Cost of Oil

Oil changes used to cost $29.95

In the BP devastated Gulf of Mexico, the changes oil is going to cause will cost in the billions of dollars...

Mike

Can't shoot anyone for time being

 'Scuse me while I kiss the sky, 2010

Last Saturday I was starting to shoot someone when I got the dreaded  error99 on my Canon. First frame I shot. I thought it was a fluke. Then the second, third, etc... This was after a drive and after climbing onto the roof of a building via a step ladder too - not a fan of heights.

Now, while this can mean many things for a Canon, it is often related to the electronics and there are several physical cleaning the contacts sort of remedies you can try to resolve it. Also removing batteries, lens, flash, battery grip, CF card and so on, let any residual charge dissipate and try again with fresh battery, formatted CF card and so on.

I received several helpful suggestions from folks I know, and aside from trying to upgrade the firmware - which I have not done yet, nothing has worked.

I called Henry's on Fanshawe around lunch on Tuesday and spoke to Peter. Apparently their records are not readily available going back to March of 2008 when it was last in for repairs. I know it has to go in for repairs - which I can't afford if it costs anything at all, but I wanted to find out if the three strikes rule was still applicable. It was explained to me last time it was fixed that Canon has a policy that if a camera body has to go in for repair three times, the third time they won't repair it, they will just give you a new body. And if the one you are replacing isn't in stock or available, it would be the next logical equivalent body. Sadly, not likely a 1ds MkIII :)

He took my information and said he would call back. I held my breath.

I got a call back from Henry's about 20-30mins later. Peter said they were able to pull my paperwork from the original sale June 22nd, 2007, and the repairs in November '07 and Feb/March '08. He quizzed me as to what troubleshooting I had done etc. He then said that he had checked and the three repairs rule for Canons still applied. And most importantly that, as I had got the extended warranty at the time I purchased it, I was still covered...

Upgrade path from my trusty - for the past two years - XTi will likely be the XSi or the 450d.  They didn't have one in the store, but would order one in and call me when it was available. That is a load off.  Of course that means, different batteries, different memory - SD instead of CF, different battery grip - the BG-E5...   If anyone wants to share some love, I could use a Henry's gift card. :)

No estimate as to when I will have this camera in hand, but until then I can't shoot anyone. And first on my list when I do get it is my friend Corey who is moving away soon and I have promised to shoot her one last time before she goes.

Mike

From operational vehicle to museum piece in one swoop

Image Credit: NASA

Less than an hour ago, the space shuttle Atlantis touched down at the shuttle landing facility at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Today she went from an operational vehicle with 32 missions to orbit, over 120million miles traveled, and 25 years in service, to a museum piece in one high speed swoop.

I selected the image above, from NASA here, as I felt that Atlantis's empty cargo bay - seen here docked to the space station near the end of the just completed STS 132 mission, represents the near future of human space flight with the end of the shuttle program and the cancellation of Orion/Constellation. Lots of things could be added to it, but currently it stands empty.

Mike

Dark clouds

Light after the Dark #1

There were some quick moving black clouds around 6pm today going from West to East. After they passed, I noticed that the sun had come back out and provided some great lighting with a dark backdrop of receding clouds. I set my book aside and went out to quickly shoot a few pics out of town. I figure I had about 20 mins of good light in all. I kept chasing the heavy cloud line to keep the backdrop as distinct as possible while trying to match it up with something that could be lit up in the setting sun.  In a shot period of time it was  all over and the light became less distinct. Was cool while it lasted though.

Old St Thomas Church

Church in the Afternoon, 2010

St Thomas Anglican church, built 1822-1824, in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada. Photographed in late afternoon May 16, 2010.

The church was founded on land donated by Captain Daniel Rapelje, the founder of St. Thomas. It is considered to be an early example of North American pioneer architecture. The church was completed in 1824 and the tower was added in 1825 with the aid of Col. Thomas Talbot.

The first incumbent, the Rev. Alexander Mackintosh, served from 1824 to 1829, was also the village’s schoolmaster. The congregation began with only 12 parishioners in 1825 but quickly grew to 41 by 1827. In 1833 the church was consecrated.

By 1840, the church was enlarged. In 1877 the church congregation moved to the Trinity Anglican church in St. Thomas were it gathers still today.

By 1982 the church site was made an Ontario heritage site and in 1986 the church was restored and renovated.

The church is surrounded by a pioneer cemetery with many notable grave sites both nationally recognized and locally significant. The oldest grave site is that of Daniel Rapelje’s son George in 1819; the newest are modern. Nationally significant sites include that of Judge Hugh Richardson, who in 1885 sentenced Louis Reil to death.

Locally significant folklore tells of the story of the witch’s grave, the Irish family curse of the Crisholm family where 7 family members died within 7 years, and that of Canadian soldier Octavius Wallace, who fought in the American Civil War as a corporal of the 24th Regiment, Michigan Volunteers, and died at the Battle of Williamsburg in 1862.


Info via Wikipedia. - with some minor grammatical tweaks.


Mike

Closed Warehouse

Three Eighty One, 2010

Part two of my walkabout with the PnS from Saturday. Outside of a closed up and for sale warehouse. Not rundown or anything. Just there.

Battered Yellow drum, 2010

Driver Door, 2010

Fourteen Thirteen, #1, 2010

Backing in and pulling out, 2010

Signs between loading the loading docks of the warehouse. The mirrored signs were a clever and, after a moment, an obvious idea. Good advice for lots of situations too.


Mike

I beams and Sharpies

After a great nap with the windows open and cool fresh air coming in that made me think I was camping, I went for a walk around and shot some stuff. These four were done in some in Sharpie markers on some I beams I found.

Mike

Reckless Behaviour

About a month ago, one of my contacts had done some shots for a local music production promotion group here in London. Part of the deal was that she would get credit on their website for the image or images she shot.

Well a month went by and that still hadn't happened. My friend indicated she had tried to contact someone at the company on more than one occasion and got no where. So out of frustration, she posted on her Facebook wall what happened.  I felt it served as a good FYI to other photographers who might be interested in doing work for these promoters at shows or for the bands they promote, whose work might  in turn go uncredited.

The wall post turned into a bit of a public pissing contest between the creator/founder/head promoter at the company - and the photographer. I have removed all names and references to everyone.

He said in part and edited for brevity:

Heres your credit.(URL Link) Thank you for your patience and professionalism (cough). Our photo department hasn't even begun to regulate. The deal was always to credit your album once it was put up as well as to offer additional promotion because we are firm believers in advocating for artists everywhere and the whole scene in general. (edit)... When last you contacted me, and quite unprofessionally I might add, I sent you to the manager of the photography departments contact. I have heard nothing since and am now being flamed on facebook for the world to see. Well for shame miss (photographer name). Bad form.

To which I quoted him and said he was the one being unprofessional for the condescending Miss (name) comment, and that if he did have content she provided on his site in any manner for a month and the agreement was that she would be credited for it, then it should have been credited at the time it was uploaded.

His response further down the wall to me was:

To mike:

That however was not the agreement and I find face book ranting to be a low form. Very insecure stuff. No deals were broken and no wrong was done. Simple miscommunications should be resolved civilly between parties involved.

For shame to you too that your so involved in something that has so little to do with you.

As I couldn't let it go:

@Promoter: I stick up for my friends. That is never anything shameful. Nor would I ever apologize for.

Simple communications does work when it goes both ways. Which didn't seem to be the case up to this point. I guess you entering into 'insecure' Facebook ranting drops you to her level from your perspective. Posting on a wall is no different than making a blog post or tweeting about something if you feel you have been slighted and have not received a response back.

And her posting this finally did garner someone's attention so in the end it worked.

There were well over 35+ comments back and forth in this thread over a few hours.

At one point he concurrently posted on his Facebook group page a status:

PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE CRAZY PHOTOGRAPHER WHO JUMPED THE GUN. HER WORK WAS ALWAYS GOING TO BE FULLY CREDITED BUT AS OUR FOLLOWERS KNOW OUR PHOTOGRAPHY GALLERY HAS YET TO LAUNCH.

The founder of a "company" publicly calling someone who contributed to his page "crazy" is a touch immature. Despite his previously indicating Facebook rants were low and communicating with civility being the best course, he took a detour from his advice. His 22 year old self began to show through after I pointed out that caps locked rant on the photographer's Facebook thread. He said on her wall in reply to me:

You sir can suck an egg. this girl posts a link to my fan page blasting me. Im ensuring any one that clicks it will see my side of the story. And for not knowing me, or who i am, or what i am capable of you talk a lot of shit.

Watch your lips Mike wood. Your comments are not smart or good for your health

I can't recall ever being threatened in such a stupid and public way. Screenshots were accordingly taken. (emphasis in the quote added by myself). I emailed him asking if he had really done that and he failed to respond by the time I posted this on my blog.

It's all a shame really. Unless they are all smoke and mirrors, the group seems to have the right idea in promoting local music and talent. Quite coincidentally, I had made a contact within his group recently and would have enjoyed shooting some work for them down the road. As it is, I let the person I know that I was removing her as a contact due to her boss's stupidity. Not the delay in the crediting of the photographer's work, which honestly can happen, but rather the blatant immaturity and lack of professionalism he showed in his responses and his threatening me. The photographer for sure had her moments too in the back and forth, but he certainly crossed the line. I want nothing to do with people threatening me.

Two things to take away from this. OK. Maybe three.

First for the photographer: if you are going to work with someone, get it in writing. With specifics such as "Credit will be given in this format (specify under each photo on the page, in a specific location, etc.) when content is posted on your site, or re used in any media." If the client doesn't respond to email (use escalating wording in follow-on emails each referencing the last one and maintaining professionalism),  Or contact them on the phone. IF a sufficient amount of time has gone by, and that is really up to you to judge what that is, then follow through with a post on their wall or fan page etc. Make it anonymous if you like. They will get it.

For the person who is hiring the photographer or other talent: Don't be surprised if someone links to your site/fan page and isn't happy about some aspect about your work or your relationship. Or is happy. It works both ways. For good or ill, photographers, bands and people you hire will talk about you, it's expected.  Social media is built for that. Formally traditional resources such as the Better Business Bureau for complaints have long been superseded by the effectiveness of Twitter, Facebook fan groups, blogs and the like. They work just too well too for creating buzz when it's done right.  Not liking some heat directed towards you and (contrary to what you wrote on her wall about our seeing your side of it) making your music promotion group on Facebook all of a sudden private/invite only will only make people think you do have something to hide. And it will not drive any traffic to you.

For both parties: Don't get into a pissing contest. Flame war. Whatever. It lowers both of you. It was old school when there were just BBS's and newsgroups. Certainly don't go threatening people in public forums. Or in private.

One last thing. And this doesn't just apply to this context: unless you are an MMA fighter like George “Rush” St. Pierre, it undermines your seriousness as an individual or a business person when you mix your proper name and your company name as your Facebook name. John (company name) Doe - as the promoter calls himself, illustrates this quite well.

Dimitry Martin said it best in a skit on his show:

"Easy way to make someone sound less powerful, just put DJ in front of their name..... DJ Abraham Lincoln"

Mike

Elevators in the sky

Elevators, Inglis Manitoba, 2007

I was watching a program on public television on Saturday night (after Dr. Who). It was a National Film Board documentary on  the removal of grain elevators from the prairies called Death of a Skyline. It mentioned that there were over 6000 elevators in North America about 60 years ago. Now there are perhaps a few hundred left. they followed one guy who was removing huge valuable pieces of lumber from them as they were being demolished to be later reworked into other things. One couple was driving North America photographing them. Another group in Alberta was trying to save theirs. There was footage of several being knocked down.

We seem to be hell bent on knocking everything down. Most recently around here, barns, farm houses and the like being razed for science and technology industrial parks or cookie cutter treeless subdivision on the outskirts of the city and elsewhere. There just isnt any sense of history in most people. If it's old, let it rot and knock it down.

I shot this series of grain elevators in Inglis, Manitoba in May 2007 and was looking at them after watching the program. I had slept in my old trusty CRV in the parking lot of the Husky truck stop in Brandon for about four hours. While it was still dark, I hit a Tim Horton's across the road and headed the 200km to Inglis to shoot them.

I got there around 645am, and checked the different perspectives and compositions while fending off the mosquitoes as I waited for the sun that never came. I remember it being heavily overcast that morning, and this angle facing South West might have had a different vibe had there been a sunrise, but it was cloudy the entire day. But I'm glad I visited Inglis and shot the buildings. It's pretty random for a city boy who never saw a single grain elevator growing up, but I really feel connected to some of the places I have visited as I criss crossed the country in the past decade.

The Inglis elevators are one of only two sets of surviving rail side elevator rows in Canada. While the town around them may eventually disappear, they are now designated and protected as a National Historic Site of Canada.

Mike