I want to believe?

U.S. Nuclear Weapons Have Been Compromised by Unidentified Aerial Objects | Reuters

Ex-military men say unknown intruders have monitored and even tampered with American nuclear missiles

Group to call on U.S. Government to reveal the facts

WASHINGTON, Sept. 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Witness testimony from more than 120 former or retired military personnel points to an ongoing and alarming intervention by unidentified aerial objects at nuclear weapons sites, as recently as 2003. In some cases, several nuclear missiles simultaneously and inexplicably malfunctioned while a disc-shaped object silently hovered nearby. Six former U.S. Air Force officers and one former enlisted man will break their silence about these events at the National Press Club and urge the government to publicly confirm their reality.

One of them, ICBM launch officer Captain Robert Salas, was on duty during one missile disruption incident at Malmstrom Air Force Base and was ordered to never discuss it. Another participant, retired Col. Charles Halt, observed a disc-shaped object directing beams of light down into the RAF Bentwaters airbase in England and heard on the radio that they landed in the nuclear weapons storage area. Both men will provide stunning details about these events, and reveal how the U.S. military responded.

Bokeh and how to fake it.

Bokeh Tricks in Scott Pilgrim

Start with a 16-bit picture (8 will work too, but for mathematical reasons you’ll get better results with a raw image) with really sharp well-focused point sources of light (street-lamps, christmas lights, ferris wheel bulbs) and then run a “Filter->Shape Blur” on the part of the image that you want the custom bokeh effect to show up in.

Thoughts on Post production....

This always comes up that So and So relies too heavily on Post Production to make their images look good and it always gets under my skin. The darkroom and photography has been about manipulation since it's birth. Here is the master of manipulations himself, Ansel Adams.

Canon EF 100mm F2.8 L IS USM review from DPReview.

Canon 100mm F2.8 L IS USM Macro Lens Review: 6. Conclusion & samples: Digital Photography Review

There's little doubt that, all round, this is one of the very finest lenses we've seen - optically it's superb, and operationally it works very well too, with fast and positive autofocus, and one of the most effective image stabilization systems currently available. Throw in the high build quality, including dust- and splash-proofing, and it all adds up to a very desirable package indeed.

Sharpest lens out there. I have the older version, may be time for a upgrade...

Hoo hoo HOOO!

Best song of 2010. Possibly ever. And if you think it's dedicated to you, from the deepest part of my heart, it probably is.

Jamie Kripke, GoLite campaign

I helped Jamie Kripke out with this campaign for GoLite which is shown over at The Denver Egoist.

Sukle Advertising & Design, Denver just finished up a new campaign for GoLite, highlighting the company's Spring/Summer ‘11 trail running, hiking and travel apparel. The images were shot by Jamie Kripke of Boulder. Here's what they had to say about the campaign.

"Since its beginning, GoLite has been all about lightweight gear made for the trail. Whether it’s an after-work out-the-backdoor loop, backpacking the Colorado Trail or connecting the dots on an overseas adventure – the more time we spend on the trail, the better we feel.

The insight for this campaign is about choices. The choices we make determine how much time we have for the trail. Do I choose to watch some reality TV or do I get off my ass and go for a run? Do I pack the blow-dryer, the curling iron, the straightener AND the krimper? [Or GoLite?]"

Really fun smooth project. Jamie has such a great eye for subtlety that taking his images to the next level is effortless. He is the example of a photographer who understands that this look does not entirely happen in Post and has everything to do with the photographer's eye. Many photographers just lean on the post way to heavily to achieve this look and it never gets to this level.

I should be posting the before and afters in the portfolio as soon as I get some free time.

Yeah the rain came...

There is something that I just love about waking up to a cloudy, rainy day.  Something about it just makes me move a little slower and more deliberately.  To take my time and notice things instead of the daily rush about mucky muck crap I can get caught in. And well, the leaves are falling in the yard and it's raining with the gutters doing their splunk noise. Which all tells me summer is rapidly coming to a close up here in the NW.  Don't tell the wife, OK?

With this in mind I wrote a little piece in the old pen and paper journal (not this fancy digitally, whop-di-do one) and I think it's a nice fit for the day.

"Now and Next is so yesterday

It's all about Forever."

Then on Metafilter this morning I find this Allan Watts gem.

The Unsettling Truth About Life

Title of this post is from "My Town" by Jane's Addiction.  If you caught that you are old.

Neil Burgess on the death of Photojournalism

We have now reached the stage where magazine supplements offer me less for a story which might be used over a cover and eight pages than their associated papers pay me for a single picture of a celebrity. The picture editors shrug and say, “This is just the way it is.” But, it is an active decision that has been taken by the managing editors who believe that photojournalism is not valued, it can be got for free, and so needs no budget. Money is still around in newspapers, it’s just that it’s spent on other things.

I woke up this morning with a dream going around in my head. It was as if I’d been watching a medical drama, ER or something, where they’d spent half the programme trying to revive a favourite character: mouth to mouth, blood transfusions, pumping the chest up and down, that electrical thing where they shout “Clear!” before zapping them with 50,000 volts to get the heart going again, emergency transplants and injections of adrenalin …, but nothing works. And someone sobs, “We’ve got to save him we cannot let him die.” And his best friend steps forward, grim and stressed and says, “It’s no good. For God’s sake, somebody call it!”

Okay, I’m that friend and I’m stepping forward and calling it. “Photojournalism: time of death 11.12. GMT 1st August 2010.” Amen.

<A href="http://www.epuk.org/Opinion/961/for-gods-sake-somebody-call-it">Neil Burgess on the death of Photojournalism.</a>

Sad but true. But I have to say there is a glimmer of hope and that is the iPad / tablet computers. I know I have said it before, but you just can not fuck around with shitty images on those things. Plus it seems like people are willing to shell out $5 a issue for it. That is some serious revenue for the magazines who no longer have to print and ship dead trees around.

VIA wood s lot who proves yet agin he is a much netter blogger then I.

On Routine

I like routine. I like structure in my life. I guess this is because the nature of my work is anything but structure. When I first started in photography, one of my first assisting gigs the First assistant said to me to think of this job like a volunteer fireman and that pretty much sums up the business. Each day is it's own minor crisis for my clients and nothing is ever planned ahead of time. It can wear a person out some days and be wonderfully surprising the next. But I digress, I like routine and structure so I impose it where I can. I have a certain wake up routine that I like to follow.

• Coffee. Strong, locally roasted. Currently addicted to Ristretto Roasters to anyone curious.

• Light exercise of some sort. Dawn sessions at the local skatepark (I'm the old guy who just goes fast) or some stretches and such at the house if I'm trapped with work.

• 20 minutes of rudiments on the drum set. Reverse paradiddles are all the rage right now you know.

• On good days I get some journal writing done.

And lastly, before I start on the work I like to try to dredge up something inspiring from the interwebbies. Usually I hit the links over on the right to start and then branch out from there till the hunt is over. This is the hardest part of my routine but also the most consistent. I need to find some beauty out there before I can start the day.

All this is done by 8:30 usually so I am around for the clients. Then I am ready to go.

So that is that. Now go get yourself a routine going.

Painting studies

Did another painting study as I work on leaning more about the program Painter.  This series really seems to lend itself well to this treatment.  Need to figure out how to add some more splatter like strokes in there but I have not figured out drips yet.

Really enjoying it.

The Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter (ISOLATED DRUMS)

Charlie Watts is one of my favorite RnR drummers of all time. So solid and clean. Damn fine tasty.

And this from the WikiLink.

A famous anecdote relates that during the mid-1980s, an intoxicated Jagger phoned Watts's hotel room in the middle of the night asking where "my drummer" was. Watts reportedly got up, shaved, dressed in a suit, put on a tie and freshly shined shoes, descended the stairs and punched Jagger in the face, saying: "Don't ever call me your drummer again. You're my fucking singer!"

Now that is flipping epic.

Lighting Studies #3

[gallery link="file" columns="2"] Had a lovely BBQ the other day (Thanks to all who made it!) and when the wife walked in with these tomatoes for the salad.... well, she had to put off making the salad for a bit. 9 lights were used along with everything and the kitchen sink. Turns out tomatos are stupidly difficult to shoot and I am still not entirely in love with these.  I could not get a good background to work so I just went with default black.  But since these are just studies I am posting them anyways.

I had to use a diffusion screen above for the backlight which also had some diffusion clipped to it.

Metal screen on two other side back lights to bring them down and scatter highlights. These are what are giving the highlights around the stem on the horizontal.

A focusing lens so I could get a dollop of light onto the stem. Metal screen with a postage stamp opening focused pretty harshly. Took some effort to get it blended with the other lights.

Sculpting wire underneath the tomato so it would stand up.

A Prism in front of it that took the front light and bounced it up a bit more focused.

I think that's all. I should really start photographing the lighting set ups I guess... lol.  And so much for B&W formalness. That lasted all of one post....