OH MAN!

Combine multiple audio inputs for use in GarageBand - Mac OS X Hints

I was looking for a way to have multiple audio inputs into GarageBand, say using my Digital Line in, two iMics, and anything else that will get audio, but GarageBand only lets you choose one input at a time. But with a tip from the guys at Rogue Amoeba, there is a way!

Using the Audio MIDI Setup application (in Utilities), choose "Open Aggregate Device Editor" in the Audio menu. Here you can create a virtual device that combines all your other inputs. Click the + sign to create a new device, then check "Use" off on the devices in the list that you want in your virtual device. If you like, double-click "Aggregate Device" to change the name to something of your choosing.

In GarageBand, choose your new device from the input list and there you go! Theoretically, you can buy four iMics and an USB hub and you can have eight inputs -- but I don't know the maximum number of audio streams that can be used simultaneously over one USB channel. But, this is a lot cheaper than buying an eight-input device which can run up to $800. Enjoy!

This made my day!

Zeke Berman

zeke berman One of my college hero's seems to have finally got a good web presence and I am stoked to see that he is successfully playing with color. His 1985-94 series really made a impact on me as a young photographer. The tonal values on the glue gun strands in a real life black and white print is something to see. I remember spending hours in the studio / darkroom trying to get a tonal range close to his. The one time I got close and pulled the prints out of the fixer so happy only to have dry down kill it.

Major bummer......

Reason number 102937464538 why I hate the chem process. Dry motherfucking down.

3 Trees in Spring on Mt Tabor

3 Trees in Spring on Mt Tabor. Just going through the archive and I found some outtakes from a HDR study which failed horribly, but the images on there own are quite nice. So I took it to B&W as is my thing right now.

On a side note, HDR looks great on the web but generally looks horrible printed. Just a FYI to all the Flickr folk out there.

Dutch still-life painter Pieter Claesz, 1597-1661

[gallery link="file" columns="4"] So I have been into Baroque painters as of late.  The quality of light I find amazing, the attention to the details and great composition makes this a great time to study up on and learn. The use of everyday objects also have a way of  taking one back to that time and place. It reminds me to shoot current items so that they will be grounded in time.

Today I have been looking at Pieter Claesz. (web gallery link)

"Pieter Claesz (wiki link)(c. 1597-1 January 1660) was a Dutch still life painter, born in Burgsteinfurt, Westphalia (now Germany) and active in Haarlem, where he settled in 1621. He and Willem Claeszoon Heda, who also worked in Haarlem, were the most important exponents of the "ontbijt" or breakfast piece. They painted with subdued, virtually monochromatic palettes, the subtle handling of light and texture being the prime means of expression. Claesz generally chose objects of a more homely kind than Heda, although his later work became more colourful and decorative. The two men founded a distinguished tradition of still life painting in Haarlem, but Claesz's son, Nicolaes Berchem, became famous as a landscape painter and was also know for his talent in music. Claesz's still lifes often suggest allegorical purpose, with skulls serving as reminders of human mortality."

Eagle Creek Trees

Eagle Creek in Oct. Here is a pic from this weekend up in Eagle Creek. Not quite a full B&W but I thought the hint of color is adding a lot of interest. It was also shot at high ISO which is adding some nice texture.

This also is the first post where I am consolidating the blogs to here. So no more Photoblog on it's own. I think having both of them in one should make it more interesting.

35 Tips for a creative life.

Ignore Everybody.

11. The more talented somebody is, the less they need the props. Meeting a person who wrote a masterpiece on the back of a deli menu would not surprise me. Meeting a person who wrote a masterpiece with a silver Cartier fountain pen on an antique writing table in an airy SoHo loft would seriously surprise me. A fancy tool just gives the second-rater one more pillar to hide behind. Which is why there are so many second-rate art directors with state-of-the-art Macintosh computers. Successful people, artists and nonartists alike, are very good at spotting pillars. They’re very good at doing without them. Even more important, once they’ve spotted a pillar, they’re very good at quickly getting rid of it. Good pillar management is one of the most valuable talents you can have on the planet. Keep asking the question, “Is this a pillar?” about every aspect of our business, our craft, our reason for being alive, and go from there. The more we ask, the better we get at spotting pillars, the more quickly the pillars vanish. 12. Don’t try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether.

Good stuff here.

Friday thoughts

Voids Found this on the internets today and I like it. It got me thinking about being creative and how I have been bogged down with thought and concepts instead of just creating for the sheer joy of creating.

Why We Are Destined to Burn Out

The amount of stress we endure is increasing because of our focus on efficiency. Stress is caused by uncertainty, more specifically, by doubts in our ability to handle something. As machines and computers handle more things that are predictable and certain, we are pressured to deal with more things that are unpredictable and uncertain. This inevitably leads to more stress. As soon as our tasks become predictable and certain, we automate them using our technology. The result of this process of streamlining is that we are increasingly called upon to use our, what I would call, irrational abilities, such as instincts, sensibilities, creativities, and interpersonal skills. These things are, by nature, unpredictable. On this note, I am fully burnt out.

I don’t like Photography

Modern fine art is a democratic milieu, offering a space and a semi-mystical aura to any loosely-defined perception presented by anyone anywhere who is interested in that place and that aura. And what medium to better occupy that space than photography, the most democratic and ubiquitous visual medium in the world, perhaps ever? Indeed, photographic prints, matted and framed, are quickly becoming a dominant sector of the art market, in both volume and gross sales, while on the Internet, every photographer has a direct and immediate international platform to display his or her creations. And yet why is it that such an egalitarian medium, and such an open discourse and market for fine art, have come together in such a way that fine art photography is so frequently dull and distasteful, so paralyzed by moribund subjects and forms?

I just spent almost en entire day discussion with my good friend why I hate Fine Art Photography so much. So it's nice to see someone a bit smarter then I write something on exactly this.

Adobe on Mac Gripes

kung fu grippe

Yes, I do hate to bag on software developers, but, Jesus. If I were one of Adobe’s Mac guys (and, obviously, if I had the resources and mandate to do so) I’d do any of four-ish things (And yes, I realize trying to do all of them at once is paradoxical and impossible. Pick one.):

1. Start over. Not really exactly start over. But stop acting like these iterations around shuffling product lines and bolting on new bits of functionality is getting you anyplace good. Act like you’re inventing new apps for what people need today. For the OS people use today. Learn from the indies. To use a word that I’m allowed to invoke exactly quarterly: innovate. (See also: Lightroom) 2. Strip the shit out of everything. Cut down on cruft, chrome, gold plating, menu diarrhea, and all the other things that make Adobe apps feel like a carnival ride you’d NEVER put your kid on. Yes, be an auteur, but also be a mensch. Apply your own version of 80/20 rules to everywhere it applies. Viz: Does anyone use “Plastic Wrap” as much as “Unsharp Mask?” Okay. Then why are they on equivalent menu levels? Make it clear what’s really important but then (ala Quicksilver) also learn to bubble up what we each use the most.1 3. Stabilize. You know. The slow launches? The long saves? The crappy performance? The crashing? Yeah. Stop that. 4. Be nicer to us. Man, if you make software, you never want to be on my “Groan Pile.” That’s the apps that make me Groan as soon as I realize I have to launch them. MS Word is not only the President of Groan; it’s the 4-term FDR of Groan. But, Adobe makes some promising dark horse candidates for the next election cycle. Because, with Adobe apps, everything from installation through activation through re-activation through software updates through more re-re-reactivations through (HEY! more updates!) is like a giant rectal exam. That I paid for. Or maybe more like a weekly trip to the DMV where I’m confronted by a manic-depressive clerk who always thinks I’m lying about my age and eyesight. Swear to God, guys; I bought the fucking apps. See? And the updates? Wow. You should check out this new thing called “Sparkle.” It’s a Mac thing. Really catching on. Apps update and you don’t even have to go to the DMV every week to do it. Cherry. One (sometimes one of the extremely few) of the benefits of the annoyingly rabid Mac community is that we do talk to each other a lot, and we do absolutely have equivalents of pro wrestling’s faces and heels. Right now, Adobe is not regarded as a hero. No. Right now you’re the heavy guy from some country we don’t like who’s always with the folding chairs. Maybe you don’t want or need to be a hero to a bunch of portly men in Daring Fireball t-shirts. That’s understandable. And, in which case, yes, this is all beyond irrelevant. But, I’m assuming you want to do the right thing and that you want to reclaim your rightful place of honor within the community that, frankly, helped make you (yeah, I know you’re big competitors now, rah rah).

Holy crap, if you only knew how much Photoshop crashes on me everyday, you would weep. Everything I want to say is summed up in this link.

Found thoughts.

You are lucky to be one of those people who wishes... - Boring Boring Boring

“You are lucky to be one of those people who wishes to build sand castles with words, who is willing to create a place where your imagination can wander. We build this place with the sand of memories; these castles are our memories and inventiveness made tangible. So part of us believes that when the tide starts coming in, we won’t really have lost anything, because actually only a symbol of it was there in the sand. Another part of us thinks we’ll figure out a way to divert the ocean. This is what separates artists from ordinary people: the belief, deep in our hearts, that if we build our castles well enough, somehow the ocean won’t wash them away. I think this is a wonderful kind of person to be.”

— Anne Lamott