changing the world one (za)char(y) at a time.
You are currently browsing the monthly archive for August 2008.
This picture was taken a couple of years ago at a fraternity event. Photographing fire has always been difficult. On one side you have something very bright, and at night, you are surrounded by the darkness. If you flash it, it can wash out. This is what I got.
Fire pit at a fraternity event
Steve Jobs’ obituary was mistakenly released by Bloomberg News today. Bloomberg is a company that strives not to take a position on the market, but in this case, they actually caused the stock to take a sharp dip. They have since retracted the article and stated that they have no non-public information on the health of Steve Jobs.
I’m not really sure if I like this photo, but I would love some feedback. I think it is slightly out of focus. I remember the feeling I had when I was taking this photo and that was a great feeling. I was on my own, in the middle of the rockies, breathing cool fresh air. The feeling is probably not enough to call this a great photo, but here it is regardless 
Picture from a rest stop on my way past Aspen, when I crossed the country in a Penske Truck in February
This is a picture of Barring Hill Beach in Westport, CT (my hometown).
Barring Hill Beach, Westport, CT
This is perhaps the picture I am most proud of. It was a beautiful wedding and this picture is really amazing to me. However, I’m not sure I did good job on the color corrections. I’m posting both an edited version and a version taken directly from the master. Let me know which one you like the most.
This is the version of this image that I modified.
This version is without corrections
Recently I redescovered Jason Santa Maria‘s blog. He writes about some very interesting design topics, and has a very unique blog layout. He’s a cool person, I’ve written him in the past and gotten responses.
My days as a designer are, at least temporarily, over. My job these days really revolves around programming an debugging. And right now I’m doing MFC/Windows programming, so web is really not a key focus of mine. This means that Jason’s blog really doesn’t cover all that relevant material for me.
Still there is a side of his blog I feel holds value for everyone. The Daily Photo section, where, you guessed it, he posts a photo daily. Its just a picture, daily, not too much text, just an image.
When I was a youngster, I used to take a ton of photos. I worked at a camera store, so I had reduced pricing on processing. I also took a class whereby I convinced my parents that it was there responsibility to pay for my processing. I shot WAY TOO much film. I learned a lot by doing. Then I went to college. Processing was expensive. I had other things I needed. Photography took a back seat for at least four years.
When I got out of school, I bought a digital body and started shooting again, but in limited capacity. I had lost a lot of that knowledge that I had learned prior to school. I still know enough to make a camera work, but my eye for composition has changed, and not really in a better way. I’ve also never kept up with the digital manipulation side of things. Color corrections and touch ups are a big deal these days, and I haven’t really been doing that.
So, here I am, starting a new category in my blog. Hoping to post a photo a day. The benefit being that hopefully I will gain some more knowledge as this forces me to take more pictures. Now, there will probably be days that I miss, but I will do my best to publish as often as I can.
Starting off with a simple picture I took around my apartment. This is a picture of a wooden model sailboat I picked up from Restoration Hardware. After some debating with my roommate, we named her Wavecrest. Here only the bow is in focus. This was taken with a 50mm 1.8 Nikkor on my D70.
Model boat photo with limited focus
Hope you enjoy the image!
There are two shoulder stands in this stunt
Today I got slammed back into doing shoulder stands at CheerGym’s practice. This is a relatively simple stunt where you take a girl throw her up in the air and catch her on your shoulders. I got to do this with my good friend Chaz, and while it didn’t really hurt, I do have some marks on my shoulders from all of her foot prints.
This is actually a stunt I feel very confident with. I’ve used a technique, called the Waldren shoulder stand. With this technique, I catch the girl a little forward, but openning up my chest as she jumps up. The benefit is that I can see and place her feet on me. The drawback is that she normally has take to a step or two back once she lands. Sometimes this is okay, like at a game. Sometimes there are deductions for this, like at a competition.
Either way, was a fun practice, I look forward to doing more of these in the future.
This image is not from cheer gyms practice, it is from my freshman year of cheerleading at Villanova. The guys that have girls standing on their shoulders, they are doing shoulder stands (ps, I’m the guy on the right).
I found a new program that allows me to write to my blog from my iPhone. Okay, so nothing overly exciting, but still another cool way to use my iPhone.
I have a couple of articles I have been meaning to write, so stay tuned 
Tags: random
If your watching TV, you’ve probably seen that the Olympics are going on right now. I have been watching more than my fair share of Olympics. One constant frustration for me is the continual mention of Michael Phelps. He has done some great things, like win 8 Gold medals in a week. He is truly a phenomenal swimmer, but I don’t like him as a role model.
In 2004, after the Olympics were over, Phelps was arrested for a DUI. He was sentenced to 18 months probation and instructed to give several speeches to locals schools about the negatives of driving under the influence. That was the end of it. There has been relatively no mention about Phelps’ DUI in this Olympics. Why? I would think it is because they don’t want to tarnish Michael Phelps during the games. He is supposed to be a role model, someone everyone aspires to be. How would parents feel if they knew that the person their kids were looking up to had committed a DUI? Is that the same role model?
Now, there is something for giving everyone a second chance. Phelps made a mistake and moved on. We should all be so wise. However, I don’t think the plan of ignoring it is the correct path to take. I lost respect for him because of that. I would have him come out and use his success, use this event, to prevent other kids from getting into the same problem. So, he made it out of his DUI with just 18 months probation, a fine and some speeches; maybe the next kid will get in an accident hurt themselves or someone else. I feel like he dropped the ball here. He had an opportunity to do an amazing good, far beyond simply winning gold medals.
Instead, he just takes the fame and leaves the rest. That’s not something I admire, that is not something I look up to. I’m very happy for you Michael, you are truly great athlete, but I wish you were a stronger person.
Apple’s biggest problem isn’t with its product quality (which, overall, remains very high), but with its communication to customers.
If your reading this blog, you probably know that I’m a big Apple fan. I will stand up for Apple all over the place, but I have been increasingly frustrated with their communication, this needs to change.