Photography literally means “the process of drawing with light” - it’s not “taking pictures of people or things,” it’s all about playing with light. If the light isn’t there, there’s no photograph. If the light is boring, the photograph is boring. But, if the light is right, even the most boring subject is transformed into something magical.
Much of the time, when I jump to grab my camera, it’s because the light has caught my eye. Warm light coming through a window. Light refracting through glass. Reflecting off of a surface. Sometimes it’s just a property of the light that catches my attention - warmth, softness, darkness, harshness.
I have found myself drawn to channels that are best described as “alternate” - outside the traditional scope of the Institution. I publish, but on my own blog. I provide support and services, but for software and tools that are not blessed by the University. I share everything I do under a simple Creative Commons license, without worrying about control or ownership. I exist, from some perspectives, outside of the Institution.
The holiday season is now officially here. The Norman family tree went up today - Evan helped put the ornaments up (many of which are as old as I am). Snow’s been collecting in preparation for a white christmas…
Of course, you have to be familiar with the rules because they exist for a reason. But you also need to know when to just ignore them, or flat out contradict them.
This shot breaks almost every rule in the book. Composition. Lighting. Exposure. Focus. White balance. But, the emotion and life that pour out of it make it worth laughing at the rules. It’s one of my favorite photos of all time.
I’d dabbled with doing a series of photography casts, but stopped doing it when I realized there are SO many people out there far better suited to doing this. The real reason I stopped doing my screencasts is that I was focusing more on Aperture, and there is the excellent Inside Aperture blog and podcast that handles that much better than I ever could.
The Norman family got back into town yesterday, and I’ve spent the time since then crunching through the bounty of photos taken on the trip. I’ll probably post something about the various things we did, but in the meantime, here’s the Flickr slideshow of the 290 surviving photos.
I’ve scheduled email autoresponders, updated my voicemail, disabled blog comments. I’m now out of the office until Dec. 8, and will be offline for almost the entire time. See you on the other side.
It’s a really damned scary place, where I’m the one speaking calmly and acting as the voice of reason. It’s happened rather more frequently than I’m comfortable with lately, both online and off.
I don’t know if it’s “the economy”, or the shorter days, or something else, but some people seem to have collectively lost their sense of rationality and humour.
If you read a post by someone online, don’t jump immediately to paint them as EVIL! if they’re saying something you don’t like or agree with. Take some time. Maybe only a few seconds. Breathe. Try to imagine what’s going on from the other person’s perspective. Do they have valid reasons for saying what they’re saying? Could they really be doing the right thing, but you perceive it as EVIL! because you don’t have all of the facts? Could they really be intending to say something else, but are being misinterpreted due to a language or context gap?
The website for Northern Voice 2009 just went live, so the date for WordCamp Education Vancouver 2009 is set. Thursday, February 19, 2009 in Vancouver - the day before Northern Voice (which runs February 20-21 in Vancouver - BE THERE!).
The venue for WordCamp Education hasn’t been set yet, but we’ll find a place either on the main UBC campus or downtown. Or at a pub somewhere… hmm…
I’m dropping offline soon for a couple of weeks on a family vacation. I’m bringing a book or two, but want to stuff some blog posts and articles that I’ve probably neglected onto my iPod for more in-depth reading. I’m planning on using Instapaper to bring offline copies of stuff so I can read it anywhere.
What should I bring? What is the most important article or post that you’d recommend for offline reading? Doesn’t have to be related to education, or technology, or anything in particular.
One of the things I LOVE about Drupal is the fantastic CCK plugin that lets me create compound structured content types without hacking the database or writing code. Things like Events. Profiles. Pretty much anything that can be stored as database records.
