Serendipitous Photography

I guess that when you take as many pictures as I do you tend to discover great approaches really by accident. Not to say that good photography doesn't require thinking about the end result and doing the right things that will get you there. But sometimes great things just happen. Like this photo of the boys.

I wanted an unencumbered background. The sky works good for this sort of thing, especially at perfect light. Perfect light is a few minutes after sunset. So I positioned the boys against the blue sky and a few clouds. The light in their face wasn't great because they were facing east, while the sun had just gone down in the west. I was asked to take this photo just moments before and didn't have a lot of time locating a good spot. We were just out on the front lawn. I posed them as I wanted. Then I set out to work.

I took a few bad pictures that I won't show you here. I wasn't satisfied with any of them. Mainly because the shutter was so slow. This blurred the guys. I kept shooting thinking that I could hold the camera still enough for a good shot. I was loosing light fast and didn't have time to get the tripod. After each picture I'd look at the screen on the back of the D70 to see if I got what I wanted. After several frustrating shots, one image looked great. Why was it so different than the others?

Then it struck me. While I was shooting, others with digital cameras liked the look and began snapping pictures. One of them just so happened to shoot while my shutter was open. Using their light and my camera we got a decent shot. It's a little ghosty but I like the look.

So there you have it. Shooting slow and having someone else flash their digital works for a good picture. No tripod, no flash from my camera. A kind of digital symbiotic relationship going on here.

Cool.

...dave
"The longer I live the more beautiful life becomes." -Frank Lloyd Wright

Waiting for traffic

I do a lot of driving. I do a lot of waiting. I try to go in to work by 6:20 a.m. and leave work by 4:00 p.m. but it doesn't always work out. Even when I do leave work on time I hit some traffic coming into the subdivisions. Georgia doesn't like to expand infrastructure when they build huge subdivisions so the traffic leaving the city all clog up in two lanes.

Sometimes I listen to chinesepod.com on my iPod. Sometimes I listen to NPR. But yesterday I did something different. I sketched the car in front of me. I mean, why not? I'm sitting in traffic anyway. I can't move until the light turns green. May as well spend some quality time in my sketchbook.

I drew this not so very interesting Ford Explorer in front of me. I had several opportunities since I waited through three light changes. Each time I edged closer to the light I sat for about a minute or so. I didn't have a chance to complete the whole SUV. That's why you only see half a car. Reminds me of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory scene at the end.

This morning I decided to brush some color on it. I don't know what I'm doing but I'm having some fun anyway.

...dave
"If I know the answer I'll tell you the answer, and if I don't, I'll just respond, cleverly." -Donald Rumsfeld

Lunchtime sketch

During lunch I try to find someplace I can get away from the phones and desk. If I sit at the desk I get bombarded by people asking me all kinds of technical questions about their projects. Even with a sandwich in my mouth they don't understand I'm having lunch. I still try to help them but I find it difficult to sound and look intelligent with bread in my mouth and mayonnaise on my chin.

So my approach has been to shovel down the lunch and then go out looking for a more private place to read or sketch. We used to have a library but that's been pulled out and populated with cubes. There is nowhere to go to read up on technical subjects since that was eliminated.

I found some chairs around the corner in a closed off lobby. There was even a huge square table where I could put my feet up and balance the iBook on my lap. Those were the days. But that's all gone now. I don't know what the thinking was. But the chairs and table were removed. Now it's just an empty lobby that echos footsteps.

Up the hill there's a restaurant that I sometimes go to but it takes about seven minutes to get there and seven minutes to get back. If I have a meeting at 1:00 sometimes I don't even have time to go up the hill.

I really wanted to sketch and eat this last Friday but it was getting late. It was about 12:15 and I had a meeting at 1:00. So I just decided to sketch my book shelf. This is a collection of books I've purchased over the last couple of years so as to have a technical quick reference library of my own and to loan out to the team.

The sketch I drew doesn't include all the books, only just a few. But it was enough to add sanity to the day.

...dave
Sanity calms, but madness is more interesting. -John Russell

www.daveterry.net

Since www.daveterry.net was available I decided to get it and point it to the blog. It's a lot easier to pass along www.daveterry.net than daveterry.blogspot.com. What? Blog what? Huh? Was that blogspot.daveterry.com? Often we are at some party and someone asks about the blog. It's even harder to describe the name of the blog over loud music and talking.

Even if someone wants to read about the China Trip, or they want to read poetry at gotVerse, or even read about the cruise on the Westerdam they can start at www.daveterry.net. On the right column are all the other blogs. How convenient.

So now I just tell them to go to the net using my name. Ahhh...www.daveterry.net. Get it? The net? Not .com as in comercial, but .net.

Of course they are liable to forget the name and be lost in the ocean of Internet pages.

Which reminds me...I was trying to remember a quote I'd heard but couldn't remember exactly how it went. I keyed it into Google in hopes I'd find the quote. I did. One of my blog entries came up on Google. I had forgotten that I'd used the quote before, but Google found it for me. On my very own blog.

Coouuuwllll. I'm indexed in the big white pages of Google. I feel so, so validated.

...dave
On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog. -Peter Steiner, cartoon in The New Yorker, July 5, 1993

Some more sketches

Just a few sketches. One a composite sketch compiled over several days. Another of my lunch sandwich.

...dave
A drawing is taking a line for a walk. -Paul Klee

Illegal Alien Caught

Since the border has been closed we've had no trouble with illegal aliens coming across our cat door border. However, this doesn't solve the problem of resident illegal aliens.

After Taco dropped the chipmunk and it scampered away, he's taken up residence in our house. He usually travels from room to room so it's hard to track him. Even if we could find out where he was, how do we catch him? We don't have 6,000 troops in Humvees to deploy. We are on a very limited budget.

Every so often I'd see a brown blur out of the corner of my eye but by the time I turned, he was gone. He's fast. Finally I decided to go on the hunt and track him down, no matter how long it took. I started by closing the bedroom door and chasing him around the corners of the room. Sometimes he'd hide in the most unusual places. For example, he hid behind the pillows of our upstairs couch. It's very hard to locate him.

It took me an hour to track him down and corner him in our bathroom. I finally tossed him out into the backyard using a bucket.

Now I can rest easy.

...dave
Every exit is an entrance somewhere else. -Tom Stoppard

The Border is Closed

We have problems with illegal aliens . . . in our home. They are carried across the border against their will by our cat, Taco.

Yesterday we found a chipmunk hopping around our kitchen. He dashed behind our fridge. We heard his tail rattle against the fan blade. Ouch!

We've told Taco to keep his friends outside but he likes to bring them in to show us anyway. He won't listen. Sometimes he'll mournfully meow at the foot of the basement stairs to let us know he has a new friend. Other times he'll carry it upstairs and set it down at our feet in the living room. That's what happened yesterday. Trouble was, the terrified furry ball was playing dead so that Taco would drop him. When Taco did, he was gone in a flash of brown blur.

"That's it. I'm closing the border!" We had made a little door downstairs so that the cats could come and go as they pleased. But ever since we opened the border, all kinds of illegal aliens are crossing into our basement. Sometimes they don't make it past the cat guards we have downstairs, other times they do. I find some of them dead near my table saw or under the ping pong table. I guess their passports weren't up to date.

In any case, I just can't stand the thought of sleeping with these mice and chipmunks. (I saw a mouse scamper across our master bedroom floor several months ago.)

I believe that any animals in the house must carry their own weight. At least the cats catch mice and flies. But we can't provide free access to our house for rodents that don't work for themselves. They'll just eat up my food and drink my water. Then what will I eat and drink?

So I marched down to the cellar and ripped out the plastic door separating our house from the backyard. I yanked the door and the supports right out of the window and locked it shut.

The border is closed.

...dave
You can not look at a sleeping cat and feel tense. -Jane Pauley

Sitting at Barnes & Noble

I'm trying to sell my Boxster. I'm sitting here in front of Barnes & Noble drinking a huge mug of dark coffee.

It's 5:00 p.m. in the afternoon. I've decided to park the Boxster right here out front with the FOR SALE sign on it and watch the people go by. Already a red neck on a cell phone said to me: "Nice car!" And I returned: "You'd look good in this."

Lots of folks are walking by and looking at it. Even a little girl likes it. It's her size. I've got the top down so folks can walk right up and look inside, kind of visualize themselves driving. I'm thinking someone may call the number on the sign not knowing it's my car. I'm right out front so I could just walk right up to them from behind.

Wait, some old codger is dialing and looking at the car. That's cool. He actually looks like he could afford it. Oh, wait, my phone isn't ringing. Never mind. False alarm. He's calling someone else. The nerve, standing in front of MY car, looking at MY sign, and then calling another number. What is he thinking? Rats, I thought I had a live one there for a moment.

There sure is a lot of people traffic here. I hope this works. It's posted on a web site at www.autosahead.com and as a result I got a call from a guy yesterday. Maybe with the better weather more will call.

Meanwhile I'll sketch, study and read and wait for my phone to ring.

...dave
Many of us spend half our time wishing for things we could have if we didn't spend half our time wishing. -Alexander Woollcott

Anachronistic

An anachronism is a thing belonging to another period of time. Something that is especially old fashioned.

I coordinate speakers for our hall. I usually have it down to a science. I have a document I send out via email to the other coordinator with our speakers, their talks, our hall address and all phones and email contacts. Usually they have the same. We email each other, pick our speakers and talks, suggest dates and email each other back. It takes about 15 minutes to schedule a month of talks.

I got the phone number of a new coordinator, someone I'd never corresponded with. The first thing I asked is if he had email. He didn't. He said he knows he needs to get email but there are some other things he needs to take care of first. I explain how easy the talk scheduling is with email. I explain how I schedule in just 15 minutes. I explain how superior my method is.

"Well, he says, we can do it over the phone," and I hear him fumble around with his phone and typewriter. It sounds like he just turned on his electric typewriter.

"What's your first speaker?" he asks. I tell him.

"What talks does he give?" So I start to rattle off the numbers.

"Wait, what's the title of talk number 37?" And so it goes. Each and every number I gave him the number AND the title. Some of our speakers have 20 and 30 talks. I'm thinking "Doesn't he have a list of talks next to him?" He should just be able to look over at some list. It could save so much time. I have a complete list of talks on a spreadsheet. I scroll down and read him the title. I was going to offer to send him my copy but remembered he doesn't have email. I hear noisy typing sounds like an old Underwood clacking away. Or maybe an old IBM Selectric. I can't believe my ears. How anachronistic. This will take forever. I say nothing.

"What kind of speaker is this?" Huh? He wants to know each speaker's qualities? He types away as I talk. Ruth is setting dinner out on the table, I've been at this for 15 minutes and I haven't even scheduled the first speaker.

"Can I call you back?" I ask him. I eat and call back 30 minutes later. I settle in for a long night.

About an hour later, exhausted and fatigued we begin the process of scheduling his speakers for our hall.

Finally he says: "I'm so sorry I so slow."

"That's okay." I say. I've already lost the night. It's now 10:30 p.m.

"I know I'm slow. Perhaps you can hear my braille typewriter in the background."

I freeze. "A what?"

"It's my braille typewriter that's making all this noise." With each word he types I now hear a quiet computer voice reading back the words.

I feel ill and about one inch tall.

"It's no problem. Please take all the time you need." I say, and I mean it this time.

...dave
"Be agitated but do not sin. Have your say in your bed, and keep silent." -Ps 4:4

What's in the bag?

Observations on camera gear I used in China.

Here's what I brought:

1 D70
2 D70 batteries
3 CF cards (one 256 and two 512s)
1 12-25 Tokina
1 70-210 Nikkor with step up (62-77)
1 55 macro Nikkor
1 remote
1 polarizer
1 sky filter (for inclement weather)
1 3216 Bogen mono-pod with 3262 ballhead
1 small Jansport backpack
1 leather fanny pack
1 swivel-head flash with bounce card
1 iBook with neoprene slipcase

I used each and every lens on the trip. I only recharged the camera battery once. I shot an average of 80 pictures a day.

Often the 70-210 lens was too powerful for a portrait lens especially for the small villages. I just couldn't get far enough back. The 70m is the equivalent of a 105 on a film SLR. In the woman and son in the window shot I used it but I had to squat on the stair outside the home to frame the shot. I actually wanted more of the window in the picture but couldn't get far enough back.

The 55m micro was nice to have. It took many portrait pictures but also doubled as a macro for some of the flower and fern shots. The other great thing about it is that it's light. It worked great for taking photos of my sketches and the Chinese writing that the old men did for me.

I only used the mono-pod on the terrace shots in Longji and even then I could have done without it. On the boat trip up the Li river I got out and placed the D70 on my backpack as a tripod. It worked great to get the long exposure for the foreground water. I could have done without the mono-pod.

This range of lenses gave me the variety I needed to take sweeping wide landscape pictures. The 70-210 and 55 gave me great portraits and full frame shots. The 55 gave the close in shots of the fern. It's important to include a wide range of focal lengths in travel pictures. The wide angles establish place while the zoom gets people and close ups which add interesting details.

I learned that it's very important to talk with people first before raising the camera to take their picture. They become relaxed and begin to trust that you'll put them in the best light. You'll get a better expression from them and you'll come away with a picture and a story. Next time I'll bring candy for the kids. They really warm up to you if you have candy.

I used the polarizer many times but the sky filter only once or twice. I purchased the sky for inclement weather. If it was raining, I'd place it over whatever lens was on the camera. That's why I purchased a step up ring. That way I could buy one filter and screw it to whatever lens was on the D70.

Carrying the Gear

I typically carried all my gear. I never left anything in the hotel room. Only in Qingdao was the safe big enough to leave the iBook behind. I just didn't think I could afford to loose any of my gear.

I put the iBook in the neoprene slipcase and placed that in the backpack first. On top of that I slipped in the flash. It just settled to the bottom. Next, to one side, I put the 70-210 protected by two thick socks. Inside the fanny pack I placed the 55m macro and placed that next to the zoom. The camera and mounted 12-24 I placed at the top of the backpack. Sometimes I carried my Chinese dictionary or sketchbook. This made the pack about 20 lbs.

When we got to our destination I'd wear the fanny pack with the big 70-210 zoom and macro and carry the D70 over my shoulder. The backpack then only had the iBook and flash. I made a shoulder strap for the mono-pod so that I could hang it on the shoulder too. It often slipped off and most times I just left if behind.

All in all I carried the right amount of gear. It's always a compromise. I want the gear I need to take the shots I see but I don't want to become so exhausted carrying the stuff I no longer feel up to taking pictures.

...dave
"Look, I'm not an intellectual - I just take pictures." -Helmut Newton