Cory's Photo Blog

Hey Guys,
I've created a quick little thing that will send out an email each time I post a photo. As Miranda has pointed out, I'm slacking a little on my posting, this way you'll know when I do.

Click Here to sign up for the email alerts.

Trailer Trash

Check out the trailer gallery!
Ok, so you might find this odd, but I found this little collection of random abandoned trailers a while ago... then I couldn't find it again. I new I had seen it on somebody's recommended links, well I just found it again here.
I went to school in Idaho about 1250 miles or 17 hours drive away from my hometown. I've driven the I15 corridor more times than I could count. Once you get south of St George and before you hit Bakersfield (not including Vegas and Primm) there is just about absolutely nothing out there... Except for the occasional trailer or mobile home. There is nothing but desert for hundreds of miles in any direction and then BAM a trailer. I've always wondered: why there? What is the story behind that family? Or is it some outlaw trying to avoid society? Could be any number of different things, but I just love this little gallery of trailers. I hope you enjoy.

Ain't got a gatt, but I got a soldering gun

I recently bought a cheap soldering gun and mod-ed one of my Cactus V2s's. There are a lot of people out there who do this to extend the range and things of that nature... I did it because I'm cheap. As always, a pointless story:

Dan and I went out to shoot at some milk jugs with a hunting rifle he just got. While we where searching around for a good place to we bumped into an old abandoned car that had been sitting there for at least a few winters. I thought it the rusty pile had some photographic potential, so I busted out my bag and got out some strobes and some V2s. I fired off a few shots and then the battery fell out of one of my V2s. This normally wouldn't be a big deal, but for some reason Gadget Infinity uses C2 batteries, which cost like $10 a piece.

Well, I decided I'd spend a few bucks and convert it to receive AA's. I'm excited to announce that I can now solder. Its a little more difficult than I had thought, but definitely doable for anybody with a little bit of time on their hands... and now I've got one RF trigger that powers off of AA's.

Kids Move Quick

The other day our friends had us over with a few other couples. Several of the kids broke out into a dance party. I busted out one of my shiny new $6 clamps and set up your basic sandwich lighting. I really like the compactness of my setup. I can fit it all in one bag... quite cool. I learned several things:
1. Shooting dancing kids is very difficult with a slow focusing lens (I really need something to replace my kit 17-55 lens)
2. Equipment that is portable and quick gets used a lot more. (Though I still really like my Pelican Case... it just locks the camera in and makes it less likely that I'm going to bust it out)

Clamps and Strobes

Well, I'm having quite a bit of fun with my new old ebay strobes. Here is a shot of how to build a clamp for your camera or strobe for $6 rather than purchase one for $35. Though the ones you can purchase are much better, getting set up for a four strobe shoot would be a little costly if you're shooting on the cheap. I got this idea from a comment of a DIY clamp that David Hobby made on his Strobist Blog.

Here is a shot of David's set up from that article.

The thing that I found lacking was this information. The most standard thread size for cameras, tripods, flash mounts, etc is a 1/4 inch wide and 20 threads per inch. I may be shaving my bolts down a bit in the future, who knows?

King George vs. George Washington

A common phrase I've been using this last year is, "Its the difference between King George and George Washington."

I'm not going to go into a history discussion or a psychological profile of either of these guys... the difference when it comes to business is a written constitution. A set of rules of engagement that everyone has access to. Whereas under a king, the rule of law is the King's mood and subject to change at any time.

"The King's Mood"
Under a King's rule, his subjects have no idea what they could be jailed for that day. They have to wake up every morning in an environment of constant uncertainty. It creates an environment of fear; people running around avoiding punishment rather than working hard to produce or improve. Subjects have no way of knowing a clear path to bettering their situation. They must guess on what path to take to succeed. One day they may do a thing and get rewarded, on a different day the same action could lead to punishment... its all contingent on the mood of the management King.

Managing a Business by "The King's Mood"
An employee needs to know his boundaries. He needs to know what the company policies are. Working in an office with no clear path to advance in pay or position gives uncertainty. Saying things to your employees like, "We'll take care of you when we finally catch that pie in the sky the company starts to do better," or "Don't worry, just put in your time and everything will work out," doesn't cut it. These are vague and don't offer any security or any clear path of progression. How is one to act if there is no consistent guidelines?

If someone goes to there boss and asks, "How much do we charge our customers for Widget A?" and her boss tells her, "um... $15... yeah, 15 sounds good." Then later is scolded for selling a second Widget A for $15 because her boss changed his mind without letting anyone know. The manager has now created his own nightmare. Now this employee will no longer think on her own. She will ask her boss EVERY time this question comes up. She will tell her coworkers to do the same. There is no consistency in the office. Most people in this office would eventually get frustrated enough to leave in search for a more stable working environment.

Now, I'm not saying that bosses shouldn't be able to change prices or change policy... I'm saying that there should be a KNOWN procedure to do so. I'll get to this in the "Written Constitution" section.

Another issue with the manager's-mood-is-law is that the manager can never be wrong. That may sound good to you, but trust me its very bad. Think of the best basketball players in the game. They are arguably the most skilled basketball players in the world. They have instincts with the game that most people aren't even aware of and most players only dream of... and yet they all still have a coach. They all still have referees with a whistle and a rule book. Micheal Jordan could be put on the bench by his coach or Kareem could be given a technical foul by a ref. Even the greatest have accountability to someone and to a set of rules. A man who is not accountable to anything or anyone will begin to degrade. No one is that good.

A Written Constitution
Now George Washington worked under a written constitution. He could be wrong. People could read and know the laws and know when and if he broke them. The citizens of the country knew with a certainty, no matter how the president felt that morning, what the laws where. This didn't mean that the law couldn't be changed, but there was a system and steps to change the law. It had to be thought out, decided on, and then written down. Every citizen has the opportunity to know when and how the law changes. The citizens knowing that the laws are fair and stable, now can know the rules of the engagement and can see paths to success. They can know the systems and how they change.

Managing a Business by "A Written Constitution"
A business needs a price sheet and a procedures manual. I business with more than one person needs to foster an environment of stability within the office to allow for movement in the marketplace. When employees aren't worried about what mood their boss is in, then they are more likely to be able to focus on innovating and progressing in their job. If they know that there is consistency, then they can have confidence in their choices, thus freeing up their boss from being the bottle neck of the information flow. If they know what skills or quotas to meet to progress then they will look at their occupation as a career rather than a job.

This doesn't mean that the company is stagnant. I suggested to one business owner to have a procedures manual and if he wanted to change his mind and shred all the copies and print new manuals, so be it. It would be better than the Law-Of-Mood that was prevailing. There would be a procedure in place, when the boss shreds the copies and hands out new ones, then the rules have changed. Everyone would know the rules had changed. If the boss broke the rules, he could still be held accountable by his own manual. Stability, consistency and logic breed an office full of innovation, confidence and progress.

There is two reasons that a small company stays small. The first is that the management chooses to stay small as the most profitable option. The second is the company that tries to grow but is stopped by an owner who keeps trying to be the machine and not the machine operator. He bottlenecks all decision making at his desk with employees lining up outside his door. He handles all the "important" clients himself, but without enough time to do so. He changes his mind constantly with his mood and perpetuates the problem of people waiting in line outside his office. Eventually he burns out his good employees and is left with the people who can't leave for other work. He has a small company and longs for a big one. A price sheet and a procedures manual with a little delegation would be a great start.

New Gallery: People

I've created a new gallery: People. I know that this has been lacking in my website for a while. I even had someone ask me the other day if I shot people at all or "just did landscapes," which was the catalyst to stop putting it off launch this gallery. In any case, have a look and tell me what you think. I like a lot of these images, though if I had more time I'd throw some photoshop magic at a few of them to do some B&W and stuff, but as it is now, thats how they came out of the camera.