TrevorCarpenter.com

I really enjoyed Iron Man. I really liked the cartoon and the comic. Like Batman, Iron Man is great because he is intelligent and full of ingenuity. He’s no mutant or alien. That’s what I like about him.

OK, retro kid thoughts over…

I’m glad to see Robert Downy, Jr. do a good film. I’m sure that this summer’s huge list of blockbusters will overshadow this one, because it’s so early in the season. However, it surly will be purchased in our home. Our kids get to see a lot of the action and adventure films. We mostly steer clear of sexual stuff. With that said, we’ll have to skip one scene, if we let the kids see this one.

• Good action.
• Tells the back story of the superhero.
• I love that Marvel wasn’t afraid of making the bad guys be Middle Eastern terrorists. Well, they’re not the only bad guy.

It’s hard not to make a predictable movie, when everyone already knows the major story plots and sub-plots. Modernizing it, with the terrorists was a nice touch. Purists may not be happy.

OK, I’m done.

Oh, one more thing. Not once do I remember hearing Bob Junior say, in the suit, “I am Iron Man.” We heard it in the previews, but not in the film. Bummed me out. I’ll get over it.

Trevor, out.

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This summer has a huge list of great potential blockbuster films being released. I’m curious about some, and down right excited about others. Here’s the list, in order of release date…

• Iron Man
• Speed Racer
• The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
• The Dark Night
• Kung Fu Panda
• Hancock
• Get Smart
• WALL-E
• The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
• The Clone Wars

OK, so the last one isn’t a theater release. But, it must be on there! Any continuation of the Star Wars saga must always be included.

Now, some of these you might have skipped, and that is your right. I, however, am very excited about each of these.

If I remember, I’ll try to review each of them, as I see them.

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I really enjoy Flickr. It serves me well. I’m able to interact with my friends’ photography, and meet new people. I’m able to get a decent sized audience to view my work, and sometimes get their reaction and critique.

The one thing, though, is that I can’t really sell my work on Flickr. If I’m hired to shoot a family’s portraits, Flickr isn’t always the best place to help that client see and purchase their work.

You probably know that I also love Smugmug. Without turning this into a sales pitch for Smugmug, I thought I’d simply mention that I’m slowly reworking my Smugmug account, to be my professional gallery. The place where a client can go to view and purchase the photographs I take for them.

I’ve set it up, so that my own domain will be a part of the action. Above, on the tab bar, you may notice “Photography”. That will lead you to my Smugmug Gallery.

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OK, so a few times recently my camera has taken a very odd looking photo. I know it’s not an error on my part, because I cannot associate it with any action. So I’m tossing it out to you, what’s going on?

Here’s a few samples:

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A week or so back, I produced and uploaded a high quality photo slideshow of photos from my nephew’s first birthday. The video is great. The compression was horrible.

Then my favorite photo-sharing website, Smugmug, added HD video to their features. Sweet! I recompressed my video and uploaded it last night. It’s so much better! I don’t think I’ll be needing Vimeo anymore, maybe.

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Yesterday I was in a special mood. I don’t know why, but I was grouchy for a bit. However, as usual, I wander the internets reading blog posts and articles.

Apparently, I stumbled upon one of my dailies, and posted a comment. Well, I guess my comment was a bit off topic, or something. I was also critical. I know, I know, that’s out of the ordinary for me. Usually I’m such an amicable kind of guy.

Well, the blog post in question was over at Scott Kelby’s blog. The article is titled, Camera Raw, Bridge, or Lightroom? Basically, Scott had a question about the confusion over using the RAW converter in Photoshop, Bridge, and Lightroom. Rather than answer the question directly to the asker, he blogged it. Makes sense. I’d do the same. In my special mood, I read the article and was curious about why Scott didn’t mention anything about Apple’s Aperture.

Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!

Now, let me be clear. I was a bit harsh in my comment. I was being sarcastic. I guess it was enough for Scott to reply with a blog post today.

However, I am still curious about Scott deciding to take a specific question, from one fan, and answer it generally for the public. Now, if the original question happened to come from a Windows user, then a Windows based answer is appropriate. But, to bring the discussion to a more open forum, and attempt to become more general, why not include a wider set of variables to the question?

Why not consider the RAW converters in most of the industry standards for photographers? I’m sure if you included Apple Aperture, Nikon NX, and maybe an open solution, he’d have generated a much more curious dialogue. I expect a more narrow conversation from lower level bloggers, like myself. But from the top bloggers, I expect more.

So, I apologize for my attitude. And I wish I had posed my question differently. However, I am still curious. I understand that Scott has made his brand loyalty choice. That’s fine. However, when reading his awesome book, The Digital Photography Book, you don’t have him telling you all about his Nikon cameras. Yes, he prefers Nikon. But, his book looks more generally at the issues facing all photographers. Scott is a great writer and instructor. Why can’t I expect that a blog at ScottKelby.com would provide me with the same high level of fairness in evaluation?

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Hey yall! My first article is published over at Be A Good Dad.

Be A Good Dad is a fatherhood related blog. The 4 of us dads who are now writing for it are all unique, yet united in our desires to be great dads.

Head over and give it a read!

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While the Catholic Pope was visiting the District of Columbia, the United States Army Chorus performed a wonderful hymn for him. The Battle Hymn of the Republic.

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My oldest son and I are working on a fun little garage project together.

As you know, I take my daughter out a lot, to shoot photography. We have that to share. My oldest son and I haven’t been doing something like that. So, I decided that we’d undertake a project together. It has been fun.

This project will be a framed chalkboard. My wife has wanted something like this, to hang on the wall.

We took a long piece of red oak and cut it down into four smaller lengths, to eventually become the frame. Next, I got to use my Dremel tool, with a little plunge router attachment, to route down a recessed groove along the back of each oak piece. I then used my chop saw to cut the ends to 45 degree angles.

Once they were ready, I glued and nailed them together, to form the frame. Once the glue was dry, I wiped it down with a nice oil/orange combo.

The chalkboard is made from an extra piece of plywood I had laying around. I had to fill it in with a lot of putty, as plywood isn’t the best for finish work. Since I was eventually going to paint it, I knew that the putty would be fine. The puttying took three applications, interspersed with sanding. This step was perfect for my son to help me. He was able to do some puttying, and I had him do most of the early sanding. I just made him a nice sanding block, by stapling some sanding paper to a small 2×4 block. The final sanding I did with my power sander, and some much finer sandpaper.

This is where the project is now. We painted the first coat of chalkboard paint on the plywood. This afternoon it is drying. This evening, we may be able to paint another coat. My son will do that one. On Saturday, we’ll possibly sand the two coats, and paint another one or two. My goal is to have at least 4 coats of the chalkboard paint, before the final assembly.

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I photographed my only nephew’s first birthday yesterday. Since the photos from my dSLR are larger than a typical HD image, I thought I’d make a nice, simple HD slideshow of the party. What do you think?

Wyatt’s 1st Birthday from Trevor Carpenter on Vimeo.

***Edit***
Ewww! That compression looks horrible. I’ll have to check out why it’s so low res.

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You know, I love being a dad. Over the last 8 years I’ve learned and grown so much. Many of my closest friends and family will tell you how much I’ve changed.

Blogging has been a real help for me. It’s like I get to journal, but you get to read it.

As you have seen, my photography obsession has involved not just me, but all my family too. I’ve had tons of fun photographing my kids. It really started with a desire to be able to shoot them better.

So, I thought I’d tell you all about a fun new venture I’ll be taking. In a couple of weeks, you’ll see a new article by me at BeAGoodDad.com. I have joined the team of dads, blogging about all things, fatherhood.

Each of the authors have a certain perspective and experience that will help keep the whole thing quite balanced. Head on over and take a read.

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This morning we watched Idol Gives Back, the now annual American Idol special episode. It was actually broadcast last night, but we like to watch Idol with the kids, and sometimes we wait until the following morning to enjoy it as a family.

I must say, with all the hype and contest aside, I am always caught off guard by the stories, ushered in by a celebrity. I am generally an emotional person anyway. But seeing pop-culture icons meeting and telling the story of suffering is pretty cool. I mean, who knew that a simple, horrible, story of a young family, headed by the oldest 15 year old brother would bring Annie Lennox to tears?

What I love the most about this television program is a few things. First, they seem to try hard to keep it a non-political program. Over the last few years, I’ve watch U2’s Bono as he embraces his new calling to change the world. I actually think he’s making a difference. It’s cool that he’s humble enough to open up his arms, and allow Idol to be a part of his own program. Even though I’m sure we can all conclude which direction Bono’s political beliefs swing, he doesn’t seem to try to and manipulate our principles. He’s focused on making a real difference.

OK, the other thing I love is that Idol Gives Back is a perfect example of people using their influence to make a difference. Companies rise to the occasion and give. Individuals rise to the occasion and give. Celebrities use their name and face to help us all get involved. This is proof to me, that the government should never have gotten involved in social programs. The government generally wastes money, time, and energy, when they get into social programs. But when big business does it, we see efficiency, effectiveness, and success.

On a side note, Simon, could you please help the honorable Gordon Brown get a suit that fits?

You can still donate, head to IdolAid.com to donate now.

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