Sad passing...

London Times Obituary

An Obituary printed in the London Times........

Interesting and sadly rather true...

'Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old
Friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many
Years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since
His birth records were long ago lost in
Bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as
Having cultivated such valuable lessons as:

Knowing when to come in out of the rain; why the
Early bird gets the worm; Life isn't always fair;
And maybe it was my fault.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial
Policies (don't spend more than you can earn) and
Reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in
Charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when
political correctness became the, "in thing", and the
well-intentioned but overbearing, "Human Rights laws"
were set in place

Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged
With sexual harassment for kissing a classmate;
Teens suspended from school for using mouthwash
After lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding
An unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked
Teachers for doing the job that they themselves had
Failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.

It declined even further when schools were required
To get parental consent to administer sun lotion or
An Aspirin to a student; but could not inform
Parents when a student became pregnant and wanted
To have an abortion.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches
Became businesses; and criminals received better
Treatment than their victims. Common Sense took a
Beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a
Burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue
You for assault.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live,
After a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup
Of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap,
And was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents,
Truth and Trust, his wife Discretion, his daughter
Responsibility and his son Reason

He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers;

I Know My Rights

I Want It Now

Someone Else Is To Blame

I'm A Victim

Not many attended his funeral because so few
Realized he was gone. If you still remember him,
Pass this on. If not, join the majority and do
Nothing.

Open Source Software

I have said it before, I am not a writer, I am a visual person. I love photography. I also want to create with the least amount of hassle, but with the most control. That may seem like two opposite ideals, but that is what I want...
I also don't want to be forced into working the way someone else works. I have been using Ubuntu for quite a while now, and I really like the workflow.
In terms of Photography, I download my photos into Digikam and do a quick purge of out of focus, badly exposed, and other failed images. I also give the photos "tags" and a cursory rating so they will be easier to find later. Digikam also has some decent editing/correction tools to give a basic feel to the photo. I use these to get a handle on where I want to take the photo.
Once I have decided to work on a photo, I open it in RawTherapee and tweak the colours and process the raw file. I save a 16 bit png file.
The next program I use is either Cinepaint (still a bit kludgy to work with), Gimp (no 16 bit support...yet) or Krita. Here I do any spotting and dust removal, selective area enhancement and so on. I save a final version as a tif, and a scaled down version as a jpg. I upload the jpg to my website (which uses gallery2).
From this workflow, you will notice a couple of things. First, I use a lot of opensource software. What I like about opensource is the rapid improvement of the software. With a lot of eyes on the program, someone somewhere will fix any niggling problems. With a lot of commercial software, these niggling problems are not always addressed. Often you are told (indirectly) to just deal with it. Now don't get me wrong, Adobe's Photoshop, for example is a great program. In fact, I once taught a college level course on Photoshop, and there are a few things that are much easier to do in Photoshop than in other programs, however, the purchase price is getting astronomical. Recent versions are only marginally better than the previous, but still cost the same. And of course there are still the niggling things, Photoshop needs A LOT of memory, files are huge, some people have trouble with the interface... but these things don't always get addressed.
With a program like gimp (besides the very unfortunate name) things tend to move faster. If the program is not fulfilling the needs of a group, someone can "fork" the program to produce something like cinepaint that does address those needs. Innovation tends to move faster int he open source world. Chances are if something bugs me, it also bugs someone a lot smarter than me who can fix it without worrying about financial return on investment. Never underestimate how much some small annoyance can drive a person...
The second thing you may notice (if you use Linux yourself) is that I use a mix of Gnome and KDE programs. In the commercial world, this is almost like using both Microsoft and Apple programs at the same time on the same computer. I think it is better to be able to use the best tool possible for the job, rather than be tied to what someone else thinks you should do. For example, I use Digikam to organize my photos. There is a similar program called f-spot for Gnome, but it does not quite jive with the way I work with my images.
I guess the whole point to this post is to show that open source software is capable of some outstanding results that easily rivals commercial products. The two images linked had extensive editing before they were finished. And open source products do not try to pigeon hole your work or style into what the designers feel is the "best".
I really hate to admit it, but I seem to have become an open source evangelist..... Damn...
Oh, and I guess I better include a photograph, cause this is a photography blog...

What a Sunrise

Yesterday morning I noticed that it was foggy out, so I thought I would go up to Duncan early to take a few photos before I picked up my kids. As I drove up the Malahat pass, I came above the fog, and it looked amazing. I stopped at a viewpoint and captured the image below.




There were many other people taking shots as well, but a stranger came up to me and handed me his business card. He said his camera batteries died, and he figured I would get some good shots.
I looked at his card, and he is owner of a large graphic and web design company.

I guess my point is that it is worth "stopping to smell the roses". Not only did I get a very nice shot, I also got a bit of a business lead.

One more eagle photo

Here is another in the series of photos I took in Goldstream before Christmas.



I have worked on it quite a bit. I moved the top eagle to the right a bit, to get it away from the trees. Getting the colours and tones just right took a lot of tweaking.
And I worked on the whole image with FOSS graphic programs Including DigiKam, Krita, Cinepaint, and Gimp.
It is easy to get into political discussions when talking about open source software, but I do believe we are witnessing the beginning of a new economy.

But enough of that, I really like this photo...

Funny Comic

I find this very funny....

But last night when I tried it, my wireless conked out. It must have just been a coincidence....

Merry Christmas...
We are having a rare white Christmas here, so of course I had to go out in the snow and find some images. One of my favorite places is Goldstream park. This time of year the eagles (as well as a ton of seagulls) come to feed off all the dead salmon.
I was amazed at how much snow we actually got, I mean Victoria is the warmest city in Canada. People here don't buy winter tires. Heck, show shovels are rare...
But I loved it.

Here are a couple of my favorite shots.

Snow and other stuff

It snowed last night.
Now for a lot of Canada, that is nothing this time of year, but for Victoria, it is a big deal....
This morning I went out for a walk in the snow. I must like the cold. I was out for over 3 1/2 hours. I was a bit concerned that my un-weathersealed camera might not handle the conditions, but is came through fine.
I also found that the snow seems to have brought out the best in people. Everyone was very happy, outgoing, and even excited about the snow. Maybe the grumps were still huddling indoors...
I was having so much fun, before I realized it, I was all the way over by Ross Bay Cemetary. I didn't realize it was within (extended) walking distance! On the way back, I stopped at the Governors Residence and captured this shot...




I will be putting more up on my site soon...

And speaking of my site, I have been looking at Free Hostia as a webhost. (I am thinking it is time to move my site out of my living room) So far it is looking good, I set up a wordpress site for a friend and it seems fine. For my own site, I use Gallery2 software, as it seems to have the features I like, while being very customizeable. I guess my new year's resolution is to make money from my photography.