Cyberward.net

I have been sitting on this image that I took with my iPhone for a long time. The official name was announced within Thompson Reuters last month, but we were told not to ‘leak’ the name early. How anyone coming to the Eagan office was going to miss this and not pass it on to the media is beyond me. Actually, I think that was part of the leak strategy.

Well, the product is about to be released, and on the last weekend before launch, I am going to Boise, Idaho for a cousins wedding. I am not shooting it, but I do have my gear packed. I have a new smaller light stand now, and I even packed it and an umbrella. Who knows when an impromptu photo shoot will break out.

Because of taking my camera gear on board (light stand is getting checked) I have another bag with my clothes in it. It could almost fit in an overhead bin I think, but because it is getting checked, it cost me $15. That means that my flight just went up by $30 total. Sheesh.

I have decided that my signature is crap. I tried to make a nice signature, scan it, and use it to sign my photos, but it wasn’t working. Also, when I post images online, I have used different fonts to add my name to the image, usually on the bottom. I haven’t been terribly happy with any of the fonts I have tried so far. Until now.

I think I like Jellyka – Estrya’s Handwritting. Jellyka Nerevan seems to be giving away the font for personal use. I wasn’t sure what exactly other uses would be, but I sent a donation via pay pal for the font. She has other fonts on dafont too, or you can see her website at CuttyFruty.

I have used this font with the last few sets of images I have placed online. I am not sure if I am going to keep the drop shadow or not, but it looks good on plain white!

David duChemin, over at pixelatedimage is running one heck of a contest right now. He is calling it “My BIG FAT Business Card Giveaway Thing”. What you need to do to enter is to put one of your business cards up on flickr. See his site (link above) for the prizes and the contest rules.

The image above is the business card that I entered. I grabed it from the moo site where I ordered the images, and the colors look a little off. The actual cards look much better.

I had several cards made. This is a grab of all the ones that I made.

I made a bunch of different images for fun. Some kinda silly, like the Lego, but it is one of the most popular. This way I hand people the stack and say “pick one”. That way I get to show off my work, not just hand out a card.

Just a quick note, then need to get going. I was at two photowalks yesterday: Stillwater and North Minneapolis. They were both great. I missed the social get together part of both, but I just couldn’t stop taking pictures. I will have pictures later. Unlikely today.

Today I shoot a wedding in the afternoon. I need to go get packed up for that.

Wow, this was a busy weekend. Friday night I got out to shoot some of Minneapolis from around the Stone Arch bridge. We also went inside the Gutherie and that new thrust walkway thing that juts into space. Very weird, but a pretty cool place to take some pictures. I am still going through them, but after a quick look, I think my favorites of the night were when I included my father with an off camera flash.

Then yesterday I was at a 15 year olds birthday party. Myself and a couple of others were there to take pictures of her and her friends. I don’t think a fashion shoot in Milan could have had more outfit changes. It was a lot of fun though, with pictures to come.

I am psyched. Today is the second day of my studio lighting class. The class is going to be down at the instructor’s studio. He is bringing in live models, and we will be using his strobes. He has some radio triggers (pocket wizards I think) that he is planning to use. He will have the recievers set up on the lights, and just hand us the transmitter when it is our turn. I will have more about the evening later.

Not literly. I don’t really have any boats around here that I could miss. What I did miss was getting in on the DLWS trip to Kauai. I am bummed. I thought about it way too much. I just kept thinking about cost, and when I finally got the nerve to pull the trigger, it is full. Bummer. I am on a waiting list. Who wants to cross fingers with me?

I am not sure what other trip I could do this year. NC is full, and Maine is after when¬†my¬†NWA voucher expires. That leaves Michigan for this year,¬†that I could theoreticly drive to. Not my first pick for locations. I am sure that it would be great, but it doesn’t seem as exotic at Hawaii. Hmmmm…

As a Canadian living in Minneapolis, I get to have two Thanksgivings. Two celebrations, and twice the food. I seem to let both of them sneak up on me now. I never seem to know when either of them are. I miss Canadian Thanksgiving because no one in the US other than Canadians think that there could possibly be a day in October when you could celebrate thanksgiving. I miss the US version because as a contractor, I don’t have all the holidays marked out on my calendar (though I should as the office is closed), and it seems way too close to Christmas. I am not the only one who thinks so. Still, I am gratefull for the screaming, whining, crying, stomping and fussing my two little girls do, because it is all part of the package that comes with the hugs, the kisses, the snuggling, the walks holding my hand, the night time stories, and the hilarious things they say. I am thankfull for the two little girls I love very much.