When you blink your eyes...

I've been thinking about getting a good photo printer for awhile and finally went for it yesterday. For the most part a lot of the stuff I've done I display online. But I've been having more of a need for making prints lately. I wanted something where I can get a good idea of what an image is going to look like in hard copy before I invest the money to get a really large print done. I did some research, c-net, e-pinions, etc and decided to try the Canon iP8500.

I just got it up and running today and I'm very impressed so far. At first I thought there was a problem with it because the prints didn't look that great and I could see a few small white lines in the output. It turned out the problem was just that I hadn't chosen the right paper and it was printing in draft mode instead of high quality. Once I figured that out I was off and running. It is pretty easy to use and the results are amazing for 4x6-8x10. This is going to save me a lot of time and potentially some money in having to send photos off to be printed. So far I would recommend this one. It does cost more than some of the lower models but reading the reviews and specs on them all I felt like this was the one for me to start with. I always like to invest in something a little better if at all possible. This one also has the ablility to print onto a CD as well which I think will be really handy for the compilation discs I like to make for people.

I've closely examined many prints so far and I cannot tell any loss in quality over one printed say from kodak or other digital printing services. Its really great to get that instant feedback when I'm trying to see what something is going to look like in print. I didn't do as many prints before because it was just a pain to have to upload them and wait for them in the mail or go pick them up somewhere. Also, you never know exactly what they're going to do with color correction. Now I can get the color correction the way I want it myself, and if I want a larger print done I can have it sent off somewhere and know what its going to look like as long as I can tell them not to mess with it.

I'm relaxing on a foggy, overcast Sunday afternoon listening to The Smiths and Morrissey albums while drinking espresso. There is just something very comforting to me about listening to Morrissey sing over the jangling guitars. I also find the lyrics inspiring and helps me to think about not just accepting things as they are. I've heard people say The Smiths are sappy or cry baby music, to me that's just silly. The Smiths hit harder than most heavy hard rock bands with their wit and and sarcasm. There are times when I like the harder music but The Smiths have just been more lasting to me and I can listen to it more often.

I've just updated my current music list with some albums I've bought in the last couple of weeks. I've probably listened to the Deerhoof and Aphex Twin discs the most so far, all 4 actually turned out to be worthy purchases. Every album Deerhoof has released that I've heard is always really solid. They have a knack for moving themselves forward each album but still maintain their style. I got to see them in concert last month and it was a really great show. I was impressed. Very tight sound and great energy. I've also listened to that Aphex Twin EP Come to Daddy quite a bit. I have heard a few of the songs before but haven't actually owned a copy and given it my full attention until now. I really love it. The first 2 songs alone are worth getting it. Starts with an evil devious song with the first Come to Daddy mix then goes into a soft beautiful song on the next track. It just makes me really wonder about Richard D. James. I mean, I've always thought the guy was insane, an evil genius. But, it really shows that he has an appreciation for beauty. The contrast between good and evil there is really compelling to me. I think Richard D. James may be an interesting person to make a movie about. I've heard so many rumours about crazy personality traits and things he does. I don't know really what all is true or not.

I've been working off and on for the last several months to try and complete the new design for my website. It was a big task was integrating Gallery2 into the design to display my photos. I created a custom theme for it and finally got it to look like something I liked.

A few weeks later I decided I wanted to start up a blog again but the old format I had just wasn't cutting it. I wanted something that was going to be saved in a database and allow me to have complete control over the way it looks. Preferably written in PHP. I read up on the subject tried out a few packages and decided I would go with WordPress. I'm happy with how its set up. However, the theme I started my custom theme from had some kind of CSS formatting that made it hard to get used to at first. Once I spent the time to dig into it and make it look how it want. This is what came out.

I decided to call my web log "When You Blink Your Eyes" or "Blink" for short. It comes from a song by Clinic called "Distortions". It has one of my favorite phrases in a song. I don't think I've heard it anywhere else. It says "I love it when you blink your eyes". That also has a meaning to me in the way I think about photography, that one great shot happens in the blink of an eye.

So, I'm starting to use flickr. I've seen many photographers have been using it to show there work and get feedback on it. I'm planning on putting a lot of stuff on there then using my domain as the place to get my very best stuff, portofolio quality photographs, etc.

I went ahead and got the pro account for only $24 a year you can have unlimited number of pictures. I like how they have the tags and photo sets set up. I wish you could do more with the look of how the photos are displayed. But, overall its a very solid, fast platform. Its cool how you can link up with everyone else and choose favorites, leave comments and stuff like that.

My link is at http://www.flickr.com/photos/josephrussell/ I'm going to be posting more and more stuff there and cutting down the photos on this domain to be what I think is my best work.

The last 2-3 weeks have been really busy for me....

Work has been insane. On a project that is very frustrating at times and everything has to be done NOW. It hasn't been like this until now but I do think it is temporary, so hopefully that will be over soon...

However, I've seen 3 great shows recently. Wilco, The Shins, and Rilo Kiley. All well worth the effort of going to them. Wilco and Rilo Kiley I just decided to go at the last minute when I found out there were tickets left, I'm glad I did. Also, I've met some really cool people recently.

I'm excited about the chance to do a lot more photoshoots this summer. I want to really explore what I can do with a camera. I love the idea of people being able to see through my eyes through photography. I also want to get more into some video work at the same time, I enjoy both mediums. Editing photos and editing video really have some complementing aspects and are both just a lot of fun for me to do. I think it was nice that I kind of developed my still photography skills before going into video, I think it made a big difference in my composition on video.

Here is a picture I took awhile back of my good friend Deb. I love it because it captures her attitude so well.

I have been researching a new computer system for awhile and finally went ahead and ordered most of the pieces last night. First of all something has gotten a bit jacked with my old desktop machine, I think a bit stick of memory or something. It can be unstable at times. So, I need something more reliable. Also, I want to get into more video editing and very stable environment to do a lot of photoshop work. I went ahead and got something that should have a good amount of power, reliability, and a lot of storage for all my data.

Here are the parts I've ordered so far:
Motherboard: Asus P5AD2-E Premium
Processor: Pentium 4 3.0Ghz LG775 with 2MB cache.
Memory: 2 x 1024MB Kingston DDR2 memory
Video: PNY Quardo 540 PCI Express 128MB w/ HDTV output
Storage: 2 x 160MB SATA Hitachi Raid 0 for video capture/editing, 1 x 250MB SATA Hitachi for other data, 1 x 80MB SATA Hitachi for operating system and program files.
Optical: Plextor external firewire/USB 2.0 dual layer DVD burner.

I still need to decide on a new case. I'm planning on getting something with a 500W power supply with a lot of cooling for all this equipment. Also, I would next want to get 2 LCD Monitors to go along with the dual DVI capabilities I have but I may wait a bit on that since that is going to be probably the most expensive piece of the whole system.

The motherboard is one of the top of the line boards from Asus right now. It does have 1394b (800mb/s firewire) and dual 1 Gb integrated lan adapters. Also, of course the PCI express to host the new video card. I made sure this time the memory I bought was on the recommended list because I've made the mistake a few times of trying generic memory, its never worth it.

I'm also considering getting an entry level professional sound card. Depending on what I find in my research I may just end up going with a creative labs audigy or something. I used to work there and I feel they have pretty decent sound products even though I know there are higher end cards out there.

I'm excited to get it this, fortunately I found one reliable vender that had all of this with free second day shipping so I should receive it pretty soon.

I just decided to start writing on the blog again. So here goes...

I've been taking a lot of pictures within the last couple of months. Including a new set of black and white photos from downtown Oklahoma City, Tulsa, a set from the Death From Above 1979 concert in OKC as well as a few sets of my friends that I've got a lot of positive feedback on.

I've had some people say that some of my stuff is actually worth selling. Only recently have I started thinking that I may have some material good enough to sell. So, who knows what will happen there. I still just enjoy capturing the world as I see it. Its only been within the last 6 months or so that I've really felt I have command of my equipment and can make it do what I want to really capture the way my eyes see something. I got a new 50mm prime lens with f/1.4 that I've been using a lot lately. I try to use it exclusively for anything where people are the main focus. I can work in low light without using a flash which allows me to get much more candid poses.

I've also been getting into digital video within the last couple of months. I've always been into movies and use that and television as a learning tool in getting ideas on what is good and bad regarding composition and lighting in photographs. I figured a logical extension was to attempt to take my knowledge of still photographs into moving pictures. So far I really enjoy it. I've mainly just taken some random videos here and there but its been a lot of fun and I'm happy with the results. I've seen several situations where there was something interesting that wouldn't have made a good still photograph but turned out to be something good for video.

In addition, I've gotten back into attempting to write a screenplay. I wrote my first 15 pages today. I had been filling a notebook for months now and feel like I have a good concept for something interesting. I don't know for sure or it if it will be something I'll ever let anyone read. But it was enjoyable to let all those ideas spill out. If anything, I've got a lot of usable ideas for something if the story doesn't turn out to be something interesting. They say to write about what you know so that's what I'm writing about. At first I had trouble in not just writing down things exactly as they happened, but now I think I'm getting the hang of just being inspired by things that have happened to me and people I've met and spinning that into something else. Also, condensing multiple people into one character. Anyway, maybe someday it could be a usable script. For now, it has been a good learning experience. I do feel like I can grow these few scenes I have into a full feature length movie if I put the time into it. Its just hard to say how interesting it will be at this time, I feel like it will be good but since I've never done it before I can't say for sure.

I guess I sound pretty creative lately after all that. It feels good to just let yourself kind of flow out through all that. We'll see what comes of it.

Also, since the last blog I've permanantly switched to Firefox instead of IE after it crashed on me one last time. I recommend everyone switch to Firefox, I haven't looked back since the switch. I noticed my blog page is kind of jacked up in Firefox seeing as the footer shows up somewhere on the top right. I'll try to fix that as soon as I get a chance.

I've put a fair amount of work into re-configuring my entire photo gallery layout. I had planned on writing my own system, I had a good framework designed but I realized it would take way more development hours than I had time for at the moment. I went ahead and implemented the php Gallery for the time being. Its a big improvement over what I had but there are several features I hope they add in the new version. I tested the Alpha version of Gallery2 for awhile but I found it to be more trouble it was worth attempted to re-write it to fit into my layout. Gallery1 was much easier to hack at this time and also seemed quite a bit more stable. I'm trying to go back and put descriptions and titles in for everything but it will take awhile to get to all of them. I noticed several months back that the way I was saving the photos was destroying the EXIF data. You'll notice that only the new galleries have that information present. I may try to go back and fix that on the old ones some day if I get the time.

I have added a few new sets that were not previously in the old gallery. I added 5 more photos to the last England set. I also added the set of The Decemberists from last October.

I have the search feature implemented where you can search from the main page through all the keywords and captions. Comments are allowed per picture and per gallery. I also have the view count for each gallery and image enabled. Also, I think the slideshow feature is pretty cool.

I have also started updating my current music and concerts again. It still isn't fully complete but I went back and added most things I could think of for the last several months into the database.

Making a mix cd for me is a very important artform. It is a way I can express my musical tastes in terms of my relationship to another person and their musical tastes. I have many self-imposed rules that are often changing and I try to add and break my rules as often as possible. I often think of the line from High Fidelity where Rob is making the mix cd for Laura. He says something about how it is a delicate thing because you are using someone else's art to express your feelings. I also take that very seriously.

You've got to really catch their attention in the first song. Maybe even bring it up a notch in the second song. Third song I like to switch it up a bit. Like Rob says, you don't want to blow you load to quickly. A mix CD is all about the momentum, one false move and you can ruin the entire flow. Even if you have all the right songs you can still ruin it by putting them in the incorrect order. I like to try to make the end of one song flow into the next song. Another technique is to abruptly switch to something with a different tempo or loudness, that helps to keep people's attention.

The most important songs are the first and last song in my opinion. When first coming up with the idea for a compilation I pick the first and last songs pretty close to the beginning, that's how I define the rest of the CD. Sometimes I like to have a strong dichotomy, totally switch it up half way through just like a Stanley Kubrick film.

I like to always try to challenge the listener. I first must know what kind of music they like and what the person is like. I choose several artists that may be somewhat similar to the ones they already listen to. Then I try to throw in some stuff that may be in the same ballbark that I think is really good that they may like to try.

Another important thing is the theme. I often like to have a cohesive theme throughout the compilation, sometimes only loosely followed. Sometimes I first choose a song on its title and see if it will fit into the sound I'm going for, if it does that's a bonus. Also, lyrical content themes are important.

A very important thing to me is the coolness factor. Using older and more obscure material is a bonus if it fits. Putting artists the listener has never heard adds to the exotic nature of receiving the compilation. I try not to put anything on the compilation the listener may already own or have heard often. I also like to try to shock the listener if possible with something weird or unusual.

Recently I've got into just putting excerpts from certain songs that are too long and just have a certain part I want to include into the mix. This helps to tighten up the mix and take out extra stuff that could lose the listener's interest. It can also be cool to take short excerpts from TV shows or movies and use them as segues, this can really help to add to the personal nature.

I will write more about mix cds later when I think of more...