Thomas On Rails: Category Deep Thoughts

Hmmmm

Codejoy — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 12:56:56 -0500

"The 1st United States Congress voted to pay Washington a salary of $25,000 a year—a large sum in 1789. Washington, already wealthy, declined the salary, since he valued his image as a selfless public servant. At the urging of Congress, however, he ultimately accepted the payment, to avoid setting a precedent whereby the presidency would be perceived as limited only to independently wealthy individuals who could serve without any salary." - Wikipedia

First day of class

Codejoy — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 17:46:00 -0600

So my first photography class did not go the full length it was supposed to (12pm-6pm). We got out early and it was a nice introduction to the dark room, what the class is about the inner workings of the camera etc. I even learned something, what a range-finder camera is specifically. It was a good class and our first assignment was "Found Photo". That is we are supposed to bring in a photo that evokes emotion for us and talk about it. The photo I am kicking around is this one. I am not a fan of Annie just cause shes on top, but she is good. This photo is awesome and it made me realize that vanity fairs covers are always top notch. What I like about this photo is the fact that you have two cold hearted criminals on the cover with this beautiful woman as a stark contrast to them. The kicker to me is the fact that the lighting is rather warm (Without being overly warm) one would expect it to be a colder color cast, so I wonder what she is saying about these cold gangsters, is it that they are really not as bad as they seem? We all did see the last episode though right? EDIT: I had misread the assignment to be a photo we liked technically, and then I wrote here how it was to be evoke a feeling. Then I realized that the assignment really did state to show something that evokes emotion. So this image doesn't make sense for the real assignment. Will be posted the new image I choose soon...

Give one, Get One (laptop)

Codejoy — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 10:44:00 -0600

I know there are some non-techy visitors I have at this blog, but sometimes I have to get on my soap box and preach the gospel of technology and kids. There is this initiative that has been in the works for a while called "One Laptop Per Child" (OLPC) which basically means that kids in poor and developing nations can get a laptop that is built for their environment to use and get on the internet with. The background of this initiative is located here. I bring this up now cause it is the season for giving, and this OLPC has a new initiative "Give one, get one", where you can essentially donate 399$ to the organization and receive one of their OLPC laptops and also by doing so, send one to a child in a developing nation, 200$ of that can be a tax write-off. Get this: the laptops can be "wound up" for power, one minute of cranking is 10 minutes of use. How about that? So if you can, please Give one, get one.

The experiment results

Codejoy — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 09:45:00 -0500

At first it started off horribly, I was shy to ask people as I was handing out candy and when I did a lot of the parents gave me this strange look. I did get two parents that said yes right away, one semi reluctantly. I can understand why for the most part. I shot their pictures and they came out okay. Then something strange happened, out of no where, I had people starting to inquire "How much are pictures?" It was nice to see their face light up when I said: "Free 4x6, just takes a minute to print". So before I knew it I had a line. Things were going semi smoothly, though one family wanted EVERYONE in the shot, the background (and my one light) was more geared twards 1, 2 or maybe 3 at the max, not 5! In the end though, I got some great shots, and saw the smiles on peoples faces both while being photographed and while getting their print. One girl even took the print looked at it and giggled and gave a thanks. Really made me feel good, like I was doing some sort of good. I also had two inquires for shooting christmas pictures, family portraits and met a couple that was into video editing and web design. All in all, though no orders yet, I would consider it at least a marketing success.

The great halloween experiment Charlie Brown.

Codejoy — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 10:59:00 -0500

So I have all this photography equipment in my house collecting dust:

Pro studio flash Alien Bees ABR800

Epson Picture mate delux personal photolab

Canon Digital Rebel

Mac with canon digital capture.

Business cards

So I got this crazy halloween Idea, I am going to open up my garage with studio fully digital and set up ready to go and invite kids with parents in to get their picture taken and a free 4x6 with an order form for more larger printed pictures.

Will this work? Is it a big waste of my time? A huge bit of headache? I don't know, all remains to be seen, as it would be literally trial-by-fire studio shooting.

Army Acronym for the day...

Codejoy — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 13:40:44 -0500

"MANPADS"-Man-Portable Air Defense Systems the guy who thought this one up is genius.

To Photoshop or not?

Codejoy — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 09:43:00 -0500

I am not a photoshop junky, I have a business called "Thomas Custom Digital" and yet, I rarely photoshop any of my photos. I might be finally getting some wedding gigs here and in the interest of presenting the best final image I can possibly present, my photography sans the photoshop might change. I like keeping my photography a pure form sort of thing, I often even get annoyed at images that others take that I like that I end up finding out they are heavily photoshopped. Its like nothing is real anymore, makes it feel cheapened slightly. But then if one can make a truely awesome picture with some photoshop magic, then why not? This post was inspired by the strobist speaking of an up and coming photographer named "Joey Lawrence" (no not of the "woah" type). Apparently his work is very cutting edge and most his images are photoshopped. The link here shows off some of the guys work and even there is an YouTube video there.

So I guess I have to decide for myself, to photoshop or not to photoshop ? That is the question