Stobist Boot Camp II Assignment

I've been reading the Strobist blog for a couple years now - learning a lot! On occasion, he runs assignments and this one was quite fun. The basic challenge was to create a portrait. There was one catch and one request. The catch was that once the model had been photographed, the model was to shoot the photographer - always fun for both parties to break the comfort zone. The request was to offer your photographic services to someone looking for a job in this dismal economy. Otherwise, the assignment was pretty open.

While I wasn't able to photograph a job hunter, I decided to photograph me and Bonnie. Thankfully, we are both employed, in fact, about 8 months ago we took on a new career as parents. And that new job has forced me to be a little more efficient in my photography since free time is just slightly more scarce than it once was.

Here's what I came up with. Note the details in Flickr.

A New Grill

Since grilling is a year round sport in Florida, I decided to invest in a new grill. The old one was showing its age - burners knobs had melted a bit, starter didn't work, and the burners were starting to fall apart.

Anyway, the new one works great! I've cooked steak (wrapped in bacon, thanks to Publix), pork, and some dessert. Yes, dessert! Grilled apples with crumb topping, thanks to the Weber Grill website. It tasted as good as it looks...

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?