Pictures

I've been working on my portfolio.

This is the hard part, sifting through the pictures, and deciding which are not only decent examples of my work, not only examples which people will want to buy, but which will convince people that other people will want to buy them.

That is, make them want let me hang them on the wall, so people will buy them.

I have a lot of pictures, and some of them are pretty good, but that takes a lot of second guessing.

So here are some examples



This one looks really good as a 15 x 12 print. I know because rednikki has one. She was having a birthday party last week and I called her up, asking (to her, mild consternation) which she like better, flowers or bugs (she said she preferred flowers, but wine would be better).

So I took a few pictures, as the sun was declining and this one was worth working up. It was taken with a 200mm Micro-Nikkor. For this sort of picture it's a nice lens. The working distance makes it easier to get the light behind you, and avoid shading the subject.

The next three were taken at J-Bar which is where Maia keeps Leus. It was mid-December and the hummingbirds were out (as were the bees, some sort of thrush, the pigeons, sparrows and a hawk).

So I put the 300 f-5.6 on the camera and waited. The tripod is only semi-useful for such things, because tracking something like a hummingbird is impossible. Since shutter speeds of less than 1/250th are also useless, it's not such a big deal. I should have used some flash, to be sure the brilliance of the feathers was visible, but I didn't. Next time.



Sipping




Plotting




Away we go

If you want to see them at 800 pixels, go here

Follow up to "the things some people do"

There are two things going on in that story.

1: The guy got involved. That's laudable. He didn't parse things out well, which is where the other part comes in.

I've called the cops on things which looked like they needed some intervention (the guy screaming down a two-lane road in a sports car, driving sloppily, got our attention. The weaving and the odd speeds made us wonder. The beer bottle flung out the window made us call the Highway Patrol).

And, when there were no cops, or not enough time to wait, or even a situation where they'd not get involved, I've stepped in. On those occasions the threat (usually implied) of force was needed. At least once (as I cast my mind back) force was actually required (the kid decided that my telling him to stop picking on someone, meant I had to be beaten on, to prevent his loss of face. He didn't know how to fight).

It's that sense of his doing the right thing which has people saying this wasn't so bad (and I've seen this on more than a couple of blogs, blogs where the guy who had his door kicked in is made out to be the bad guy, and the sword-waver is a hero, who shouldn't face any charges).

2: The guy failed his saving throw for common-sense.

He heard screams. Ok. He decided to get involved, Ok. So far, so good.

He can't call the cops (no phone, and the ubiquity of cell phones means most places don't have a pay phone in easy distance anymore).

He figures things might get out of hand.

This is where he seems to fall off the clue-train. A sword is a really great defensive weapon. It allows for decision making (someone busting in through the back-window at three in the morning, I grab a sword. If it's a housemate who forgot keys, and didn't want to wake anyone, I can breathe a sigh of relief and tell them to wake me up... the phone ringing is less stressful that thinking someone is invading the house), but it's a so-so weapon for disuasive offense.

Why? Because it's not subtle. This guy was going to keep it out of sight, using it only if he needed it? Right. In the dark, defensively, I've done things like that, but it's iffy, and if someone sees you hiding it they will decide you aren't acting with good intentions, because you are planning to ambush them, with a freakin' sword.

For the situation he was looking at (someone might be in trouble, but someone might not, and no way to know) the best weapon is... a pistol.

Oddly enough, I don't know anyone who would say someone should just grab a gun without training, and wade into a situation where shooting might take place.

But lots of people (and I am not pointing fingers at anyone here) seem to think a sword is different. It is. They take more training, and more regular practice.

Why a pistol? Because you can hide it.

Which means he could knock on the door. Wait a couple of minutes and pound on it. Wait another minute and then kick it in. All with the weapon out of sight. Which means he's not committting ADW, and the whole thing probably blows over.

Why? Because people (who have training, and half a brain) know a gun is a serious threat and having one makes them more careful.

That, I think, is the real breakdown in thinking here. He didn't see the sword as a "real" weapon, so he didn't think the effect of having it would be all that serious.

"The Loan Department"

In the past week I've gotten a couple of calls from, "the loan department" informing me that I was eligible for a 1 percent, no money down, re-finance on my home.

It almost goes without saying I didn't believe them. Not only is the offer ridiculous, on its face, but I don't own a home.

What really irked me is that it was on my cell-phone, and from blocked numbers. When they called the house yesterday (on the land-line) I waited through the pitch (because "Dorothy" was a recording, since it wasn't using my minutes to hear the pitch, and told the person who picked up to never call us again.

Today my cell went off again, so I waited, and when the guy said, "the loan dept," I asked him what company this was the loan department of, and he said that was the company, and asked why I wanted to know.

When I said it was because I wanted to know why they were spamming my cell phone, he hung up.

So my best guess is that it's The Loan Department.com, but I don't know.

What I do know is there must be someone I can complain to, and I am sure one of you can probably tell me. Because I know they are counting on people just ignoring it, and hanging up in annoyance, but I get work related calls from unavailable numbers, so I have to answer them.

And it pisses me off to have someone call me with a recording.