I’ve had a lot of fun updating this blog since I started it nearly three years ago, but the time has come (at least, for now) to move on.
I started this blog back in January 2007 after returning from my first ever trip to CES. As lame as it sounds, that trip literally changed my life and ultimately the direction I wanted to take it. I met some amazing people during and shortly after that trip that showed me anything was possible and I could make one of my dreams a reality.
This blog has been online and active for 2 1/2 years which is an eternity in the blogsphere. So why am I deciding to end it now?
The first reason is time, or lack of. I don’t seem to have as much free time as I did when I started this adventure. I have since moved backed closer to all of my friends and have taken on additional review opportunities online. This gives me less time to devote to the blog, which needs a lot of attention and dedication to be successful. Not only do you have to update your blog frequently, it is also important that you read other blogs and comment there as well. Stuff like this helps to drive traffic to your own site.
In what seems to make very little sense, now that I have moved closer to my friends, I tend to do less “exciting” things and thus, there really isn’t as much interesting stuff for me to post here. Blog posts used to come naturally and I always had something to talk about or an opinion to voice, but that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. I guess you can say I got boring!
When I started this site, social networking was still relatively new. Now that Twitter and Facebook have changed the way we communicate and share information online, I can simply share my experiences through these mediums instead. Feel free to follow me on Twitter or add me as a friend on Facebook and I will do the same.
I still have a lot of things I want to accomplish and unfortunately this blog is at the bottom of the list. I toyed with the idea of monetizing this blog and changing its focus or even starting a new niche blog altogether, but as I have said in the past, that just didn’t feel right. There are a lot of things about blog marketing and such that I would have to research beforehand and again, I don’t have the time for that right now.
For now, however, I am just going to keep on keeping on and doing the things I love. I still love photography and will continue to post pictures on Facebook and Flickr. I’m still a big Dave Ramsey fan and hard at working paying off all of my old debt. Heck, I might even change my outlook on being single LOL.
All kidding aside, I want to thank everyone who has stopped by, read a post and commented on something here. I am certain the site wouldn’t have lasted this long had it not been for the reader participation during some of the blog’s more active times. I will be leaving the site online as I feel there are some valuable posts that others could learn from.
Each 4th of July, it seems we always end up watching a fireworks display somewhere. In 2007 and 2008 we ended up in downtown Memphis. This year, Adam, Kiwi and myself decided to try the Olive Branch City Park. It is much closer than downtown Memphis, much nicer, less crowded and has virtually no crime. It was rumored that the city spent 30 grand on the show, so it was expected to be entertaining.
We got to the park plenty early and found a nice spot to view the display. Seeing as I love photography, I was pretty excited to get some good photos, but that didn’t really happen. The park staff decided to leave the street lights on, so fail there. Also, it was pretty windy so 99% of the over 200 pictures I snapped turned out blurry and unusable. I managed to get a small handful that turned out semi-decent which I have posted below. You can click each photo for a larger version.
You would think that my fireworks pics would progressively get better over the years with experience but that hasn’t been the case. My 2007 set is by far the best and my favorite.
Either way, I had fun at the park and look forward to trying again next year.
It’s been quite a while since I last bought something for my digital camera (or any new toys for that matter). With Independence Day just around the corner, I wanted to make sure I have the best setup possible for photographing fireworks.
Last year, we arrived in downtown Memphis just moments before the fireworks show started and I had to borrow a tripod from a friend. This year, I have my own tripod, a Quantaray QSX-DigiPro 8500 that I purchased last year. With the tripod, there is really only one other accessory that I wanted to have to use this year, a wireless shutter release remote.
I had thought about buying this Nikon ML-L3 remote before but never really looked into it. I must say, I was pretty surprised to see it only cost $13.20, so I had little apprehension about “pulling the trigger” and making the purchase.
Not only will the remote shutter release eliminate blurry pics from my finger pressing the shutter, it is also necessary if you want to use the BULB setting (keeping the shutter open as long as you want) on your DSLR. This is great for doing star trail photos, which is certainly something I want to experiment with.
Are any of you photo buffs? What sort of equipment do you use and what are some of your favorite types of photography?
I finally found some time a few weeks ago to get out and snap some “real” HDR photos.
The ones I have posted here on the blog previously were done by adjusting contrast from a single photo and thus, the results were sub-par. These new shots, however, were done taking three individual photos and combining them using Photomatix Pro.
Below are a few examples, but I decided not to post them all here simply because doing so at such low resolution really lowers the overall quality. You can see some “full size” examples by Clicking Here.
Here are a few more HDR pics that I worked on earlier today. I’m still awaiting a good opportunity to snap some pics specifically for this, instead of using old photos I have already taken…
I plan to put these on Flickr soon, as this low resolution doesn’t really do them justice.
A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I wanted to try my hand at HDR photography. I finally spent a few hours tonight trying it out on some older photos I have. The results so far are pretty promising, but I know I have a lot more to learn still…
Yeah, I am a bit late on this one, but I hope everyone had a great Easter holiday. This is the first time I can remember where Easter was not in April, which totally threw me off for a good week or so beforehand. Anyway, just an update to a previous post about the Vancouver Union Gospel Mission - John Chow members raised over $7,500 in donations, very nice!
NCAA Tournament
Are any of you college basketball fans? The NCAA Tournament is in full swing, with the Sweet 16 already announced. I am not a basketball fan, but I watch the occasional game here and there. Keith isn’t a fan either, but that didn’t stop him from joining a pool with some of this other friends. He won this pool a few years ago simply by picking “teams with funny names” - nice! He has the championship game as Memphis vs Tennessee, with Memphis taking the win. Are any of you betting in pools this year?
Tax Time
Josh came down yesterday to help me get my taxes done. I’ll be the first to admit that I am not good with taxes, but hey, I’m learning. We usually wait until the last moment to work on my taxes. I think this is the earliest they have been completed… ever. Have you prepared your taxes yet? Are you able to prepare them by yourself? And most importantly, what do you plan to do with your “economic stimulus” money?
HDR Photography
As many of you already know, I am pretty interested in photography. I love taking pictures of anything and everything. I got into infrared photography about two years ago with my old Nikon D50, but when I got rid of that camera / lens / filter setup, I didn’t pick up another IR filter for my new camera. I have been wanting to do more IR shots but can’t justify spending money on the filter since they are so expensive.
But, something new I am looking to try is HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography. HDR is a technique that “allows a greater dynamic range of exposures (the range of values between light and dark areas) than normal digital imaging techniques.” I am sure you have seen some photos online that have amazing colors and you wonder how exactly they were able to take such a nice photo, when nothing you snap comes even close. HDR is your answer.
I will be experimenting with some HDR photos in the coming weeks and if any turn out decent, I will post them up here. Have any of you created HDR photos? If so, were you happy with the results?
The Screen Savers Video
I thought this video was lost forever, but turns out, the former site owner Josh had a copy of his appearance on TechTV’s The Screen Savers. I’m not sure why I didn’t think to ask him about it sooner. Anyway, you can check out the first segment below.
Besides computers and technology, one of my other main passions in life is photography. I have always been somewhat interested in taking pictures, but I didn’t really get “serious” about it until January of 2006 when I purchased my first DSLR (Digital Single-Lens Reflex) camera, a Nikon D50. The main reason I bought this camera was for taking pictures of review products, but I soon found myself shooting more for pleasure than work.
The awesome thing about most DSLR cameras is that you don’t have to be a photography whiz to operate it; simply using the Automatic settings can net you some good results. Once you feel comfortable with your camera, you can start experimenting with some of the manual settings. Your camera’s user manual is a great place to start, but you can also find tutorials and guides online to further help you understand some of your camera settings, or even take some photography classes.
Once you have a good collection of photos, it’s time to start marketing them. There are several “stock” photo sites that will host your images and help you sell them. Stock photos are a bit different than most photos you will probably shoot and have several demanding requirements that must be met. These are pictures that can be licensed for specific uses and must be “generic” in form. They cannot contain any business logos or copyrighted material. If you have a person / people in your photo(s) that is recognizable, you must have them sign a model release waiver. Also, if you photos are not absolutely perfect, many of these sites will not accept them. Some of the more popular ones include iStockphoto, Big Stock Photo and fotolia.
If you are not interested in stock photos, you can elect to try and sell photos on your own. There are many ways to market your own photos, many of which are absolutely free!
Social networking sites are a great place to start. Sites like Myspace and Facebook allow users to create free photo albums. You can host your photos here and detail your pricing information in the photo description area and on your main profile page. Both of these sites also have user groups that you can join, where you can meet like-minded people and help share your pictures.
Photo hosting sites like Photobucket, Flickr and Webshots are other options that you can take advantage of when trying to sell your photos. Sites such as these allow you to label your pictures with descriptive “tags”, which will other users locate your images when searching for specific topics. As with the social networking sites, simply list your contact info. and prices in your profile.
Regardless of which method(s) you select, it is imperative that you put some kind of watermark or identifying text on your images. This prevents people from “stealing” your images and also is a great way to advertise your website or blog for free! I use a watermark on all of my online images (Flickr, Myspace, Facebook), either linking to my tech site, OCIA.net (before I started this blog) or directly to my blog.
Have any of you ever sold pictures online? I’d love to hear about what worked best for you…
I finally decided to sign up for a Flickr account. I have been meaning to do it for a while now, but just haven’t had the time.
For those of you who don’t know, Flickr is an online photo community. Think of it as the Myspace/Facebook for your pictures. You are able to upload pictures for free (100 MB per month), sort them and share them with friends or include them in various groups related to your individual picture(s). Flickr users can comment on each others pics, tag them as a favorite, etc.
I decided to purchase a Pro account, which removes several limitations on the free account, such as monthly upload limits and limits on the number of sets you can create. I’ve only uploaded around 400 pictures so far but I have several hundred more than I plan to add in the coming days.
Feel free to check out my profile page and leave some comments if you want
Yesterday I went to the MidSouth Fair with Kiwi, Adam and his friend Bobby. This was the last day that the fair would be in town, and it also happened to be wristband day, so you can imagine how crowded it was.
I’m not big on rides (obviously) so I usually just go for the food heh. I brought my camera along because I had some cool ideas for photos at night. I ended up only snapping a handful of pics because, well, I didn’t exactly feel safe there and I wasn’t about to go off by myself to take pics. Below are a few of the pics that came out semi-decent…
The Kamikaze. I was trying to get the camera settings just right, but the ride stopped before I got it were I wanted and then we moved on.
A little better I guess.
I think this one had the most potential, but way too many people in the way and I didn’t have a chance to get a better angle. The pics look better at higher resolutions; I might upload some larger samples later today.
