Category Archives: Random Thoughts

by Tom Dills

What, Me Worry?

Colorful Tourists, Fisherman's Wharf

Colorful Tourists, Fisherman’s Wharf

“Who says nothing is impossible? Some people do it every day!” (Attributed to Alfred E. Neuman, but who knows?)

The Weird Sisters Visit Skagway

The Weird Sisters Visit Skagway

I was doing my usual morning headline scan the other morning and came across one that read:

“Top 10 things to worry about in 2013”

Huh.

So, it’s not enough to just live my life, plan for the future, eat right and exercise.  I have to read lists to tell me what to worry about?  Please.  And actually, none of the items on that list are things that even affect me.  Maybe in some distant way, but will they impact my day-to-day life?  No.  I realize that it’s not good to completely ignore current events, and I don’t.  I’m far from oblivious.  But why do the media think we need things to worry about?  I suppose it provides better ratings or page views, but that’s just one more thing to get in the way.

It’s bad enough that we can’t trust any information we get these days.  But then we get these people who feel the need to tell us what we need to worry about?  No thanks!  If we want to spend our days running around like Chicken Little I guess that just adds fuel to the fire, but that’s not how I prefer to spend my days.  Especially the preciously small portion of my days that I get to spend actually doing something I want to be doing!

Don't Walk

Don’t Walk

by Tom Dills

Even More Random Thoughts

Disco ball at Dressler’s Metropolitan, Charlotte, NC

Why is it that the people who insist on walking on the wrong side of the hallway – and who you invariably almost run over while rounding a corner – are the ones carrying a bowl of soup or a hot cup of coffee?  Wouldn’t that be a good reason to walk on the right side and to make sure you didn’t run into someone?

Why do the people who only visit a restaurant during Restaurant Week or when there’s a Groupon complain when they can’t also get their free birthday dessert or half-price appetizer?

Someone recently posted an article on Facebook about a new app of some kind that allows you to apply “creative effects” to your iPhone photos in “seconds” instead of the “many minutes” that it takes for some other app to do the same thing.  So now we can see even more lousy iPhone photos.  You’ll be spending less of your time processing them, so I guess that means you can post more.  But I still get to ignore them.

Why do the people who creep through the neighborhood at 24.9MPH (speed limit is 25) feel that it is OK to not bother stopping for stop signs?

I went to a meeting the other night where they had a ‘Swap Table’ for people to sell their used camera gear.  I took in a Ziplock bag with a bunch of stuff I was going to throw away, dumped it out on the table and put a big FREE sign on it.  I didn’t keep track of specific items, but the bag was just as full when I packed it up as it was when I brought it in.  I guess nobody else wanted my junky stuff either.  Maybe they put stuff in?  It’s in the trash now.  I should have just put it there to start with.

Besides the fact that it looks ridiculous, do the people who parade around in their cars with their Poochies on their laps ever think about what would happen to “Poochie” if they got in an accident and their airbag went off?  Do they realize that they’d have a Poochie Pancake?

 

by Tom Dills

A Few More Random Thoughts

Random photos in uptown Charlotte on a chilly Saturday in December

- Do people really buy the stuff that is advertised on those hand-written signs at intersections? “Microfiber Sofa & Loveseat $499” “We Buy Houses” “Carpet Cleaning – 3 Rooms $79” “Computer Repair $20” I guess they must, otherwise we wouldn’t see them.

- I find it interesting – and this is from recent first-hand experience – that when you go to a car dealer’s website, are interested in a specific car that their website shows they have and is in stock, you click the button that says “Click Here for Your EPrice!” and you never actually get a price. Never! You get automated e-mails telling you to call them for a price, sometimes the message says “please call to let me know the specific car you are interested in.” Then they send you e-mails you can’t reply to, and when you e-mail to tell them you are no longer interested they don’t stop calling!

- Is it just me, or does all the peripheral gear required to turn an SLR into a movie camera make people look like a dork? Seems to me if you need an auxiliary viewfinder, a contraption to hold the camera still, a special tripod head and all that other stuff that the camera isn’t really designed to shoot video, even though it can.

- How come so many nature photographs look so unnatural?

- How come whenever someone posts a really nice photo online somewhere, someone always has to ask either “where is that?” or “what were your exposure settings?”

- Why do some drivers feel it is necessary to drive on the grass or the berm, just to get into a left-turn lane where the light is red? A few seconds of patience and you could be there anyway!

- I recently read a Q&A in a photography magazine where someone wrote in to ask, “what settings should I use to photograph in Antarctica?” The answer person was much kinder with his answer than I would have been. Not to sound arrogant, but if you are planning to spend the money that a trip to Antarctica costs, shouldn’t you know what settings to use?

- I was talking to a real estate agent about the various methods used to market real estate these days. She told me that one of the things they do for the “less tech savvy” is mail out postcards. She then told me that the postcards contain a QR code so that the person could scan it with their smart phone and it would take them directly to a website with information about the property. Scuse me, but if someone knows enough to scan a QR code with their smart phone, they probably don’t need a postcard in the mail. Just a thought.

by Tom Dills

More Random Thoughts

Spring colors along US 276 in Pisgah National Forest near Brevard, North Carolina

  • Why are there so many more people willing to drink coffee than there are willing to make a new pot?
  • I know they are trying to be helpful, but I wish that the people who constantly post links on Facebook to articles they find interesting would be a little less helpful.
  • There’s a woman who writes a column for Forbes that does a podcast, a blog, an e-mail newsletter and a You Tube channel about cutting clutter and getting organized.  Isn’t that kind of self-defeating?
  • Why do people (when they are driving) worry so much about which lane they are in when they are only racing to the next red light?  I suppose that probably represents the way they live their lives.
  • Do you realize how much more smoothly traffic would flow if people paid just a little teeny bit more attention?
  • My days got a lot less stressful once I decided that I didn’t have to be the first person at work.  I’m happy to let someone else claim that title.  Same goes with the last person to leave.
  • A successful class is one where the students come away with the knowledge they had hoped to gain from the instructor.  A really successful class is one where the instructor learns from the students, too.
  • If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, it’s no wonder that photographers are (usually) so friendly.
  • Based on a lot of the photographs I’ve seen lately, Viveza should come with a volume limit.  Only after approval from a pre-determined number of one’s peers should they be able to go over a certain (low!) limit.  A little bit goes a long way, people!
  • How ironic is it that since I moved my blog to a WordPress site I have had to install a filter to block all of the spam comments.  Since March 1 I have received 864 spam comments – all blocked by Akismet – and a whopping 1 legitimate comment.  I don’t do much better on Facebook.  It’s a good thing I write for my own enjoyment!
by Tom Dills

Trial and Error

Wheelbarrow in field at the Licklog Mill Store near Highlands, NC

I was just reading a post on Kirk Tuck’s blog where he took himself to task for being a Curmudgeon, stuck in his ways and not willing to try new things.  If you follow Kirk you know that nothing could be further from the truth.  He tries lots of new things, and sometimes tries some old things just to see if they are as good now as they used to be.  Usually they are.  But when the money is on the line and he’s doing a job, he is always very careful to select the right tool for the work he’s doing.  Sometimes it means he can use an 8-year old Kodak SLR and sometimes he relies on the trusty 5D Mark II.

The subject of this specific rant was that he had recently allowed himself to use Topaz to process one of his swimming images, and he thought the image was interesting and that “I really like the tones and the colors I ended up with after playing.”

I find myself feeling like a bit of a curmudgeon at times.  I like the way I do things and it’s hard for me to change.  I know that I should probably try new things, if for no other reason than to say that I tried them and didn’t like them.  Sort of like you can’t complain about the election if you didn’t vote, right?  And I suppose it’s good to learn new things, even if it’s just so I know how to talk about it when I’m teaching a Lightroom class.  But I worry so much that the “gear” will get in the way that I tend to not do that.

I think the main thing for me is that I like the tools I use because I like the results I get from using them.  It’s part of the pre-visualization process.  Yes, there is probably some merit to knowing how to use other software, but in many ways isn’t that just like buying another lens?  The more lenses I have the more time I spend thinking about whether or not I’m using the right lens and the less time I spend thinking about whether I’m pointing it in the right direction.

by Tom Dills

Random Thoughts 4/30/11

Spring colors along North Lakeshore Drive in Great Smoky Mountains National Park near Bryson City, North Carolina

 

- I was reading an article about new cameras, and it mentioned that newer LCD screens are viewable from a “maximum angle of 170 degrees.”  That would be quite a feat.  Yes, I realize that they were referring to 85 degrees either side of perpendicular.

- I was reading another article titled something like “Essential Gear to Make Your Landscape Photography Look Sharper, More Creative and Dramatic.”  It listed a bunch of gear, but the only things they listed that would actually do that were a tripod and a polarizing filter.  How does a bigger hard drive, a new memory card or being able to stream images wirelessly to my iPad make my pictures look better?

- I’m amused by all the ads for these sling/holster devices that show happy photographers running around with multiple cameras hanging from their shoulders and waists.  They look a little like Pancho Villa except with cameras  What are we supposed to do with all those backpacks the gear companies were selling us last year, and where do I hang my laptop and 2TB external hard drive?

- Kathy & recently spent a little time in Cades Cove, a real photography destination.  While we were driving the loop road we saw a tree and said, “hey look, there’s so-and-so’s tree.”  I’m not sure what it says when you can recognize a tree.

- A woman I work with has a photo of her kids as her computer wallpaper.  Right across the front of the image is the Sears Portrait Studio watermark.  I suggested that if she paid for the photos they would probably give her copies without the watermark.  She wasn’t amused.

- Creativity is hard work.  It’s no wonder so many photographers don’t bother.

- I love a quote that I read on a blog last week.  It said something like “If you use only one lens you’ll always have the right one with you.  If you carry more than one lens, chances are good you’ll always have the wrong one on your camera.”

- Kathy has been trying to take a few pictures to see how she likes it.  Eventually she’ll want her own gear but I’ve got plenty of stuff and am happy to share.  Two photographers can share camera bodies, lenses and even filters with no problem.  It’s kinda hard to share a tripod, though.

by Tom Dills

Hard Times Coming?

 

Caution, sarcasm may follows:

A photography forum I follow recently had a thread titled “Hard Times Coming?” with a few posters lamenting the possibility of product shortages because of the multiple disasters in Japan.  The “OP” stated that “if y’all have your sights set on any camera stuff, you may want to act more quickly than planned. I can envision photo equipment getting scarce and more costly very soon.”

Well, gee whiz, isn’t that inconvenient?  People are dead or missing, homeless and without power and in danger of radiation poisoning and we might actually be forced to use the equipment we currently own and go out and make some photographs?  Oh, the humanity.

End of sarcasm.

If you’ve got some spare money burning a hole in your equipment pocket you might want to think about sending some of it to one of the many relief agencies trying to help.  The American Red Cross might be a good one.  Then dust off that camera and get out and use it!

by Tom Dills

Gear Talk
Sunset at sea aboard Celebrity Equinox – G12, ISO 800

A recent commenter on a blog I follow regularly stated in reply to a post – about image processing and showing examples – that  “Figure 6 on my calibrated quad-core iMac is stunning!”  OK, so we’re all impressed and everything that you have a “calibrated quad-core iMac” but why is that important to your comment?

by Tom Dills

Darkroom Time

Windmill ruin, St. Nicholas Abbey, Barbados        
 
The other night I was working at my computer and heard my phone ringing.  I was in my office and my phone was in the kitchen, I was in the middle of a project and didn’t want to be interrupted so I ignored the call and let it go to voicemail.  I do that a lot, not to be rude, but because I believe strongly that managing interruptions is an important part of being productive.  I’ll close my e-mail and my browser when I’m trying to concentrate.  And if I’m in a meeting, having a face-to-face conversation or having dinner, the phone doesn’t have a chance.

A couple of nights later I was teaching my Lightroom class at The Light Factory in a room that is right next door to their darkroom.  As my class was wrapping up I had to take a projector into the classroom where the darkroom is located and struck up a short conversation with the instructor there, trading good-natured barbs about “film – what’s that?” and “Lightroom – what’s that?”  I found it fascinating that we were both teaching classes about photography, but using completely different processes.

Later on I recalled both of the above events and I happened to think, “you wouldn’t have answered a cell phone in the darkroom, would you have?”  It helped me reconcile the idea of not answering the phone while I am in my own “darkroom.”  I’ve never worked in a darkroom so I can’t speak from experience, but I’ve read articles about photographers spending hours and hours in the darkroom, working on prints until they get them just right.  The ability to work uninterrupted just isn’t part of our vocabulary these days, and I think our creativity suffers for it.  Sometimes we all need to be able to – literally or figuratively – close the door, sit quietly in the dark and do our work, whatever kind of work it might be, without being interrupted by things that we can attend to later.

So, if sometime you call me and end up hearing my voicemail, remember that I might be “in my darkroom” and I’ll call you back when I’m done.
by Tom Dills

Marketing and camera choices

In my last post I talked about people’s fascination with equipment and mentioned that marketing plays a large role in what kind of cameras people buy.  I just returned from a 10-day cruise in the Caribbean (talk about good timing!) and one of the many observations I made during this trip was that it seems like the DSLR has really increased market share over past year or two, at least within the subset of people who travel where and how I do.  I don’t think I have seen such a large percentage of big cameras on a cruise before.  There were a lot of lower-priced models, but I spotted at least one 7D, a couple of D90s and more than a handful of “L” or “EX” lenses.  Me?  I took along my trusty G12 with my G9 as a backup.  Never even pulled the G9 out of the bag.

People often ask me for advice about buying a camera.  I tell most people that a good point & shoot will meet the needs of most people from a photographic standpoint, but I also understand that some people believe that they “need” an SLR for reasons other than image quality.  There is after all a certain “cool factor” to carrying an SLR and a big lens.  I don’t try to steer them either way, but if it becomes clear that they are really looking for me to affirm their desire for an SLR I’m happy to do so, although I point out that they are getting more camera than they need.

I’ve been exploring the idea of shooting “serious” photography with my point & shoot camera and find that it works very well.  I’m having a blast with my G12 and am starting to feel like these little cameras are way underappreciated.  I hope to make this idea the subject of a regular series of posts over the coming year.