Filed under: tidbit
Here’s a bit of a convoluted story for you. One of my recent-er photos got featured on the front page of reddit which resulted in um a whole lot of views. (which picture? glad you asked. this one.) Okay so it was actually like 70,000 views, which is for a small timer like me a whole hell of a lot of eyeballs checking out my stuff.
Of course with so many people visiting my Flickr page I was bound to have some new people add me as a contact, and they did, and I dutifully check out the photostream of every single person who adds me. I don’t add most of them back, but I at least look.
Out of the fifty or so people that added me one person really caught my eye, and that was Jordie Bellaire. She’s using Flickr as a place to show off some of her excellent illustrations and man was I ever instantly captivated. One of the pieces that really caught my eye was this one of a fox and a deer. It made me think, “Man, I want that picture for my girlfriend” (because her last name is Fox, you see) but that picture wasn’t exactly what I wanted. Then I noticed on Jordie’s profile page that she takes commissions, and that was that.
I requested of her a picture of a fox as a present for Casey. I also figured that I would get something for myself, but I had no inspiration, so I just requested that she do a portrait of me. I’ve never had a portrait of me done! Well, no, that’s not true – just the other day the amazing Kathy Rodriguez sculpted my handsome boneheaded self so I can’t say it’s never been done. However! This piece was the first one I’d specifically ordered, which gave me a mild ego rush. I felt like some sort of modern day nobleman, all waving my sceptre and having people adjust my crown.
So after I requested the pieces Jordie was in constant contact and checked in some revisions with me, but that wasn’t necessary as everything she showed me was golden and I don’t think I had any changes at all.
Oh, yeah, the images themselves. Here’s the fox!
And here’s the portrait!
and how could I not love those, right? I think they’re amazing.
So … maybe that story wasn’t that complex. I accidentally got my 15 seconds of internet fame, met someone making great art, and decided to pay her to make some specifically for me (her rates are nice, by the way, thanks for asking). I even got special extra doodles on the paper in which they were shipped, but those are for me, not you, so you don’t get to see them.
Filed under: photography
I’ve had enough people asking about my camera that I figure I should write an update (since not everyone follows me on Twitter and why should they anyway? I just make a bunch of noise and never impart anything useful).
The story in brief is that I sent my lens in to be fixed as it was back-focusing. The first time I got it back it still didn’t work right. I sent it in a second time with a CD with samples of the problem. It came back un-fixed. Canon convinced me to send in my camera body with the lens – WHICH I HATED DOING WITH ALL MY HEART – and eventually it all came back fixed, pretty, and sparkling clean.
So … aside from a few days of anxiety and some irritating conversations with Canon’s repair department, all is well.
Partly related? Tangentially related? Anyway, somehow related if you use your imagination is that I got myself a new non-camera bag. My old and busted bag needed replacing because it was A.) old and B.) busted. Plus it was kind of a stupid messenger bag design with pockets on the main flap, which meant that every time you opened it they tried to spill their contents, even if zipped, and … yeah, enough talking about that. It sucked.
I set out to find a new non-camera bag and came across Rothco’s Classic Messenger Bag in black. If you do a Google search for that item [*] you will find that it is seriously popular because ZOMG IT IS JACK BAUER’S MESSENGER BAG, MOST MANLY OF BAGS EVAR.
I have never watched even one minute of 24 but by the time I finished price shopping across several sites and reading customer reviews I found that many men are convinced that this bag alone will allow them to kill terrorists. Me, I … um … *nervous cough* I ain’t got no terrorists to kill, but this bag does allow me to carry things to and from the office with ease.
Aaaanyway the point here is that some people said, “I even use this to carry my camera gear” and I thought that ludicrous. I have a Lowepro Slingshot 100 that has been my tiny heavy baby for a couple of years now. Okay, fine, it’s not the bag’s fault that it’s heavy, it’s the gear’s fault, but you understand. The Slingshot is like the perfect camera bag. I can’t imagine keeping my stuff in any other. But! Last night I had the strange desire to go photograph drunken tourists on Bourbon Street, something I have never done, and I didn’t wish to carry my conspicuous camera bag. I emptied out my Rothco Classic Messenger Bag (JUST LIKE JACK BAUER USES ON 24 AMIRITE) and put my camera body and two lenses inside. Turns out it did a fantastic job. I got the picture I wanted and I was comfortable during the entire excursion. The interior section was more than large enough for camera + lens, and the smaller pockets are the perfect size for additional lenses. Now don’t get me wrong – I won’t use this as my primary camera bag. All my gear is already packed back in the Slingshot. Should I ever again have a specific need for just camera + lens, though, I will consider the messenger bag.
I think that’s it.
…
Yeah, that’s it. Anything else?
How you been? How’s your camera?
…
Fine? Great.
Listen, I gotta … go … do that one thing. I’ll catch you later.