theBlagh

doodle mashups

2011-12-14T20:22:00.003-07:00

I drew Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid today. Best drawing I've ever done.

You know it!

I drew Raiden from MGS for the first time too. His face is hard to draw.

I also drew Harry Potter.

more zelda sketches

2011-11-25T19:16:00.000-07:00

Link has pretty quickly become one of the most fun characters to draw for me.

A new favorite thing: Link harassing Navi and chickens. To celebrate, there are some concept sketches or whatever for ideas how to draw Link Harassing Navi and Chickens. ...and chickens harassing Link.

the CHICKENS

zelda doodles

2011-11-16T19:14:00.000-07:00

I felt like trying to draw Link from the Legend of Zelda games the other day, and here's part of what I've got so far.

color, continued

2011-11-14T08:48:00.000-07:00

I'm continuing to play with color film, and I'm not entirely sure I like it. This is partly because I don't feel like I know what I'm doing, honestly, but we'll see what happens. I got attached to black and white film very, very quickly.

While I'm not entirely pleased with using color, the photos I'm getting are giving me ideas for photos to take with B&W.

Fun with color

2011-11-06T21:21:00.004-07:00

I wound up in some online photography class, where we have weekly assignments to upload a roll (or two, if you unluckily got a 24-shot roll) to Facebook. When asked, the prof. politely insisted that I use not B&W, but color for all of the assignments. BIG SAD FACE. In short: I don't know what I'm doing with color, so I'm teaching myself.

So here are photos of me learning what the hell I'm doing with color film!

Note: each photo is from a set of three; I take three shots of each object, so each photo following is 1/3 of a set. I picked my favorites.

without a filter...

...and with an orange filter.

Also with an orange filter.

GREEN FILTER TIME FOR URCHINS

Shadow Hoses?! IT CAN'T BE.

bottle stoppers

2011-11-05T21:36:00.000-06:00

I loved the shape of these bottle stoppers, which I saw at the early October SocorroFest in Socorro, NM.

cigar in hand

2011-10-25T19:45:00.000-06:00

Not sure that I like this nearly enough to consider putting in a portfolio, but I like it enough to put up here so you can see what random things I've been fiddling with.

smoking cigars

2011-10-14T22:07:00.000-06:00

This is essentially a test print, the current results of fighting with a particular negative.

Overblown (hah) a bit, but I like it, though more in a "I'll keep this at my house and enjoy it and not put it in a portfolio" sort of way, not unless it's much improved.

cigar tubes

2011-10-12T19:20:00.000-06:00

Photo of cigar tubes taken at Primo Cigar Shop in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Line in the image courtesy a scratch running the length of the whole roll. Hey, I think it looks cool.

color contact sheets

2011-10-11T18:24:00.000-06:00

When I first got Maxwell (the Ricoh KR-5 Super II) earlier this summer, I loaded it with color film to see what would happen. The following are, essentially, the result of me derping around. I won't say which my favorites are.

These are the first color contact sheets I've ever seen; I'm very excited about that. I didn't do them, though. Obviously, since these are from a contact sheet and the photos were taken in different lighting, some that are darker can be made lighter and vice versa.

Please tell me which ones you think might make good prints-- specifically, good prints people might purchase.

Darker or lighter?

an Ocarina of Time true story: in color, sort of

2011-10-02T20:19:00.000-06:00

The grey I used for the hair started to die after one panel, but I milked that marker for all it was worth.

I haven't done any coloring for a long time, and decided to try something slightly different.

Hands still elude me. FFUUUU

Windows 3: Jean-Cocteau Theater

2011-09-17T16:15:00.000-06:00

Glass block windows from the Jean-Cocteau Theater near downtown Santa Fe, NM.

I may or may not redo this with some split filtering; we'll see. I like it as it is, but it might need some playing with.

glass lightning

2011-09-14T21:00:00.000-06:00

This is one of the only shots I've ever set up. I rather like how it turned out, and I'm sure there will be more playing around with this sort of thing.

Tilt it all kinds of ways-- it still looks cool!

Do you want a print of this? Yes you do.

思出す/to remember

2011-09-11T21:06:00.001-06:00

There was once a 13-year-old kid who had never heard of something called "the World Trade Center," and could not understand why one of the older students was crying inconsolably.

"A plane flew into the World Trade Center!"
"...the whats?"

This kid's following thought was How could you possibly not miss a building? You are flying a plane. The entire school, which had been hosted at a National Guard building, was sent home.

A combination of confused and redundant news reports and a lack of information regarding what are the Twin Towers?? resulted in, perhaps unsurprisingly, near indifference. How much should I care? This is bad, yeah, but what is all this? Should I care? What's even going on?

The following weeks and months and years were, to this particular 13-year-old, a mix of annoyance and a deep sadness and acknowledgement of what happened-- the sort of thing that sits in you, without adequate verbal expression, taking a little while to be a little better understood-- the understanding that something very big and very terrible had happened, but the only real impact it seemed to really have was inconvenience.

A particularly memorable memory was that, after 9/11/01, each school day for the next year began with an armed National Guardsman walking up and down the aisle of the school bus. Some other kids joked "Maybe we should get towels and wrap them up like turbans on our heads, hahaha" and the 13-year-old we are concerned with was disgusted with the classmates' sarcasm.

Some things have changed, of course, but that's how it was. I certainly care more, and less because of the inconveniences.

You should listen to these-- some of the recordings from that day. They are, to me, more "catching" than the endless clips of buildings falling into themselves. You don't quite hear, but know, people walked out of this world and into the next. Frankly? That's still pretty weird for me.

by Mr. Hipp

A store. It has happened.

2011-09-08T23:16:00.000-06:00

Just opened up a shop on Etsy for my work. Check it out!

I am very excited. Maybe people will purchase stuff?

Yes there will be more than 4 things, but not right now. Tomorrow, perhaps.

locked and loaded

2011-09-08T20:13:00.001-06:00

Faraday's loaded with color film for the first time in, oh, 6 months? Tomorrow I take in the color rolls shot with Maxwell and see how everything turned out.

Developed the first roll of film (B&W, of course) from Faraday since the repairs. I'm very happy to report there were no shutter issues.

Tomorrow evening a local cigar shop is having a sort of shindig, which I will be attending with both Faraday and Maxwell. Hopefully no one will ash on them or spill anything on them; if this happens someone's getting a stogy to the eye. A lit stogy.

Wait, does anyone know what I'm talking about when I mention Faraday and Maxwell? Here, meet my staff:

There's also "Digi" the digital camera. It takes photos for me too.

monarch butterflies

2011-09-03T20:37:00.000-06:00

I'm starting to play with juxtaposing images, as you can see.

By the way, this signature, (c) R.B 2011 and the (c) axiophotography (dates) are equivalent; they're both me. This one was just what I smacked onto the image before I'd settled on a definite name.

axiophotography

2011-09-02T15:26:00.001-06:00

I'm pleased to announce I've decided on a name for my photographic ventures, a name I can use as a watermark and for the new blog. It is, as the post title suggests, axiophotography. It was a close call between that and alethio(tography).

Axiology is the study and philosophy of values, the values we give things; alethiology is the study of truth. They are closely related, naturally, but one suits my projects better.

That being said, I'm starting to go through this blog, theBlagh, and watermark photos (finally, I know). If you see "(c) axiophotography" all over things, that's me, no I am not ripping myself off. I will put up a link to axiophotography on this blog, but I will not link to theBlagh from axiophotography.

imitation A 19

2011-09-01T12:41:00.001-06:00

Here are some shots of the final version of my imitation of Moholy-Nagy's painting, A 19. I modified it a bit, as you can see (concerning the circles).

That bizarre texturing in the red there near the left was done by whoever painted the canvas first. Alas! I think it works though.

painting

2011-08-31T19:54:00.001-06:00

I don't usually paint, but there was a stupid-looking mess of paint on a canvas that was lying around, so I emptied a bottle of gesso onto it and decided to try and imitate one of Moholy-Nagy's paintings.

Phase 1:

Phase 2:

The shading in those tiny triangles and rhomboids! I hope I'm getting it right. The Moholy-Nagy I'm trying to imitate can be found here.

Phase 3 tomorrow.

shuffling

2011-08-23T11:19:00.000-06:00

I will be adding a second blog, one dedicated specifically to my photography. I'll probably continue with the daily/semi-regular photo thing here, but the other blog will be solely for photos that are absolutely well done and not just fun things; I mean it to be a portfolio of sorts. This will require an appropriately professional-sounding title, of course, so I will be thinking on this.

Suggestions?

Meanwhile I'll also be putting watermarks on all my photos. I have no idea why I never did this earlier, as now I have an enormous pain on my hands.

Happy 7th Blake Day!

2011-08-19T14:48:00.001-06:00

There is a creature called [the] Blake, and today happens to be its birthday. It also happens to be the birthday of a friend named Blake, how convenient!

I was going to color this, and then I discovered I don't know where my markers and pens got packed. Hmm.

Happy birthday Blake and [the] Blake! I promise to draw you more often.

Ah, and yes, in actuality, [the] Blake is copyrighted; it is indeed mine. Please do not steal it.

an Ocarina of Time true story

2011-08-18T19:46:00.002-06:00

I normally don't classify myself as a gamer, at least not in the sense that one plays video games with an almost circadian regularity. It is the case though that there are games I like to play, and like very much; there are also games that I have wanted to play and maybe finally get around to.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is a game that falls into this latter category, and thanks to the 3DS being in my grasp I have beaten Ocarina and am going to give that Master Quest thing a shot.

There were naturally parts of this game that incited fury; most of these aspects could well have been avoided if the port to 3DS had been handled with more care, but in some cases these moments were entirely my fault. The following comic sketch celebrates my strife with Shadow Temple's boss Bongo-Bongo. It's also a bit of fun with drawing strange expressions.

True story:

I was very annoyed.

Oh and I got my camera and a present of a new camera altogether. Fun times ahead, folks, you bet.

aktualisierung/bericht

2011-08-16T16:33:00.000-06:00

And now for a story.

A few weeks ago I asked not few camera and camera repair establishments if they could fix the shutter on my camera, to which I usually received the annoying response of "Oh, no, not that camera." Somehow, the artsy-fartsy locale of Santa Fe only could muster a "Maybe, if we get the parts, which isn't likely," and another place in New Jersey told me that if they would it would take quite a while.

Then I ran across a listing for the Encinitas Photo Center in California, and when I hesitantly asked the woman on the phone "...would you repair the shutter on a Contax II?" and then heard her say "Oh yes," I nearly exploded.

My camera is on its way home, repaired and fully cleaned and tuned up (for the first time since 1970), and I am very excited indeed. I'd say give them a call if you have camera repair needs, at least if you have a Contax. So there you have it.

--

I'll be experimenting with color film soon too. No, I don't have a place to learn how to develop and print it, plus I've heard it's rather bothersome. I will be getting to take another B&W photo class (read: make like a bandit with free darkroom time) and experimenting with more B&W film too.

Additionally: I'm going to try and sell prints. Yes. Get ready to make a really big fuss and tell all your friends (or acquaintances who would hire me for something, that's also good)!

Insulators

2011-08-01T18:44:00.002-06:00

Old glass insulators are pretty cool. This is the last post until the 11th, when I return from a vacation hopefully with too many photos, a fixed Contax, and minimal sunburn.

I'm aware that the bottom of the photo is possibly blown out; I wanted it that way.

Shutter lines

2011-07-31T22:00:00.003-06:00

The shutter tapes on my camera decided, after last being serviced in 1970, to come unhinged. Alas! It's very frustrating trying to find people to fix this in my area.

Fortunately, this problem happened only for the last roll; it looks like some photos will be salvageable. Following is one of the photos that, as far as I can tell, won't be salvageable. Maybe. I rather like the blemish, and if I spent any more thought on it could do something interesting with it.

sketches

2011-07-29T16:51:00.001-06:00

Here are some sketches, primarily of me trying to redo how I draw faces. If you're wondering why the eyes aren't there, or sort of are, well, I'm working on them next.

Visualizing Nothingness—Angst, Nausea, and the Overman through Photographs

2011-07-28T18:44:00.002-06:00

Even if I'm technically finished with school (until I go back, anyway), it's incredibly satisfying to be finished with a final project and to like it. Following is my "mission statement" (in quotes because the credibility of such a name is dubious to me), the six photographs I used, the quotes that accompanied each photo and the set in general, and several photos showing the whole setup. I realize that sadly perhaps a lot of the context/presence of suspended photos is lost in blog format, but alas.

Why do we find ourselves creating meaning and structure for our world? We may find ourselves, occasionally, wondering why things are set up as they are. Existential philosophers such as Soren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Jean-Paul Sartre would challenge the assertion that our world has inherent structure. Indeed, they would suggest that such an assertion is a human fabrication designed to impose meaning and structure on an otherwise senseless world; it is precisely this imposition, however, that takes away our will to act as completely free agents.

The response to knowing one has complete free will and that all structure is meaningless can be overwhelming: Kierkegaard called this Angst, Sartre called it Nausea, Nietzsche classified it as the beginnings of the Overman—the person who has become their own master—and all are reactions to knowing one has complete free will and complete responsibility, all are reactions for when traditional points of reference are exposed as potentially false and taken away.

My purpose for this project, then, is to present the concepts of Angst, Nausea, and the Overman through photography. I intend to explore how the uses of shape, light, shadow, overall contrast, and perspective can create an understanding of these Existentialist concepts. To further aid this endeavor, I am not tacking the photos to the wall—I am, instead, choosing to suspend them in the air. While there is certainly a visual appeal to this choice, it aptly helps to illustrate the idea that we have no restrictions and hang in nothingness. Additionally, quotes from Kierkegaard, Sartre and Nietzsche accompany the photographs to help explain what the Existential undertones are.

Here are a few photos of the display (pardon them being cell phone shots):

testing to see if the weight of the photos would pull down the hanger wires, plus sign asking the hangers not be removed... which they almost were

testing, different angle

...and with the quotes

The following are the photos in the display. Some I have posted before, certainly without the intention of using them in the project until I realized that I could use them.

...one must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star. I say unto you: you still have this chaos in yourselves. From Thus Spake Zarathustra, Friedrich Nietzsche (this is a reprint of the accidental double exposure I made. took a while, but I had to get the contrast fixed)

Once you label me you negate me. Soren Kierkegaard

What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not an end: what can be loved in man is that he is an overture and a going under. From Thus Spake Zarathustra, Nietzsche

...Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom, which emerges when the spirit wants to posit the synthesis and freedom looks down into its own possibility, laying hold of finiteness to support itself. From The Concept of Anxiety, Kierkegaard.

Your bad love of yourselves turns your solitude into a prison. From Thus Spake Zarathustra, Nietzsche

Freedom is exile. Jean-Paul Sartre

And, finally, the three quotes I had attached to the wall with the photos as a set. I wanted dearly to use them, because they help give better context to the set of photos and my project, and the last one not only fits the presentation of the photos but is simply beautiful. All are from Sartre:

Existence precedes and rules essence.

From Being and Nothingness

Life has no meaning, a priori... it is up to you to give it a meaning, and value is nothing but the meaning that you choose. From Being and Nothingness

I exist. It is soft, so soft, so slow. And light: it seems as though it suspends in the air. It moves. From Nausea

鏡/visualizing Angst

2011-07-26T20:52:00.002-06:00

One of the purposes (perhaps the purpose, given how things flow into one another) of my project is to try and visually represent Angst. Why I opened my big mouth I might never know, but here's one of the photographs I've chosen.

"Anxiety may be compared with dizziness. He whose eye happens to look down into the yawning abyss becomes dizzy. But what is the reason for this? It is just as much in his own eye as in the abyss, for suppose he had not looked down. Hence, anxiety is the dizziness of freedom, which emerges when the spirit wants to posit the synthesis and freedom looks down into its own possibility, laying hold of finiteness to support itself. Freedom succumbs to dizziness. Further than this, psychology cannot and will not go. In that very moment everything is changed, and freedom, when it again rises, sees that it is guilty. Between these two moments lies the leap, which no science has explained and which no science can explain. He who becomes guilty in anxiety becomes as ambiguously guilty as it is possible to become." Kierkegaard, The Concept of Anxiety p. 61

By the way, anxiety is the same as Existential Angst, pronounced "ahngst," not "aynkst."

hanging photos, 1

2011-07-25T15:28:00.000-06:00

I decided that for Thursday's final I want my photos hanging away from the wall. There were several reasons behind this decision: It's different; It will hopefully help drive home the idea of Nausea/Anxiety and lack of restrictions; It's more interesting this way. All of these reasons are true, one of them is more sound than the others.

Since it would probably be more of a headache than I care for to hang the photos from the lighting rails 10" in the air, I rearranged two wire coat hangers that I can affix to the tops of the padded boards along the walls. I plan on hanging the photos from these wires using fishline and clips:

Materials I'll use: Leatherman, fishline, electrical tape, binder clips, coat hangers.

Coat hangers, unbent and plied as I'd like them. Each is about 2.5' long.

Closeup of ends. I'd prefer not to accidentally tear whatever these might poke into.

Each photo is going to be framed in a white matt(e?), since any other color would be distracting in this case. I'll hopefully get some shots of the finished product, because sometimes I like to show off. Either way, expect a nice long writeup of what the final project is (I believe this is called a "mission statement," but that sends wild thoughts into my head so you can also say it's an attempt at explaining myself), replete with photos of the whole business as well as the actual photos I'm using in the project. So many photos, whatever shall I do.

I'm pretty sure this general project will be an ongoing theme.

Marsh bridge

2011-07-24T22:18:00.001-06:00

Bridge in the marshes.

On an unrelated note, I'm wildly disappointed with, um, endings in the final Harry Potter, but enjoyed it overall.

野の花 / 花野

2011-07-23T17:59:00.001-06:00

I'm not sure which would be more correct, 野の花 (wildflowers) or 花野 (field full of flowers). In any case, these particular flowers are yerba mansa. They have a very pleasant smell.

I could probably stand to edit this one a bit, but I like it enough to share it. Perhaps though what I need to do is get a macro lens for this camera so I can effectively photograph tiny things.

On the topic of lenses which leads me to the topic of my camera in general, my shutter seems to have decided in the past week to not shutter properly. My entire last roll of film, which I developed today, has a monstrous black line throughout; a repeating row of long triangles plagues it. This saddens me, since I had some lovely photos on it. Happily, though, I can salvage some of the photos, but likely not all of them. Alas.

butterfly nose

2011-07-22T20:14:00.002-06:00

I've been wanting to print this for a while, so I took a bit today to not work on my project and print this instead.

Common wood nymph butterfly (I think).

It might look a bit blown out on the lower left, but I'm pretty sure it's bound to look that way when you're wearing white.

Lockers

2011-07-21T21:42:00.001-06:00

This is one photo I plan on using in my "Existential photography" final project. If you're wondering how this might at all fit, you'll find out next week when I write up a good long post about the 5 (or 7, we'll see) photos and Existentialism.

One of the comments I received today as per this topic was "Existentialism always has struck me as... depressing." Excellent, I say, because this seems to be the common response to Existentialism. Oh hey, Angst, didn't see you there.

The next few days will be busy with going through Also Sprach Zarathustra and existentialism is a humanism, and possibly (parts of) The Sickness Unto Death.

No milk today

2011-07-19T16:30:00.000-06:00

No photo, not even a sketch today, because haven't the time. Sketch tomorrow.

I spent the day printing and learning/trying to mat(te?) the photos I printed. Very frustrating, matting photos. "I have these beautiful, perfectly straight lines, a work of genius here. Time to cut! Wait, cutter, how do you manage to curve when I dragged you straight along the ruler, hmm? DAMMIT."

You know what it will do for now.

Test strip viola

2011-07-18T21:25:00.003-06:00

Here are three test strips of another viola photo. I rather like them together, and I have a draft final to write.

And I thought I was done with school, hahaha, silly me.

Windows 2

2011-07-17T17:17:00.001-06:00

Today, on theBlagh: more windows.

Windows

2011-07-16T19:41:00.001-06:00

More stark lines, and as with the other photos of stark lines it's not necessarily clear if the photo's been rotated or not.

Ah, windows.

As a note, I've settled on the following topic for my photo final: restrictions, or lack thereof, and subsequently how we perceive our world. I figured I'd use strong light/shadow combinations. Specific thoughts on what to take photos of have, so far, involved photograms, overshadowed pools of water with cleverly used lighting, and silhouettes in frames. Note that this whole idea stemmed from my insane response of "Existential photography," and thus stems from ideas about Angst/the Abyss/free will/total responsibility/etc.

I am looking for feedback on the project, and if you have a suggestion for what to take a photo of or anything, tell me.

By the way, if you don't actually know what Existentialism is in any fashion, please look it up. I'm tired of getting silly responses for what is "Existential." People have no idea what it means. Don't feel bad, I didn't either until I started studying it.

Accidental Double Exposure

2011-07-15T23:10:00.002-06:00

This was finally going well, finally, and then after I popped in the second filter for burning in the ground and double-checked my focus, I go and put the paper in upside down like a fool.

I think it turned out pretty radly, actually.

My current photo prof, who really is pretty cool, does have this obnoxious insistence that if you make something like the following photo it should be done on purpose. Every time. Of course, yes, you should get to the point where it is on purpose, but you know what? We make mistakes, and we should be allowed to make mistakes; making certain mistakes can help us along the creating process much more than being told mistakes are always bad (don't take this as a rule for every situation, obviously). Take the image at hand-- total accident, but I would never have thought of flipping the paper to make a double exposure like this.

♪Woo-ee-oo it looks like Moholy-Nagy ♫ Hahaha

B&W Portraits: Zoo People

2011-07-14T20:56:00.002-06:00

I could have said "People at the Zoo" but "Zoo People" sounds better to me.

Also, it is really really hard to get people who say "Take a photo of us!!" to make any expression other than Deer In The Headlights. One of the subjects finally got slightly distracted, and the other just kept watching me.

I love his shirt, because it's a zombee. Get it? Zombie, bee, zombee? Hahahaha, I'm so clever.

B&W Portraits: Hands

2011-07-13T21:10:00.002-06:00

The first (and so far only) time playing in a light room was fun, but rather awkward; there are teenagers in the class who are hard-pressed to smile or laugh or do anything other than give a Deer In The Headlights stare when they're being photographed. I did finally get some good photos out of them, though.

My favorite though was when I told one girl to hold out her hands-- she gave me the oddest look.

Anyways, this is the shot I got of her hands, and I am very pleased with it in general.

B&W Portraits: Before the seals went wild and ate everybody

2011-07-12T19:56:00.001-06:00

Earlier today I was considering what fun it might be to come up with ridiculous, alternate titles for all my photos. "Before the Seals Went Wild and Ate Everybody" is my alt. title for this photo, and it amuses me.

The original photo had two women in it; I cropped the one on the right side out for the purposes of a portraiture assignment, since it didn't fit. It does, however, make for a funny sort of photo that I'll probably make a print of sometime and upload.

Oh, by the way:

B&W Portraits: Viola 1

2011-07-11T19:30:00.003-06:00

When I'm carrying this thing around or playing it, I frequently hear people refer to the beautiful instrument in the following photo as a violin. This is incorrect. This is not a violin, but its sibling the viola. What's the difference, if they look the same?

The viola has the same tuning as the cello: C, G, D, A; this is a fifth lower than the violin, which is tuned at G, D, A, E. Additionally, violins have a maximum size of 14"; violas have no maximum size that I know of. Mine is 16". As you might guess, the larger size of the viola makes for a greater depth of sound, more resonance. It doesn't mince and shriek unless you try, unlike the violin.

It is also, I have been told, the hardest string orchestra instrument to play, because it is heavy (try holding one under your chin, propped lightly up by your wrist, for twenty minutes minimum). The width of the neck is harder to deal with than that of the violin's when it comes to bowing as well.

Now why on earth did I post this photo when the title of the post says "portrait"? Portraits are not always of faces; they represent a subject (like Georgia O'Keeffe's hands, for example). This viola in some way represents me, so consider it a self portrait.

I have a slightly modified version of this, which I may or may not post later.

My drawing process

2011-07-10T21:49:00.002-06:00

No photo today, I figure a sketch will do just fine.

This is pretty much how my drawing process goes.

Yep.

Review of the day: Google+

2011-07-10T12:12:00.000-06:00

Most of you have by now heard of the new Google+ (or G+, for brevity's sake). Some of you may have an account, some of you may not; I fall into the first group and am going to write up a review of G+ as it is so far. I'll break it down into three sections: Pros, Cons, and Thoughts in General.

Pros

It's really easy to get from Gmail, iGoogle, or any other Google page to G+. Click the Your Name+ link at the top left, and there you go. G+ homepage ahoy.

The new Hangouts feature is very cool and has a lot of potential to be incredibly useful, but I can't help but think it's a (very nice) rehash of the already-existant Google Chat features (voice, text, video).

Oh dear, that was short.

Cons

Adding a post is slightly obnoxious: you can't make a post from the Posts page, you have to be in your Home page. What's most obnoxious? You can't just post a status or whatever, you first have to choose which of your circle(s) you'd like your post to be seen in; a notice then comes up about who does or doesn't have a G+ account, but how this doesn't really matter since they'll receive an e-mail of your post if they don't have a G+ account. Having now pressed the Share button several times, your status or whatever is posted.

The feature for commenting on photos is placed in a somewhat awkward, inconvenient-seeming spot: in the far right corner, away from the photos themselves.

Circles? What is this nonsense? A bizarre, unnecessary way to categorize people you've connected to?

The Buzz account that I deleted forever (or what I thought was forever) sometime last year or so is back. Somehow I'm managing to follow myself. Twice.

It is far, far too easy to potentially undo the entirety of one's blog through G+. If you're going through your photo albums (somehow I had three, and I never uploaded a thing to G+), it's entirely possible to say "What is this, I don't want all my old blog banners/deleted images/etc. as an album, Delete!" and get rid of every image on your blog without the possibility of getting it back. On that token, though, you can delete single photos, but only one at a time and that's very time consuming.

The layout is just plain ugly. It's a stripped-down, too-much-whitespace ugly hack of the Facebook homepage.

Thoughts on G+ in General

G+ is pretty much a Facebook ripoff. We knew that it was, and perhaps wanted it to be, an answer to Facebook's "evil," but here we have an ugly Facebook clone. G+'s picture viewer? Almost identical to Facebook's "theatre" version of photo viewing. G+'s Suggestions? Same as on Facebook. G+'s Home is almost identical to Facebook's current Home page. And if it's not a Facebook ripoff, it's just another version of something Google already had going on: G+ Sparks is the same as GReader, and GChat (voice/video/text) is Hangouts.

Why are people going ape over G+? This is how I see it: OMG, guys, it's a Google Thing! It must be better than Facebook, because it's, like GOOGLE! Facebook is just SO typical, how gross, and nobody cares there! Google cares! My friends, if this is your reasoning for hopping onto the G+ bandwagon, I find your reasoning faulty. Google is great, but going gaga over G+ "because it's Google" is as stupid a reason as any I've ever heard. Why? Because...

In short, there is absolutely nothing innovative and novel about Google+: it's a hodgepodge of Facebook and rehashed Google features. I find it to be an unnecessary, uninteresting, and generally useless new feature that people are going ape over simply because it's Google.

I'm sorry Google, I do love you, but I have tested Google+ and found it lacking.

Yes, I'll post a photo later.

Unedited B&W Prints 3: False perspectives/あべこべ

2011-07-09T20:14:00.001-06:00

I love lines, if people hadn't figured that out yet, so let's play a game: what are you looking at in this photo? Are you sure? Is it right-side up?

Unedited B&W Prints 3: Basket and chair shadows

2011-07-08T21:11:00.002-06:00

If I really wanted to, I could probably concoct some ridiculous name for this photo, like "Peace in the Darkness," or something, and make a lot of money because of it. I should try that, yes? Part of me loves that idea, and another loathes it, but so it goes.

Using a no. 0 filter at 35s.

Using a no. 2 filter at 35s.

Using a no. 2 filter at 40s.

Using a no. 4 filter at 35s.

I'll be entirely honest-- when I took this photo, I didn't notice the "peace symbol" at all, but rather the shadows in the wood grain and the basket, and the shape of the chair's shadows with the shape of the tiles. I think the no. 4 one is my favorite, but then really a "favorite" would depend entirely on the context it's being used in, hmm?

Unedited B&W Prints 3: Best Friend Day

2011-07-07T18:23:00.002-06:00

There's not much that can beat a day with your best friends, especially if that day involves observing tortoises, snakes, 20'-long alligators, lobsters, snow leopards and fish. Zoos are fun places.

When I printed this, which I obviously need to do again, I'm pretty sure I the enlarger I was stationed at was whack; I got two or three different negatives printed with the same problem, that being the left side's (the bottom left corner, particularly) all blown out. After I moved to a different enlarger, I stopped having that problem. Hurray for community-use labs!

I'm thinking that, when I reprint this properly, I'll do it twice. Aside from letting light onto the paper for more time in general/burning in the sky, I'll try one at a 1 and another at a 3.5 or 4 filter. The choices! I rather like having photos that "pop," but I also like saving the detail that's in darker spots, like in the shirt and shorts here. Perhaps I'll also have an enlarger that doesn't give the guy on the left a GHOST LEG, hmm?

Unedited B&W Prints 2: Dandies

2011-07-06T22:44:00.001-06:00

I liked his hat.

After printing this, I realized there was a dude in the background photobombing the photo, and with rad style.

I'm not quite sure why there's a line in the sky. It probably is the result of a crease in the filter... bother. I did edit this photo a bit already, but obviously I'll be redoing the whole thing, hopefully this time without a creased filter.

Unedited B&W Prints 1 and Existentialism?

2011-07-05T23:15:00.002-06:00

After an hour and a half of fighting scanners, I have prints to share with you. Unedited prints, hurray, meaning they're really just tests.

Also, today I was asked what my final photo 1 project will be. The first thing to come popping out of my big mouth was "Existential photography," as if that was a very normal subject and how I'd do this was quite obvious.

I have no idea what I'm doing.

Potential ideas are: pulling quotes from Thus Spake Zarathustra and taking photos to match up with them; taking photos of the Existential concepts if free will (Angst and the Uebermensch included, naturally), "...Man is not yet a self," and "Existence precedes essence."

What to do.

Here are some contact strips of photos I'd like to develop. Please note, as I have with great joy, that I got a photo of the baby engineer. I'm unreasonably excited about that; he kept moving so fast I had a hard time getting him in focus but I GOT HIM. I swear, he's like seven years old and is already very much an engineer. Note also the lovely pieces of strong, abstract lines.

Marcelo

2011-07-04T17:40:00.001-06:00

Somehow I manage to go to outdoor concerts in the summer and not expect hundreds of kids. But there they are, tumbling around on the grass and running all over the place, and some swinging their kites around. Marcelo was one of the kite-swinging kind.

There's A Window

2011-07-03T15:57:00.002-06:00

I know, since I was there, that this was at a jazz concert.

This doesn't change the fact that whenever I look at this photo I falsely remember for a moment that I was at a '66 concert watching Janis Joplin. Annie Sellick is the woman here, though, and she has a powerful voice and stage presence. The photo below was from her piece "There's A Window."

This one might be one of my favorites, and those who know me probably could guess as much.

If you're wondering what the random white bits all over might be, in my defense the scanner is FILTHY. Because the cats think it's a chair.

Shake, good boy

2011-07-02T12:19:00.001-06:00

Today's B&W photo is of my brother and his girlfriend's dog, Fawkes, who had found one of the cat toys-- the crocheted mouse filled with catnip. He was very excited about this. Naturally, he did whatever my brother told him to do if it involved the catnip mouse being thrown; this involved sitting and offering his paw to my brother.

There are a number of things to tweak in this photo, and multiple ways to do those, but here it is as it is now.

First batch of B&W photos

2011-07-01T23:24:00.002-06:00

Some of you may know that I've been learning the tricks to black and white photography, including the developing and printing of such photographs.

I finally cleaned off the scanner, and have the prints that I am pleased with ready to upload. Huzzah, it's about damn time. I'll be posting one a day, instead of a bunch at once... see if you can figure out which ones involved a light meter in any fashion.

Now, I like abstraction, geometry, and, obviously, modernism. Gotta love good clean lines, and making people ask "What the hell is that?"

Shell swizzler

2011-06-16T17:17:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure what these items are normally called, so I call them "swizzlers" usually. Firefox informs me that this is not a word, but I'm not sure this information is to be trusted given what else it tells me isn't a word.

This week I got to develop my first roll of film and produce my first photo print. Very exciting! It's really not too hard, in my opinion, but rather time-consuming and tedious. ....especially if the enlarger you're using has an excruciatingly dim bulb, causing you to go through four contact sheets before you realize "Ah, 40 seconds will be good." I'll scan these sometime, not sure when.

Window shell

2011-06-12T20:42:00.001-06:00

A small metal shell that sits in a windowsill.

As of today, I find I need to make a note that my work is *gasp* copyrighted and belongs to me. No, I will not just send you my files because you want to use them, especially not if you tell me to instead of asking me. If you want to use an image, ask me, and we'll figure something out.

Poppies

2011-06-10T22:53:00.001-06:00

The adventure that yielded the face-sized roses also provided poppies the size of my head.

Roses

2011-06-09T21:53:00.000-06:00

Wandering around the other day I found some rather large flowers, including poppies and roses. These roses were about the size of a typical adult's face.

Radish

2011-06-08T22:06:00.000-06:00

Every time I see a radish, I think of the Radish Spirit in Spirited Away. Oh you Radish Spirit!

Anyway, radishes.

Cutlery

2011-06-07T21:43:00.000-06:00

Today marks the day I take my first actual "art class," (ceramics doesn't count) specifically for B&W photography, most specifically how to use a darkroom and develop my own film. And I am excited about that, let me tell you. I'm also amused by how the professor (and everyone associated with the photography labs) calls the chemicals used in film development the chemistry. I'm not sure if this warrants smart-assery or not, but it sure is funny.

I also got some of my film developed, finally, hurray, as well as some much-needed camera goods. I'll put up some of the photos later, when I get a scanner up and running again.

For today, we have another photo of cutlery. I like reflections.

By the by, expect a lot more B&W photography over the next several weeks!

One-man band

2011-06-06T11:20:00.000-06:00

There are many delightful things at a farmer's market, and one of these things is live music. One of these particular musicians was a splendid older man with a top hat and beard.

I might edit this one sometime.

Just grate

2011-06-02T19:12:00.000-06:00

Yes, I'm aware that my brain spins nothing short of comedic gold. Genius. Anyway, today's photo is a minorly edited (read: rotated just slightly and then very barely tweaked) photo of metal grating.

Pansies

2011-06-01T17:08:00.002-06:00

Next Tuesday is the start of a B&W photography class I'm in. This should be exciting, especially if it means I get to learn how to develop my own film. I can't remember ever having an actual art class of any kind, so hopefully it's interesting and fun.

I'll bet you can't guess what one of my favorite colors is.

Windowsill items 1

2011-05-31T18:29:00.000-06:00

Dianthus

2011-05-30T15:24:00.003-06:00

It's really very hard to get a nice photo of a tiny flower when it's really, really windy, at least if you don't have a really good camera. I finally got the little dianthus to cooperate, though, so here are a few photos of it.

Sink

2011-05-29T13:31:00.002-06:00

And so we continue my soiree into black and white photography.

I have half a mind to not have forks or Western spoons when I have my own place and instead have chopsticks and Eastern-style spoons. Just saying.

That's right

2011-05-28T15:59:00.000-06:00

Kitchen windowsill

2011-05-27T14:53:00.000-06:00

Part of a kitchen windowsill. Edited.

Tron clock: edited photos

2011-05-26T19:38:00.000-06:00

Today I decided to give editing photos a shot. Here are the four edits (more to come, maybe) of the previous Tron Clock.

Tomorrow I'll put up the edits of my kitchen windowsill shot. ...and eventually the sketches. I keep forgetting, or more correctly getting shy.

Tron time

2011-05-26T08:46:00.002-06:00

Greetings, Programs.

I snapped a photo of my false-neon clock the other day, and looking at it now it reminds me of Tron. Seeing the new Tron filled me with a nerdy glee, and after returning home I was promptly plopped in front of our TV to watch the original for the first time. Truly, it was an evening of nerdy joy, enhanced by the knowledge that my university studies inherently allow me to use I fight for the Users whenever I please.

I think I may actually fiddle with this one and see what I can do with it.

Glass Crass bottle

2011-05-24T15:26:00.000-06:00

Photos today, sketches sometime this week, more writing at the end of the week. Probably.

Today we have a glass Crass bottle-- an old soda water bottle made by Coca-Cola back in the day.

Writing and photography

2011-05-23T11:58:00.001-06:00

I've been wanting to write more lately. It's not like I haven't been writing frequently; I have in fact been writing nearly constantly for the past five years. The only problem with that is the narrow scope of writing: user manuals, more manuals, literature reviews, a thesis, geologic reports, etc. I have, of course, had the pleasure of writing about philosophy now and then, but I have primarily written the aforementioned.

Needless to say, while I can and still will write technical user-centered material without much problem, I have grown weary of this; I have been writing too much of one thing. I'm thinking of writing reviews of things, but this is broad. Reviews of what? Tea? Beer? Music, new or old? The latest thing I read? Perhaps all of these. Regardless, you can expect more writing.

Briefly, here's a list of what I am/will be reading (and about which you can expect reviews):

How to Read a Photograph: Lessons from Master Photographers, by Jeffrey
The Texts of Taoism, published by Dover
Looking at Photographs, by Baldwin and Juergens
re-reading Also Sprach Zarathustra, by Nietzsche
re-reading Beowulf
The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, ed./trans. Mitchell

I may also re-read Candide and give The Silmarillion another shot. I hated it when I was 16.

So, to start, I will review/kvetch briefly on what I have read so far of Ian Jeffrey's How to Read a Photograph: Lessons from Master Photographers.

I am, perhaps inconveniently, half artist and half scientist, and have always loved photography and history. Photography and history compliment each other well; one of my favorite ways to learn about history is to (at least in a very small way) see it. Something I have always vehemently disliked are the droll and detached "this is how you take a photograph" sorts of books, as if photography is a static art. How silly! Those things in photos had a life in them, and thus should photography be treated: as a lively thing.

I was and am delighted to be gifted How to Read a Photograph: Lessons from Master Photographers, because it is a walk-through of the history of photography and the use of photographs from the ostensible perspective of the photographers. It's very interesting so far! A delightful way to learn various histories and why these photos were taken.

There is something however that frustrates me very much, something I've heard time and again from "art teachers" and authors: the incessant need to tack deep, profound meaning to everything. This is not to say that photographs (and art in general) have no meaning: you can't seriously look at art in general and think that. What bothers me is something slightly different; that is attaching meaning to something that may not have any meaning at all. For example:

William Henry Fox Talbot's photograph The Open Door is a photograph of just this, an open door, with various objects (a broom, harness, lamp) in the photograph. The book's author adds an extraordinary amount of meaning to the broom, harness and lamp, claiming them to reference The Sermon on the Mount (Light of the World), Diogenes the Cynic (lantern), the general principle of self control, and Jonathan Swift's A Meditation upon a Broomstick.

To this I say, seriously? Did the photographer really intend for these objects to carry these meanings? Or did he, perhaps, simply take a photograph of a normal scene? Historical meaning is one thing, and should be thought about and derived from photographs, but this sort of thing is another. It seems silly, and I wish people would stop attaching false meanings to things.

Face

2011-05-19T19:41:00.000-06:00

Here, have a photo of a face.

Scans of sketches will be up tomorrow or the day after, we'll see.

Free at last, free at last

2011-05-18T22:37:00.003-06:00

And quite suddenly it's over and done with, just like that. Poof, bang, gone. The past five years have been quite interesting and good, and are suddenly and simply done.

It's a really weird feeling.

One of the best things is the ability to remember everything and everyone. Of course, I still have friends I will be visiting now and then, so that encroaches on any really solid sense of finality I was expecting. Then again, that might be due largely in part to the fact that the first three days of graduated life were devoted to busily cleaning a house and yard, sometimes til 2400.

Anyways, I have a perhaps-obligatory "What I Learned in College" sort of blagh today. It's short. It may sound jaded and cynical, and I make no apologies.

-I'll be honest: the only reason I went to college was because I had no idea what else I would do with myself. It was, in fact, the best decision I think I could have made, and I'm overall very pleased with the past few years of life.

-After one semester, I found I had little to no patience for kids in high school. After doing my time at Tech, I've realized I have little to no patience for childishness in anyone, especially in people whose birth certificates claim them to be adults. I can no longer abide foolishness. As an aside, foolishness and being silly aren't necessarily equivalent. This realization has also pointed out to me that I can be a royal ass to people I'm not especially fond of. This is unfortunate.

-I learned what "flip cup" is, and that I have no particular interest in it whatsoever. Similarly, I learned what Johnny Walker and Wild Turkey are, and that they make for fantastic sipping drinks when accompanied by friends, a porch, and a cigar.

-On that note, friends are invaluable (see the last item in this list).

-"Know thyself." You must honestly evaluate and know yourself, know what you're like and not. Sometimes that involves killing your pride and getting over the pretense you've made of yourself, and that's good. Hard, yes, but good.

-Living in a house off campus can be a pain, but living on campus is worse. The responsibilities of house/yard maintenance and bill-paying are nothing compared to mandatory quiet hours, the inability to properly have guests or burn incense, and mandatory hall meetings. Plus: living off campus, you can escape the Swine Flu and the sororities (Two-Minutes Hate ENGAGE), and you can cook your own food. Living off campus will also teach you, if you have housemates, how to deal with the occasional crazy person.

-The world is both a good and a bad place. Fight accordingly.

-I learned to ask "Oh really?" A lot of things in life are fictions (thanks, Snake). We make stuff up and say it's important, like "You must go to college," "You have to do college in four years," "If you're not an engineer and you aren't in these organizations, aren't on the honor roll and don't do all these things, you're worthless and dumb," "Gotta make a lot of money," etc. GPA is meaningless. Doing college in four years? Also meaningless. Mocking people who transfer to other schools because they don't fit academically? New Mexico Tech, you're so arrogant. I thought the point was learning, not showing off.

-Drunk people are funny until they're in your house.

-I still have no idea what I'm "supposed to do with my life." I don't think we have to know that, because I think the notion that there's one thing you are supposed to do is very boring.

-The most important thing I learned was this: people are more important than academia. I fully encourage and emphasize learning and thinking, but none of that can replace people. Whether you like it or not (I don't entirely), you need people: the physical/emotional/financial/spiritual/mental support and encouragement; the help with homework; learning new things and understanding things better, the list goes on. People are really dumb and hateful, yes, but are also brilliant and wonderful. There is much to learn from people.

Bromeliad

2011-05-07T21:25:00.002-06:00

Bright and lively bromeliade from Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica.

Masked tree frog

2011-05-06T20:15:00.000-06:00

I like frogs, if you couldn't tell! So awesome/cute/just plain froggish.

Bug on a leaf

2011-05-05T21:48:00.000-06:00

I don't know what kind of bug this is, but I like bugs.

Chirp, succulents

2011-05-03T20:56:00.001-06:00

I found this bird-shaped flower pot for my mom, and she planted succulents in it.

Wedding photos

2011-05-02T12:49:00.001-06:00

It's been a long week! My last set of finals have commenced.

This past Saturday, two of my friends got married. It was a lovely wedding, and I'm so happy for them! Following are a few photos I took during the reception; no, I'm not putting up photos of the couple since they would be very shy about me doing so.

Bubbles were provided, ostensibly for the purpose of letting the guests menace each other, as you will see.

City of Rocks horizon

2011-04-25T22:13:00.001-06:00

Good old City of Rocks, how fun you are!

Red, bright and blue 2

2011-04-24T16:52:00.001-06:00

More photos of bright red flowers against my neon blue wall. Yesterday's flower was the tulip, and today's flower is a Gerber daisy. Daisy... dais...y... These were taken on the same phone as yesterday's, which I'm assuming was a Chocolate.

Red, bright and blue 1

2011-04-23T21:29:00.000-06:00

I've always really liked flowers, if you couldn't tell. These photos were taken back in 2009 on a cell phone camera.

Mmm

2011-04-22T21:29:00.000-06:00

Some favorite things include, especially when in unison, good wine, cards, and very good bread with butter, all with good company.

Flutterbies

2011-04-21T18:57:00.001-06:00

I found a new camera! How exciting. It's really some Nikon "Lite Touch 80 AF" or something, and looks super crappy. It has ISO 400 film ALREADY INSIDE IT though, so hurray! Random camera and film to use up. I wonder what photos might be lurking in there before the ones I started.

Butterflies from Costa Rica:

Analog film-- first batch

2011-04-19T16:36:00.001-06:00

As requested, here are the photos from my first run at taking photos with a 'real' camera. Most of these are a bit blurry, since I was playing around with aperture and shutter speed. It's my first batch, hey? I expect the other rolls I've done since are better.

A few notes-- most of these were taken either at dusk or at night, and the especially wibbly ones are that way on purpose: I like wibbly/streaky lights. Also, thanks to my scanner, the photos are a bit... liney. I didn't take two of these photos, and coincidentally one of them is of the better ones in this batch. Hah.

Rehashing, changing, fruit tree

2011-04-18T19:52:00.002-06:00

As those who actually know me well can attest, I wobble between loathing and rather liking my drawing style. I like to think that I can draw decently, or at least scratch out something interesting, but truth be told I don't know what I'm doing (I don't think so, anyway). Certainly not when it comes to drawing faces: they're too childishly done, too similar, all too often placeholders for faces. I pick on faces, in particular, because I like to think that I can draw bodies, eyes, and hair with general realism or creative exaggeration. So as soon as I'm rid of school, which shouldn't be much longer, I'll draw again, and set about trying to actually draw faces.

I opened up my vault of drawings from the years since 8th grade yesterday to my other half, and it was very embarrassing.

Anyhow, for today have a photo--

Little Miss Feather Duster

2011-04-17T15:20:00.007-06:00

Dear little Elenore! I hope she wasn't eaten, but instead found by some people who refuse to give her up. Hopefully we'll find another friend for Les Paul, who rather misses his furry friend.

Come home, Little Miss :(

Mantis sees you

2011-04-16T16:55:00.001-06:00

I love praying mantis. They're funny, and very clever. This one watched the camera go back and forth.

Costa Rican kid

2011-04-15T21:28:00.000-06:00

Photo of a kid at a random hill town shop a few hours outside of San Jose.

Spot the critter

2011-04-13T22:13:00.001-06:00

Find the frog, tarantula, and crab in these photos!

Train step

2011-04-12T14:58:00.001-06:00

This is a step on a train.

Hands and fingers

2011-04-11T10:18:00.002-06:00

Hands and their fingers, and fingers and their soy sauce pot.

Silly kitty

2011-04-10T10:20:00.000-06:00

Oh, kitties, how dull the world would be without you! Silly kitties!

Compare and contrast, 2

2011-04-09T10:53:00.000-06:00

I got some wonderful responses to yesterday's post. Today, we have a lamp on the ceiling.

Compare and contrast, 1

2011-04-08T09:15:00.001-06:00

I WAS going to post the scans of my *film* photos yesterday, but homework happened. Alas, maybe later today or tomorrow.

So here's a little bit of compare and contrast.

Model shots?

2011-04-06T21:38:00.001-06:00

Here we are, three shots of someone who modeled for me the other day. The "model" part of it was entirely accidental, and I think the shots came out rather nicely so I'm posting them.

Yucca

2011-04-05T11:53:00.000-06:00

A very tall, dormant yucca stalk I found near Deming, NM. Have I mentioned I can't stand Deming? I do. The hills are always nice, though, as is their winery.

Pot-belly kitty

2011-04-04T14:33:00.000-06:00

Les Paul has a pot belly. This photo makes him look especially fat.

early spring adventure time, pt. 3

2011-04-03T20:21:00.002-06:00

This was also the day I started really playing with B/W at all. I know, I know, I should have started with B/W, not color.

early spring adventure time, pt. 2

2011-04-02T09:28:00.001-06:00

Some more photos from last month's amble.