Distracted

What’s new over the last month?

I found this while reading Steve Rubel. It’s dead simple. Just send a note off to post at posterous.com and the site sets up a blog for you, based on your email address. A return email gives you the relevant access information, but you can just keep sending things via email to build your blog. You can even embed pictures and links to other sites you’ve found.

You can watch your blog grow anonymously, or login to explore some of the other features. You can automatically update your other sites like facebook and twitter with your posts (or links to them), or subscribe to other posterous blogs. More to come, I’m told.

You can also sign in and post online, or use the new iphone app picposterous. Either way, posting is a snap, and the site includes an RSS feed. Nice.

Want a collection of the pictures you’ve taken at an event? Picposterous/posterous will build you a gallery based on the pictures you send. They will all be contained in a single post, with the title based on the Picposterous album name. I’m still trying to figure out how to delete individual pictures from the gallery, but in general, it works like a charm.

So cool.

A twitter account.

I swore I’d never do it, but … I did. What can I say.

Now that I’ve learned more about Twitter, I’m starting to see some value. Within a few minutes of signing in, I’d found some friends and a couple of local photographers, heard about some folks that were looking for a photographer, and got very confused about all the RT, @, D and #FF stuff littering tweets 😉

It’s getting better now. I’ve settled in with Tweetdeck and Tweetie on the desktop and iphone for now. We’ll see how it goes.

The next goal will be to tie everything together somehow. Typepad, Twitter, Posterous, and perhaps Facebook.

We live in interesting times.

Matching photo equipment with style

A week ago I went out and bought a new 50mm Nikon 1.4/G lens. Having started years ago in photography with a 50mm lens, I thought it would excite me to get out and use one again. I also figure it will be handy in those very low light conditions coming this winter and fall. It did, and it will, but…

Having used zoom lenses for so long now, I’ve forgotten how to ‘zoom with my feet’. There will be a learning curve with the new lens and I’ll need to be more active when using it. That’s good, I think.

It’s small. Yikes, even with the lens hood on it only extends about 3.5 inches out from the camera. Most digital lenses in the bag right now extend at least 6 inches and weigh a lot more than this one. I’ll have to remember not to reach out too far to fine focus the thing. Not that I need to fine focus very often – this baby is quick to focus and generally dead on. Still, there’s that learning curve again.

While walking along a trail in Deas Island park on the weekend, I noticed my ‘vision’ looking for detail like insects, droplets on leaves, spider webs, and things. The thought occurred to me that I might do better with the Nikon 60mm 2.8 Micro lens. The length for the 60 is fixed and close to 50, but it does have some macro capability. The 50mm doesn’t focus too closely and is somewhat restricting in what I can do with it, especially for close up work. I guess I could use a teleconverter to compensate, but that’s another step.

I am going to like the speed of the 50. An f-stop of 1.4 lets in an awful lot of light. Overall, it’s a fine new lens. It’s sharp, bright, and produces a nice bokeh in the background. It’s so light you hardly know it’s on the front of a D700 camera, and I expect it will produce nice portraits and landscapes once I get use to it. Guess I’ll just have to get out and practice with it. Darn 😉

The news? No, thanks. I’ve seen it

It was so disappointing tonight. I was watching CTV news after dinner and there were two sections that were nothing but re-runs from earlier shows. One was about some all-in-one remote control that worked as advertised (wow).

Can’t remember the other one. It was on at the end of the news section, just before sports. There was no point in watching it once they told me about it in the pre-commercial preview they are so fond of. Boring.

What gives? Are we that short of actual news around town that we have to recycle the old stuff?

It’s not just CTV. While reading the Vancouver Sun over the last while, I’ve seen numerous articles being repeated at least twice, perhaps in different sections, but not always, but usually a couple of days apart. Maybe that made it ‘new’ news when they change the location or the timing?

No wonder people are changing their reading and watching habits. How many times can you go through a two minute news piece and still find it interesting enough to pay for? Some added value on an old piece, perhaps. But not the same story verbatim.

I know my threshold is getting shorter. How about yours?

A cool lap at last

After reading about the Targus Chill Mat for Mac in the August 2009 issue of Mac Life, I just had to give it a try. Having my MacBook Pro on my lap has worked great when it’s cool enough for pants, but with shorts and bare legs, it’s a burner. There are times when I just don’t want to sit at a desk to read through blogs and news, but the recent heat has restricted me to doing just that. There was no way I could use the laptop on my lap without frying my thighs.

On Saturday, I went over to the local London Drugs to see if they had any Chill Mats in stock. They did have ONE, so I bought it on the spot. Glad I did. So far it’s worked splendidly over a day and a half. Cool lap and cool laptop, what more could you ask for.

What’s involved?

It’s just a light mat about an inch thick at its thickest. It narrows toward the front, so it tilts just a bit down toward you when it’s on your lap. There are two fans that move air up through it, and they draw power through a usb connection to the laptop. You can turn the fans on and off with a switch on the back of the mat. Vents on both the top and bottom of the mat ensure airflow over the bottom of the MacBook. The top side is somewhat rubberized to keep the laptop from slipping around, and the bottom is more of a mesh that has give like a net. The 17″ MacBook Pro fits it just right.

What’s not to like?

Well, let’s face it, it just one more thing to grab with the laptop, so it is a bit more complicated to set up. The bottom edges are less rounded than the MacBook, so if you sit askew, holding one side of the laptop with your leg, it seems to irritate after a while.

Those are small complaints. Overall it does just what it’s meant to, and it’s doing it very well. It costs about 50 bucks, which seems reasonable to me, and according to the specs, it weighs in at about 1.6 lbs. You hardly notice it with a 5.5 lb notebook sitting on your lap.

Bottom line: I like it.

Surrey Fusion Festival 2009

By all accounts, Surrey’s Fusion Festival was a huge success. Apparently more than 60,000 people showed up for the party on July 18-19. It was an amazing blend of food, music, arts and crafts all in Surrey City Centre’s Holland Park.

Over the two days, the party was hot and crowded, and the air was filled with wonderful smells and sounds that included everything from the Beatles to regge (sp?) and ballet.

It’s hard to fit it all in, with constantly changing performances and at least 3 stages to choose from. Some musicians even performed in their country’s tent.

Every tent had samples of food native to the country at hand. There was way to much to appreciate a taste of everything. So sad.

The timing was the same as the Vancouver Folk Festival, so there might have been even more people if the dates were separate. Just the same, living south of the Fraser, it’s nice not to have to cross a river to enjoy this type of thing.

I was there on Saturday, but living close by, I could hear the party through my open windows all the next day. Not sure I’d want to live next door, but from a half mile away, it was quite a treat.

I met a few current friends, some old friends, and made some new friends. Wish I was better with names though. They go in one ear and out the other, but I seldom forget a face. I’m better than I was, but it’s still embarrassing some times.

The stilt walkers were popular, as always. They seem to be at every outdoor party I go to. Goes with the territory, I guess. Hard to stilt walk in an auditorium or club, eh 😉

They sure are good at entertaining the kids. Wish I knew what their business was called, so I could give them credit. After all, this one was nice enough to pose for me and give me one of the best pictures all day. If anyone knows who they are, send me a note and let me know, please.

Here’s lookin’ at next year. This festival seems to be growing, and as Surrey’s ethnic communities become more diverse, we need to exposure to the positive parts of every culture. We hear too much about the troubling stuff every day in the news. Positive stuff is nice for a change.

Mac migration

Well, I finished up my Apple collection a couple of weeks ago by buying an IPhone 3Gs. I’ve been a Palm fanatic since the first Palm Pilots hit the street and finished up with a Treo using a Telus plan. I have binders full of receipts from various apps I’ve bought and upgraded, but there was always something missing. I never knew just what that was.

Now I know. The Palm has always been anchored by my desktop computer. I had to sync the two everyday and sometimes more, or get hopelessly out of date. Changes here, changes there, and before I knew it, I couldn’t be sure which version was most up-to-date.

The IPhone is different. Between Google, MobileMe, WiFi and 3G, my phone, desktop and online versions of mail, contacts, todos and calendar all stay in sync, real time. If I’m at the computer and need to update the calendar, I just do it. Leave 5 min later and need that date. It’s there on the phone. What’s simpler than that.

Some other apps require a WiFi connection, but that’s ok. I don’t rely on those as much as I do the others. If things get critical, I can always hit a local WiFi site and sync them up.

Of course Telus didn’t handle the IPhone, so I had to open an account with Rogers. Might like it, might not. Back in the 90’s I was sad when I had to change the cable TV from Rogers to Shaw, but I got over it. My Telus account just has a few months left, so the double bill won’t last that long. I’ve been a happy Telus customer for years, so when (or if) Telus ever handles the IPhone, I might move back. Just depends on the service from Rogers, I guess.

It’s been a real learning curve, but most of what I need (and more) is up and running now.

There’s nothing not to like so far. Recommended.

Rag time

Ok, just a couple of things to catch up.

BC Business magazine had a short piece in the May 2009 issue (p19) about how the death of the phone book is exaggerated. The publishers claim 70% of the US population is still using phone books regularly to find local business. Perhaps.

A little further along in the article they talk about the waste produced when the phone books are recycled. Hey, says the publisher, we support the forest industry and they are the sole source of tree planting in BC.

Hmmm, I’m still thinking about that one.

On another note, our two local TV stations say they should be getting a cut of Shaw Cable’s financial pie. It seems that the ad revenue that’s kept them afloat isn’t enough any more, so they want Shaw to share the revenue stream from household cable subscribers.

Noodling on that one, it seems to me that if you watch an hour of news, you’ll only get about 30-40 minutes of programming. The rest of the hour is ads, the stations telling you what’s up next (after more ads), and the station patting itself on the back for being the best (and sometimes even that is an ad). Sigh. Perhaps they are just not charging enough for ads?

Please, I’d rather not pay more for that. Perhaps if the CRTC takes pity on them, Shaw should make the local stations pay per view. or add them to a tier of their own where we can choose to pay more and watch. Or not. After all, it’s my money they’re talking about, and I should have a choice to pay. Or not.

And last but not least…(and speaking of paying)

The Golden Ears Bridge opened up for a party today. People came. And came, and came. The first thing I ran into was a lineup 50 yards long at Colossus in Langley, where they were offering transit to the event. It took about 20 minutes to catch the bus to a transit event. Gotta laugh at that.

Once down to the bridge though, I saw why. There must have been close to 100,000 people walking around during the course of the day. There were a few protesters on about the planned new roads and the paramedic strike, but mostly there were families, out to enjoy the day. This was probably the last time the public will have free access to the bridge. A bit of Metro Vancouver history, I guess. Glad I went.

It’s an impressive structure. Too bad it’s going to cost commuters and arm and a leg to use it. Just think about it. If you pay around $3.00 each way, every day to work and work 200 days a year, that’s an additional $1200 bucks out of your pocket. If you live on the north side of the Fraser and work on the South, you might be better off working at Whistler. At least the drive on that new road is free.

Visiting Sidney over the weekend

Spent some time on Vancouver Island over the weekend. It was great to see the family again for a couple of days.

Just before I left on Saturday afternoon, we went to Sidney, near the BC Ferry terminal, for a quick coffee and some photos.

Lesson learned. Two o’clock in the afternoon is not the golden hour for photography. The light was harsh, the crowds were dense, and we only had an hour or so before I had to catch the ferry. Next time I’d like to spend an early morning or late afternoon taking some pictures there for a couple of hours.

Still, we did find some interesting shots. My nephew brought his D80 along, and I had my D300. We ducked and bobbed around, grabbing what shots we could. This one is of a new bandshell or stage that’s under construction in a harbour park. The lines intrigued me, but there was no way to get a clear line of sight for a shot from outside the construction fence. I tried a couple of times before I got this photo by holding my camera over the fence above my head. It was much to bright to see the lcd screen using the ‘live view’ option, so I focused through the fence, raised the camera, and hoped for the best. Seems to have turned out alright. There’s a couple more shots from the day with this one at Flickr .

Scenic Delta

Just a couple of pictures from our photowalk in Delta the other day. The first one shows the harbour in Lander about 6:00am, just after the sun came up. Love the boats and the reflection. The view reminded me of mornings in harbour when I was sailing around the Gulf Islands in my Cal 20.

The second is a reflection of a tree in a pool of moving water. Somewhat surrealistic and not something I see every day in the city.

Back in the saddle

I must admit, I’ve felt much like this little critter over the last month. A debilitating bout with the flue, followed by a crippling head cold. Needless to say I haven’t been out doing much photography.

However, that’s changing. A colleague and I went out to Ladner harbour at first light last Saturday. The sky was somewhat misty, so colors weren’t that great, but there were a few shots from the day worth keeping – even if they ended up severely cropped.

Speaking of cropped. I’m trying out a copy of onOne Software’s Genuine Fractals. Actually I’m trying the whole Plugin Suite. Neat stuff, and it should help somewhat with those shots where you just can’t get close enough. So far I’ve enlarged one picture from 4×5 in up to 35×43 in and the resolution is still really good. Enlarging with Photoshop is just a bit softer so far, so it will be interesting to see how far it can go.

I have been taking lots of pictures of events at work. That never ends, and unfortunately I can’t/shouldn’t publish those pictures here (work for hire?). I’ve been trying some things with my flash, like zooming and dragging the shutter. Learning lots through that, however I’ll probably retain even more now that I’ve feeling better, heh.

Onward and upward, as they say. Here’s looking to a more productive summer.