Ringlight

I finally got around to building a ringlight.

Cost: $1.99

It was a lot more difficult than what I expected, but I found my way around. I was kind of following the tutorial that I linked above, but what kind of guy would I be if I followed directions? Besides, he didn't really have sizes or go in depth on some steps.

I don't have a photo of it right now, but picture a big donut covered in duct tape on the back side and white on the front.

I used cardboard, foil, duct tape, an old PVC pipe (which cost 1.99) and an old white shirt.

It works as best as I could ask. See Chaderade to the left.

As Corey said... Famous

If you have read my blog, you know that I am an avid Strobist reader.

Being that, I got one hell of a treat today when my ugly mug ended up on a post on David Hobby's blog. Mine and everyone else who attended the Bay area Strobist meet-up.

It's exciting and very motivating. I know it's just a blog and I have my name in a magazine every month and had it all over the front page of a newspaper for two years, but it still brings a giant smile to my face.

I read this blog daily, and have began to use a lot of the techniques in my shooting. This is just one more way it has given back to me.

Luicidal

I woke up at 5:30 am, because that's what I do.

Really.

Ok, I am lying. I got up and took a nice bike ride over to KSJS 90.5 to take some photos of Luicidal doing his thing on the San Jose State radio station. He gets down with some underground hip hop every Tuesday morning 6-10 am.

I decided that this would be a cool sound slideshow for my portfolio after I gather the audio from his show and do a little interview with him. I snapped just over 100 photos of him on the mic and preparing for the next song. I even got to say a few words myself on the air.

Here is a quick picture. Hopefully within the next week I'll have a soundslide show up. I am hesitant to use Soundslides, because I have no way of posting it to my blog. But we'll see what happens.

Bay Area Strobist Meet-up

We had a fun time at this weekends Bay Area Meet-up. I think somewhere just under 20 people showed up, and we had four to five groups going all at once.

It was nice to see a lot of stuff that I have been reading about, put into practice. It was also nice to put a face to a lot of the members on the flickr group.

Another one is already in the works, which you can follow here.

Photo woes

It seems like it's not safe to post your images anywhere on the internet.

Blogger Joe Hollak has written two posts on how photos can and are being used on Facebook and Myspace.

I have read in the past how images you have uploaded to Flickr can be used by third parties for advertising. They are basically legally stealing your images to make money.

But now you might have even a little more to worry about, as some Flickr users are finding their images on stock photo websites. Read here.

I like flickr, and the whole idea behind it. It's a great way to share photos and has some good groups. I don't want to throw a watermark over my photos, so I always try and load smaller images and disabled the "all-sizes" function. But I guess I am going to have to keep an eye out.

Shaking with questions

I know, I know. I haven't posted in a few days, but I promise I am full of blog content just waiting to be thrown onto the internet. It's just waiting in a really long line of things I am trying to do.

But last night, at about 10:33, I was sitting at my laptop and talking to my girlfriend, when my house started shaking. Quickly, feelings from the large earthquake that shook the area a few months ago came to mind.

It lasted very briefly, only a matter of seconds. Being on the second floor of a very old house, I decided to make my way downstairs.

A couple nights before last on Monday, while sitting in my roommate's room, I had felt a slight shake and heard the blinds clink the window. I asked him if he had felt that and he said no. I kind of shrugged it off, assuming that I am just crazy. But wouldn't you know it, when we went downstairs to watch the TV, the news was reporting there had been an earthquake that night.

But for some reason, last nights quake didn't get that kind of coverage. It had more of a presence than the preceding one on Monday night, but when I checked the TV there was no breaking news coverage, nothing. I checked Mercurynews.com and didn't see anything. What's up with that?

I assumed that it was from the Calaveras Fault in the area of Alum Rock, which sits less that ten miles to the east of San Jose City Hall. After checking the USGS website, I found out that the epicenter of the 3.0 magnitude earthquake was just 5.5 miles from San Jose.

This morning I check Mercurynews.com again, to find a short brief on the incident, which wasn't posted until 5:30 this morning.

I am wondering why the delay in reporting? Is it not a big deal? Wouldn't people have an uneasy feeling after the third time this fault has caused a rumble? Right before that 5.6 earthquake hit in October, didn't the San Jose Mercury news run a big piece on the "Big One," which they say is due any day now? And on top of all that, a 3.1 was recorded near Pacifica, CA.

I expect another piece on all of this tectonic activity, and I think I am going to find something to hang on to.