Via Flickr:
Today was an adventurous day that ended out at Cox Farms watching them destroy pumpkins in an epic way. This is a shot of a 400lb pumpkin falling onto a platform. Trust me, it went splat.
Category Archives: P365 - Page 6
Chucked (#P365-306) #photography
Posted by Steve
on November 2, 2013
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Dulcimer (#P365-305) #photography
Posted by Steve
on November 1, 2013
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Via Flickr:
We had an impromptu date night and went down to Old Towne Alexandria. This guy was playing in front of one of the Ice Cream shops on King street.
Punkin (#P365-304) #photography
Posted by Steve
on October 31, 2013
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Via Flickr:
Happy Halloween!!
Hydrant (#P365-303) #Photography
Posted by Steve
on October 30, 2013
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Via Flickr:
Went back and forth on a few ideas today that just didn’t work out. Asked a friend what I should shoot and he said "Fire Hydrant". Well, that’s not the first thing he said, but that’s the one I went with.
Gadget Review: Surface Pro 2
Posted by Steve
on October 30, 2013
2 comments
Ok so one of the benefits of finding a job again is that I have income again! Which means I can afford to get some of the things that have been needing a refresh. My laptop, for instance, is my main system that I do most of my photo processing and ….pretty much everything else on. It’s an Asus republic of gamers behemoth laptop that I bought back in 2009. (hey, in computer years, that’s ancient!) It’s served me very well and I still use it for all sorts of home use. The problem with it is that it’s giant. Yeah I know it’s a laptop, but it’s big. Way too big to actually take places and be mobile. I have been planning to replace it as a home system with a full desktop that I can update as needed for gaming and general home use, but that means I still needed a laptop.
Today’s tech trends seem to be leaning towards the tablet types, and I love my iPad for it’s portability and ease of use…but I can’t run Lightroom on it. Yes, I know I can process pictures on it, to an extent, but I can’t really do all of the things LightRoom allows me to do. So running native Windows apps was very important to me, but I liked the idea of a portable tablet.
Enter the Surface Pro 2
I wish Microsoft knew how to market this device. It really is an amazing piece of tech, but it’s just not getting the market share it deserves. For starters, it’s not an iPad replacement. I still use my iPad all the time for general browsing at the couch or in bed. The iPad is lighter and much simpler to navigate. (Not to say that Windows 8 is complex, it’s just different, and I bet it would be easy to adjust). No, the Surface is a laptop replacement. Plain and simple. You can use it with or without the keyboard, but with is much easier, which just makes it a small laptop anyways.
I have had it for a week now and here is what I have been doing with it. For starters, I have left my iPad at home, to force myself to use the Surface for everything on the road. It fits nicely in my camera bag. I bought the 256gb version with 8gb ram and the i5-4200 “Haswell” CPU. I have installed LightRoom, Photoshop, Steam, and a few other “new computer essentials”. Most of my latest P365 shots were processed on the Surface, as well as the latest RnR Comics assembled there. So, that being said, here are the Pros and Cons I have found in the week of use.
Pros:
- Windows 8 in touch screen format = Easy to use
- Nice bright screen with good color
- Stylus makes everything better
- Small and Light enough to carry in the bag
- Powerful enough to run everything I have thrown at it (it’s only been a week)
- Battery life = Amazeballs for a laptop
Cons:
- A little heavy for extended handheld use
- Windows App library limited
- Screen is still small for serious LightRoom use, but good for Portable
- One more USB port would be good
- Slight screen edge drift with the stylus.
Overall I am really happy with it. It does exactly what I bought it for and I hope to get a lot more use out of it. I am thinking of doing a future project (after P365 is done) where I sit in a coffee shop and do on the spot portraits, processing and all. More on that later though.
if you have any questions or want to know something specific about the Surface pro 2 that I didn’t cover here, please ask away in comments or via facebook or twitter!
Norman Who? (P365-302)
Posted by Steve
on October 29, 2013
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Norman Who? (#P365-302) #Photography
Via Flickr:
Came up with this idea last night and wanted to try it out. Today’s artist has a much different work space than back in Rockwell’s time. But so many similarities. I used an off camera flash to highlight my face in the mirror and a muted on camera flash to light the whole area.
Sack Lunch (P365-301)
Posted by Steve
on October 28, 2013
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Sack Lunch (#P365-301) #photography
Trooper Adventures…..the strip.
Posted by Steve
on August 27, 2013
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So on a whim, yesterday, I decided to try and make a comic strip. So, I can’t draw for crap. I have loads of talented friends who can draw so I am always jealous of them. Occasionally I get some decent ideas on something that I think would be funny in a strip but that lack of drawing kinda puts a damper on things. And don’t give me the whole XKCD argument, that boy can really draw.
What I can do is take pictures, and I have lots of material to use. So I give you the first Trooper Adventure strip!
I am still working on formatting and such so if I do more they won’t be near as big. Also, I may not stick with just the troopers. It’s a work in progress.
Officially Unemployed!
Posted by Steve
on July 15, 2013
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And just like that, I have officially become a burden on society. Didn’t realize it was that easy. So July 12th was my last day on record at my previous job, and as if yet I have had no offers from any of the 50 places I have submitted to. I do have one hopeful that I feel the interview went well, but we’ll see. (If you have any leads, please feel free to e-mail me!
Fear not, Sarah and I have enough socked away to sustain us for quite some time. So, in the meantime I am catching up on my photography and writing (thus this post) and looking into other things to keep me busy. I am not going to fool myself into thinking that I am some future great novelist or think that my Photography can sustain me. Mostly it’s just things to occupy my mind so I don’t go crazy.
In other news, I broke my toe! Yeah, great segway right? On the 4th of July I became a statistic by going into the emergency room with a non-firework related injury! What happened? Well, after our little BBQ and meet and greet, when everyone else had left (except James, who got to witness this delightful event) I went to get an ice cream out of the freezer. On the way back to the family room I was walking down the stairs and slipped. My left foot shot straight into the metal railing and I fell the rest of the way down the stairs.
After screaming in pain for a good 5 minutes, I finally got around to asking Andrew to remove the sock on my left foot. I took a picture of the result, but to save your stomachs, I have decided to use this artist’s rendition of what my foot looked like. As you can see, I tried to make it a little happier. The actual foot looked much, much worse.
After screaming in disgust for a good 5 minutes, everyone else in the room decided that a trip to the emergency room was in order.
Fun fact about me. In stressful situations, I use humor as a defense mechanism. Needless to say, I was pretty stressed. On the way out to the car, I made sure that Sarah grabbed my phone and my iPad (so I have them) but totally forgot about things like, my insurance card, my shoes (at least 1 of them) etc. I needed my phone because I totally needed to post a picture to Facebook and twitter, right!?
When we arrived at the hospital, we didn’t see the normal patient entrance to the emergency room, only the ambulance entrance. I rolled down the back seat window and asked one of the paramedics “Where do I go for this?” with my foot outside the window. He happily pointed us in the right direction.
Thankfully the emergency room was fairly empty and we didn’t have to wait for hours on end to be seen. The whole staff was great and dealt with my “current state” with a smile. I got dosed up on morphine and the doctor straightened out my toe (to much screaming from me).
If you are really interested in what it looked like, the x-ray can be seen here. (warning, it’s not pretty)
That’s been my July so far! My project 365 is still going strong. I think it’s really helped me work on some of techniques, as well as getting over my fear of taking pictures of other people. Turns out that the average person doesn’t mind an artistic picture taken of them!
Here is a link to my Flickr page with all of the latest pics on it!
Catch up Post!
Posted by Steve
on May 15, 2013
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Of course I realize the irony of the last post I left here being that I was searching for the Highway of Death, and then I don’t post anything for a long time. (Ok, it was a little funny for me.) The truth is that I have had both a lot of things going on, and then too little motivation.
So, as per usual, it’s catch up time!
I got to go home for a week!! I know, I was excited too. I had some work to take care of back at the home office and it required me being there in person. The downside to this was that I could not take Sarah with me. She stayed here in Kuwait and held down the fort while I went home and gorged myself on pork and alcohol. (It was a hard ordeal, but I think I left some pork in VA, but not much)
Things here are moving forward as per usual for this sort of work. Lots of “hurry up and wait” which you get used to. We do our best to keep busy and entertain ourselves. I think we have worked our way through a good number of TV shows tat we have meant to catch up on.
My Project 365 is going well. I have not yet gotten tired of my camera and it has given me the chance to experiment with some different shooting styles. Not to mention being able to look back on the last 134 days (so far) and see a snapshot of what my year has been like. I may have to compile a little book once the project is done.
I know it’s not a great catch up post, but that’s what there is to tell. I will try and post some more soon, since we have some interesting trips coming up.
Oh, and we still couldn’t find the Highway of death. Turns out it was cleaned up a few years ago.
bummer
