For anyone of a certain age group — myself included — AIM was, quite simply, how we communicated. For many of us, its buddy lists, away messages, and screennames were firsts for us. Its time has long passed, but it had a great run.
Bye, AIM. You might not be missed, but neither will you be forgotten.
Punch the clock. Open the door. Take advantage of your time. See the sights. Lose yourself for a moment. Doze off. Breathe.
When I'm in a new city (whether on vacation or otherwise), I do my best to walk everwhere I go. Even just a brief escape during lunch hour can reveal the unique personality and rhythm of that place.
A beehive filling up with commuters. A floating lift awaits its crew. A taxi passes on the river. An archway breaks up the verticle class panels. A worker leans over the rail, lifing his feed from the ground. A bridge raises, awaiting a passing vessel. Morning coffee on the street. A dark passage beneath the train.
Nasim Mansurov, for Photography Life, writes:
I decided to write on a topic that nobody wants to talk about – how camera companies and everyone else involved in the camera industry are banking on people, AKA the consumers. I wrote this article primarily because of the sense of guilt I have had for years now and also because I do not want our readers to fall into the traps of consumerism.
Just remember, in 2017, technology — cameras, phones, or otherwise — is awesome, and has awesome potential to do the jobs we employ it for really well.
When shopping for the next piece of technology to add to your life, try to remember that. It might be a tool, it might be a toy, it might even be mission critical, but no matter what the jobs technology needs to do for you, there are probably multiple awesome solutions for you.
Companies will do their very best to overwhelm you with hype, in ways both transparent and opaque, but try not to fall for it. Instead of concentrating on the thing that is the "best" or "reviews" well, experience it yourself, make a choice based on what fits your life best, and don't worry about what the Internet says.
It's easier than ever to fall in love with the "new thing". Fall in love with the right thing.
Jim Wilson has been shooting photos for the New York Times since 1980:
When I started, everything was dependent on processed film, which meant having to bring film, a darkroom kit including enlarging and print making equipment, and a transmitter (very much like a souped up fax machine). We’d have to find or at least arrange for a telephone line and telephone access when we needed to send our images. I remember having a small portable typewriter that I’d use to write the captions that were pasted onto the photos before they were put on the drum transmitter and sent back to The Times. The phone lines were all analog, and each picture took around 10 minutes to send — if the line was interrupted for any reason, we’d have to start over. If we got out 10 images in a day, that was huge.
Today, many we carry connected cameras with us everywhere. Even large professional cameras tend to have direct networking capabilities.
Times sure have changed.
This past Sunday evening, Lauren and I spent some time walking around the Tidal Basin capturing photos for an upcoming project (shhhh). After living the DC area for so many years, it can be easy to take The Mall & surrounding monuments for granted. While it's not always fun fighting the tourists, getting down there once in awhile brings with it a certain apprecation for the city.
As a photographer that often uses post-processing to complete an image or create consistency across a set of images, I found this video to be a great little intro bending curves and tweaking colors.
Sean Tucker creates some fantastic images, and has a signature look to his photography that I'd asipre to have one day in my own work. Spending time in the Curves & Channels modules in Lightroom (or Darkroom on my iPhone) has always been hit or miss for me, and I've often leaned heavily on presets to bring consistency to my work. This recently published video has become a bit of an inspiration for me to attempt creating a more original aesthetic for my images:
That said, I've often been asked what "presets" or "filters" I use on my images. Truthfully, I use quite a few different looks to create my images. I do, however, try to find a specific look to fit a mood or tone I'd like a set of images to have. This look often varies from set to set. I've used Lightroom presets from Rebecca Lily, VSCO, and Nate Photographic (just to name a few), as starting points for different image sets over the last few years. I've also spent quite a bit of time in Priime and VSCO over the last few years on my iPhone.
With this extra little bit of inspriation, I hope to spend a little less time with these other tools (these are all great tools though, and I'd recommend all of them), and a little more time with tools of my own making in the coming months.
I've met some incredible (and hopefully life-long) friends that have given countless hours of their time and energy as members of the LLS team here in the DC area.
It's an incredible cause and great organization. I'll be joining the LLS Alumni team this year in Mina's place. Please consider making a donation to help support the research of blood cancer treatments. Your contributions can and will help save lives.
The iPhone is the world's most popular camera. The fact that it’s attached to your smartphone means it’s nearly always with you. Austin Mann’s real world reviews each year really do a great job of showing just what’s possible. I look forward to getting a chance to employ the new portrait lighting (and new to me) portait modes in the near future.
Check out some of his previous reviews, even if the reviews themselves are now dated, the images & videos are still great:
Hiking through woods of Acadia
Early this spring, on the heels of a successful trip to Iceland, John, Luis, and I began discussing the idea of late summer trip to "somewhere fun". After a series of emails and text messages, Acadia National Park in Maine was chosen, and our good pal, Brandon, had eagerly joined in on the fun. Flights were booked, a rental apartment was found, and hikes were researched. We planned to pack as much fun into our extended weekend as was reasonably possible. I think we were successful.
John, Luis, and Brandon all chose to book an earlier afternoon flight, which boarded, took off, and landed without a hitch. I, however, had a different path. A cancellation, 3 re-booked flights, and a brief delay on the tarmac unfortunately delayed my arrival until after the boys had called it a night.
The day started rather poorly when, with little sleep and less water, I nearly passed out scrambling over some rocks during a sunrise shoot with Brandon. Things started looking up rather quickly though, as we grabbed a quick breakfast at The Holy Donut, and hit the road for Southwest Harbor.
Sunrise view a light from Fort Williams Park in Portland, ME.
We made two pit stops on our way to Southwest Harbor, once for lunch at a quaint little deli, whose name I don't recall, and again in Rockland to check out the Rockland Breakwater Light
From here, we made the rest of the approximately 3 hour journey to our homebase for the weekend: Southwest Harbor. Our rental for the weekend was a great little apartment in the Cannery building at Dysart's Marina.
Once settled, we hopped right back into the car, and made our way into the park for a couple of afternoon hikes.
We decided to stick to an area of the Acadia a short drive from Southwest Harbor, the St. Sauveur and Acadia Mountain Loop. A 3.9 mile loop spanning two summits (Acadia & Sauveur), this hike featured some incredible views of Valley Cove and Somes Sound. This hike proved to be a good warm-up for the weekend, sapping us of our remaining day one energy, and sending us home excited for more.
John, Brandon, and Luis look out over Acadia National Park from the summit of Mt. Sauveur.
Dinner post-hike took us first to Bass Harbor Lighthouse for sunset, and then to a lobster pound, Thurston's (Brandon was a repeat customer). After fighting off the bugs and personal-space-unaware patrons, we polished off a steamed lobster each, and called it a night.
After looking at the weather forecast, we realized that we'd have the opportunity for a nice sunrise before the day's hikes, so alarms were set, coffee was prepared, lunches were packed, and off we went at 4:30 in the morning to catch the country's first light from the summit of Cadillac Mountain. It's hard to even describe how incredible the view and light was from this vantage point. While it certainly was crowded, it's an experience I'd recommend to anyone visitng the Northeast.
For the day's hikes, we made our to the parking lot at Sand Beach, dropped the car off, and made the short walk over to The Beehive for the park's 2nd most difficult hike, which checked in at 1.3 miles.
(Author's Note: Unfortunately, my fear of heights conquered me about 2/3 of the way up the mountain, so I made my way back down to wait for John, Luis, and Brandon, who quickly and fearlessly conquered the summit, iron rungs, bridges, and all.)
After the Beehive, we chose to take the relaxing and scenic Ocean Trail (4.2 miles roundtrip). We made our way past landmarks such as Thunder Hole and Monument Cove, ultimately stopping when we arrived at Otter Cliff for some relaxation. Our return trip to the car led us to the top of the day's second summit, Gorham Mountain, where we ate our lunch, and relaxed for a few before trudging back to the car.
Looking to do something unique for dinner, we booked a water taxi from our adopted marina home through the fog to Little Cranberry Island for drinks and a fantastic meal at Isleford Dock Restaurant.
Luis snaps a photo of Champlain Mountain after climbing to the top of Precipice.
After a couple days of hiking we decided to skip sunrise for our final day in the park. Instead, we woke up, and headed straight for Precipice Trail (1.5 miles). After my experience at the The Beehive, I opted for the "scenic route", (adding about a mile to my journey), and began my ascent up the Champlain North Ridge Trail, where I met the guys at the summit of Champlain Mountain. Unfortunately, it was yet another foggy morning, so there weren't many views to be had at the top.
Following Precipice, we hopped in the car with an eye towards one more summit, South Bubble, in order to marvel at the impossibility that is Bubble Rock. After our 6th summit (well, 5th for me, technically) in 3 days, we moseyed our way back to the car along the Jordan Pond Loop, and left the park for the weekend's final time.
Knowing that we only had one evening left before heading back home to recover, we were left with no choice but to consume, you guessed it, more lobster (this time at Beal's Lobster Pier). With full bellies and tired legs, we stumbled back to our weekend rental, and spent the rest of the evening relaxing with a few beverages and many episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Dark & Stormy, Lobster Stew, Onion Rings, and a Lobster Roll w/Garlic Aioli.
After a filling breakfast at Eat-a-Pita in Southwest Harbor, we got in the car, hopped on the highway, and began making our way back to Portland. Stops for tastings at Maine Beer Company in Freeport and Allagash Brewing Company in Portland hit the spot. We were all on an early evening flight, so after some time relaxing at a local park, we headed to the airport for the flight home, but not before two more lobster-based meals: lobster mac at Andy's Old Port Pub and lobster grilled cheese at Linda Bean's Maine Kitchen.
I think I speak for Brandon, John, and Luis when I say that this trip was absolutely fantastic. We hiked, we ate, we laughed, we nursed sore legs, we dragged cameras with us anywhere and everywhere, and we had nothing but fun. I'd wholeheartedly recommend just about everything that we did on our trip to anyone looking for an adventure in the northeast. It's an incredible part of the country with spectacular scenery.
As I've hopefully demonstrated in this post, it's hard to find a better place to bring a camera, and capture some images that you'll cherish for the rest of your life.
I look forward to my next visit. If you're planning a visit to Acadia, and have questions, feel free to reach out.
