iPhone wont make or take calls

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iPhonePicI am starting to get pretty annoyed with my iPhone. It all started after I did the carrier update to get the MMS capabilities. What happens, is that I lose the ability to send and receive calls and messages. I can still get email at least.

My wife tries to call me, and the phone goes right to voice mail. Then she emails me. If I am checking email, then I power down the phone, then power it up again. This works for awhile. If I leave it for a period of time, or charge it (that could be just time) it stops working.

The weirdest is when I try to call out. The phone gives the Calling… screen, but it never makes the call. Weird.

I have tried to reset the phone, by wiping it out from iTunes, and doing a reinstall. That didn’t seem to help.

This is not an isolated incident. I know two other people that have had the same problems. The fix? Get a new phone. I guess I need to make an appointment with the “Geniuses”.

UPDATE (10/08/09 9:00PM): I am installing the 3.1.2 iPhone update, and a “new carrier update”. That makes me nervous. We’ll see what happens.

the WAR of ART

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cover_war_artI finished The War of Art (Break through the blocks and win your inner creative battles) by Steven Pressfield a couple of days ago. I wish I could quote a few things, but I had to return it to the library. So this will be some thoughts from the book.

First of all, I don’t think I would have picked this book if it hadn’t been recommended to me by David duChemin. I should clarify that. First, I was certain that David had recommended it, but it was actual recommended by another of Davids blog readers on the previously linked post. David then commented that he was currently reading it. I then reserved it at the library, and a few months later, it was my turn. It is either popular, or someone had “lost” it for awhile.

So why wouldn’t I have picked this book? Well, I don’t really like “self help” type books, and I would have pegged it as one of those. Even when I got the book and glanced over it, I thought “oh crap”, not one of those. In the end, I was wrong to be wary of the book. First, it doesn’t seem so “self help” like. To me a self help¬† book would be about looking at the past, or even looking at what you will do in the future. This book is all about the present. The biggest take away I got from this book is asking myself the question “What am I doing right now that keeps me from my art?” Substitute for art: photography and goals.

I don’t have the page right now, but there was somewhere towards the end of the book where it hit me: I had let resistance overtake me. It took me quite awhile into the book before I finally figured it out. I remember commenting on blogs about not understanding how people could be worried about how their photographs were perceived, or how they could be so critical about themselves and their work, and how they could get into a creative funk.

That was before I decided that I was a photographer. Now I wanted to make money at this. Now I have a website. Now I wanted everyone to like my pictures, and feared that no one would. Now I have doubts. It was while reading some of the later parts about the difference between amateurs and professionals that it hit me. I am not doing this full time yet, but I was trying to make money at it, and much of the stuff he wrote about resistance felt true. I was surprised wen I realized it, both because I hadn’t thought that resistance was something that applied to me, and also because I had got something out of a “self help” book.

Other than examining your battle with resistance, there are many quotes in here that relate to photographers. Lots of material that can provide you with at least one take away. For such a short book, it is a no brainer to recommend.

I have my Camera Manual on my hip.

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d90

D90 Manual

I am now using the iPhone app Good Reader. Scott Kelby had posted about this in September, but I hadn’t got around to looking at it until now. This app is a great way to view and manage pdf files. It was really easy to get the pdf files onto my iPhone. You can point to a web url, and it will download as I did with one of the files, or you can set up a file server with one button press on the phone. This is really easy. All you have to do on your computer is connect to the displayed IP address in the finder with the Go/Connect to server… menu option. I then dragged the other items to the finder window, and they transfered over. Very simple. It works well. This is what I have on my iPhone so far.

  1. My Nikon D90 camera manual
  2. My SB-800 camera manual
  3. My SB-900 camera manual
  4. 10 By David duChemin (eBook)
  5. 10 More by David duChemin (eBook)
  6. DLWS participant packet

It works pretty well. You can easily read, zoom, change pages, even navigate directly to a page. I like it. I haven’t used the manuals yet, but I like the idea of having them sitting on my hip within reach.

New Gear for DLWS

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dlwslogoIn two weeks I will be at the DLWS in Traverse City Michigan. I am pretty psyched. I picked the location because it was the only event near my birthday they had, and I picked DLWS when I found that two photographers that I read a lot about, Moose Peterson, and Joe McNally would be there.

So, there were a couple of things that I wanted to get. I have been going back and forth on what to do with my Tamron 17-50 f/2.8. In fact, I blogged about that here. I decided that for the trip, I was going to get the Nikon 17-55 f/2.8. Part of my hesitation is when I might move up to full frame, would I still want this lens? Well, I figure that I will keep the D90 as a backup, so I will either need it as a lens for the D90, or I can sell it for not that much less than I paid for it. Now that I have a paying job again, it seemed like a good time to get it.

This lens, and the Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 that I have, both take 77mm filters, so I got a Tiffen polarizer for them (was going to get the Nikon, but the store didn’t carry it), and a Lee 4×6 .9 graduated soft ND that Moose claims to hand hold. I still don’t get that. We go to the trouble of putting the camera on a tripod, using a cable release, and then hold a filter up to the lens? I’ll have to ask him about that.

Last item was the MB-D80 battery grip. I have wanted this for quite awhile for taking portraits when hand holding. Not sure if I really need it now for the trip, but I figured I would get it.

I ended up at West Photo for this stuff. I had intended to order from B&H, because they had the lens for a fair bit less. The other stuff seems comparable, but the Nikon stuff seems to go for less in New York. Well, as luck would have it, both B&H and Adorama are closed for Succoth for another week. I was nervous that even with paying for two day shipping that by the time they open, and get to my order, there might not be enough time to get it to me.

Anyway, I will probably have more on the gear as I use it. Anyone want a very good condition Tamron 17-50 f/2.8?

Bike Polo

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Bike Polo 

At McCrea park were my daughter plays soccer, they have paved the bottom of a hockey rink for roller hockey. But, they let some bike polo people use it too, which is nice. These guys are pretty cool, and it is an interresting sport to take pictures of. I was trying to take some panning shots to show some movement, but they change speed so much, it is difficult to capture a smooth pan.

Click on the picture to follow to flickr where I have the individual pictures up too.

I had the image above printed in 8×10 by WHCC on metalic paper. Wow, very cool. I had copies made to bring down to give to some of the riders. Hope they like the idea.

The Best Camera

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iphoneThe Best Camera is the one you have with you. This is something that Chase Jarvis has been saying for awhile now, as he has been churning out hundreds of pictures from his iPhone. Some of them have pretty cool effects applied to them, and I have often wondered how¬† he got those done “in camera”. I figured he must be bringing them into Photoshop or something like that.

Nope. Maybe at first, but not any more. He has a new site¬†for sharing, and a new¬†application for the iPhone out. Here is the post where he shared it a few days ago. I just got to installing it yesterday. The picture at the top was my first shot. Goes to prove that a few new filters still doesn’t equal an unsuck filter for a crappy photograph. It kinda looks like a mouse on a golf course green, covering a¬†¬†hole…. right…. sort of? It’s actually a mouse pad. I wasn’t very creative last night.

The app is pretty cool. It has several filters that work well, and the ability to share right from that app with flickr, facebook, or the bestcamera site. I wish it had a sharpen filter, and a way to trigger the picture when the device is steadier. I find most of my images on this phone blurry. But, it is worth checking out.

Catching up on video.

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St. Anthony MainThis image has nothing to do with video, just wanted to put up a picture for the day. I took this in the excel park down by the falls, looking back at St. Anthony Main. Infact, the biggest blob of color is the sign that says St. Anthony Main. I was there without a tripod, and just couldn’t get a steady shot. So, I decided to go for more blur. I kinda like it.

So over the weekend, I caught up on some of the video podcasts that I had stacking up. First up was Photoshop User TV. They are actually on a bit of a break, showing some old content while they rebuild the set and show.

I also looked at some image reviews by David duChemin on the Within the Frame podcast. I am amazed that the number of things that he can say both good or bad about a photograph.

I also caught up on the amazing footage that Chase Jarvis has up on his bog about the commercial shoot he was doing for Lexar in New Zeland. Pretty amazing. It was a cool idea he had to document the whole shoot for people to see what it looked like. Nice that Lexar was willing to let him do it.

Last week, Scott Kelby had a guest blog by Aaron Greene where he talked about a documentary he shot mostly with the D90. Pretty cool. I have one of those! Only thing is, I don’t like the style of video. Where you see the focus pulls, and lots of motion from lack of tripod or stabilization. He has some great ideas, but it doesn’t fit my personal style.

Anyway, try to check out some of these video segments. Cool stuff.

Sent back the ReadyNAS

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readynasI am so done with anything to do with hard drives.¬† I am starting to want to stop doing anything that deals with creating files that take up lots of space and need to be backed up. (ie photography) But I know this is just “resistance”. (I have been reading “War of Art”, but that is another post coming up)

I gave up and sent the ReadyNAS back to NewEgg. I spent two long nights fighting with something that I thought was a plug and play device.  First, my drives were not recognized. Actually, the first of the three was, no matter which of the three I put in the first slot. Technically, the other two would appear as functioning drives, but on the volumes tab, where you specify drives, raid settings, and volume info, only the first would appear.

I first tried to upgrade the firmware, thinking there might be something flaky going on there. That took everything south. Couldn’t boot. Then tried to do TFTP boot, and a USB boot, but neither worked. It’s packed up and ready to ship to NewEgg. At least they didn’t give me any hassles. I am getting a replcaement, so the saga will continue.

New Job

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I start today out at Thompson Reuters. I have a new java contract for at least the end of the year. We will see how it goes with me and the project whether it lasts longer.

This marks the end of a great summer. I was able to spend a lot of time with the girls, and I am grateful for the opportunity. I have mixed feeling about starting. I would like to be able to pick Kate up from the bus everyday, and get to spend time playing with them and doing things like going to the zoo. On the other hand, I miss the working with a group aspects of my java jobs, and the sitting down and coming up with a solution to a problem. Maybe I will get to do it again sometime…

Many years ago, I was out at what was then called West Publishing working on some of the back end mainframe code for the Westlaw search engine. Now I am back on a team that is doing some of the conversion to newer technologies.

One of the things that I am psyched about is that this is a team that is practicing Agile methodologies, which should be a lot of fun. I haven’t been on a true Agile team before, and I am looking forward to it.