Chicago Reader – featured photographs
The Chicago Reader a really great and free weekly paper about all things Chicago has started a featured photograph section called "You Shoot"
The rules are simple: add some of your images to the Chicago Reader flickr group and if they like one, it'll be featured on the "You Shoot" portion of their website. Not a bad deal. I'm not sure how long my image will be up there but here's the link: http://www.chicagoreader.com/youshoot/
I'm pretty humbled being up with there with the likes of only-connect. Enjoy all the photographs.
A further slide in the world of film
There has been no official word (and there might not be) but Canon has quietly placed all but one of their film SLR bodies into the "Discontinued" category. The one remaining is their high-end professional SLR: the 1V.
http://www.canon.com.hk/En/Consumer/Product/Discontinued.aspx?series_id=1
It is not so much a surprise but it certainly is another sign post along the road that photography has changed considerably in the past few years.
helloheather and I still own 2 film SLR bodies and will likely have them until they become collector items. The market for used film bodies has fallen so low that it would hardly be worth the effort to sell them. They offer more as backup bodies in case the DSLR fails or if a second body is needed for double-duty than they would on ebay.
It was only a few years ago that DSLR's were prohibitively expensive for all but the very rich individuals or the corporations that needed them. Now you can buy used DSLR's for a few hundred dollars. Amazing changes, to say the least.
Magnum Photos releases a blog
Magnum is a photography agency that employees some of the best photographers in the world. Started by four photographers after WWII, it was one of the first of its kind and allowed photographers (in particular photojournalists) to control the works they created.
Some of their current members are now blogging which you can find here:
Very interesting stuff.
Little by little…
Despite the extremely low temperatures we've been receiving, I much prefer this weather to that of winters past. The cold mean the snow stays around, it means we don't have to look at dead grass all winter but clean white covers of softness.
And coupled with this, our snowfalls have been numerous but not difficult to handle. Save that first snowfall (that all melted away anyway) we continue to receive a inch or two here and there, slowly building up a nice layer of winter. Last night we received another 3 inches or so. It's like a fresh pallet every week and I'm very happy for it.
Today the Chicagoland area will be at or near 30 deg F for the first time in a very long time. I'm going to try and make the most of it by walking. Sadly I won't be taking my new gloves with me. Following my previous post on the subject I ordered a pair of gloves from Campmor. Sadly they lasted exactly one day. By the end of just one walk, I noticed a hole in the thumb of one of the gloves. Very frustrating to say the least.
A couple weeks ago Canon sent back our A80 which was in for a (free) repair due to a faulty Sony CCD. Much to our surprise they also fixed the damaged top-plate of the camera (former damage seen here). Sadly, however, the camera has re-developed the same fault that caused it to be sent in in the first place. Dealing with Canon the first time on this issue was fairly painless, except for the fact that I was without the camera for a couple of weeks. Hopefully this will be a repeat of the previous experience.
This weekend we found out that Nathan has been exposed to RSV. While I'm very worried about him I'm very glad to have found out from the parent of the child who currently has it. That way we can keep a closer eye on Nathan should he develop symptoms (which are easily confused with a common cold).
On a lighter note, it should be noted that when I step off the train in the evenings there is now light still remaining in the sky. Deep bands of pinks and purples off to the west fill my heart with warmth and joy. It's really good to see the sun again.
Progressive Scan CCD readout
I make no secret of my disgust of my cell phone's built in camera. It's really bad.
But because it's bad means it can sometimes be very interesting. For example:
Notice how everything is leaning one direction, in particular the road sign? This image does not represent reality. Everything I photographed was perfectly straight. But because we were in a car moving at a very fast rate, the digital camera produced this image.
Why?
The digital camera starts reading data from the sensor by rows of columns: from upper-left to lower-right.
So, as we moved from right to left in the frame, the first thing the camera recorded was the sky above the barn and the last thing it recorded was the grass and the base of the sign. But by the time it got to reading that information, we had moved forward just a little bit.
This is a pretty pedestrian example of slow progressive scan. For something a bit more interesting, take a look at this photo on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=8798593&size=m
The image comes courtesy of a blog entry on a similar type of photographic distortion due to focal-plane shutters. Worth a read.
Thank you, Chicago Bears
The Chicago Bears made it farther this season than any of the 21 seasons prior and, quite frankly, it was a very entertaining.
What more can be said? The cold has sapped my meager brain of coherent sentences this morning.
So, congratulations to the Colts for their win and I hope to see both teams in the same spot next year 
Moonshiner
I've been a moonshiner
For seventeen long years
And I spent all my money
On whiskey and beer
And I go to some hollow
And set up my still
If whiskey don't kill me
Then I don't know what willAnd I go to some barroom
And drink with my friends
Where the women can't follow
Can't see what I spend
God bless them pretty women
I wish they was mine
Their breath is as sweet as
The dew on the vineLet me eat when I'm hungry
Let me drink when I'm dry
Give me dollars when I'm hard up
Religion when I die
The whole world is a bottle
And life is but a dram
When the bottle gets empty
it sure ain't worth a damn
Winter Slowdown
With the extreme cold we've been having it's been very difficult to get out and walk (and photograph). About 2 weeks ago a co-worker gave me a nice gift: a pair of gloves that fold-over to become mittens.
Something like this: http://www.campmor.com/cgi-bin/redir?prod=39158271
They were great. I could walk and photograph without having to take off my gloves and freeze my hands.
One week after receiving them I lost one. It fell out of the open pocket of my work bag. The reason the pocket was (and still is) open is that I broke the zipper on it and now it won't close. I lost it (the glove) somewhere either on the train or in the station after getting off the train. Sadly no one has turned it in to the lost and found.
I feel like a real idiot for rendering this gift useless (of course I lost the right-hand glove which is my shooting hand). It wasn't solicited and it was a very nice gesture.
So anyway, that put a crimp into my photography walks during lunch. That and the sub-20 deg temps we've had. Today was decent enough but my lunch hour was spent consuming too many hot wings while welcoming a new employee to the department.
Next week the highs are supposed to be around 7 deg. F which should make for /lovely/ hour-long walk. Really, I might stay out for an hour and a half then...
I'm going to have to start dumpster-diving into my archives for cetan.org images. It's too bad I don't have a decent film scanner at work I could work on scanning in lots of my old slides while waiting for the weather to improve.