PixelatedImage Blog

Shot this at a picnic last weekend with the G9. I had to take his toys away for hours before he finally had a meltdown. Just kidding. It was a grab shot, one of those flukes that just turns out expressing the moment. If it works for you it’s a good example of emotion trumping “perfect” technique. If it doesn’t work for you, it’s just a bad example of really slow shutter speed. Before you send me hate mail for taking photographs while the little guy had his meltdown, he’s not mine. His dad was on it, I was just the insensitive friend documenting the over-tiredness - it’s more fun that way.

My guest blog spot over on Photoshop Insider is over and I’m back in home pastures, but it was a really wonderful experience. Thanks to all for the kind feedback.

Gear is good. Vision is better. It’s a mantra and you know it to be true. if only there were some way to spread the word with clever propaganda while meeting your need to be sheltered from the elements and still look great.

I’ve been wanting a t-shirt like this for myself so I’ve just put a design into the works with Cafe Press - once I see what the quality is like, and determine what the demand is, I thought I’d let others in on the action. If you’d be interested, drop me a line in the comments. Otherwise I’ll keep it to myself. If you have a suggestion for another Pixelated Image Propaganda Shirt, let me know that too.

I did not have a good morning. My tale of woe:

Rush to Indian Consulate General in Vancouver with Canadian passports, money orders, and completed visa applications. Get there second in line, decide to double check my docs.

You know that sinking feeling you get as something dawns on you and yet the part of you that wants not to believe that life can be that cruel fights against it and the wrestling between your optimism and the brute force of reality makes you nauseous? Yeah, it was that.

My wife’s passport was there. Mine was not. Look through bag, nothin’. Go outside, hail cab, rush home and ransack place while cabbie reads up on the latest news from the Punjab. Nothin. Get back in cab with UK passport, go back to consulate, apply for more expensive visa in UK passport. Bus home, check in at coffee shop where I’d had my morning coffee. Nothin. Get home, phone rings, tell friend passport missing, he asks where I saw it last, I resist urge to say bad, insulting, things and instead tell him that I don’t know, probably a week ago when I was scanning my…

Check scanner. Passport falls out with grin on face. Sheepishly thank friend for his sagacious insight, immediately assume he has prophetic gifts.

Check in with rehab center to get free of the street-grade moronohol I seem to be addicted to and free-basing like I’m Amy Winehouse, only willing to admit my problem.

Don’t let this happen to you. Do you know where your passport is? Yes? Good. Do you know where your brain is? Mine seems to have buggered off this week.

I drove down to Seattle yesterday and spent the day with the Blackrapid team. The folks that bring you the Rapidstrap are awesome. Thanks to Ron, Tyler, Melissa, and Milo for having me. We had a really great time talking and scheming and I’m really excited by some of the ideas that got bounced around. One of those ideas was my demand request for an R-Strap that’s pared down and able to be integrated into the other R-Straps for shooters like me who use two bodies. And while I can’t make any promises, and I swore a secret oath not to reveal too much, I can say that good things are in the works. Maybe. Keep watching this blog and the Blackrapid site - you never know what might turn up - just don’t hold your breath (seriously, don’t hold your breath).

In the meantime - two things:

First, the Blackstrap YouTube Video Challenge - and a chance to win $500. Check it out HERE.

Second, the winners of the Pixelated Image/R-Strap Giveaway. I took all the names and submitted them to a complicated logarithm-thingy and…ok, I promised my cat some catnip and she picked four names and they are as follows…drum roll please…

Still not hearing the drum roll…ah forget it.

OK, the following four lucky readers will be getting an R-Strap. If your name is on the list, please email me with a mailing address and I’ll have them in the mail asap. Congrats to…

1. Jay Stott

2. Marymuses

3. Doug Little

4. Stephen at FocusedOnLight.com

The rest of you, get working on your YouTube video - c’mon, it’s $500! Think of how many R-Straps that would buy! Thanks to all who participated. Y’all come back now y’hear!?

I’m thrilled to be hosting the Vancouver leg of the Worldwide PhotoWalk on Saturday August 23rd. We’ll be starting at 10am in front of Canada Place and walking through historic Gastown, winding up - I hope - at Steamworks to sit, chat, and wind it all down. Participation is limited to 50, so if you want in, sign up soon. More information, and to sign up, follow THIS LINK to Scott Kelby’s Worldwide PhotoWalk.

Basically it’s this: we meet, we walk, we shoot, we have a great time. At the end the best images of your choosing can be loaded up to a special Flickr group and you can win some stellar prizes. Again, for all the scoop - head over to THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE.

If you’re already signed up, or are planning to, leave a comment. I’d love to see who’s coming and right now I am unable to login to the Vancouver page to see the admin stuff. A glitch, I guess. Still, lemme know! I think this is going to be alot of fun and I’m looking forward to meeting y’all!

Ok, y’all know me, and I know some of you. I think we’re now close enough that I can ask those really personal questions - like, say, those of you that never wear a photographers vest - why not? For those that have them - what do you hate about them, love about them, or want to see changed about them? Dream big folks. I dare say, dream the IMPOSSIBLE DREAM! (As long as it’s a dream about vests.) What’s a must-have, and what’s a deal breaker?

Let’s just pretend this is all a hypothetical question - like we were in Photography Vest 101 back in college and the teacher might be thinking about making a photo vest and gave you a chance to contribute in exchange for not flunking you. Now let’s pretend he wasn’t exploiting you just to supplement his meager teaching salary by doing a little sideline project. What kind of input might you give him? Hypothetically…

Q: So you’ve seen those weird interviews Scott Kelby does with himself right?

Me: Yes. I have. Very disturbing. But strangely impossible not to read, like a literary train wreck waiting to happen. The man clearly has issues.

Q: I feel much the same way. Have you ever been tempted to do the same, kind of an homage, to the man?

Me: Funny you should ask. Why, just the other day I thought it was high time I did so, and my latest trip and the resulting lameness of me not posting to the blog with any frequency might just provide the perfect opportunity.

Q: So we’re agreed to do this, but that it in no way mocks, satirizes, or downplays Scott’s sense of humour.

Me: We are, though a momentary lapse in judgment and an indiscreet comment about one of Scott’s jokes is what led me to connect with him in the first place, so don’t underestimate the networking power of a poorly-aimed criticism.

Q: Noted. So, you were in Hawaii last week, is that the story you’re using to account for posting practically nothing all week?

Me: I was. And it is. I was teaching for a week at the University of Nations. They have a college of communications, under which is a School of Photography. I had a blast.

Q: First time to Hawaii?

Me: It was. Loved it. Amazing place.

Q: When do we see the photos?

Me: You don’t. I shot practically nothing. I had a couple days off and I did almost nothing but snorkle and hang out. It was very refreshing. Sometimes you just have to put the cameras down and live a little.

Q: And no time in there to write a blog post, eh?

Me: You’re upset about this, aren’t you? You need to let it go, man. You need to hang loose, as they say. I can tell you aren’t Hawaiian. You need a holiday.

Q: This isn’t about me.

Me. Point taken.

Q: Why spend a week in Hawaii teaching?

Me: Seriously? You’ve never been to Hawaii have you?

Q: I have not. Let it go, man. Ok, why teaching?

Me: Teaching gives me an opportunity to give back, to mold young impressionable minds into my image. And I really, really love it. Beyond that, teaching is one of the best ways to sort through your own theories and practices; to test them, to galvanize them.

Q: So you’re back. Can we expect the lameness to continue or will you be posting daily again?

Me: I am back, though tired. I will be posting daily this week. Starting now. I’m planning to talk about multimedia presentations and tools, do a review of a new camera strap - and the easiest contest ever to win one of several of these straps. And I plan to do a resource round-up, and throw some miscellaneous stuff at my readers. Depends what I can scrape of the inside of my brain-pan.

Q: Thank you for your time, and welcome home.

Me: No, thank you.

Q: Would you be open to doing this again sometime?

Me: Don’t get your hopes up.

I had to get it out. Won’t happen again. Check back tomorrow for a post about a book that can help reduce your need for the Un-Suck Filter. Folks reading this on an RSS feed will have to click in to see the image. It’s silly and cynical. You’ve been warned.