Totally and Completely Off Topic

Lately I have been doing a new kind of photography, Art Fashion. While the pics are not here yet (not all of them are family friendly) I have been devoting some time to a new hobby, that of Recurrent Neural Networks. The topic is far beyond the scope of this journal, but I've been training mine on Shakespeare, and I'm hooked on the output. I nudged my RNN to look at his works from the viewpoint of "life and loss" and it came up with this gem, which I thought I'd share.

"...And prove your common name to our reason

That he is cursed that claim to the place of thee."

Deep words from a shallow program.

How NOT to Run a Concert

The following is a rant. No pics, just griping. Feel free to ignore if you wish.
I've been shooting the GwarBQ for 3 years now. This past one will probably be my last. I don't know who is the ultimate organizer of it, but I'm going to list several ways they managed to hose it up

(1) Send out confirmation, months in advance, that you are approved. When arrived, claim they lost the paperwork. Left me standing around looking like an idiot. Thankfully I had proof I was supposed to be there.
(2) Let anyone who can buy a media pass, into the press pit. This ensures that I merely have to deal with 50+ people with cell phones, point and shoots, and selfie sticks all vying for space that has been reduced by the presence of burly bouncers, instead of the usual 5.
(3) Rather than sorting these 50+ people into groups (pros first, amateurs next, joe random last) so we can each get good positions and pictures, shove everyone in like cattle, and let them fight it out, thus guaranteeing no one gets a good shot
(4) Ensure you have tons of burly bouncers taking up the good spots. Instruct them not to move one inch. Ensure they interfere with the photographers as much as possible. I can't tell you the number of hands that were *intentionally* placed in my shots.
(5) Reduce the size of the press pit by 30%. Couple this with (2) and (3) guarantees a crappy experience.
(6) Don't forget the 3 song rule. Expand this to include the lead singer talking to the audience for more than 30 seconds, so you get ~5 minutes to fight with (2), (3) (4) and (5) for two songs. Brilliant!

Seriously, I've been shooting concerts for many years now and this was, hands down, the worst experience I've encountered to date. If I didn't know better, I'd swear it was designed this way on purpose. I don't know what the reasoning behind this was, but damn guys, clean up your act!

Where I've been

The astute among you will have noticed a sharp decrease in posts in the past year or so. Part of this is finding my niche, concert photography. Where I live there just aren't all that many concerts that I want to shoot. Sure, there are plenty of little venues with cramped spaces and terrible lighting, but that's not much fun anymore to be honest. Been there, done that, so to speak. Since I'm hooked on metal concerts, I have to watch what comes around and sadly, it's not that often.

The other part, and this isn't a full excuse, is, I bought a house. It's a very nice house, on a private lake, in the countryside. Being a family man has eaten up much of my time, as has moving in, getting real furniture, etc.

I also met someone special, which takes up time as well, although in a good way.

So, for those of you still with me here, I will continue to keep this site active, but not as much as when I first started in the world of photography and everything seemed fascinating to shoot.

Well, there you have it, cheers!

New Year and All That

Yeah, no pics right now, prepping for a trip to see some snow. Maybe re-visit the Green Bank Radiotelescope. Been too long since I was there.
I do not know what the new year holds, only that it will be a good one. I can feel that. I hope it is good for all of you, wherever you are.
On a side note, that is sort of related to photography, a reader sent me a link (thank you, whomever you are) that one of my pics, a snake, was being posted elsewhere without my permission. I was initially flattered someone thought enough of my images to nick one, then had second thoughts, then third.
Ultimately however, it boils down to this: I don't make money with my work (not often anyway.) I take pics and post because I want to share a little bit of my world, with you. I want to add a little bit of beauty to the 'net and leave it in a better way than I found it. If someone thinks my work is good enough to re-post, I'm flattered. It'd be nice to give me credits, but it's not a perfect world.
If any of my readership ever want a full sized image of anything I've shot, do feel free to drop me a line and I'll be happy, more than happy, to send it to you.

Finally, some New Year's greetings:
Miss you Lia, hope all is well in your world. One day, in another life perhaps.
Heather: Never give up, never stop fighting for who you are. I got your back.
Lloyd: All my best to your and yours. Wish I could be closer.
L.A.P.: Here's to a better life for the both of us.
Kieron: Take on the world, go far. I know you can.

All my best to all of you.

Merry Christmas to All

To all my faithful readers I wish you a very Merry Christmas and an excellent start to the New Year. I have found a pure metal venue that I will be going to much more in the upcoming months and hope to further hone my concert skills. First up, the mighty (and beautiful) Doro!
But in the meantime, do enjoy your holiday, I will see you soon.

Cheers!
e

Winter Begone

The weather has struggled towards Spring with the utmost lethargy. We will have a day of Spring-like weather, followed by rain and then snow. Now snow that will make a Winter Wonderland, but the snow mixed with a crust of ice that turns everything dull. In short, not the weather for inspiring photography.
So instead, I will leave you with a quote, spoken about America in the 40s.

“Still another danger is represented by those who, paying lip service to democracy and the common welfare, in their insatiable greed for money and the power which money gives, do not hesitate surreptitiously to evade the laws designed to safeguard the public from monopolistic extortion.

Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.
They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution.
They are patriotic in time of war because it is to their interest to be so, but in time of peace they follow power and the dollar wherever they may lead.”

I'd say we've reach this point.
Now, what are we going to do about it?

Delays, Delays, Nothing But Delays

As usual, I meant to have this post before the holidays had arrived, not after. Oh well, distractions abound. I wanted to wish all my readers a happy and joyous holiday and New Year's celebration. I will be photographing Gwar in concert tonight at a venue known for having proper concert lighting. 

If you are unaware of who, or what Gwar is, I urge you to look up their live work on YouTube, it's a sight to behold. I fully expect to come back with ruined clothes (Gwar are well known for spraying their audience with all sorts of liquids during the show) so I'm going in grungy outfits with a rainpouch for my camera gear.

I probably won't get to processing and sorting the pics until the New Year, so check back here in 2014 to see samples.

Cheers!

Proof That Men Cannot Win

So the other day, my girlfriend and I were discussing pets, and she had mentioned a story about an owner that had lost her cat, and had posted a lost ad on the local CraigsList. The story had a happy ending, as the owner was reunited with her cat, but in the process, had been given a lot of grief from various people claiming she didn't love her cat, etc etc etc.

My girlfriend's comment was that most cats are outdoor animals and should be let out from time to time.
I agreed with her.
She stated I was wrong.
So, there you have it folks, proof positive that even when you agree with women, you are wrong.

As the law of thermodynamics states:
Zeroth: You must play the game.
First: You can't win.
Second: You can't break even.
Third: You can't quit the game.

Now for the record, I am not a cat person, and my gf knows this. When I was agreeing with her, I was agreeing for an entirely different reason, and she knew it. Hence calling me wrong.

But the point still stands, even when we agree with them, we are wrong.
Let that be a lesson to all you male followers of my journal. If a woman says something, grunt and pass out.


It's the only way to win.

Government Shutdown

As I have mentioned before, this journal isn't a platform for anything other than photography, but when it interferes with photography, it's fair game to rant about.

Case in point, NASA launches are on suspension until the gov't decides to start back up again. It's still giving money to foreign countries on a daily basis, most of whom don't like us (historically, current NSA events notwithstanding) but furthering man's knowledge of the universe around him? Well that's just gonna have to take a back seat, son.

In any case, no more rocket pictures, links or stories until further notice. But always one to stay topical, here are a few shots of still life for your approval (shown above)

Point Made

Ever since I moved into my new house, my time has been taken up with that. As anyone who owns a house knows, there is always something that needs doing. In this case, it's the yard. And I'd rather walk through fire than do yardwork. So it goes without saying that although it needs to be done, it's slow going, and I'm rather reluctant to do it. It also cuts into my motivation to be creative with my photography.

I got a comment the other day on my fireworks pictures, which is posted (more or less) verbatim here:

"Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as 

though you relied on the video to make your point.

You obviously know what youre talking about, why waste your intelligence on just 

posting videos to your blog when you could be giving us something informative to read?"

The comment, regardless of the source, has merit. So from here on out, I will write more, be more descriptive about the process and results.

But since I don't have any pics to show right now, I will upload two stories I have written. Each story was written as a page a day, with a cliffhanger at the end of each page. It was fun to write that way, being constrained not only by page length, but ending.

Do please let me know what you think of them:

Day One

The Last Day

You will find I'm hard on my main characters, I generally have a solid idea about the beginning and ending, it's the middle I'm fuzzy about, but by writing a page a day, I find I have time in between to think about how the story will shape up. 

I'm not a great writer by any stretch, I have issues with subject verb tense, but I'd like to think I get the point across and entertain you for a little bit. The second story is more violent than the 1st, but I'm pretty certain they are all ages friendly.

Cheers!

e

Day 3: Into the Great Beyond

Well, yes I did survive the zip line. Once off the edge, I couldn't slow down, lest I get stalled somewhere in the middle, and I dare not look down, so I just kept my eyes on the rapidly approaching landing pad. I'd estimate I was going about 30 miles an hour across 1/4 mile zip line. About half-way through the experience, I could feel my body start to twist, and only then did real panic set it, last thing I wanted was not to see where I was going, that would be almost as bad as seeing where I was going. But I remembered the training on how to twist back, and ever so slowly I righted myself.

And all too quickly, it was over. I was caught on the other side, inches from a tree, and unhooked from the line, to make way for the others. Lots of screaming going on from the other tourists (or at least I think it was them, might have been me still screaming, not sure) but soon enough we were trekking to our next zip line platform, Shorter and more inclined, but I was ready for that one. By our last zip line I was able to look down and see the trees, people and pool beneath me.

After we landed, it was a quick change from the zip line gear into the cave tubing gear (well, we carried an inner tube with us.) Along the path to the cave, there were many others heading in the opposite direction, completely soaked and grinning from ear to ear.

"How's the water?" I asked.

"Refreshing!" or "Brisk!"

Translation: Freezing cold.

No matter, I'd ensure I was on top of the tube, and not get that wet.

Wrong. By the time the adventure was over, I'd be completely soaked, head to toe in crystal clear water that I"m certain was pumped in from the Arctic Ocean. Brisk and Refreshing were an understatements. I'm pretty sure I saw the Titanic hit yet another iceberg throughout the journey underground. The cave has been there for tens of millions of years, slowly gathering water that filtered in from the ceiling, forming stalagmites and stalactites in all kinds of fascinating shapes. Small bats hung from the ceiling, fast asleep, waiting for the tourists to leave before taking flight to feast off the insects that fluttered about at dusk. 

We wore small mining helmets with feeble headlamps while we floated in this alien world, the weak rays only serving to enhance the shadows that were omnipresent. The sense of claustrophobia was enormous. Fortunately I love tight enclosed spaces so it allowed me a chance to explore with my hands and eyes.

Tiny currents moved us gently toward the end, aided by our flailing about (seriously, ever tried to steer an inner tube while you are sitting on your back? It's a heck of a lot harder than it sounds, and you look ridiculous in the process.)

Just as I'm managed to thaw my extremities, the tour guide brought us on land to show us around and guide us to the next lake. By the time we'd reached the lake, I'd warmed up again and hitting that water froze me solid. Fortunately the lake was smaller, and we could free swim in it is we wanted to.

I was never so glad to get the sun's rays on my body as I had after that experience. I think by now I'm finally warm enough to dump all the layers of clothing I've been wearing since then!    

Day 3: No Pics

So on the third day of my vacation in Belize, I wanted to go zip lining and swim/explore an underground cave. I debated taking my camera along (it's pretty sturdy) but in the end, I opted against it. And of course, it's the one thing I really should have brought. Oh well, I'll do my level best to describe the day.

The day starts, as usual, at 6am. I love Belize because they get almost 12 solid hours of daylight and nighttime. At 6am, the weather is warm and sunny, and will stay that way until nightfall, when it will be slightly less warm, and dark. So when I step out of my hotel room, I know just how the day will be. 

The hotel has a tour van waiting for me, with a few other tourists from Taiwan, who turned out to be very nice. The ride was about 90 minutes, or 1 hour in Belize time (every long ride in Belize is said to take 1 hour), way out to the countryside. Plenty of typical Belize-esque houses, and quite a few abandoned in mid-build. 

The roads typically have "sleeping policemen" every mile or so, which is a Belize term for a speed bump. And a serious speed bump at that. Something that would tear off the suspension of a car if you hit it doing more than, say, 10mph. It's cheaper than running speed traps, and allows the police to do more important things. Beside every sleeping poliemen are people and small stalls selling things, typically fresh fruits. But once we got out well past any towns, the sleeping policemen went away. 

Belize, as you have seen from my other pics, is very flat, and the mountains jut up rather suddenly, and then go flat again, unlike places like the Blue Ridge mountains, which gradually creep up on you. It was a set of the pop-up mountains that our tour group was going to. 

The zip lining area was really nicely set up, tons of tourists there so they had an efficient assembly line process down pretty well. I was pleased to see the equipment was both reasonably new and in good condition. Our group was led by two nice guides, up some very steep stairs. Higher and higher we climbed, all the while the guides were running a detailed conversation on the local flora and fauna, history of the area, and what to expect on the zip line event itself.

Somehow I found myself in the front of the tour group, which meant that I was going to be the first on the zip line.

Did I mention I'm afraid of both heights? Well, no turning back now. I get a solid instruction on how to brake, and twist should I get turned around, and how to land (hint, it wasn't into a tree) and pointed off the edge of a cliff, towards the great beyond on the other side.

So, taking a deep breath and trying not to look down, I step off the edge.

Did I survive? Tune in later to find out!

Greetings From Belize!

Greetings to all my visitors from the sunny country of Belize!
I'm here on vacation for a week or so, but if I like the place (and it looks like I'm going to) then I may stay and become a ski instructor ;-)
It's 85 degrees here and about 90% humidity. In other words, just the way I like it. It's around 2.30pm here and the city apparently rolls up around 5pm, so today I'm hanging by the pool at the hotel. Tomorrow is the exploration of the Mayan ruins and river rafting. The day after that I will be doing kayaking and cave tubing.
Will have lots of wonderful pics (I hope) to share with you soon.
In the meantime, I'm turning on the A/C!

Another Rant

This journal is about photography. It's not about my political viewpoint, my societal viewpoint, world views or anything of that nature. I'm a photographer. I'm not a politician, or an actor, or an economist, or anyone that affects the way the world works. The way I see it, you come here for my pictures, not for my rants, and certainly not for my jokes (nudge nudge wink wink know say no more!)

So I keep these things down to a dull roar, only ranting about things photography related (or the rare soup one.)

Unfortunately I feel the need to rant once more. So to my dear readers, if you don't want to read a long-winded tirade, feel free to go back to looking at my pictures. I certainly won't mind, as I don't care to read rants either. For those that are still with me, here it goes:

Back in the late 80s and early 90s I worked at pet stores, working with reptiles and salt water systems. Back then, the only reptiles you could get, for acceptable amounts of money, were wild caught. Having been wild caught, they came with parasites and varying health, typically poor. They were stressed, starved, dehydrated and generally pissed off. Feeding was an issue because white mice, the most common food item available at a pet store, is not something found in the wild, so a vast majority of snakes simply refused to recognize them as food. 

I got to be very good at my job, rehabilitating, rescuing, reviving and feeding, these sad cases. I am ever so thankful that those dark days are behind us, and the reptiles available these days are captive bred and lack all those issues I dealt with decades ago.

Which is not to say they've been completely eradicated.

Enter "Lucky"

Lucky is an 11 year old Royal (nee Ball) Python. Lucky is half-starved, dehydrated, freaked out and very ill.

He was given to me by a guy who could no longer care for the snake.

The tank was too small, there were no hiding places, no water, no heat and it had never been cleaned. That the snake is still alive is a testimony to the resilience of Royal Pythons.

I am not certain he will live. I bleached the tank, put fresh paper down, got Pedialyte for him to drink, a hide box, full spectrum/heat light and some food. Lucky was too weak to constrict his prey, so fortunately the prey item didn't put up a struggle. Royal Pythons are supposed to be stocky bodied and round. Lucky is triangle-shaped. I can count his ribs and see his backbone.

This kind of neglect pisses me the hell off. The information out there on reptile care is legion. Royal Pythons are generally a forgiving bunch to begin with. Cases like this should have been consigned to the dust bin of history, and yet it's clearly still present in the reptile community.

Lucky is currently hiding, as Royal Pythons are wont to do, so no pictures of him, but when he de-stresses enough to come out, I will post a picture of him. 

Owning an animal as a pet is a responsibility. Their entire health and well being are in our hands. If we are unable, or unwilling to shoulder that responsibility, then we should not have a pet. Anyway, this concludes the rant, and I hope only to post positive comments on Lucky's health from now on.

Things I Should Have Learned By Now

“The personal, as everyone’s so fond of saying, is political. So if some idiot politician, some power player, tries to execute policies that harm you or those you care about, take it personally. 

Get angry. 

The Machinery of Justice will not serve you here – it is slow and cold, and it is theirs, hardware and soft-. Only the little people suffer at the hands of Justice; the creatures of power slide from under it with a wink and a grin. If you want justice, you will have to claw it from them. Make it personal. Do as much damage as you can. Get your message across. That way, you stand a better chance of being taken seriously next time. 

Of being considered dangerous. 

And make no mistake about this: being taken seriously, being considered dangerous marks the difference - the only difference in their eyes - between players and little people. Players they will make deals with. Little people they liquidate. And time and again they cream your liquidation, your displacement, your torture and brutal execution with the ultimate insult that it’s just business, it’s politics, it’s the way of the world, it’s a tough life and that it’s nothing personal. Well, to hell with them. 

Make it personal."

A quote, by a fictitious revolutionary. But it's a good quote, and although I keep politics, and religion, and my own non-photography related opinions off the journal, this one bears repeating. It's relevant and worth committing to memory.

Interlude

Note: The following post has has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with photography in any way, shape, or form. The following post is a rant. You have been warned.

Ahem.

What the heck is up with Campbell's soup these days?!

When I was a kid and my mother was off in Denmark visiting with her folks, my fondest memories was when my Dad and I would have "soup and sandwiches" for dinner. Not only because it was "us" time, but, and let's be brutally honest here, my Dad couldn't cook anything else.

We always had Campbell's soup and I loved it. Now perhaps I've looking back with rose coloured glasses, but I can clearly recall time in my 20s having good Campbell's soup. In point of fact, I wouldn't have any other soup, and my fav was their Chunky Clam Chowder.

So just the other day, I went on a soup kick, and had some Campbell's soups. Chunky Clam Chowder, Homestyle Chicken Noodle, Barley Vegetable (or words to that effect, I don't recall the exact title) and a few others from my youth and childhood.

And you know what? To a one, they all sucked. Either they were starchy, weirdly bland (screaming for some kind of spices, even just some salt) or just grossbuckets.

So I ask you, dear readers, when did the quality of Campbell's soup go straight into the garbage can?

No enjoyment without a little pain

Ok, no picture here. I'm home sick with a stomach flu that has got me feeling weak, tired and strung out. The worst is over (and those of you who have suffered with a stomach flu know exactly what I'm talking about) and my apetite is returning somewhat. The trick is to find foods that are mild and won't cause distress.
The upside to all of this is I've lost weight :-)

Merry Christmas

Ok no picture to go here, a few things have been keeping me pre-occupied and I haven't had a chance to take anything good as of late (c'mon snow!) but I did want to wish a warm and sincere Merry Christmas to all my friends, both past and present, and all my visitors from around the world. I hope you are having a good holiday and have peace, love and joy in your heart.

I have met some wonderful new people and this message goes out to them:
"Thank you for showing me the greater good in the world"

Cheers!
e