It’s been a long while since I had a proper blog post…so here it is, and it has some images I found from late night driving during probably the coldest night of 2011, where the mercury dipped to about 7 degrees F.
From Cold Night, posted by John Welsh on 1/24/2011 (8 items)
Generated by Facebook Photo Fetcher
Snow exile, though bad for my personal economy, is good for catching up on a post or two and this past week was eventful. A wave of concerned Netizens mobilized and voiced valuable opinions regarding one of The Evils on the web, the use of images without permission. To sum it up, Pilfered magazine got busted. I won’t go into detail as they can be found at the Copyright Alliance.
Whether the debate falls into the messy area between fair use and infringement is not for me to decide. I don’t have a law degree. But I do know that it’s a really bad idea to take things that are not yours, publish them and then base your publication on that concept. Then to brag about it and weave it into the hipster culture is like tossing a rock at a sleeping giant. The giant will wake up and may proceed to eat you (though I think a Cyclops like the one Ulysees had a throwdown with is way cooler).
No mistakes to make about me, I’m all for community building through art and using tech to further it. So the idea behind this post is that not all Netizens are guilty of what a friend of mine calls the being part of the Shareware Generation. Some deserve of a lot of credit for their respect of copyright while others need a digital lashing. Today I received an email from a new blogger. Not exactly sure what her search terms were, but she stumbled onto an image from one of my recent photo explorations, the burning of flowers, and so appropriate for the title of her blog, FlowersandGasoline.
She also made it a point to ask permission to use an image of mine, a burning flower, as a Gravatar for her new blog. In return for posting she offered a link to my portfolio. And if I ever decided to rescind she would gladly take the image down. I said yes. I couldn’t resist since the blog’s title was so right on regarding what I had been doing, though sans the gasoline, using it is just too dangerous! So I made the offering in honor of Copyright Gods for their work mobilizing the masses. It just felt right in a karmic kind of way.
I’m really not trying to start a camera review/tech blog but I may as well share more results for those wanting to check out new gear.
I day tripped to a Scottish-Irish festival at Green Lane Park in Pennsylvania to shoot stills of sword fighting for a series on women’s sports. I also decided to perform a quick test with the D300s (and its video capabilities in a more journalistic way). During the first test, the camera was on a tripod and the circumstances were somewhat controlled. This test was a lot like how I usually work — on the fly.
The image quality was good (as expected), the built-in mic lacked punch (also expected) but was passable. Some form of Steadicam is a must when using this camera. Next up will be the arrival of a Beachtek XLR mic adapter (so good audio is possible) and to balance the Glidecam for use with the D300s.
1:30 am when I returned home. A full moon and a shimmery sky above, perfect opportunity to test The Revolution. Digital SLRs that shoot video, HD nonetheless. Canon already made its mark, fortunately Nikon was not too far behind — though I was stuck waiting for the leap frog of tech from competing companies that happens every year or so.
I don’t really like geeking out and talking tech in a blog. There are plenty of others who do a great job at it. But this is a post worthy of pocket protectors. Knowing that the amazing clouds overhead would not last long, I quickly set up a tripod with the D300s and a 300mm lens then shot the moon. I wasn’t quite set up for an audio rig yet for the D300s, so I broke out my H4 along with a genius invention — a Rolls 9V battery powered portable pre-amp, an Audio-Technica stereo mic and I was set. A half hour or so of shooting and recording then some time lapse editing, transcoding and uploading and presto, a 50 second clip worth posting.
Ok, it’s no surprise not that I bought a camera or that it’s my first Canon. I don’t participate in the Canon vs. Nikon or Mac vs. PC wars…but being a longtime Nikon user I wanted to experience the other side and since I was looking to replace a point shoot camera, the Canon G10 seemed a good choice.
What was was really fun for me was the testing out the video capabilities of the G10 (too bad it doesn’t shoot HD). I took it for a test run during the weekly summer parties that are now at The Piazza in Northern Liberties. Would I think of using this for any pro work? Surely not, but it’s fun to keep around.