Twitter versus Blogging.

Who ever thought that blogging would now be thought of as "long form" writing? Thanks for making us bloggers feel all grown up Twitter, we all owe you a big thanks. Plus, you have siphoned off the diary bloggers who can now Tweet about their breakfast without the need for a web browser. Not that I have anything against Twitter or blogging about breakfast for that matter. I have been the "single link" poster boy here for awhile now as well, so there ya go. But the difference between these two are what is interesting to me. Twitter is a mobile app in that it is made to be written and read on cell phones and the like. Blogging to me is like being in the Library. I want to roam and find new stuff and generally wander. As a young lad I spent many a afternoon in the Public Library wandering the aisles looking for poetry and art books. The nature of the internet constantly reminds me of this and the good blogs being a signpost to more interesting stuff.

Twitter on the other hand is direct personal updates often with no connection to anything else. Often of a very personal twist. A blog can link to other articles to numerate on a point and all sorts of other goodness. The nature of a Tweet is just that, "TWEET!" and gone. Which is great, not my thing mind you, but I think it's great.

Of course the pink elephant about this discussion is Iran and what has happened there. The very mobile nature of Twitter and the tie into phone communications makes it impossible to just shut off. This has proven it as a great documentary medium for current events that would otherwise be lost. It has also been key in organizing protests and the like. This has proven Twitter transformative without a doubt and defines it as something "New That No One Expected".

See this Onion piece for example (and lulz):

"SAN FRANCISCO—Creator Jack Dorsey was shocked and saddened this week after learning that his social networking device, Twitter, was being used to disseminate pertinent and timely information during the recent civil unrest in Iran."

Which is all amazing and insane and people much smarter then me need to parse this information and tell us what it all means. But getting back to the Twitter versus Blogging point here, I think it could possibly be the application that makes using the internet "Old Fashioned".

"And then, oh mah gawd, he like, sat down at a desk and opened a browser?! I mean who does that?!"

Is the computer desk / laptop the nostalgic "Dad at the table with breakfast and a newspaper" for the early internet folk?

Of course, 95 percent of blogs are essentially abandoned and 10 percent of the Twitters users account for more than 90 percent of tweets. So this is all hot air anyways and I am going to make a egg sandwich.

I'll post pics on my Photolog after I get done updating my Facebook profile.

Picasso and light painting, what more could you want.

Picasso: Drawing With Light -LIFE

LIFE photographer Gjon Mili visited Picasso in 1949. Mili showed the artist some of his photographs of ice skaters with tiny lights affixed to their skates jumping in the dark—and Picasso's mind began to race. The series of photographs that follows—Picasso’s light drawings—were made with a small flashlight in a dark room; the images vanished almost as soon as they were created.

This is just awesome and I have never seen these before. I think the fact that it's Picasso makes it much more interesting to me, but still enjoyable.

"For me, vision is an intelligent form of thought."

 -Andreas Gursky

what the heck?

onOne Software - DSLR Remote for Canon DSLR Cameras & iPhone

DSLR Camera Remote is the next-generation cable release for your Canon EOS DSLR camera. Just connect your camera to a WiFi enabled computer and the DSLR Camera Remote software enables you to use your Apple iPhone or iPod touch to wirelessly adjust cameras settings, fire the shutter, review images, even get a live viewfinder preview. DSLR Camera Remote is a must-have for remote shooting applications like high or low angles, self portraits and children. With its advanced timers it makes remote monitoring a snap. No internet connection required!

I am so giving this a try.....

Thanks Brantlea!

The return of Redlining?

Bank Accused of Pushing Mortgage Deals on Blacks - NYTimes.com

Wells Fargo, Ms. Jacobson said in an interview, saw the black community as fertile ground for subprime mortgages, as working-class blacks were hungry to be a part of the nation’s home-owning mania. Loan officers, she said, pushed customers who could have qualified for prime loans into subprime mortgages. Another loan officer stated in an affidavit filed last week that employees had referred to blacks as “mud people” and to subprime lending as “ghetto loans.”

“We just went right after them,” said Ms. Jacobson, who is white and said she was once the bank’s top-producing subprime loan officer nationally. “Wells Fargo mortgage had an emerging-markets unit that specifically targeted black churches, because it figured church leaders had a lot of influence and could convince congregants to take out subprime loans.”

Wow, looks like Redlining is still alive and strong.

Storm a brewing...

They are saying 18000 people without power. Hail and big thunderstorms. So the danklife client area will be down till this passes. Everything will be unplugged shortly. The client area will be back tomorrow as long as I have power.

Yowzers. [gallery link="file"]

Pocket Wizards at 1/8000th of a sec!

So I received my Mini TTi and Flex TT5 yesterday and have been testing and testing and testing. Here are some pretty exciting results all shot at 1/8000th of a second! I am using Profoto ComPact-R 300r's with the Flex TT5 plugged into one of those with the Mini on top of a Canon 5d Mark 2 to trigger it all. Then just for kicks I put up my old Vivitar 283's with some old 1970's era Wein slaves in the mix as well. As you can see from the behind the fan shot, all are being captured at 1/8000th of a sec. Feel free to check out the files and see for yourself if you don't trust my screen shots. They are also on the Pixelrust Photostream as well if you want more data. There does seem to be a touch of fall off on the camera right side of the frame but nothing that is a deal breaker.

I was chatting with the esteemed and accomplished photographer Mike Powell (they won't know I'm lying Mike!) and his thoughts on it are that the gear I am using is crappy (thanks Mike you jerk!) which means the flash duration is way longer then with good gear. So the actual strobes themselves are probably at around 1/500-1/800th of a second in duration which makes it easier for the Pocket Wizards to be in the sweet spot during the shutter release at 1/8000th. Go go crappy gear!

Also, this fan is called "Finga Choppa!" for good reason. This little guy moves at a good clip.

Also, these are test pics man, cut me some slack on the crappy lighting!

Click on the pics to see them bigger.

[gallery link="file"]

Photomatrix HDR studies

I have been doing HDR work for some time now, but after this weekends studies I thought I post some of my thoughts on it. Here are some screen grabs of a side by side comparison between a 'conservative' use of Photomatrix and one done with hand masking. Photomatrix is on the left.

[gallery link="file"]

Notice how on the overall view you may be fooled into thinking this actually looks good? Notice all the artifacting in the views at 100%? To me, that is ugly as hell and not something I am into. Plus, the HDR appears smeary because of the slight breeze at the time. The plants move and the software can not cope with that. But this also brings up why I think HDR is such a blight upon Flickr. No one prints their HDR shots. They process the shit out of them in Photoshop and then post them with no intention of printing.

Of course, I could be dating myself by saying I print my work. For all I know, that is a very old timey concept.

It's a freaking ink jet print you snobbish twit.

Giclée - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Giclée (pronounced [ʒiːˈkleɪ] "zhee-clay" or /dʒiːˈkleɪ, from French IPA: [ʒiˈkle]), is an invented name (i.e. a neologism) for the process of making fine art prints from a digital source using ink-jet printing. The word "giclée" is derived from the French language word "le gicleur" meaning "nozzle", or more specifically "gicler" meaning "to squirt, spurt, or spray"[1]. It was coined in 1991 by Jack Duganne[2],

This is a big pet peeve of mine. Just because you use a french made up name does not make it special. You are not a special unique snowflake and your art is mostly made of crap. Stay off my lawn. Damn kids.

And turn down that music too!