August 2018 Archive

Progress

2018-08-10 05:00:00

Time to get serious and disciplined regarding digital asset management (DAM). As I type, I am transferring files off of the various external hard drives to a master file on my computer. Then I will use Lightroom to remove the duplicates, sort the wheat from the chaff, sort by year/month, geotag, keyword and then maintain this archive. After this I will upload to my photo hosts. On backup drives, Flickr and Smugmug.

With my new camera, I am considering this all to be a clean slate. Way overdue.

Photo Archeology

2018-08-10 05:00:00

My very first digital photograph back in November 2001.

When I was away at college I borrowed my father’s Olympus C2100. I loved the zoom and bokeh it produced. This had helped solidify my photography enthusiasm.

I discovered this when sorting through the archives and organizing the digital assets (DAM). Yeah, it’s simple, but we all start somewhere.

8/8 GHR Check-In

2018-08-09 05:00:00

Time to evaluate my progress for my Groundhog Resolutions, the 10th annual attempt at creating life-long habits for myself. I’ve discovered that right after the end of the year holidays I am not mentally or physically capable of sticking with resolutions for the upcoming new year. I need a break so I take the whole month of January off to reflect and plan and start on 2/2 instead of 1/1.

I’ll check back in on myself on 9/9

Fun-

Get another tattoo: Coming soon

More camping: It’s hot y’all. And the last attempt was off asphalt and sand dunes. Fall cant get here fat enough.

50 Books a year challenge:

Up to 25. Halfway! Time to hit those books because…winter is coming.

Fitness-

Kickboxing: Tae Bo for the win

Yoga: Daily practice early in the morning really helps here

More 5 & 10k obstacle course racing: See above. It’s hot.

Consistent training: Dropping Planet Fitness in favor of a new gym here called Vasa. More amenities to keep my body interested in going to begin with.

Consistent nutritional training: Work in progress. I’ve dropped soda pop and going with water, soda water and/or beer. Less eating out too. Small victories.

Hashing: Waiting on cooler. Got called out by Tulsa Hash House Harriers Mismanagement for it too. Will be paying for it when I’m back on trail.

Hiking: Taken more than a few hikes this year and explored familiar and new trails.

Geocaching: Discovered a couple of quick park and grabs in some interesting places.

Meditation: More and more necessary. My brain is so scattered with everything I want to do. This helps center me.

Creative-

Complete my book: I discovered some very interesting facts about the Khmer empire recently that will be crucial to my understanding and telling. Also coming up with more random ideas for stories. probably short stories all of them but eh. We’ll see.

Photo essay on a topic I am passionate about: Currently shooting the Tulsa, After Dark series. Humans of Tulsa (HOT) is on hold. Haven’t been going out as much. Need to change this soon to keep the project going.

Video log every month: Fail. Lack of interesting dialogue, forgetfulness.

Leave inspirational notes everywhere: Doing this at home in sneaky places for people to find is fun. Need to go public.

Year in photos album: 2017 is just there, waiting on me. Cannot wait to see what 2018 memories I’ll have at the EOY.

Shoot more film: Buy more film. Ain’t cheap!

Find my muse: Found her. Now how to use her?

DAM: Failing. This MUST change. A new camera can help me here with different file formats. I will discipline myself with this fresh start. But the previous decades of work? Overwhelming.

The (Mis) Adventurous Life

2018-08-09 05:00:00

I grew up watching great action movies like Star Wars, Die Hard and Indiana Jones. Adventure stories have stood the test of time, why is that? Because they are us.

We identify with these stories because life is adventurous.

Or misadventurous (I just made a new word).

Fight a good fight. Overcome adversity. Get the girl. The difficult part is that these adventures are ongoing. Good and evil, work and play, love and loss. All of these make great adventures and stories because they are us. It is who we are.

Fortune Cookie Wisdom #9

2018-08-04 05:00:00

“The simplest answer is to act”

Photo Archeology

2018-08-10 05:19:46

My very first digital photograph back in November 2001. When I was away at college I borrowed my father’s Olympus C2100. I loved the zoom and bokeh it produced. This had helped solidify my photography enthusiasm. I discovered this when sorting through the archives and organizing the digital assets (DAM). Yeah, it’s simple, but we all start somewhere.

8/8 GHR Check-in

2018-08-09 18:32:12

I’ll check back in on myself on 9/9

Fun-

Get another tattoo: Coming soon

More camping: It’s hot y’all. And the last attempt was off asphalt and sand dunes. Fall cant get here fat enough.

50 Books a year challenge: Up to 25. Halfway! Time to hit those books because…winter is coming.

Fitness-

Kickboxing: Tae Bo for the win

Yoga: Daily practice early in the morning really helps here

More 5 & 10k obstacle course racing: See above. It’s hot.

Consistent training: Dropping Planet Fitness in favor of a new gym here called Vasa. More amenities to keep my body interested in going to begin with.

Consistent nutritional training: Work in progress. I’ve dropped soda pop and going with water, soda water and/or beer. Less eating out too. Small victories.

Hashing: Waiting on cooler. Got called out by Tulsa Hash House Harriers Mismanagement for it too. Will be paying for it when I’m back on trail.

Hiking: Taken more than a few hikes this year and explored familiar and new trails.

Geocaching: Discovered a couple of quick park and grabs in some interesting places.

Meditation: More and more necessary. My brain is so scattered with everything I want to do. This helps center me.

Creative-

Video log every month: Fail. Lack of interesting dialogue, forgetfulness.

Leave inspirational notes everywhere: Doing this at home in sneaky places for people to find is fun. Need to go public.

Year in photos album: 2017 is just there, waiting on me. Cannot wait to see what 2018 memories I’ll have at the EOY.

Shoot more film: Buy more film. Ain’t cheap!

Find my muse: Found her. Now how to use her?

DAM: Failing. This MUST change. A new camera can help me here with different file formats. I will discipline myself with this fresh start. But the previous decades of work? Overwhelming.

The (Mis) Adventurous Life

2018-08-09 18:19:10

I grew up watching great action movies like Star Wars, Die Hard and Indiana Jones. Adventure stories have stood the test of time, why is that? Because they are us.

We identify with these stories because life is adventurous.

Or misadventurous (I just made a new word).

None

2018-08-04 22:31:20

Fortune Cookie #9

“The simplest answer is to act”

Sixth Street Showers

2018-08-30 05:00:00

A Non-Expert Guide To Writing

2018-08-29 05:00:00

Three important lessons for people who are inspiring writers and have never done this before:

Get a unique story idea.
Plot it out.
Research and study the hell out of your topic and genre.

A fourth lesson would be to stop focusing on all of those and just get to writing something. Anything. Please.

It’s Not Relevant

2018-08-29 05:00:00

Instagram sucks.

It used to be a great way to network with great photographers and friends. It has evolved from a creative community into an abomination of memes, unoriginal work and advertisements. When Facebook purchased Instagram everyone knew that it would change drastically and not for the better.

Shortly after, ads were popping up with no regard for anything. Nothing was relevant because Facebook hadn’t yet figured out your likes, dislikes, friends. It still hasn’t figured me out. I am seeing ads for candy, ads for salt. Yes, salt. Ads for a house flipping seminar by some faux celeb on a DIY channel. Ads for paint etc etc. What the hell does salt have to do with photography? This is a photography platform…or it used to be. IG has added video features, photo/video stories, IGTV for longer video stories. All laced with ads.

FB and IG both have shitty algorithms that is distracting what we want to see. Their shitty algorithms have also destroyed the order in which we want to see our friend’s photos by assuming they know best. But FB and IG don’t know me at all. They’ve stopped caring and allow any advertiser to show whatever they want, relevant or not and then have access to our data.

How pervasive are these irrelevant advertisements? It averages one ad for every four photos in your feed. Four, maybe five of your colleague’s images and then you get a “sponsored post”.

These are the offered options when telling IG you don’t want to see their ads:

Why don’t you want to see this ad?
It’s not relevant
I see it too often
It’s inappropriate

Deleting Facebook was easy. I never took it seriously and my friends appreciated me mocking everything that they enjoyed about FB.

Speaking of deleting…I just accidentally erased my whole last paragraph and don’t have the energy to recreate it. Anyway, IG sucks and I am getting real close to pushing that “delete account” button.

**Update** It is gone.

Get Lost

2018-08-24 05:00:00

“…to be lost is to be fully present, and to be fully present is to be capable of being in uncertainty and mystery. And one does not get lost but loses oneself, with the implication that it is a conscious choice, a chosen surrender, a psychic state achievable through geography.”

- A Field Guide To Getting Lost

iA Writer

2018-08-23 05:00:00

After several free trials, beta tests and tribulations of desktop writing software I have finally decided on my tool of choice. iA Writer helps me take notes and create the stories I want to tell (not calling myself a writer or author yet). The criteria I needed:

Cross-platform (Windows, iOS)
Inexpensive
Clean, simple and aesthetically pleasing
No overwhelming amount of tools that I’ll never use

Mission accomplished.

on the desktop ^

on the iPad ^

Stay Or Go?

2018-08-23 05:00:00

When I noticed recently that the total number of photos stored on my computer is almost 40,000, it seemed time to do some organizing and pruning. No problem right? Just get rid of the images I don’t want and look for the keepers.

So, what to do with pictures like the one above? It’s probably not worth saving for the fact that it snows in Houston Texas once every ten years. Or that we only had enough snow to make this cute little guy on the top of our car. Look how cute that baby carrot nose is.

The photo features a brilliant blend of colors and an excellent bokeh and was shot three days before my birthday in 2009 at f/5.6 at 1/500 seconds on my old Nikon D90 with no flash.

Yes, I’ll keep it.

One down, 39,999 to go…

Why Photography?

2018-08-15 05:00:00

Ever since I snapped my first digital photograph I was hooked. Sure, it is fun and there is almost instant gratification but what else? Why else does someone pick up a camera and invest a lot of time, money and effort?

I have known a lot of creative people over the years. They don’t have all the best gear, in fact they bought it second hand and have worked wonders with what they have. And then there are the gung-ho, all-in technical photographers.

These people are very clinical, technical and deliberate. Everything has to be perfect before they depress that shutter button.

I’d like to think of myself as a good mixture of the technical and the creative. And this is a very good reason why we choose photography. Because it offers us both.

Most photographers are lone wolves. Others enjoy shooting with others in packs. And this adds to the question, why photography? It can be as social or solitary as you like. Truly something for everyone. For me, again, I enjoy both. I love roaming and exploring alone. I have my camera with me to document these unique spots and save them for future use. Other times, I thrive on meeting with others to share what we know and learn together.

Once you get past your initial investment of your gear, photography is an inexpensive hobby. This can be a source of endless enjoyment for years so why not photography?

Photography may be the best example of flexibility. If you are stuck inside and cannot go shooting outdoors, then no problem. Time to get creative and capture something inside your makeshift studio. Take this time to study your craft, or play with existing work on your computer. When the weather is better, grab your gear and go shoot some more. Photography can be both an indoor and outdoor project.

Photography is therapeutic in that if you have your gear, a great location and subjects your day can be relaxing and rewarding. These are a few of the reasons why I do photography.

A Non-Expert’s Guide To Writing

2018-08-29 06:01:54

Three important lessons for people who are inspiring writers and have never done this before:

Get a unique story idea.
Plot it out.
Research and study the hell out of your topic and genre.

A fourth lesson would be to stop focusing on all of those and just get to writing something. Anything. Please.

It’s Not Relevant

2018-08-29 05:39:46

Instagram sucks.

How pervasive are these irrelevant advertisements? It averages one ad for every four photos in your feed. Four, maybe five of your colleague’s images and then you get a “sponsored post”.

Think these offered options matter?

Why don’t you want to see this ad?
It’s not relevant
I see it too often
It’s inappropriate

Think again.

Deleting Facebook was easy. I never took it seriously and my friends appreciated me mocking everything that they enjoyed about FB.

iA Writer

2018-08-23 14:31:23

After several free trials, beta tests and tribulations I have chosen iA Writer as my tool to help me create stories I want to tell (not calling myself a writer or author yet). The software for me had to pass several standards such as: Cross-platform (Windows, iOS) Inexpensive Clean, simple and aesthetically pleasing. No overwhelming amount of tools that I’ll never use Mission accomplished.

Stay or Go?

2018-08-23 13:49:54

The photo features a brilliant blend of colors and an excellent bokeh and was shot three days before my birthday in 2009 at f/5.6 at 1/500 seconds on my old Nikon D90 with no flash.

Yes, I’ll keep it.

One down, 39,999 to go…

2001-2013

2018-08-11 06:42:28

That is the amount of photos discovered in the archives I am sorted and am backing up. This is most of it so far but I just discovered others from other hard drives. To say nothing about the images from 2013-2018.

Estimated time to completion is 11.5 hours to transfer 236 GB. It is 1:41am.

Progress

2018-08-10 18:35:42

With my new camera, I am considering this all to be a clean slate. Way overdue.