because a Reverend can't be wrong.
not your typical rodeo
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Props always add something to a shot for me. They help to take the model’s mind off of the shoot and give them something to do with their hands.
These two were great together. If I can find a barn for an afternoon, I’d like to photograph these two again, with a few interesting variations. ;)
Your comments and suggestions are appreciated, as always.
pink, bold, and blue
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Adrienne and Kristen came over together for a shoot last night. I had a lot of fun. I haven’t really had a chance to dig through all of them yet, but this one I really like.
Your comments and suggestions are appreciated, as always.
Now that I’ve been using GMail for a bit, I’ve developed a sort of Love/Hate relationship with it. We’ll do the love first.
* GMail groups my messages by conversation. It’s very easy to look at all the messages associated with a particular conversation if I need to refer to what someone else said a few responses back. Even if a bunch of people were CCed on a message, all of the responses are grouped together. This beats a conventional system where I’d have to hope the threading worked and, even then, my responses would probably be in the “Sent” folder. It’s very easy to use.
* GMail lets me change my From address. I’ve yet to see another *good* webmail system that allowed me to do this.
* GMail has pretty good SPAM filtering. I’ve turned off all SPAM filtering on my host. I get, at most, one a day that makes it into my Inbox. And, I’ve only seen about 4 false positives so far, and all 4 were quite iffy to begin with.
* GMail lets me use my keyboard to navigate and it does so intuitively. Just the other day I found myself wishing there was a key to go back to the message list without removing the current item from that list (which is what “y” does). Of course, you can press “gi” if you want to go to the Inbox, but what if I was in search results? Well, you can. The backspace key does just this. I find that I keep my Inbox cleaner when it’s so easy to press “y” to Archive the message when I’m done reading it or right after I respond. Even now my Inbox only has 15 messages in it. Compare that to, for instance, my work Inbox with 104. And I get more personal mail than work mail.
* GMail offers all kinds of interesting features that you don’t know exist until they happen. For instance, this morning I got an email inviting me to a Halloween party. The email contained the address that the party was being hosted at. Google is so smart that “it offered directions”:http://revjim.net/archives/2005/09/gmail-smart.png to that location in its side bar.
* GMail makes it easy to save a Draft and it associates the Draft with the conversation. This makes it very easy to write responses in pieces and pick up where you left off.
* GMail’s spell checker is *great*. They made improvements (this morning, I think) that make it even easier to use, and it was dead simple before.
* GMail automatically adds contacts to my contacts book and offers to show me only those that I contact frequently.
Now, for my gripes. These two are bad enough to make me consider returning to a conventional desktop mail client.
* GMail has no way of using information contained in an email message to determine which from address to use when responding to certain messages. This means that it always uses the same from address unless you change it manually each time. I could simply use two GMail accounts — one for each email address — but then I have to deal with logging in and logging out. If GMail would let me combine two accounts into one login, allow me to share an account with other logins, or allow rules to determine which from address should be used, that would solve this problem.
* GMail will not let me remove a message from a conversation or add a message to a conversation. GMail doesn’t always get conversations right. You also can’t throw away a single message. So, if you just want to throw away part of a conversation, you have to throw it all away. The same goes for labels. If I could rearrange conversations at will, it would quite a bit easier to use.
And the less important gripe.
* At times, GMail’s incoming and outgoing mail seem to operate slowly. I’ve seen as much as an hour go by before getting a message I sent myself. Generally, it’s really fast. But, it seems that when I really need it to be fast (testing an email notification system, for instance) it isn’t.
The following gripes are GMail and Google Talk integration issues:
* If Google’s official talk client offers notification upon new mail, that’s great. However, when using “Gaim”:http://gaim.sf.net/ to connect to it it does not. It’d be really nice if it did.
* Since GMail is all about storing “conversations” why not add logs of my IM conversations to the mix (optionally, of course). The conversations could be searched and retrieved just like email. In fact, IM and Email should almost be integrated so closely that, if I got an email notification from GMail, I could respond right in Google Talk and have that response sent back via email. Why not?
All in all, I’m quite happy with GMail. It has so many rich features that you do even know exist until you need them and that’s really good. But, with a few of these gripes, it’s quite annoying to the point where it might just outweigh the benefits.
If I had Yahoo! Mail Beta access, I’d certainly be willing to give it a go.
whatever you’re selling… I’ll buy it
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Your comments and suggestions are appreciated, as always.
Quite a few of you have expressed an interest in purchasing prints from me lately. I don’t have a proper ordering and inventory system set up for limited editions and whatnot, but I do have a simple page that will allow you to “buy basic prints”:http://revjim.net/page/photosforsale/. Those of you interested in larger sizes or limited editions should contact me directly for the time being.
“Photography for Sale”:http://revjim.net/page/photosforsale/
I’m always looking for ways to support this art form and cover the emmense costs for current and new equipment. Ideally, I’d like to be able to support myself through photography alone but, unwilling to work on any terms other than my own, that has never really been an option. But, by selling prints, perhaps I can recoup some of my costs and, with your help, maybe make a bit of a living.
If you can’t buy, tell your friends. Word of mouth goes a long way.
I put three photographs up for sale on “eBay”:http://ebay.com/ to sort of test the waters. I’ve been talking about doing this for quite a while now, so I’m glad to have finally done it. We’ll see how well it goes.
If you know a thing or two about eBay, I’m happy to hear any advice you might have on how to make my auctions better, more eye-catching, and more likely to sell.
Please visit “my auctions”:http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZjimreverendQQhtZ-1, bid if you can and tell your friends. Hopefully, through these types of sales, I’ll be able to actually support this art. We’ll see.
Thank you!
I’m looking for a rain cape for my camera. Something to make it more possible to shoot in the rain and dust. These are my options:
First, there’s the old “Bag”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000DIWPQ/qid=1127740936/sr=8-2/ref=pd_bbs_2/102-3255048-0942514?v=glance&s=hpc&n=507846 and “Band”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0006UZ6GM/ref=pd_ts_op_2/102-3255048-0942514?v=glance&s=office-products&n=1069330 method. This is cheap, readily available, and very replaceable. On the down side, the controls have to be worked through the bag and there’s no front lens element protection.
Then there’s the “Kata E-702″:http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=316856&is=REG&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation. It offers better protection than the Bag and Band solution and much greater access to camera controls. However, the front element is still left unprotected.
Next we’ve got the “Ewa-Marine C-AF”:http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=17346&is=REG&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation. A bit more expensive than the Kata, this item includes front element protection through the use of an optical glass port that screws into the lens threads. Of course, that means it’s more difficult to load the camera into it and there’s one more piece of glass for the light to pass through. Additionally, this particular cover won’t accept lenses with a diameter greater than 72mm. Right now, this isn’t an issue, but might be in the future. Included with the cape are the 49, 52,55, 58, and 62mm adapter rings.
Finally, we have the “Ewa-Marine C-AF100″:http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=326421&is=REG&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation. This cape is almost double the cost of the “C-AF”. However, the material appears to be a bit thicker and this will accept lenses up to 82mm in diameters. However, it only comes with a 77mm ring. Therefore, additional step-up rings will be needed at $15 or so each.
So… what would YOU buy?
all the way to colorado
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This was taken from the Lake Ray Robert’s Dam.
This heavy cloud cover is due to Hurricane Rita, less than 400 miles away. Reports this morning, however, show that her path has altered enough that we are most likely no longer at risk.
Your comments and suggestions are appreciated, as always.
the edge of the sky
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This was taken from the Lake Ray Roberts Dam. The sun had risen, though it couldn’t be seen due to heavy cloud cover. Then, facing west, this scene appeared. The reflection of the light from the unseen sun.
This heavy cloud cover is due to Hurricane Rita, less than 400 miles away. Reports this morning, however, show that her path has altered enough that we are most likely no longer at risk.
Your comments and suggestions are appreciated, as always.
