Just claiming for BlogrRize … that’s all
By 
Tris Hussey | April 8, 2008
| 3.0 |
Topics: Random Bits | No Comments »
Taking pictures is your right, but know the rules first
By Tris Hussey | March 19, 2008
As photographers we’ve all had the situation where someone has asked us why we’re taking pictures and/or asked us to stop. While taking photographs in public is a right in the US and Canada, it’s a good idea to know your rights, the rules, and a few tips.
I’ve been challenged a few times and have been able to deal with the situations with body, camera, and images intact (my media pass from an Apple event helps…it says MEDIA on it). But the question is, when do I have the right to take pictures and when don’t I? When do I have the right to but it might not be a good idea?
From Photojojo I found a great post for US folks on your rights as a photographer and a link to a post that covers the rules in Canada.
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. Take the advice here for what it is, advice. For specific legal questions or situations you should consult legal counsel.
Myself, one of the rules I follow is not to take pictures of kids unless I ask the parents first. Meaning, a specific picture of that child. Sometimes kids are in the background when I’m taking pictures in the park of my own kids and if asked I would delete pictures if a parent asked. I’m also very careful not to include extraneous youngsters in my shots though. Also, when I take a picture of someone, I generally will show them the picture and give them my card in case they’d like a copy.
From all the advice and rights I’ve read the one thing that I keep reading is to keep your cool, don’t give in, don’t give up your camera, and call the police if you need to.
But most of all, it is your right to take pictures…
| 3.0 |
Topics: Photography | 1 Comment »
Sometimes shooting in automatic isn’t so bad–but I still like aperture priority more
By Tris Hussey | March 17, 2008
When I only had a Canon point and shoot camera I stuck to Automatic and the presets for most of my pictures. Then I got into Program mode and started to play with white balance and such. With my D80, shot in auto a little bit, but pretty much started with aperture priority from the get go.
However, is shooting in auto or one of the presets a bad thing? According to Natalie Norton writing on digital photography school, shooting in automatic has a lot of benefits:
ANY friend of mine who comes to me early on in their photography “career” asking for lessons is forbidden from shooting in any mode other than AUTO for at LEAST 3-6 months. In my mind that’s enough time to get your framing style down to the point where it’s just, for lack of a better word, automatic. . . second nature. When that happens, THEN you’re ready to explore other settings. I’ve known too many photographers who are technically off the chart but can’t frame an image worth poo. Don’t fall into that trap by plugging up the artist in you by focusing too much on the technical aspect. It will come. It will. I PROMISE. Source: 4 Reasons Not to Write off Shooting in Automatic
I’ve been shooting long enough that I’m pretty good at framing (I can always improve of course), but the freedom of auto, and the other presets, does let you focus on the subject not the settings.
So on Saturday the kids and I went to a park by the ocean and I figured it was the perfect time to give this a shot (so to speak).
This was shot in automatic mode:
It’s not bad, a little washed out I think. The depth of field is a little too much for my liking, as well. It’s pretty good though. This is a shot using some of my standard aperture priority settings (f/2.5 ISO 250, -0.3 exposure, more vivid colour):
Of course I like this one better. But … I think for general practice I’m going to play with automatic and other presets so I can work on framing better pictures and capturing things that I might lose in fussing with settings.
| 3.0 |
Topics: Photography | 1 Comment »
My first pro photography gig: Official photographer for Affiliate Summit East!
By Tris Hussey | March 14, 2008
I’m so excited about this. At Affiliate Summit West in Vegas last month I took a lot of pictures (Affiliate Summit set on Flickr) so as it was wrapping up I told Missy and Shawn that I’d be happy to be their official photographer for future summits.
Well as I say "luck favours the bold"–the hired me for Affiliate Summit Boston Aug 10-12!
I’ve told a lot of you already and Kris Krug gave me one of the best compliments I could get–that my pics were certainly good enough for that gig. Wow.
I was practicing big time at SXSW (SXSWi 2008 Flickr set) and I’m pretty sure that I’m up for the challenge. I’ve been working on my workflow and technique, still needs some work though. I’m going to have to save up for an external flash, though. The D80’s built in flash is great, but I think an external flash is going to take my photography to the next level.
Wow. Who would have thought it …
P.S. Yes, I know the comments are broken here … I’m working on it.
| 3.0 |
Topics: Photography | No Comments »
My SXSWi 2008 Flickr set slide show
By Tris Hussey | March 9, 2008
From a Lifehacker post (old, but good) … I’ve found a way to put a slideshow here. Since I’m doing more conference photography (more on that later) thought folks might like to see these here:
| 3.0 |
Topics: Photography | No Comments »
Cropping your pictures for maximum effect: part 2
By Tris Hussey | February 20, 2008
Last night I wrote about cropping pictures to bring that extra something out. Tonight my best friend had me over for dinner and I took some pictures of her birthday cake.
Basic, simple stuff, right? Okay I tried my usual odd angles thing, but I didn’t spend a lot of time on composition on them.
Take a look at these two pics (Nikon D80, ISO 800, 50mm prime lens, f/2.8, shutter 1/25, aperture priority mode):
In the top photo I didn’t even notice until I loaded it on my laptop that I caught the tendrils of smoke drifting off the candles. In the second one I realized that, wow, lots of black around that cake. So went into ACDSee Pro2 and did some cropping. Here are the same two pictures cropped. Just cropped, no other editing:
This is when you have “wow” moments. I think just cropping on the details has given these shots whole new looks. I could go in closer, get the smoke and dripping wax or just a lit candle. This is what I’m finding most fun and exciting about photography now. I can take a picture, see it right away and then just see where I can go with it from there. Fast, easy and simple.
Wow. I love this hobby.
| 3.0 |
Topics: Photography | No Comments »
Learning and edit better pictures with cropping and a prime lens
By Tris Hussey | February 18, 2008
I’m not a newcomer to photography. From my first Polaroid One Step to my Kodak Disc to my first 35mm Pentax K-1000 to digital point and shoots to now my Nikon D80 DSLR I’ve used a lot of different cameras. My dad was an amateur photographer and took some great pictures too–I don’t have any of them here with me, but maybe I can get some soon–and I learned a lot from him. I think he would really love the new digital world (he had his own dark room at one time), thinking about it I wonder what kind of pictures he would take. However, I didn’t get the chance to learn everything about photography from him. I was just doing vacation shots and such when he passed away.
So while not a newbie photographer by any means, I am doing something new now–taking my photography seriously and trying to learn as much as I can on how to get better and better at it.
The Magic of Cropping
Recently I’ve been reading a few photography blogs and trying to learn a thing or three. The first thing I picked up was learning how to crop the pictures I’ve taken to make them really stand out. I got the tips and ideas from the Digital Photography School blog from a recent post on, of course, how to improve pictures with cropping. Taking these tips, here are some of the results (not nearly as stunning as the examples in the post).
First here is the uncropped original picture:
And here is the same image cropped to a 5×7 image:
Okay the differences between those are pretty subtle, but this is a better example:
vs.
I wanted to highlight the cool architecture better, cropping did the trick here.
It’s the glass baby–50mm prime f/1.8 lens
Of course photographers will tell you that it isn’t the camera but the “glass” (aka lens) that makes all the difference in your pictures. I read, and was inspired by, this article on Josh Hallett and his photography (which I love) from mediabullseye. The one thing that the article made me really crave was a 50mm prime lens. Since Josh said that they were pretty affordable (around $100, which is really affordable for a lens) I thought I’d shop around for one. This past weekend I bought one and just like the woman at Kerrisdale Cameras said, I’m addicted to it already. Why? Well this post I was sent via Twitter says it all:
I suppose my favorite thing about prime lenses is the fact that you have to use your head. Composition becomes a thinking game. You have to move your feet to get that shot you had in mind, so you really start to evaluate what’s important in the scene. Fast primes also make you think a little harder about your f-number. The DOF can be extremely shallow; sometimes too shallow to produce an effective shot. Not only that, but on bright sunny days, you actually can’t use the lens wide open without an ND filter because you’ll let in too much light and max out your shutter speed. From: 7 Reasons To Love Prime Lenses
Here are some of my favourites from my first few times playing with the lens. I’m still learning it so they aren’t as great as I’d like yet. Its ability to pull in light is just mind blowing and the clarity speaks for itself. Like Brian Auer said in the article above, you have to think when using this lens. That is something that makes this even more fun.
I keep saying I’m going to go on a photowalk with this lens, but still haven’t made it. Maybe Tuesday…
| 3.0 |
Topics: Photography | No Comments »
Moving! Update bookmarks and feeds to trishussey.com
By Tris Hussey | February 14, 2008
One of the great things about coming back to b5 is that I am able to move this blog to their servers and get onto their ad program.
With this post, larixconsulting.com is going to be retired as my official URL. Yep, I bought this domain something like five years ago when I started as a solo consultant. I struggled with the name for a long time. I haven’t really been pushing Larix Consulting for a while, so this is a good change for me.
If you have my old larixconsulting.com email addy … don’t worry it will still work (it had better cause I have a lot of things tied to it!). I prefer Gmail now (so same beginning as you have, just gmail.com as the domain), but larixconsulting.com has been on gmail for domains since I moved this blog off blogware last summer.
In a bit I’ll be transferring the DNS of larixconsulting.com to b5 and all requests for larixconsulting.com will go to trishussey.com …
Cross your fingers. I always hate DNS changes….
Oh and the blog will still be called “A View from the Isle” … good thing I switched that a long time ago!
| 3.0 |
Topics: Blogging, Larix Consulting, Random Bits | No Comments »
Shai is giving out the link love this week
By Tris Hussey | January 23, 2008
B5media VP of Community Shai Coggins (an uber cool person and budding photographer and artist) is on week two of her year-long Blog Community project. This week, link love–52 WoC #2: Give The Gift of Link Lovin’ - ShaiCoggins.com. You know linking to folks who are writing good stuff and you just want to give props to. Actually linking to other bloggers is something that I try to drill into the heads of bloggers (new and old) at b5.
Link love isn’t just linking to the source of the story, it’s also linking to the people who are discussing it and linking to them. Here’s the other part of it, if you want to build your community, link to people who are likely to link back to you. The big sites get so many links in that it’s doubtful you’ll ever get their link love. It’s us down-in-the-trenches bloggers, slogging away at this day after day. People just like you and me. Yeah if you link to me I will, generally, subscribe to you in my RSS reader. Once I’m subscribed, you’re on my radar, and that’s the first step to getting a link. Not that a link from me is all that much…
Part of the deal in Shai’s link love project is linking to the person who left the comment above you. For me that was Jen Hill of Mythbuster Beauty.
Yeah now that I’m done with the obligatory link you’d think I’m done right? You know me better than that!
I looked at Jen’s blog. Yeah makeup and beauty tips aren’t really up my alley. Okay I was given a pineapple-juice based exfoliant for men and I do use it once and a while (hmm my skin is feeling a little tight…), but that’s not what came to mind. Photography. That’s what struck me. I know nothing about makeup for photography! I doubt any woman in her right mind would let me apply makeup on them, but maybe I should read up on this a bit. I love taking pictures and if I ever want to do semi-professional stuff (like portraits) it might be good to know some tips for the ladies.
Okay … I think I’ll pass Jen’s blog onto my female friends, they will probably get more out of it anyway.
Props and links given. Job is done!
| 3.0 |
Topics: Blogging | 3 Comments »
The Frozen Pea Fund, PEAvatars and social media
By Tris Hussey | January 15, 2008
What an amazing, amazing show we just had! With Connie Reece and Susan Reynolds, you know it’s going to be interesting, but this was just amazing. Jim and I had a great hour-long chat with Connie and Susan about the Frozen Pea Fund, Susan’s battle with breast cancer and just social media for good in general.
From what I saw on the chat, since I man the switchboard, it looked super busy too! We had 148, yes one hundred forty-eight, live listeners and 11 callers! I just am floored by the response.
You can listen to the show via this widget below:
and don’t forget to check out the Frozen Pea Fund!
| 3.0 |
Topics: MediaSphere Radio, Social Media | 1 Comment »
DLSR Tips from Thomas Hawk
By Tris Hussey | January 9, 2008
I’m a pretty new DSLR user, so I try to get all the tips I can.
This movie from Mahalo Daily has some great tips for DSLR users:
One of the tips is to not fear Photoshop…well I fear it! That’s not entirely true. I’m pretty good at ‘Shop, it’s the price I fear! I also agree with Thomas Hawk that even great photographers make good pics even better with a few tweaks. Adjust the contrast, colour, brightness … you can really make detail pop. As for shooting in RAW, I do that too. Here is one of my first RAW experiments:
For most folks Adobe Lightroom is the tool of choice, but I happen to find an alternative that is just as good–maybe even better–that is not only Canadian, but based in Victoria! The folks from ACDSee were at Web Community Forum in Seattle and turned me onto their ACDSee Pro 2 software for cataloging, editing, and doing RAW processing.
I’m going to do a longer post on MapleLeaf 2.0, but since I am writing about pics and tips …
Disclosure: I was given an NFR license for ACDSee Pro 2 for review.
| 3.0 |
Topics: Photography | 1 Comment »
More evening traffic pictures
By Tris Hussey | January 9, 2008
Tonight I decided to take a few more of these long exposure time (1.5 sec) traffic pictures.
Following the advice on the Digital Photography School Post, I decided to try both using my tripod and taking the pics at sunset.
I really like how they turned out. Here is a link to the whole Twilight set.
| 3.0 |
Topics: Photography | No Comments »
Cars on Quadra Street
By Tris Hussey | January 7, 2008
I took the tips from Digital Photography School - "How to Shoot Light Trails" and gave it a "shot" tonight. Not bad I think. Though there wasn’t much traffic to speak of tonight.
| 3.0 |
Topics: Photography | No Comments »
Flickr
By Tris Hussey | January 7, 2008
This is a test post from 
, a fancy photo sharing thing.
| 3.0 |
Topics: Random Bits | No Comments »
HP MediaSmart Server-Handy, Slick, Fast Storage
By Tris Hussey | December 28, 2007
Testing the HP MediaSmart server on loan from HP, via their Canadian PR company Hill & Knowlton. Yeah when you get an e-mail asking if you’d like to test a home RAID server with backup and media serving tools-the answer is yes!
Before I get into the saga of getting this server working for me (a combination of problems between the keyboard and chair, a router, and goofy software), let me tell you about this server.
I’m testing the EX475 model which comes with two 500GB SATA drives twinned to give me a terabyte of storage (sweet!). It features automatic backups of computers on your LAN, media serving (including iTunes), and even support to serve pictures and files over the Net. It runs the new Windows Home Server software, has a kickin’ 64bit Sempron and a 512 megs of RAM (I don’t think you can add more). The full spec sheet in PDF is here via HP.
Now for the saga. Oy this was a good one. As I mentioned in my earlier post, my old Netgear g router was the root of a lot of problems on my LAN, it kept me from being able to use it right out of the box. The stupid router just didn’t like network attached devices at all. So my problems with remote configuration and scanning with the Brother MCF were caused by this too. A quick trip to a Boxing Day sale let me get a new router for $30 (d-link, btw) which has been fantastic (gee is this how a router is supposed to work?).
Setting up the server is pretty simple (assuming your router behaves), you plug it in to the power, your LAN (you pretty much need a router for this machine), and then run the set up CD on one of the network computers. The software walks you through the initial configuration of the server for back up and such. One note about the setup. Be ready to make a really complex password. It has to be at least seven characters and have numbers and something like ! (or capital letters). This had be stuck for a minute or two trying to make my password of choice acceptable to it. Luckily the configuration won’t let you continue until the password is good enough. The reason for this is a good one. This master password has the keys to the kingdom. You don’t want it cracked. HP has a cool deal with TZO.com to give you a free year of "premium" DynamicDNS hosting. This is so you can host files on the net, even if you don’t have a static IP (which is most of us really). The software automatically configured my router for dynamic DNS and serving. It was rather cool to watch. There is also a deal with Snapfish for photoprinting, but I don’t think I’ll take advantage of it. A note on external users, to get to the server remotely they will need a strong password as well, just be ready for that.
Now, I should note here that I chose to wipe the server to factory before really putting it into service. Reason being that I had configured it through another router, and I wanted to (re)start fresh. This is where the problem between keyboard and chair comes in. I was trying to use the server refresh disk, and I had done it before, to refresh the server. I just couldn’t get it to connect to the server … yeah well it was because I missed the instruction to press the recessed reset button with a paper clip. Doh! After I did that we were off and running. It takes over an hour to refresh the server, just in case you’re wondering. The same program will let you recover server data if it takes a header.
I set up the XP desktop machine as the primary machine for the server. It’s the one I don’t have remote backup for so it needed it the most (you can just keep adding machines to backup don’t worry). Set up, as I said above, was sweet. I started a manual backup and it finished within an hour or so (not a ton of data).
The real fun came getting my Vista laptop to connect to it as a secondary machine for backup. Couple notes here. First if you have accounts on your machines you need to make sure that the user accounts on the server and the machine match. So I log into my laptop as "Tris" and I had to create a LAN only account called "Tris" on the server so the machine would sync up. I had already created an account on the server that allows me to get into it remotely (again a strong password was required). This wasn’t as much of a pain as getting the connector software to work on my laptop though.
Essentially I could reach the server through basic file sharing (even drop files on it), but getting the connector software…man. After lots of futzing and running the analysis tool from Microsoft, I just tried to go to the internal webpage for the server. I was greeted with a certificate error. That, my friends, was the route of the problem (and I think MSFT is aware of this little "problem"). I accepted the certificate and all was good. Software installed just fine. Sheesh.
Lots of work (hours really) to get the second machine on. I started a manual back up of my laptop. It took much longer (much more data and I was using it too). It did error out trying to back up the Acer-protected partition and I told it to stop worrying about it (through the administrative controls).
This server lists for about $800-900 (as I have it with a terabyte of storage). Two of the four drive bays are open so I could buy more storage (like another 500GB SATA drive-any drive off the shelf they say) as needed. The question is, who would need it and is it worth the money? For the who question, well that’s pretty easy. If you have multiple computers at home (or even one with a lot of stuff), or lots of digital media (do you have any idea how huge RAW image files are from a DSLR?) getting some NAS (network attached storage) is a good idea. NAS storage is good so if you have a laptop on WiFi you can get to the files with out being attached to it physically. Given how fast my photography is filling up my drive-yeah I was going to be looking at burning stuff to DVD or something soon. With this server (if I were able to keep it after the month loan), I would be archiving a lot of stuff on it and free up more drive space.
For the cost answer, I think it’s best to look at what your needs are. I don’t know if I’d buy it, but then again I might have been looking at it seriously later in the year. RAID storage is awesome and fast. The file and media sharing, especially to the Net, is very cool. Now my kids can tap into my music collection on the main computer for their listening pleasure (not sure they share my taste in music though).
Bottom line: I think this is an awesome device. With the right router getting it set up on the primary machine should be a piece of cake. For other machines, well MSFT has some work to do on that. I know many folks would be stymied by the errors I got. It was only stubbornness (and wanting to provide a complete review here) that kept me at it. If you need more than your typical NAS device (so that is media sharing, auto backups, RAID, and external serving abilities) the Windows Home Servers like the MediaSmart are worth a look. This isn’t a cheap device by any means, but it does come with a lot of features and power for those who need it. I’ll update this post soon-I’ve shared a file remotely with a colleague so I’ll give you the low down on how that went.
| 3.0 |
Topics: Hardware, Reviews | 3 Comments »