Random Frames

Speaking with Terence a few weeks ago, I suggested a new category of discussion for our fledgling photo blog that would allow you to ask me photography-related questions and allow me to share my advice, knowledge, and criticism with you. The alliterative name chosen for this new category is Ask Andy. My apologies in advance to the other members of this blog named “Andy” – I will try to uphold our good name.

Your questions can be on anything photography-related, including: how do I take a certain kind of photo, how was a particular image was created, how do I do this in Photoshop, how would you improve/change this photo, what is this feature on my camera for, what does this technical term mean, what settings do I use to do this, what is this photo-related gadget for, how do I choose a new camera, what software should I use, what makes a great photo, can you recommend any books/websites in this area, are you single and looking for a good time (Yes!), etc.

Please do not post your Ask Andy questions to the blog. Instead, email them to me (adh9 at case dot edu) with “Ask Andy” in the Subject line so that I may edit, clarify, and and follow-up, before I post my response to the blog. Email me as many questions as you like as often as you like. Be detailed and specific. Unfortunately, I cannot guarantee that I will answer every question or that I will be able to respond on a regular basis.

Terence has already generously provided me with a question for the first Ask Andy thread, which will follow shortly. Please use the comments of this thread to ask any logistical questions or to tell me what you think about this new category. I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks.

Has anyone else gone to see the new Harry Potter movie? I thought that it was done really well, but some of the sets were starkly different than what I had pictured in my head (like Dumbledore’s office).

Also, what was up with everyone’s haircuts? All of the hairstyles looked like they came right out of the ’70s. During every scene that featured Ron, I felt like a Bee Gees music video could have broken out at any moment…

P.S. This is totally unrelated, but if you look at Shoecheck’s album in Coppermine, you can see pictures that he has recently uploaded from Ireland. He has taken some really incredible pictures there.

P.P.S. Have a great and safe holiday everyone! Make sure to show those turkeys who’s boss.

Ok, it’s a little early to start the next theme, but I wanted to get it started while I had time (this week has been unexpectedly busy).

This week’s theme is Smears (photos taken with long shutter times), and it was suggested by Alex. I took this picture at an autocross this past summer. Autocross is a form of autoracing in which people drive on closed courses that are defined by pylons, against the clock (not wheel-to-wheel). It’s extremely safe, and relatively low-cost.

As usual, if you have suggestions for future themes we can use, please let me know.

P.S. Why have I been unexpectedly busy? I have to go to New Employee Orientation. At Case. Nevermind that I’ve been at this school longer than the people training us. Tomorrow I get to learn about workplace safety… =|

(Goes to album)

I got my first album up. It’s a bunch of shots I took while working on the car this last August. The album description has some vague details on why I went so ape-shizzle on the thing, as well as a link to my main blog where you can sing along with the photostream.

Hi. I’m also Andy, “Andrew Rollin” on the birth certificate and the resume. To avoid confusion, username = Madeofmeat.

I currently have a cosmically crappy digicam. I’m working on changing that. In the meantime, my images will be of sub-phonecam quality. I’ll probably be putting some things up later today.

Ok, I am watching what is possibly the best entertainment EVAR.

Bill is running a Neuro-ethology experiment using the game Descent (aka the best multiplayer game the world has ever seen). He designed a course that you have to fly (in the shortest time) using only three axes (forward-reverse, pitch up-down, yaw left-right), which are mapped to axes on two joysticks (one for each hand) in a “normal” configuration. The course is entirely made of lava, and time penalties are assessed based on the state of the ship’s shield at the finish line.

Then after training, the axes are randomly changed. So you might have to push left and right on one joystick to go forward and backward. Or, you might have to twist the joystick left and right to pitch the spaceship up and down. But you still have to run the same (very narrow) course.

It is the most hilarious thing to watch test subjects get frustrated and scream off a long stream of expletives right before their ship blows up. =)

Ok, we’ve already had one vote (by Alex) for using Smears as next week’s theme. Smears would be pictures taken with long shutter times to capture motion blur. Barry and I discussed it off-line and we both agreed that would be great for next week. So, I just wanted to let everyone else knew about it so that people have extra time to shoot.

As usual, if you have any ideas for future themes we could use, please feel free to let me know or post them. We’ll make sure they get used.

So, I forgot that I never actually got around to posting pictures of the other mystery utensil.

Unlike the first utensil, we really have no idea what this one would be used for. We have a lot of theories, but the debate on those theories inevitably come down to one question: What does this utensil allow you to do that a slotted spoon doesn’t? So, far, every suggestion for what this could be used for would be easier to accomplish with a slotted spoon. So, we just don’t get it.

One detail I hadn’t noticed until Shoecheck pointed it out was the ridge that the arrow is pointing to in the above picture. It almost looks like this utensil was designed to be placed on the top of the glass (with the ridge against the rim). Of course, if that is the correct usage, that begs the question: why is the handle so long?

Notice the large gap in the above picture. That rules out a lot of the things we were thinking it could strain. It also is made of plastic, so I really doubt that it could be used to slice or grate anything.

So, does anyone have any ideas what this could be?

So, I didn’t end up having any time to shoot this weekend. Instead, I spent the whole time sanding a desk and eating redonkulous quantities of food. Here’s one that I like that I shot from before:

Everyone had such creative ideas when we had the Vertical Lines theme, so I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone shot for this week.

If you have any ideas for future categories, please let me know. I’ll make sure they are used. For instance, this theme was suggested by Alex.

I’m pretty sure this is the fault of my poor web page skills not Firefox but Firefox cannot display ‘ or ” correctly but Internet Exploder does. So if someone can point me to a good way to bring my web page up to spec. I am afraid my web pages still use center and font and similar antiquated HTML code. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks