[Yoyo]

I deliberately avoided the dead baby grave stones. There are at least two next door, one that just says infant on one side with specific dates on the other side, and the other says infant daughter, 4 days old. Kind of creeps me out if I think too much about it that we live right THERE next to them. I hope they don’t mind me coming over to take pictures every now and then. I do my best to be respectful.

My photo that didn’t make my cut is from the Schofield Barracks post cemetery. There are a lot of infant graves there, but thankfully their numbers get fewer and further between as time goes on. Thankfully the childhood mortality rate in the US is as close to zero as possible.

[Yoyo]

Meh. 18 megapixel is no better than my T2i. Plus the CF memory format is kind of a deal breaker.

“Yes, I do have more money than talent. What makes you ask?”

[Yoyo]

I didn’t make it to the fair this year, but I think I’ve got some good ones from past years.

[Yoyo]

If you are taking a photo and say to yourself, “Oh, I’ll just fix that in Photoshop,” then perhaps you should stop and correct it properly in the first place.

That’s probably one of the best summations of the ideal behind Farktography that I’ve seen.

I don’t mean this to just apply to Farktography contests, but to all photographs: focus, sharpness, blur, white balance, exposure, highlights, flare, aberrations, etc. I realize that a lot of the corrections allowed for Farktography can be batch processed on a whole series of photos, e.g. white balance or exposure, but I still think would would be more efficient to do those once in the camera, instead of to each image afterwards.

In my opinion, creating a montage or mosaic in Photoshop is not a “fix,” but a purposeful artistic or technical process. I figure that we forbid it in Farktography, since we’re here for photos, not montages. My employer is rather strict as well about limiting post-processing for publicly released photos. Doctored photos make it look like we’re trying to hide something from the public.

[Yoyo]

For blemishes and the like, it’s intended for things that are just a few pixels, not a face full of acne, …

So I guess we can’t fix this poor thing then?

Alas, no 🙁

Well, we could start with hair and costume. Then move on to pose and lighting. Come back for eyebrows and makeup. And finally, a thick coat of Vaseline on the lens and maybe a smile. Anything can be fixed.

If you are taking a photo and say to yourself, “Oh, I’ll just fix that in Photoshop,” then perhaps you should stop and correct it properly in the first place. Think of it similar to the process of building a house: it’s better to level the foundation in the first place, than to shim the walls to correct that.

[Yoyo]

Argh. I thought these contests were supposed to go green at midnight zulu.

Rest in peace Mr. Jobs. You did a heck of a lot for computer graphics. Thanks for that.

[Yoyo]

As some of the Facebooking farktographers know, I recently had the blue and red flashers behind my vehicle while photographing two water towers right next to a federal prison. That dude was there in, like, two minutes. It all turned out OK but it was uncomfortable.

CSB: Last Sunday I was walking around the Army base where I’m stationed and taking pictures of the birds and wild flowers. One of the rent-a-cops stopped and asked me if I had permission to take pictures. “Yes, I do. I’m the unit public affairs representative for the LMT.” He was speechless. I continued on my walk. A second guard drving past me stopped and said hello. I waved at a guard in a tower and he waved back while I walked along the boundary fence line. Then the MPs arrived to inform me that I’m not supposed to be “outside the berm”. They were cool, and I showed them my pics which they thought were good, and then they gave me a lift to the PX. Sharing the morning’s story with some coworkers, I found out that I’m not the only one who wasn’t told that the outer road is off limits.

[Yoyo]

Did you try rebooting the computer? Is it plugged in?

[Yoyo]

Last year, I was stationed in Afghanistan. When it was the new moon, the place was so dark I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. The stars were amazing. The milikyway glowed. Plus the building outside my office door framed the western horizon perfectly to notice the progression of sunset from south to north during winter and spring. Kosovo, meh, not so much.

[Yoyo]

For those of you who aren’t facebook friends – check this shiat out. I copied my last status about the $3000 musky I caught today. 🙁

I went fishing today … and it just fell into the lake….

I’m never taking my camera in a boat again. I’d have nightmares. Sorry!

My #1 rule about using my camera is “ALWAYS use the neck strap.” (Rule #2 is “Take off the lens cap.”) Even with rule #1, I still get a bit nervous when taking aerial recon photos. My bag’s shoulder strap also gets wrapped around part of the airframe. I figure the worst that could happen then is I donate a lens to the local landscape.

I think now is the time to build a camera stand that rigidly mounts to the boat’s transom or gunwales. Of course if you do that, the next time the whole boat will capsize.

Back on topic: I totally forgot yesterday was Wednesday and didn’t do any prep work for this one, so I had to dig through my archives this morning to find some pics that look in B&W.

I think the portrait works well, except for the background, but even that looks better in monochrome since it’s actually red and distracts from the b&w polka-dot dress and pin-stripe suit.

The monastary shot was through a high window. Just put the camera on auto, hold it up over my head, and hope for the best. I just wish I would have already had the 10-24mm lens for that trip. Maybe I’ll take the shots of the Pri?ren from the hillside and stitch them together one of these days.

[Yoyo]

Was it this one?

http://youarenotaphotographer.com/

Because I was laughing at it recently. And then I made sure I didn’t make any of those mistakes with my friend’s kid, or my kid.

That’s the one. Just remember, no photographer is ever truely worthless. He can always serve as a bad example. Perhaps his whole purpose in life is to serve as a warning to others of what not to do.

[Yoyo]

I read the headline and was prepared for the worst. It doesn’t help that I was looking at a website showcasing fauxtographers last night: blur, bad borders, strange spot color, bad props,….

I think these are actually very good. I didn’t even notice the pimples on his forehead, until you metioned it. I like all the shots you posted on Flickr. The only thing I would change would be to get rid of the red horse on dad’s shirt since it draws my attention away from the family, especially in the color shots.

[Yoyo]

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

[Yoyo]

Just gotta say “Huzzah!” for no Scarlet R’s so far, and a shout out to CISS for adding that feature to Bibliostats!

Ok, I’m going to ask the stupid question: what is the Scarlet R?
(So, I know to avoid it in the future, of course.)

[Yoyo]

A press pass can be very handy. And not just for sports.

CSB: I was cutting class, which I never do, to see the first launch at the New Mexico Spaceport about an hour’s drive from my house. I met several people on the south side of the port at a sheriff roadblock in the middle of the desert miles from the launch site. The launch was postponed for several hours, so some of us who had gathered there went home, while the rest of us drove further north to the official viewing area. The official area was no better, as it was 15 miles from the launch site. (So much for a public space port.) The only people permitted to be at the actual launch site that day were launch crew and press. There I met a friend of mine from another university who is a very serious amateur photographer, and he’s got professional connections. While we waited more for the launch, he told me that if he knew we would be 15 miles away, he would have called some of his connections to borrow an 800mm lens. I replied, that I would have contacted the school paper to get a press pass. So, finally the launch countdown started and ended, and all we could see was a zig-zag smoke trail. Nine seconds into flight, there way an “anomaly,” which in layman’s terms means the overgrown Estes model blew the fark up. Afterwards, I drew some cartoons for the school paper to express my dismay with taxpayer dollars funding such an elitist and unsuccessful endeavor. Unfortunately, graduate classes monopolized my time before I could get many of them published.

[Author]

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