Your Tax Dollars at Work...

P042409PS-0122
Originally uploaded by The Official White House Photostream

I guess these guys deserve a little break too...

Pirates!

For a change of pace from all the fancy finance news, check out this Planet Money podcast on piracy (although you do have skip through some of the finance stuff first). They take a purely economic look at the pirate business. All it would take is one small shift in the model (more violence, armed cargo ships, higher insurance premiums) and the whole business falls apart - economically anyway.

Logos

So much for the frequent blogging... Shame on me. The last few days I've been giving some serious thought to stepping up my photography marketing. In fact, I've found a designer to come up with a logo for branding. The designer is actually an old high school friend that I reconnected with on Facebook. Yes Facebook does have some merit, but I still don't need to know what everyone is having for dinner.

Discovery Launch

Discovery Launch
Originally uploaded by scottlawrence

Shrinking Shuffle

Check out Apple's new iPod Shuffle. Just when you think it couldn't get any smaller, it does. Apple dropped the display with the first and second shuffle and with this version they dropped the controls. All the music controls are on the earbud cord. And it talks to you! The Shuffle uses "VoiceOver" to speak the song title, album and playlist.

Yes, this allows multiple playlists and navigation with a screen-less iPod. That was my only complaint with the first generation Shuffle. I always like to have some podcasts on hand. But combining podcasts and music was never fun. Jumping from music to podcast just didn't work.

Pretty impressive. What better product to innovate in this abysmal economy than the most affordable iPod?

Photo Book

Today FedEx dropped off my 2008 Photo book.   I designed it in Apple's Aperture software, my preferred photo management program.   The results are stunning!  It's a hard bound book complete with a dust jacket.   This year, I'm making a conscious attempt to get more of my work on paper.   The books are a perfect way to do it.   I'm also trying some large 13x19 prints, but as I'm finding, they're pricey to frame.  

The intent of the book was to capture my best work from 2008.   Towards the end of the year it drifts to more of a family theme for obvious reasons.  But I tried to keep the standards high.  Some of the family shots are very appropriate for the theme as I set up them up (lights, timer, etc).  

At nearly $70 with shipping, it wasn't cheap.  But I'm very happy with the results.  At minimum, I'll plan to do one a year.  The next obvious book would be Shelby's first year in photos.

Free Shipping!

That's right, free 2 day shipping with Amazon Prime. It's only $79 a year. As Jon Stewart pointed out in an interview with Jeff Bezos, "then it's not free." Marketing fluff aside, I love the service. It makes impulse buying on Amazon so easy.

On Thursday, I decided to order the tripod I had been eyeing for months. For only $4, they send it with next day shipping. That's still cheaper than sales tax.