I am no longer completely bad at disc golf!

After cranking out about 3/4 of my week long work list I took a couple hour break and went to play a bit with the friends that got me into the whole thing. I think this is my third or fourth time going and to hear them talk about it I’m doing pretty well. The accomplishment I’m happiest about regardless of anything else is the fact that I didn’t throw one into the woods today. I realize this may sound like an easy thing to avoid but I assure you it’s not. The hardest part of all of this is just getting the thing to stay straight. I’m learning that there are a good number of factors that can cause them to veer off course and I have been doing basically all of them.

However, on a hole that curves to the left…I’m on it. Mainly because 80% of what I throw curves left anyway. Whatever, I’ll take it.

I’ll tell you what though, this definitely makes me miss Ultimate (Frisbee). I don’t think I’ve played that game since highschool.

That’s all for now.

See you tomorrow,

D

I think I’m almost to the point where I’m caught up!

Maybe, the list keeps growing. However to those of you waiting on images from me. If you don’t have them by the end of the week feel free to punch me in the arm next time you see me. If you’re wondering, that’s my way of saying I will have them all done by the end of the week.

See you tomorrow,

D

Today’s photo is up here solely to give props to my other half for her dedication to the dorky things I do.

Ever since seeing me play this silly Simpson’s game on my iPad she joined in right along with me and now gets way more excited about it than I do. Pair that with going to the gym together, watching geeky movies, traveling, and generally just being awesome…

I hit the jackpot.

See you tomorrow,

D

No ranting today. Instead I’m just going to direct you to the article I just put up on Fstoppers about the essential apps you need for your photography business.

I say photography business, but in many cases these all apply to any business. Obviously there are a few that don’t, but most are universal. Rather than talk any more, here’s the link.

Mobile Apps Essential to Your Photo Business

Enjoy.

See you tomorrow,

D

What’s the thing I forgot I hated about summer? Ticks.

Yeah. Spent a good portion of the day outside and in the span of maybe a minute I had 6 on me.

Shudder.

Bug bites are fine, whatever, it happens. In fact, I would go so far as to say that when it comes to anything about the outdoors I’m generally fine. Got the survival training, good to go. However, if something is going to feed off of me…I would much rather it be a quick situation. Don’t just hang on for days while growing fat off of me. That’s disturbing and I don’t approve.

See you tomorrow,

D

I wanted to wait and write this after I had seen “Man of Steel.” The hope was that I would enjoy it and be able to report back to you that there was finally a Superman movie I didn’t hate.

Maybe “hate” is a strong word. There just haven’t been any that I actually liked. Sadly this one was no different. I’m to the point where the problem seems like it goes deeper than poor film-making and straight to a poorly designed main character. I don’t think it’s the director’s fault, the actor’s or even the writer’s. Superman is simply a broken character. He has no real weaknesses and therefore can only be moved along through the plights of other characters. That being the case, if there is no trouble afoot Superman becomes boring. In fact, even in trouble he remains boring. A character with no real limitations is predictable.

Oh but wait, Superman’s weakness is Kryptonite!

How well does that ever work out? Exactly.

So now I stand firm in the belief that the only ways I’ll be made to care about Superman are either through a reimagining of the entire character…or a battle between him and Green Lantern where the Lantern just encases him in a Kryptonite coffin, buried in a Kryptonite grave…then the credits roll.

I don’t know if even Chris Nolan could save the Superman franchise.

See you tomorrow,

D

Not going to be near as rant-y today now that I got all the camera marketing venting out yesterday.

The image above is from the loft today’s shoot was held at. The place itself was amazing and had a full view of downtown, but oddly enough this is the thing that held my attention. It’s a rack of test tubes filled with spices. I don’t know why this is so cool to me but it is. Of course now you could almost guarantee that I will make something like this for my own kitchen in the future. It makes sense given that I always refer to my kitchen as “the lab” anyway.

So let it be written, so let it be done.

See you tomorrow,

D

I’m having a deep internal debate right now. There’s some really heavy techie stuff that I want to talk about but I know that many of you don’t care so much about all of that stuff. So the debate is really about whether or not I want to rant or actually write out all of the science and facts behind it for an article on an industry site (ie: Fstoppers).

Basic summary is this. All anyone seems to care about is megapixels. That’s what camera companies market to the amateur consumer…well, to an unfortunate extent the pro consumer as well. This is so supposedly important that it’s able to be used to help you buy an inferior product.

(obviously I’ve decided on the rant route)

Let me give you an example. Nokia is rumored to have a 41 megapixel camera-phone in development. At first glance that’s absolutely insane! There’s another series of cameras out there claiming to reach numbers slightly higher than that as well. Here’s where we get to something that I didn’t truly understand until I moved into digital medium format: Size matters. Sorry to say it, but it’s true.

The actual physical size of the camera’s sensor has way more impact on the image resolution than the megapixels. This is why you could take two cameras (MF vs 35mm) of the same megapixel value, take the same image and have mind-blowingly different results in actual detail. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that sometime in the future this won’t be different. But currently the tech just isn’t there. So what happens? Joe camera manufacturer comes out with either a sensor with super-small receptors all crammed in as tight as possible, or layered sensors and tells you that they are a certain resolution all the while hiding the fact that the number they gave you is (while technically correct) flat out wrong.

And that’s where it gets tech-y.

The crammed sensors are easy to explain. Smaller light receptors aren’t generally as sensitive to the dynamic range of light and color. You need that to make an image. Easy. Sensor layers are more complicated though.

Here’s the simplest way I can think of to explain this:

A dollar is worth a dollar. Right? Yes.

If I glue three one dollar bills together back-to-back so that they can NEVER be separated. Is it still worth three dollars?

Which has more value? The three dollars that are glued together forever, or three individual dollar bills?

My point is this. Some of these companies are producing layered sensors, then adding up the resolution of each layer and presenting that number to you as the final amazingly high “megapixel count.” It’s deceptive. In truth a 46 megapixel layered sensor is somewhere around 15.4 instead. The tricky part is that the layering does give the sensor slightly higher resolving capabilities than standard, but only at the number of a single layer. So a sensor with three 15.4mp layers will outperform a standard 15.4mp sensor with no “layering,” but not anything close to it’s claims.

Looking back I think I may have failed in keeping the rant simple…but it’s too late now.

See you tomorrow,

D

I got to plays disc golf for the first time in my life today.

Let’s be honest, nothing about that game seems difficult. I’ve tossed a Frisbee around and so have you, who hasn’t? You throw, it goes…simple. Um, no. This is somehow not the case. Tossing one around in the yard is so much different than trying to launch one straight for 400 feet. Most of my shots ended up veering left, and the one that managed to fly perfectly straight, did so right into the woods and down a 20 foot incredibly muddy drop-off. Go me.

So now I have to figure this out. Having this skill will now be crucial to my existence until I get bored with it. At least it’s the cheapest random hobby I’ve taken up.

See you tomorrow,

D

Well I told you I would post something from tonight. Seeing as how this image is unlikely to make the book it is good to go up!

I say this with some pretty stout confidence given that I’ve never seen the cover of a book about ministry with a cigar on it. Though who knows what’ll happen. I’m leaning on the tired side now cause it’s pretty late (2:30am right now), so I’m gonna be brief again tonight and go get some beauty rest.

See you tomorrow,

D