Dream Assignment

Published on March 12, 2009 in blogging and Indonesia. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , .

So I submitted a “Dream Assignment” idea for a contest called “Name Your Dream Assignment”. Basically it is a contest for photographers to find the most creative and inspiring photoshoot ideas out there. The winner gets $50K to make their dream shoot a reality. My dream assignment idea is to shoot the diminishing rainforests of Indonesia. Rainforests are being depleted at a rapid pace due to conversion to profitable palm plantations as well as illegal logging. But I don’t just want to photo document this situation, I’d like to expand the idea to a larger problem which are the impoverished people of the region who rely on the forests for the livelihood. Sure you can protect and save the forests but what about the people who live there? I believe that their story should be told as well and that would be the goal of my dream assignment idea. If you think it sounds like a good idea I could really use your vote. Click here to view more about my idea and cast your vote for me. Just click on the yellow “Pic It” button under the vote count tally. Thanks!

**Update*** I wanted to note that if you wanted to vote they require registration on the site. I guess that is to prevent vote rigging.

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WordPress 2.7 – 2.7.1 Upgrade Issues

Published on February 13, 2009 in blogging and technical. 4 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

So for the past several days I’ve seen the WordPress 2.7.1 upgrade available so finally I decided to move forward and update.  Little did I know how problematic it would be.  First I tried the link to upgrade automatically (after backing up my database).  It didn’t do anything however.  Just sat there with the message “Downloading wordpress-2.7.1.zip”.  So I did a little investigation (Google) and discovered that this was happening to a few people specifically with 1and1.com hosting service.  The solution was to edit the .htaccess file in the root of the WordPress install to include the following: AddType x-mapp-php5 .php which apparently forced php5 use (here is a link to the site that provided the information). If you discover that you don’t have an .htaccess file check and make sure that whatever method you are using to view the file listing (ftp etc.) is displaying hidden or dot files. If you still don’t see the file then just create one and add the line specified above. This resolved my issue and the auto upgrade went smooth. Well except for the issues experienced with the K2 theme. Once upgraded my layout was all messed up, specifically my header image was centered but my posts were flush left. Once again, Google to the rescue. A simple search uncovered this WordPress Forum entry which discusses this very issue. Scroll down to the second post by Luciano Passuello who provided code to change in the header.php file. Basically edit the header.php file in the K2 directory and search for the following code:

<body class=”<?php k2_body_class(); ?>”

Replace with:

<body class=”wordpress k2 blog columns-three lang-en <?php k2_body_class(); ?>”>

This resolved my issue with the header and page body being misaligned.  Special thanks to Luciano Passuello for the fix. Now things seem back to normal except that my links in posts are highlighted in a different color than before but I’m sure this will be an easier fix.

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Food Safety – Who is really checking?

Published on February 7, 2009 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

With the recent revelation that Peanut Corporation of America knowingly shipped tainted peanut butter products around the Country, I had to stop and wonder where does our food really come from and how safe is our food supply? It’s not like this is the first outbreak of salmonella or other food borne illness to strike. There was another salmonella outbreak at a peanut plant in Georgia in 2007 and I’m sure we all remember the somewhat recent spinach scare. And of course there was the whole melamine scare from Chinese products. One contaminated ingredient can affect many different companies and products. So who is responsible for checking and making sure that the food we buy and eat is safe? One of the main regulators of food safety is the FDA (Food and Drug Administration).  They are responsible for inspecting 80% of domestic and imported food products but unbelievably they receive only 24% of federal food-safety spending (the other agency is the US Department of Agriculture which gets 76% of the food-safety money to inspect the other 20% of the food like meat and poultry).  My guess is the they are understaffed and overworked considering they didn’t even know that Peanut Corporation of America made peanut butter. It seems to me that we need more inspections, tighter regulations and harsher punishments when laws are broken. I don’t really trust that the government can regulate anything considering they couldn’t stop any of these food illness outbreaks, they couldn’t see through the Bernard Madoff ponzi scheme, and they sure didn’t seem to see the signs of a failing economy until it was much too late. So can we really trust that a government agency like the FDA really has consumers best interest at heart and is earnestly checking all the foods that sit on shelves in our stores and supermarkets?  I worked as a cook in a restaurant once.  We had inspections but they always seemed to be announced.  So you know the inspectors are coming on such and such date so you clean the place up so it really shines.  The inspector comes in and gives you a passing grade and then after they leave you revert back to old habits.  I’m not saying all inspections are announced but we had quite a few that were and I didn’t really see the point to them.  So I say eat locally. Support your local organic farmer. Make your own peanut butter. Stop buying packaged and processed foods and make a healthy meal at home. Sure it costs a bit more but what is your health and the health of your family really worth?

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Koji Osakaya

Published on February 3, 2009 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

This past week I had the pleaseure to eat twice at Koji Osakaya Japanese Restaurant in Portland Oregon on SE 82nd Street at the Fubonn Shopping Center. Fubonn is the largest Asian shopping center in Oregon. Inside there are wooden booths that follow along the open kitchen so you can see everything that goes on behind the scenes. There are 2 big screen TV’s that play sumo wrestling. I like that you can sit around the kitchen area and watch the flurry of activity. The first time we were there we ordered from the lunch menu. My sister-in-law ordered the Teriyaki Salmon plate which comes with steamed rice, miso soup and a salad for $8.50. I ordered the Broiled Mackeral plate which came with the same rice and miso soup for $8.50. This was absolutely fantastic! The mackeral was just perfect, so tender and it just melted in your mouth. The salad had a nice light dressing on it and also included were some cold soba noodles which were also very good. The miso soup was one of the best I have had although I will admit that I am not a miso soup expert. They have quite an extensive menu which includes sushi, japanese noodles and various entrees. I came away with a great impression, so much so that I returned with my wife a week later for dinner. Unfortunately we came at a very busy time and they had apparently run out of rice. Needless to say it’s hard to run a Japanese restaurant with no rice since it is a staple of almost every dish served. But they were very apologetic and gracious and we had them substitute cold soba noodles for the rice and only charged us the lunch menu prices. I once again ordered the broiled mackeral (can’t get enough of that) and my wife ordered Assorted Tempura which came with tempura fish, shrimp and vegetables. I sampled a bit and it was very good. We ended our visit with mochi ice cream of green tea and strawberry flavors which the kids really liked. Overall I really like this place and plan on going back.

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Photoshop CS4 Processing

Published on January 18, 2009 in Uncategorized. 2 Comments

I have been messing around a bit with Photoshop CS4, trying some B&W conversions and other things.  I really admire the work of Alan Young. Some of his work from China is just incredible. So on his website he posted a few tutorials or rather “Trade Secrets” so I thought I would try a few of them out. I won’t go into details regarding the process, as you can check it out on his website and download the PDF’s that explain everything. Basically I used Photomatix Pro 3 to create a pseudo-HDR image and then did some curves adjustments and B&W conversion. Here are a few that I processed using this method (with a few modifications).  They are no where near as impressive as some of Mr. Young’s work but I do enjoy playing around with different techniques.  Hope you enjoy these.

Bandung Pineapples

Batik (Yogyakarta)

Bandung Street Market

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Phottix TR-80 Remote Switch with Digital Timer

Published on January 10, 2009 in blogging and photography. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , , .

So along with my Phottix wireless remote (see previous post) I also purchased a Phottix TR-80 remote switch with digital timer.  I purchased this with the sole purpose of using it to create time lapse movies from digital still images (see post on Timelapse) using the interval timer and long exposure settings. This remote has a similar function to the Canon TC-80N3 but at a fraction of the price. There are 4 different modes: Self-Timer, Interval Timer, Long Exposure and Exposure Count Setting. With the self-timer you can set the time delay before the picture is taken which works just like the self-timer on your camera. The difference is that you can adjust the time delay to anything between 1 second and 100 hours. With the interval timer you can program the camera to what intervals it will take a photo. So for example if you wanted to take a photo once every 2 minutes you would set the interval timer to 2 minutes using the handy job wheel on the side. With the long exposure mode you can take an exposure up to 100 hours. With the exposure count mode you can select the number of exposures that will be taken up to a total of 99. And the real cool thing is that you can combine different modes. So say for example you wanted to take a 4 second exposure every 14 seconds you would set the long exposure to 4 seconds and the interval timer to 14 seconds. One thing to mention is that there is no power button so the remote is always on.  However, the expected life of the battery is 3 years so it probably isn’t an issue.  I’m planning my first shoot here in town soon and will post the results and my experience from start to finish here in this blog.

phottix2

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Phottix WRC-C8 Wireless Camera Remote

Published on January 10, 2009 in blogging and photography. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , .

Just got my Phottix wireless camera remote for my Canon 20D today. This is a radio controlled shutter remote with 16 channels, a hot shoe mount and a range of up to 100 meters. I purchased from Hong Kong Supplies on Ebay (see user etefore). I was a little apprehensive about ordering from Hong Kong but this eBay user has a feedback score of 77434 with 99.6% positive feedback. The ordering process was seamless, the communication was prompt and the items arrived in the mail much sooner than I had expected. Personally I can’t say enough good things about their service. Not only that but the model I received is apparently a newer model than what I had seen in the auction. This second generation model has a few more bells and whistles. There are a few different modes: single shooting mode allows you to half-press the shutter button on the transmitter for focusing and a full press takes the photo. There are lights on both the receiver and transmitter to indicate what the status is. So when you half press to focus the lights will turn green and when you take the shot the lights will turn red. There is a 2 second delay switch which works the same as single shooting mode except that there will be a 2 second delay in actually taking the shot. There is a continuous shooting mode as well as a bulb mode (for long exposures) but I have not played around with those yet. Overall I am really impressed with the quality of the product. It even came with the batteries (how often do you find that these days).  I bought this to replace the cabled remote switch that I have been using.  Now I can take long exposure landscapes without worrying that I will pull the cable or shake the camera at all. I like that the receiver will mount right on the hot shoe. The only bad thing about that is if you want to use the built-in flash you will have to put the receiver elsewhere but I use the flash so infrequently that it is not an issue for me. Also, I should mention that the receiver itself will work as a wired remote as it too has a shutter button on it. It is compatible with the following Canon cameras: Canon EOS 1V/3/1D/1Ds/1DS Mark II/1Ds Mark III/1D Mark II/1Ds Mark III/10D/20D/30D/40D/5D/D30/D50 (there are also models for Nikon).  If you are in the market for a wireless remote shutter for your camera I’d be happy to answer any questions regarding my experience.

phottix1

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Jury Duty

Published on January 7, 2009 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

So I just completed my first experience with jury duty. It was pretty much what I expected it to be with a few twists. Last year I was summoned 3 times. The first time it wasn’t convenient for me (when is it ever) so I postponed my service. The second time I called in and they said there were no trials scheduled so I was considered as having served. The third time was just a month after the second time and so I sent a letter to the judge saying that according to the County website I couldn’t be called again within the same calendar year. Apparently he agreed and promptly assigned me for the first full week of the New Year. So that is how I came to be sitting in a room filled with 100 other grumbling people who also didn’t want to be there. I arrived on time and checked in and sat down. There were a couple of TV’s going with CNN on the screen talking about the mid-East crisis. There were people telling the same tired jokes about how to get out of jury service like “Tell them you can spot a guilty person just by looking at them”, or “If they are here then they must be guilty”. They seem funnier when you’re not sitting in the jury assembly room. So about an hour after arriving a lady gets on a PA system and explains the process, assigns people into groups of 12 and then puts on a video that is supposed to make you feel all warm and fuzzy about doing your civic duty. The video was actually decent. While no one really wants to be called for jury service if you are called you should go into it with the idea that you will listen to all the evidence presented and make your own call on what the verdict should be. In this Country the person on trial is innocent until proven guilty and we should respect that and not view the defendant any differently. Sure we all grumble about it, crack jokes and try different methods of escaping it, but the reality is that a trial by jury is one of the basic rights we have in this Country and while it might make us uncomfortable or be an inconvenience we should continue to honor our duty and do what is right. We would expect nothing but the same were the shoe on the other foot. In my case today the defendant changed his plea and the entire jury pool was excused. I won’t need to serve again for another 2 years. If selected to serve again I think my attitude will be a little different than the past where I viewed it as just another inconvenience.

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Black Ice

Published on January 4, 2009 in blogging and Oregon. 5 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

My youngest sister was heading over to Bend and hit a patch of black ice on Hwy 126 at Clear Lake.  She then hit a snow bank and rolled her Jeep 3 times before it landed on its side in the road.  She wasn’t able to get the window down or the passenger door open and she was worried that another car would come along, be unable to stop, and slam into her so she scrambled out the back window.  Thank God she is ok although understandably shaken up and a bit sore.  One of those scary events where your life flashes before your eyes. Below are a few photos taken at the scene.

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Totally Tubular

Published on January 4, 2009 in blogging and Oregon. 5 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

Just had a fantastic day with family and friends at Hoodoo Ski Bowl on what they call their Autobahn Tube Area. Incredible fun in the snow. The runs were super fast today. So fast in fact that I wasn’t able to take more than 1-2 runs with my son in my lap before they said we couldn’t ride together because we were picking up too much speed. Despite that and the long lines it was a great time. There is a tow rope that will take you to the top if you want to wait in line or you can just walk up. The walk wasn’t too bad although after a few times you can definitely feel the altitude. Once at the top you pick the run you want to go down, plant yourself in your tube (basically and tire inner tube with a nylon cover) and launch yourself downhill. Some people chose to sit while others rode on their bellys. I think the more air that is in your tube teh faster you will go.  The top of the run is pretty quick but you really pick up speed when you hit the drop at the midway point. I was pretty happy with my 5 year old son who walked up the hill several times and probably got the most runs of the day in. We’ll be planning more trips throughout the winter.

The Autobahn Tube Area at Hoodoo
Autobahn Tube Area

Three Finger Jack
Three Finger Jack

Hoodoo Tube Area
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Hoodoo Ski Bowl
Hoodoo Ski Bowl

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