Threading a Needle So to Speak

I've been entering a new field after refusing to even venture into them and these are the “threads” which abound in the internet community.

I have posted a few times on CNET and that's all. I seldom visit any threads and just why I've been holding myself aloof I have no idear.

It's different now and it happened quickly.

Being known for my western ways (long-winded some say) I use google a lot and have this internet elephant as my FireFox start page. I love Picasa simply as an easy way to find any of my 7,000 photos tucked away in those mysterious yellow folders, the names of which soon lose their meaning as time goes by.

Lightroom, Aperture all promise not only will they help me organize, they will make me “El Photogrifo Supremo!”

Nah!

Photographers Workshop invited me to join beguiling me with the opportunity to interact and learn from other photographers throughout the entire world and for all I know probably from beyond the planet Pluto. They sent me newsletters with a featured photographer and talked about portfolios.

I dislike their photo loading system it was so bad it worse then creaked, it was downright cranky.

I asked for support on the photo loading and they were prompt and helpful.

Time to build an online portfolio and I wrote them asking if I did not do the Adobe Tango neither numbered or letter versions, how could I build my portfolio when they required that I do the dance to build it?

They didn't answer.

I don't think the mailman's late.

Could it be the part in my e-mail where I wondered out loud if a person wanted to be a photographer could he, or she, be one w/o CS3?

When I find the time, I am learning CaptureNX and Vertus's Fluid Mask and both are high end graphic programs on the cutting edge as it's so said. I can build a blog on Blogspot in a few minutes, Yahoo and a few others let me build my own site without requiring I know and understand Adobe, Front Page, SQYL (somethin like that) and its kissin cousin HTML.

I've heard there's Gimp Shop now but I still have The Gimper on my computer and find it as confusing as the expensive nonfreeware clone CS3.

Geez, here I go off the the subject of threads but I'll get back on track. But wasting 12 bucks on the 2 month trial membership for Photographers Workshop foes tighten my jaws.

Threads, oh yes well Jim Juris that is a nice locomotive shot that won About.com's photo contest.

The process of joining About's photography section was painless; however learning how to post text and photos into the threads was nothing like a visit to the famed dentist . “Painless Dr. Parker.”

The interaction is nothing like IM (I dislike that intensely) but OK and I helped a green photographer obtain a generic model release form. Reaching into that dustbin between my ears, I think the trail to that release form originated with Mike Johnston, theonlinephotographer.blogspot.com.

Now that I've started I will be doing more “threading” if that what it's called; and even on SmugMug where I have my professional galleries all gathered together and upload with an easy Java applet into a template precooked so-to-speak.

It's All in the Vernacular

A thought about talking about “Kodak Moments” this posting ended up making me feel like the ignorant butt of a donkey photographically speaking.

Old photos are truly fascinating and none more so then images of people unknown thrown away by unknown people and thankfully for unexplainable reasons.

These photos were either lost, forgotten, or thrown away. The images now are nameless, without connection to the people they show, or the photographer who took them. Maybe someone died and a relative threw away their photographs; maybe someone thought they were trash.

Some photos are found on the street. Some were stacked in a box, bought cheap at a flea market. Showing off or embarrassed, smug, sometimes happy, the people in these photos are strangers to us.

They can't help but be interesting, as stories with only an introduction. The mystery of their past only adds to their allure.

At some time in the mid '70's I was walking the sidewalk in a small California town just after a rain squall when I happen chanced on a crumpled glossy of a beautiful brunette in the gutter with a river of rainwater washing her face.

I had my Nikon with me and snapped a few frames,returned to the newspaper and developed and printed the result. Later but not by much, I was fired by the publishers who said they could not understand why I couldn't find more front page photos like that of the brunette.
I still wonder who that lady of the gutter was.
Vernacular and/or found photography is a big thing now and yes, I use the term “Kodak Moment.”

I have been involved in scanning old pictures and making some restorative actions for my household and my girlfriend finding it so easy to get lost in wonderment about those caught in the creased stained 60-yr-old postcards and the scratched Koda Color prints of the 50's and 60's.

Vernacular photography refers to the creation of photographs by amateur or unknown photographers who take everyday life and common things as subjects.

Examples of vernacular photographs include travel and vacation photos, family snapshots, photos of friends, class portraits, identification photographs, and photo booth images.

Vernacular photographs can also be considered types of "accidental" art, in that they often are unintentionally artistic in some way.

Lordy, I never realized photography is considered an art in so many strange ways.
I had thought there would some blither and blather about the clone tool, curves and such but I have been happily led astray by a bunch of imperfect amateurish, out of focus, poorly framed snapshots.

I am adding some links to some websites dealing with vernacular and/or found photos
http://www.saysomethingcryptic.com/spackleofthesoul/

I stumbled this one www.stumbleupon.com/getstumble.php

He has a great sense of humor. http://squareamerica.com/
is a good one also. Some day I'll get how to put links in right. http://community.livejournal.com/foundphotos/ This looks more geared to college students but is also fun. A community geared site is http://www.vintagepixels.com/
Then there is a site featuring a terrific collection of vernacular photos which has been featured in the media more then once:http://www.fredericbonn.com/misc/look_at_me.

And in the newsrooms' vernacular I'm going -30-

Just Some Tractoring and OnLine Buying Cheer, Eh!

I find I am on a roll of some kind and I will see how the hill slopes as I go down it.

I took in a small tractor pull the other weekend and had a great time taking pictures of the huffin' and puffin replacements for the horse and discovered Paint Shop Pro's “Time Machine.”

The “Box Camera” really gets my juices flowing now and who knows since I done went out and upgraded my Paint Shop Pro Xi to Corel's ProX2 what I'll be doing. I am supposed to take a survey on how I feel about the software.

Well now, I simply ordered the Box which is not due to be shipped until this upcoming Friday, September 14, 2007. And, so, I downloaded the free trial version so I could take the survey in a timely manner.

I am not so sure the gentleman from Corel will care much about my answer. So far the only thing this “new” PSP really offers is a granite interface which is great but the photo organizer is clunky and the “Express Lab” is largely a clone of Google's Picasa only it has a histogram and such. One great thing though is the trial version works without restrictions; i.e., no watermarks, etc.

Now that my pony season is almost done for the year I can start getting into my other love (besides ponies and children) and this is my photography. I had sworn never to get back into the lens chase and was never going to leave the digital point & shoots. Shute I spent near a grand on a Fuji 602Zoom and this critter did a wonderful job and never did I worry about buying an “Arctic Butterfly.”

I will not now either although I have 5 lenses for my Nikon D50, which seems to be a forgotten model surrounded by D300, D80 and the D40 twins.

I read on the web about the SensorScope and in the deepening gloom of the knowing I had to lock the mirror and do something, why almost anything, I jumped into the darkening void and bought the Delkin System. Hey, it was Labor Day and a 30% discount was part of the deal.

As my luck would have it I navigated all the way through the online buying process and clicked on the final link when I realized I paid full boat.

There was no discount, no nuttin'.

Oh well, what the hell as one of my sons, Matt, was prone to proclaim. My fault.

I did not get a confirmation email from Delkin containing a tracking number nor who was transporting my dSLR vacuum cleaner, Big Brown, USPS or FedEx. I'm a veteran on Ebay so I know about all that. On my favorite bookmarks list I have a folder titled “the searchers” just for those fellas (Pardon Moi Gals).

I emailed the company's support and all of us know what that means, eh!

A few days went by with no reply. I have bought from Delkin before and regularly get their sales propaganda. I'm driving around Seattle when my cell goes off and it was a rep from Delkin. She said they were visited by the famed “Daemon” who told them my email address was invalid. (This is part of an adventure with Yahoo Mail I will talk about later)

She apologized for what wasn't her fault and said a tracking number wasn't needed as it should have arrived by then (it did). I halfheartedly mentioned missing out on the promotional offer. She told me that perhaps indeed the offer was hard to locate (I went back to the promotional email and it wasn't)

In 2 days, the $30 refund of what I'd already paid was in my account.

Thanks Ms. Cheryl Roberts, account executive.

A lot of digression tonight. I started out with huffing and pugging about software and tractors and bingo, I'm into online purchasing.

I am inserting some pictures of the tractor pull I am especially proud of and the one I title “The
Tractor Man” is quite special and I am including the color version. Next post will have more photography and some jibber jabber about Vertus Fluid Mask and Nikon's Capture NX which I'll be delving into this fall of 2007.

Cruzin' By The Cars

I am discovering how much fun it is to wander around a car show and shoot bits and pieces. I look for angles and certainly reflections in the brightly polished paint. There are a number of reflections in the photos I am posting today and most are of yours truly. I like to keep my D50 in Nikon's Child Mode which enhances color as well as capture speed.
I love my Tokina 12-24 wide angle zoom which lends itself to my subject matter And now to explore uploading my photos.

A Start into My Past as Well into My Future

I just had to do this tonight. I am sorting through stuff and found this 25-yr-old full page photo spread from the Longview WA newspaper. I did some work in PSP and am posting two photos. I will be doing more in the future but why not now also? I am. Here they are!

A Personal Platinum Touch

I decided to have a little fun again and place a photo of me with some PSP magic. Keeping in tune with the Huffman photo, my portrait is platinum which was popular in the same era when Mr Huffman was chronicling the wild, wild west.

Wild West by LA Huffman

I wanted to make a small point here. This is a photograph of Bob Lee, circa the 1890's taken by L.A. Huffman. Lee was reputed not only to be a cowpoke, he was a part time rider for the Wild Bunch(the real bunch, no Robert Redford here) I scanned this from Larry Len Peterson's book about Huffman. I just added a touch from Paint Shop Pro (simpler learning curve here compared to it's Cadillac cousin CS3 and $500 less costly)