Ungrounded Outlet

I left something out of my last post about photography:

I learned that I need to use my flash more. Since I’ve started taking pictures, I’ve really tried to not use the flash. The built-in flash on my 350D is pretty bad and I had convinced myself that it was useless.

I was wrong: something I again learned from PJ. The built-in flash may suck, but sometimes it’s better than the alternative. Fortunately, I wasn’t so stubborn on this one and I did actually use the flash some on the trip (mostly towards the end). This saved a lot of pictures.

I’m thinking of trying to get a flash out of my birthday that’s coming up in a couple of months. So maybe this lesson won’t apply for much longer. :) That’d be nice!

Last week, I went on an amazing vacation: a seven day cruise around the Caribbean. On board the gigantic and beautiful Mariner of the Seas, we visited Royal Caribbean’s private island in Haiti, Jamaica, Grand Cayman of the Cayman Islands, and Mexico. It was a fantastic chance to relax while being waited on hand and food, hang out with my great friends who I don’t see very often, and see some beautiful new places that I’ve never been before. And, of course, I used it as a great chance to practice some more photography. [So did my friend PJ. The joke was that we were the Official Photographers for the trip]

Over the course of the week, I took about 3800 pictures. I’d like to think that I learned a few things while doing it too; mostly about how I tend to take pictures and what I need to work on.

Just for fun, I’m going to talk about it here. If you want to follow along, some of my better pictures are available on Flickr.

Since I bought my cheap 50mm f/1.8, it’s basically stayed on my camera. My 70-200mm telephoto isn’t useful in hand-held situations and I’m not a huge fan of the kit lens (EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6) because of its sharpness issues. Also, I’ve read enough Really Good photogs saying that the 50mm is a great way to learn discipline and develop composition skills and such that I just use the 50mm all the time. And that was certainly true on this trip. With the exception of a few shots as we pulled out of Port Canaveral where I used PJ’s 70-300mm for a few shots, I rocked the 50mm the whole time.

I shoot on a Canon Digital Rebel XT (350D) and its sensor size yields a 1.6 crop factor on non-EF-S lenses. This makes the 50mm a slight telephoto lens on my camera. This caused almost all of the pictures I took of people to be close-up head shots. And, because I was often shooting indoors with the aperture wide open at 1.8, the backgrounds tend to be blurry. So while I took some good portraits of my friends last week (if I do say so myself), there’s very little evidence that any of them are on a cruise. The backgrounds tend to be blurry enough that they could’ve been taken anywhere (or in front of any cheesy backdrop at Sears). I think this was a huge disservice to my friends. Before I travel anywhere again, I’ll buy a wider lens. Fortunately, PJ wasn’t afraid to use the much wider kit lens and he picked up the slack in this area. He even told me I should switch lenses, but I was much too stubborn to listen. Sorry, PJ!

Another thing I noticed is that a lot of pictures were very impromptu and of the nature of “Hey, Eddie! Take a picture of me now!” When the person giving the order was in front of a bright window or sunny beach, I’d usually forget to compensate on the exposure. I ended up with a lot of great silhouettes of unrecognizable people. Oops. I’ll have to remember to put more conscious thought into every picture I take from now on before I snap the shot and not after.

I’m not very good at taking pictures of people in ball caps. I either need to figure that out or make people take off their hats. The shadows from the bills on the cap were usually bad enough to ruin the picture instead of complement it.

I discovered that my friend Josh is very easy to take a picture of. He tends to walk more slowly than everyone else so he ends up at the back of the group: so there’s no one standing between him and me. He’s the type of guy who’ll pose as long as you point a camera at him without getting too impatient. And he’s a good looking guy and very photogenic. Because of all this, he’s well over-represented in my Aperture project than everyone else.

I’ve discovered that it’s incredibly easy to take beautiful pictures where you’re in the Caribbean. Point your camera anywhere and snap and it’s going to be great. It may not be the picture you had in mind, but it’ll be great. Whether it’s sunsets or clouds or mountains or clear, blue ocean water…there’s nothing ugly out there (as long as you don’t point your camera at fat men in speedos). If you need to build your photographer’s ego, take a cruise to the Caribbean. You’ll come home with a memory card full of fantastic shots regardless of your talent level.

At the Mayan Ruins in Tulum, I think they planted the palm trees to purposefully provide neat, if somewhat clichéd, ways to frame pictures of the ruins. I wholeheartedly approve of this.

Indeed, almost every picture I took was a cliché. But, I think I’m getting better and better at the clichés. I hope that I’m starting to really master the basics and will one day soon be able to move on to more interesting and artistic picture-taking.

It was a wonderful trip and I wish I were there today (though I’d try to buy a wider lens if I could).

So I had a dream last night.

I was at work, downstairs in the cafeteria. I had my laptop with me and I was getting some work done. It must’ve been a MacBook Pro (as opposed to the Powerbook I actually own) because I was running Windows on it.

So while I was working, some beautiful women came and sat down beside me. Each of them had her husband with her.

I think this sets me apart from most “normal” people. Most people’s brains use dreams to let them explore fantastical situations which could never arise in real life. My brain said, “Whoa now! I already gave you a MacBook Pro! What more do you want?” and instead of providing beautiful, nubile ladies gives me beautiful, married “let’s be friends!” girls.

Ah well. I can’t really complain.

The MacBook Pro sure was nice! And it’s downright obtainable which is a lot more than I can say for the other.

The Astronomy Picture of the Day for October 10, 2007 has an awe-inspiring picture of Iapetus from a recent Cassini flyby.

The APOD write-up emphasizes how strange Iapetus is and how much we still don’t know about its formation and history.

Every time I come across things that we don’t know, I get excited. And we know so little about the universe that there’s a lot to be excited about!

Today, NPR’s Morning Edition had a story on Sputnik 1, the first man-made satellite to orbit the earth, because today marks the 50th anniversary of its launch and the start of the space-race.

As something of a space geek, I’ve been thinking about Sputnik all morning. NPR had an interview with Boris Chertok, the deputy to the principle designer of the satellite. He said, “…it took us four or five days to realize that from then on, the history of civilization could be divided into before the launch and after.” Does anyone but me still believe this?

The exact same problems we had 51 years ago still plague us today. People still starve to death. There are still wars and famines. People live, work, and die in squalid sweatshops around the globe. There are vicious wars over which imaginary friend is telling people to things. We still live in a world where “genocide” is a word that regularly appears in the news and not just in history books. It seems that the biggest difference between then and now is this: “Then”, Congress eagerly funded space exploration. “Now”, every mission has to fight for the rest of the government’s table scraps.

I honestly and truly don’t understand this. We did something great. We turned weapons research into a shining star in the night sky. We sent men to the moon. We created space stations where men and women could live for the first time un-tethered from our pale blue dot. We turned our eyes to the heavens and saw just how small we were in a universe that defies imagination.

I see all of this and my first response is amazement. Every time, my response is amazement. I still haven’t grown used to the idea that we sent men to the moon, even though it happened decades before I was born. My second response is, “Ok. It’s time for everyone to band together, get over our petty bickering, and realize that the only way we’re going to make it in this universe is to realize that we’re all humans. Our similarities outweigh our differences so completely that we might as well be the same. So let’s just all get along, okay?”

Of course, that doesn’t happen. We’re the only known species that’s able to recognize its own evolution and, in so recognizing it, better itself in ways that natural selection never could…but we can’t get past our tribalism. My country is better than your country because I was born in this one. My religion is better than your religion because I was born into it. All religions are better than no religion because we were born into it. I’d really like that guy if he just weren’t so different.

Look at the launch of Sputnik. In my country, whatever awe we felt at the achievement was quickly replaced with, “We can’t let the Russians be better than we are.” Only in the minds of science fiction writers did anyone even consider a better world for all mankind. As a quick trip through international headlines will demonstrate, that better world has basically stayed fiction, too.

In case you’re curious, here’s a list of visible stars that are within 50 light years of our planet. That page says that there are 2000 stars that we know about within that distance. Today, if anyone out there is listening (probably not) and has very sensitive equipment (almost certainly not), they’ll hear a very quiet “beep…beep…beep…”. It was us. We sent that little satellite up and announced to the universe, “We’re here.”

And perhaps, just perhaps, that alien listener will look up from his equipment and say, “A new species has awoken in our galaxy. Let us go see what they are like.” When they get here, what will they find?

I’ll put money on it. They’ll find people starving to death. They’ll find wars and famine. They’ll find people living, working, and dying in squalid sweatshops around the globe. They’ll find religious wars and genocide. They’ll find a species that decided it’s better to stay in our sandbox than to meet the rest of existence head on. On that day, I’ll be ashamed to be human.

Hell, I already am.

Maybe we’ll figure it out in the next fifty years. I’m not holding my breath.

Ashley shouldn’t click this link.

For everyone else, doesn’t it look like that Cyberman is going to upgrade that poor old woman? Such a shame. Such a shame.

Twitter is currently down for maintenance. I’d like to express my displeasure at this turn of events. Normally, I would use twitter for this purpose. But twitter is currently down for maintenance. It’s an intractable problem made only slightly tractable by the fact that I have my own website and blog combo.

Some of you may enjoy The Sims but aren’t exactly “in-tune” with the wacky world that is the Web 2.0. So for you, I give you (straight from the reddit front page): The Sims Torture Test.

Enjoy.

Behold the one horse-power car.

Sincerely, Me

So for lunch today, I fixed some new Kraft Bistro Deluxe* “Classic Cheddar” Mac N’ Cheese. In preparation difficulty, it’s somewhere between Easy Mac and Kraft Dinner, but closer to Kraft Dinner. In terms of tastes, I think I don’t really care for it that much. But that’s not why I’m writing this.

I’m writing this because the copy on the back of the package is completely ridiculous for a product where you boil water and squeeze cheese sauce out of a packet. I’ve reproduced in its entirety, in flagrant violation of several copyright laws.

Delicious. Distinguished. Delightful. That’s Kraft Bistro Deluxe. An indulgence in mouthwatering flavors fit for your distinctive tastes. Enjoy premium Kraft cheeses and pastas made with durum and whole grain wheat. Bistro Deluxe offers a mac and cheese experience of true taste sophistication.

Satisfy your desire for a more grown-up mac and cheese with our delicious Classic Cheddar variety. Made with rich and creamy cheese and ridged elbow pasta to deliver full-flavored taste with every bite.

*Note: I want to point out that this press release suggests pairing this Mac N’ Cheese with a fruity Merlot. Maybe I would’ve enjoyed it more if I’d had that instead of Mountain Dew.