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Returning from Salina yesterday at just the right time, I was able to capture a few interesting images of Coronado Heights at sunset. I was located about 2 miles east of the hill at the time, and just a bit to the north.
Late afternoon on a crisp fall day. Nice to see water in this part of the lake; it was completely dry two years ago.
A while back I got a request to use one of my images that was posted to Flickr. The request was made because I had licensed the image with a Creative Commons license that encouraged non-commercial reuse. After a brief email chat I agreed to the proposed usage, and you can see my night photo of the San Antonio skyline at the San Antonio entry on the information about interesting cities in the world site known as Geoglob.
That was kind of neat, getting an unsolicited request to use one of my photos like that.
In a similar vein, local writer Ann Parr has used one of my images of the local Swedish dancers on her web site, where she promotes her fine books.
This next couple of items I initiated. One of them is a repeat performance, and the last is something I had never done before (though my radio work comes close).
A couple of weeks ago I posted a tip on how to specify tab names when using the terminal program that ships as part of the latest version of Mac OS X, known as Leopard. Yesterday I found out that my tip was accepted at the premiere Mac hints and tips site, Mac OS X Hints!
This marks the 4th tip I've had published at macosxhints.com; they get so much traffic that I'm reasonably sure my tips have helped at least a few other Mac users.
And finally, my first voice-over. This is the result of my responding to a broadcast request from a colleague; my prior radio experience did help just a little bit: HP Cloudprint Introduction.
I've dabbled with learning to play the guitar off and on for most of my life but have yet to progress beyond the chord-plunking stage. I did take lessons about 10 years ago, and they helped me get as far as I have, but it's not very far. Since the lessons I'll occasionally pick up my guitar and play long enough to re-form my finger calluses before moving on to other interests (read: working on the web and taking photos).
And so I find myself once again motivated to advance my guitar playing abilities. I've convinced myself that part of my lack of progress was because I didn't like the sound of the guitar I was using, a generic, made-in-Mexico Fender Stratocaster. Looking back, I'm not even sure why I bought that guitar, but at the time I really wanted a strat, and the price was right; another case of live and learn.
On the other hand, I love the amp I found a few years back, a late-70's silverface Fender Champ. It's only 5 watts of power, but it's more than loud enough for practice, and the sweet tube sound just can't be beat when compared to similar sized solid-state amps.
In pursuit of my desire to learn to play guitar better, I'm now playing a new Gretsch hollow-body guitar, model G5120. It's a Korean made guitar that is at the lower end of the Gretsch line, but the sound, fit and finish are on par with guitars costing 2-3 times as much. Sure, there are hardware improvements that could be made, such as upgrading the tuners or the bridge, but those are minor compared to the sound of the guitar, and the Gretsch G5120 is one sweet sounding guitar.
Having decided to pass on the strat for the time being, I spent months trying to decide which Gibson SG clone I should get. I finally realized that as much as I love the sound of an SG, what I wanted, what I really wanted, was a hollow-body guitar. The Gretsch fits the bill perfectly: it's not as big as a Gibson 355 style, it sounds and plays great, and the orange wood grain finish is very sharp looking. My first few days experience with the guitar match all of the highly positive reviews I've recently read; it really is a nice guitar, especially considering its price.
Oh, and in terms of actually learning to play this thing? I'm doing a couple of things differently than in the past. For one thing, I've committed to giving this a go for at least one solid year. Meaning, if (when) I lapse, it doesn't mean I lay off for weeks and months. It means a week or two off as circumstances dictate, but until the year is over, I'm going to keep coming back and practicing on a regular basis.
The other thing I'm doing is taking a new approach in how I learn. I'm still using some of the material from my first class, folk songs with easy chords, mostly strummed with an occasional bass run, but I've also turned to the internet for training material.
I've found so much great info at JustinGuitar.com that it's hard to know where to begin. There is a ton of written material, which is very useful, but the best feature has to be the many video lessons Justin has made available; heres a complete list of Justin's guitar lessons on YouTube. I'm currently practicing some new finger exercises, and learning some easy 2 and 3 chord songs. Overall, I am very happy and impressed with Justin's teaching skills. By the way, he's a young man from New Zealand who now lives in London and teaches guitar worldwide; modern times!
And so now we come to the fun part, photos!
I've more or less "canceled" this entry as just a few days after the initial posting I discovered all the images, and indeed, the entire contest site, had disappeared.
I think a lot of the joy of photography stems from the voyage of discovery found through the lens. Try as you might to envision the final image, it's not until you actually view your photos after the shoot that you know how well you did.
To that end, I also enjoy wonderful photos taken by others, and today I came across a web page featuring the winners of a recent Chinese photo contest. All of the photos are made available under a Creative Commons license, and below you can see my favorite from each category, with credit to the photographer as specified by the license.
The contest had three categories, and you can see the winning photos in each category: Society, Nature and Portraits.
Click any of the photos below to see a larger version.
photo by: 摄影：极速1
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photo by: 摄影：牽手
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photo by: 摄影：石页
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Thanks to Joi Ito for the tip!