March 28, 2007
My
mother has been expanding her
horizons and has been learning more about her camera and photography in general. She'd like to wrap her head around depth of field better, so here's my non-professional, not terribly technical explanation:
Depth of field is, generally speaking, the depth of the area that is in focus in your picture. As the aperture gets physically bigger, the depth of field gets skinnier. As the aperture gets physically smaller, the depth of field gets deeper. The trick there is to remember that bigger aperture numbers (like F16 or F22) are actually smaller physical apertures - so, bigger number, deeper depth of field.
The focus ring decides where that field, ...
March 27, 2007
"Ohhhhhhh! You're Jack's mom!"
I don't know what it is about that phrase that strikes such dread in me. Maybe it's the intonation, maybe it's the source - this time, the secretary at Jack's middle school. What's she going to say next?
It was good this time - she said he was such a sweet boy, which we hear a lot. He is a sweet boy and his natural confidence makes an impression on a lot of people. And then she remarked that it was amazing that he takes the public bus regularly (it goes right from his school to our house) and figured that if he could swing that as a 6th ...
March 26, 2007
What goes in your dream sandwich?
Roasted chicken, thick bacon, a slice or two or three of real tomato (I'm talking about a flavorful, juicy one from the garden or a local farmer, not the mealy waterbags they grow in California and ship hither and yon), mayo (real mayo, not that evil Miracle Whip crap), lettuce for crunch and a slice or two of muenster on freshly baked challah, preferrably Zingerman's.
(From
Consumating)
March 25, 2007
I've avoided the
Film Festival this year. I've gone faithfully for the last several years running, and frankly, I just don't think I can take it this year. I've lost my enthusiasm for
the genre - yes, genre - experimental is not an adjective and has nothing to do with the concept of using new techniques when you're using the word in conjunction with the word film; it's a genre descriptor like Modern Art (which has a specific meaning: art created in the period from 1890-1970 or so). So I've restricted myself to snarking from the sidelines this year. I figure, if they can put up the films that look exactly the same every ...
March 24, 2007
I know I went to art school and all, but I get such a kick out of working on the more technical side of web design puzzles. I just figured one out, so I thought I'd share.
In working on the new blog design, I'd like to display some thumbnail pictures of various websites I frequent. There's probably a dozen or so of these and they update their content frequently, so I'd like to change my thumbnails accordingly - maybe not in real time, but certainly weekly or maybe even daily. I started looking around on the web for a solution, and there just didn't seem to be one in my grasp - either hardware platform or ...
March 21, 2007
In some real cities, local art galleries coordinate their show openings so that you can go downtown and hit a few openings in one evening, perhaps stopping along the way or before or after to have a bite or a drink. It's quite civilized, and a nice evening out.
Why don't the galleries in Ann Arbor do this?
The Gallery Project has an opening March 30. The Krappy Kamera kids have an
opening March 23 at Gallery 4.
The Art Center has an opening March 30.
Washington Street is in the middle of an exhibition. I can't find an upcoming schedule for WORK. But it would be so cool if they could get together ...
March 20, 2007
What is your most annoying trait?
My need to be right all the time. It' not pretty.
(From
Consumating)
March 16, 2007
The Michigan Theater had a special advance screening of
The Last Mimzy, a new movie by
Bob Shaye, and we all trotted down to see it. You may not know Bob Shaye's name, but you do know his work: he founded
New Line Cinema and produced the Lord of the Rings triology, among many other things. He's also a UM alum, and chose to do one of the very first screenings (the film doesn't open til next week) right here in Ann Arbor.
It was terrific. It's rated PG, and I think that's accurate, but only because of the complexity of the story. I think it would mostly bore/confuse the 4 - 7 ...
March 12, 2007
We crashed last night - had to leave the bar before 11. But a decent night's sleep was welcome. Never did make it to Rodriguez's thing, ended up at an IFC party (great food, free flowing top shelf booze), the Film Baby party (bad gin, excellent dj, but kinda lame party) and Fray Cafe, which was awesome.
Not sure where I'm headed today, but I'm contemplating bringing the laptop, even though I'll be outed as a PC user for doing so. Not cool in the web design circles. Oh well. Fuck 'em.
March 11, 2007
I've lost track. Here at the hotel relaxing a bit, out of the convention center - I was feeling a little overwhelmed and a break seemed the right thing to do. More things I've learned at SXSW:
Consumating is a kind of neat website. Good for playing tag. My profile (yes, here in Austin and still signing up for new services anyway) is
here if you want to take a look.
Interesting to see all the people using cameras to take 'notes.' Lots of pics of being taken of the panelists' visual media.
Attended a great panel, moderated by Christian Crumlish, on web identity and attention. There were some terrific things said; I ...
