Harbin Park in Fairfield, Ohio is an interesting place. It is a city park, yet doesn’t feel like one as it is bigger than most. While it contains the typical basket ball and volleyball courts and covered picnic pavilions, it is also a target rich environment for Geocaches. It was this outdoor past-time that first lead me to Harbin Park on a regular basis. It is photography that brings me back.
Star Wars and Home Brewing Day (May, 4th) beckoned many to the outdoors as it was the first warm Saturday of the year. The passing clouds and wind kept one from being too warm and many took advantage. It was time to take advantage and shoot some video. Several people had been sending questions via YouTube and it was time to answer some.
Many ideas flowed through the brain: depth of field, rear curtain flash, HDRI. Which would survive the truth of the situation? Which would be forgotten? What new ideas would arrive once there and walking around? Oh the possibilities.
The first two videos are up on YouTube: Photography in Harbin Park – Intro and Being on the Path – Harbin Park. While walking down a wide path, a new opportunity came about. It was time to get the iPhone out to discuss how to get a blue sky. This is one of the most common questions asked of me. So, here’s the demonstration.
Visit the videos and enjoy. More editing is to be done and more videos will follow. Send your questions in. It is time to learn and explore photography. It is time to explore your own Harbin Park. It is time to get out and see the world through the lens.
English: Roasted coffee beans photographed using a macro technique. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Over the years, I’ve tried all manner of business. I’ve been in Amway. I did the iMall when it first started. I’ve tried Russ Dalbey’s real estate notes business. So naturally I had to try Coffee Shop Millionaire.
Like many people who have fallen so this scam, I came across a video narrated by Anthony Trister. Here he claims to show ClickBank accounts that he “hasn’t touched in 3-4 months” and are on “autopilot”. The numbers look impressive. A few thousands dollars in sales everyday can really add up. Wow. Tell me more.
Anthony goes how to say how this video will not be on the Internet for long and that it could be taken down at anytime. This is, of course, total bunk and is there to make you turn your purchase into an impulse buy. This is the take away maneuver.
The Coffee Shop Millionaire video continues to show sales by “ordinary people” who are using the system. The next phases being how much the program is worth. Anthony claims it is worth thousands. The truth? Simple searches using Google will show you all the Coffee Shop Millionaire program will teach you for free. Want to know about Google adwords? Search for it. Want to know how to use YouTube or FaceBook to generate leads? Search for it. The Internet has all this information for free. Why buy the Coffee Shop Millionaire to get free information?
This is why the price for the program drops the longer you watch the video. The value is given in thousands of dollars, yet the price starts in a few hundred. Then it drops to $97. Then $37. Some links will give you $10 off the price and therefore the worthless program can be had for $27. If this program was really worth thousands of dollars, do you really think it would be sold for $27? Image if this was a house and the bank claimed it was worth hundreds of thousands, but they stated it could be purchased for only $3,000. Would you wonder what is wrong with it?
Oh wait, there’s a users’ forum. Oh goody. Here people who have no idea what they are doing can exchange worthless ideas with one another. Yeah, no thanks.
In all, the Coffee Shop Millionaire is a worthless program. Want to do affiliate marketing? Spend some time searching the web for information, blend it together and find your path. Want to know SEO? Search on adwords and SEO, do it in your blogs and test the results. You surely don’t need some worthless Coffee Shop Millionaire program.
Keleigh in Black and White (Photo credit: BrainMuffin)
Several months ago my daughter started taking modeling classes. Not long ago she had her first photo shoot with their photographer. Afterward she told me I should make a portfolio and offer my services. Though I’ve been taking pictures since the late 1970’s, I’ve never pursued it as a professional. The true pros laugh at my Nikon cameras (D80 & D7000) as not “pro” cameras. I have seen what they produce and consider myself better than most.
My daughter agrees. After all, I’m not so creepy. I do like to take photos and am getting better at taking them of people. I do use manual mode quite often. And I do have a passion for photography. At least as a hobby, but as a profession?? Too scared.
Last month while in Phoenix, Arizona attending a Marketing and IT conference, I met the owners and founders of VForce. Sure, we talked shop, but we also talked about us. A item that became apparent to them is my passion for beer. I love developing recipes and having my friends try my home brew results. With the smallest of exceptions, my beers are as good as any craft beer that can be purchased in the store. Two of them told me I should really consider following my passion: beer.
For some time now I’ve been wondering which passion to follow and how to do so. Ever since my first encounter with computers I’ve had a passion for creating programs. My mother instilled in me talents for cooking, though it took me years to develop an outlet for my passion to cook resulting in eatable food. Discovering beer making spoke to my cooking passion, wanting to create and enjoyment of good beer. Photography allows me to be creative in capturing what my mind sees. In all avenues I’ve experimented from the start. Sometimes the food had to be dumped. Sometimes the roll of film was wasted. But most was success.
About 14 years ago I developed another passion. I truly love to help people discover their true talents and learn to express themselves through it. I yearn to watch people grow and blossom before my eyes. When I lived in Marion, Ohio I walked people through the results of their gifts test and helped them plug into the right groups to grow them. People found their place in the church and found a purpose to their service. My purpose was to help others find theirs. It was great. I ran.
Five years ago I switched from full time development to management. I still yearn to help people grow. I still want them to find their passion and pursue it. I still want to help. I still need to help. Now my passions are crossing paths.
Tonight at our yearly company meeting I learned something about a coworker I didn’t know. Her husband is a brewer and is looking to start his own brewery. He is meeting with perspective backers. Again beer has crossed my path. Again a passion is calling. I have no idea how I should respond. I know I cannot back him financially. I know I cannot leave my current position. I also know I cannot neglect my other passions to pursue only one.
So, I write. Why? Because it is another passion of mine. Somewhere in all this is a way to mix all my passions and still make a living. Somewhere in the stillness of these many streams is the answer. Somewhere. I need to be quiet and listen. Then be ready to move.
The Apple II Computer on display at the Museum Of The Moving Image in New York City. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
As an introvert, I grew up loving books. In the summer of 1979, I moved to Fort Belvoir, Virginia from Seymour, Tennessee. My father was in the Army in the Corp of Engineers and Uncle Sam decided he should takeover managing the construction project at Blue Plains. He was attached to the Capitol Area Office of the Baltimore Engineers, so we lived at Fort Belvoir on 21st Street (yeah, the Army can really pick great street names, can’t they??).
There my brother met David Panzer. He showed us both the great library on the Fort and my passion for reading was fed in overdrive. I would check out 12 books at a time and read them in a week. I loved the Hardy Boys books and soon moved on other mystery books such as Encyclopedia Brown. It would not be long before J. R. R. Tolkein would enter my life in the form of The Hobbit.
During the second half of my sixth grade year, I took an elective on book writing. It was taught by a wife of an Army officer who had written a children’s book about living in the African bush. She taught up about form and how to submit transcripts to publishers. My vivid imagination had an outlet. Over the next few years, I wrote about space battles and far off planets. I invented military ranks and battle plans. I wrote a short story about an invasion of Washington, DC. I used real maps to determine paths and defenses. We had no television, so reading and writing was what I did. (I also played against myself in Risk, but that’s another tale.)
Before I started 8th grade, Uncle Sam decided it was time to move us again. This time we packed up and moved to Fort Ritchie, Maryland where my father became the Facilities Engineer. Our first question was naturally, “Where is Fort Ritchie?” Nestled in the Mountains of Maryland in Cascade, it was a picturesque and quiet post. The perfect place for my imagination to grow. And grow it did. The plans became more elaborate. I started to create my own alphabets. One day, it all changed.
It was near the end of my 8th grade year. I was walking through the school library when I saw some of my fellow students using a computer hooked to a television. They were making a shape move across the screen. A Realistic cassette tap recorder from Radio Shack was connected for long term storage of programs (yes, recorded to cassette tapes as noise. so old school). The computer was an Apple ][. It was magical.
I watched and tried to learn. I pestered my fellow students for the syntax to AppleSoft BASIC. I had to know more. The library had little. There were programs and skills tests in our Algebra textbook, so I tried them. Soon I could write a program for any of the skills tests, even if we had not yet covered the math behind it yet. It was a whole new world.
Where the Apple ][ would take me I would learn over the coming years.
Customers are Ignoring You (Photo credit: ronploof)
Last week I attended the AAA Marketing/IT conference. It is an annual conference to cover ideas and trends going on in the world of marketing and information technology. This year, the conference was held outside of Phoenix near Chandler. The Wild Horse Resort held host.
The last conference was held 18 months ago in Boca Raton, Florida. The main message then was social, social, social. Twitter and Facebook were becoming good and powerful tools by which to push marketing messages. They are new ways to reach current customers and a new audience. For technologists, the social sites can be a headache with their increase in network traffic. Nearly every workshop was related to using social, leveraging social, accessing social and using social.
Time frames on the Internet move quickly. The short 18 months between conferences have lead to the latest trend: mobile. The discussion of mobile in all its facets was the main idea of the conference, repeated over and over. Experts from Google spoke on using mobile to reach the younger customers and the importance of knowing what kind of device is being used to access your website and what time of day it is. Adaptive design is a must on your website. If customers have a bad mobile experience on your site, it is very difficult to get them back.
The use of a mobile application is another way to access the customer. It must allow the user to be flexible and use it in ways intuitive to them. Make the customer work too much on using your mobile application and they will remove it. It too needs to take location and time of day into account. It must adapt. It must keep their attention.
The age of mobile is here. Smartphone sales have outpaced desktop computers for the last few years. This year, the number of smartphones on the Internet will be greater than number of desktop computers. More and more of your customers will access your web site from mobile devices of various types: phones, tablets and phonelets. They come in different sizes and every user on them expects to use your site within the proper context of their device.
WIP – Dragon Slayer – Base Render (Photo credit: BrainMuffin)
My journey back to rendering with LuxRender via Reality (a plugin made by Paolo Ciccone) from DAZ Studio has been a slow one. The last time I used Studio, it was under Windows. Now my life outside of work is all Mac. The navigation on the Mac for Studio is different is small, but not so subtle ways. Add to that the new version of Studio changed more items and one can see the road ahead.
Added to Studio now is a Content Manager. It will download your content and supposedly monitor for updates. The latter remains to be seen. I do like the smart content area under Studio, but it puts things in the oddest of places. Under DAZ Studio 2, the managing of content eventually drove me to blast it all away and start over. Try as I might, once enough was downloaded and installed, I couldn’t find crap.
Enter Smart Content.
Here meta data will show you content based on the current selection in the scene. When nothing is selected or the scene is blank, the user is at the top most level. Load a figure or clothing item or what have you and the content for that item is all that is shown. This includes materials, shaders, lights, etc made for that content. This is great when adding clothing to an actor and you want to change the pose or color or materials. No more scrolling through all the content and finding that. It is right there.
Alas though, not all content is smart. While DAZ is working diligently to update all the 3D content, it does take time. More recent and popular items are at the forefront. And what about all that free stuff you downloaded? Good luck. Well, perhaps that is harsh. The scuttlebutt is that one can create metadata for the content. That I’ve not tried yet, but am looking forward to trying.
After downloading V4, M4, D4, a bunch of props, the Multiplane Cyclorama and the Genesis starter, it was time to render something. Wanting to get started quickly and tired of trying to learn the interface changes for posing, the Dragon Slayer preset scene was selected and loaded. As this is going to be a learning experience with Reality, ACSELs and LuxRender, all was kept to defaults and a render has been started. Once complete, the image will be upload. I may make a video yet (looking for recommendations on video capture software for Mac-cheap/free, please).
The idea is quite simple. Load base scene, make a render. Make a change to the scene…say replace Genesis Michael with Vicki and add a skin ACSEL to her. Run a new render and share the results. Change out lights. Render again. Carry on till learning complete.
Yes, videos will be required.
Currently, the first scene is rendering. (Wait…am I repeating myself???) Three threads are going about beating on my iMac. Why not four? So I can still type. Two other computers are in on the rendering. What is that? Network rendering?? Yes, LuxRender supports network and GPU rendering right out of the box. How’s that for awesome?? So an HP DC 7800p with a Core 2 vPro is lending two threads to the mix. It is running 64bit Linux as well (needs a memory upgrade though). It is keeping pace quite well with the Q660 quad running in the firewall/router/server machine. Fully 4 GB of RAM in that puppy, which is all it can take on that old motherboard.
Here’s another plea. Are you local and have old machines that can run 64bit and want to get rid of them? Let me know. I’ll Frankenstein what I can and donate the rest to Crayons to Computers or the like. Yeah, I’m such a nice guy.
As for LuxRender, there is much more to learn. It does caustics and atmospherics and whole bunch more. The weeks ahead are going to be a great learning time. Ahead are tutorials my Callad, revisits to old tutorials by maclean and the hope of resurrecting and recreating old scenes. There will be bumps, but there will be GREAT fun.
The 2013 installment of the Cincinnati Winter Beer Fest has come and gone. This year continued the tradition of growing and growing. The crowds were bigger. The events louder. The beer list, about the same.
This year saw me passing out beer and checking ids. I did take a few photos here and there, but as I was not the official photographer, there will not be much posted. There will be none of Facebook. There might be a few on Flickr. No idea.
The event has now grown to alienate many of its early supporters. The crowds are now to the point where peace and calm have to be maintained. Some puked near the Kentucky Ale booth. Someone else pulled down the Brew Monkey’s large mug display. A guy tried to pick a fight with security. All in all though, still a well behaved crowd.
My self-imposed exile from the world of 3D computer generated graphics is finally coming to an end. Years ago I became upset when I entered a contest for renderings done in DAZ Studio. While the winning entries where good, I felt that several that ranked above mine were crap. I rarely got a mention. I worked for days on that render, poses people to see how the hands and feet should be. I was hurt.
A few years later, along came Paolo Ciccone and his Reality plugin for DAZ Studio. It let a user connect to the rendering engine called LuxRender. Unlike ray tracing, the engine dealt with light and materials more similar to what humans experience in the world. Light would now bounce off of services. Cameras worked like real world cameras. Light could be changed on the fly. ISO could be updated. Film effects. YES!
Being a photographer by nature and training, I was hooked. I bought it straight away and started to render. I made all kinds of stuff. Then…well, I burned out. Tried to reorganize my content. Started over. Switched computers…on and on. I went into exile.
The time has finally come to start again. DAZ has created a content manager to help with downloading all the content. Reality has moved to version 2. LuxRender has matured. Studio now runs in 64bit mode on a Mac. The materials plugin works on a 64bit Mac. Awesome.
My son wants to learn how to render. My daughter wants to make Anime characters. It is time to again start on the journey. It is time to return to doing something I love. It is time to stop playing World of Warcraft so much. It is time to make our own Reality and share it with others. It is time.
Paolo, I am ready. The technology is here. The children want to learn. There are now more computers on the network. A Journey back to Reality will now start.
Español: Tipo Myers-Briggs INTJ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
When I first posted a video on YouTube about being an INTJ, several people responded in support, others wondered. Could this guy really be an INTJ? After all. He’s on YouTube?
In that video I explained what an INTJ is and gave examples of famous ones from history. The Myers-Briggs test is a measure of someone’s personality traits. It is not a box to stuff people into, nor is it a box into which one may hide. It is a measure. It is a starting point of understanding.
Response to that video compelled me to share more of my test results. My more in-depth video was the result. Here I shared the actual test results, showing the pages. Yes, it was to show the doubters out there that I really am an INTJ. After all, these videos take a great deal of energy from me. Blog posting is much easier. Add to that, I tend to do the videos in one take, unlike say Karen Alloy (spricket24) who uses many quick cuts in her style. I’m more like say….the Snap Chick..Leigh…something….ok..moving on.
Several people sent me e-mails asking what it was like growing up. Ok…new video made. Now for the text.
My mother is an extrovert. So is my brother. My father is more introverted, but during my formative years Uncle Sam had him here, there and everywhere quite often. As a result, I was much closer to my mother. Being on opposite ends on the first letter did bring some misunderstandings. I wanted to be alone with my books and thoughts and ideas. She wanted me to get out of the house and meet people. We were both right, in our own ways.
Having social skills is important. One needs to be able to understand and communicate with others. After all, none of us are islands unto our selves. We need others to provide what we cannot ourselves acquire. But being with people drains an Introvert and eventually, there is a need to recharge. This my mother didn’t seem to understand till later in life.
Much of the time growing up, we had no television. My mind was my playground and my imagination became strong. In 1979, we moved to Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Here I could access the library on my own and I did. I read every Hardy Boys book they had. I tried the Bobbsey Twins and others. I read books as though I had a hunger, a longing. By seventh grade it was The Hobbit and the The Lord of the Rings series. I didn’t need television. I had my books.
And my mother said go meet people.
I was in the Boy Scouts till the younger kids annoyed me too often. I reached the rank of Star, though no further. Here I tuned my love of learning into merit badges. I had dreams, but no plans. I wanted much, but had no way to get there. After all. I had my books.
My teenage years saw me grow more introverted. I saw many of my fellow classmates as whiny children. I still see teenagers that way. Anytime I heard someone say “That’s not fair,” my only response was “Life isn’t fair.” I started to write more, sharing with no one. Who series of stories and novels danced through my head. I played Traveller. I wrote computer programs on paper. I had a few friends. We moved to Germany and I had woods to explore. Old ruins held high import to me. Moss fields became a land of mists and dragons. I created my own alphabets. I wrote. I shared none.
And my mother said to mingle and meet people.
During my senior year in high school, my interest in females grew high enough to actually talk to them. Half-way through the year I finally asked one out: Dee Dee Kreminak. We went to the movies and had pizza afterward. We talked about for hours. She was beautiful. We had a good time. A few weeks later I asked her to join my family for Ice Capades. She said she couldn’t, I’ve long forgotten why. I tried another date a bit later. No. Ugh. I was crushed.
My first attempt at being social and more than just seeing someone at church or school left me a bit crushed. Was I doomed for more introversion? On a train filled with American youth on its way to Berchtesgaden, the answer became no. Here I met Tracy Janner and a weekend friendship grew. She lived in Kaiserslautern, two hours away. I would see her twice more before leaving Germany. I learned a bit more.
Over the years I’ve had to work at being more open. I’ve also had to learn when to pull back. I tend to OCD on being extroverted when I am really pushed out of my Introvert shell. I am not really shy that much, just lending to observing people more than participating. After all, INTJs are Masterminds and Analytical.
I’ve learned when to let go of the Perfectionist tendencies and when to embrace them fully. There are times I lean on my INTJ traits and others when I abound to walk away. Growing up INTJ has been great fun and great frustration; heartache and love; sickness and health. It is who I am and I am wonderful. I seek to encourage others and know I can make a difference.
A selection of Samuel Adams (Photo credit: BrainMuffin)
It all began quite well. In the summer of 2009, the Cincinnati Beer Fest was being held for the first time at Roebling Point. Previously held in the Winter time, this was also the first time it was during the summer. Wanting to practice taking pictures of people, I wanted to attend and then wonder around capturing the event. I contacted the fest organizer, Craig Johnson, and he asked me to be the official photographer. This was a start of a partnership that would last 3 years.
The 2009 Cincinnati beer fest came and went. In February of 2010, the third annual Cincinnati Winter Beer fest has become too large for the hotel in Covington. For the first time, the fest was actually held in Cincinnati. Again held in a hotel, it quickly overran the facility, though many had fun. I again took pictures and had a great time meeting fest goers and talking to brewers.
The summer of 2010 was interesting. Craig Johnson wanted to do something different. In October, he conducted a fest on the Purple People Bridge. The setting was unique and it promised to be a good fest. The weather on the 10th was near 80, sky was clear and the crowd did other things. Still good pictures and good conversation.
Columbus also came on the menu for beer fests in 2010. Expanding in the May, the first was well attended and held over two days. The Columbus fest would grow to include the winter as well.
The beer fests of 2011 grew in attendance, beer selection and choice of events. The fests were held in Cincinnati and Columbus. The pictures were great too.
The year 2012 started as normal. The Columbus fest in January and the Cincinnati fest in February. In need of setup help, I arrived in Columbus hours early to do my time. The Cincinnati fest also took some extra time. I climbed the Leinenkugel’s truck to get great shots of the crowd. I wrote an Insider’s Guide To Surviving the Cincinnati Winter Beer Fest. All was well.
The summer Columbus fest was the beginning of the end. Though I could not attend anyway, I was not asked to take pics. It was a bit thrown together, so I figured it was an oversight. Then the Columbus Winter fest came and went. No call. Now the Cincinnati beer fest is close and I’m not taking pictures.
It is the end of my era as fest photography geek. I may still be there as a beer slinger, but it is not nearly as fun. Being able to walk among the crowd, talk to the attenders, chat with beer industry insiders. That’s what beer fest means to me. I may have to find new meaning.
