Category Archives: shoptalk

shoptalk

once you go black


Pet sponge a.k.a. wonderboy a.k.a. intern / “Lee” is preparing to leave for school in Chicago soon.. Part of his preparations was buying his first Mac.

He walked in yesterday with one of the new Black MacBook Pros.

I put some antiquated software on there to get him started till he can get to his university’s book store and take advantage of the REFUCKINGDICULOUS discounts on software afforded to students. While doing so I had to mess around with the questionably useful but undeniably cool built in webcam / PhotoBooth software. (see lead silly photo)

I caught a news headline whir past about these the other day with one journalist hailing it as “maybe the worlds best notebook computer”… *source

My mom’s even bought one.

So while I may be feeling plenty up to date with my foam shoes – I’m having a horrible case of ineedanewlaptopitis.

I know – I know… My two bread-n-butter programs, PhotoShop and FreeHand aren’t threaded for the new processor and won’t run any faster…. (for now).

oh.. but it’s black….

it finger prints REALLLY easy.

but it’s black…

the screen is a little small and would probably require you to get an external for doing any heavy-duty layouts or working with a pallet-happy program like Flash.

ooo… mmm… but it’s black…

I heard it runs pretty hot too….

doh… but it’s black.

I’m sure if I wait a faster / cheaper one will come out before the year’s out.

mmm……. but it’s chicken.

LIVE, shoptalk

inevitability

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX SORRY, NO IMAGE HERE XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Well… it was bound to happen… it *had* to at some point.. After using mac,…. no… nichts that – after using computers (with an internal hard drive) for 15 years……. I finally had a drive crash.

Yesterday.

My powerbook started acting weird. Like really weird… I knew it was something serious.

So.. at the end of the day I did a back-up…

*here’s the lesson part*

I did what I always do… Hook up the external drive… DELETE the previous back-up on the firewire drive… THEN begin copying over my new back up files…

The drive was so fucked by this point that 45 minutes in it still said it needed 2 hours to complete the copy. (back ups normally only took about 50 minutes)… So… We wanted to go home so I thought I’d just take the drive home with me and finish the back-up at home and try to diagnose the problem or send it in.

My powerbook never restarted again.

I did all the tricks I knew how to do to no avail…. then schlepped out to west county mall to the Apple Store where the super-geek noted respectfully my attempts and told me that’s all he’d do, and also that my prognosis for DEAD DRIVE was most likely right. (but they’ll tear it open and have a look see later).

Here’s the lucky part… in that 45 minutes of copying – I got all of my work, freelance, financial data, library data (names / addresses / emails) copied….

I have lost every photo I’ve taken this year though. (*except for work-related pics which have mostly been replicated elsewhere)…

It could be SO MUCH WORSE.

Lesson: BACK UP FIRST… *THEN* delete the back-up prior to the one you’re doing.

The drive is being replaced for free… I can’t recommend the Apple Care program enough…. It’s paid for itself, (literally), EIGHT TIMES OVER.

So anyway – they said they’ll try to get it back to me before the weekend. (ugh – that means I know what I’ll be doing this weekend if they do)…

We’ll have to see… meanwhile I’m going to be in radio-silence – sorry….. 🙁

Maybe I should go play the lottery now or something oh look a chicken.

photography, shoptalk, WORK

the cheepest thing you’ll ever buy


My lunch hour yesterday consisted of running to the bar to snag a picture of a dart board and then racing downtown to get a shot of the arch. (I’ll explain later).

This all made me remember my adviser back in college who also was my professor for the touchier-feelier credits that were, (at least then), part of the Webster-U photography program.

John Hilgert and I had a fondly loathsome respect for one another.

I thought his personal work at the time was pretentiously boring… but beautiful. (*a lot of black and white shots of hands holding root vegetables, sticks and what-not)…

He thought my work was slick and soulless… but beautiful. (*a lot of composites and other tweaked images done on the computer using a vaguely known program at the time called “PhotoShop 2.0”.).

We’d grouse at each-other but it never got hostile… and that teacher / student respect relationship was never compromised.

He taught me the zone system method of metering.

He instilled a guilt trip that persists to this day if I touch the cropping tool…. “Compose in-frame… Composing in the darkroom is cheating”.

Back when it meant something… His other famous quote I can remember: “Just shoot and don’t worry about your damn film.. it’s the cheapest thing you’ll ever buy in this craft”

Johnny was also notorious for mind-fuck assignments, his most notorious: “Go shoot the Arch”…. (something that’s been photographed to the point of cliche).

So… there I was standing at the base of our beloved landmark trying to make a buck and just couldn’t wipe the grin off my face remembering that pretentious bastard.

John Hilgert died shortly after the turn of the new millennium.

I miss him.

Oh look a chicken.