LadyCrimson

Oh, I wasn't feeling slighted. It's just an interesting topic to me. I've been jabbering away at my hubby about it the past week; how there's so many photos and so many amateuer photographers that it's diluting the appreciation of the artform. Not that I have any hooty-tooty attitude about it, really - people have said that about other hobbies all through history - but I think it is occuring. For me it's not so much only the results itself, but knowing how much work goes into some of them is what really makes me admire. So a picture of a penny might be kind of boring, but when I know they use rigs like the one below, or even more extravagant, + all the patience required, the boring suddenly becomes really...cool, and I go "I want to do that."

I don't like hypocrisy, but imo one can take the hypocrisy bludgeoning stick a little too far sometimes. I've yet to meet anyone who couldn't be called a hypocrite in some area/fashion or another - including myself.

I think with the explosion of digital cameras and everyone and my pet dog having a camera + computer (no film developing process/cost - just click and upload), everything is rather overdone these days. Not everyone has fantastic techincal/compositional talent or equipment, of course (I sure don't), but that matters less and less in terms of image/theme saturation. As with most art forms, it's not so much whether it's been done before, but how it's done.

I went w/out a sig pic for a long time. Then I made a small bar one with Atton to go w/my Kotor2 gallery link . I've had variations of sig pics since, from tiny squares to smilies back to small bar like now. Possibly because I never have any quotes to quote. It's probably time to change it again. I've tried non-cat avatars before but they never seem to last very long...

There's some kind of odd bug w/the gallery software that doesn't like server PHP4 upgrades. I went to PHP5 and it's working but I have to try to patch the gallery software so it may stutter a bit more until I get it done.

I had to say I've been really groovin' on Tale's avatar these past few days. @ Accept - I actually like the crop you did more than the original photo.

LOL - I take so many pictures of my cats it's not even funny. Course most of them are lousy, w/only sentimental value...teehee. Not specific to my topic, but I had to crow. Today I went shopping. Finally, no more crappy kit lens! YESSS! Since I like close-ups so much most of the time, I bought the Canon EF 100mm F2.8 USM Macro for my first one. It's not a L series, but it'll do... Quarter sized gold US dollar, @50% original size Cropped portion 100% original size - the bad lightning makes it look not prime but still much better, even when compressed for jpg. So pleased....so happy...*dances* Now just have to practice. I have the feeling computer things won't be my primary fun-money-sink anymore...

fixd 4 u Unfortunately, he's no longer living.

I understand that point of view, and unfortunately I think most people tend to lean towards it - even I have, at times. I think, however, that the message itself - conserve, find alternate energy sources, etc - isn't undermined, just his level of personal morals or what have you. I see them as seperate things. I don't know about his whole career, but nowhere in the film did I hear him paint himself as some kind of super-self-sacrificing altruist or specifically better than others. I doubt he thinks he is and it would surprise me if he wasn't aware of the ironies. Humanity so often wants people in the issue spotlight to be above reproach. This is a level of idealism that while admirable to wish for, is bound to be found wanting in one way or another. Very few people are of that caliber, if any. As already stated, imo it's often just a weapon in a sideshow of somekind, which is sad...then the message becomes more about the person in question than the issues. Politics. Meh.

Common pain relievers may increase blood pressure in men (also women, but the article is on a male study) I find this personally interesting, not so much because it's surprising to me that a drug may have potential long-term harm, but because the numbers in this one study are so high. My husband has suffered from constant headaches for 20 years; first it was loads of asprin, more recently it's ibuprofen. He can go through a 750count bottle in a few months (that's around 50-60 a week). We 'discuss' this a lot... ... He pops these things like candy, I think in part because he believes that there's no lasting harm to doing so as long as he's not seriously "abusing" them via taking lots more than recommended on the label each day, on average. I wonder if this is a common attitude. Do you try to to avoid taking OTC painkillers for all but the worst aches and pains? Do you think there should be more regulations/restrictions on how non-narcotic painkillers are sold to consumers?

THQ announces Conan game for Xbox360/PS3 Arnie should have a voice-cameo.

Oh, ayuh...US attitude with figures of law enforcement authority could be a whole topic itself. On a related note, you may be able to sneak portraits of strangers w/out them knowing - but I feel you need permission to display them publically. Crowd shots are usually different, of course, but I'd still feel odd. I'd make a lousy news-photojournalist - I'd always feel like I was invading someone's privacy and never get the winning shot.

Ok...here's my list: Will do: Trees Abdanded/condemned buildings. Street signs w/nifty background landscapes Bottles of mineral water Nature overcoming humanity theme Possibles if I have time: Pictures w/fingers covering part of the lens - having a hard time envisioning this tho Cant's shotglass concept - not sure if I want to buy lots of booze/visit a bar to recreate the shot Landfills theslug's suggestions made me realize that if I do this again, I should probably ask for a theme rather than a specific subject.

While I'll agree there's certainly a lot of hypporisy in politics - also not in politics - including Mr. Gore, I'll go with Pop's post on this one: Gore could travel the world in a horse and buggy and live out of a tent, but I doubt he'd get his message across to very many people, or educate many people about the issue. Music and film stars often thought of as 'so humanitarian' play fundraisers for starving children etc while they live in huge mansions and eat more meat in a day than many see in months while worrying about their interest rates. I see no difference. This reminds me of of John Denver and the hoopla over his big 'emergency' storage tank of gas in his backyard, or whatever it was.

Still Spore. The Wright Stuff - The entire 8-page interview w/Will Wright from Popular Science (Feb). "In this extended interview, see what one of the gaming industry's luminaries has to say about the Wii, Second Life, and much more."

Usually the graphic card software itself has some options that deal with that. Edit: then again, they may only use what the monitor supplies. I just tried on mine and I don't think it altered anything.

That might make a funny YouTube "where is matt' style video. :D

I didn't say they weren't. My cousin's kinda hot. But she's a lawyer and would probably sue me ...

omg...that is so funny. Whoever made that picked the perfect head cutouts for it.

I'd guess not being able to get as much stuff would make it...harder? Probably the mechanics/formula of the way the game becomes 'harder' makes certain things impossible purely because of numbers.

Bound for Glory, 1976 bio-film of Woody Guthrie. Probably David Carradine's best role - did his own singing too. I liked it. Randy Quaid has a small role.

Re-reading the First Americans series - William Sarabande :bunny:

Bumac Vitas - Opera2 and several others. I admit it, I saw the YT video. Not normally a fan of opera or this kind of pop music but I like this stuff.

In terms of the phone - one of my biggest beefs is how it's become harder and harder to even get a real person on the other end of the phoneline. "Press 1, press 2, press3" *I press 2* "Press 1, press2, press 3" *I press 1* "recorded message" then "press 1, press 2..." Most of the time it's a minor annoyance, but on those days where you have to make a lot of calls for some reason....DRIVES ME INSANE. By the time you get to a real person, you're so irritated it's hard to be nice.

:D I wouldn't disagree. I like many still life photos for technical reasons, but they're not usually exciting to look at on visual alone, if that makes sense. On the other hand, I also personally find broad landscapes generally boring visually, as well. It's all what we've been exposed to too often, I suppose. Main reason for asking for still life's first is they're the easiest to do on short notice, imo. I'm not likely, for example, to spend 3-5 hours in traffic to go to San Francisco or Santa Cruz just to take a few cultural/landscape pics. San Fran has some great buildings and angle perspectives...I used to like taking pictures up there a lot when I went there regularly for lessons and such. But it's a lot of hassle if you don't actually live there. Haven't been to downtown SJ too much since moving here...it's never looked all that interesting. Maybe I'll give that a shot. Still-life doesn't have to be an inanmiate object on table, btw...'trees' and the street sign idea work as well. Capturing images of random people is a bit different.