Winter Is Here

Actually this is last year.  We didn't get this much snow this weekend. 

But it is colder than a Witches Tit!!

Creativity is not proportional to superior equipment.

Ken Rockwell has a great site in which he reviews cameras, lenses and other photography related accessories not to mention a good bit of advice and insight. It is simple in design yet full of useful info if you are camera hunting.

He has a what’s new section that I check on periodically just for his attitude. He has opinions on everything from RAW vs. JPG to old film cameras to digital. I don’t always agree with him and with the constant change in digital photography – software to accessorized equipment – some times he has to go back and revise his comments. That is part of what keeps me going back.

I bought my Nikon D300 after reading his views on it. (Yes, Ken I gave you credit when I made the purchase at Adorama) Yet today he will tell you not to waist your money because the N90 has everything the D300 has but lighter. I have no qualms over comments like that. I learned a long time ago you make the best decision you can with what you know at the time. With digital cameras coming out so often these days you just have to pick a point to make a commitment. I’m happy with my D300. I know how it works and can make adjustments quickly on site. I’ve even won a contest with the photos I’ve taken with it. I’m not without experience with film cameras since I’ve been at this for over 40 years.

Which brings be to the purpose of this blog entry. Ken posted yesterday –

New decade, new deal.

Let's try to forget how many tens of thousands of dollar each of us threw at DLSRs last decade, and how little we have to show for it today.

Let's see: I burned through a D1H, D70, D80, D40, D300, D3, Rebel XTI, 5D, 5D Mark II, numerous Mavicas and point-and-shoots and I forget what else, and what is it all worth today? Worse, how about in just 5 years when the D3 and 5D Mark II are expired?

How about all the time I spent banging out reviews of all that junk? I must have ten huge 100 pages (when printed) on each of the D70 and D1X, and today, no one cares.

Compare that to the numerous pages I have up about the Nikon F100, which I wrote back in the 1990s. That work is still usefully, heck, the one guy I saw yesterday, Michael Chan, had just bought a used F100 and was having a blast with it.

So why review digital stuff, when something like the

LEICA IIIf has been cranking out great pictures for sixty years, and in 2020, the camera and its review will still be as useful as it is today.

Again I’m not disagreeing, but what I love about digital is post click production. Developing film and printing it is time consuming and costly. Yea, you can have someone process the film for you and even print the pictures, but the number of photos I take does not make that affordable nor convenient not to mention the problem with dealing with a distant photo processor when you want something that isn’t an industry standard. Just try to get a 10 x 6 picture on an 8 x 10 piece of photo paper via email. Cameras and software will change constantly. But the images I’ve captured will be as fixed as I make them and that means I have the most control with digital.

Yes, film and film cameras are still superior to digital today when it comes to quality of equipment and achievable results. After all, any photo can be digitized after it is processed. But what you are doing and what you want to achieve and what you can do with alternatives should figure into what equipment you use as much as superior results. Creativity is not proportional to superior equipment. Ken will tell you that right up front.

The Reluctant Mr. Darwin - a good read.

For Christmas, my son gave me David Quammen’s, The Reluctant Mr. Darwin. I’ve enjoyed reading it even though I know how it ends.

The book covers the period 1837 through 1882. Quammen deliberately bypasses the “Beagle years” (1831 – 1836) and concentrates on Charles Darwin, “the shy patriarch with bald head and the full beard, the breeder of pigeons and primroses, a very private Englishman who wound up buried in Westminster Abby, the fellow with a good for bank notes, presents to us a comfortably downy image” but not everything is so comfortable. “At the core of his work is a difficult, scary materialism.” Quammen explores that theme as well the idea that it was difficult and scary even to Darwin.

What I find interesting about this book is how different the times are. All through my read I am struck by two ideas:

1) How people communicated and socialize 140 years ago. Letter writing was the personal chat medium of the times. Publishing and membership in interest societies was a major source of exchange when it came to examining lofty ideas. And if you should think that Victorian text of the times was stogy and formal . . . well, Darwin wrote in abbreviated forms that would make any modern text message guru proud.

2) How much we take medicine for granted today. Darwin and his wife Emma had 10 kids. Three died in childhood. Darwin was sick most of his life. Down’s syndrome was not yet discovered as it is known today and pathogenic microbes had yet been discovered. Malaria was thought to be caused by miasmal vapors from swamp land. Diseases that we take vaccines for today were epidemics and ravished towns and villages because their causes were unknown. Yet, it is easy to neglect that when you think of just how thoroughly Darwin changed science and our understanding of the causes of the great diversity of life.

Tis a good read and not too technical. There is even a bit of the thrill of racing as a young untrained adventurer pushes Darwin and cause Darwin to dig deep for the personal character to do the right thing.

Elk and No Elk

Teresa Binstock, while in Colorado Mts., posted this video of an Elk migration. It is cool to see such a big herd. I live near the Elk River in Lincoln County, Tennessee (our paper is the Elk Valley Times) and we have no elk - wild or captive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SxxOTkfKPk

Actually to say I live near the Elk River in Lincoln County, Tennessee is like saying a double negative in a weird "Chet" sort of way. We have no Elk and Lincoln county is not named for Abraham Lincoln. Go figure. LOL

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Its a new day, a new year, a new decade and I've not made any resolutions. After 50 years of trying and succeeding so seldom I don't bother anymore. I also happen to be pretty satisfied with who I am.

I've given some thought to back dating some post and probably will. I've given some thought to posting pictures done by other photographers that I really like, but I probably won't. I just don't know where I got the pictures. I will keep posting my own pictures and the pictures may or may not have anything to do with my comments, although I do tend to like the "stream of conscience" approach.

Its been hard to avoid political commentary. Politics are the legitimate form of lying it would seem, although I doubt any mother or father would accept it from their kids. It depresses me - so I avoid it.

Em and I spent the day in Huntsville. We ate breakfast at the Broken Egg Cafe in the Bailey Cove section of town. Pricey but good. We tried Cracker Barrel first but they had a 35 minute wait so we didn't stay and it was good that we didn't. Broken Egg was better. We skipped lunch and had popcorn at the movies. Avatar in 3D was great! I loved it! I was afraid after hearing about how much attention the creator put into the special effects the story would suck. But it was pulled off nicely. I might have opted for a smoother or more detailed ending, but it is over two hours long. I'd have to say it was one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. I highly recommend it!

We ate supper at Chili's then came home and enjoyed a quiet evening. I checked on the Outback Bowl since Auburn was in it. After Tennessee sucked yesterday in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl‎, I needed to hear the SEC was still a power house. Well it is and Auburn pulled it out in overtime:

Outback Bowl: Northwestern Wildcats 35 - Auburn Tigers 38

Life is Good!

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You may consider this picture exploitive. However, I would recommend you look at it with the same curiosity that I did. Surly you see just a bit of risque humor here and how odd it is that a person would mark their body in what could be considered self deprivation. I wondered why she would care if her partner knew her name if she hadn't managed to give it before getting into this . . . hhhuuuuhhhh . . . predicament.

Interesting line

Surfing the net with "Stumble!" I ran across this line.

"giving is its own reward… in that he bakes a lovely bullet casserole for every god damn foreigner he sees."

Just how many emotions does that line bring out in ya? 

I thought ". . . bullet casserole . . ." was funny.

Is the Middle East Worth It?

A woman hugs the tombstone of her husband at Arlington National Cemetery after placing a Christmas wreath at his graveside December 12.

If you like to see an old idea done in very interesting presentations, then take a look at this site. The task for these photographers was to take the idea of painting with light and run with it. These folks did quite well.

http://digital-photography-school.com/25-spectacular-light-painting-images

I caught this complete rainbow out front of my house. Actually there are two rainbows here. First time I've seen both ends of a rainbow.

Here is an article I think you will find interesting. It is lengthy, but gives a lot of insight into how high political activities are pursued.

The auto bailout: How we did it

The man who led the effort gives an inside look at the bankruptcies that shook America.

I've got highspeed interent at the house now, so expect an increase in bloging activity. ;}

Stormy Weather is Predicted

They say this warm sunny weather is not going to last.  As you can see from this moonlight shot, the clouds are coming in.

We get to our beachfront condo on the 7th floor and see boats returning home for the evening and beach walkers.

It was a long uneventful drive through Alabama.  The Interstate 65 is so different from the coastal roads my family use to take along the Atlanta coast of North and South Carolina.  The terrain changes and the road kill changes from skunks to armadillos but not a lot of sightseeing opportunities along the way.  Well, not for a guy who has spent a lot of his life in the State.

But when you get to Orange Beach, you grow a smile and the old body knows to switch to relax mode.

September Is Over

September Madness is over, the last contract is signed and the sky is clearing. Em and I head for the Gulf - Orange Beach to be exact. It will be nice to be away from 12 hour days and the gray of the office.

September is the Month from Hell for Government Contracting

I'll be putting in a lot of Over Time this month so along with my Dial Up Delima, I'll probably not be posting this month.





I love this picture of my Uncle Jim. Kind of mixes his country boy upbringing with his working lifetime occupation.