dj whitebread
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
It's July...
So my photography experiment is over. I managed to pull it off. Sometimes it was a little rough (for example, the picture of the HEB), but I did it nonetheless. I think I did learn a lot... not much that I can put into words, per se, but I just got more comfortable with the camera. Got a better feeling for things. A lot of the settings are just automatic to me now. I don't have to think about some of the things anymore. All of this mainly comes from the repetition. Now, there are still many, many things that I still think about. And many, many things that I don't have a feel for yet. I've really just scratched the surface of this art form.
Though, I think I'm further along than I was a month ago. And really, that was the goal.
I'm going to give it a few days and then pick my top 5 from the entire month. Stay tuned.
Labels: JiBaW, photography
12:48 PM |
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
One week down
This past weekend was eventful. Supper at Ski Shores, bike rides, autocrossing, Costco, Shakespeare in the park... it was jammed packed. But all fun!
The good thing is that means lots of opportunities to continue my little photography experiment. After one week, I have picked my top five from week one.
One of those I have to post here as I want to make sure everybody sees this picture of my wonderful wife, Carrie. Love you, Carrie!
Labels: Carrie is awesome, JiBaW
12:12 AM |
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Driveway
I headed out to the driveway tonight. I took my bike and I took my camera. I knew things were going to be challenging on the bike as we'd be going up the corkscrew, so I would need to be able to deal with the surge in power up the short and steep part. I knew things were going to be challenging with the camera as I would be photographing at an effective focal length of 50mm. But, I was determined to deal with both challenges.
First the bike side. I did better than before. I still didn't hang on the whole time, but I hung on for half the race. Marked improvement over the last few times. I felt surprisingly good going up the corkscrew. What got to me eventually wasn't my legs, but the time at effort. The climbing I've been doing has been paying off to improve my leg strength. Now I need to start being more disciplined about my training to work in some more structured intervals to get my aerobic fitness improving.
On that note I am actually considering using one of the various excellent coaching services we have in town. I think I would respond well to a structured plan with a real human on the other end. Anyway, more on that in a future post.
On the photography side, the light was a little challenging. The shadows were still pretty harsh, but I got some that I liked. (June in Black and White Day 4)
For example, there is a picture of Dave Wenger before the P/1/2/3 race. His face is in shadow, but the rest of him is in the sun. Obviously not good. However, Dave's an outstanding guy so I kept the picture in the set. He's also doing the standard "waiting for the race to start" pose.
But now to some that I like:
The above is one of three pictures I got as the riders races up and around the corkscrew. The other two I like a little better, but I've cropped them short and wide, so you'll have to head over to flicker to check them out (1, 2... I really like 1 ;) ). This one is neat because of the shadows coming in as sharp lines. The grade of the corkscrew is also such so that everything really feels up and to the right giving nice motion.
This is my friend Andrew Stackhouse. I caught him before he started doing the announcing for tonight's P/1/2/3 race.
I love this shot... I didn't notice my shadow in the lower left corner out there. Doh! (I still like it a lot though ;) )
Finally, a picture of some of the old cop cars they have out there... this one's for Jerry. :)
Labels: cycling, driveway crits, JiBaW, training
11:51 PM |
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
An experiment
Inspired by a a post on The Online Photographer I decided to try out a variation of his suggestion. No, I'm not going to go blow $1k on a Leica, and I'm not shooting film. But what I am doing is only using my 35mm prime lens, and I'm only shooting in B&W for the month of June. So let's set up the rules of my little experiment.
- Only shoot in B&W. His point about only considering luminance I found really interesting. I've already take some shots that I think look fantastic in color, but I'm sticking by the rules.
- I'm leaving off the flash and only using my 35mm prime lens. It's fast, it's light weight, and I want to freeze as many variables as possible.
- As long as the date says June, I'm carrying the camera with me. Campus, going out to eat, whatever. It's coming with me. (Okay, there are a few exceptions, but these are rare and specific.)
- Pick at most 10 each day that I want to share. I may pick just 1, but I'm determined to find 1 that I like, and I will force myself to pare it down to 10 at the most.
- Each week I'll pick the 10 best for the week, and then the 10 best for the month.
That's really it. We'll see how it goes. You can of course follow my progress on my photostream on Flickr. Here are my favorites from day 1 and day 2, respectively. I actually like day 2 in general more than day 1.
Labels: JiBaW, photography
9:19 PM |
Monday, June 01, 2009
Result
My academic career has not gone exactly like I planned it so many years ago now when I started grad school. I am not making a qualitative comment here. I'm just saying there have been several unexpected twists and turns.
One of them was that people decided to freak out about the economy. Needless to say, even us in computer science felt the hurt. So here I am with a CV weaker than I had hoped trying to find a job in the toughest research job market almost ever. Well, this past week the search came to an end, and I decided to stay UT, but to start working (officially) with a different professor than I worked with during my graduate years. There were some other opportunities, but this one was the best all around for me, my career goals of one day being a professor, and my life with Carrie.
I am extremely excited about the opportunity to stay here and continue the work that I have recently started. I think this is going to be a great thing. I am also pretty happy to stay in Austin for another year... Austin is an amazing city, and I feel blessed to have already spent 9 years (!) here.
I am also excited to know what I am doing. At least for a little while...
The past two weekends have been exciting and fun. Last weekend was graduation, and I plan on covering that in more detail in a future post. This weekend, we had the Courvilles come and visit for Champ's first trip to Austin. We had a wonderful time, and Champ did great. Jeff and I got to go on a bike ride (his new bike is awesome, by the way) with a long time friend of his on Saturday. We both got home pretty beaten up... but it was still awesome. My fitness has improved, but there is much more to go. I plan on having an entire post on my thoughts on bike stuff, so I'll leave it at that.
It was great to see Anna, Jeff, and Champ. I was able to take a few pictures of Champ in his cool fish pajamas on Friday night.
I took a lot more, but they were not sharp, so while they're super cute (of course, that's to Champ's credit, not mine) they're not particularly good pictures.
To wrap up, thanks again Courvilles for coming to visit, and be on the lookout for a graduation and cycling themed posts soon. Have a good week!
Labels: Black and White, Champ, Courvilles, cycling, sweet pain
12:21 AM |
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Things that make me happy
(In no particular order)
This organic mango/pineapple/peach sorbet I made yesterday. Having some again right now, and it is still delicious.
The wonderful weather we are having in Austin this week.
Riding my bike down 360 passing all the cars that are stuck in traffic.
Costco
Carrie's totally rocking new haircut.
Seeing my family this weekend.
Getting to wear my regalia this weekend.
Carrie :)
Labels: Austin, Carrie is awesome, cycling, graduation, sorbet, training
9:50 PM |
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Back at it
I am coming to my third week of really riding my bike consistently. I am starting to feel stronger, though nowhere near strong enough. The weight is starting to come off again, little by little, which is a good thing. I went under 200 lbs for the first time in a long time this week, so that made me happy.
I was feeling good this weekend on the bike, so I decided it was time for some humbling. I went ride up some of the hills near here in an effort to remind myself I'm still slow and heavy. Mission accomplished. Ladera Norte is still steep, they didn't change that. But in all honesty, it was good to get up it (however slowly).
I've been watching the stages of the Giro, and it is just so impressive how the leaders can power up those mountains. It is always nice to see the giant group that comes in many minutes down. It's nice to know that even professional cyclists aren't all climbers. (Though, comparably they can still fly up the climbs.)
Work is going well. I am excited. I should hopefully know very soon what the final destination is for next year.
Friday night we're heading to another cooking class at Central Market. Joanne Weir (a chef who had a show on PBS the year we didn't have cable, and thus we watched a lot of PBS) is teaching. I am really excited. I loved her show (I even have one of her cookbooks).
I am going out to the Driveway tonight to take part in our weekly crits. The series has been awesome this year under new management, and the addition of the 4/5 race actually gives me a workable target. We are doing the long course tonight and going up the corkscrew, so hopefully I'll hold on past the first time we go up the corkscrew. ;)
I'm going to get a little bit more work done before I get ready and head out on the bike to ride to the crits. I hope everybody's weeks end well!
Labels: cycling, driveway crits, Giro d'Italia, job search, Ladera Norte, personal training, work
3:46 PM |
Sunday, April 26, 2009
SCCCC Crit
Texas hosted conference this year, so I headed up to Pickle today to see my old teammates race. I got a few pictures from B Women's crit and the B Men's crit. I think it's a great course up there at Pickle; I'm glad they used it again this year. I wanted to put my favorite picture from the day up here:
Taking pictures of cyclists is tricky. They move to fast. This is one of those areas where having more expensive stuff would come in handy as you could take more shots more quickly. But even with my modest D40, I got a few cool shots out of it. :)
It was great to see everybody. It also made me miss collegiate racing. I have a hard time getting myself psyched up for USAC races. I know I've talked about this before. I just think collegiate racing is awesome, and I am very thankful for the few years I got to participate in it.
Labels: Conference Champions, UT Cycling
9:56 PM |
