revjim.net

local

Camping / Jess’ Birthday 9/5-7

Who: YOU!!!
What: Camping and Jess’ Birthday Gathering
When: September 5th through 7th (Jess’ party will be on the 6th)
Where: Lake Ray Roberts Campground (Entrance Fee: $5/day or $60 parks pass/car, $12/camp site)
Why: Why the hell not?!

We’ll be camping at Lake Ray Roberts the weekend of September 5th. We’ll hold a birthday BBQ shindig for Jess at the park around 1pm or so on that Saturday. If you’re camping, you’re already there! If you’d like to join us, please let me know before August 25th.

This is a state park so public consumption of alcohol is not allowed. You can get away with it if you’re careful and considerate. Yes, this sucks for some. If you know of a better place to camp near the metroplex that can also host a group of non-campers for a birthday party then let me know ASAP.

a day of moments and thoughts

I know that most of you didn’t like the auto-twitter posting that appeared on my site. In truth, I don’t really care for it on other sites either, unless I don’t follow that person in Twitter and so long as they have more than just nothing but Twitter posts for months on end.

At the same time, while a lot of what is written there is an ongoing conversation with people you may or may not care about, a lot of important stuff is said too, since the platform is so readily available throughout the day. So I’m going to try something new. Once a day, week, month, year, whatever works out in the end, I’m going to collect the important bits and use them as jumping off points for more thought and clarification.

Please, let me know what you think of this. As I’ve said many times before, while I write these words for me, if you’re not reading them they are pointless. Let me know if you like these all in one big post like this, or if I should spread them out into tinier posts throughout the day, or if I should just not do it at all.


#We have been Wiifitted. Wee! Or rather, Wii!

It started out as a silly idea. I thought the WiiFit was an absurd idea for a “game” and at the same time, an absurd way to “work out”. In my mind, it didn’t fit either role very well. In practice, I was 100% right. However, it does have it’s own sense of charm. It takes all of the instruction, timing, counting and tracking out of exercise. While it doesn’t make certain you are doing the exercises correctly, it at least tries to make sure you stay balanced while you do them. That plus everything else, and it’s about 50% as good as a personal trainer that comes to your house whenever you want her to. And cheaper too.

I particularly like the strength exercises, the yoga practice, and the step aerobics. But, like others, # I find myself wishing the step aerobics were more varied. There are only two “courses” after which comes “free step” which is quite boring. A couple of people think that there will eventually be a Wii Step Aerobics game that will capitalize on this wish of mine. They’re probably right. So release the damn thing already.

#I’m VERY sick to my stomach. Too much coffee, not enough food. Email me distractions for the next few hours until I can get lunch. Please!

As I get older I’m starting to realize that food can affect me quite a bit more than it used to. Too much of one thing or not enough of another and it can really throw me off. However, I haven’t quite figured out what’s good and what’s bad, what can be tolerated and what should be avoided at all costs.

Yesterday I had 6 “cups” (per the lines on my coffee pot) of coffee in the morning. By 10am I was spinning like crazy and very sick to my stomach. At almost 1pm I got something heavy to eat. Within an hour I felt 75% better. It wasn’t until a had a little down time and another meal that I felt 100%. But, by the end of the day, I felt okay enough to get on the Wii Fit again.

A special thanks to those who sent distractions. I find that, for many of my ailments, keeping me from thinking about them is the easiest way to get around them.

#Time to build up my harem. Apps are being accepted! Especially if you like stairwells. Maybe this is a good time to use Craigslist. :)

This is a case of “ha ha only serious“. It’s clearly a joke. I don’t have a harem and therefore, don’t have a harem to build up. At the same time, the group of friends and special people that I share physical closeness with is dwindling for various reasons. I certainly don’t require a large group by any means, but, those that remain are largely unavailable. Physical closeness is one of those things that I crave and yet, at the same time, can be absolutely petrified of. It’s a need I don’t fully understand and yet feel very strongly about. It’s comforting. It’s safe. It’s sexy. It’s silly. It’s warm. It’s freeing. And, sometimes, it’s dangerous. All good things.

So, while I don’t actually have a harem, if physical closeness is something your situation allows and something you desire, then, please, really, “applications are being accepted! Especially if you like stairwells.”

Should I use CraigsList for such a purpose. Probably not. I’m better at being close with friends than I am with strangers. But, at the same time, it seems to be well suited to finding such new friends.

#wanted list: friends: skype, stumble; wishes; harem members; photo: subjects, partners; dreams; dinner friends; progress; peace.

This doesn’t require too much explanation, really. It’s a list of things that I currently desire. Not matieral things. Emotional things. Mental things.

Skype Friends. Check out Skype. It’s the best cross-platform Video/Audio Chatting application I can find. You don’t have to have a camera or a headset to enjoy it either. Sure, it’s more fun if you do, but not required.

Stumble Friends. Check out StumbleUpon. It’s a way of browsing new, interesting websites, as well as sharing new websites that you like with your friends. It’s very easy to use and quite addictive. I’m looking for people to share their interests with me, for people interested in sharing my interests, and hopeful that people will Favorite my photographs so that others will be introduced to them through the world of Stumble.

Harem Members. See above.

Photo Subjects. It’s been ages since I’ve done a portrait session. My studio has been torn down, which makes this harder. But that doesn’t reduce my desire to create and to use the human body as a subject and muse. If you’re interested in being photographed, I’d love to hear from you. I’m specifically looking for people who have free time on weekends to go out to interesting places and be photographed in nature. Additionally, I’m looking for someone who would like to be photographed in the rain. I’d like to set up all the details and logistics so that the next time it’s raining, all it’ll take is a quick phone call and we’ll both be ready to go.

Photo Partners. This is similar to the above, except instead of being in front of my camera, you have your own to stand behind, or, at least, enjoy walking around in various places and stopping for lots of photos. It can get fairly boring to be out alone all the time. I’m looking for someone to share these times with. Someone to lean on for encouragement, to share the waiting with, and to get excited with.

Dinner Friends. See my post from yesterday — you’re invited to dinner — for more information.

Wishes. Dreams. Progress. Peace. These are all self-explanitory.

you’re invited to dinner!

I’m tired of eating out. I’m nearly forced to do so when I travel for work. But at home, I do have options, yet I eat out a lot more than I should. Most of the time, when I eat out, it’s because I’m in a hurry, or because I’m meeting people for dinner.

So, my goal is to stop eating out. I can’t say never, of course. So instead, I’ll say no more than once a week which I will, hopefully, upgrade to no more than once every two weeks once I get going.

Instead of eating out, I’ll be eating at home: my home, your home, a strangers home, a mutual friends home. It doesn’t really matter where, as long as it’s at someone’s home.

You have an open invitation for dinner at my house every single night. Depending on the day, dinner will be served sometime between 6pm and 9pm. You need not bring anything. All food and drink will be provided. The only stipulation is that you must make reservations at least 24 hours in advance so that I can be sure I have enough food and so that I can tell you that we already have other plans.

What other plans could I possibly have, you might ask, since I’m not eating out any more. Good question. If I’m not eating at my home, then I may have been invited to eat in the home of someone else. Oh yes! I’m that rude guy who’s actually asking you to invite me over for dinner. The same basic set of guidelines as above should apply. You’ll need to have food on the table and ready for consumption at some point between 6pm and 9pm. Otherwise, making it to work the next day is impossible. Additionally, if you’re going to ask, you should do so at least 24 hours in advance. Otherwise, I may already have plans.

In case you needed more motivation other than free food and/or my presense at your meals, here are some reasons why eating out makes no sense for me (and maybe not for you either):

  1. Time is precious. Wasting 15-60 minutes getting to a restaurant, 5-45 minutes waiting to be seated, and then another 15-60 minutes to get back home isn’t doing me much good.
  2. And if I’m in a hurry to eat, in most cases, I could have preplanned a snack or quickly picked up a snack from a store. This is healthier, cheaper, and, in many cases, faster. And, if I pick up the right food, I can eat it on the way to whatever I’m rushing to do.
  3. Meeting people at a restaurant rarely leads to good conversation. Popular places are often crowded, seating can be tight, and long tables are only conducive to conversations at at each end. Further more, despite the fact that restaurants want you to drive to them, and then wait for them to be ready to seat you, once you’re done eating, unless you’re buying round after round of expensive drink, they’d usually prefer you to leave, and often do things to indicate this, like not keeping drinks full, or taking the snacky food off the table.
  4. Restaurants serve too much food. Having my portion decided for me is usually a bad idea. I’m reluctant to let any food go to waste so I feel obliged to eat everything in front of me.
  5. It’s usually not healthy food. Restaurants that serve healthy food are generally farther away, harder to get to, more crowded, and much more expensive.
  6. Finally, it’s expensive. Sure, some meals at some places are cheaper than you could make them at home for. But this is often because they are using sub-par ingredients and you are cooking for too small of a group to make it worth while.

So, if you’d like to come over for dinner, let me know. And, if you’d like to make a similar open invitation (in private, or in public like this one) please do so.

Bon Appetit!

weekend plans

By Friday our weekend plans are usually booked solid, and this weekend is no exception.

Here are our plans. You’re welcome to join us for almost all of it, so get in touch with me if you’re interested. We’re always looking for tag-alongs and reasons to deviate from our schedule. Yeah, we’re like that.

Friday:
Evening: Going away dinner for (not my)Uncle Rob in Plano.

Saturday:
Early Morning: Sunrise photos (depending on how late Friday night is)
Morning: 8am: Hiking with Mike at Lake Ray Roberts
Late Morning thru Early Afternoon: Gardening, Dirty Photo session (participants welcome)
Late Afternoon: Wild Flower photos south of Dallas (YAYAYAY!!)
Evening: 7ish: Sheridan’s 30th birthday party in Dallas. (hahah! You’re 30 before me!!)

Sunday:
Early Morning: Coffee Conversations
Late Morning: Church
Early Afternoon: Lunch
Afternoon thru Evening: Fort Worth Arts Festival
Late Evening: Packing bags for NY

seeking: stark raving lunatics

After reading Where are all the goddam photos, something in my head clicked. Not that photographers need a new way of doing things — I’d figured that out already — but that I wasn’t the only one in this same situation trying to do this same damn thing.

Every day I see Photographers making it big. And every day I see photographers loving the craft, doing what they can, and not even trying to make it. But I didn’t realize how many people there are out there in my exact same situation. And most of them aren’t photographers.

(more…)

quick update

I’m short on time, so you get a quick update.

Celeste was 3 months old over a week ago and I have yet to take her 3 month photos. Bad Daniel. Tonight, maybe. I hope.

From today until Monday we are buuuuuuuusy: Two dinner dates, two lunch dates, a nice little roadtrip with friends, a coffee gathering, a small gathering at our place, church, a crap swap, and a housewarming party — roughly in that order. And, of course, a whole bunch of work stuff too. This is a good thing, though. I like being busy and I like seeing my friends. I’m not complaining at all. Even if my lawn has to go untreated for one more weekend (though, I hope, maybe, I can squeeze it in on Saturday). Holler if you need some plans too.

I finished our taxes! Between a small penalty that I didn’t expect from when Jess quit her job, a whole lot of confusion surrounding the difference between a Traditional IRA and a Roth IRA, and a very poor record keeping job on my part last year for business expenses, we’re getting only half of what I expected back. No bueno.

I’m in the process of the great budget redesign of 2008. Yes! It will be so memorable, in fact, that my great-great-great-great-grandchildren will tell stories over an auto-safe-camp-fire with the hum of cooler-outside-air and no-more-bugs in the background telling how the Great Papa Daniel once managed to live like a king, put his family in the lap of luxury, entertain no less than four girlfriends, shower his friends with dinners, parties, and gifts, and do it all while only working 3 hours a day as an unpaid volunteer at an animal shelter. Oh yes. It will be THAT grand.

For the photo-tech people, Lightroom 2.0 beta is out [via Thomas Hawk]. If you own 1.0 you can enjoy the beta until August ’08. If you don’t you can still take a nice 30 day test drive. It’s a little buggy, but it is a beta. I love the new feature set which includes a limited set of localized changes and multiple monitor support. It’s not as awesome as LightZone, but, with the image management parts built in too, it’s hard to pass up.

Send me love today. I’ll need it.

inspired

(NOTE: Many of the links you find in this post will lead to images that are potentially Not Safe For Work. The post itself is safe the links in it may not be. That being said, I do not believe any of this to be offensive, pornographic, or even overly sexual.)

Scott Church (scottchurch@LJ, The Art of Scott Church) recently visited Dallas. In fact, I think he may even still be here. While our photographic styles and subject matter are most often quite different I find much of his work to be an inspiration. And, from time to time I see a photograph of his that strikes me as something I’d enjoy creating.

One of the first photos he posted taken in Dallas, a candid really, I find incredibly inspiring. A woman wearing pants and an unzipped long sleeve shirt, topless underneath, applies paint by hand to a large canvas propped against the wall of what appears to be a kitchen. In the foreground is a topless toddler with paint spread accidentally on her pants and stomach. A portion of a table is visible left in the frame, and under it is an errant juice cup. From this topless painter to her, presumably, topless daughter, to the juice cup rolled under the table — this image reaches out to me. I feel like I belong here, in this warm, open, family.

Later, he publishes another incredible image. It is a moody, monochromatic image of a young woman in front of an abandoned, wooden walled building. The out-of-focus foreground grasses, darkened sky, and blurred hair give a fleeting feeling of movement, with two bare-branched trees framing the whole scene. Again I feel like I am there. I feel like I am breathing this moment in. Despite the uninvited feeling an abandoned building and thoughts of trespassing can bring, this image makes me feel as though I am very much invited and a big part of this single slice in time.

This work is yet one of many things that inspire me.

I’m driven to create more, experience more, build more, dream more, and share more, despite the obstacles that constantly present themselves. And I’m inspired to bring as many beautiful people as I can along with me for the journey — as subjects, as fans, as patrons, as co-conspirators.

Thank you to Scott Church, and others like him, who continue to dream, and create, and share with me. And thank you — all of you — for being a part of this with me.

Of course, Scott’s Journey ended in a bit of trouble with the law. Hopefully they won’t be too hard on him. If they saw these images the way I do, they’d have let him go without a second thought. (Ha. April Fools!)

camping this weekend

Jess and I are thinking about going camping this weekend. Somewhere close to home as a sort of trial run for camping with the baby. It’s supposed to get down as low as 40F or maybe even 35F so some of you can just stop reading now.

We’re looking at one of the following parks in order of highest probability: Ray Roberts, Eisenhower, Cooper Lake, Lake Mineral Wells. These have been chosen because they are within a 2 hour drive and offer hiking trails as well as drive-up camp sites. Chime in if you happen to like one of these parks more than the others.

We will arrive sometime Saturday morning and leave by 11am on Sunday. Depending on what my parents decide for their own weekend plans we will either then go have an easter dinner with them or we’ll be moving a fish and then watching Jesus suck the blood out of perfectly healthy people. Or, if camping was absolutely terrible with the baby, we may just go home and collapse and never leave the house again. I can only make promises regarding Saturday morning.

Let me know if you’re interested and I’ll keep you posted with the details.

A March Winter in North Texas

We get some pretty strange and varied weather here in North Texas and the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. But when it’s March and we had a high of 64F yesterday the last thing you’d expect would be snow.

Well. It’s snowing.

A March Winter in North Texas (by DanielJames)

A March Winter in North Texas (by DanielJames)

I found a Beach!

Beach at Sunrise

Beaches are few and far between in this part of Texas. Given that, this is probably one of my favorites.

Several of you — Monica, in particular — have approached me wanting to do an outdoor photo session on a beach. This could possibly be a great location for that. I’m looking for a test model (read: free) to photograph here one weekend. I’d prefer not to do the typical swimsuit thing. A nice, light, dress, or some form of flowing clothing seems more appropriate. I know it’ll work at sunrise. I need to go check it out at sunset to see if it’ll work then too.

(And since I know you’ll ask: as far as nudity goes, this probably isn’t the best place for it. See-through clothing, very little clothing, and implied nudity will work just fine. But, there is a very heavily traveled bridge just behind this shot that would make us quite noticeable. The area under the bridge would be private, but is also angled in the wrong direction and covered in large rocks.)