April 24, 2007

Lantern Bearing

Lantern Bearing

• HTML gallery
  
• Interactive slideshow (flash)
  

In the eleven years I've worked at SBC, I've never witnessed a Lantern Bearing but have always been fascinated with the concept. From a photography standpoint, I've always had a weakness for low-light shots involving flames or other interesting lighting (Williamsburg Blacksmith - Paris, France - Canal du Briare, France). Lantern Bearing didn't disappoint in this regard...

Low-light photography is challenging enough. It gets even more challenging, though, when need to assemble six-shot, 360-degree panoramas involving people. Fortunately, the juniors here were wonderfully willing to oblige and patiently put up with my odd request to stand very still while I walk in a circle pressing a button on the end of cord. :)

Links to 48 images from last night can be found in the drop-down box above. I think the slideshow works especially well for this. Click on the images below to see two 360-degree panoramas from last night. You will need Quicktime to view these (Mac users are set already and Windows users who have installed iTunes should already have what they need as well).

For those not familiar with VR Panoramas, just hold down your mouse button on the image once it appears and drag around. Be sure to look up and down as well.

Enjoy!
- Aaron

March 9, 2007

In the month since...

A lot has happened since my little flurry of posts from San Francisco and MacWorld 2007. I stopped writing from there about halfway through the trip mostly due to having come down with a friggin' cold. I spent Wednesday evening and much of the day Thursday that week holed up in my hotel room, conserving energy so I wouldn't miss the podcasting party at Jillian's (a bar in Sony's Metreon). I'm glad I did since I had a chance to chat some more, however briefly, with Leo, John Foster, Alex Lindsay, Merlin and Scott Bourne. Inspiring guys...

Unfortunately, the time between MacWorld and today has had a few small joys and one tremendous tragedy.

My Grandfather died last October. While not sudden, it was nonetheless a deeply saddening experience. A few weeks ago on January 28th, almost three months to the day we buried him, my Grandmother also died. Her death, by contrast, was quite sudden and unexpected and involved a whirlwind 48-hour escalation from discomfort to emergency surgery to, ultimately, passing away in a virtual coma. None of us were in the least prepared, especially in the wake of my Grandfather's recent death.

I wrote a tribute to my grandfather on here the day that he died. By contrast, I've been silent here from just prior to my grandmother's death through the few weeks since. My grandmother was an incredible and unique woman who easily had as much influence on my life as my grandfather. The sudden and unfair nature of her death, however, leaves me grieving not just for her, but for the combined loss of them both as grandparents. It's not two deaths in three months but, in a way, three.

The two weeks of dawning realization prior to my grandfather's death had a lot to do with being in the proper frame of mind to write what I did on the day that he died. I'm just not there yet with writing about my grandmother. In time...

Whatever my reasons for periods of silence on here, I need to get my ass in gear to post more frequently. Part of why I switched to a blog format from my previous static pages was to overcome the "effort barrier" that often killed spontaneity. I now have little excuse outside of a lack of discipline.

Outside of the personal events mentioned, I've got a somewhat blog-worthy backlog that I'm now setting out to tackle...

January 6, 2007

Off to MacWorld San Francisco!

This is just a quick note that I am off to MacWorld 2007 in San Francisco in about... nine hours. Yikes! Gotta go finish packing.

I'll try to post regularly here during the week, so keep your fingers crossed that Apple is geared up to meet or exceed the Internet hype-machine! ;)

- Aaron

A startling place to see my work...

In 2004, I did a lot of photography for the Democratic Party of Virginia related to the election. One of the highlights for me was being the state party's photographer at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. Among the 12,000 photos I took that week were a few of Vice Presidential candidate and Senator John Edwards, in particular this one, this one, and this one.

A few weeks after returning from Boston, I again photographed Sen. Edwards for the party at one of his stops in Roanoke, Va.

The configuration wasn't as conducive for getting good shots that day, but I had an opportunity to meet Senator Edwards backstage after the rally. I came prepared with a set of 13"x19" prints of the three photos I mentioned above in hopes that I might give him copies and get a personal set autographed as a keepsake.

His staff gathered around me in the hallway looking at those and other shots I had from Boston and I had a nice chance to talk with his personal campaign photographer. One of Senator Edwards' aids held onto his copies of the prints for him and I took home the copies he had personalized for me ("To Aaron - Sen. John Edwards") in silver ink.

I always wondered whether the prints I had given him ever made it to his home or office through all of the chaos of a national campaign. The other night, though, I got a call from my parents that answered the question in a most unexpected way.

Mom and Dad are fans of CBS Sunday Morning stemming back to the Charles Kuralt days and they record it on their Tivo since they are usually too busy during the live broadcast to watch it. They called me on the phone to say that they had just seen my photos on national TV. They were matted, framed and hanging on Sen. Edwards' walls in his home and were clearly visible in the CBS interview. In fact, the cameraman used one of them as the focal point for a dissolving transition.

Needless to say, I am both pleased and flattered to have confirmation that the twins of the autographed photos I matted and framed for my walls are also hanging on his. :)

The full interview can be viewed online here at the CBS website. I also have the specific excerpt here (Mac users need the free Flip4Mac Quicktime plug-in).

October 24, 2006

My Grandfather: March 20, 1911 - October 24, 2006

Dr. Henry R. Mahler, Jr., died peacefully today in the loving company of his wife, two sons, one daughter, two daughters-in-law, one granddaughter-in-law, three fellow ministers and his grandson... me.

This was the day of ultimate peace for him on a calendar that spanned ninety-five extraordinary years, and for that I am both happy and proud. At the moment, though... and especially as I select photographs and write this entry... it's truly the saddest day of my life.

Happy grandparents with a happy grandson on my first Christmas

My thoughts are still scattered, I'm exhausted and, quite honestly, I keep stopping to cry as I edit photos and write this entry. I don't have the clarity or energy right now to write anything extensive or especially eloquent. It will take time for all the memories that are percolating in my mind to sort themselves and come out in any meaningful way.

In the meantime, what I have are some photos I've selected.

Five years ago on his 90th birthday. The oldest of four brothers, he outlived them all.

These are extraordinary photographs.

Not because of their composition.

At a family birthday party in 2003

Not due to some great artistic insight.

My father and grandfather on Christmas Day in 2004

Not from megapixels or their passage through Photoshop.

In his chair in my grandparents' apartment in 2003

They are extraordinary because of the man in them. My grandfather.

Laughing with my grandmother in 2003

They are also extraordinary because of the context in which they were taken. Every single one of these photos was taken of a man surrounded by the family he loved and that loved him so dearly.

At another family birthday celebration in 2005

The same family - to a person - that was gathered around him today when he died.

My grandfather was an author and a poet and, had he grown up in a digital world, he would have taken to blogging like a fish in water. He vaguely understood the concept from conversations we had and never ceased to amuse me by calling it "the blodge". I always knew what he meant. :) He did, however, pitch his typewriter and buy his first word processor in his 80's. He was the most prolific reader I've ever known and, when his eyesight became too poor for the constant reading that kept his mind so active, he became a voracious audiobook listener. He listened to them on an iPod Nano... at the age of 95.

The most prolific reader I've ever known. Anytime. Any place.

I could never list all of the wonderful things he brought to my life or the countless ways he has influenced who I have become as I've grown up.

There is one thing in particular, though, for which I will be eternally grateful and that I know gave him tremendous joy. It's in this photograph:

As the minister who married us on our front porch, in the company of family and friends, at the age of 92

I love him and I will miss him dearly.

October 22, 2006

New VR Panos and Related News

Brian Greenstone of Pangea Software dropped me a note just a bit ago saying that he'd just finished making the first Universal Binary of his PangeaVR plug-in. I've been eagerly awaiting this since I've not been able to use it effectively on my Intel-based MacBook Pro.

PangeaVR is a panoramic VR viewer for QTVR files, but it utilizes OpenGL and the GPU in your graphics hardware to make the movement liquid-smooth compared to the native performance of QuickTime Player. Like I said, it's free and it's a quick and painless install for both PowerPC or Intel-based Macs, so go download it here.

The timing is also good because I've just completed two new VRs recently:

View with QuickTime or Fullscreen PangeaVR

I took this in our yard yesterday to capture the fall colors. Be sure to look straight up through the canopy in front of my favorite, five-trunked tree.

View with QuickTime or Fullscreen PangeaVR

This was the tent for Sweet Briar's huge celebration gala during this year's Homecoming weekend. A gallery of photos I took during the weekend festivities can be found here.

More VR's to come...

April 12, 2006

Another step closer...

And yet another step closer to ending the Internet as we know it:

Telecom reform moves forward - House panel OKs measure favored by phone companies

Enjoy it while you can.

March 23, 2006

FCC Complicity in the Corporate Murder of the Internet

As predicted, the FCC is lining itself up to favor corporate interests over the greater success of the Internet and the protection of consumers:

FCC Chief: AT&T Can Limit Net Bandwidth

No shock, I guess. The goal of this administration has always been to maximize profits of corporate interests. Who cares if it's short-sighted? The desire is to pocket as much as possible before the entire system collapses...

This is the next step in what I wrote about a couple of weeks ago.

So get ready to pay your ISP for service while Google and others pay for their service and then pay yet again to be allowed passage across an increasingly segmented and tiered Internet. Oh, and don't forget that those sites that can't pay up just won't even get a shot... thus ending much of the great revolution that was once the Internet as we know it.

Call me reactionary or fatalistic... but this is how it starts, folks (much like the Patriot Act and your ever-eroding civil rights).

UPDATE: Everybody is piling on the topic: dvorak.org/blog, Slashdot and Digg.

March 9, 2006

The Greatest Thing EVER!

After all the incredible excitement and hype, Microsoft has finally unveiled what they promise to be the coolest thing ever for mobile computing.

Unfortunately, it turns out to be this:

Microsoft Origami UMPC

Wow. An over-large, limited-battery-life, not-sure-if-you-can-make-calls-on-it, not especially sexy handheld (plural, not singular) PC running Windows XP.

Put Linux on it and it might be mildly interesting in the right circumstances. Can't put it in my pocket... big enough that I might as well carry my far more powerful Mac laptop...

They sure are tone deaf at M$.

- Aaron

UPDATE: Heh... seems Waldo feels about the same. :)

March 7, 2006

The Ongoing Corporate Murder of the Internet

The stories cropping up everyone regarding lobbying efforts by telecom companies to start chopping up, tiering and otherwise murdering the smooth flow of information across the Internet have started to worry me more than just about any other technical issue of late. Typically, this whole situation is yet another example of corporate interests and their political partners working to maximize profits while limiting the choices of the consumer. From successful attempts to obliterate municipal wireless networks to decreasing regulation touching off more and more megamergers in the telecom and media world, we're likely to see the Internet we use today turn into another "gold", "silver" and "platinum", tiered, packaged and overpriced pile of crap not unlike satellite TV and cell phone service.

That might sound a little fatalistic or overblown... but look at the warning signs. Of the various articles I've read scattered about the web, this story on DailyKOS is a good starting place to get a taste of the political and corporate mix that is taking us down this road:

According to white papers now being circulated in the cable, telephone and telecommunications industries, those with the deepest pockets -- corporations, special-interest groups and major advertisers -- would get preferred treatment. Content from these providers would have first priority on our computer and television screens, while information seen as undesirable, such as peer-to-peer communications, could be relegated to a slow lane or simply shut out.

Under the plans they are considering, all of us -- from content providers to individual users -- would pay more to surf online, stream videos or even send e-mail. Industry planners are mulling new subscription plans that would further limit the online experience, establishing "platinum," "gold" and "silver" levels of Internet access that would set limits on the number of downloads, media streams or even e-mail messages that could be sent or received.

Give it a read...

February 24, 2006

Blog Cross-pollination

I've spent time over the last few nights focusing on the migration of my old MAME website to a new MAME blog appropriately called... well... mameblog.com.

I'm going to be doing a lot of photos of my arcades (inside and out) soon to update the documenation on those projects. In the process, I'm hoping to create content for both of these sites along the way: documenting the photographic techniques and experiences here, utilizing the fruits of the labor over there. :)

Fellow children of the 80's: click on over to my other blog for a bit of nostalgia... ;)

- Aaron

February 16, 2006

Gallery Automation Project (nearly) Done

I've been working off and on for a week or more on a major workflow automation project for the blog. Let me start off by quickly pointing out what this means for the readers in terms of new features:

• Every photo gallery can now be viewed in either of two forms: HTML gallery or flash-based slideshow
• Links to both are embedded in the articles now as dropdown lists ("View photos as...")
• The number of photos and pages (for the HTML gallery) are listed below the dropdown list
• An index of the galleries exists both in HTML and slideshow form
• The dropdown list below the random image in the top right of every page will take you to the indexes as well as the gallery categories
• The random image box in the top right by the banner now runs the slideshow or, if you don't have flash installed, my original random image script requiring no plug-ins

So what's the "workflow automation" all about? Well, generating galleries and linking them to a blog article is already a multi-step, albeit relatively easy, process. The addition of the slideshows, though, added a significant extra layer of work in the form of carefully structured XML configuration files. Since I want to be consistent and I don't want a ton of extra work to stymie the urge to post new galleries, I figured it was time to streamline the process as much as possible. Past experience has told me that once the posting process becomes too complex, spur of the moment and casual posting grinds to a halt. I want the process to be trivial enough that I won't have any excuses not to post more frequently. :)

The behind-the-scenes story of how this process works is, of course, disturbingly geeky. Fortunately, there are plenty of other fellow geeks out there that might be interested. The rest of this piece (and I predict it will be rather long) will cover the gist of what went into this project thus far. If the binding together of iView MediaPro, AppleScript, linux, OS X, ssh, scp, a big chunk of python code, MySQL databases and various bits of HTML and XML technology interest you... read on.

Here's a linked list to the various tools and technologies use:

• iView MediaPro 3.02
• Mac OS X
• Fedora Core Linux
• AppleScript
• Python programming language
• MySQL Database
• OpenSSH
• SlideShowPro

Detailed description below the fold...

Continue reading "Gallery Automation Project (nearly) Done"

February 1, 2006

Photo Slideshow: Inauguration of Gov. Tim Kaine

I don't usually mix the photos between halfpress and my other blog, Documenting Democracy, but I've been experimenting with a fantastic new flash-based slideshow tool and decided to use my most recent set of photos from DocDem for the initial test.

First off, those of you with Flash plug-ins installed will notice that the random image box in the top right of the screen (next to the banner) is far more complex now (those without will see no difference). It replaces the original Python application I wrote last year to place a random photo from my galleries on the page with each reload and provide a pop-up tooltip caption and photo specifications. I've replicated all of that functionality with this new tool while adding automated dissolves. You can manually control the show, too, by fiddling with the various buttons along the bottom. Clicking on any of the images will take you to the appropriate normal gallery while just hovering over it with the mouse will give you the caption.

I want to begin offering all of my photos with my traditional HTML galleries and, possibly, these new slideshows. To kick off the process (and to give me a vehicle for experimentation), I've put together my three galleries from the inauguration of Gov. Tim Kaine in a slideshow.

Open the Slideshow (three galleries)

I've created a legend for the buttons in the bottom of the slideshow window. It will play sequentially through all three galleries. You can skip to another gallery by hitting the gallery icon on the left and move around through the photos with the +/- buttons and the individual photo numbers. Previews of the other photos will appear if you hover over the numbers.

You can read all the background stories on these photos and reach the regular galleries by visiting Documenting Democracy, specificially the articles for Friday, the Ceremony, and the Richmond Ball.

I'll be doing a lot more with the slideshow application in the coming days and will post more geeky, behind-the-scenes technical information once I have time to write it. :) In the meantime, enjoy the photos!

- Aaron

September 5, 2005

Katrina & Google Earth = Sense of Scope

I've been a fan of Google Earth (formerly Keyhole) since it came out... it feeds my voracious love of maps, satellite photography, 3D and GPS information like a drug.

Combine this software with the resources of Google, thousands of networked enthusiasts and professionals and you've got resources that likely dwarf the capabilities of photo intelligence agencies of only a few years ago. Spinning the globe around like a marble in your fingers and almost instantly seeing what can be very up-to-date, detailed imagery is positively intoxicating.

After a couple of days of trying to take in the scope of the Katrina disaster, especially in New Orleans, I finally sat down to look at the city in detail. I wanted to better orient myself and get a clearer understanding of the spatial relationships between the locations of buildings, levees, etc., that were constantly being discussed in the media.

The first few moments of looking at New Orleans, even just the pre-flood, high-res photos, hit me like a brick. You can see it on TV and read about it on the web, but until you are looking at photos where you have a sense of control and scale over what you see, you simply cannot absorb the sheer size of the disaster we're witnessing.

Continue reading "Katrina & Google Earth = Sense of Scope"

September 3, 2005

Gigabit Speeds via Cell Phone

I gave up on the US cell phone industry a long time ago. Most of the really significant technological developments seem to happen in Europe and Japan where there seems to be a lot less focus on screwing the consumer and doing corporate battle over incremental changes and false advertising.

The latest major advancement I've seen appeared in this Slashdot article tonight:

Experimental 4G Phone Service Faster Than Cable

NewScientist reports that Japanese researchers have achieved blistering rates of transmission for cell phones that allowed for viewing of 32 high definition video streams, while traveling in an automobile at 20 kilometers per hour. From the article: "Officials from NTT DoCoMo say the phones could receive data at 100 megabits per second on the move and at up to a gigabit per second while static. At this rate, an entire DVD could be downloaded within a minute." These transmission rates were achieved using new experimental methods of multiplexing."

Super cool... hope it becomes a reality soon. Heck, it might even make it to the US in 25 years. :)

September 1, 2005

Modern Boston Tea Party: Microsoft Overboard!

Slashdot has this piece about the government in MA opting to switch all document storage standards to a combination of PDF and OpenOffice:

"The switch to open formats such as these was needed to ensure that the state could guarantee that citizens could open and read electronic documents in the future, according to Massachusetts - something that was not possible using closed formats. The proposal, which is open for comment until the end of next week before it takes effect, would represent a big boost for open source software such as Open Office, which is created by volunteer programmers and made available free of charge."

This is a fantastic idea and another win for Open Source over draconian closed standards. I hope to see this repeated elsewhere both in business and government.

August 22, 2005

Canon Announces EOS 5D and "fills the gap"

The rumors have been swirling for quite some time and they appear to have been mostly correct.

Canon officially announced the EOS 5D today to fill the approximately $5500 gap between their 20D and the 1DS Mark II. The 20D is an incredibly capable camera that lacks only a few of the highest end features, but the price difference in the existing models has really separated the high end pros from the "prosumers" and other professionals not wanting to drop over $7,000 on a single camera body.

The 5D comes in around $3300 retail (over twice the cost of a 20D) but picks up the key features people have wanted: it's full frame, has a true spot meter and a larger LCD screen (2.5" vs. 1.8"). This means no more 1.6x crop factor and EF-S lenses, but it also means your lenses better be of the highest quality or you're going to be suffering from more cases of chromatic abberation, softness and distortion. Frankly, I'd take those risks for a full frame SLR, but I'm most definitely not in the ~$3000 price range right now for an SLR (especially having only bought the 20D four months ago). :)

Full details of the new camera can be seen here at DP Review.

Canon also announced the EOS-1D Mark II N (not the successor to the highest S model), two new lenses (24-105mm F4.0L and 70-300 F4.0 IS), the Speedlite 430EX and four new point-and-shoot digital cameras.

I'd say these are all additions to the existing line-up rather than replacements for any existing model (except for the 1D Mark II N replacing the former 1D Mark II). The new 5D definitely represents a nice middle point in the product line between 20D and the highest end 1Ds Mark II, so I'm eager to hear the first hands-on reviews. Arguably, the 1D Mark II N is the true middle point from an overall feature and form-factor standpoint, but the 12 megapixels of the 5D vs the 8 megapixels of the N will make that a hot topic for debate.

I imagine the forums today are going to be insane and mostly intolerable. :)

August 16, 2005

"Ancient" iBooks Spur Near Riot

Life is beyond busy right now... we're in the "hell weeks" at work right now. These particular weeks come whistling out of the ninth ring every August and land on you with a dull thud. Faculty are returning, early students are already arriving, the first-year's get here end of the week and the whole ball of wax lurches into motion by Monday. All of us in computing will become roadkill in the process.

So, needless to say, I'm not doing a lot of posting on halfpress right now. I sure as heck haven't picked up my camera this week (though I am squeezing in a photo shoot of our local Democractic HQ opening on Friday evening of all times... I am insane apparently). Crazy work week aside, I'll definitely do what I can to help that particular cause.

I couldn't pass up the opportunitity to post this CNN article, though, concerning the sale of over 1,000 four year old iBooks from the Henrico County schools in nearby Richmond:

A rush to purchase $50 used laptops turned into a violent stampede Tuesday, with people getting thrown to the pavement, beaten with a folding chair and nearly driven over. One woman went so far to wet herself rather than surrender her place in line.

My friend, Steve, (the Springer fan) is going to be positively beside himself reading this article. Anything in the media involving folding chairs wielded as weapons and urinating on oneself scores high on his entertainment scale. :)

"I took my chair here and I threw it over my shoulder and I went, 'Bam,"' the 20-year-old said nonchalantly, his eyes glued to the screen of his new iBook, as he tapped away on the keyboard at a testing station.

$50 is a nice price and I do love Macs... but jeez, people. I've seen younger Macs after a tour of duty here at work (the ones assigned to public check-out duty in the library), so "buyer beware" is one phrase that springs to mind. :)

August 2, 2005

Apple Finally Does It: >1 Button

I wasn't sure I'd ever see the day when Apple built a mouse with more than one button. It finally happened. The first blog item I saw this morning in my Safari RSS feed list announced Apple's new Mighty Mouse which they promote with these four words: Click, Squeeze, Roll, Scroll.

Continue reading "Apple Finally Does It: >1 Button"