Monday

IU / Monday / photo / Twitter — Comments Off on I do the photographic Don’ts – sometimes on purpose
11
Sep 17

I do the photographic Don’ts – sometimes on purpose

I delivered a lecture on photojournalism composition to a graduate class today. So we talked about the rule of thirds and margins and the golden ratio and visual storytelling and all of that.

My favorite section — after Step 1.) Removing the lens cap — is the Don’ts section. Don’t do grip and grin shots. Don’t shoot buildings. Don’t put people right up against a wall. Don’t let mergers creep into your shots. Don’t do the Facebook photo poses. You know, the let’s all get together and squat down, or throw fists on hips or, my favorite, just stand in front of a thing. It’s good for Facebook, not so much for the work you’re trying to do here. I show the students, who are always paying close and careful attention, several examples. I used this one of my mother-in-law for the Facebook photo:

Also, I need a haircut.

Yesterday’s sports talk show from the sports talk guys:

From the Department of You Gotta Love People:

football / Monday / Twitter — Comments Off on People overcoming things
4
Sep 17

People overcoming things

We’ve been in this weird debate off-and-on over much of the last year about whether there is anything redemptive in sports. I really think it started as the slight souring of one person’s opinion until that person saw it was getting a reaction out of people. And when you get a reaction, of course, you go all the way with it. So this conversation has morphed and twisted and disappeared and reappeared several times over the last year. And it has done so to the point where The Yankee and I will be watching some sporting event or reading some athlete’s story and she looks at me and says “SEE!?”

Like I’m the one that offered the offending opinion. I was not. Sports are silly, but there’s plenty of redemption in them. Redemption is sort of the theme of many sports, and one of my favorite humanistic themes in general. And while the following anecdotes, all from this glorious, long weekend, don’t really offer redemption, they do tell the tale of worth in sport. I commend them to you:

cycling / Monday / photo — Comments Off on And now, I will vent
28
Aug 17

And now, I will vent

I’ve had views like this …

… for about seven years now. It is a nice view. You understand the topography differently. You learn to be patient with yourself. You see the world at a different pace than you do from behind the windshield. And you see some things, too. Turkeys and deer and people doing odd things and strange sites you just might overlook when you’re moving at car speeds. Why, just last Friday three separate people — all supposedly adult human beings — walked right in front of my bike’s path over the course of a five mile stretch of my life. (I’ll bet you a dollar that happens at least once again tomorrow, because why look both ways when crossing the street. EDIT: It did.) And then Friday ended with a big truck whose driver couldn’t hardly be troubled to demonstrate an appreciation for the dynamics of a four-way stop while I was in the middle of the intersection. He got a well practiced European reaction I learned from watching pros racing.

Granted, the four-way stop thing is problematical because the local K-Mart closed last year and, consequently, no one has any idea where they are supposed to get their driver’s license anymore. Plus, people aren’t always their best driving selves anyway. And I’ll grant you what is likely just a limitation of habit and the human brain and the internal filtering system: sometimes drivers just don’t see a cyclist because that 15-pound frame with a human on it isn’t a two-ton truck, which is what they are actually looking for. On a bike, then, you accept this, and you have to always be on guard for it, and aware of a lot of other road rage, silliness and stupidity, too.

Which brings us to yesterday. I was out and about, enjoying a nice slow day on the bike because some days have to be slow days and the weather was nice and you soak those in. I’m on a road that ends in a T-intersection. I take this route every day when I’m traveling to the house from the office no matter if I’m driving or riding. You go down a little roller and then up the other side and there’s the stop sign.

Yesterday, while I was on my bike, I reach that spot with three cars in front of me. One car goes and there are two cars in front of me. The second car goes and so it is just me and a Fiat. And this guy turns on his left blinker, so I go to the right, which is the direction I’m going to turn anyway. And then this guy turns right …

Almost flattened me. And for all of that I caught up to him at a red light a block later. If you know that guy, give him the what for for me.

IU / Monday / photo / video — Comments Off on Eclipsed by the hype
21
Aug 17

Eclipsed by the hype

Today was my third eclipse. At least the third that I can recall. My first was in elementary school, when they took great pains to coach us into not looking up. We made the little cardboard pinhole thing and it was underwhelming. (It was only a partial eclipse where we were.) Then, in middle school, I was working one summer for a teacher and we were outdoors and watched another partial eclipse. It was underwhelming.

But this time, so much more of the sun would be eclipsed! A vast, vast majority of the sun where we are! And the hype machine had, of course, reached Mayweather-McGregor proportions. I’d said I wouldn’t bother, but if you hear the drumbeat long enough you’re liable to start dancing. So I got my gear and got ready:

Eclipse

Today was also the first day of classes for the fall term and everyone wisely avoided making ominous omens out of the two parallel events. But we put the eclipse up on the big screen for any curious folks who wanted to save their eyes and enjoy some really top-notch air conditioning:

Eclipse

And when I was walking into the building from elsewhere a student let me borrow his little eclipse card the school was distributing to several thousand people:

Eclipse

If anything, that’s just a terrific demonstration of the “size of the sun” in the sky. That’s in partial eclipse, but look how tiny it is, compared to what you normally think of as the sun’s size, which is really just pure radiation beaming down onto our heads and into our eyes — with which we are, I am told, never to use for solar contact.

Also, I made a video. This is 360 degrees, as I am still playing around with the camera to see what it will and won’t do. (Audio is a consideration, I realized this time out.) So move it around and see a few things:

I would have started the video a bit earlier, and caught more of the eclipse, but I encountered the two most clueless people I’ve met in some time. They whelmed me, but not overly so.

adventures / Monday / triathlon / video — Comments Off on What we did this weekend
14
Aug 17

What we did this weekend

Last spring The Yankee qualified for, and this weekend participated in the USAT Olympic Distance Triathlon National Championship. She’s awesome. Here are a few clips from the big race:

She almost hit a PR, and finished with a smile, despite some serious sun and legitimate heat. It was a great race!

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