I promised a reward for sticking around…so here it is.

I know many of my readers are also avid Photoshop users, so I’m giving you a set of high-res textures to use on your images.

There are 19 images, making a nice large download of 213mb. So take some time and grab it.

I use textures like these in Photoshop to make everything from custom grunge brushes to other image effects like in the image below.

So get ‘em, play around…and if you ask real nice maybe I’ll post a tutorial about my process with things like that.

I’m glad I did though, because I liked the story it told quite a bit. So I’ve decided that rather than sending it out to my address book like so many people do, I’d post it here. Read if you like because true or not, it’s a damn fine message.

“At a  fund-raising dinner for a school that serves children with learning disabilities, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question:

‘When not interfered  with by outside influences, everything nature does, is done with  perfection.

Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do..  He cannot understand things as other children do.

Where  is the natural order of things in my son?’

The  audience was stilled by the query.

The father continued.
‘I believe  that when a child like Shay, who was mentally and physically disabled  comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents  itself, and it comes in the way other people treat that child.’

Then he  told the following story:

Shay and I had walked past a park where  some boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay asked, ‘Do you think  they’ll let me play?’

I knew that most of the boys would not want someone  like Shay on their team, but as a father I also understood that if my son were allowed to play, it would give him a much-needed sense of  belonging and some confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his  handicaps.

I approached one of the boys on the field and asked (not  expecting much) if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance and  said, ‘We’re losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I  guess he can be on our team and we’ll try to put him in to bat in the  ninth inning.’

Shay struggled over to the team’s bench and, with a  broad smile, put on a team shirt. I watched with a small tear in my eye  and warmth in my heart. The boys saw my joy at my son being  accepted.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay’s team scored a few  runs but was still behind by three.

In the top of the ninth inning,  Shay put on a glove and played in the right field. Even though no hits  came his way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be in the game and on the  field, grinning from ear to ear as I waved to him from the stands.

In  the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay’s team scored again.

Now, with two  outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base and Shay  was scheduled to be next at bat.

At this juncture, do they let Shay bat and give away their chance to win the game?

Surprisingly, Shay was  given the bat.

Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible because  Shay didn’t even know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with  the ball.

However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher,  recognizing that the other team was putting winning aside for this moment  in Shay’s life, moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay  could at least make contact.

The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed.

The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss  the ball softly towards Shay.

As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the  ball and hit a slow ground ball right back to the pitcher.

The game  would now be over.

The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could  have easily thrown the ball to the first baseman.

Shay would have been  out and that would have been the end of the game.

Instead, the  pitcher threw the ball right over the first baseman’s head, out of reach  of all team mates.

Everyone from the stands and both teams started  yelling, ‘Shay, run to first!’

‘Run to first!’

Never in his life had  Shay ever run that far, but he made it to first base.

He scampered down  the baseline, wide-eyed and startled.

Everyone yelled, ‘Run to  second, run to second!’

Catching his breath, Shay awkwardly ran towards  second, gleaming and struggling to make it to the base.

By the time  Shay rounded towards second base, the right fielder had the ball . the  smallest guy on their team who now had his first chance to be the hero for  his team.

He could have thrown the ball to the second-baseman for the  tag, but he understood the pitcher’s intentions so he, too, intentionally  threw the ball high and far over the third-baseman’s head.

Shay ran  toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of him circled the  bases toward home.

All were screaming, ‘Shay, Shay, Shay, all the  Way Shay’

Shay reached third base because the opposing shortstop  ran to help him by turning him in the direction of third base, and  shouted, ‘Run to third!

Shay, run to third!’

As Shay rounded  third, the boys from both teams, and the spectators, were on their feet  screaming, ‘Shay, run home! Run home!’

Shay ran to home, stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the grand slam and won the game  for his team.

‘That day’, said the father softly with tears now  rolling down his face, ‘the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of  true love and humanity into this world’.

Shay didn’t make it to  another summer. He died that winter, having never forgotten being the hero and making me so happy, and coming home and seeing his Mother tearfully  embrace her little hero of the day!

AND NOW A LITTLE FOOT NOTE TO THIS STORY:

We all send thousands of jokes through the e-mail without a  second thought, but when it comes to sending messages about life choices,  people hesitate.

The crude, vulgar, and often obscene pass freely  through cyberspace, but public discussion about decency is too often  suppressed in our schools and workplaces.

If  you’re thinking about forwarding this message, chances are that you’re probably sorting out the people in your address book who aren’t the ‘appropriate’ ones to receive this type of message Well, the person who sent you this believes that we all can make a  difference..

We  all have thousands of opportunities every single day to help realize the ‘natural order of things.’

So many seemingly trivial interactions between two people present us with a choice:

Do we pass along a little  spark of love and humanity or do we pass up those opportunities and leave  the world a little bit colder in the process?

A wise man once said  every society is judged by how it treats it’s least fortunate amongst  them.”

-Author Unknown

So, after a tremendous amount of effort, negotiating and professional photographerism (new word), I made absolutely sure I got in to this one.

Some of you know what it took, the rest of you are going to have to stand in astonishment cause I’m not coming up off the secret. I even chatted up the Secret Service. Secretly.

Let me start by giving you some perspective on the number of people that came to see Barack Obama at the Carnahan Quad here in Columbia, Mo.

There were a lot.

I know that many of these people, and probably many of my readers are not supporters of Barack Obama. Especially since Missouri is still a heavily contested state, but as I’ve been saying all day long though, it’s not often that you get to be present for something so very important to our history. So regardless of who you support, it’s still cool to see.

Obviously both Barack Obama and John McCain are extremely important people right now, and one of them will continue to be extremely important to our future soon. So how could you not want to be there? Yet, even if it had it been someone like Steven Segal, who I have no real desire to meet, I would have gone to see him as well. Why? The same reason, because they are prominent personalities, and well, why not?

I feel like I have to be a bit careful here. After all, this is a site who’s purpose is to promote my business and keep current and prospective clients in the loop as far as what I’m up to. That being said it’s not usually a good idea to potentially alienate people by forcing your views into their mind.

That’s not what I’m trying to do.

When it comes down to who you vote for in the coming election…I don’t care. It’s your choice, and hopefully you are making it after having educated yourself on whatever you need to know.

What I pray for above anything else is that people aren’t voting a certain way out of fear or prejudice.

Sure, Barack Obama’s name comes from another country. Yes, his middle name is Hussein.

So what?

Does that make him a terrorist? No.

Furthermore, when did the Middle East and terrorism become synonymous? There are terrorists from other places.

My name is David. Does that mean that I am a king? Did I kill a giant? Have I ever been a serial killer?

No. No. No.

I’m sure there are “Johns” in the world that have done some rotten things. Unfortunately the only John that comes to mind is Holmes, and lets be real here… there is no way in hell John McCain has been, is, or ever will be in porn.

…

God I hope I’m right on that one.

Ew.

Anyway all I’m saying is please, whoever you are supporting…make sure you are supporting them for the right reasons. I mean that sincerely, even if you are writing yourself in on the ballot. Do it because that is the right decision. Not because of a prejudice that should have died out centuries ago.

Evil deeds are what make bad people. Not their age, sex, or skin color. I feel like a lot of people are forgetting that and letting an irrational fear govern their behavior.

The next leader of this country should be someone who can pull our society together for a greater purpose. They should be able to drive us further than we thought we could go. America is in trouble. We can all feel it. There is absolutely no denying that we are in a much different place than we were 8 years ago.

Whether you like where the country is now or not, whether you agree with what I’m saying or not, every election is a way to shape our country, and we as it’s citizens are responsible for shaping it the way it needs to be.

And.

Just in case you were wondering.

I would have given and will give the exact same amount of attention to McCain, or any other candidate in the race should I have the opportunity.

As always, I hope each and every one of you are doing well.

All the best,

David

So without further ado…

More tomorrow, stay tuned

There are a few that don’t fit that category though, like my hot air balloon ride over the city. So I’ll show you that now.

I’m not a huge fan of heights. I can handle it. I mean, we’re not talking paralyzing fear here but, they make me nervous. So, the thought of being ridiculously high in the air standing in what is basically a wooden bucket…I can think of more comfortable scenarios. Like, oh…standing on the ground for example. Though, it seems that when someone asks me “hey, wanna shoot from a hot air balloon?” the photographer in me takes over any sense I had and shouts “Yeah, why not.” My wobbly knees sound their distaste for this decision. Then I’m up in the air.

Once we were up, it got very quiet, very fast. Not because of anything ominous. It’s just that sound only travels so far, and there is a definite wall that you pass where there is near total silence. Cool doesn’t do the experience justice. So a big thank you for that opportunity.

Check out the crowd at the main stage.

I don’t even know how many people attended the festival, but that’s about half the crowd at that one stage, and there were three stages. Lots of people.

I’m going to wrap up for the night, come by again tomorrow for photos of the performances and artists.

All the best,
David

Ok, so not very epic I guess but, still the largest wild spider I’ve actually been able to look at up close. I’m sure I’ve encountered one larger at some point but they always see me first and all I see is their giant form as they scurry underneath a log or something.

So, who knows what kind of spider that is pictured above?

It’s 5:30am here, and I’m awake fearing for my precious images’ well-being. That’s not really why I’m awake, but I am spending this fluke of free time today looking at something you need to know about. Tin Eye, and people if this thing delivers like it promises, well let’s just say that a career in IP law will be a very busy field soon.

The technology is still in beta right now, and the database is limited to about 900 million images. Obviously though – and this is the important part – the technology is here to find thefts of your work. I don’t know how it works, but it allows you to search the internet for your images, or altered versions of them. It is extremely easy to use, and at the moment it is totally free. Hopefully they will keep it that way. I imagine that a certain massive corporation will buy up the technology soon *cough* google *cough* and if they do I think the possibility of this being a free service is much greater.

I think beta signups are still open, so if you can you need to go check it out. I’ll keep playing with it, and let you know if I find a downside to this technology. I have to say though, unless they decide to charge hundreds of dollars to use it, I don’t see a downside coming.

*UPDATE – 10:57am*

So far I’ve tried to find most of the images that I have scattered around the web. No stellar results. I could view that as a good thing because that means it didn’t find anything stolen. It means something more important though. TinEye needs to update the database and crawl more websites. I understand that it must be very difficult to build something like they have. Fact is, it needs to evolve. 900million is an astronomical number of images for sure, but it doesn’t scratch the surface of the images on the web.

My stance is still one of hope, because the technology is fantastic, and the fact that I couldn’t find anything of mine doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things.

My suggestion… crawl flickr, catalog their images. Then approach google and either work with them, or sell the technology. It has a ton of potential, but the database needs to get much much bigger before it’s a viable option for lesser known images and orphaned works to be found and identified.

-David

So I once thought I hit the end of the internet. I had no more questions. I had seen all of the cool, interesting things that there were.

Or so I thought.

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my great pleasure to introduce you to the awesomest thing this side of breathing, and it works on Mac and PC!

I Give you PicLens

The iPhone has nothing on this amazing photo viewer. Download it by clicking the link above and then click the little play button at the bottom of this image after you install the plugin:

Now sit back and be amazed.

You’re welcome.