench without wanting to take its' picture. I don't know why. Benches, trees, things made out of wood. Poor benches, out there in the elements all day. Splintering. Weathering. Getting darker with age. Gleaming when soaked. I'll have to get that part of my psyche analyzed someday.
So there I am in the botanical gardens - just as bored as if I were at Uncle Joes - and it starts to rain and I wander around with tripod and G2 - and find this wooden railing. So now I like this. I carefully setup the shot so that there's this trail leading off into the mist, and you are right above the railing (difficult tripod shot was it).
The Botanical Garden Trail picture is found on the site (somehow) by a design firm in Utah. Big hunt for the neg. And I mean big hunt. Took me longer to find that negative than to take or process same.
Then I don't hear from them for something like 4 months. Turns out that they would like it after all. So I finally print it and - the thing springs to life again.
You can see it here, but I don't think it would be interesting to you based on the web shot. But the print - it has that feeling of being etched in the paper - if you know what I mean. It must have been the 21mm lens which was really good with that G2.
Without the push from the folks in Utah (I bet they know their wooden railings out there) - the neg. would have just gone the way of all negs. - whatever that is.
My uncle Joe spent year after year at these gardens - returning with millions of flower slides which he'd then project for us in long boring sessions filled with Latin names. You know, sometimes photographers get caught up with one subject and just beat it to death. (Sorry Joe).
I've done it myself with benches. Can't pass a bench without wanting to take its' picture. I don't know why. Benches, trees, things made out of wood. Poor benches, out there in the elements all day. Splintering. Weathering. Getting darker with age. Gleaming when soaked. I'll have to get that part of my psyche analyzed someday.
So there I am in the botanical gardens - just as bored as if I were at Uncle Joes - and it starts to rain and I wander around with tripod and G2 - and find this wooden railing. So now I like this. I carefully setup the shot so that there's this trail leading off into the mist, and you are right above the railing (difficult tripod shot was it).
The Botanical Garden Trail picture is found on the site (somehow) by a design firm in Utah. Big hunt for the neg. And I mean big hunt. Took me longer to find that negative than to take or process same.
Then I don't hear from them for something like 4 months. Turns out that they would like it after all. So I finally print it and - the thing springs to life again.
You can see it here, but I don't think it would be interesting to you based on the web shot. But the print - it has that feeling of being etched in the paper - if you know what I mean. It must have been the 21mm lens which was really good with that G2.
Without the push from the folks in Utah (I bet they know their wooden railings out there) - the neg. would have just gone the way of all negs. - whatever that is.
Weborial: Developing Film
Okay - one more. Feel free to let me know if I've made any major blunders or if you want more info. Oh, that's right. Faster film. Didn't do that. I will.
Developing B&W Film
Developing B&W Film
11/26/2005
Weborials
Every time I read through one of these articles I've written in the last few weeks some glaring mistake jumps up and bites me. No editor. A general problem on the web. Someone should start an editorial society for weborialists. I know there's no word like that, but after going through a thesaurus for synonyms for article, weborial was the best I could come up with.
Here are some of those synonyms for article:
beat, blurb, column, commentary, composition, discourse, editorial, essay, exposition, feature, item, paper, piece, scoop, spread, story, theme, think piece, treatise, write-up
- Hey mac, I cover the Photo beat for the Daily Gotham. Whaddya do?
- I write weborials for the Gotham Blogger.
- Huh?
- Yeah. I'm a weborialist. One of the first ones. You should try it.
- Yeah? Well what the hell is a weborialist?
- You write articles, reviews, opinions - but you work on the web so they call it weborials. It's great 'cause no one checks your spelling or anything.
- You're kiddin' me.
- Nope.
- Weborialist, huh? Maybe I'll give it a try.
- Definitely. The competing word right now is itorial - but it's hard to say.
Here are some of those synonyms for article:
beat, blurb, column, commentary, composition, discourse, editorial, essay, exposition, feature, item, paper, piece, scoop, spread, story, theme, think piece, treatise, write-up
- Hey mac, I cover the Photo beat for the Daily Gotham. Whaddya do?
- I write weborials for the Gotham Blogger.
- Huh?
- Yeah. I'm a weborialist. One of the first ones. You should try it.
- Yeah? Well what the hell is a weborialist?
- You write articles, reviews, opinions - but you work on the web so they call it weborials. It's great 'cause no one checks your spelling or anything.
- You're kiddin' me.
- Nope.
- Weborialist, huh? Maybe I'll give it a try.
- Definitely. The competing word right now is itorial - but it's hard to say.
Back to Shooting
I have about seven prints to mat - and I've done all the tinkering with the site that I'm going to do for a while - and then - gasp - I'm going to starting shooting again. It's true that I don't really like this season much. I didn't get half the stuff done that I was supposed to: didn't send cards out; didn't get calendars made; didn't get any books published; didn't do much shooting; but like a kid who's got his new pencils for the new school term - I'm ready again to start anew and begin the usual backsliding.
What I did do is figure out how to sell more prints than last year and how to pick up a little extra money with ads and whatnot.
My only new year's resolution is to get a freakin' photography book published - even if I have to rob the local bank to do it. But no Lulu.com for me. At least that's been ruled out. I think I'm going to take a trip to China and meet with the local printers who work in the shadow of the great wall. Or maybe visit Milan where they do some mighty-fine printing.
Oh - but one thing I am going to do - I'm going to send a small Bronx photograph - to everyone I know who was born in the Bronx. No profit in that - just the act of giving. So, if you once in lived in the Bronx - and I know you - I'm going to get something to you for the holidays.
What I did do is figure out how to sell more prints than last year and how to pick up a little extra money with ads and whatnot.
My only new year's resolution is to get a freakin' photography book published - even if I have to rob the local bank to do it. But no Lulu.com for me. At least that's been ruled out. I think I'm going to take a trip to China and meet with the local printers who work in the shadow of the great wall. Or maybe visit Milan where they do some mighty-fine printing.
Oh - but one thing I am going to do - I'm going to send a small Bronx photograph - to everyone I know who was born in the Bronx. No profit in that - just the act of giving. So, if you once in lived in the Bronx - and I know you - I'm going to get something to you for the holidays.
11/25/2005
Another Gathering
Last year the turkey caught on fire.
This year - it wasn't ready in time - so the lasagna was pulled out first and me and a couple of teenagers were devouring it while the traditionalists waited and waited for the turkey.
Dad takes a small piece and complains about how he doesn't like spaghetti sauce or cheese and my sister is trying to get him to wait for the turkey.
Finally same arrives and a lot of us were stuffed already. After the pre-teens analyze the latest Harry Potter movie - seems they didn't like it but I couldn't understand half of what they were talking about. The teens and younger kids retire to the bedroom where they attached some Atari game box to the t.v. and play a game about hijacking trucks. Lots of violence and bad language.
The old folks came into the room but the kids wouldn't let them touch the game controls and the sound was turned down so they couldn't hear all the bad words. I got to play for about 30 seconds and drove my truck over a cliff into some water. I drowned.
In the living room - there were a lot of single 50-ish women talking about good places to go dancing and whatever happened to the Candy Stripe lounge that they frequented in the 80's.
The old folks couldn't get into that either. (Neither could I).
I had been instructed before hand to try and keep my big mouth shut and let the old folks control the conversation and not to bring up politics (which always leads to arguments). Fine with me. But it backfired when the talk was dominated by the ladies and their dance down memory lane and I was told afterwards that I should have brought up politics because those arguments are the highlight of any get-together. Oh well. Next time.
So my birthday is Dec. 1st - and every Thanksgiving I tell dad I don't want to celebrate it at Thanksgiving and sure enough there I am again with everyone surprising me with a cake and candle and me yelling, "God, how many times do I have to tell you - I don't want to do this at Thanksgiving."
One candle in the cake. I go to grab it to take it out and blow on it - and get into a control struggle with dad who wants me to blow it out while it's still in the cake. I make a grab for it again and a chocolate strawberry falls off, rolls under the table - and the dog goes for it. The dog isn't much bigger than the chocolate strawberry.
Chocolate (so they tell me) is poison for this breed of dog - so now there's a mad scramble under the table to get the chocolate strawberry from the dog with people surrounding the poor mutt and someone knocks over the coffee pot on the new white rug.
Oh the horror. Quick - use baking soda. No, use soda water. The women all advance their own secret formulas but the stain is spreading.
Why'd you knock off the chocolate strawberry?
Sorry.
Then someone starts singing: how old are you now? How old are you now?
"I'm 54," I say.
"No you're not," my middle sister says. She must be calculating her own age.
"I think I know how old I am. Do you wanna see my driver's license!"
Someone in the backroom must have hit the volume control because some very dirty words are filtering from the game into the living room. Horrified parents rush in to see what's going on and discover the obscenity filled game and want to know where this came from. In the confusion, they hit some other button and now all the bad politically unmentionable words are booming through the house.
I'm still thinking about how it feels to be 54. 6 years from 60. No way around that.
My uncle Hy was dead already at my age and had accomplished so much more.
Dad is wandering around looking for the check he was going to give me for my birthday. He can't find it. He's worried that he may have dropped it in the elevator because he was signing it as he came up. So out he goes to search the elevator. His eighty-year old companion is searching her pocketbook, either for her glasses or for the envelope.
And then it happens - the final coup de grace. Dad's companion asks me how I like the poster she brought back from somewhere as a gift. (I had passed it on to my sister for her house). Somehow, I know, by the way she was asking - that I had passed it on to Jean.
Now Jean is too cagey to have said anything - but her teenage daughter - she might have said something about the poster.
I excuse myself to go back to the other room where the hijacking game has been confiscated and ask my niece if she mentioned anything about the poster to anyone. She tells me that she might have mentioned the Van Gogh Bedroom print to someone dad's companion and sticks the iPod pods back in her ears.
Good God. Now what.
"I heard that you gave it to your sister," my father's companion is saying behind me. First time I've seen her move all night - and she's quick and silent as a cat and wearing magnifying glasses on her eyes.
"Well - I - "
Here eyes are huge.
"We brought it all the way back from Milan, you know. Especially for you. Your father picked it out. "
Meanwhile, dad comes back - unable to find the missing check. But he has a hat with him. Someone left their hat in the elevator.
The women are scrubbing the rug.
The kids are crying in the other room about the confiscation of the game.
I'm searching for an explanation for why I gave the poster away. Finally: "I didn't want to hurt your feelings, but I had that poster already. That's why I gave it to my sister."
"Really," she says suspiciously. She'd love to see the poster next time she visits me, so I'm going to have to get to the Museum of Art and get another one. I hope it says printed in Milan on the back.
As people are leaving - I'm invited to play anagrams. There are two anagram sets in the house. One is the actual real anagrams game (impossible to find these days); and the other one is just a bottle filled with scrabble tiles. The realanagrams set belongs to my sister's mother-in-law. I haven't mentioned her yet but she is not an old lady to trifle with (former high-school principal).
I say, "Let's play with the real set." My sister says, "what real set?"
I say, "You know - the actual set - we played with it the other day."
Her mother-in-law says: "You have a real anagrams set? Where did you find it? Took me years to find one. Finally found an old one on eBay."
Well, apparently my sister - who is giving me signs to shut up - stole it from her mother-in-laws house.
"Don't you remember, you loaned it to us a while back," she stammers.
Mother-in-law doesn't remember and starts in on a story about how difficult it was to find that set. They don't make them anymore.
Sister continues with her fable: "Remember, we were playing at your house and you said I could borrow it for a while?"
The dog begins to cough. He's been licking whatever they've been pouring on the coffee stain and it's making him puke. He almost pukes on the anonymous hat, but misses.
So that pretty much wraps things up as we take care of the dog; and a big fat guy in a florid bathrobe comes to the front door - somehow he's heard that my father found his hat. I don't know how he found out - my father must have involved the doorman at some point - but he takes his hat sticks it on his head and as he wanders away I notice some specks of dog-puke on it.
This year - it wasn't ready in time - so the lasagna was pulled out first and me and a couple of teenagers were devouring it while the traditionalists waited and waited for the turkey.
Dad takes a small piece and complains about how he doesn't like spaghetti sauce or cheese and my sister is trying to get him to wait for the turkey.
Finally same arrives and a lot of us were stuffed already. After the pre-teens analyze the latest Harry Potter movie - seems they didn't like it but I couldn't understand half of what they were talking about. The teens and younger kids retire to the bedroom where they attached some Atari game box to the t.v. and play a game about hijacking trucks. Lots of violence and bad language.
The old folks came into the room but the kids wouldn't let them touch the game controls and the sound was turned down so they couldn't hear all the bad words. I got to play for about 30 seconds and drove my truck over a cliff into some water. I drowned.
In the living room - there were a lot of single 50-ish women talking about good places to go dancing and whatever happened to the Candy Stripe lounge that they frequented in the 80's.
The old folks couldn't get into that either. (Neither could I).
I had been instructed before hand to try and keep my big mouth shut and let the old folks control the conversation and not to bring up politics (which always leads to arguments). Fine with me. But it backfired when the talk was dominated by the ladies and their dance down memory lane and I was told afterwards that I should have brought up politics because those arguments are the highlight of any get-together. Oh well. Next time.
So my birthday is Dec. 1st - and every Thanksgiving I tell dad I don't want to celebrate it at Thanksgiving and sure enough there I am again with everyone surprising me with a cake and candle and me yelling, "God, how many times do I have to tell you - I don't want to do this at Thanksgiving."
One candle in the cake. I go to grab it to take it out and blow on it - and get into a control struggle with dad who wants me to blow it out while it's still in the cake. I make a grab for it again and a chocolate strawberry falls off, rolls under the table - and the dog goes for it. The dog isn't much bigger than the chocolate strawberry.
Chocolate (so they tell me) is poison for this breed of dog - so now there's a mad scramble under the table to get the chocolate strawberry from the dog with people surrounding the poor mutt and someone knocks over the coffee pot on the new white rug.
Oh the horror. Quick - use baking soda. No, use soda water. The women all advance their own secret formulas but the stain is spreading.
Why'd you knock off the chocolate strawberry?
Sorry.
Then someone starts singing: how old are you now? How old are you now?
"I'm 54," I say.
"No you're not," my middle sister says. She must be calculating her own age.
"I think I know how old I am. Do you wanna see my driver's license!"
Someone in the backroom must have hit the volume control because some very dirty words are filtering from the game into the living room. Horrified parents rush in to see what's going on and discover the obscenity filled game and want to know where this came from. In the confusion, they hit some other button and now all the bad politically unmentionable words are booming through the house.
I'm still thinking about how it feels to be 54. 6 years from 60. No way around that.
My uncle Hy was dead already at my age and had accomplished so much more.
Dad is wandering around looking for the check he was going to give me for my birthday. He can't find it. He's worried that he may have dropped it in the elevator because he was signing it as he came up. So out he goes to search the elevator. His eighty-year old companion is searching her pocketbook, either for her glasses or for the envelope.
And then it happens - the final coup de grace. Dad's companion asks me how I like the poster she brought back from somewhere as a gift. (I had passed it on to my sister for her house). Somehow, I know, by the way she was asking - that I had passed it on to Jean.
Now Jean is too cagey to have said anything - but her teenage daughter - she might have said something about the poster.
I excuse myself to go back to the other room where the hijacking game has been confiscated and ask my niece if she mentioned anything about the poster to anyone. She tells me that she might have mentioned the Van Gogh Bedroom print to someone dad's companion and sticks the iPod pods back in her ears.
Good God. Now what.
"I heard that you gave it to your sister," my father's companion is saying behind me. First time I've seen her move all night - and she's quick and silent as a cat and wearing magnifying glasses on her eyes.
"Well - I - "
Here eyes are huge.
"We brought it all the way back from Milan, you know. Especially for you. Your father picked it out. "
Meanwhile, dad comes back - unable to find the missing check. But he has a hat with him. Someone left their hat in the elevator.
The women are scrubbing the rug.
The kids are crying in the other room about the confiscation of the game.
I'm searching for an explanation for why I gave the poster away. Finally: "I didn't want to hurt your feelings, but I had that poster already. That's why I gave it to my sister."
"Really," she says suspiciously. She'd love to see the poster next time she visits me, so I'm going to have to get to the Museum of Art and get another one. I hope it says printed in Milan on the back.
As people are leaving - I'm invited to play anagrams. There are two anagram sets in the house. One is the actual real anagrams game (impossible to find these days); and the other one is just a bottle filled with scrabble tiles. The realanagrams set belongs to my sister's mother-in-law. I haven't mentioned her yet but she is not an old lady to trifle with (former high-school principal).
I say, "Let's play with the real set." My sister says, "what real set?"
I say, "You know - the actual set - we played with it the other day."
Her mother-in-law says: "You have a real anagrams set? Where did you find it? Took me years to find one. Finally found an old one on eBay."
Well, apparently my sister - who is giving me signs to shut up - stole it from her mother-in-laws house.
"Don't you remember, you loaned it to us a while back," she stammers.
Mother-in-law doesn't remember and starts in on a story about how difficult it was to find that set. They don't make them anymore.
Sister continues with her fable: "Remember, we were playing at your house and you said I could borrow it for a while?"
The dog begins to cough. He's been licking whatever they've been pouring on the coffee stain and it's making him puke. He almost pukes on the anonymous hat, but misses.
So that pretty much wraps things up as we take care of the dog; and a big fat guy in a florid bathrobe comes to the front door - somehow he's heard that my father found his hat. I don't know how he found out - my father must have involved the doorman at some point - but he takes his hat sticks it on his head and as he wanders away I notice some specks of dog-puke on it.
11/24/2005
Dead Books
It's pretty obvious that the next step in the never-ending (seemingly) quest to monetize the site (I picked up that word in a late-night info-mercial for accordian players) is to redo my Amazon book listings which are so out-of-date that half the stuff on my photo book page is out-of-print. I think the last time I updated that page (which I won't even tell you where it is) was in 1945. I guess in all the excitement about the end of the war - I just plumb forgot.
Anyway - it goes along the same lines as vendors that I use, i.e. I'll only list books that sit at my side constantly - and are covered with spilt soda and cigarette ash. Well, don't think I have the latest edition of any of these Photoshop books - they come out with a new one every time the product changes.
But I could do a bird's eye shot of my desk and surrounding area and you'll see 'em scattered around. The cat likes to sleep with his head on the Adobe Photoshop for Photographers book and gets p.o.'d when I need to look something up in it.
Anyway - I'm re-doing the Photography Book pages with comments about what I found useful. Page One has to be Ansel's page. Then I'm going on to my favorite photographer's autobiographies.
Anyway - it goes along the same lines as vendors that I use, i.e. I'll only list books that sit at my side constantly - and are covered with spilt soda and cigarette ash. Well, don't think I have the latest edition of any of these Photoshop books - they come out with a new one every time the product changes.
But I could do a bird's eye shot of my desk and surrounding area and you'll see 'em scattered around. The cat likes to sleep with his head on the Adobe Photoshop for Photographers book and gets p.o.'d when I need to look something up in it.
Anyway - I'm re-doing the Photography Book pages with comments about what I found useful. Page One has to be Ansel's page. Then I'm going on to my favorite photographer's autobiographies.
11/23/2005
Happy Thanksgiving
To Sister's House We Go
My sister usually does Thanksgiving at her house. It all began when she sent an e-mail to family that read:
"We're thinking Thanksgiving meal at 3pm. As well, do we have your blessing to shift the menu from the traditional turkey and trimmings to Lasagna and vegetable side dishes (to avoid the bird flu/and also spice things up a bit)"
I wrote back that the bird flu thing was silly but that I would just as soon have lasagna as turkey so whatever she wanted to do was fine with me.
Other replies:
Aunt Janet: I think that turkey is the traditional thanksgiving food. Of course, dear, you can do what you want to but I think your father enjoys carving the turkey.
Dad: Could you make the lasagna with turkey? I'm not supposed to eat red meat.
My other sister: Bird flu? We don't have no bird flu here. We don't need no stinkin' bird flu.
Uncle Frank: Sorry, but I don't like Italian food. I want turkey.
Frank's Son Larry: I think it's a good safety precaution re: the whole bird flu thing. And I don't think you should use meat in the lasagna since I'm a veggie. Could you make a veggie lasagna with tofu?
Frank's Daughter, Suze: It sounds like the carving of the turkey is the big thing. Maybe you should give your dad the electric carving knife and let him have at it.
I'm bringing a flak jacket for the moment that dad pulls out the electric carving knife to cut the lasagna.
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone.
p.s. The photo above was taken in the Bronx Botanical Gardens when I was doing my Bronx thing.
p.p.s. Trying to think of other subjects for articles. Do you think that an explanation of how to read an MTF lens chart - or are all those charts faked anyway?. Do you think it would drive a reader nuts to read such a thing like flying too close to the sun?
SELLING PHOTOGRAPHS ON THE WEB
There may be some useful information in here:
SELLING PHOTOGRAPHS ON THE WEB. I've tried to put down what I've learned so far.
SELLING PHOTOGRAPHS ON THE WEB. I've tried to put down what I've learned so far.
11/22/2005
Busy
I don't even remember if I wrote anything today. It's been very busy. I started this morning with something like 25 prints to do (mostly 5 x 7's but a few larger prints as well). Several e-mails asking where my Christmas cards were like I had last year. Nice experiment but way too much work. I might make a couple of holiday cards for family - but that's it.
A couple of things struck me as ironic today:
- I like and have always liked smaller prints. But it didn't dawn on me to sell them until I was 6 years into this. Well, okay - it dawned on me - but it was impractical in the darkroom. Way too labor intensive to sell prints in various sizes. I had enough trouble just getting them done in one size. So the smaller prints are the result of: experimentation, worry about finance, and having a printer that can reliably do the job.
- Also with all my research into Print on Demand (POD) through Lulu.com I realized that that was what I have been doing since chucking the chemical darkroom. The inks in the printer are even CMYK-ish.
Do you know that the lead weight for the column of the old enlarger is still sitting downstairs as a door stop? It's this big lead weight with a hook on it and I pass by it every day. Sometimes I might say something to it as I pass through the vestibule: How ya doin' down there big weight. Glad some part of you is still useful.
A couple of things struck me as ironic today:
- I like and have always liked smaller prints. But it didn't dawn on me to sell them until I was 6 years into this. Well, okay - it dawned on me - but it was impractical in the darkroom. Way too labor intensive to sell prints in various sizes. I had enough trouble just getting them done in one size. So the smaller prints are the result of: experimentation, worry about finance, and having a printer that can reliably do the job.
- Also with all my research into Print on Demand (POD) through Lulu.com I realized that that was what I have been doing since chucking the chemical darkroom. The inks in the printer are even CMYK-ish.
Do you know that the lead weight for the column of the old enlarger is still sitting downstairs as a door stop? It's this big lead weight with a hook on it and I pass by it every day. Sometimes I might say something to it as I pass through the vestibule: How ya doin' down there big weight. Glad some part of you is still useful.
11/21/2005
RNC Protest, Union Square
I'm beginning to make a gallery of protest coverage. This was at the RNC, entrance to Union Square. It really was getting a little scary at this point because the police were determined to clear this entrance to the park so that they could make arrests and the demonstrators were on the steps shouting back at them. As I remember it, the police backed off and came in through another entrance and made a few arrests.
Arrest #1
More Packaging Tedium
I know there are at least five photographers out there who might find this post interesting, so this is for you:
The one thing that impressed me about Lulu.com was what the calendars and books were shipped in. Sort of this flat, folding mailer where various corners folded in such a way that the thing was absolutely sturdy, and yet lightweight. Perfect for the 8 x 10 mats. And so, I recycled 'em for a couple of 8 x 10 sized orders.
And then I went hunting them down. What were these mysterious flat cartons? I think I found them (in white - even more classy) - at BrassPack.com under Variable Depth Mailers. I believe these are the same thing, but I'm not sure. The Lulu.com mailers seem to have two extra pieces of cardboard.
I ordered fifty of them. So there you go - I might have gotten something useful from Ms. Lulu.com.
The one thing that impressed me about Lulu.com was what the calendars and books were shipped in. Sort of this flat, folding mailer where various corners folded in such a way that the thing was absolutely sturdy, and yet lightweight. Perfect for the 8 x 10 mats. And so, I recycled 'em for a couple of 8 x 10 sized orders.
And then I went hunting them down. What were these mysterious flat cartons? I think I found them (in white - even more classy) - at BrassPack.com under Variable Depth Mailers. I believe these are the same thing, but I'm not sure. The Lulu.com mailers seem to have two extra pieces of cardboard.
I ordered fifty of them. So there you go - I might have gotten something useful from Ms. Lulu.com.
Creating Galleries with iView Media Pro
I finished the last page of this technical article on how to create a Paypal Shopping Cart through iView Media Pro. I'm thinking that the last page is going to be confusing. I don't know. Maybe it is.
Here's the link if you're interested in this sort of thing:
iView Media Pro Web Galleries and Paypal
If you have any ideas about how it can be made clearer (esp. the last page) let me know.
Here's the link if you're interested in this sort of thing:
iView Media Pro Web Galleries and Paypal
If you have any ideas about how it can be made clearer (esp. the last page) let me know.
11/20/2005
Personal Surveillance
If you have nothing to hide, and would like to volunteer to help your country - this is the latest in advanced personal security. It should be noted that the current beta version is for outdoor use only.
Warning: Do not use this system during lightning storms.
11/19/2005
The Making of One Inkjet Print
I don't know if this sort of thing is useful or not - whether I've left out some critical ingrediant - but for what it's worth, I put together a couple of pages about The Making of One Inkjet Print .
How Ansel did this for (how many did he do 25 - 40?) I don't know. It is time consuming to try and show.
I can tell you this - it took longer to write about than to actually do. If you have any suggestions, would be glad to hear 'em. (P.S. I didn't spell-check it because I think it's time for a nap now.)
How Ansel did this for (how many did he do 25 - 40?) I don't know. It is time consuming to try and show.
I can tell you this - it took longer to write about than to actually do. If you have any suggestions, would be glad to hear 'em. (P.S. I didn't spell-check it because I think it's time for a nap now.)
11/18/2005
11/17/2005
What is it called when you say one thing equals another thing? There is a literary term for it but I can't remember what it is. Is is the strongest word in the English language?
"She walks in beauty like the night." No, she is the night.
"A rose called by any other name is still a rose."
And finally, the most powerful of all, the contracted equals:
"She's a real fox."
More Offset
Contacted offset printer last night and they are going to overnight me samples of their b&w (4-color offset) printing (cards, brochures, posters, calendars). I think that CMYK is calling me back. Oh God - CMYK. They told me what printer they use but I already forgot. Markus made a great point about getting a RIP / Profiles to emulate the end printer. All I know about CMYK is that to get good blacks you don't just set the K to 100% but need to mix other channels as well. Whatever - I'll figure it out. And what I liked about the site was that they gave good instructions about formatting files for CMYK with templates for photoshop.
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