First item on the agenda: I got my Mini Moo Cards today! FINALLY! I decided to order only two photos for the batch this time instead of fiddling around with the 20 or so last time. There were so many different photos to choose from that I was showing the whole collection every time and people couldn’t decide which one to take. The choices are now narrowed down to two: wedding glasses with (Fancy and Rod’s) rings in them, or a spouting geyser in Iceland. There’s a lot more information in the back, though: my Toronto and Vancouver phone numbers, one email address, two website addresses.

I took a photo of them on my computer in low light and high ISO to test the noise on the D300. It looks pretty noisy here in a larger size, but according to the EXIF data it’s at ISO4000, f/2.8, 1/320s. Not bad. I tested the noise reduction utility in Capture NX on this photo and it works quite well at <15%, better than using Adobe Camera RAW.

In other banal news, it’s SNOWING. Here’s what the tree in the front yard looks like now versus six days ago:

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Somebody take all this chocolate away from me!

(I’m not having a bad day, just a busy one, and I’m eating way too much chocolate.)

Wouldn’t you know, after writing posts about copyrighting my work and selling my photos via the internet, I received some samples from my very first print client in the mail today!

It started eight months ago, back at the beginning of March: I got an email asking for permission to use the above photo on behalf of a non-profit in New York City. (Click on the pic for photo details.) The non-profit group wanted it for their benefit invitations and on the cover of an ad journal. It took a few emails back and forth to settle on the price and specifics, and it was from that first client request that I learned how to upsample my Pentax files to meet printing specs, since it’s only a 6MP camera and I shot in JPG that day. (”Necessity is the mother of invention” as they say.) The benefit took place in June while I was in Norway, but I was eager to see how the photo looked in print so I asked for samples before I left.

When I opened up the package today, I felt a surge of pride to see my photo on the print materials and to read the letter from the client, especially the part that said:

“…we were all very happy with the photo. The people at ___ and I agree that your photo was better than the art the show used for their advertising!”

I’m so pleased!!!

In other photography news, I’m thinking of branching out a bit to instruction. Recently I was showing some people how to use their digital cameras, and we discussed the idea of me launching a workshop series aimed to help people take better photographs with their point-and-shoot cameras. It’s something I’ve been doing with people one-on-one, but I’ve been formulating ideas of a workshop formatted for a group with an hour of the basics (composition, demystifying the settings, flash, tips and tricks) followed by an hour of practice shooting. The series would continue into basic editing. I don’t think I’ll have time to do it before year-end, but it’s definitely in the works.

People have also been asking me “When’s the next brunch????” since the last brunch (someone even donated a crepe maker towards it), so maybe I’ll combine the two!

We learned about World War I in school, but it wasn’t until many years later in an English literature class at Simon Fraser University in 2001 that I learned the horrific details of the Great War and the reasons why it holds such an important place in history. Of course, as schoolchildren we’re spared the gruesome parts, and even 10 years after its release I can’t bring myself to watch the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan, but this was English class and it was required reading. One of the books on the list (the title of which escapes me right now) took place during World War I, and our discussions of the book were centred on the aspects of war and why the First World War was called the Great War.

A few things I took away from those discussions: trench warfare, the lack of technology, 20 million military deaths in four years. The sheer number of people who lost their lives is overwhelming — an average of more than 13,000 people each DAY, and that doesn’t include the civilian casualties. It would be the equivalent of burying the entire nation of Sri Lanka. It is no wonder that Armistice Day (”Remembrance Day” in Canada) is observed in many countries around the world. 90 years is literally a lifetime ago, but we mustn’t forget the consequences of escalated conflict and do everything to prevent it from happening again.

This medal was part of David’s belongings, but I don’t know where he got it from. On the inside of the battered jewellery case is a date, but I can only make out the year (1918), and the name of the jeweller in Jersey City, NJ. There are a few war-related items, such as photographs taken in the South Pacific during WWII (an estate sale of a war veteran–that part I do know), but this medal might’ve been acquired apart from the other items. The USA didn’t enter World War I until April 16, 1917, which explains why November 11 — a date commemorated in Canada and other Commonwealth countries with the wearing of poppies and the recitation of the poem written by a Canadian soldier, “In Flanders Fields” — is not a big deal south of the border. When I lived in Pennsylvania, it was a bit strange not to see poppies on lapels in November. I really felt like something was amiss.

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I have “All Rights Reserved” on all my online photos, which I’m sure gets ignored and abused without my knowledge (it’s the internet, after all). The last time I reminded someone to provide attribution for my photos that he used without asking, he deleted the entire post in a huff. A completely unwarranted huff, since he didn’t even link back to my sites — he’d just downloaded my photos and posted them!

Depending on what people use it for, I usually say yes if it’s for charity/asked nicely/assured proper attribution (name/link back) because I am generally a sharing type of person. I’ve considered a Creative Commons license in the past for my point-and-shoot photos, but surprisingly I’ve sold p&s photos and I don’t want to take the extra time to use different categories — it’s easier just to use one!

Here are a couple of positive examples, where I was happy to share and reciprocate in giving credit:

(I was planning to post this at Halloween, but I completely forgot…)

Burningbliss asked to remix my photo of Alberto.

Fotofyoog: Gail at Large’s "Bravo Alberto!" by burningbliss

His description:

Part of my collaborative “Fotofyoog” Project (see set). The original photo came from Gail at Large - her photo titled “BRAVO ALBERTO!” Thanks “Gail” for such a wonderful photo to play with! =) And yes…the split, creepy monster, outer-image was also manipulated from Gail’s original pixels (if you look at the details you will see that both the “good” and the “evil” images were created from the exact same original photo).

Here’s the link to the comparison photo.

In other news, one of my 2006 film photos of a likeness of Stanley Segalla, the Flying Farmer, accompanied an article written about the man. It’s funny because I have photos of Segalla in the flesh, but the cut-out made the grade…

Two and a half years ago Stanley Segalla, then 81, flew from his home in Connecticut to Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in upstate New York on very short notice to help me scatter David’s ashes on his birthday when we couldn’t get the biplane that day. I’ve written more about Stanley Segalla here.

The author of the article, John Cilio, sent me the PDF last month, which you can open up and read here. (PDF posted with permission.) I just found the online version here — it was published in the November issue of the Atlantic Flyer.

It’s the end of an era for Segalla — he flew his last Flying Farmer routine at Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in the closing weekend last month. He’s following the sun and moving full-time to Florida for his other business, where he teaches aerobatic flying in the winters. Even at 83, the man’s still working but at least he won’t be commuting back and forth from Connecticut!

We were loaded, all right… on SUGAR! There were FIVE cakes/desserts for three people having birthdays. Just the video for now while I sort through the photos. Here’s one of all of us by Garry.

The technical bits on how the video was made:

Oh, one last thing: I had to convert the Quicktime movie to Flash to reduce the size. It was ridiculously large, too large to upload ANYWHERE in less than six hours, and the upload was gobbling up my internet bandwidth so I gave up.

The ache in my forearm was getting progressively bothersome last night and I knew I was only a few days away from being forced to halt all computer activity. Unfortunately, it’s how I make a living!

I bought my first Wacom tablet today, plus a full-sized Apple keyboard to improve my posture and expand my hand/arm range of movement before the symptoms of repetitive strain injury worsened.

About four years ago I had this problem — too much mouse work all at once — and I trained myself to mouse with my left hand to give my right hand a break. Then I switched back and forth. It was annoying because I programmed combinations of keystrokes for shortcuts and they were hardly shortcuts anymore after switching my mouse hand, but at that time I was remote controlling a Windows machine with another Windows machine. The keyboards were essentially the same.

However, an Apple keyboard layout is different from a Windows keyboard (the notebook version especially so) and unhelpfully asymmetrical: the Function and Control keys are only on the left side of the spacebar and I use combinations of Fn+, Ctl+, Apple+, Option+ and Shift+ in my Mac environment. With the Apple keyboard and the old-school one-button Apple mouse, I remote control a Windows machine and keyboard but the keystroke combinations between environments differ once you get past the basic copy/cut/save/paste, especially in Excel. Switching the mouse back and forth between the right and left hand is not efficient anymore because a notebook keyboard layout is condensed. Which also means there is no numeric keypad and entering figures is SLOW by comparison.

I can’t believe I lasted this long with my current setup! I’ve considered adding different devices, but the ergonomic keyboards take up far too much space and wireless mice are a) not as responsive or precise as wired mice, and b) with batteries are too heavy for constant use, causing muscle strain.

Although I prefer the reduced clutter of wireless devices, I just haven’t found any that match up to the responsiveness of wired devices — especially mice.

I read lots of user reviews for pen tablets and I hadn’t come across anyone who went back to a mouse after switching to a tablet. In the end I decided to buy a Wacom Bamboo instead of splashing out another $20 on a mouse and software I wouldn’t use on the Bamboo Fun. I also bought the full-size Apple keyboard to put my 17″ PowerBook screen further away from me (it’s big enough!), which improves my posture so I’m not leaning forward to hunch over the condensed notebook keyboard. Also, it keeps the computer cleaner and cooler because I’m not touching it anymore.

As for the Wacom pen tablet, it took a little while getting used to the pen motion and sensitivity, maybe an hour or so. There’s a lot more precision and control once your brain wraps around how to coordinate your hands with all the devices together. I also noticed I can perform most functions faster with the tablet than with a mouse, especially with the four programmable buttons at the top of the tablet, plus a touch circle that can zoom or scroll. There are also two click spots on the pen that can be programmed; I’m currently using the default right-click/context menu and scrolling options. That extra range of movement and a more posture-friendly layout is something I really should’ve invested in long ago!

Begging to sit in my lap, as per usual. The problem is, he doesn’t lay down — he likes to sit up and watch the screen and totally get in the way. It’s cute, but not productive for me.

Half an hour later…

The Beano-cam. He sat quietly in my lap for about 15 minutes, watching the screen while I worked around him. Still in the way, but at least he didn’t move around. I think he got bored of graphs, he wanted more news and pictures.

On Sunday evening I got together with the three guys who make up Pixel 3 Photography to discuss photography and all things Nikon, which is why I dubbed the evening ‘The Nikonics Shoot’. I’m still very new to the Nikon system, with two months and about 4,500 photos under my belt thus far. These guys have been shooting Nikon for much longer, but all of us own a range of equipment to try out and test various lighting scenarios. Between us we had SIX flashes: four SB-600s and two SB-800s that held enough power to blind the two resident cats… or, at least piss them off permanently.

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As seen on a quick grocery run for last-minute candy and dinner supplies.

Lo and behold, a high-strung Halloween bride.

Saving on plot fees in a tight economy, the neighbours multi-purpose the front yard.