I seem to be perpetually tired

March 21st, 2010 • chatter
Tags: chatter, education

These last few weeks have been non-stop go-go-go for us. Add to that I’m not sleeping like I should be. Between work, school, photography, and life, it’s almost as if there’s no “me” time. Sure, I’ve got a few hours every night to myself but then, I don’t really have them because I always have to do something. Most readers will notice both the lack of general updates and the lack of pictures these last few weeks. I started shooting a roll of film and have not yet developed it and the camera’s been off for repairs. Got some sand on the sensor and that took a few days. But it’s back and I’ve got some new lighting set ups I want to try, along with some lights and wireless triggers coming. Now I just have to scout out things around here to shoot. There were two discarded bicycles outside my apartment complex but someone came and got them this week and I so badly wanted to shoot them with a grid or snoot for ambiance.

School’s getting a little confusing. I don’t have a discussion tomorrow but I do have a lecture but next week, we’re supposed to have an exam and lecture, I wonder which will get pushed back or moved. Classes are going alright though, I’ve been slacking a lot more than I should and with an exam coming up, I can’t afford another low grade. However, the geography class is going well, it’s just so easy. I don’t get how some people are failing that class, it’s so simple.

Speaking of school, my girlfriend is now entering her fourth week of internship as a student teacher and she’s enjoying it. There’s been some issues with red tape and how the mentoring teacher teaches but that’s probably to be expected — I have no idea, I don’t plan on teaching 7 year olds to find out. I think next week she starts her second internship that is required for her coursework. I don’t envy her at all. She’ll be essentially working three jobs plus trying to get a business off the ground, which doesn’t really leave a lot of time for much of anything else. I guess I shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth sometimes.

I’ve got to get to bed. My neighbor’s computer is almost done with its virus scans and I’m trying to think of something to photograph tomorrow, perhaps I’ll finally make my way over to the mosque beside school.

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I really don’t want to leave the house tomorrow

January 11th, 2010 • chatter
Tags: chatter, photography

Right now, it’s 30F outside and it’s supposed to get colder throughout the night. Tomorrow morning around 8:30AM, I get to suit up and ride a motorcycle. The last thing I want to do is go outside. Whether that be tonight or tomorrow. This freezing weather — which is far colder than it was last year at the same time — reminds me that I sorely need to buy cold weather gear once summer gets here.

As all of my recent photo posts show, I’m still working on Project 365 and will spend the rest of the month taking random photographs. However, once February starts, I will be doing specific photography techniques each month, depending on ability to actually do them (e.g. I can’t do a promo shoot with a lot of set lighting as I don’t have any). I have not decided on what I will do first, I still have a few weeks to figure that out. I’m itching to get my old pre-AI Nikkor-S 50mm f/2 lens AI converted so I can use it on my D90. I would love to get some new filters and shoot an entire month using them, like a whole month of shots with neutral density filters or something like that. I’ll also try and figure out how to incorporate film into this although, doing it everyday will be impossible simply due to cost. I’m very open to suggestions from readers.

Within the next week or so, we should be receiving our newest toy: Mamiya 645 ProTL medium format camera. I’ve never shot medium format and am frankly intimidated by the thought of it. It’s not so much the shooting I’m worried about, it’s the results. I’ve got to find out if our local guy does medium format or not, or if Total Chrome in Davie does. I just hope we don’t have to ship this stuff off somewhere like Chrome Digital in San Diego, the wait would be hardly bearable.

It’s freezing in our apartment, as I won’t turn on the heater because it smells like it’s on fire, so I need to go bundle up to get in bed and be ready for school tomorrow!

Winter, you’re right on time

January 4th, 2010 • chatter, photography
Tags: cameras, chatter, cold, photography, south florida, weather, winter

With the new year comes cold weather for us in South Florida, although it typically starts right around Christmas. Unlike our northern brethren, it only lasts for perhaps 2 months out of the whole year and it looks like 2010 will be following the same routine. I was outside last night and it was a chilly 45F with a ~6MPH NNW wind, that’s very chilly when wearing shorts. It’s going to be like this until roughly March when spring break starts, so I’m eagerly looking forward to March this year.

Unlike many people, I haven’t made any resolutions because I don’t believe in making some future goal I can’t attain, or will be simply uninterested in attaining. This is something I’ve long believed in and find it much more realistic to simply make periodic goals that are both easily manageable and easily attainable. A few of my goals from last year hold over to this year:

maintain a healthy weight

continue academic excellence

maintain professional work environment and demeanor

Some new additions for this year are things I’m very excited about:

Photography project 365

Shoot more 35mm film

Regimented motorcycle maintenance

Build a multi-account savings nest egg

Read more books during down time from school

Some of these I’ve already started doing (project 365, savings) and others will take a little work on my part (books, maintenance). I’m very excited about things photography-related. I’m starting a 365 day project of taking at least one picture a day for the whole year, an idea I got from toomanytribbles whose taken some of the best amateur photographs I’ve seen all year. Her portfolio really grew from January 2009 to December 2009 in terms of quality. My girlfriend and I are also going to work on shooting more film throughout the year. My goal is at least 2 rolls a month, which is extremely attainable given current film costs associated with the film and processing it. Shooting film is going to help us with our digital work immensely in that it definitely helps us understand and associate different settings and their uses to their digital counterparts.

My film work was never great, but never terrible either. It was definitely very mediocre and middle of the road, with a few lucky shots here and there. I’m not sure what cameras she’s going to use to shoot but I’m definitely going to work with my growing cadre of cameras:

Minolta X700

Yashica 230AF

Yashica Electro 35 GSN

Canon AE-1 Program

I’ve had the Minolta for almost 10 years now but it sat dormant for the last 5 years and I just cranked out its first roll of film last month. It needs a bit of an overhaul, as does the Canon. I have not shot either Yashica yet due to not having any batteries or film; the Yashica Electro 35 GSN actually requires a battery adapter to use modern batteries, which I just received on Thursday of last week. I will be buying film for both (cheap Fuji X-tra Superia 400) to see if I need a diopter or if either of them need servicing before heavy use. So far, I adore using the Canon AE-1 Program over my old Minolta. The two bodies aren’t separated by much development time in years but during that time in the late 1970s until the mid 1980s, everything changed almost every day. I love the ergonomics of the Canon over the Minolta, the Minolta has a much clearer matte split-ring focus viewfinder while the Canon’s viewfinder is brighter while sacrificing clarity (requiring a -1 diopter, something I don’t need on the Minolta), the film advance lever on the Canon is more intelligently placed than the Minolta’s (that’s what about 7 years in ergonomic design gives you), the Minolta has better top controls while the Canon is dead simple to literally point and shoot. I’ve heard stories that the Minolta SRT-101 is on par with the AE1P but since I already have a Minolta, I’m not sure if I’ll dive into another one that’s almost identical.

I’m dying to try the Yashicas since they’re from two very different eras, separated by roughly 30 years of development. Not to mention one is a rangefinder (Electro 35) while the other is an early 1990s CPU-controlled auto-focus beast (230AF). Experimenting with this various equipment exposes us to a lot of what went into the development of our Nikon DSLRs we both carry around and helps us understand why some people still prefer film over digital or vice versa. I’m in the middle of that camp. I love digital’s all-you-can-eat abilities and the wide range of functionality that it presents the user however I do prefer film overall. But that’s another story in itself. In fact, most of what I just wrote could have been another post!

2010 is going to be another great year for me, I hope it is for you as well. I’m going back to work!

Some of the things I learned this year

December 21st, 2009 • chatter
Tags: chatter

It’s been a great year, much better than last year! Outside of school, I think I learned some interesting things:

- No matter how much you try to watch what you eat, college football season will wreck your diet. Every time.
- A job is more than likely something you’re always going to hate.
- A good pair of cowboy boots can be the last pair of shoes you need to own.
- American Apparel makes the most comfortable tee shirts known to man. Too bad the rest of their clothes are aimed at hipsters and their ads are the epitome of “sex sells”.
- Photography is a lot of fun. I can see why “hobbyists” will spend as much money as they do on something they’ll never make a profit on.
- Writing is also fun as a hobby. Blogging to try and make money is worth its weight in headaches and lead, and sucks the life out of you.
- Comparatively, music gets worse as you get older. However, upon looking back, most stuff you listened to as a kid/teen is just as bad as today’s music. Sometimes, it doesn’t even sound different.
- Progressive rock is an immeasurably deep genre.
- Never randomly play ELP’s Karn Evil 9 (Parts 1 & 2) in a bar when you’re getting ready to leave. It’s probably best not to play at all since it’s only 20 minutes long.
- On average, I drink over one gallon of liquid every single day. That’s typically split up between coffee, tea, and water — mostly the latter.
- I think I have started smoking too much.
- Beer tastes really good. Except at the end of the night when you lie down and it gives you heartburn.
-Netbooks, as popular as they are, are huge wastes of money. If you want a netbook, buy any laptop with an Intel Celeron or other ULV processor. It’ll be just as slow and useless as a netbook.
- E-book readers, also very popular and chic right now, need a lot more work before they’re ever an acceptable replacement for books. All the UIs stink, the e-ink screens refresh too slowly, the physical device designs are all boring, publishers are deliberately dragging their feet on a market that could easily make them gobbles of money.
-Journalism is, essentially, dead. This goes for “old” media and “new” media alike. Of course, people have been saying this for at least two decades but it’s proven itself this year. A great example of this was the Fort Hood incident in which most media outlets depended on Twitter for news. Their first problem: depending on Twitter. Their second problem: depending on Twitter.

I could go on but I’ll choose not to, I really need to get back to work. Let’s hope 2010 is as fun