feren

Just a photo of my best friend, taken on October 16th, 2011. Today (April 3rd 2015) marks the 3 month anniversary of his passing over the Rainbow Bridge.

Thank you, Ra. Though losing you was devastating, I want to remember you as you were in hale and hearty days.

Thank you for sharing your journey and all of your love with me. Daddy misses you dearly, buddy.

Crossposts: http://feren.livejournal.com/450127.html

Title: "Empty"

It has been four weeks since I lost my best friend, today.

My heart is empty as his bed and collar.

Current Mood: bereft
Current Location: Bolingbrook, IL
Crossposts: http://feren.livejournal.com/448635.html

Haven't posted in a long time. Here, have something unoriginal and trite.

Suspended by ~panfah on deviantART

Current Music: Conference call
Crossposts: http://feren.livejournal.com/442071.html

Due to a comedy of errors (I'm not laughing right now), it turns out that my macro lens hit the floor tile in my hallway. Frantic testing produced abnormal behavior, which

tugrik confirmed to be damage to the USM ringmotor.

The good news, as such, is that a repair shouldn't run me more than 1/5 of the price of the lens.

The bad news is that, well, let's face it -- a $520 piece of glass hit the ground and suffered damage as a result.

This is not how I wanted to start my vacation two days before my birthday.

Ladies and gentlemen of the LazyWeb, I am about to give back to you.

I shoot in RAW format on my Canon 40D. I have grown weary of the fine folks at Canon dicking around and being utterly unable to provide a codec for 64-bit versions of Windows. All I want to do is be able to see thumbnails of my photos in RAW format that are on my CF card or hard drive. Is that so much to ask?

Well, judging by the utter silence out of Canon, yes. Yes it is.

Even as technology marches inexorably onward and 64-bit operating systems become increasingly more common (Hell, Solaris has been 64-bit since 1998 and pretty much anybody who mattered announced or released a 64-bit capable OS in 2003, people!) Canon seems intent on punishing those of us who want to actually be able to use the full potential of our machines by refusing to publish a 64bit-friendly codec for the RAW files (CR2) produced by my 40D dSLR and other models. I can find no word to use other than "refusing" since they've been asked repeatedly over the last two years and constantly do not act upon the requests. This flat out denial means that users of Windows XP x64, Windows Vista x64 (what I used to run) and the platform I'm on currently, Windows 7 x64, are essentially shit out of luck. Sure, I can run Adobe Lightroom 2.6 in 64-bit, hell, Adobe's been supporting my 64-bit experience since I first installed Lightroom back in 2008, and hell they even supported using multiple cores; it's been smooth sailing with them every step of the way. Pulling in 8GB of RAW files and converting them to Digital Negative (.DNG) would have been hell if I had been in the 32bit world, unable to take advantage of my 8GB of RAM in this rig. But Canon? Not so forward-thinking.

Fellow suffering Canon owners, rejoice! Your salvation is at hand. A little company out of Switzerland, called Axel Rietschin Software Developments has heard our cries. They have released a codec pack for purchase, called the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack. It supports Windows 32-bit and Windows 64-bit. It supports tons of RAw files, not just Canon's (I counted Minolta, Nikon, Sony and Kodak amidst many, many others). The install is easy, purchase is easy, everything's easy. They fix what lazy, wayward manufacturers will not. And the software is on sale right now for an absolute steal compared to what other third-party codec providers are charging.

Act now.

Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: Iris - The Picture

I got email back from the Canon factory service center. They received the 40D yesterday and have done a preliminary evaluation. That being said, $202 is the current estimate to repair my broken dSLR.

They also sent along a little note that hey, if I Really Want I could upgrade to a refurbished 50D for $699.

Right now neither option is terribly appealing.

I guess I'll select the "cheaper" option of simply fixing the 40D.

Current Mood: melancholy
Current Music: Henry Rollins - Debate Part 1

It's official, Kodak is retiring Kodachrome film at the end of 2009.

I love my digital camera, but film is what I grew up with and learned on. I still appreciate the many benefits film has over digital (not the least of which is simple "archivability"), so this stings on a personal level even though I never did any darkroom work myself.

Why do the good always die young?

Current Mood: sad
Current Location: Tower o' Fun
Current Music: Coworkers

I haven't felt like using my camera in quite some time. I don't know if I'm working too much, depressed or just having a bout of self-doubt about my limited photography skillset. I did actually bring my kit with me as I had meant to shoot some more neon on the way back from Kenosha last night, but we were so late when we left (and we still had Jazz to medicate, which was a disaster for retelling another time) that I just drove home instead of visiting some of my intended sites.

I won't have free time again for late night sign shooting for about two weeks. Right now I don't know how I feel about that.

Current Mood: Tired
Current Location: Bolingbrook, il
Current Music: Cats licking

According to this New York Times article, New York cops think it is -- even though they're dead wrong. Not that being wrong stopped them from harassing, arresting and issuing a number of summons to the photographer. Lawsuits will probably (and quite rightly) ensue, with the tax payers of New York ultimately footing the bill for the ignorance and paranoia of these cops.

And so it goes. Isn' it amazing how a bit of glass and film (or glass and flash storage media) can be so incredibly dangerous in the minds of certain individuals who should know better?

Current Location: Office
Current Music: Typing

Except, perhaps, when you're being encouraged by Amtrack to take pictures of their trains. I don't even know what to say about this.

Armed with his Canon 5D and his new Lensbaby lens, photographer Duane Kerzic was out to win Amtrak’s annual photo contest this week, hoping to win $1,000 in travel vouchers and have his photo published in Amtrak’s annual calendar.

He ended up getting arrested by Amtrak police; handcuffed to a wall in a holding cell inside New York City’s Penn Station, accused of criminal trespass.
Kerciz says he was hardly trespassing because he was taking photos from the train platform; the same one used by thousands of commuters everyday to step on and off the train.

“The only reason they arrested me was because I refused to delete my images,” Kerzic said in a phone interview with Photography is Not a Crime on Friday.

Full story at this Prison Planet article, since the main reporting site (Carlosmiller.com) is currently returning naught but 403 errors.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Me, typing

Inspectors Test by *panfah on deviant ART

Inspector's Spigot by *panfah on deviant ART

Shot in mid-December of 2008, these were from when

markvd and I were doing some explorations during the renovation of our newly acquired building in Wood Dale, IL. This sign and drain spigot were in the 2nd floor boiler room, looking like they were a few decades older than I know the building actually is.

Current Location: Blue Room of Death
Current Music: http://radio.ipv6.hiof.no/nrk-alltid-klassisk-172.ogg

Up-front disclaimer: No, it was not a Daily Deviation.

I keep a pair of galleries for my work. One is at FA, the other is on dART. Most of you who read this journal are familiar with DeviantART because it's the system I use to post my work as "deviations" to my LiveJournal. I balance my work so that FA and dART pretty much mirror one another, so it's not as if one gallery gets sooper seekrit work while the other doesn't. I keep them both mirrored simply because they offer exposure to different types of audiences and I enjoy being able to share my efforts. Do I have a favorite? Not really. I like FA and dART pretty much equally, though dART is a bit superior as it seems to have less problems reading the EXIF data from my photos. And it doesn't limit the size of my images to 1280x1280. And it lets me post my work directly to my LJ, as you all well know. And dART has a working search function.... but I digress.

I haven't been doing much posting on either site for the last month because I've been busy with work and personal matters. Imagine my surprise when I signed into DeviantART the other day and found that a user (tainte-truffle) had put together a narrative complimented by a collection of photographs -- and that one of my photographs had been included! That's right, my "Missing Door" piece was featured in the "Abandoned Places" collection alongside some other fantastic works.

I'm incredibly honored and I don't mind saying that it really made my day.

Those interested can see the "Abandoned Places" collection at http://news.deviantart.com/article/64552/

Current Mood: surprised
Current Music: The Nylons - First Noel

Trucks Hauling Ass by *panfah on deviant ART

Trying to make up for being quiet on LJ and not posting many photographs as of late, I've been mostly doing post-processing and other work. However, while I was running through a batch of Minnesota photos tonight, I came across this one - and since it made me grin I had to share it.

Current Mood: amused
Current Location: Z'ha'dum
Current Music: Television

Ruin, decay and machinery from my parents' farm in Minnesota. Shot over Thanksgiving 2008. Here we see a few shots of my father's 1958 (or so) John Deere 440 Industrial Crawler. The crawler has been rusting quietly behind the house for at least the last 12 years (when I left for college). I don't think it's been moved in that time, a belief that's confirmed by the level of junk that's been piling up atop it. Given that it had a lot of hours put on it with little to no maintenance, maybe it's time that this equipment was retired.

Start Me Up, Let's Go Digging by *panfah on deviant ART

Hydraulics Levers by *panfah on deviant ART

Hydraulic Ram by *panfah on deviant ART

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: Blue Room of Death
Current Music: Neil Young - Farmer John | Powered by Last.fm

Hinge Without Purpose by *panfah on deviant ART

Missing Door by *panfah on deviant ART

No Lights in This Barn by *panfah on deviant ART

Tonight is a three-fer from my archives, all shot at an abandoned and ruined farm not far from my house in Bolingbrook, IL. These are all from way back in the year 2005, a long time before I got my beloved Canon 40D! The camera I had at the time may not have the megapixels nor the features of my favored frame, but it still did a fantastic job when I got things "just right."

This wonderful abandoned farm and its many buildings were torn down shortly after and, much to my relief, NOT made into office buildings or condominiums. Instead, the local nursery and landscaping company has made it part of their tree farm.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Blue Room of Death
Current Music: Tulku - The Fire That Speaks | Powered by Last.fm

Leaky Barn Roof, Ed? by *panfah on deviant ART

Another from the archives! Shot at an abandoned and ruined farm in Bolingbrook, IL. These are from way back in the year 2005, a long time before I got my beloved 40D!

This wonderful abandoned farm and its many buildings were torn down shortly after and, much to my relief, NOT made into office buildings or condominiums. Instead, the local nursery and landscaping company has made it part of their tree farm.

Here we see the roof of one of the longer but lower barns, and the many missing shingles and slowly decaying wood that supported what was left.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Home
Current Music: Neil Young - There's a World | Powered by Last.fm

Ruined Electrical Service by *panfah on deviant ART

Another night of digging through the archives to find something that fit my mood, and I happened to stumble upon a group of pictures I shot at an abandoned and ruined farm in Bolingbrook, IL. These are way back in the year 2005, a long time before I got my beloved 40D!

This wonderful abandoned farm and its many buildings were torn down shortly after and, much to my relief, NOT made into office buildings or condominiums. Instead, the local nursery and landscaping company has made it part of their tree farm.

Here we see the electrical service to one of the larger (though more dilapidated) barns.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Home
Current Music: Activision - Dead Planet | Powered by Last.fm

So most recently comes news about a D.C. official, who is also a freelance documentary photographer, being arrested for "assault on a police officer". Yeah, taking pictures certainly constitutes assault.

I support police officers, I really do. Having grown up with a father who worked in public safety, I was around a lot of police officers and fire fighters from before I could walk to the day I moved out of the state to attend college. I've known many officers and K-9 units for a long, long time -- still am friends with a number of them back home and in Illinois. I know there are two sides of every story. I know there are good cops and bad cops, just as there are respectful, law-abiding citizen photographers and brazen, do-anything-for-a-buck/attention douchebag photographers.

I'm going to be posting links to these stories more frequently becasue the abuse of power against photographers (seems we're either "possible terrorists" or "impeding an official investigation" by taking pictures of public servants performing their duties in public) is continuing or becoming increasingly frequent. It's still just as troubling to me as it was before I posted my last entry about this sort of thing, I'm just going to talk about it more frequently from this point forward.

For those who do not share my interests in photography and the politics surrounding it, I'll try to put my longer diatribes behind cut tags so you don't have to be bored by it.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: DI.fm Chillout Channel -- Hybrid - Steal You Away

No Gravity Here by *panfah on deviant ART

Highland Manor by *panfah on deviant ART

Once today's migraine finally began to release its claws from my skull, I took the opportunity this evening to do a bit more post-processing.

Current Music: Presidential debate

Tow Sign by *panfah on deviant ART

Shot this off IL-83 in Elmhurst, after an overnight conversion on Sunday the 5th.

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Entries tagged with photography

Remembering Ra

Empty

Photo - "Suspended"

Ouch.

Have a Canon dSLR? Have 64-bit Windows? READ THIS.

Camera update

Kodak retiring Kodachrome

Photos

Trains redux: It's illegal to take pictures of subways and trains in New York, isn't it?

Photography is not a crime - not even for trains.

Devious Journal Entry - Boiler Room Explorations

I got a DeviantART feature!

Devious Journal Entry - Trucks Hauling Ass

First round of pictures from the farm (A Devious Journal entry)

Photo Phriday - More from the Bolingbrook farm ruin

Photo Phriday: Farm Ruin #2

It's Photo Phriday, so it's time for another Devious Journal Entry

Yep, photography is still a crime.

Devious Journal Entry - Neon Dump

Devious Journal Entry