I decided to go for a walk and capture a view of downtown Tulsa this morning. I set the iPhone shutter to open for 3 seconds to capture light streaks and capture it in RAW. Then I decided to go without light streaks, for a straight scenic view:
Photography
I’ve Lost The Way
I can’t tell you how many times in the past ten years that there was a desire to build and maintain a map as a photo gallery of places I have been and things I have seen in all of my travels. No, it’s more than one map. I have wanted to build my own map(s) displaying all the images of hidden and discovered geocaches across the country. A separate map showcasing all the neon signs I have documented from Miami to Portland and all points in between. Another map to display all the locations of documented wall art from New Orleans to Chicago, you know, up and down the length of the Mississippi River.
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“If you have no road map, you have to create your own.” – Jacqueline Woods
Thanks to careful documentation in the past, I tagged GPS coordinates on to images to look them up later. Then, with incoming new technology, GPS coordinates were built in to the EXIF data of every image, making it so much easier to locate. But what does one do with that information? Build a map to document your travels, of course.
Previously, I relied on Google’s “My Maps” which allows you to enter these in and attach photos to them, but I do not like Google. Unfortunately, they are one of the best, free sources (free as in they will hoover all of your data for their use, of course.) But I’ve always known there exists open-source mapping programs to help me build one myself. After all of this time, this may be a good opportunity to build and ship one out, allowing me to lovingly document these locations. You know, as a photo diary.
So, I downloaded Visual Studio Code, an IDE, installed Python inside and went to work creating a photo gallery that works with ArcGIS, a mapping software tool. Then created an account on GitHub to keep all of my code in the cloud and act as a virtual server, ready for me to pull requests down when needed. Well, I discovered that the costs to maintain these wouldn’t be a solution, especially ArcGIS (Geographic Information System.) Enter QGIS, an open-source tool that allows me to do this at zero cost.
Then I went to work in Python, coding out the framework and processes to make these maps a reality…and then hit a brick wall. Do I really want to do this? I do, yes, but currently I can’t be arsed. It isn’t laziness, it is restlessness. What else could I be doing instead? But wait, I have the time to do this now because in the near future I may not.
So frustrating is this internal debate that I upload what little code I had to GitHub and then decide what to do with all of this…later. Maybe the reason is I just spent the last few weeks in code building this website and the Archive website and writing articles on here, and creating newsletters and podcasts and and and I just need a break. I’ve lost my way and my desire.
Speaking of breaks, I am going to relax and finish listening to this album that was playing in the background while typing this up:
Delta Kream by The Black Keys
Finally. Pt 2
It’s only been two weeks since I ordered the Ricoh GR camera then I finally get this notification:
Polaroid
When you see two packs of expensive Polaroid film discounted, you pick them up every time. 2 for $12 instead of $36? Yep.
Gunboat Park Neon
A few more neon signs went up along Route 66 in Tulsa that I meant to capture before work travels and had forgotten. I was reminded by a recent drive-by and had to stop of course.
36.14780° N, 95.98141° W
Click here to find more neon on the photography website.
Time Machine
“My camera is a Time Machine. A camera can be able to stop the world, in that we stop the world and then investigate what is there, carefully.”
-Hiroshi Sugimoto
Post-Process
I just said goodbye to the $112 Adobe Lightroom annual subscription, again. Now I need to dismantle my Portfolio. I’ll let the $75 annual Flickr subscription lapse to and see which of the 47k+ images they’ll cull down to 1,000 on a free account.
This leaves me with nowhere to post my photos since I really do not want to do that on my blog. Not that it matters because no one sees them anyway.
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UPDATE 2024/02/27: I have decided to go with an inexpensive, self-hosting option on my server using the Piwigo template. Right now it is basic and barebones, but I will build it out over time. For now, here it is naked: http://www.photodenbow.com
Why bother with any of it?
However, I will save money and time by not futzing with any of it, regardless of how much enjoyment and utility I received from those services.
Hmm…
50/365
My photo-a-day project is going so far so good with 50 days in a row using my Hipstamatic camera. Check them out on the photography portfolio website, Photo Denbow.com
You’ve Been Served
Now that I am back home for a bit I can finally play around and setup the Mac Mini desktop computer as a standalone file server.
“Minnie” is all setup to host and share any number of photos, music, videos and documents to any of my (and Sweet T’s) iDevices. Even better, I will have the ability to retrieve these documents from anywhere in the world as long as I have access to an internet connection.
In the near future I will migrate all of my website code and documents on to Minnie and use it as a cheap, self-hosting website.
Time Machine back-ups of all of my hard disks, will be stored and easily retrieved if necessary. (Hopefully it won’t be necessary)
I will also be able to host and serve all of my own Podcast files as opposed to relying on a third-party file host that I pay for.
And then, I can run and publish other sites I need including my own RSS server.
All of this is designed for easy access, off-site backups/restoration, and file sharing with family/friends. Which reminds me, eventually I will allow access so family members can view/download our family’s images. “Hey Chris, do you have those pics from that 2012 Christmas party?” Yep, go fetch!
Lunar New Year
Last week I ventured out to celebrate the ancient “Chinese New Year”, and then realized that a majority of Asian nations also celebrate but collectively call it “Lunar New Year.”
Now on to Houston’s Galleria District for indoor celebrations
While editing this article I was enjoying this soundtrack:
Next week I’ll share some highlights of the nearly 1000’s of murals decorating Houston.
再见, – Chris
PhotoDenbow
The restoration and rebranding of my portfolio website is now complete. Formerly known as “Silver Fox Photography” at silverfox.photography, it is back again to photodenbow.com. Now when you click on the Photography page at the top here, it will redirect you to the new website. Go check it out if inclined.
I even slapped a dark mode on to the site.
Lunar New Year Photos
Chinese dance troupe inside the Houston Galleria
Asia Town/International District/Houston/Texas
Red envelopes filled with small money bills are gifts to signify wealth & prosperity for the new year
Traditional Chinese dancers
street festival sights, sounds and smells
While writing this I was listening to: