Live out loud!
But not too loud – Cthulhu is sleeping.
Chat about whatever.
***Update***
Notes below on how I took a not-sucky photo of my dog.
* The lens was a Panasonic 20mm (40mm equivalent) f/1.7. You should always take a wide-ish bright prime when you walk in the woods. Go ahead and take a zoom or whatever else in addition, but make sure you have something in the 25-50mm (35mm equivalent) range that can go to f/2. Otherwise you will compromise something to get a decent shot in the shade. I took this at f/2.5, 1/125 sec, ISO 250.
* You should mark your calendar for this shot, kids. This may be the first pic using built-in flash that I did not immediately delete. This scene absolutely needs some sort of light to help the shaded dog stand out from the dappled-sun background, and direct flash did the job, but even so Max still looks a bit flat since light that close to the lens axis makes subjects look like a cardboard cut-out. Plus his eye needed a little photoshop to get rid of that awful direct-flash redeye effect. My FL-36R strobe unit with a cheap radio trigger (aka: my baby, the picture prettifier, the bestest photo accessory on earth) would have taken a much more appealing pic by lighting the dog from a bit to the side instead of head-on, but that strobe just took an accidental swim and then I fell on it. So anyway I’m in the market for a FL-36R or similar if anybody has one that they want to sell.
* Even so, a balanced pic required dropping the flash compensation to minus 2 ev, and manual exposure settings were used to ensure that the ambient background (that is to say, things in the pic not lit by flash) were still only about 1 stop under-exposed according to the light meter. It boggles the mind to think what kind of garishly lit horror show would result if I let the camera choose its own flash power.
* To get the final exposure settings, it was first necessary to fix the shutter speed at the GH2’s sync speed, 1/125 sec, and then adjust the aperture until the meter read about minus 1, which turned out to be f/2.5. An affordable zoom lens would have forced me to slow down the shutter or bump the ISO, all while sacrificing sharpness, and I’d rather lose flexibility than give up quality.
The Dangerman
Sermon on the mound by the hound?
rlrr
Has the Romney campaign learned how Venn diagrams are supposed to work, yet?
Punchy
Hey libtardz, Romney raised $100 mill in June, after rooking $70 extra-large in May. At that rate, he’ll take $130 in August, $160 in Septs, and $190 in October, or $0.650 bill by election day. Not including the likely extra bil’yun or two Adelson will straight-up drop sometime after Labor Day.
Nobama will be lucky to raise half that. Game, set, snatch.
rlrr
@Pukey:
Let’s just replace elections with a contests to see who can raise the most corporate money. It’s what the conservatives really want…
Carnacki
Cthulhu.
Carnacki
Speaking of Cthulhu, has anyone played “Cthulhu Saves the World”, especially on iPhone?
Mino
Yesterday, one of the threads evolved into “a race to the bottom” discussion of wages and benefits.
If Big Labor is languishing in America, how are we going to address wage disparities? Does anyone see it making a comeback? Won’t any gains via Congress be subject to the winds of regime change?
One very long essay paints the wane of Labor and the hands holding the brush are bipartisan.
http://exiledonline.com/the-lefts-big-sellout-how-the-aclu-human-rights-groups-quietly-exterminated-labor-rights/
An OpEd from Joe Nocera has lots of good linkies to current thought on the subject.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/05/opinion/nocera-turning-our-backs-on-unions.html?_r=2&hp
And get fucking Ed Rendell off my TV!
Linda Featheringill
I have a gravity cloud following me around today. [Remember Joe Bppft? Lil Abner?] Anyway, everything I touch is zapped by gravity and too many of these things succumbed to the burden and fell. This particular cloud seems to be quite fond of all things liquid. Sigh.
Other than that, people and other animals in my corner of the world are doing well.
I have been reading about Romney’s 100 million dollar IRA. Wow. Even if I assume that everything he did was legal, I’d like to know how he did that. Maybe I could learn something.
Edited for grammar.
daveNYC
Rooking. Typo or Freudian slip?
WaynersT
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that Halperin doesn’t know the difference between a lie and the truth. How do I get a job like his? It seems awesome.
http://thepage.time.com/2012/07/09/overseas-investment-scolds-for-truth/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+timeblogs%2Fswampland+%28TIME%3A+Swampland%29
Culture of Truth
You know who else drove a Mercedes??
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@WaynersT: Sweet jumping jesus
“I’m just a journamamamamalist. I’m not interested in truth, accuracy, relevance or fairness”. And this asshole gets more face time on LiberalMSNBC than Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz combined.
Jim
Thanks for the info regarding the photo. I’m very close to springing for a G3 or GX1 and a lens or two beyond the basic 14-42 standard lens; how you got that exposure is very interesting.
Culture of Truth
And I didn’t think my contempt for this talking doll could grow.
Montysano
On-camera flash was the death of decent flash photography. I still use an older Kodak digital camera, solely because I can use my trusty old Vivitar 285 flash in off-camera mode (the 285 will fry most digital cameras).
The photo of Max is nice, but you really had to work at it, eh?
Served
Does anyone have any good juicer recommendations? Looking for something mid-range, good bang for my buck, reliable, but not a utlra-mega elite pricey gizmo.
Linda Featheringill
@efgoldman:
Google “Romney IRA.”
Steeplejack
@rlrr:
You need the sequel.
Linda Featheringill
@efgoldman:
Weasels: Yeah, you probably owe them an apology.
JPL
The President is going to announce that he supports the extension of middle class tax cuts soon. MSNBC is going to stream his speech.
Violet
@Served:
So you’re looking for John Cole?
AliceBlue
In regards to Rmoney’s fundraising prowess, Harvey Weinstein said that all the advertising dollars in the world can’t sell a bad product. He then referred to Mitt as the “Edsel candidate.”
Steeplejack
@efgoldman:
Romney’s IRA.
Lyrebird
Hey, I saw “Brave”, enjoyed it!
Cuz o’ y’all I just forced myself to read Melissa McEwan’s non-review of it, SIGH.
*Yes* it’s Disney, cliches litter the landscape thicker than moss, but the biggest bias I saw in there was against fat people or anyone not drop-dead gorgeous, and I think that MM and the others crying “oppression” and “appropriation” based on this movie oughta be forced to work every day on a documentary about the real life of Pocohontas.
“Brave” is not based on a twisted version of a real person’s life, it’s a *story*.
My 2 cents…
Redshift
@efgoldman: You would think that it’s something that simple, but apparently not. We don’t have all the details because of that pesky lack of disclosure, but IIRC, for a bunch of Bain deals, they created two classes of stock, a low-valued “riskier” class and a higher valued less-risky class. Employees then put their shares of the low-price shares in IRAs, some of which grew massively, producing tax-free $100M IRAs.
The kind of tricks you can do when you’re the one setting the stock price are, needless to say, the kind of “smart investments” that non-insiders can never make.
bemused
@WaynersT:
Not much point in writing that piece if he avoids talking about the substance of the attacks like the plague, is there? Of course, he had no problem saying the President was being kind of a dick. No adjudicating there, nope.
Linda Featheringill
@efgoldman: #28
I live to serve. :-)
Tim F.
@Montysano:
Believe it or not the whole process was more or less automatic. The only thing I remember thinking about at the conscious level was mourning for my poor FL-36R.
Amir Khalid
Yesterday, I went to see Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter. I recommend it unreservedly as the most thrilling, action-packed presidential biopic ever made. It has a most interesting take on the American Civil War, particularly on how the Union achieved its victory at Gettysburg.
Randy P
@Lyrebird: My problem with it is I was waiting for the heroine to be heroic, to have some sort of brave quest where her archery skills would turn out to be useful. That kind of never happened.
I never get tired of Scottish accents though. If anyone wants to know, the incomprehensible dialect spoken by Young MacGuffin is called Doric. I tracked down an interview with the voice actor. It’s his native dialect.
@efgoldman: It’s a lot of fun, I highly recommend it. And it is a good story. Just not the story I was expecting. She does get a chance to show plenty of bravery and to use the archery, so I’m sure your daughter will be well-satisfied on both counts.
Linda Featheringill
@efgoldman:
He’s not in Singapore. Malaysia.
Randiego
Your sucky media: just heard a report about the Obama middle class tax cut. According to Jonathan Karl of ABC, this isn’t going anywhere because there are SENATE DEMOCRATS who won’t get behind it.
Amir Khalid
@efgoldman:
Yes. But much less than we do up here in Malaysia.
muddy
@Culture of Truth:
This is a thinly disguised Tunch, a Turkish van.
catclub
@efgoldman: Well, I am fairly sure the quouted article is wrong ( on the internet).
The tax deductible part of the IRA may be $2k, but other contributions – which you pay taxes on before they go into the IRA, and not quite that limited.
Lyrebird
@efgoldman: Hey from what you’ve shared about her work, she’s DEFinitely brave! ! ! Hope you all enjoy it enormously.
My mom (age near 70) loved it & loved being back in a theater for a 3-D movie!
Nellcote
Rick Scott’s Budget Cuts Have Undermined Florida’s Response To Tuberculosis Outbreak
“In April, a Center for Disease Control investigator warned Florida health officials that a Jacksonville tuberculosis outbreak was one of the worst he had seen in 20 years. The CDC’s letter cautioned state leaders — who were in the process of shrinking the Department of Health and closing the leading TB hospital in the state — that the epidemic required immediate mitigating action. According to the Palm Beach Post:
Had they seen the letter, decision makers would have learned that 3,000 people in the past two years may have had close contact with contagious people at Jacksonville’s homeless shelters, an outpatient mental health clinic and area jails. Yet only 253 people had been found and evaluated for TB infection, meaning Florida’s outbreak was, and is, far from contained.
The public was not to learn anything until early June, even though the same strain was appearing in other parts of the state, including Miami.
Since taking office, Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) has slashed health and human-services agencies while offsetting costs with corporate tax cuts. During last year’s legislative session, the Florida Department of Health took a total budget reduction of $55.6 million, eliminating hundreds of full-time positions and cutting children’s medical services.
Officials cut almost $4 million from Florida’s infectious disease control budget and the A.G. Holley State Hospital — where tough TB cases had historically been treated — was closed. The Florida Department of Health has released figures alleging that statewide TB figures are on the decline. The CDC’s report, however, suggests the strain has moved beyond Jacksonville’s homeless shelters, spreading across the entire state and reaching the general population.”
Yutsano
MAXPUPPEH!!
It’s Monday. I refuse to think on Mondays.
Lyrebird
@Randy P:
Fer sher. Or to get a clue before the denouement? I was waiting for a little more depth for the witch character, more olde stuffe in the sound track, etc.
BUT, glad you also enjoyed, and hey,
1. as my boss just said — at least it’s a Disney movie that isn’t all about making yourself *pretty* enough so that you never have to worry about anything again, and
2. what they did include of the archery and also the little speech by Merrida as she demonstrates some ability to grow, those were some of my favorite parts
r€nato
today I received a refund check from my health insurer because it did not meet the medical loss ratio mandated by Obamacare.
Would any of you who receive such checks, make sure to inform your FB friends with a post on your wall? Let’s let people know that Obamacare is working for them.
gene108
I keep reading about how House Republicans will vote “symbolically” to overturn Obamacare after the SCOTUS ruling.
What chafes my wheat is the fact THE FIRST BILL THE 112TH HOUSE PASSED WAS “REPEAL THE JOB KILLING HEALTH CARE LAW ACT”.
Why can’t the media point out to these Republicans that this is the FIRST thing they DID, after taking office in 2011?
Why can I, a petty commoner, know these things on the tips of my fingers, while our well paid betters in the national media seem to have forgotten something so simple?
I want to punch something every time a house Republican says they’re gonna “repeal Obamacare” and the media sits there not knowing they already “repealed Obamacare”.
trollhattan
@Linda Featheringill:
Since minks are weasels, can we make a coat out of Halperin?
trollhattan
@efgoldman:
You just described my 10 YO who, of course, lurved it.
trollhattan
@Tim F.:
I have that flash, but the “cold dead fingers” rule applies to my dispensing of it. Have you been eyeballing the M Zuiko 75/1.8 samples? Holy crap that’s a fine lens (if somewhat oddball focal length).
SiubhanDuinne
@Steeplejack:
Mitt Romney: My Little Phony
RareSanity
@Tim F,
Don’t know if you remember, a few posts back that I had gotten a new Canon rig for Father’s Day. I also picked up one of the ubiquitous Canon 50mm f/1.8 (80mm equivalent). That lens is so awesome, I absolutely hate when a situation arises that I have to use one of my zooms.
I would have never thought prior to getting that lens, that I would be so adverse to using a zoom lens. I find taking pictures is much more fun when you have to “zoom with your feet”. You take a lot more time thinking about composition.
There is no way I would be able to get that much depth of field, at f/2.5 on my 50mm, and not just by a little bit. If I take a shot at anything in the range of f/2.0 – f/3.5, I have very shallow DoF. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…like most beginners, I love me some bokeh!
Probably too much…I’m sure it will pass.
Whoa…whoa…back the truck up!
How much harder does using the flash, off camera, make taking “spontaneous” shots…in the woods no less?
RareSanity
@RareSanity:
(reply to self)
Actually, looking at the original, I’d say the DoF on both lenses is pretty comparable. My 50mm probably has a little more shallow DoF at low f-numbers due to it being a “mini” telephoto.
Great pic though! Looks even better at original size.
Tim F.
@trollhattan: Would love to have that lens, but I’ll get divorced if I pay full price for it. My current upgrade plan, in order that I plan to buy them:
Something to replace the FL-36R, then lightroom 4 (the upgrade from LR3 apparently does incredible things for GH2 pics), then the Olympus 45mm/1.8, then maybe possibly the OM-D if I can find someone to buy a Nikkor 2.8-4 normal zoom that I want to use to help finance it.
Tim F.
@RareSanity:
How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice. Use it enough and it will start to come together quite fast when an opportunity comes up. However, it is definitely a more thoughtful kind of shooting than if you just point the camera and click away.
RareSanity
@Tim F.:
Curse you and your quick, biting wit! :-)
BTW…much like on The Simpsons, when Mr. Burns got Steve Spielberg’s “non-union Mexican equivalent”, Señor Spielbergo to produce the movie of his life story, I bought the inexpensive*, Chinese equivalent of the Canon 580EX II SpeedLite.
It does full E-TTL and, get this, can be remotely triggered wirelessly, with the trigger built-in to my camera! (cue evil laugh)…
Suck on that Mr. Carnegie! LOL
(*) – Relatively inexpensive…damn thing still cost me 200 bucks
Tim F.
@RareSanity: BTW, when you point the flash directly at something, use a diffuser. When you don’t the bright spots make a subject look startled and greasy.
RareSanity
@Tim F.:
One thing that I like about the wireless setup, is that I can use the SpeedLite, and the pop-up flash on the camera at the same time…and the flash exposure settings are applied to both. Also, I can set which one I want to be the “primary” (produces the majority of the light) flash.
It has one of those flip down diffusers, is that sufficient? Or, should I get one of those ones that slides over the top?
Also, in just taking some test shots, I was pretty surprised how well the built-in bounce card worked when I just needed “a little” light. (similar to your shot of Max)
What’s your stance on bounce cards?
Tim F.
@RareSanity: With a setup like that, it sounds like you hardly need more input from me. However, you asked. So:
A bounce card works just as well as a diffuser or a clip-on softbox. Bigger is always better, so you should try to find something that clips onto the flash head rather than use the little thing that slides in and out. Indoors just point the flash at any moderately neutral-colored surface and use the bounced light from that. I once got some splendid outdoor portraits by having a relative hold a white bedsheet off to one side and bounced the strobe light off of that.
RareSanity
@Tim F.:
Cool. Thanks for the input.
I would say that the subject of flash, is probably one of the more straight forward ones in photography…don’t use it useless you need it, and even then, use it smartly.
The rubber hits the road with composition and exposure settings. Learning how to make the camera produce, what your mind is “seeing” effortlessly.
Kinda like playing a musical instrument…first you have to learn the mechanics of playing the instrument, before you can play that melody in your head.
This is why I love to hear you explain your shots.