Tag: photo

Daily Life

I Forgot How It Works

One of the things I love is photography. Specifically, street photography. There’s just something about those types of images that resonate with me. As a sometimes wanna-be photographer, I think I have a pretty good “eye” for images. What I don’t have is the technical background of an actual photographer. Is that important with today’s modern cameras? Yes, and I’ll illustrate why.

The last few years I’ve gotten lazy and stopped carrying a “regular” camera. Instead I’ve used my cell phone. Why wouldn’t you? They take fantastic images and you don’t have to do anything other than push a button. Since all I ever do is post those pictures to my Instagram, the workflow is seamless. So why bother with a real camera? A couple of reasons. The first is that those images are great… for viewing on a phone or small tablet. Blow them up much more than that and you’ll be disappointed. What looked fabulous on a phone screen will show grain, clipping, poor focus, and pixelating on a big monitor or print. Second, Instagram is disappearing as a place for photography. They’ve gone the way of Tik Tok and seem to show nothing but reels nowadays.

So if you want full control over light, grain, aperture, and movement you’ll need to be using an actual camera. So the other day that’s what I did. I dug out my camera and walked downtown to a local bike race. I figured it would be a perfect venue to get pictures of racers and spectators.

The problem was that it had been so long since I’d used the camera, I completely forgot how. I got home and didn’t have a single usable image. Out of focus, poor exposure, bad framing, you name it I did it. You could say that it was understandable since I hadn’t used it in quite a while, but that wasn’t the issue. The issue is that I barely knew what I was doing to start with. Sure, I could make the camera work and get lucky with an image if I went out shooting frequently. But there’s a difference between getting lucky and actually having an understanding of what you’re doing.

If I really knew what the reciprocal shutter speed and ISO was for a given aperture it wouldn’t have made a difference that I couldn’t see my LCD in the bright sunlight. If I knew what the hyperlocal distances were for my lens I could have used zone focusing instead of autofocus (which didn’t work). You get the idea. If I actually understood what I was doing, the camera itself wouldn’t make a difference.

So, it’s back to school for me. Time to start from scratch and relearn photography from the ground up. I want to become competent at the craft so my images aren’t luck – they’re by design and skill. Fortunately in this modern era we have the entirety of human knowledge about photography at our fingertips, for free. Let’s go!

Cool

Let’s Make A List

A couple days ago I posted that I was contemplating allowing myself to get sucked into the Apple ecosystem. I still find it ironic that Apple at one time advertised themselves as the anti-establishment brand. Remember the 1984 super bowl ad by Ridley Scott? The PC back then was still associated with IBM and conformity. Now? Apple is the very picture of conformity. All the cool kids want to be in the massive Apple ecosystem. The edgy, rebellious, hackers are all using PC’s, Android devices, and gasp, Linux based machines. Kids of today have no idea.

Anyway, the rest of this post probably won’t be of interest to most folks, other than a few tech-curious people. I’m going to walk through my thought process on maybe, maybe not switching ecosystems.

First up, my current setup. I “work” in two locations, often for weeks at a time. My main location has my desktop PC. It’s about three years old, reasonably beefy (for its time) and capable of decent video and photo editing. My second location has a very old tablet PC (the very first gen Microsoft Surface. 2 cores and a massive 4 GB of RAM) that has never been capable of anything and finally bit the dust.

Option one, in a perfect world, I’d have a powerful video editing machine at each location so that I’m only carrying an external drive back and forth. That option is too expensive.

Option two is to have a powerful machine with a form factor that I can easily transport back and forth.

Option three is just replace the tablet with something inexpensive and continue to do my video/photo editing in just one location.

Here’s what Apples options look like:

  1. The new Macbook Air 15″. 8 core CPU, 10 core GPU, 16GB memory, 512 GB storage, 2 ports. Would not need to buy a monitor. $1,700
  2. Mac Mini. 8 core CPU, 10 core GPU, 16 GB memory, 256 GB storage, 4 ports + HDMI. Will need to purchase at least one monitor. $800
  3. Mac Studio. 12 core CPU, 30 core GPU, 32 GB memory, 512 GB storage, 8 ports + HDMI and SDXC. No monitor needed. $2,000

So my thought process goes like this… Option 1 is clearly the most portable, but I’ve always worked at a “desk” environment. It gives the option to work at a coffee shop, in the backyard, on the couch, etc… but it’s unclear if I’d ever take advantage of that. It’s just not something I’ve ever done.

Option 2 is reasonably portable. Adding a second monitor and keyboard puts the price pretty close to option 1.

Option 3 is clearly the best choice for video editing. But it’s not really portable so I’d have to also buy an inexpensive iPad for location 2 and continue to just edit in one location.

All three options will require buying external drive(s). Apples SSD storage is ridiculously expensive and slow. Additionally, moving to the Apple ecosystem will require buying an iPhone eventually.

So what to do? I think option 3 is out. The Mac Studio is an amazing machine for the money. Maybe someday if I develop a YouTube empire, but probably not realistic for now.

Option 1 feels like it gives the most flexibility. But if I ever decide I want a regular monitor/keyboard experience in both locations, option 2 becomes the most cost-effective choice.

Or maybe… I just get an inexpensive iPad to see if I even like the Apple interface and readdress all this in 2-3 years when my desktop PC is too outdated and/or my existing phone dies?

Analysis paralysis is real my friends. And don’t even get me started on looking for a new office chair…

Health

Envy Of The Fitness Aristocrats

This morning as I was scrolling through the Twitters, I came across a tweet from some blue check personality who looked like an actress of some sort. She was slim and toned, holding a green looking drink, and posted something like “love my post workout smoothie!” She was standing in a high-end gym with large windows overlooking the ocean. The thought that flashed through my head was yeah, it’s pretty easy to look great when you have attendants and trainers to cater to you and your workout at two in the afternoon. If all I had to do was sleep in, eat the breakfast my personal chef made for me, show up at the resort gym and do what the instructors said, then drink the kale and Ka’Chava smoothie my assistant had waiting for me – I’d look like that too. Ok, maybe not wearing a pink leotard but you get what I mean. Like when the Rock posts on Instagram about getting off his private jet and heading to his multi-thousand square foot private home gym, with every piece of fitness equipment ever invented, for a late-night workout… it just doesn’t resonate with us common folks.

Except that’s just jealousy on my part. Not of the wealth and privilege, but of the commitment these folks have. Fitness and weight loss take determination. A resolve to restrict calories and to push yourself physically. Is it harder for a working mom to find a way to drive to the gym at 05:00 AM to work out before the kids get up, than the celebrity who has an attendant to wipe their brow and take pictures for Instagram? Of course. But at the end of the day, both of them have to show up, do the work, and give a pass on that piece of chocolate cake if they want to look the way they do. Most of us don’t have that resolve.

The envy is really just a manifestation of your own self-pity for not having the same resolve. To succeed in fitness, working out needs to become a basic part of your life. Like brushing your teeth, getting the laundry done, and taking out the trash – finding an hour to get a workout of some sort in has to be just a standard part of your day.

Not being a physically strong person, I’ve hated “working out” my entire life. It hurts, it’s a huge ego blow when all you can lift is the pink “my pretty pony” barbell, and it’s overwhelming to try and figure out where to start. Weeks and weeks go by, and it feels like you’ve made zero progress other than every muscle now hurts when walking down the stairs or brushing your teeth. The mental resolve it takes to keep hitting the gym, morning bootcamp in the park, or daily jog is massive. People who are fit can’t appreciate the resolve it takes to go from zero to a daily fitness routine.

I’ve only once, briefly crossed that line into habit. A few summers ago, I decided to start running. For a while it was all I could do to get around the block. Then I started trail running. I’d walk more than run. And then at some point I realized I was running (slowly) without stopping. And then I got a little faster and my distances started increasing. By the end of that summer, I was comfortably running mountain trails at 7,000 feet and doing 6-10 miles. I was almost… so close… to that feeling of needing to run. I didn’t quite crave it – I was still doing it as a way to drop pounds – but there were a few days where something got in the way and I couldn’t go for a run, and I found myself actually missing it. I wasn’t sore any more afterwards, and even started making plans for what type of runs to do each week. That’s the threshold that needs to be crossed – you look forward to a workout and regret it when you miss one.

I obviously didn’t cross far enough past that line, as I was motivationally derailed shortly afterwards and lost all the progress I’d made. So here we are again, back at square one. My personal fitness Groundhog Day. I see the fabulous people on the social medias, bragging about their workouts. 

"Just killed a workout with the best trainer ever! Going to snack on three almonds, then get ready for a ten-mile run this afternoon. Coconut water is the best!! Love all my fans!!!!!"

I briefly get motivated after seeing these posts. I will do a workout today. Right after drinking this seventh cup of coffee. And watching some motivational David Goggins on the IG. Crap, it’s really cold out there and it’s already lunchtime. Ok, ok, ok. I’ll eat lunch, let it settle, and then go for a run. Promise. After this nap. Shoot, I forget I need to go to the store. Well… it’s almost dinnertime now. Alright, I PROMISE I’ll get up early and go run tomorrow morning.

My fitness Groundhog Day. Every day. The embarrassing part of all this is that I have the ability to be a member of the very fitness aristocracy I was jealous of, if I chose. I have a decent home gym. I only work a few days a week, so my time is unlimited. I could afford a trainer if I wanted. The foothills and running trails are a few blocks away. I’m in a very fortunate position to be able to buy, make, or order whatever food, nutritional supplements, or fancy Ka’Chava smoothie machines I want. If I decided that leopard skin running tights, or a fancy heart rate monitor was the limiting factor to my training, Amazon can have it at my doorstep tomorrow. There literally is zero barrier to my becoming an Olympic-class athlete (age adjusted, of course).

Except that pesky motivation issue. The drive to simply lace up the shoes and just do it, as Nike reminds us. Giving up and resorting to wearing velour track suits like an old school gangster would certainly be easier. Trust me, I’ve thought about it. But deep down, I’m not happy with how I feel right now. I need to make that change. To find a way to put up with the initial pain and cross that line to a healthy fitness lifestyle.

As I revisit where I started out with this post, I’m thinking that the secret isn’t money or fitness aristocracy… it’s the photos. I suspect the real secret to success is taking killer pictures of yourself working out, so you can brag about it on social media. That leads to accountability. If I just start posting daily pictures of my workout, eventually my six Twitter followers will start expecting a daily photo. And I’m not one to disappoint my fans.

Hmmm. Do I go with a high-end, fancy equipment Troutdog workout photo theme?

Just finished measuring my VO2max. Going to get some zone 3 intervals in on my Peloton, then drink a recovery shake!

Maybe a grungy, military/mountain Troutdog photo theme would fit better?

Just finished a twenty-mile run carrying this big rock. Going to go home and drink some homemade bone broth and then lance these blisters.

Either way, this will take some planning. You may want to sign up for my socials and newsletter now, so you can follow along with my fitness journey and not miss out.

Because I’m fairly positive, most likely, unless something comes up, definitely starting tomorrow.