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Yeah…once again, a turtle is the winner. Steven Johnson takes a look at creativity and the concept of the “slow hunch.”
Check it out.
…my former life, that is. And the lives of generations past. My husband and youngest daughter and I were out in the workshop today going thru boxes. Very dusty boxes…full of china, photos, negatives, letters…some had already fallen to the tiny teeth of mice and rats, but most was intact.
I found a letter from a Catholic priest to his counterpart in Lima, Peru…a letter of introduction for a young Australian woman with three children who was traveling to meet her American husband. That was my mother…and through one of those twists of fate we ended up in San Francisco, USA due to a medical emergency that required expert care for my father not available in South America.
And then there are the press passes and photos. I thought there were only one or two shots ever taken of me with camera…but more are showing up. It’s kind of exciting…and morbid also. Some toe tags from a multiple fatality accident I think in the 1990s down near Fresno on I-5. All I can remember is that at least nine/maybe more were killed. I wasn’t with the first crews on scene, but did the follow up over the next few days. One of the few times I picked up something from a scene…there were dozens of toe tags blowing around in the wind.
A pass from one of Vice President Dan Quale’s visits to the state. Me at a ball game at Candlestick (very out of focus). Lying down taking a snooze with a CP16 on the grass on a summer day in Sacramento.
Oh…and that photo above? Kindergarten. Montezuma School. Stockton, California. 1955
“A little learning is a dangerous thing;
drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
and drinking largely sobers us again.”
~ Alexander Pope
~ Essay on Criticism/1709
The process of choosing cameras is simple if you don’t know anything. Just grab something bright and shiny in your price range. Oooooo…I’ll take that red camera!
Problems arise when you have a little knowledge. That’s when it can get confusing.
As part of the process of choosing a new camera, I’m checking the technology down to the last component. Right now taking a look at the technical aspects of CMOS v. CCD. And – unfortunately – reading some very raw arguments about which creates a superior image.
First let’s define what I’m talking about. Bot CMOS and CCDs are the light sensitive chips inside today’s video cameras. They are to the camera what your retina is to your eyeball. They translate the patterns of light and dark into digits.
CCDs were initially the more common of the two – invented in the 1969. CCD stands for “charge-coupled device.” Basically it is a chip that reacts to, or is charged by, light.
CMOS is a complimentary metal-oxide semiconductor – preceding the CCD by six years.
For a more information on the two, check out this VideoMaker article. There’s also a more technical article at the Dalsa website. Plus, check out this, written more from a camera user’s view.
My interest is primarily image quality and low light ability in a camera costing in the $2,700-$3,000 range. A non-tape camera shooting to SD cards, must have good manual controls and XLR mike inputs.
Why SD cards? I want a camera whose media is readily available…that can be handed off to the client or ingested into a computer by plugging in a card reader.
I want to control my images…not deal with a camera that flickers with changing lights and scenery or grabs sound when I want quiet. So manual iris, audio, and focus please.
And since I already have the pro XLR mikes, why change and step back to mini-jack?
So, here’s what I’ve learned:
Energy use – CMOS uses less power/CCD uses more power (something to consider is battery life when out on a job)
Low light – seems like a toss-up. Initially CCD was better, but CMOS is catching up.
Image quality – this is the one I’m stuck on. What we really need is a Consumer Reports website that does direct comparisons scientifically on cameras and other gear. Right now it is a jungle out there, with everyone having an opinion, generally supporting THEIR camera. Why? Because it’s the one they paid the big bucks for.
As co-author Larry Nance pointed out, though – all of the Professional (big P) cameras use CCDs because they are better. Well, they’re also, in the case of pro cameras, bigger too.
Thank goodness I can’t afford a camera for a few more months…plenty of time to conclude the research.
…in today’s Stockton Record.
For months the jobs listings have been lacking…lagging. Nonexistent.
But today we have not one, not two or three, but SIX columns with employment offers. A small sign…but I take blessing small and large.
…the world of digital still photography.
Got called back to teach as a stand-in for a former fellow teacher out on maternity leave. The class: P-H-O-T-O-G-R-A-P-H-Y.
Aka painting with light.
Wow…talk about reliving the past. The class has me riding the Way-Back Machine to the sixties and early seventies as I began my journey as a visual storyteller, learning how to shoot and process film.
This can only get better.
Last week I jump-started the classes on color. Let’s harken back to kindergarten and remember what it was like squishing those bright finger paints between our chubby little fingers, making the blue run into yellow to make green, red into yellow to make orange and everything together to make a muddy black.
Lesson number one. Primary, secondary and tertiary colors. Black and white tones. Tints. Shades.
Lesson number two. Colors evoke emotions – the language of the many moods of color.
And this week…composition.
Ahhhhhh. The basics.
All of this, of course, is part of video. But it is a part I touch on briefly due to the many other essentials I need to cram into my students’ heads. For once it is fun to wallow in the simpler times and take the time to teach it right.
I only wish that photography were a pre-requisite for broadcasting.
The following is a cut and paste from the wordpress wizards. Interesting read. Enjoy the New Year and focus on what is important to you. Peace. Cyndy
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.
Crunchy numbers
About 3 million people visit the Taj Mahal every year. This blog was viewed about 25,000 times in 2010. If it were the Taj Mahal, it would take about 3 days for that many people to see it.
In 2010, there were 128 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 479 posts. There were 201 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 224mb. That’s about 4 pictures per week.
The busiest day of the year was April 19th with 184 views. The most popular post that day was Relay for life….
Where did they come from?
The top referring sites in 2010 were b-roll.net, facebook.com, mindymcadams.com, Google Reader, and amandaemily.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for relay for life, video journalism, “cyndy green”, news terms, and albino squirrel.
Attractions in 2010
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
1
Relay for life… June 2008
1 comment
2
Basic shots assignment February 2007
7 comments
3
Snowflake the albino squirrel, continued… July 2008
4
News terms defined January 2007
3 comments
5
About December 2006
7 comments
…for making the complex simple. Video codecs and more explained in simple terms at this site.
(Sometimes someone else can say in a few words what I might take a posting or two to muddle through.)
Meet Gannon. 
Today (January 1, 2011)is very a very special day for this little pup. Today he goes off to school. Ya see (oops, first bad pun of the year), Gannon is a Guide Dogs for the Blind pup in training.
He came into our family in October of ’09 – and then we very nearly lost him when he managed to escape from our back porch into a dangerous wild world. 
Now had he meet a Good Samaritan, this would have been barely a bump in his little doggie life. In truth, he seems to have been scooped up by a doggie-napper.
We searched and (thank you Media Gods) managed to actually get TV and newspaper stories generated (thanks to the Guide Dog Center)…and had the whole region out looking for little lost Gannon. Guide Dog raisers turned out for an all-out farm to farm search on foot and by ATV.
And then (a week later) – the call. The Guide Dog Center relayed a call that a pup matching Gannon’s description had been found and was with a family about an hour away, up in the foothills. He even apparently had a tatoo in his ear (as all Guide Dog critters do).
My daughter and I grabbed our doggie bag and made a quick stop at the bank for some thank you notes and sped up the hills. Slowed only by the type of wreck that would have made a great lead story, we hit some back roads and pulled into a remote rural homestead.
Two figures emerged – male and female. Greetings ensued and a hesitant pup was let out. A tiny black lab, sans collar. Lexi ran, grabbed, and turned over the ear to inspect the tatoo.
Yep. Gannon.
We gratefully pressed the thank-you notes into the woman’s hands and drove home.
That was the public story. And now…for the rest of the story.
A week or so later we get another call from the GD Center. Apparently our “Good Samaritan” was complaining. His story: he knew where we lived, he claimed he found the dog right in front of our house…and more. Oh, and he wasn’t happy with the GD reward and neither my daughter nor I had given them any kind of thank you reward.
Ummmm….
It kinda went downhill from there, with the GD Center attempting to protect Gannon and us from the growing pile of lies and attempts at extortion by Gannon’s “savior.”
Then our questions started. Gannon was found without his Guide Dog collar – which was a snug fit and had the GD phone number on a brass plate. There is virtually no way he could have wiggled out of it. The couple claimed they had no idea that the puppy was a lost dog – that others told them about the story. (So how did they know he belonged to us and he was in front of our house – when a neighbor about a half mile away saw him the day after he disappeared AND a car was reported picking him up just a few minutes later in that area?).
Oh – and once they found out about the reward they complained it wasn’t enough. Yeah…right.
So that is the back-story…and this is the end of Gannon’s time in our lives. He recovered more quickly from the incident than we did, and became a favorite at my high school, where he was issued his own student body card and joined the choir and became their number one fan. He also worked hard at inspiring students to focus in class and calmed those who needed a furry hug.
Last night he had his own doggie good-bye party and appropriately came in first in a game of “lead the blind” where the dog handler is blindfolded and carries a spoon with a doggied treat on it…and dogs vie with each other to lead their handler to the finish line first.
In a few hours we load up the car and go for a last drive and leave Gannon to his new life. 
It’s tough – but we’ve gone through this twice before. The goal – as it is with our own children – is to raise them, teach them right from wrong, protect them, and point them towards a life full of learning and independence. We have two daughters (and two Guide Dog puppies) out the door already. Dog #3 is beating daughter #3, who loved and raised him, out the door. Their lives may cross again…and they may have a moment of recognition, some memories of their time together, and then they will move on…each into their own future.
Yeah (sniff).
Time to move on…
Well, Mr. Gannon is happily ensconced at the San Rafael Guide Dog Center…but the bad news came just yesterday. There has been a Parvo outbreak at the Center and they have already lost several puppies. It is a very traumatic time right now…Gannon is safe and in an area unaffected by the deadly canine disease. Our heart goes out to the puppies exposed and suffering through the symptoms. Keep man’s best friend in mind over the next few days…
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