Amon and I had the pleasure of hosting my Dad in town a couple weekends back. Schedules being what they are I wasn't able to get around to posting any pictures until today, but it was a lot of fun having him here. He got a cross-country ride from our friends the Milsters (Thanks Mark!) and was in town Friday through Sunday morning. Early morning. We dropped him off with the Milsters at 6:00am on Sunday. They had the hard work though, driving from DC to St. Louis straight through. Ugh. I'm glad they were up to it, because I wouldn't have been.
It was entirely too short, but short's better than not at all. It was great having you out here Dad.
Mike
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Dad at the National Archives
The first place we went once Dad was in town was the National Archives. This is the building featured in the first National Treasure movie; it's where they store/display the Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, and other significant "archive-worthy" documents and artifacts of our country.
Library of Congress
Amon had the idea to go to the Library of Congress. If you know my Dad, the you know there couldn't be a better idea than that.
Amon in front of Supreme Court
Amon in front of the Supreme Court after we left the Library of Congress.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Experimental Photography Set
I've added a new set to my Flickr account for some experimenting I'm doing with my new camera. It's nothing new in the photography world so don't get excited. I could tell you were starting to. I'm just practicing some techniques that people have been doing for awhile but that I haven't tried before. The photos that are in the set right now are for motion tracking. I was encouraged to do this by checking out the Flickr account of an acquaintance from NCC, David Russel. He made some suggestions for this type of image and I thought I’d give it a go.
The images will likely be familiar to anyone who’s seen photos from a race or seen a single car advertisement. The idea is that while a subject is moving you pan with them. You are then able to use a slightly longer shutter speed because, relative to the frame, they aren’t moving much. However, because the background IS moving, relative to the frame, it gets blurred out. The result is an image where the main subject is relatively sharp, and the background gives a feel of movement.
This is nice for two reasons. One reason is the aforementioned sense of motion. It’s great for giving a picture a sense of dynamics and energy. The second reason has to do with the blurring of the background. Just like using a large aperture (f/3.5-f/1.4) the motion tracking technique results in the desired subject being clear while everything else around it is blurry. Using aperture for this technique results in an out of focus background, puddles of color, while the motion tracking technique results in an environment that is, well, blurred, often with trails instead of puddles. It’s hard to describe, but definitely a different feel.
Mike's motion tracking experiment:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcolburn/sets/72157604088917873/
Also, note the difference between motion tracking blur…
And aperture/out of focus blur (lamps), (Amon)
The images will likely be familiar to anyone who’s seen photos from a race or seen a single car advertisement. The idea is that while a subject is moving you pan with them. You are then able to use a slightly longer shutter speed because, relative to the frame, they aren’t moving much. However, because the background IS moving, relative to the frame, it gets blurred out. The result is an image where the main subject is relatively sharp, and the background gives a feel of movement.
This is nice for two reasons. One reason is the aforementioned sense of motion. It’s great for giving a picture a sense of dynamics and energy. The second reason has to do with the blurring of the background. Just like using a large aperture (f/3.5-f/1.4) the motion tracking technique results in the desired subject being clear while everything else around it is blurry. Using aperture for this technique results in an out of focus background, puddles of color, while the motion tracking technique results in an environment that is, well, blurred, often with trails instead of puddles. It’s hard to describe, but definitely a different feel.
Mike's motion tracking experiment:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcolburn/sets/72157604088917873/
Also, note the difference between motion tracking blur…
And aperture/out of focus blur (lamps), (Amon)
Friday, March 07, 2008
Potent Potables for 1000
Wanted to share two examples of authors treating/dealing with words as powerful things. As we listen to sound-bite upon sound-bite from various Presidential candidates and endless commentators, it doesn't hurt to remember what powerful things words are.
"...we should become aware of what we are doing when we speak, of the ancient, fragile, and (well used) immensely potent instruments that words are." - Lewis, Studies in Words
"He chanted a song of wizardry,
Of piercing, opening, of treachery,
Revealing, uncovering, betraying.
Then sudden Felagund there swaying
Sang in answer a song of staying,
Resisting, battling against power,
Of secrets kept, strength like a tower,
And trust unbroken, freedom, escape;
Of changing and of shifting shape
Of snares eluded, broken traps,
The prison opening, the chain that snaps." - Tolkien, Silmarillion
"...we should become aware of what we are doing when we speak, of the ancient, fragile, and (well used) immensely potent instruments that words are." - Lewis, Studies in Words
"He chanted a song of wizardry,
Of piercing, opening, of treachery,
Revealing, uncovering, betraying.
Then sudden Felagund there swaying
Sang in answer a song of staying,
Resisting, battling against power,
Of secrets kept, strength like a tower,
And trust unbroken, freedom, escape;
Of changing and of shifting shape
Of snares eluded, broken traps,
The prison opening, the chain that snaps." - Tolkien, Silmarillion
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Effects of Technology
As I was sitting at my desk trying to figure out the answer to this latest word problem one thought ran through my mind, I wish my teacher would let me use a calculator. In eighth grade, my teacher wouldn’t let us use a calculator to figure out the math problems because she had a firm grasp on a very important principle: when we no longer NEED to do a task ourselves, we typically don’t. At the very beginning I want to point out that I understand this is not a hard and fast rule and that I realize there will be eager souls that don’t fall for this laziness, and that there will be some who keep doing a task even after they could pawn it of on someone or something else purely because they enjoy it. The point is, those people are absolutely in the minority, they are the exception.
Calculators, the internet, and cell phones, have had dramatic impact to the progress of knowledge, the advancement of business, and the altering of the fundamentals of human interaction. Think about it, when was the last time you did long division or solved a quadratic equation by hand, went to the library to research the history of some topic of debate among friends, or dialed a number from memory? Maybe you’ve done one or two of these things, but most likely, thinking about it made you realize how much different it is now than when you were younger. The times they are a changing, and now even faster than ever before.
When technology comes along that makes our life easier, it is a simple thing to embrace that and thank the R&D firms for the wonderful gifts they’ve given us: we can listen to any song we own, instantly, wherever we are, find pictures and videos for free at home or on the go, talk to almost anyone we want to whether we are in a park, a car, or the bathroom, and the only time I’ve solved a complex equation by hand in the last 4 years was because I wanted to see if I still could.
It’s great that I no longer have to remember the phone numbers of every relative, friend, and random person I meet. However, it’s a bit frightening that the only 3 numbers I can think of right now are my personal cell number, my work number, and my parent’s home number. Two of those three are because they haven’t changed in 8 years and one because I have to give it out on a daily basis. Other than those three numbers I couldn’t tell you a single cell phone number, not even my wife’s and, personally, that scares me.
The future of “technology” reads more like a fantasy novel than a science fiction novel every day. In Hogwarts the pictures in the newspaper and in peoples frames move about – and advances in thin displays and flexible displays mean this type of technology is less than 10 years away; early adopter technology can be purchased today. Magic bought with money is called technology, and the bounds between science and science fiction is wearing thinner every day.
The question is, what consequences are we willing to live with, even embrace as the outcome of progress? Hopefully, we all enter into the new world only after having thought very carefully about what kind of life we want to have, and where our priorities are.
Contact Lenses for super human vision/real time information updates?
Flexible displays “printed” into the rest of the newspaper?
Calculators, the internet, and cell phones, have had dramatic impact to the progress of knowledge, the advancement of business, and the altering of the fundamentals of human interaction. Think about it, when was the last time you did long division or solved a quadratic equation by hand, went to the library to research the history of some topic of debate among friends, or dialed a number from memory? Maybe you’ve done one or two of these things, but most likely, thinking about it made you realize how much different it is now than when you were younger. The times they are a changing, and now even faster than ever before.
When technology comes along that makes our life easier, it is a simple thing to embrace that and thank the R&D firms for the wonderful gifts they’ve given us: we can listen to any song we own, instantly, wherever we are, find pictures and videos for free at home or on the go, talk to almost anyone we want to whether we are in a park, a car, or the bathroom, and the only time I’ve solved a complex equation by hand in the last 4 years was because I wanted to see if I still could.
It’s great that I no longer have to remember the phone numbers of every relative, friend, and random person I meet. However, it’s a bit frightening that the only 3 numbers I can think of right now are my personal cell number, my work number, and my parent’s home number. Two of those three are because they haven’t changed in 8 years and one because I have to give it out on a daily basis. Other than those three numbers I couldn’t tell you a single cell phone number, not even my wife’s and, personally, that scares me.
The future of “technology” reads more like a fantasy novel than a science fiction novel every day. In Hogwarts the pictures in the newspaper and in peoples frames move about – and advances in thin displays and flexible displays mean this type of technology is less than 10 years away; early adopter technology can be purchased today. Magic bought with money is called technology, and the bounds between science and science fiction is wearing thinner every day.
The question is, what consequences are we willing to live with, even embrace as the outcome of progress? Hopefully, we all enter into the new world only after having thought very carefully about what kind of life we want to have, and where our priorities are.
Contact Lenses for super human vision/real time information updates?
Flexible displays “printed” into the rest of the newspaper?
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