May 18, 2004

Everything is okay, everything is fine

I had an epiphany at the Pine Tavern this evening, and suddenly I knew how I was going to finish up the templates for my new photo galleries. The entire setup is rather clever, and given my short attention span when it comes to design projects outside of work these days, it’s a wonder I was able to see it through. I’m glad I did, though, because there’s just something about slamming those pixels back into the ether that really gets me all riled up. Watch out kids, cuz Uncle Dane is back in the Scotch, again.

I’ve managed to put up four galleries so far, and all of them are chock full of fresh and grisly bits. You may have seen a few of the photographs already, and there is one in particular that if I see it again, I’m going to hurl. It’s been mentioned recently. I’ll let you guess which one it is.

So. Check it, yo.

April 15, 2004 – It snowed or something on tax day, and I took pretty pictures. At one time they were still pretty pictures, but now they haunt my dreams and I need to carve out my eyes with sea shells.

March 10, 2004 – I went for a walk during work to cleanse my head, and things were in bloom all over the place. There were also big stingy things all over the place who were all enjoying the things that were in bloom all over the place. Luckily, they didn’t hurt me and my leg didn’t break for another four days.

March 6, 2004 – A friend came down from Hood River and we went aclimbin’ with a friend from Bend. I lead my first climb, a 5.6 at a dangerous section of rock known as Rope-De-Dope-De-PAIN AND DOOM AND BLOOD AND CARNAGE. Thanks to the Manwich, we just barely survived.

February 28, 2004 – My first-ever session of climbing at Smith Rock, where we invented “EAT THE PIGEONS!” and wondered “WHO WILL WIN IN A FIGHT TO THE DEATH? THE RATTLESNAKE OR THE CAN OF MANWICH?” The answer still eludes us.

As I said, the design and templates are quite clever, and I’ve managed to massage Movable Type into opening new horizons of laziness. If I ever figure out how I actually set up the scripts on this thing I’ll do a little bit o’ write up on it, as it should be fairly helpful to other people who want to steal my ideas and pretend that they are clever themselves.

I mean, really. I just stole these ideas from someone else so I would think of myself as clever, and what is ‘clever’ anyway but the act of forgetting the source of your intellectual inspiration? And where in the hell did that rattlesnake jet on off to?


dane, are you photoshopping the color into your shots or does your digital camera just grab color that well? OR is the west coast that mind-bendingly odd and dripping in pure color?
yeah, so i’m going to buy a digital camera this afternoon. if i don’t like it (i’ll try it while playing in duluth the next couple of days) i’ll just use my priveledge as a consumer to return it and buy yours.
what, perchance, are you using?

The Pine Tavern is a most-excellent establishment, though there were lots of old men hanging around the night we were there. Old men hanging out with other old men. It was like an old man conference or something…
My camera is nothing special, just a Sony Cybershot DSC-P51 2.0 megapixel deal. It does an excellent job grabbing raw photos, but I do a lot of post-processing in Photoshop afterwards.
I’ve been experimenting a lot with reproducing the effect generated by LOMO cameras (rich colors, dark edges that gradient to a bright and creamy center), and lately I’ve been turning down color saturation to achieve a more weathered, washed-out look.
As far as cameras go, I’ve been drooling over the Nikon Coolpix 4500 for a couple years, and the Canon PowerShot G2 is comparable. The camera reviews at Digital Photography Review are a most excellent place to get your digital camera learn on.
The Cybershot doesn’t do manual focus, manual exposure or macros, and it generates a lot of compression artifacts on landscape shots… but through practice I’ve learned to kinda hack the camera’s shortcomings and shoot some good stuff nevertheless.
I’m curious with what you come up with, Nate. And yes, the colors in Oregon are absolutely astounding, and they go a long ways in filling up the eyeballs with tasty treats.