Winter Observations

Over the winter I noticed the congregation of crows off around 405
near the Beardslee exit in Bothell. Masses of them, swarming, much
like starlings, without the elegance. As the weather has warmed up,
this feathered city has dissipated.

Trees have been in bloom for quite some time. This, too, is a delight.
Most all trees are at least in bud, the majority laden with blossoms.
A few stragglers remain. I noticed bees a few weeks back. True honey
bees. And I will not mistake a hornet for a bee.

Our weather has embraced a Spring mania. Rain, followed by sleet,
fading to hail, with some snow for good measure. Intermixed with
random bursts of sunshine. Life in the Northwest under the shadow of
the covergence zone.

The Modern Conundrum

Yesterday I received a message from Schmap, an online travel guide service asking to use one of my Flickr shots for their Seattle guide. Reading through the terms, I noticed this wasn’t compensated, but as I am not a professional, my first thought was “who cares?” Turns out there are many (see here, and here to start). They aren’t going to get filthy rich off of my one shot. However, after a bit of research, in their business model, they only use free photos. And with that comes the real question: am I contributing to the demise of the professional photographer by taking part? This sort of effort does bring up many issues with the technological age we find ourselves in. Does this put photographers out of work? Or does it just kill off the mediocre? Which is “bad”?

I’m not sure the ethics here, and have not made a choice one way or another. I’d love to hear what others thing off all this. Have any of your used Schmap before? Anything similar out there?

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Uncovering Toy Cameras and Polaroid Vintage Effects (With Photoshop Tutorials) – Smashing Magazine

Nice to see that photography still holds claim to fun. I might need to block some time for exploring this.

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Hot Tub Time Machine 80’s Contest Champ: The Situation « AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com

There is a reason that this hairstyle that has gone extinct.

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Spamming Punks

Just had to delete a bunch of comment spam from my Blogger blog. It seems they’ve found a way to override the word verification. Perhaps someone is manually posting. Anyway, I don’t read Japanese and the links looked, uh, suspicious. Wretched, infernal spammers!

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Remembrance and Resurrection

It seems fitting that we remember the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King on this day where we celebrate the resurrection of Christ, as his message is timeless and immortal.

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The Visuals Du Jour – Military Spending | The Global Sociology Blog

The Global Sociology Blog has pulled some graphics from The Guardian. Tells an interesting story about global military spending.

Posted via web from Infernally Curious

Focus

I'm something of a news junkie. Ok, to put it better, I spend way too much time on any given day following news items. Following links like some follow shiny objects. And I get way too worked up…WAY…over certain items. These are things I have no control over. In Franklin-Covey parlance, they are outside my sphere of influence. Things that I should NOT invest ANY emotional energy into. Finding a way to spend less time, more focused time is paramount. My time is becoming more constrained with each passing day, or so it seems. Certainly, I need to stop reading the comments, as, for the most part, they're inane.

Of course, the fact that no one else seems to take an interest in my, uh, interests tells me something as well. Ce va!

A gift to me


A gift to me, originally uploaded by carl.setzer.

A thank you gift for a project I helped out with last week. I’m actually quite interested in trying this.

Guard


Guard, originally uploaded by carl.setzer.

Guarding the entrance to thus week’s meeting space. Same building as
the Halo team.