The Ramblings of Mythidiot

Nerd status confirmed

2009-04-11T21:18:00.001-07:00

So I've taken another step away from "normal" by trying to run my own
Linux computer. I'm going to try to use this to run movies and music
through my new tv. The problem is that I suck at code and the word
"terminal" sounds to me more like a death sentance than a comand
interface. So, if you are interested and frightened by Linux, stay
tuned.

Some things I'll be trying:

Networking remotely to my iTunes on my mac

Accessing my upstairs neighbor's media server

Trying to not have learn code

So here goes nothing. Stay tuned.

Cory's Photo Blog

2008-08-21T23:24:00.001-07:00

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

2008-04-14T17:18:00.001-07:00

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

2008-02-10T21:14:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-22T20:13:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-16T12:10:00.001-08:00

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

2008-01-16T07:59:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-11T18:36:00.000-08:00

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.

Blog Moved - Change Your Links

2007-12-30T14:01:00.000-08:00

I've moved my blog address, which really won't effect most of you. I've moved it from http://blog.corykerr.com/blog.html to http://mythidiot.blogspot.com.

I've done this for several boring technical reasons, but mainly because google offers ways for me to avoid hand-coding stuff into my blog this way. I hate code.

So, if you've linked to this blog, CHANGE YOUR LINK TO http://mythidiot.blogspot.com

Small Flashes Strike Again

2007-12-27T10:35:00.001-08:00

Darien Chin has come up with a really cool idea for reflective stationary objects... like this car. I found the link to his post on Strobist and you can see Darien's original explanation here.

Its a pretty ingenious use of light really. He claimed to use only 3 flashes (his fourth died), which doesn't seem to make sense. I can see 17 columns of 3 lights, not just three lights. You can tell that the lighting is a complete wrap-around if you look at the reflection on the car.

That begs the question: How do you take a picture that looks like you've used hundreds of lights when you only have three? The answer was quite simple (I was thinking a complex system of mirrors... I tend to make things more complicated than they should be sometimes) leave your shutter open. This leaves the sensor open to receive each flash and each reflection as they fire off one AFTER the other, not all at the same time.

How do you do this? Take some $30 ebay manual flashes and some radio triggers. Attach the flashes to something movable (He duct taped them to a stand). Set your camera to BULB and open your shutter. Quickly circle your subject triggering your strobs and moving your lights. I imagine you'll have to do this several times because I can't even begin to figure out the equation that you would need to figure you settings mathematically. Starting with a GN calculator may help here, though your shutter speed is measured in seconds for this effect, not fractions of a second... and remember, you're firing multiple strobes multiple times. So I'd imagine that the snap and check method will most likely be better.

Darien discribes his settings, " What I think I ended up with was a 38 second exposure at f/11 and iso 200. I had my strobes set at 1/16th power..."

I'm putting this on my list of experiments to hit in 2008. I'll post 'em when I do. Merry Christmas everyone!

Canon 10-22mm Wide Angle Review

2007-12-26T15:48:00.000-08:00

I'll save you the trouble of reading this review if you don't feel like it by saying: I love this lens and I'll recommend that you have one in your bag. Buy it here.

This is not going to be a full review, just a few thoughts and a few pictures.

Ok, so basically this is the widest you should get for "normal" photography. There is a massive difference between 12mm and 10mm. I rented this lens for a recent wedding that I shot. I got this lens for several reasons: 1. The wedding venue is a large beautiful building with a very close fence surrounding it (see the little clipped google map), 2. weddings normally have groups of people in the shots and 3. I really wanted to fire a few off on this lens out before deciding to buy it.

Cons
There are a few cons to this lens. If you are shooting a full frame sensor camera, this lens will crop it. There is a lens this wide that is made for full frame sensor, but the reviews are horrible for it... but if you are shooting any prosumer digital SLR, this won't be a problem. You also have your normal distortion in the edges of the frame that you get with any wide angle, but with the 10-22, its not as much as you would expect. Its not a fisheye lens, so you don't get the "cartoonish" distortion that you would get looking through the peep-hole in a door... the straight lines seem to stay pretty straight. Try to avoid putting any part of a human in the corners of the shot as it seems to enlarge them; Instead, let streets, horizons, and buildings run off of the edge of frame.

Pros
I love this glass! Most of the cons happen when you are using this lens for something that its not intended to do. The issue to overcome in this shoot, as stated above, was that the fences caused me to need to be within several feet of the large groups of people that I was shooting. The main pro of this lens is that will very little distortion in angles, you can shoot a very wide subject without having to stand 300 feet back. From 10-20 feet, I was able to get some extremely wide shots that turned out great. I found the focus to be accurate and quick. The zoom ring is smooth. The minimum of f3.5 doesn't really inhibit you outside at all, though I'd imagine you'd have to throw some extra light around a bit inside. The curvature of the actual glass at the top of the lens doesn't protrude out so far that you can't use filters. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, but long story short: I'll be adding this glass to my bag as soon as I can put another $600 together.

This is with my back smashed up against the fence a few feet away.

A good example of why you should keep people out of the corners of the shot on the lower right and lower left. You can also see the extreme vanishing perspective... this table is a small round table and the people on the other side look dwarfish.

Notice the lines of the Temple behind him. There is only a slight magnification of the edges spreading the parallel lines apart, not the drastic distortion that you would expect.

Notice again the lines on the ground only slightly curving. I think it works really well with this shot.

This shot shows you the reason I needed this lens for this shoot as it was taken in very close quarters.

Another close quarters shot still gets the gold statue/capstone in the picture.

Small groups shots are possible from very close. I'm less than 5 feet away leaning against the fence.

I really like the effect of this lens on the ground tiles.

At 22mm. I took this shot again with a different lens, but I leave it here to illustrate some of the cons of this lens. The magnification at the bottom of this shot is unappealing. I think the rest of this shot looks great.

The planters are actually concentric circles, not distorted. An extremely close wide shot, the camera is 4ft from this group of sisters.

Thats all for now. I may do a review of the Tameron 28-75 that I rented for this same shoot, but I wasn't as impressed.

LensRentals.com Review

2007-12-24T11:13:00.000-08:00

I recently shot a wedding that required me to have a wide angle lens. It was at an LDS Temple, which are beautiful buildings. The one in Fresno, CA doesn't have a lot of room around it to get back far enough to get the whole building in the shot without a wide angle. I would normally rent from a local shop for the weekend and wouldn't have a problem.
This particular time, I was in the middle of moving from California to Idaho. We had all of our stuff in a uhaul trailer in the parking lot of the temple as I was shooting the wedding. Well, for a variety of reasons, this situation caused some problems with what I would "normally" do.
I started looking on line for a Netflix for cameras or something. I came across a few sites that offer various things, but one really stuck out. www.lensrentals.com claims to be a photographer's co-op. All the proceeds of the rentals go into news lenses and camera bodies. Thats all fine and dandy, but what I was really interested in was getting the lenses in good condition, on time and for a good price. I needed the lenses for the 22nd, so I ordered them to show up for the 19th. You have two options with lensrentals, you can choose a date to have them ship to you or you can just ask to have them ship the lens when it becomes available. I reserved two lenses for 7 days starting on the 19th. I received the package at work (you need to sign for it, it ships UPS) a week early. I emailed lensrentals just to make sure that I wasn't going to pay extra and got a response within an hour that they are just paranoid and knew I needed the lens for an important shoot and wanted to get it there early.

So even though had the lenses for two weeks, I only reserved them for a week and only paid for a week. I rented the Canon 10-22mm and the Tameron 28-70mm which I will right reviews of later. They showed up in a small box packed with what seemed to be memory foam. Each lens had a carrying case and the wide angle had a lens hood. Shipping both ways is included in price and they even enclose a return address label in the package. In total the cost was $88. This seems like a lot of money, but truly, its not. I had two lenses for 14 days. This is $3.14 per lens per day including shipping. On top of that, renting certain lenses that you aren't going to shoot on every day makes a lot more sense than buying them (espesially the "L" series lenses they offer). I've also heard my friend lament that he wishes that he would have rented his macro lens before buying it. Even though the reviews all gave 5 stars, he hates that lens and dropped a grand on it. I'll be renting any lens I'm thinking of buying from now on... and since I'll be in the middle of nowhere Idaho, I'll probably do that with LensRentals.com.

Their selection is fantastic for both Canon and Nikon shooters. They have the lenses categorized in helpful groups like tele, standard, wide, macro, etc. "Roger" also adds his two cents on some of the lenses, which is helpful if you don't feel like searching amazon or bhphoto for reviews. They even have rack mounts, ball heads, camera bodies, pocket wizards, and other randomness.

All in all I found the service to be fantastic and quick, the prices to be reasonable and the website/ordering process to be very straight forward. I will continue to rent from them for some time as I am moving to an area of no real photo shops.

2008: The Year of Light

2007-12-20T23:52:00.000-08:00

So my life is in boxes... again. The wife and I are moving back to Rexburg, Idaho so she can finish up her degree in music. I was talking to my grampa this morning as we were taking apart our four-poster bed and moving furniture and I thought that the topic of our conversation would make for a good entry. The main reason is so that I have a record of the direction I'm taking.

My Composition
As I've mentioned before, one way to look at photography is composition and lighting. I think I've got a really good handle on composition. F 'n PARC as I used to teach it in my graphic design lab. Proximity, Alignment, Repetition and Flow. The rules of design, illustration and layout carry over into video and stills very well. I used to look through the lens and layout the shot as if it was in the computer in my mind. Anywho, I feel I can compose a good shot more often than not.

My Lighting
Now lighting is a different story. Thus far I've spent most of my lighting time reverse engineering the lighting set up of Evanescence music videos by looking at the shape of the reflection in Amy Lee's eyes. I was also unaware of Strobist until recently and thus, was unaware that I didn't have to take out a loan to be able to afford lighting equipment. I'd bought a couple of light discs to reflect direct sunlight into people's eyes for extended periods of time. This worked pretty well if you don't mind very well lit squinting people. I experimented with white core board as an alternative, but thats bulky and on a windy day you're basically screwed. So after a while I was left just to pray for a cloudy day so that when I popped open my reflectors I wouldn't be creating a large SOS signal mirror.

Renewed Vigor
I've gained some renewed excitement about light again. After reading some, I've rediscovered light. I've got composition under my belt (there is always room to improve and learn) and now its time to get serious; I'm going to learn lighting. Next year at this time I'm going to be not only much more knowledgeable about lighting a scene, but I'm also going to be fast. I'm giving myself a year to hone my lighting skills. I'm going to read everything I can get my hands on and experiment several times a week with different techniques. I'm going to keep a lighting journal. And I'm going to run myself through drills. At the end of 2008 I'm going to be better than I am now.

So if you happen to see me climbing a tree and bungeeing a strobe to a branch, don't call homeland security, I'm just running lighting drills.

My Road to Strobism

2007-12-18T08:47:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I have recently had a revelation... its a little later than it should be, but late is better than never. The basic revelation is this, "Good photos are not created by the gear, but by the photographer."

My Back-Story
Ok, so I've known this for a while. For instance, every time I take a great picture and people compliment my camera instead of my ability to take pictures... now I can see where people are coming from, but seriously, give me some credit. There is a huge marketing push right now to convince us that if we only buy this really expensive camera, then POOF, you'll take amazing pictures. As I type this, I know that it sounds silly, but I fell into the same trap when I first got into "stills." I came from video, I knew all about this stuff and photography should be easier because its not even a moving picture... any way, when I opened my first SLR, I was shocked to find that I sucked at photography until I spent the time to research and learn all kinds of new things. Its funny to me now, but I was amazed that I didn't magically know how to use my new camera. Well, through hard work, podcasts, tutorials, and failed experiments, I now know how to use my camera.

Quality
I did however, fall into a little trap of thinking that I needed top quality equipment to do this... which is partially true. I'm a big fan of buying the best, because cheaping out is usually more expensive in the long run. When I cheap out, I usually end up buying the best later anyway, which now costs me more since I paid for the best and a cheap piece of crap... but, expensive equipment doesn't trump knowledge and experience. Its difficult to get the notches on your belt without being heavily funded by a rich uncle dieing or something... well, I don't come from old money, so that leaves me in a bit of a tough spot.

I'm on the road to Strobism!
Photography is the manipulation and capture of light. The basic concept of a Strobist is that you can get light cheaper and its still light. What does this mean? Well, a while ago I bought a Canon Speedlite 430ex Flash. The guy at the photo store convinced me that the 430 and the 580 where the gold standard of flashes. After carefully (and with very little knowledge) judging between the features of the two, I decided that I didn't need the 580. I was happy that I only spent $250.

Now fast forward to a few weeks ago. I was talking to Justin about Composition Vs. Light and which is more important in taking a picture. We both had been heavily composition based in our photography up to this point. As a side note: I don't think that composition can be taught, I think it can be explained and analized, (you can draw # on all day talking about the rule of thirds) but you've either got the eye or you don't. Light is different. It isn't an innate skill, its learned, studied, takes decades to master and involves math... which is kind of a turn off.

A Touch of Strobist
I had been on the Strobist site a few times to build light boxes out of cardboard and stuff. I came up with images like this.

I had also listened to a podcast interview with David Hobby, the leader of the Strobist "Movement," so I wasn't completely unfamiliar with the site, but I hadn't as of yet, dove in.

Money
Well, that conversation got me thinking about light more. I figured, that if people are going to pay me to shoot pictures, then I should know more about the other side of photography. The problem is, I don't have that kind of money. I can pick up a studio light set and some remote triggers and things and already I'm into it thousands of dollars before I even set one flash off.

Strobist and Ebay
So I started reading strobist's lighting 101. The basic concept is to take the flash off of the camera. Well, I've known that for a while, thats nothing new. Then the next concept hit me like a ton of bricks: you don't need a $300 flash to get good light. David, in his interview with LightSource, says (I'm paraphrasing), "I use manual flashes and radio triggers. As long as the laws of physics are in force, my lighting equipment will never be obsolete." He goes on to say that you can buy a flash on ebay that would work better than my Canon flash. Then you can pick up some radio triggers and your set. Any journey starts with the first step.

On my road to Strobism, I purchased a 20 year old Nikon SB-20 on Ebay for $18 plus $8 for shipping. I've ordered some Cactus V2s radio triggers from Gadget Infinity for $52 including shipping. So $78 later, I have a complete lighting system that is light years ahead of my previous $250 flash... Now I just need to run to the hardware store and pick up some duct tape and a few clamps.

Radio Vs. Proprietary Infrared
Most brand name camera flash systems work off of infrared line-of-sight systems of remote triggers. This is pretty dang limiting for a variety of reasons. In addition to that, they charge a lot of money for a inferior triggering system (Canon doesn't even put a PC sync port in their flashes!). Radio travels around corners and you can put the flash at any angle you want anywhere you want within the signal range. Plus you can use any manual flash you find on ebay. Let freedom ring... or flash.

My Next Flash
The next flash I'm going to buy after I've mastered my SB-20 is the recently re-released Vivitar 285HV. One downside to Strobists being so popular is it is very difficult to get SB-24's now on ebay for less than $100. You can now pick up a brand-spanking-new manual flash for $90! Way to go Vivitar. I love companies that read the market and give us what we want rather than force us to use what they want us to.

Radio Triggers
A little about radio triggers. This is where I've cheaped out. Gadget Ininity's Cactus V2s are cheaply made Japanese plastic. The gold standard is the Pocket Wizard plus ii. The pocket wizards are more reliable and have a farther reach than the V2s. So why did I go with the V2s? I don't have $400... well I do have $400, but my wife likes to buy food and gas. At $375 for a pair of wizards and $190 for each additional reciever, the wizards are pretty pricey. I grabbed $50 worth of V2s and can fire two strobes remotely with each additional receiver at $18. I'm not fooling myself. I will go to the pocket wizard eventually, but I'm ok with the $18 cheap-o version for right now. Besides, I've got a soldering gun, so maybe I can extend that reach a few feet more.

A New Chapter
So basically, I've opened a new chapter in my life as a photographer. I'm excited. I'll have a lot more money to play with because I'll be spending a lot less on things now... I'll keep you updated.

A Note On Cost
I had a conversation with my wife about this the other day and I feel like I need to add this note. I don't think that the cheap way is always the way to go. For instance, I think you should buy good fast quality glass. I don't think you should cheap-out on your cases either. There is nothing worse than having your expensive equipment destroyed because you didn't spend a few extra bucks on a Pelican or something. But as for lighting: Knowledge, not price, is king. Start here.

Happy Thanksgiving Photo

2007-11-26T12:52:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving this year was fun and uneventful. The food was good as it always is. This was my first holiday as a married person... which means that we'll be doing Christmas this year with the inlaws. I'm excited about that. I spent a good majority of the time playing with the center piece. My younger cousin shot a couple of shots with my lensbaby. Then we called it a day. The best thing is the 4.5 days off that I had to play and lounge with the family before we pack up and head to the cold north for 2008.

Comments

2007-11-26T10:28:00.000-08:00

In yet another attempt to get more comments on my photoblog, I've signed up at Photoblog Awards. Thanksgiving was good.

One Stone Eye

2007-11-19T11:57:00.001-08:00

"One Stone Eye" is a very interesting photo blog. It is basically collection of reptiles and grasshoppers on antiques with a muted sepia tone. Though after a few clicks the amazment at the macro detail of the snakes, frogs and bugs starts to wear off, it still is an entertaining little web find. I'm guessing the photographer also works in leather, just seems like the type of thing he would do judging from these pictures.

Week in Review

2007-11-15T14:38:00.001-08:00

I've decided to do a week in review. It'll mainly consist of tshirt designs and daily photo blogs.

The first photo blog that really stood out this week was "ON THE STREET OF HONG KONG"
This shooter posts exactly what you would think, pictures of things and people in Hong Kong. It is all a very stark black and white style. Some come across as fairly bland, but there are also mixed in some extremely striking images. The image of the old woman really jumped out at me with the shallow depth of field causing your eyes to be drawn to the sharp foreground. Its definitely worth a look. Mainly, you just have to wonder what is going on in these peoples minds in these shots... its a very close look into the streets leaving you to fill in the story of why this man took his shoes off to eat...

This Week's Challenge between Wander vs. Moalos vs. PhoDak:
Long Exposure
It didn't start off too well with Webe's camera and new "L" series lens getting lifted, but it was quite fun nonetheless for David and Myself. Justin came in late with an entry with his new camera. I do really enjoy shooting long exposure photography. Saying that, I don't actually do it very often. I'm not what you would call a patient person and this forces me against my nature of shoot quick and shoot some more. I will one day get one of those shots of the stars streaking across the night's sky for a 12 hour exposure, but for now here are the images from this week.

Upbeat Blogging

2007-11-12T09:06:00.000-08:00

I was thinking this morning about my mood. I've got to say that blogging and a daily photo blog really can change your outlook on things. Now, I don't mean to say that doing this stuff again is a complete paradigm shift, but just a subtle tilt. For years people have been saying that journaling is therapeutic; instead of your thoughts being trapped all in your head, you can get them out on paper. A journal kept online adds a different dimension;
now there is the possibility of someone else reading your thoughts (though to be honest, I'm pretty sure that no one is reading this)... A reader makes you wonder how you will be viewed according to what you write. This gives reason for a little pause to filter a lot of the negative. This pause begins to slip further and further away from the typing and closer and closer to the actual experience. I find myself often filtering out the negative in my mind quicker than usual. This isn't to say that I've really ever been a negative person. In truth, I think I roll with life's surprises pretty well, but I have noticed just a little extra added boost with the blogging.

I've also gained an excitement for what photo to upload each day. There is something about being limited to just one picture that makes me think about the quality of the shot more. With my galleries, I can upload 20 good shots, but with my daily photo, I'm trying to limit myself to just one shot. Its just yet another way to get a different angle on a shoot. Along with this I get to make comments on each photo that I upload. I could do this with my galleries, but I don't really feel like, nor have the time to, comment on each shot. In short, I'm excited for another addition to my creative outlet to be able to shoot and write a little blurb each day... as for this written blog... I'm as active about it, but I did work in the word "blurb" into a real sentence.

Lensbaby review

2007-11-05T08:11:00.000-08:00

The following is my review of the Lensbaby 2.0, if you don't like reading, click here to see the pictures I took with this lens the first day out with it. Or scroll to the bottom for links to buy the lenses.

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Camera Lens
I recently got two new lenses. One is your basic 50mm. Other than saying that this is one sharp piece of glass and the closest to the the human eye out there, there isn't a lot to say. Being able to shorten your depth of field down so far is pretty dang cool too.

Lensbaby
I'd like to send the rest of this entry talking about my other new lens the Lensbaby 2.0. From what I've read the quality difference between 1.0 and 2.0 is significant, while the only difference between 2.0 and 3.0 is a locking feature. Since this was an experiment lens for me, I thought I'd save myself the $100 and go with the 2.0.

I've got to say that right off the bat this is a pretty frustrating experience starting to shoot with one of these. I would have continued to be frustrated if I hadn't realized that I was trying to make the lens act like a normal lens. Once I decided that this lens works differently than most other lenses, I started to have a lot of fun.

Functionality
There is no metering, iris, or any communication between the lens and the camera at all... Soooooo, this means that you're shooting on full manual mode. The aperture is changed by switching a metal disc with a different size hole. I started wide open and that seemed to work fine. You focus by compressing or extending the lens. The effect of the Lensbaby is what some call a "sweet spot." Everything outside of the "sweet spot" is blurred in various ways. This spot can be adjusted by angling the accordion body of the lens so that the sweet spot isn't dead center all the time. The manual suggests using several fingers from each hand... While this works and is slightly more stable, I prefer for some shots the speed of controlling the lens completely with my left hand. Though I enjoyed the focus speed this way, while I was trying to shoot an ant, I never actually got a focused shot of the ant. So maybe they know what they're talking about with the fingers from both hands suggestion.

In the Field
Click Here to Launch the Gallery!
At this point I was at bishop's peak on a climbing trip. While the other two guys that I was with where setting a new route, I spent most of the morning shooting the trees and climbing gear.

Later that day, we bumped into a few old friends and snapped a few more shots. Then, as the sun was setting I screwed the macro X10 filter on there and started shooting flowers in my parent's back yard. I really like the macro filter and got some poster-worthy shots here.

A little note to all those who are saying, "that's no big deal, I could do that with photoshop" while this may be true, I would suggest that a lens like this will bring the creativity out of you naturally as you shoot, rather than trying to fake it in post.

All in the all, Lensbaby is not only well worth the money, bit also a fun lens.

Click here to see the Lensbaby and accessories on Amazon and check out the 50mm lenses.

CK's Epic's

2007-10-31T10:27:00.000-07:00

The opening paragraph of Moby Dick well describes my reasons for the "Epic"

Call me Ishmael...Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off -- then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball.

Ishmael, "quietly takes to the ship" and I quietly take to my bike. Every so often I go on an "Epic." Basically consists of my motorcycle, a sleeping bag, my camera and a .357 snub nose revolver. The idea is to get out on the road and clear you head. To be as rugged and hard core as possible. I never take my iPod. I don't rent hotel rooms. One night I slept next to my bike in front of an ATM. That was my first epic, it lasted two weeks and I covered over 3,000 miles. Great thoughts and great pictures come from an "Epic." There is something about wanting to be completely alone with the wind and the road, but at the same time wanting to share that experience. This is where the camera comes in. There is something about a little bit of sacrifice and suffering that helps me take better pictures. The camera will never be able to let the viewer of the picture feel the temperature in the air dip slightly as you speed past a creek or the smell of the road change as you leave the shadows and ride into the light, but it is nevertheless a decent substitute. For some reason I alway feel like reading short stories about sailing ships on these trips. I feel some relation to those trapped in the middle of the ocean with no choice but to finish the voyage.

Now that I'm married, my epics will most likely change somewhat... for one, I'll have a traveling companion and won't be sleeping in areas that necessitate sleeping fully clothed with a holstered gun. Though, there will still be the road, the wind and the light. I think there will be the same need for the camera. Though the pictures will serve a different purpose, one of reflection rather than explanation.

PixelPost: The birth of a Photo Blog

2007-10-30T21:48:00.000-07:00

So all three of you that are keeping up with this blog will be happy to know that I'm going to start posting a daily photo. Justin invited me into the "challenge," which, from what I understand is a weekly or monthly theme and basically a reason to post a photo every weekday. This come right on the tails of getting my new 50mm prime in the mail and just in time to get my Lens Baby 2.0 as well. I'll most likely do a review and gallery of the lens baby because I'm so dang curious about that odd little lens. So far I did a little shoot with the 50mm which can step down to a 1.8, and I've gotta tell you, so much fun. So far, my favorite lens is my work horse 70-300mm tele... this may seem odd, but seriously, I shoot more with this than any other lens. I have to say that without the image stabilizer, its completely useless, so don't "save" money by getting cheap imitations. One day, I'll grab the "L" series telephoto, but for right now, I like this one. In any case, I'm getting a new lens tomorrow and I'm excited so check my daily picture posting often!

New Homepage

2007-10-25T23:34:00.000-07:00

Tonight my wife and a few others had "girl's night." This gave me a little time to get a new homepage designed and uploaded and gave her an opportunity to brag about me (or so she tells me). I had some trouble getting to this point. I really like a lot of the pictures I've taken, and to be honest I couldn't really choose between a few of my favorites, so I put them all together. I think it turned out pretty well, though I'm thinking I need to have more people in there... You can check out the new page with all the fun pictures at www.corykerr.com

My List: 1-2

2007-10-18T14:36:00.000-07:00

1. Keep your promises.
2. Don't make promises that you can't or won't keep.

I said that I would expound on My List, which is a set of rules to work by in a small business. There are 60 rules, so more stories and expounding will be coming for a while.

The first two rules are dealing with integrity, the quality of being honest. Everyone likes to think that they are an honest person, what would happen if we all where?

Before I delve into a discussion of the financial benefits of keeping your promises, I'm going to discuss human nature for a bit. I think most people are dual-natured. Everyone is innately good and seeks out a greater good for those that surround them. Everyone is also innately selfish and shortsighted; we want what we want and we want it now. Left unchecked, people generally oscillate between these two positions. So within everyone you have a shortsighted and selfish side juxtaposed to a more long sighted and aware side.

This duality leaves us as business people to fight a constant battle in our minds and hearts as we make decisions throughout the day. Everyone really knows deep down that making and keeping promises is important... but what happens when it comes right down to the wire and you have to sacrifice a little? This is what I'll call crunch time. Its really easy to keep these rules when the money is flowing and you don't have any problems. The real test is when you have to dig down into the trench, hunker down and fight a mean battle; when the income slows down and you have upcoming expenses like payroll. This is where is it vitally important to keep your promises.

If you are viewed as a person with a proven track record of integrity then life in biz is a lot easier. Your employees will trust you when you need them too. Moral will be up because people will know what to expect. Your vendors will be more apt to help you out in a bind if they feel that they can trust you. You will make more money; a culture of promise keeping in your office will give you the confidence to avoid micromanagement and your employees the confidence to put their head down and do their work. Most importantly you can go home at 5 knowing that you haven't screwed anyone that day. Feeling like a worthwhile honest person is one of the most treasured benefits of following the list.

Big family get-together-potluck-meal-thingy

2007-10-15T12:42:00.001-07:00

I don't really have anything real special to say in this entry. I've been meaning to post something for a while now. Malia and I had the family over yesterday for a big get-together-potluck-meal-thingy.
It occurred to me that I'm building a home now. I've lived with over 25 different roommates in the last 10 years. I've moved countless times in different states and different countries. I finally made it back home to Paso Robles. In the last year I've moved back home, become an Uncle, got married, went on my first cruise, shot a few weddings and edited a few more shows.
Anywho... We had the extended family over for a Sunday dinner. It was really nice to finally be able to host one of those. I feel a little old because of it, but it was really fun to have the Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Parents, Grandparents and Brothers all spread over my lawn and living room. Quite a good day.

Rules of Small Business

2007-10-03T12:44:00.000-07:00

I've had some experience with small businesses in the last few years. There seems to be some similarities across the board. There are books written on this I'm sure, but here is my personal list that I try to live by between the hours of 8 to 5.

Does this mean that I keep all 60 of these all the time? I hope I will someday. What this list really shows is a series of pitfalls and wrong turns usually based on shortsighted, knee-jerk, emotional reactions to very difficult situations that seem to happen on a daily basis.

I'll most likely expound on these one at a time later with a few short little stories and examples. For now, enjoy my short list of rules to live by from 8 to 5.

Note: Some of these come from a religious stand point. Even for the businessman that isn't a religious person, these principles should ring true. Truth is true no matter how you package it. It just so happens that I am a religious person so I have a tendency to package things with the occasional scripture reference.

My List (in no particular order)
1. Keep your promises.
2. Don't make promises that you can't or won't keep.
3. Never take filthy lucre.
4. Keep the Sabbath Day holy.
5. Beware of pride.
6. Never lose money on a job. no matter how rich, impressive, or powerful the client is
7. Tie money to each contract. for as to track profitability
8. Recognize and admit your weaknesses and other's strengths
9. Pay people what they are worth
10. Do not manage emotionally
11. Do not purchase emotionally
12. Do not become emotionally detached. apologize sincerely
13. Make a little money on each job
14. "by the sweat of thy brow..."
15. do not convince people to buy things/services that they don't need
16. recognize when its time to fish or cut bait. Unfortunately, sometimes no matter how much time or money is invested, the best decision is to bail with whatever you can salvage.
17. explain to people what's in it for them, no body cares what's in it for you unless they ask
18. give the client a good deal
19. never work without a contract
20. spend less than you earn as a business and as an individual
21. know enough about your services to manage your employees effectively
22. choose to take critizm as research instead of an insult
23. never stop learning
24. take care of your image in the business community by being honest and fair to yourself and others
25. don't screw people... even more than not screwing them, take good care of people and they will take good care of you. Make sure that everyone in all facets of a deal (whether it be employee/employer or business/client) is well taken care of. This is financially beneficial rule.
26. "what so-ever you sow..."
27. charge for custom work
28. people who are doing work for you for free are idiots or evil
29. do not do business with idiots
30. do not do business with evil people
31. There is no free lunch
32. there is no "one" job that will solidify your future financially for the rest of your life
33. chasing after that "one" job will alienate all of your employees and your family, give you a bad rep in the industry, deplete your funds, and eventually compromise yourself. you will also eventually break or ignore numbers 1,2,3,5,6,8,10,11,13,14,16,19,20,24,26,27,29,31,32
34. In this order innovate, research, develop, test, then and only then sell
35. work with good people
36. Fire bad employees. Do not run a charity or halfway house in the guise of a business. Part of getting good people is sifting out the bad ones.
37. let the LORD guide your business
38. be a person that you would work for
39. expect to lose any money that you put into spec deals
40. have defined lines between your personal and your business finances
41. Give incentives for work above and beyond
42. Accountability is a two way street between the employee and the employer and vise versa (The employer is JUST as accountable to the employee, if not more so)
43. Offers training programs for employees
42. an employee cannot “steal” experience
43. do not give people the opportunity to screw you
44. do not expect everyone to screw you
45. no matter how well dressed, rich, or powerful a snake-oil salesman is, they should not be given preferential treatment, deals, or spec projects.
46. do not try to “make your money back” on duplication. In following 6, 7, 10, 13, 14, 16, 19, 20, 27, 32, 39, 40, 43, and 45 you will rarely need to “recoup” lost costs.
47. “to be in time means to change” -C.S. Lewis. Do not lament change in yourself, your company, the business world, or technology; rather, move with it, expect it, try to predict it, and let go of the past.
48. Expect things to depreciate in monetary value. The value of equipment is two fold and has nothing to do with what you paid for it: 1. how much you can make from its use and 2. creating a professional visual image to your prospective clients.
49. Understand and heed the concept of opportunity cost. (everything that you do is at the cost of doing the next most valuable thing because of the limits of time and resources) Example: it is not cheaper to build a make shift teleprompter compared to buying one because of the expense of someone's time who could be generating income elsewhere.
50. seek to understand people's motivation for actions that they take. This will help you both better meet their needs and evaluate their integrity. This goes for everyone: employers, employees, coworkers, clients and vendors.
51. Do not expect anyone under you to do anything you are not willing to do consistently.
52. People are a company's most valuable asset, if a company treats its equipment better than its people, then a destructive cycle will begin. The self-motivated, the talented, and the high quality employees will become frustrated and discouraged; they will most likely leave, those who do not leave will give up. The company will be left with the mediocre people who feel or actually are trapped in their jobs with no way up and no way out.
53. Small business owners have a tendency to be self-starting, creative, hard working, driven, self-sacrificing, frugal people who built what they have with the sweat of their brow... unfortunately, if these qualities are left unchecked they will destroy the owner. He will become bitter, cynical and paranoid. He will start to feel entitled and start comparing his amount of effort to his employees and resent them even more (ironically at this point, he will most likely be burnt out, not having given himself a break, and will be inefficiently going through the motions at work even though he still may be working long hours)
54. Draw lines between work and home. These lines include time.
55. Go home. Do not let your righteous desire to provide for your family keep you from being with your family. In the long run, what ever meager “extra” income you brought in whilst away from or ignoring your family will quickly be forgotten while the memory of your absence will be permanent.
56. Be ok with being wrong. Let others have good ideas and recognize them when they come. These ideas may be different than how you are currently doing things. If you have a group of intelligent people who all disagree with you on something, you are most likely wrong.
57. Surround yourself with people who are loyal, tell you the truth (even if the truth is that you are wrong), and will not poison the well with a poor attitude.
58. Choose your attitude and mood. You control your mood and outlook on life, you cannot control life.
59. Do not ask, imply, or expect people to compromise their beliefs or their family relationships. An employee is the most productive when his wife is supportive of his job and employer.
60. Any way you add it up, 2 plus 2 will always equal 4. If you are not happy with your results, don't get mad at the equation, change the variables. You are the most important variable and the easiest to change.

Moalos: Justin's Photog

2007-10-02T14:40:00.000-07:00

A long-time friend of mine, Justin Wiebe , flew up to Portland to come to our wedding. He shot some great pictures of Malia and I as well as some awesome shots in and around the Portland LDS Temple there. I always get a little lens-envy when I shoot with Webe and this time was no different when he busted out his brand new midrange "L" series. In any case, he's got some great shots that you should take a look at on his photog "Moalos."

Wedding Pics

2007-10-01T09:51:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I know that my last post said that I've decided on a gallery... well I changed my mind yet again and I'm testing a few out... I can't say that I like the interface of this one, but here are a bunch of pictures of Malia and I at our wedding last week... Anywho, in my next post I'll put some pics up of our Honeymoon Cruise. Have fun with these ones!

Photo Gallery

2007-09-19T01:31:00.000-07:00

I've finally settled on a photo gallery for my website. After wrestling with Lightbox 2 for a few days, I've decided for speeds-sake to take a different route. I really like the look and animation of Lightbox, but the problem lies with internet explorer.
IE has weird things built into it with how it reacts to scripts, Microsoft's answer to this is not fixing it, but making people jump through hoops themselves. While Firefox, Safari and other browsers are far superior to Explorer, they are not the primary browsers. Which to me seems like most people using the outhouse to take a dump in the winter even though you have indoor plumbing just because thats what most people do.
Browser wars aside, I've decided to use a flash-based gallery called Banana which seems to be rooted in JAlbum. JAlbum.net is a fantastic site for open source image galleries. I found one I liked in minutes. I also looked at Photoshops gallery creators, but decided to stay as close to the open source as possible. I'm now going to get all my galleries going.

Getting Married

2007-09-18T10:29:00.000-07:00

So I'm pretty excited. In a few days I'm taking Malia to the Portland Temple to be married. It seems like this week is taking forever, but its going to be a short work week. Its Tuesday and it feels like Thursday, but at least today is my last day at work for a few weeks. I'm really excited to get moved in and get there. Its been pretty hectic getting ready for everything. Anyway, its gonna seem like forever until Saturday and in the mean time I've got to get us all moved in to the new place before we take off. That way we don't have to move in when we get back from the honeymoon. Anyway, I'll be away from the computer and the internet for a while. Its kinda cool. I'm not even taking my laptop, cell phone or anything... well, I'll bring a camera, but thats about it. More pics and posts to come!

Hello Blog-o-sphere

2007-09-14T15:12:00.000-07:00

So here I am. I'm revamping my website. I haven't decided just yet whether or not I'm going to completely abandon Joomla or not. We switched to Joomla at work and immediately took a huge hit in the google rankings. Of course, I'm not terribly concerned about rankings for my personal site, but even with that, I don't know if Joomla is all that its cracked up to be. I've never really got a look on my site that I've been really excited about. At best I've settled for it. So I'm considering learning HTML. I've avoided learning code up until this point because I don't like building websites. I like designing the look of the websites and then handing it off to someone else to build and populate it. Recently its gotten to the boiling point where I just need to break down and learn the basics so I don't have to keep bugging friends and co-workers to help me out... anyway, we'll see how it all turns out. This is my first blog. Hope you enjoyed it.