Planet Earth...

How in the world did I miss this a couple of years ago? I must have been stuck in some sort of media blackout that prevented me from getting to a television or something, because this is pure awesome...

Speaking of pure awesome, there is a new image taken of the International Space Station in its new current state... hi-res image below...
















Closing out the night, I've been working on learnin' me some Photoshop, and that little project has come along a bit more quickly than I thought, so I should have some goodness to roll out soon.
Adidas!

New website in progress...

After much delay and about a three month hiatus from anything resembling serious photography, the bug is catching me again and I am finally getting around to creating the photo website I had planned last year.  Here is a first sneak preview for the front page.  I am creating the page in iWeb '08, although it probably will not be published until iWeb '09 gets released so I can attempt to take advantage of some of the new features.  It will be published to my Mobile Me account, and I'll be releasing the URL soon.  I have yet to decide if I will be using a personal domain like this site.  

In other news... I am finally giving up the Blackberry.  B

efore you start thinking "but Alex, even Obama is keeping his", I will say this is a voluntary move to save money on my monthly cell phone bill.  The overwhelming majority of the places I spend time have an open wifi connection available.  Conversely, my Blackberry operates solely on a much slower EDGE connection, and has drifted behind a couple of years in technology as well.  I don't get streaming video, I don't get automatic syncing of my contacts, calendars, bookmarks, etc., and the screen on the Pearl leaves much to be desired.  After deliberation about switching carriers, I eventually decided to stay with my current carrier, drop the BB Plan, and get an iPod Touch.  I looked at the T-Mobile G1 as well as other smartphone devices, and none really matched the features I could get from even using an iPod.  Not to mention, in about six months it will have paid for itself.  

So, here is a quick sneak preview of the new site.  The name isn't out, and it is greyscale.  I'll be announcing it soon...

Charlotte International Auto Show 2008

Originally uploaded by lalexcox

This afternoon I went to the Charlotte International Auto Show at the Convention Center Uptown. We arrived before the doors opened, and were among the first to get in. I took about 200 photos, about 55 of which are in this Flickr Photostream.

Gas shortage and preparation for travel...

If you've caught the news this week, you may have seen there is a gas shortage in western North Carolina, particularly affecting the Charlotte area.  The clip I like is of the large woman in a brown shirt yelling at the top of her lungs out the driver's window of her car at someone she thought cut in line in front of her.  We've had reports of violence, and the lines even at the most behaved places have been so long that people have run out of gas just waiting to get some.  Through the midst of this shortage, one might think that people would pull together, be civilized and unite against the very companies that have caused this in the first place.  Of course, the only blame that has been placed by anyone is on other people for "topping off", or getting gas when they don't really need it.  I have a couple of problems with that statement, the way people are saying it on the news, and pointing fingers at each other when that is not so much the issue in the first place.  

First, let me say this; I have been the luckiest guy in Charlotte throughout this shortage.  I have been on a week of home study for my job, so, I have been at home.  I have only had to go to a couple of places, and through all this I have watched my own gas consumption, hoping to avoid the lines.  Tomorrow, I leave for two weeks for California, so in all likelihood, the shortage will be over and forgotten by the time I return, and I can get in my car, drive around the corner to the nearest station, fill up, and go about my business.  That being said, I empathize for my friends and family that have had to deal with this.  

As far as placing blame on people that are "topping off", and therefore "don't really need it", I have this to say.  We all "really need gas."  It is a product of our own lifestyles and the needs of our current culture that almost everyone in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area who is gainfully employed has some need for fuel.  Charlotte is not a city that has been designed or set up properly for public transportation.  Sure, we have CATS, and now the LYNX, but from what I've seen of the buses, they need some improvement, and the Lynx currently runs only in one straight line along South Blvd to Uptown.  If you're working Uptown and live along South Blvd, that's great, otherwise, the LYNX won't be of help.  Out of curiosity, I once checked the bus line to see how long it would take me to get from my apartment to SouthPark Mall, where I work.  On paper, it is just over a one hour trip, that takes only 25 minutes if I drive.  That may be good savings, but it is a cost/benefit measure now.  However, the shortage has made me think again about trying it when I get back from California.

So, all of us in this area "need" gas right now to get to work, get food, transport children to education, get medical care, and all of the other little things that have become a part of our lifestyle.  While my need seems more important to me, someone else's need seems just as important to them, so unless you're going to place an impartial judge at every gas pump in the city to decide who has the greatest "need" for gas, telling and assigning blame to someone else not to top off because they don't really "need" it is worthless.  We are all in this together.

So who should we get angry with?  I say, the people that run our infrastructure, and the companies that have claim to serve us yet do not have preparations in place to maintain a consistent flow of fuel in the course of a natural weather event.  In years past, we have had storm and hurricanes hit the gulf region, and year after year there have been no problems, until now.  The oil companies have been raking in major profits quarter after quarter since Katrina. It's time some of that money is put back into strengthening our logistic structure, and if not, we need to find new suppliers for new fuels.  After all, if we're all dependent upon a resource that is not available, it is time to start looking at resources that are. 

 

Now that my rant is finished, I just wanted to share another fun picture with you.  I give Holly a hard time about her driving (fast), and she was gracious enough to give me a ride to the grocery the other day.  On the way back, I got this shot that I really did not intend to turn out like it did, but I think it is funny that it looks like she was flying.  Punch it!

Birthday dinner for my mother and godmother...

Last night we had a little birthday get-together for my mother and godmother, who was making a rare visit to the Charlotte area.  It was the first time they had seen each other in a couple of years, and it was good to see old friends catch up.  My aunt and I drove up from our area in southwest Charlotte to meet them at Chili's, and shortly after, mom insisted I break out the camera to get some pictures of her and Roslyn.

It also gave me the opportunity to use my new flash with some live people (as opposed to dead, but I digress), and the first couple of shots I made the mistake of using direct flash, as seen in the first photo.  After checking the LCD and seeing how much the highlights were blowing out, I looked up and saw this great piece of rippled aluminum hanging overhead, which turned into a great bounce surface after I angled the flash head straight up, as seen in the next two photos of my aunt and mother.  

My off camera shoe cord arrived last night when I got in, and I've already checked it out to make sure it works.  Ebay has turned out to be a good source for used camera gear, even though I am very wary about sellers.  I still have the Lensbaby to use more extensively.  

Photo day trip...

I'm off on a photo day trip this afternoon to some sort of nature/wildlife refuge.  I don't know all the details, just got a phone call from a friend of mine asking if I'd like to go.  Of course I'd like to go!

This also gives me the chance to field test my early birthday present from Holly, the Tamrac Aero 80 photo/laptop backpack.  She saw me eyeballing some bags for my upcoming trip to Cupertino, and surprised me with it the other night.  I just got done packing for the day, and took a couple of pics with the setup:

There is plenty of space for all of my camera gear, and a bit more room when I add a couple of more lenses or get a larger body.  The compartment above the camera section was even large enough to toss in my camcorder and gear vest.  I'm really overpacked for today, but it will be nice to see how it all comes together through the trip, and see if I need to rearrange the setup for the trip.  

I have to get going, but I'm hoping to have a lot of killer photos tonight.

Shooting at Copperhead Island...

There can be times when even a hobby does not feel like a hobby.  Lately, that is how I have felt about photography, largely because it feels like I am trying too hard to find original places to shoot that will not get me arrested or one some terrorist watch list.  I had a discussion about the photos I took uptown with someone this week, and they even mentioned I was lucky not to have been interviewed by the police for taking photos of the buildings.  If I had, I would have been polite, and honest.  I remember what it was like to do that job, but now I take pictures for fun.  As long as I am somewhere I have a legal right to be, pretty much anywhere in public, and I am taking images that do not constitute a serious threat to national security, pretty much any image I take does not, I'm really not worried too much about being interviewed by the police.  If an officer for some reason suspects my images constitute a threat to national security, more power to him, it's more credit than most of my pictures deserve.  

Today I went to Copperhead Island near Lake Wylie to take pictures.  On an earlier trip, I did a little exercise and restricted myself to a 50mm prime lens, to focus on composition and adaptation without a zoom.  Today, I let myself use the crappy 18-55mm kit lens and my 70-300mm zoom, and really enjoyed the day.  It was really hot, and unbelievably humid, but I managed to work past it and look around.  There were tons of mushrooms all over the island, and I got some neat shots of those, but the best part of the day was walking up on a heron perched on a post out on the lake.  

It was a beautiful, peaceful moment, and the whole world was remarkably quiet and calm for the next few minutes as I took photos and got a bit closer.  The heron stood so still at first I thought it was some sort of tree or fake designed to attract others.  Even through the lens I could not make out much in terms of movement.

As I got even closer, I was coming around the back of a tree when I saw its wings unfurl, and its body begin to launch itself into the air.  I knew I only had a couple of seconds to get in position to get a shot, but I was behind a tree that would block my view.  I ran around the tree, and brought my camera up to my face as I was running.  I had to trust the settings I had already put into the camera; I had been using a moderate aperture and a fast shutter for the long shots as I was approaching the heron, so I was hoping to get one or two that weren't blurred from my own movement.  In the end, I only got one shot of the bird in flight, but it was incredible, and even more so that it isn't blurred beyond recognition.  My only disappointment is that it is a bit blown out by the sun on the right hand side.

Overall, not too bad for a surprise shot taken while running.  My equipment is not top of the line stuff, so I don't have image stabilization or anything so wonderful as that, but I'm glad I was able to capture this image despite its flaws.  It makes me feel good about the money I have spent on what I own.  

In other news, the new job is going great, and I am enjoying work again.  It is challenging work, and hardly a dull moment, which makes the days pass by quickly.  I will be going to the San Francisco area at the end of September for two weeks of training, and of course will be taking the camera to get plenty of great shots there.  I'll have my new laptop with me, so I'll be able to upload anytime I get new pictures.  I'm also looking at a speedlight for the Canon because I want to be able to take decent flash photos.  The pop up is usable in a MacGyver sort of way, but I'm ready to move past improvising for every shot.  I also think I may write a little about my own photo workflow in the next few weeks.  Obviously I use a Mac with Aperture, but I think everyone does it a little differently; what works best for me may not for others.  Until then, adios.

HDR Photography...

Trying my hand for the first time today at HDR, or High Dynamic Range Photography.  HDR photography involves taking a set of photos across a range of exposures, and compiling them into one image that uses parts of all.  

This image is of a statue outside of the engineering and science building at UNC-Charlotte.  It was a dreary day, and it began to rain after I had taken about 30 shots, but I had enough to put a few shots together this afternoon.  

To see more (and better) examples of HDR photography, check out Flickr: The Japan HDR Pool.  

Alex

4th of July Fireworks at Carowinds...

Carowinds Fireworks 2008 - a set on Flickr

Took some photos at Carowinds of the fireworks tonight.  Feel free to follow the link to check them out.

Alex

Carolina Raptor Center...

Flickr Set Here















After what amounted to a horrendous, stressful, day on Friday, Holly convinced me to take a trip up to the Carolina Raptor Center between Charlotte and Huntersville early this afternoon. I have seen signs for the Raptor Center for years when traveling to Charlotte, but I have never had the time or inclination to check it out. Since the trip to Wing Haven Gardens, though, we have put it on our list of places to visit and take pictures. The Carolina Raptor Center and Wing Haven Gardens are both great places to visit in the Charlotte area.

Photography has become a great stress reliever for me. I have always enjoyed shooting firearms, and the process of shooting; the control you have to maintain over yourself and your equipment takes my mind off other things I'm dealing with. Shooting a camera and a firearm have a lot in common, but at the end of the day, guns don't provide the images photography does. Not to mention, going out and taking digital photos costs virtually nothing past the initial expense of equipment.

Cutesy photo of the day...

C'mon, it doesn't get much cuter than this bunny...

Oh yeah, I took this photo.  

It's nice to have a hobby.

Not rabbits...

Photography.

You know what I meant.

New photo of the day...

Hickory Con 2008

Gearing up for a couple of larger conventions later this year, I attended the one day Hickory Con in Hickory, NC, yesterday.  A smaller event, it featured comic vendors from the area, as well as the costumed appearance of Darth Vader, a Stargate squad, and a Trekkies for Hospice group.  It was a really good time, and photos of the event can be seen on my Flikr account.

Mother's Day...

For the first time in a few years, I got to actually spend Mother's Day with my mother.  I drove up to Denver, had a nice dinner, and was relaxing just as news reports came in about a major storm, complete with tornadoes and baseball size hail heading toward the area.  We all waited to see what would happen, and I got out the camera and camcorder to see if I could get some nice shots, but in the end, it turned south and went toward Huntersville instead.  I did get some nice photos of the storm clouds and a rainbow.  Between those and the photo I snuck of mom eating, it was a good day.

Let's try something new...

Let's see how this slideshow works.

Carolina Renaissance Fair

Hit the Carolina Renaissance Fair this weekend. Follow this link to the public album for it. It has been a busy week, and this week is looking to be the same. Although I am happy to be busy again, I am missing my writing time. I need to find a way to juggle things better. Have a great week, and I'll see you soon!

On Flickr...

This weekend is my mother's 50th birthday party. I haven't been able to write about it before because it was a surprise, but now that we had the first night's activities, I can finally mention it. She had fun, and was completely shocked my aunt had rented a cabin on the lake for the party weekend. My uncle and other aunt even drove in from D.C. to add to the surprise.

Yesterday, I mentioned I was going to add a link to my Flickr account. I took a lot of photos today, so rather than wait until later this weekend to get the party photos up, I thought I would go ahead and work on the ones I took today. After loading them on my computer, and doing some initial editing in Picasa, I started to use the Flickr uploader tool to post the photos. Being a new Flickr user, I am still checking out all of the features, although I know it has been a very popular tool for years, before it's recent purchase by Yahoo. I went to create a set to store the weekend photos, and was given an error message that I had already used the three available sets with a free account, and the only way to have more sets is to purchase Flickr Pro. I was hoping to put all of this weekend's photos in a common set, so I could send a link and the rest of the family could see them easily. Checking into the "pro" option, to get more sets, I would need to shell out $24.95 to upgrade, just for the ability to have unlimited sets. I am not a professional photographer, so the bandwidth and storage limitations are not a big deal, but I would like to be able to organize my online photos into albums that I can distribute easily. This is not a $24.95 yearly value for me.

Instead, I ended up doing the easier thing and using the "Web Albums" tool in Picasa to upload into my Google account. I can create all the albums I want to organize my own photos, and while there is a hard storage limit, I am a long way from having a gigabyte of online photos. By the time I have that much, either Google will have added more free storage space, or I will take photography seriously enough to warrant purchasing more space of my own.

I do not see myself depending a lot on Flickr now that I know this limitation. I like to keep photos organized well, and having hundreds of photos with only three sets to organize them will probably be a bit too much for my perfectionist side. Picasa Web Albums still gives me the organization tools without undue restriction. So, no Flickr link here.

Catching up on yesterday...

Yesterday, I went to the second interview with the company I saw on Monday. In a nutshell, let's put it that the only thing almost as bad as cold-calling as a telemarketer must be cold-calling in person as a "marketing representative". Granted, I rode along with them the entire day, saw what they did, even spoke up a couple of times, but even their commission projections were below the low end of what I have in mind. Nonetheless, I have a couple of new leads on prospective jobs, and I am still cranking out resumes like nobody's business.


After the fun time at the interview, I met some nice folks at Big Ben's on Providence for dinner, drinks, and trivia. We tied for first on the first of four rounds, and just kind of died off after that. The photo is of me holding the team prize for the first round. Considering there were nine of us at that point of the night, it went to our event coordinator, Peter, a really cool British guy.
As you can see from the photo above, I am actually trying to smile. I noticed as I was going through some photos a couple of weeks ago that I have very few where I am honestly smiling, teeth and all. Since then, I have been working on the smile, channeling some Billy Dee Williams into my groove.

Aww yeah!

Today, I was up early and working more on the job hunt. I applied for four more jobs and made a call to find out about another from a friend. The biggest surprise came tonight when I received a message about a potential job in a field I had thought about briefly, but had no idea how to get into it. Apparently, I have made a connection somewhere and tonight I was able to put some things into motion to find out more. The only catch is, if I get into it, I can never talk about it. I make it a point never to write about job details on my blog anyway, but this field goes a bit further than that; I will not even be able to say exactly what I am doing. Thankfully, it is not undercover work, and no, I am not exploring that professional killer idea...yet, anyway...

Photos in uptown Charlotte...

I have had the opportunity to spend a little time in the uptown area this week. I took a couple of photos of the Bank of America Corporate Headquarters on the right and Hearst Tower on the left. My cousin was in a parade uptown, so I got to walk around and see some of the area while I was there. I don't think I will ever work uptown, per my existing "no cubicle" rule, but it is cool to check out the buildings.

Speaking of work, I have two interviews early next week! Sounds pretty promising at this point.