Pictures I like

  For the last week I've been working with a company to design my new website. All of this is in an effort to take my photography in a new direction. I've been going through my archive and pulling more recent images to put on the website. I have to say that it's amazing that I haven't updated the site in something like four years. 

  Looking at the old site versus the new one, I have much better images to display of my photography than what's currently out there. I guess that's how it's supposed to work. As time goes on you take better pictures. 

  So as I was putting together my portrait gallery for the new site I selected some images ranging from corporate to sports. This one portrait in particular I especially liked. Not only was it one I was found of but it was one of the easiest and cheapest I've ever done. 

  It's the above portrait of USF defensive end George Selvie. I shot it during Media Day (or Portrait Day as others may call it) this past August.

  I set up two different portrait sets to shoot the top players for the Bulls. One was the bigger set with a background and three strobes with the main light being a beauty dish.

  The second was a quick, artsy set to get something different in the hopes of catching the eye of an art director/ picture editor. After setting up the first set I only had about five minutes for the artsy one as my players were coming down for their pictures at any minute. 

  The inspiration for the second set came from a job I did assisting Gary a few years ago. He was shooting a portrait using Kino Flo lights. It was a cool looking portrait and had a certain look that was different than the usual softbox portrait. 

  These lights are essentially daylight balanced fluorescent lights that portrait photographers use as well as video and film production companies. They generally cost $1000 for one light and I needed two for this setup which I couldn't justify spending $2k for a portrait. Instead I opted for the DIY approach and headed to Lowe's.

  In the lighting aisle of the home improvement store I found some fluorescent strip lights that could be plugged into a standard household outlet. Granted this is not nearly as bright as the Kino Flos but it would be possible to emulate the look for the second portrait without breaking the bank. I think the lighting for the second portraits cost me less than $15. Nice!!

  I attached the strips to light stands using a couple of superclamps and placed the two lights on either side of my subject's face. I was so rushed that I didn't even have time to gaffer tape the black background over the concrete block wall.

  I had Selvie watch his step around all the extension cords lying on the ground and asked him to put his face in between the two strip lights. It was key for me to use a tripod as I had the ISO up to 800 and had a relatively slow shutter speed.

  I grabbed about two dozen portraits of George at the second portrait set before whisking him to the main one during my five minutes with the Bulls' DE. 

  I don't know why but I'm drawn to this portrait over the other set. I think it's because it's so different of a style for me. I even like the concrete wall in the background. The image was processed slighting in the computer to enhance my vision more but it's not too different than what was captured in camera. 

  In the process of combing my images I keep finding treasures. This was just one that I wanted to share.

A Quick Word of Thanks

  I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who made Thanksgiving special over the last two days. Thursday, of course, was the big day but we also have our annual Friday party.

  Cathy and I really enjoy having all of our family over to the house on Thanksgiving. It just makes it a little easier I think for everyone, especially Benjamin. This turkey day was much different than last year. As you may remember, last year we gave thanks just for getting some sleep. 

  Cathy does a great job of delegating culinary responsibilities to our guests. We take care of the bird and stuffing along with some other fixin's but our guests help fill the table with the other traditional side items of Thanksgiving.

  We had my mom, dad & stepmother, Cathy's mom and our neighbors Lisa and Bruno show up around 1:30 in the afternoon with the intention of sitting down to eat about an hour later. This would give everyone some buffer time if they were running late. It was also to give Benjamin enough time to wear out his grandparents.

  Overall it was a nice dinner. It gave us all a chance to catch up with one another. More importantly it was a relaxing afternoon of food and conversation.

  Now Friday night is completely different. The night after Thanksgiving has turned in to the annual Livingston Leftover Party (no family allowed). We started this a few years ago and liked the idea of having friends over to help finish up the leftovers the night after Thanksgiving.

  So last night Lisa and Bruno came back over. Our friends Adam and Amy brought another friend James with their leftovers. The Leftover Party is a little more relaxed than Thanksgiving which is saying a lot. It's like having a small, intimate dinner party for friends where you don't have to cook that afternoon. Just throw it in the microwave. Voilá!

  So there you have our Thanksgiving wrap up. Thank you to all that came through our front door. You helped make our home warm (not to mention the refrigerator but we won't go there) this holiday weekend.

Expanding my Digital Library

EDITOR'S NOTE: THE FOLLOWING IS A TECH ENTRY.

  As I  blogged about a couple of months ago our Samsung DVD recorder broke and the company did not want to offer any assistance. And so we went without a DVD player. That is until this week. 

  I liked the ability to burn shows from our DVR to DVD and then rip the shows to my iTunes library for posterity. It was great that I could archive some of my favorite 90210 episodes and watch on my computer, iPod or iPhone whenever.

  So this week I went to Best Buy and purchased a new Toshiba upgradable DVD player. (As a side note: I read many reviews about the pros and cons of going Blu-Ray vs Upgrade DVD players. The conclusion with some tech writers was the DVD had more bang for the buck but Blu-Ray was better just not by much. My thought is that in two years it won't matter Hi-Def video will be all on servers and hard drives.)

  (Back to the story) So after hooking up the new DVD player to the home system I pondered whether I made the right choice by not going the DVD recorder route again. And so I started researching how I could record the shows off our DVR to iTunes. What I found out was there was a way to hook up my laptop to the Bright House cable box and pull off the saved shows.

  The only thing I had to actually purchase was the MPEG-2 component for Quicktime for $20. The other two pieces of software I needed to accomplish my goal were free off the internet.

  I used a Firewire cable to transfer the video from the cable box to my Macintosh laptop. Once the video is saved to the laptop I then use another software to convert the file to another format that iTunes can recognize and won't take up a lot of space on my iPhone. Then I can pull it into iMovie and edit out the commercials before archiving it to iTunes.

  I know that many readers are looking at this and thinking, "Man Chris has a lot of free time." Probably true but I'm just looking to the future. And in my future is apparently 90210.

  

Taking Care of the Customer

  So I have to write a quick blog about a company that actually took care of this consumer. You see in this day and age it's rare that a company goes out of it's way to make sure it's customers are happy and satisfied.

  During the MLB postseason I was wearing my iPhone on my hip utilizing the Contour Showcase's holster. The case itself is one of the best I could find when I purchased my iPhone. Contour uses acrylic for the majority of the the Showcase with the edges wrapped in rubber to help protect the cell if you drop it (which isn't out of the ordinary for me.). 

  Anyways, during the ALCS I was walking around when the case caught on something which caused the clip portion of the holster to snap. I was no longer able to put my iPhone on my hip. Not that I wore it there frequently but I liked having it as an option especially when shooting games where the ambient noise would prevent me from hearing the ringer. In those situations I would just put it on vibrate and feel it ring on my belt.

  OK so it's been a month since the incident and I had gone to the Apple store as well as other retailers to see if they sold a replacement holster but to no avail. The only option I had was to purchase a whole new Showcase and holster. I really didn't need a new case just a holster in which to put my iPhone.

  So this weekend I went to the Contour website and emailed their customer service department to explain my situation. Then this morning I received an email from Julie of Contour asking for some additional details about which model and my address. She informed me that Contour was sending me a new holster for my Showcase.

  It was so refreshing that a company was going to go out of it's way to make sure that one of it's customers was satisfied with it's product. Just for the record I asked Contour to help me find a retailer who just sold the holster and they offered to replace my broken one free of charge. I really feel that my money was well spent when I purchased the Contour Showcase. Not only is it the best case designed for the iPhone, in my opinion, but the company stands behind their product. Thank you Contour. 

What Was I Thinking?

  Well I haven't gone running since Saturday's 5K and I was feeling a bit out of shape. That was probably due to the pizza and inordinate amount of bread I had Wednesday with my tomato soup.

  So I decided to go for a longer than normal run after dropping off Benjamin at school today. I got back to the house and scarfed down a banana and four Ego waffles to build up some carbs for my long run. 

  After some stretching I plugged in my Schure earbuds in to my iPhone and headed out. I figured I should be reachable if I'm running for over an hour. The last time I went out running I lost an assignment for USA Today.

  I hit play on a couple of podcasts and headed out to the West Orange Trail. I usually would go running between 3-6.5 miles previously. On the last couple of runs I felt I was ready to extend my distance. And why not? The weather was gorgeous out there today. The temperature was around 65 degrees and hardly any humidity. 

  I quickly worked in to my pace and tried to keep it a little lower in anticipation of a longer run. I thought I would go to downtown Winter Garden before turning around which would give me a 9-mile run for the day. Not bad I thought. That was until I got to Winter Garden.

  As I approached my potential turn around point, I assessed my status. My breathing was good. My legs felt great and not showing signs of fatigue. I felt like I could maybe stretch it even further and if I over did it I'd simply pull up and walk a little bit. No biggie.

  I ran all the way to Oakland before turning around. This new point would give me a run of 13 miles or roughly half a marathon. The thought of me completing that run was inspiring. Now all I needed to do was keep a good pace.

  Honestly I was doing great with everything until mile 10. It was then that I felt some twinges in my going muscles. This then worked in to some aches in my lower back and my right calf. All the while I never felt winded which was pretty good I thought.

  I am proud to say that I completed my impromptu half marathon run in 2 hours and 10 minutes. It's odd for me to say that I ran 13 miles today. 

  Upon my return I soaked in an ice bath and took two Aleve to stave off any aches. Let's just say I don't want to know what it would've felt like if I hadn't taken those actions. My legs hurt so much right now. 

  Today was a test for me. I'm considering racing in next month's Florida Half Marathon in Clermont. I just wanted to see if I could do it. Apparently I can. Now all I need to do is to do it again. In the meantime I will maybe keep my runs to 9-11 miles for the next few weeks.

  I'm still impressed that I was able to run 13 miles. I guess it's the whole setting my mind to accomplishing that goal that's pretty cool to me. By the way, no one called me while I was running. Figures!

Seeing the World

  Well with the OK from Benjamin's pediatrician we decided to make the big purchase of a forward-facing car seat. To this point Benjamin was getting to be a handful putting him in to his car seat. He fought us like an Olympic wrestler. He would twist and turn in his infant carrier.

  So Cathy and I drove down to Babies R Us and picked up the new seat as I hoped it would in some way distract him while I buckled him in to the seat. Hey at this point if flaming baton torches could distract him enough to get him in to the seat I'd had done it.

  OK I have to give some advice to the uninitiated. NEVER TRY TO INSTALL A NEW CAR SEAT WITHOUT THAT FIRST CUP OF COFFEE! Believe me I speak from a frustrating experience. I mean whoever wrote that stupid instruction manual must not have a kid. Really!!! And the whole "let's bungee strap the booklet on the seat" is warped. Who really needs to be able to read that at arms' length anyways?"

  The end result is that Benjamin loves his new seat. In fact, he really likes to look out the front windscreen to see the action. Seeing the world as his parents see it is interesting to him. I think he just wants to be treated just like the other big people. 

  Some other observations I've made are he thinks his main source of entertainment is Daddy looking back at him in a peek-a-boo way. Also trying to find his travel buddies is probably not the safest way to operate a vehicle. And lastly I find it difficult to hand feed Benjamin in this new position. Just give him the whole container of Cheerios already.

  It's such a different world for both my son and I. I think it's such a different perspective and one that I have to get used to.

Continuing a Tradition

  Today I took Benjamin to Tampa for lunch with my Dad and stepmother. The bigger news was we were taking him to have his first hot dog at Mel's. For those who don't know Mel's is an institution in Tampa. They serve some of the best Chicago-style hot dogs around.

  My dad and I used to go there when I was a kid. Usually it was Friday nights when I was spending the weekend at his house. I look back on those dinners as some of the best times with my dad. We would have those father-son talks over a couple of Mel's Special Dog baskets.

  Mel's was also a favorite place to go with my grandmother. Granny loved to go up to Busch Blvd. and have a dog with me any time we had the opportunity. She loved to go for lunch and suffer the wisecracks from no other Mel himself. He always would put a smile on Granny's face.

  Back to the lunch at hand. We got to the dog stand right before the lunch rush. My dad and Sylvia had already gotten the order at the table when Benjamin and I walked through the door.

  Dad had the high chair setup for his grandson along with a kid's basket as well as a Special Basket ATW (All The Way) for me. I got Benjamin set up with his high chair cover and Sylvia started cutting up the hot dog and French fries for him.

  Let me tell you this kid can eat some Mel's. He gobbled up some of the dog, chewed on the fries and scarfed down the bun. Then top all that off with some juice and I had a great diaper change this afternoon.

  Overall it was a great lunch. I think I got more of a kick out of taking my son to Mel's than my dad treating his son and grandson to lunch. I look forward to taking Benjamin when he's older to have the some of the same dinner conversations that my dad and I had.