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pay it forward…

I’ve been meaning to write about the Radiant Vista for the last week or so, but now I don’t have any excuse not to.

The Radiant Vista is a combination of community photography website, as well as an amazing resource for photographers at any level of experience who are looking for ways of improving their photography. The folks who run the site offer video tutorials with their Photoshop Workbench for editing photos, as well as more or less Daily Critiques, in which they critique user-submitted images for both the quality of photography as well as the artistic merit of the photo. In particular I’ve found the Daily Critiques to be very useful, particularly since their critiques are done in a very positive, reinforcing way.

But the reason I’m writing today about the Radiant Vista is their Holiday 2007 Pay it Forward Giveaways. Basically, the generous folks who hang out there are indulging in a mutual photogear give-away. If you’re willing to part with something photography related for free (typically you pay the shipping), you can speak up to get something free in return.

pay it forward...

It was way too much good karma for me to pass up. So last week, after thinking long and hard about it (for about 5 minutes), I offered to give away my Canon EF 80-200mm f/4.5-5.6 lens. We bought this lens used off eBay a couple of years ago, and it’s served me well. But I’m finding that I’m using it less and less. Within a day it was claimed, and is going to find a new home being used in teaching High School photography courses. It was a calculated risk, that I’d get something at least as good in return from someone else. This afternoon I claimed a Canon EF 50mm f/2.5 macro lens. Definitely a step up.

Canon EF 50mm f/2.5 Compact Macro

:) Happy Holidays. :)

2007 12 10 life /
observations /
photography / Comments (0)

This is what fast food should be

YATS

Yats is one of my favorite restaurants in town. To say their food is good is an understatement. It’s a small taste of New Orleans cuisine in the cold Midwest, for about what you would pay for a meal at a fast food restaurant (and quicker than some fast food restaurants).

Up until now though, they’ve only had locations downtown and on the north side of town. All that is about to change. They’re opening up a location on the south side of town, at the corner of US31 and County Line Rd. I drive by there every day on my way home from work. :)

2007 12 08 humor /
life /
observations /
  • camera: Canon 300D
  • exif: 1/60 sec, f/2, 28 mm, 400 ISO
  • lens: EF 28mm f/1.8 USM
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paging Charlie Brown…

paging Charlie Brown...

… your Christmas tree is ready.

We got our first real snowfall of the winter last night. There really wasn’t very much, but it came down wet and heavy. Our poor fir tree in the front yard definitely looks forlorn. I think if we stuck a star on top of it, it would probably topple over.

2007 12 05 photography /
  • camera: Canon 300D
  • exif: 1/320 sec, f/5, 28 mm, 100 ISO
  • lens: EF 28mm f/1.8 USM
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apologies to the people of West Virginia

compact fluorescent bulb

“Turn the lights off, you’re killing polar bears”. We use that expression around our house to try and shame encourage everyone to turn the lights off after they leave the room. Well it turns out now that we should be saying “turn the lights out, you’re giving the people in West Virginia black lung”.

Enter your zip code into ilovemountains search box and it will show you, using google maps, the connection between your local power company, and sites that mine coal by systematically using mountaintop removal techniques. That’s a euphemism for blowing up mountains in the name of harvesting cheap coal. Finally, something more obnoxious than strip mining.

2007 11 25 life /
observations /
technology / Comments (0)

more sites than you can shake a stick at

There are a few photography websites that I check out on a regular basis. After finding these two lists, I have a lot more reading to do. Good stuff.

Chase Jarvis has compiled a list of user-submitted 150 favorite blogs, many of which include photography blogs.

Epic Edits Weblog lists 87 Great Photography Blogs and Feeds.

2007 11 24 photography / Comments (0)

high risk photography

cranberry sauce

What do you do when you don’t have a good macro lens that can shoot from a distance, and you just have to get a close up of home-made cranberry sauce cooking on the stove? You cross your fingers and justify the risk of putting your lens 3 inches away from the bubbling, sugary exploding cranberries by telling yourself that your macro filter will take the brunt of the damage if a cranberry explodes onto the lens.

Thankfully the camera and lens escaped unscathed.

2007 11 23 photography /
  • camera: Canon 300D
  • exif: 1/40 sec, f/2.8, 28 mm, 400 ISO
  • filter: Hoya HMC +4
  • lens: EF 28mm f/1.8 USM
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waiter, there’s mouse shit in my food

“Do not worry monsieur, zee little black spots in your sundae are our own special chocolate”

Mice close NY home of $25,000 dessert

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Manhattan restaurant that unveiled a record-breaking $25,000 (12,200 pounds) dessert last week has been forced to shut its doors temporarily due to an infestation of mice and cockroaches.

For what they charge for one of their desserts, they could pay a cleaning person for an entire year to keep the place clean.

On the other hand, anyone who indulges in this type of excessive and egregious consumption for the sake of consumption probably deserves whatever they get.

2007 11 15 life /
observations /
well duh / Comments (0)

Gallery updates

Crown Hill

I’ve added a couple of new galleries to the IR photos that I’m hosting locally on this site. You can find links to the individual galleries in the sidebar, or the main page here. I’m getting much happier with the results that I’m getting shooting IR, both from the cameras that I’m using, and with the post-processing workflow that I’m developing using LAB colorspace. In the process I’m also learning tons about using Photoshop for editing photos.

The secondary motive for hosting these galleries separate from my Flickr photos is that these represent what I feel are the best examples of what I’m currently doing at any one time. Many of the photos in these galleries are also being posted to different forums on the Infrared Photography community site.

2007 11 10 photography /
technology /
  • camera: Minlota DiMAGE7
  • exif: 1/15 sec, f/3.4, 7.4 mm, 100 ISO
  • filter: Hoya R72
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photowalk recap

sunrise

The IndyFlickr group had our November walk through Holliday Park last Saturday. The weather was gorgeous, once it warmed up. Today’s photo was the sunrise I caught on the way there. It really was that spectacular.

I’ve written up a recap of the walk on photowalking.org. Go check it out.

2007 11 08 photography /
  • camera: Canon 300D
  • exif: 1/250 sec, f/1.8, 28 mm, 100 ISO
  • lens: EF 28mm f/1.8 USM
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ruins in the park

per .... fect union

2007 11 08 photography /
  • camera: Canon 300D
  • exif: 10 sec, f/10, 28 mm, 100 ISO
  • filter: Hoya R72
  • lens: EF 28mm f/1.8 USM
Comments (0)