1704.9 Miles, 131.2 Gallons of gas
I recently got back from a road trip to Death Valley. The main purpose of the trip was to attend John Paul Caponigro's Death Valley workshop which was excellent (I'll write more about this later). For the trip back home I decided to take Hwy 395 to Tahoe and explore the Alabama Hills, Obsidian Dome, Devil's Post Pile, Mono Lake, and Bodie. There are other stops along the way (such as the Bristle-cone Pines) but I had read up and found they were not accessible during the winter.
Well it turns out most of the sights along Hwy 395 were closed for winter. Nothing in my research had given me any indication that this would be the case and in looking at the map I didn't realize that most of Hwy 395 was above 6000 ft. A big storm had come through the day before my trek so I was unable to get to visit any of the stops except Alabama Hills and some of Mono Lake. I will write more about both of these stops in future posts.
It was a great trip any way and one I plan to repeat in the summer.
2011 Academy Award Best Picture Nominees
Every year I attempt to watch all of the Academy Award Best Picture Nominees prior to the Oscars broadcast. It is often a challenge as some of the films are no longer in theaters and the DVD has not been released. It has also gotten more difficult as there are now 10 nominees instead of the 5 there were a few years ago.
Today I completed the task of watching all 10 Best Picture Nominees. It's been fun and I've gotten to watch some excellent movies. Here is my take of the 10 nominees.
True Grit
One of my favorites of the bunch. Excellent performances by Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, and Hailee Steinfeld. I liked that this closely followed the book. I enjoyed every minute of it.
The King's Speech
I throughly enjoyed this movie. I knew nothing about King George VI and did not know this was a true story going into it. Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter were all excellent in this. I expect Colin Firth to win for best actor and would not be surprised if Geoffrey Rush won best supporting actor. I thought he was excellent.
Winter's Bone
I knew nothing about this movie going into it. I enjoyed it because it took me into a world I didn't know existed. I thought it was a somewhat depressing movie and it didn't really stick with me after watching, but I was fascinated while watching. It was well done but will not win the Best Picture award
Black Swan
I am not really a fan of psychological thrillers and while this movie was well done it was not one of my favorites. I didn't not enjoy watching scenes that later turned out to just be Natalie Portman's fantasy/dreams. Natalie Portman was excellent in this and I expect her to win Best Actress.
The Fighter
The story didn't really interest me but I thought the acting was excellent. I expect Christian Bale to win Best Supporting Actor.
Inception
I enjoyed this movie because it was so unique and made you think. So few movies do that nowadays. Besides being unique though I'm not sure it is Best Picture caliber.
The Kids Are All Right
I was bored by this movie. It was only mildly interesting and I'm really surprised by all the critical acclaim it has received.
127 Hours
I knew a lot about this event and knew how it ended so I wasn't sure how you could make an entire movie out of this single event. The resulting movie was well done and kept me entertained. Some of the choices the director made irritated me (the split screen views) but overall it was very well done.
The Social Network
I enjoyed this movie but I don't think is is Best Picture material. It was well done, well acted, but at the end of the day it was telling the story about an individual that I didn't find that interesting.
Toy Story 3
The story was very well done and evoked a lot of emotion (I admit I teared up at the end). It won't win Best Picture, but it was definitely one of the top 10 movies of the year.
So that's my take on all 10. I think True Grit or The King's Speech should win. Looking forward to watching the Oscars this weekend to find out.
Commercial Parody
Here is a comedy short I just completed.
Me Time - Commercial Parody from Moose and Monkey Productions on Vimeo.
David Mamet on Drama
Here is a memo written by David Mamet about how to write drama. It has a lot of great tips in it.
Changes to this Blog
I have a lot of varied interests, photography, woodworking, filmmaking, etc. as well as multiple businesses. In the past I have had multiple blogs for each of these interests. The idea was if your interest was photography you would be more likely to follow my blog if it stuck to the photography topic.
In theory this works great, but in practice it breaks down because I'm just too busy to have a constant stream of posts about any one topic.
So I have decided to combine everything and have a single repository for all my thoughts. So from henceforth this blog will contain information about all of interests and perhaps occasionally a random personal opinion. I will try to categorize all my posts so if you are only interested in a single topic you can filter the posts to only show that topic.
With this change I expect to make more frequent posts and hopefully supply useful information.
Let me know what you think. Any and all feedback is welcome.
Issue with Canon 5D MkII Lockups/Freezing with Video
I just started experimenting with video on my 5DmkII and it's been frustrating. The camera repeatedly locks up during recording. It says the buffer is full, flashes a "Busy" message on the status LCD, and won't power down. The only solution is to remove the battery and lose the video that was recording. Not ideal.
It took me a while but I finally came across this blog post that describes the problem and solution.
Tip: Canon 5D MarkII - Video Locks Up/Freezing (Solution)
Pinup Workshop
I am teaching a workshop on shooting Pinup photos, next Thursday Dec 10th. If you are local and interested, sign-up and join us. Details can be found on Meetup.com
60 Most Wanted Photoshop Tutorials, Brushes, Textures
Stumbled across this blog post today and it has some great information.
http://www.noupe.com/photoshop/60-most-wanted-photoshop-tutorials-brushes-psds-and-resources.html
Just browsing though it, there are way more than 60 tutorials. In fact what this is, is a list of 60 lists of tutorials. So this list represents 1000s of tutorials.
A lot of the tutorials cover the same topics (I counted 12 talking about HDR), but there are some real gems in there. I especially liked some of the tutorials in 50 Excellent Digital Photography Photoshop Tutorials
Selling my Canon 50D and 17-55mm f/2.8 Lens
I purchased a Canon 5DmkII yesterday so I'm am selling my Canon 50D body and an EF-S Lens.
Canon 50D - includes box and all items that come new - Canon battery, manuals, strap, CDs, cables, charger + an extra battery. Purchased on 10/2/08 and has about 28K clicks. Still looks great, no significant wear or scratches. Price - $875 including Paypal and shipping in ConUS
Canon EFS 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Lens - comes with box, lens hood, lens caps, and instructions. This lens has been used for a total of 3K shots and is in great condition. No scratches or blemishes on the lens. Just purchased a 5DMkII so no longer can use this lens. Price - $850 including Paypal and shipping in ConUS
Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk
Ni Ki Cruz Photography Mediacast [09-199D]: Photo Walk Conversation with Craig Colvin
I participated in the Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk yesterday and had a great time. Carlos of Ni Ki Cruz Photography did a video inteview with me after the photo walk and you can watch it on BlipTV
The Photo Walk was a lot of fun, I got some great photos which I will posting soon