Life and living

It’s been a little while since I posted anything here.  At first, it was because my attention was focused elsewhere.  Then, I started to appreciate the break.

Back in May, armed with a relatively new 50mm lens, I brought my camera with me every day of the month, making a point of taking photos around town during my daily walks to and from work or while taking the dog out for a hike.  This exercise culminated with a rather warm Sunday Carnaval celebration, just around the corner from my house.

Alongside all of this, I had a new project at work that required a lot of my attention.  It was in the early phases of a new initiative that required a lot of creative thinking and I found that I didn’t have a lot of that energy left walking out of work.

So it was in June when I decided to do nothing with those images, and not post to this site.  I focused all of my creative energy on work.

Sometime last month, I wrapped my head around the items at work and started putting some energy towards processing the images from May.  Towards the end of the July I took the camera out for the first time to take some photos of the now shuttered Transbay Terminal here in San Francisco.

And today I’m back writing here.

I’ll get around to uploading photos from May sometime, but I’m currently spending time going through some of the photos from Africa and South America, looking to make some black & white images.

The next few months promise to be pretty busy, in a good way.  I should have a few things to post.

But I did appreciate the break, and the perspective it provided.

I recently finished reading and really enjoyed A Simple Twist of Fate: Bob Dylan and the Making of Blood on the Tracks

As a rule, I’m really interested in the creative process.  This is true in many of the photography podcasts that I listen to and the photo blogs that I read.  I’ve written before about the 33 1/3 series of books (which analyze classic albums from throughout the years) and in addition to these I’ve also enjoyed documentaries about the making of albums like The Dark Side of the Moon or Nirvana’s Nevermind.  In each of these, as in A Simple Twist of Fate, the author (or filmmaker) examines aspects of the creative process as the artist(s) struggled to put together their work.

One thing that I find is that by really analyzing the work one gains a much greater appreciation for the components that make up the whole.  These are all albums that I’ve liked over the years but my appreciation grows

when I really take the time to understand more about the work.  Looking at each of the minute decisions that were made (

and the reasons behind them – sometimes very consciously and sometimes not) you apprecia

te how each of these small decisions add up to create a greater whole.

In this case, the reader also gains an understanding of Dylan as an artist – and all of his idiosyncrasies that come into play.  In this case there’s definitely a visionary and a vision that are filled out by some very talented musicians and producers.  For any Dylan fans, I highly recommend this book.

If Dylan’s not your thing, I still recommend the 33 1/3 series .

I’ve been seeing a lot of ads for Prop. 16 lately and it reminds me just how screwed up California can be.

I used to be a big fan of California’s propositions.  I thought that it was a way to get the people more directly involved in government and elections.

I was young and innocent.

Image via Wikipedia

The propositions have long been a way for interest groups to circumvent the legislature and use the uneducated masses to vote on items that they don’t understand.  And they’re just getting worse.

I’m not trying to be harsh on the masses.  When I say uneducated, I’m referring to their awareness of the propositions and their content.  Most people just don’t spend any time to understand what it is they’re voting for (or against).

Prop 16 is a great example of this.  The “Taxpayers’ Right To Vote” proposition.  Who doesn’t like the right to vote?  Why, on the face of it, of course taxpayers should have the right to vote.  But that of course is the problem.  Most people won’t look past the simple description of the ballot measure.

What this proposition is really about is whether California governments should get into ‘public power.’ (I don’t want to trouble with debating the merits or detriments of public power – that’s a separate topic.)  Because what this proposition says, if it passes, is that, should the government be truly interested in getting into public power, they’ll first need a 2/3 majority vote by the public to approve such a move.  And think about that – 2/3 majority is just about impossible.  Just ask someone trying to pass national healthcare or a California budget.  And these were passed by legislatives.  It’s hard to imagine the general public voting 2/3 for anything.

So basically, all one needs to do to change the law is to get a proposition passed (with a simple majority, by the way) that calls for future votes to require a 2/3 majority vote.  In doing so, you lock in your own view and make it near impossible for any future changes.  And how does one do that?  Just throw a bunch of money behind it.  PG&E has already supported this measure with over $30 million (while opponents have raised about $50,000).

More and more I’ve become a fan of a constitutional congress for the state.  Of course that process has the potential to be filled with missteps and problems but we’re getting to the point where almost anything would be better than what we have today.

Now this is cool: The population of the united states, if it had the same population density of Brooklyn, New York, would need only the landmass of New Hampshire.

Thanks StangeMaps

Something occurred to me today in that odd way that ideas just all of a sudden appear in one’s brain.  It’s one of those weird thoughts that often times I just dismiss, ignore, or sometimes play out, only to realize later that it’s just a bunch of crap.

There’s all this reporting lately of the demise of big media – that the internet is killing establishments like The New York Times or NBC.  More specifically, that giving away their content for free on the internet was a bad business move and is destroyed their underlying business.

I’m not a fan of that perspective – I feel like a lot of content has already been ‘free’ – over-the-air TV and Radio, and even the nominal fee for a daily newspaper hardly covers the production costs.  They’ve been supported by advertising and my feeling is that they’ve got to figure out a way to make advertising work online.

So the idea today starts with this: It’s the low-cost barrier that the internet has enabled that is destroying old media – YouTube vs. NBC; blogs vs. New York Times.  This idea isn’t new and I believe it’s accurate.  People are more interested in the varying content online, and specifically they’re able to match content to their particular world-view better than they could with any of the large nation-wide media companies.

But here’s what hit me today: Advertisers are in the same boat as the old media companies.  Coca-cola is trying to reach a national audience (world-wide audience actually) and it’s going to get tougher and tougher to cater their message to the more and more niche markets represented by online media.  This represents an opportunity for local products to compete with their national/global competitors in the same way that local media now has the opportunity to compete with their national competitors.

Could we see the return of regional products like soda and beer? Restaurants & clothiers?  That prospect interests me – as one who likes to travel one of the aspects I enjoy is how different the world can be the further one gets from home – could it be that traveling to the next state over could be as it once was?  Will we see the products and services breaking into smaller regional offerings?

I’ve had a few recent conversations (online and off) about podcasts.  I’m a big fan of the format since unlike more visual mediums like text or video they’re perfect for when you’re on the go: in cars, trains, walking, etc.,).  This got me to thinking that I really should get around to writing down the list that I have on my iTunes.

I have a couple of basic categories:

News/Current events, etc.,

• Fresh Air – Great interviews.  I usually listen to each episode though I’ll sometimes skip some of the entertainment personalities.
• Commonwealth Club of California – interesting speakers, though not as reliably great as some other podcasts, I appreciate the format and the many of the guests.  I’ll usually skip over at least 1/3 of these if not more

Entertainment

• NPRs This American Life – Ira Glass’ great audio production of interesting non-fiction (mostly) stories.
• WNYCs Radio Lab – dumbing down science so that anyone can enjoy it, layered with elaborate audio production
• The Sound of Young America – enjoyable pop culture interviews by America’s radio sweetheart right out of his LA apartment
• NPRs Car Talk – click and clack every week.  I don’t often listen to these but they’re good to have on the ipod when you’re in the mood
• SFMOMA Artcasts – This I have to enhance my museum membership but the postings are sporadic and only occasionally useful/interesting

Photography related

• Jeff Curto’s Camera Position – Early episodes discussed why certain decisions were made while composing images.  Lately this has become less frequent and more about the overall process of defining ones approach to photography projects
• LensWork – thoughts about the creative aspect of image making.  Usually short, and so easily digestible when you’re almost at your destination but just need a few more minutes.
• Martin Bailey Photography – A Brit in Japan who works in technology by day but photography on the side.  His technical descriptions are easy for anyone to digest, I enjoy this one for the embedded images and the inspiration it provides to just go out and shoot and follow through with your projects.
• Nikonians The Image Doctors – usually gear talk focused on Nikons but sometime other topics as well.
• Lightroom for Digital Photographers – short tutorials on Lightroom features
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Killer Tips – short tutorials on Lightroom features
• Photoshop for Digital Photographers – short tutorials on Photoshop features

So that’s the list on my computer (most of which get sync’d to my ipod/iphone.  Speaking of which – one aspect of the iphone I love?  The 2x setting.  Some of these podcasts (Nikonians, Lenswork, Martin Bailey) are easily consumed at twice the normal speed allowing me to pack in more listening.  Others (Terry Gross, Ira Glass) I prefer to listen to in real time.

I’m curious to hear what others are listening to as I’m always on the look out for good content.