Ugly, but better than nothing
OK, I promised a new header image.
Done piss poor strobist syle. The FL-40 connected to the e420 with the rf-602. Shot taken with the IR remote fot the grip, that is what is in my left hand. Cropped to a strip. Manual focus on the monitors. f/8.0 @1/15 to get and image of the screens.
I discovered that there is a way to turn the camera into continuous mode with the IR. Only I do not know what I did, took about 60 images. Of course the flash could not keep up with that so they were all underexposed. I am guessing the camera could save the images because of the long shutter time giving long enough to flush the buffer. I can not think of a reason I would want to do that on purpose.
I set it up this time so the image is remote, and I hope that to change it in the future all I will hav to do is replace the image with one of the same name.
Ethics v Law
I started this as a reply on a forum where a quiry about software quickly became a diatribe against piracy, then decided that it was way off topic there, but not here.
I always wonder why it is OK for corporations to rip off their customers, but not for customers to rip of corporations. Of course, they claim I am paying for support, but other than for a defective product I can remember only two occasions that I have called support, of course I have only been dealing with computers since 1961.
But then, I wonder why I have to pay the same for my coffee, when I do not use cream and sugar as those that do.
However, I do not have much of a problem with Adobe, their products generally work, and they do not have a virtual monopoly (the thread was about Photoshop CS5).
Since I am being semi-humorous, and philosophical, I will add; why is it that the all people who know the difference between right and wrong think that they are right and that anyone who disagree with them is wrong?
Another question, and I will make it personal to myself, if someone prints up one of my photos and hangs it on his wall, how does that hurt me? I figure he was not going to buy a copy from me anyway, so I am not losing any money. Now if he started selling copies of the photo he would maybe be taking money out of my pocket, but not by using it for his personal use. However, I do know people who become incensed about the idea that someone is going to steal their photos, even when no one in their right mind would want it.
I once had a friend who said we needed laws because without them he would do whatever he wanted. While to me they are not much needed because I have a strong sense of personal values that limit my actions. Most of the laws I take issue with are those that have to do with victimless crimes; if there are no victims, where is the crime except in the minds of those who wish to control others?
Our laws do not subscribe to the idea that “turn about is fair play”, but they ought to. If someone deliberately hurts you, you ought to be allowed to hurt them with impunity. If someone robs you, you ought to be allowed to rob them with impunity. That is not the same thing as vengence. Vengence is where you overwhelmingly punish someone for some infraction. Turn about is just appling the person own values to him. If he feels he has the right to hurt or rob you, then you have the right to hurt or rob him. You are only using his own ethics in dealing with him. Of course that is situational ethics, but is that such a bad thing?
Where Does the Time Go
I feel like I have done nothing in the past several days, yet the time has just flown by. Of course I have been ill again, but what the heck? I have done nothing but browse the web, hang out in forums, watch old movies, the local library has lots of old movies on VHS and DVD, reread books, and sleep.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers was the same old hooky story, but wow, Nash Police Cars, Richland gas stations, and all kinds of things I have not seen since I was a kid. What a historical document that film turned out to be.
Wizard of Karres, a book that shows that books written by committees are not as good as ones written by single authors, Witches of Karres by James H Schmitz, which it is a spin off from. I have noticed that before, two authors sometimes OK; more, almost always a bore.
What’s New?
First this in the first post on the new version of Wordpro. They have changed all the interfaces, so it is just like starting over. I wonder why programmers insist on doing that? What I like least is that it no longer gives me info on how many words I have written. I try to keep these posts between 250 and 1500 words long.
ADDED: Just discovered that they had moved the word count to the bottom of the editing window.
I got an ink refill set for the CISS on the Epson 1400. It was easy enough to refill the tanks, but I think I will get a system that uses bottles with nozzles on them next time, so I will not have to mess with syringes.
I finally got the part to fix the four wheel drive on my old Mini Blazer. The weather was perfect for working on the truck. So how does it work? I do not know, I do not have a needed tool to get the front drive shaft yoke off. You need to remove that so that you can pull the syncro-motor off the transfer case, after you remove the three bolts that hold it in place, so it will have to wait until I have enough funds for the tools, and the weather is nice. We arecurrently starting into a least a week of rain. Oh well, that is better than 3 weeks of snow.
Got the 40-140 telezoom for my e420. It was a deal only $99 bucks if you bought the camera with the kit lens. I picked up an extra CF card, and a couple of spare batteries for the camera. The battery grip was missing the spring in the bottom battery compartment and the seller eventually sent me one. Only now I am not so sure it was missing, because with the spring in there the latch will not hold the battery against the spring pressure. Sigh… I guess I will have to remove the spring.
The Olympus e420 has the capability of saving both raw files (.orf) and jpeg’s at the same time. Only, that has resulted in some strange exposure problems. It has been driving me nuts. My current theory is that they implement most of those features by biasing the exposure. I will have to do some experimenting to verify that, but if that is what is happening I will be going back to strictly raw files.
I have noticed that since I decided to again make photography my central interest, I have come into some serendipitous funds several times that has helped me get things I need to do that. Now if the weather would just cooperate. Oh well, after ten years of drought around here, I guess it is time to get back to wet foggy weather.
You probably have noticed that I still have not shot a new header photo. Mostly laziness, but also poor health, a bad back, and the late winter blues.
these four words make 501 –Good Day!
Sick as a Dog
I spent this past weekend sick as a dog. I figure I picked up something during my routine visit to the doctor. I seem to get a cold or something every time I go in there anymore. This thing this weekend was a lot worse than a cold. I am beginning to think I should have “lived fast, and died young”.
I once again had problems with eBayers. The battery grip I ordered was missing one of the springs in the battery compartment. They were nice enough, said they would look and see if they had one. The then dummied up on me, did not respond to emails, etc. I filed a dispute with PayPal, and they immediately responded to that. They claimed their junk mail deleted my emails. Said they had a spring, and would send it as soon as I closed the dispute. ??? Wait a minute! Fool me once, OK. But I am not going to be a sucker twice. I responded that I would close the dispute as soon as I get the spring. All this hassle over a 10¢ part. Anyway, they said they had mailed it, but it has not arrived yet. Sigh.
A week ago last Saturday, it was fairly nice out and I went uptown and shot a bunch of photos with the new camera (Olympus e420, for those who have just come in) on auto. I had it set to save a raw file and a VGA (640×480) size jpeg. All of the raw files were usable, most of the jpegs were rather under exposed. A couple of examples:
First the jpeg as it came out of the camera.
And then the raw, default ACR settings, downsize to 640×480, converted to 8 bits, and saved for the web.
So, for the people who ask why I shoot raw, that is the reason.
Oh, if I had been doing my usual thing the jpegs would have no doubt came out better. My usual thing is to shoot manually, metering with my incident light meters. In fact, the next day I went out to the Greenway Trail Park and shot some snow shots that way. A couple of the jpegs had burnt out highlights, bad technique on my part, while the raw files were OK.
The problem, for those who do not know, in both cases is that what you see in the jpeg is what you get, any data that was lost was permanently gone, while with the raw files everything that was captured is still there (as long as you do not overwrite the file with an edited version). For example the default conversion burns out the highlights like on the jpeg’s, you can go in and change the settings and there are your highlights.
I have to go check at the Post Office and see if that spring has arrived. So long until next time.