Archive: July 2010   |   View all recent posts

HDR Cloud Images
WHAT: Random, Travel   |   WHEN: July 8, 2010   |   WHERE: Outside My Front Door
I was sitting inside working in my office yesterday when Kylie strolled in from walking the dog with the neighbors and casually said, "Storm's roling in... you're missing the clouds.  There's good light out there, but you better hurry; it's starting to sprinkle."  In about 11 seconds, before my chair stopped completely spinning, I was outside with camera in hand.  You've heard of storm chasers?  I was light chasing.

She was right.  There was good light out there.  And those clouds were ridiculous. 

I took a couple images before the weather completely turned, and here's 2 of my favorites.  These are HDR (High Dynamic Range) images, and you can see a tutorial I posted about how I create them here.




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Pool-side
WHO: friends   |   WHAT: Kids, Personal   |   WHEN: July 7, 2010   |   WHERE: at the pool
I haven't taken my camera with me everywhere I go this year nearly as much as I did for last year's Project 365, and while I've enjoyed enjoying the enjoyment (oh yes, I did) of getting together with friends and not having a camera attached at the hip (not to mention my friends being noticeably more at ease) , lately I've guilted mysef into taking it with me just in case.

This weekend we went to a pool party at our friend's Dave & Beth's house on July 4th.  I was too busy being pool monster terrorizing all the kiddos (and gettting terrorized), but I did fire off a few images. 

Trinity and Ava are best buds, and I love the moment and the expressions in this first image. And in case you're wondering, Ava (in the background) really does have a killer tan.  Every time I stood next to her I looked like the cream center of an Oreo cookie.



Ice creeaaaammmmmmm!



Littel Zane lookin' pretty GQ serious.  Check out the size of those catch lights in his eyes. 



I can't take credit for this next image.  My friend, Tina, picked up the camera when Dave and I were playing basketball's "PIG" equivalent off the diving board.  WARNING: protective eye wear is strongly recommended to protect your eyes from bright light.  What can I say... the sun and I?  We haven't hung out much this summer.

Anyway I look at this image, I don't see a happy ending to this gem of a dive.



Tina again on the camera.  I just thought this image of Dave was funny.



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Maybe a Little TOO Close
WHO: A Schick Hydro Razor   |   WHAT: Personal   |   WHEN: July 5, 2010   |   WHERE: Kitchen Counter

This next product falls in the category of "Really?  Seriously?".  Kylie had a cupon for one of these things, so she brought home a Schick Hydro 5 razor for me from the gracery store today.  Before she picked it up, she called me and asked if I wanted 3 or 5 blades for a razor.  5?  Blades??  I just wanna shave with it, not mow the freakin' yard.

I remember a few years ago when the most blades you could get on a razor was 2... and yet men everywhere were able to get by.  Our lives were not in turmoil.  Well, if they were, it was for other more noble reasons... like the absence of Facebook, a phone with an app for playing Hangman, or convection ovens... but not because we didn't have a 3rd, 4th or 5th blade on our shaving instrument. 

And for that matter, why stop at 5?  If 5 is better than 4, wouldn't 6 surely be better than 5?  Or, why not skip the whole one-up game altogether and go right to 11 blades?  Now that's innovation.  They could co-brand it with the Red Cross where everytime you shave you can donate the blood the extra 6 blades cause when you try to get that crevice between where your nose and upper lip meet. 

What a scam the shaving industry is trying to push.  Okay, you're telling us more blades is better.  I get it. For the sake of a blog post, let's say I actually believed it.  Where I get more razor burn is the $13 they charge for pack of 4 replacement cartridgess?  Are you cereal?  Let's go on a little math journey, shall we?  I realize I could probably use the razor head cartridge for more than one shave before throwig it out, but currently that's not in my playbook.  I dunno, maybe it's a little compulsive, but I'm not a fan of the idea of shaving with a crusty, used razor especially if I cut myself the last time I shaved with it and got a little blood on the blades.  For that reason, let's assume for this example that I'm using a new razor cartridge each time I shave.  Currently I'm shaving at an average rate of about 2.5 times/week... the exception being when I occasionally think I might look cooler if I had a sweet 5 o'clock shadow goin' only to realize later that said 5 o'clock shadow makes me look more like a pedophile than Brad Pitt.  But I digress.  Focuuus.

Okay, shaving 2.5 times/wk at a cost of $4.25/shave based on a cost of 4 razor cartridges for $13 (razor cost only, not shaving cream).  After 52 weeks (1 yr), I will have spent $552.50 on razors.  Razors.  Conversely, the current 3 blade razors I'm using cost about $9 for a pack of 8, or $1.13 per shave.  Using the same frequency as before, that totals out to $146.25, or a savings of $406.25/yr. 

I could think of a lot of things I'd rather spend $406.25/yr on... like 5 1 hr full-body massages, 40 Papa Murphy's take-n-bake pizzas (50 if I use a $2 off coupon each time), or 325 boxes of Little Debbie Zebra Cakes.

Okay, I'm realizing quickly that I've now spent 20 minutes on a blog post about razors, when the best thing to come out of this whole debacle is that I got to pull out my 60mm micro lens to take a picture of a razor.  Time to move on.

After all that, though, if you'd like to get a free 5 blade Schick Hydro 5 razor and judge it's worthiness for yourself, go here.


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Brand Aid
WHAT: News   |   WHEN: July 2, 2010
Things were starting to get a little stale around here, and in some cases down right moldy. While my blog is just over two years old, my poor, neglected website hasn't been updated in about just as long, not to mention it's over 4 years old and is no longer consistent with the brand I'm wanting to communicate.  The dust has been accumulating for some time, and a little refresh has been long overdo.

I've been meeting and working with Brock and Dave over at Infinet Design, and after getting in their qeue again (these guys are popular!), we've been working for the last couple months on a site that combines my blog and website into a single site.  That's right, one-stop shopping.  No more separate sights with varying Jeckyll & Hyde personalities.

In bringing the two sites together, I also thought long and hard about what I wanted my brand to say.  I even considered throwing all the current look and feel away (including the logo) and starting fresh even though I knew that about the time we start getting bored with our logos is when others finally start to remember it.  A huge thanks to those I spoke to about this that convinced my not to jump ship!  Instead, I'm doing some slight adjustments to freshen things up without losing my old identity.  I really want the site to be complimentary to the style of my work, so I've toned some of the details down just a little to create more of a subtle sophistication with a clean layout.

I'm excited to get the new digs launched, and I'm only a couple weeks away!  Until then, I'm pulling back the sheet just a little to give you a quick sneak peek.




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