TrevorCarpenter.com

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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Yesterday I had the great opportunity to shoot another architectural photo shoot. I shot two residences and earned enough to acquire a copy of Apple Aperture 2.0 and step a bit closer to my first real strobe kit. I’ve been shooting with my one speedlight and renting more when I need them. Yesterday, I rented a pair of genuine dyna-lite strobes, from Samy’s. I’m very grateful to have been able to shoot with those nice lights. I’m sold on strobes!

Additionally, I tested out Aperture 2.0, with their 30 day trial, over the last month. My trial expired a week back, and I was actually sad when it did. Not that I don’t have decent alternative asset management  and editing. I have been using a combo Adobe Bridge and Photoshop system. It has worked well for almost a year. Unfortunately, upgrading to Adobe’s Lightroom is really the professional step they want you to make. I trialed Lightroom late last year, and I didn’t like it. I didn’t like the modular system. I didn’t like how it performed on my slower Mac Mini. I simply didn’t like how it flowed.

I had played with Aperture in version 1.0, and quickly didn’t like it. But I think the biggest killer was that it was dog slow. Then came version 2.0.

The most important change to 2.0 was the speed enhancements. It’s now quite smooth, even on my slower Mac Mini. I can’t afford to upgrade the Mac right now, so a software solution that can effectively operate on it, is more than likely going to get my vote. In the next week or so, I’ll review what I do with Aperture, and show you my workflow. I have noticed that many more people use Aperture than I originally thought. So I’d like to help increase Aperture’s awareness just a bit.

So yesterday, I got it installed and processed the photo shoot with it. Lovely.

Today I woke up to see a big announcement from Apple about Aperture 2.1. What?! No problem, a free upgrade for me. It’s not loaded with a huge number of improvements. However, it is loaded with one massive feature addition. PLUGINS!

Now third party developers can design plugins to assist and enhance the editing within Aperture. Over time, I may not need to load Photoshop at all. I don’t have a problem with Photoshop, but how sweet will it be to only need one clean solution for my photo processing needs. I’ve heard great things about the solutions from Nik Software. Maybe they can be enticed to produce their plugins for Aperture too.

To show us how nice this new plugin system is, Apple included one nice plugin with the update.

“Dodge & Burn Plug-in. A sample plug-in is pre-installed, taking advantage of the Edit API introduced in Aperture 2.0. The plug-in adds brush-based tools for Dodge (Lighten), Burn (Darken), Contrast, Saturation, Sharpen and Blur.”

I was actually poking around the manual last night, looking for dodging and burning. Sweet! I’m real excited about all these new tools and how I’ll get to use them.

****edit***

StudioLighting.net is reporting that several top notch plugin developers have announced…

Expected additions to Aperture plug-ins include:

• Nik Software’s Viveza plug-in, powered by U Point technology, which provides a powerful, precise and easy way for photographers to selectively control and adjust color and light in their digital images;

• PictureCode’s Noise Ninja plug-in that delivers advanced high ISO noise analysis and reduction;

• Digital Film Tools’ Power Stroke plug-in that features a simple, stroke-based interface to quickly mask and intuitively perform targeted adjustments;

• The Tiffen Company’s Dfx plug-in that provides an expansive suite of creative filters and effects;

• dvGarage’s dpMatte plug-in, which is a high performance chroma key tool for creating seamless composites, and the HDRtoner plug-in that enables the selection of multiple photos to create a single high dynamic range (HDR) image; and

• Image Trends’ plug-ins that include Fisheye-Hemi to quickly and effortlessly correct fisheye lens distortion, ShineOff which automatically removes shine from faces and PearlyWhites that automatically whitens and brightens teeth.

Sweet! I shot over to Nik Software’s page and discovered that they’re already announcing compatibility with Aperture 2.1 in May 2008. (less than 2 months away)

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A week back, I really wanted to hit The Getty Center with my daughter, The Princess. We lost our shot, and so I rescheduled for this week.

Yesterday, we drove down to the parking structure, adjacent to the 405 freeway, just down the hill from The Getty. If you don’t know about The Getty Center, it’s possibly one of the best and largest collections of art in the Southern California region. It opened a few years ago to some huge fanfare and has been busy ever since.

You have to pay $8 for parking, but getting into the museum is free. Yeah, free!

I actually wanted to take public transportation all the way down there. Unfortunately, public trans in LA is a joke. There are several different organizations operating different parts of the system. So, we’d have to get on a borrowed seat on the Amtrak train out of Camarillo. Technically we’d be traveling the Metrolink. However, they don’t have enough trains, or something, and they rent seats on Amtrak. Then we’d connect with LA’s MTA for a bus to the Sepulveda/Getty drop-off. Here’s the catch. It’s $18, per person, one way. So, the two of us would be paying $72! That’s more than two tanks of gas in my little commuter Scion. We opted to drive. If urban communities want to help people contribute to helping the congestion, they need to be cheaper than driving. Even with today’s high gas prices, it’s a joke to think that I’d choose a 2 hour trip down and then 2 hours back, for more money.

OK, back to The Getty.

The Princess and I had a great time. We arrived around 11am and headed straight to the first building. We basically wandered from one to the next, covering every inch of each building. In one of the paintings exhibits, the have this really nice room with several large pieces on the walls and a couple of sculptures. They are all very typical museum pieces. Then, in the middle of the room they have several tables and drawing easels set up. The point is for anyone to wander up and sketch your own interpretation of the art on display. There were many people of varying ages that wandered in and out as we were there.

Well, The Princess is a very good artist. So we took the time so that she could sketch something of her own. She sat down at the table and looked around for a bit. Then she sorta grunted an “OK, I’m ready.” She leaned down and began to draw. It took me a few minutes to realize what she had chosen as her focus. She was drawing a young woman a few feet from her, who was in turn drawing one of the large paintings. It really was surprising to me. I was even a little emotional as I considered what she was doing. I wondered how many accomplished artists would have considered to draw someone drawing.

I could not pass this chance up, so I shot off a few frames. As you can see, she did a splendid job.

We took a break for a late lunch and then continued into the Photography exhibit. It was there that I discovered that they want to show you photographs, but don’t really like photographers.

Let me clarify. No one really gives me a hard time. I don’t let them. Also, the average security guard is intellectually scared off when you start using 3 or more syllable words. I engaged him with a short diatribe about copyright, and derivative works. He didn’t follow. I allowed him to leave, and I shot my one and only rule-breaking-shot. “This one’s for Thomas Hawk,” I thought to myself.

When we finished there, we decided to head home. We didn’t have time for the beautiful gardens, nor much more than one quick stop to enjoy the view. I promised her we’d return once more. Possibly for a group photowalk, this summer.

Above all, I had a great time with my daughter, enjoying some beautiful artwork and taking picture together. She’s a lot of fun. Oh yeah, BTW, that was her school day.

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So, heading into my weekend, this past week, I wanted to head out hiking with the family again. When I was young, I hiked a lot. In my young adult years, I hiked a lot too. Wanting to pass this on to my own kids, I’ve recently decided that we’re going to get out in the real outdoors at least once a month. Plus, hiking is good exercise for this fat guy.

I hit the internets looking for some pointers, cause most of the local good spots are a bit tired.

While drilling down from “ventura county day hikes”, I found a cool park in Simi Valley, CA. It’s called Corriganville Park. What makes it cool is its history. Corriganville Park used to be Corriganville Ranch, which used to be a prime location for Hollywood to head to the hills for some good old fashioned western films. It seems that Ray Corrigan bought the property back in 1937 for $11,354. Corrigan built up the property over the course of years for a variety of films like,

• Colorado Sunset, with Gene Autry
• Down Mexico Way, with Gene Autry
• The Lone Star Vigilantes, with Tex Ritter
• On the Old Spanish Trail, with Roy Rogers,
• Fort Apache, with John Wayne, Henry Fonda, and Shirley Temple
• and even the television show, Adventures of Rin Tin Tin

There’s quite a bit of history packed into that nice corner of Ventura County. If you’ve never seen it, I recommend you take an afternoon or morning and wander around a little bit. You won’t be sorry.

Dotted around the trails, which run all over the place, you’ll find signs detailing where once stood the structures used for these many films.

Our kids had a great time climbing all over the few pieces left from what was clearly once a great location for filming. Head over and check out my photoset from that day.

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One Hundred Great Americans

Today is Benjamin Franklin’s birthday. He was born in Boston, Mass., on January 17th, 1706. A great American who contributed not only to the forming of this great nation, but in many unique ways as well.

Hey, do you use bifocals? Ben did that! The circulating stove, aka the Franklin Stove, Ben did that. How about checking out a book at the library? Do you like that? Ben did that. You live in a rural area, with volunteer fire departments, Ben did that.

The first volunteer fire department in the United States was created by Ben, The Union Fire Company in Philadelphia.

Of course, Ben contributed so much more to our world. Not just being a creative thinker, but a tremendous writer and entrepreneur as well. Ben ran several successful business during his lifetime, including Pennsylvania Gazette and contributing to the first newspaper in Boston, The New England Courant, of which his brother started and published.

Uniquely enough, many don’t know what a large contribution Ben had to our independence. Yes, he was a part of the 5 who wrote the Declaration of Independence, even though Thomas Jefferson wrote the majority of it. Yet, as I’ve read more and more of Ben’s writings, I’m inclined to believe that Ben had a much larger role in the construction of that great American document.

However, another large contribution was that Ben took off for France as the first American ambassador, to France. Whilst there, Ben worked hard to secure not only a treaty with France, but many of the funds necessary to finance the upcoming war of independence.

After the war, he returned to his home in Pennsylvania, and served in a few capacities in public office. One of his last public acts was writing an anti-slavery treatise in 1789.

Ben Franklin, a great American.

(source: Wikipedia:Ben Franklin)

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You know, our local library opened its doors in a brand new facility this past year. Actually I think it opened several months ago. Anyway, we hadn’t taken the opportunity to go check it out and though we should.

Since we homeschool, using the local library really should be an important tool for the kids to learn and understand. Also, it’s only 3 blocks from our house. I know, I know, how easy could it be?

We decided yesterday that we would walk the whole family over there and check it out. So that’s just what we did. It’s safe because we don’t have to walk along any major street or cross any either. We put the Joker in his stroller and the other three walked just fine. Enjoy a few photos from the trip…

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For the few of you who are regular readers, you may have noticed that I’ve been tossing out Challenges to my photographically minded fans. In October, 2007, I challenged you all to select an area or genre of photography that you wanted to learn better. I chose black & white photography. In lieu of something else, many of you chose the same thing. That challenge turned out to be fun, challenging, and educational. I find myself looking at a scene with more awareness to the light balance now. This is a direct result of my black & white’s.

Then in December, 2007, I set out to shoot a portrait a day, all month long. This time many more people joined the Challenge. At one point I counted over 30 people submitting images to Flickr and Zooomr. I can’t say that I met the Challenge exactly, but hey it’s my challenge. I only missed a few days.

I’ve been working on some more ideas, to help expand the idea. I’m also working on a book idea, to combine the December Challenge into one nice catalog.

The largest project idea that has been birthed is to combine my existing efforts to document my own suburban community and the lessons of disciplined shooting, every day.

Today I’m announcing the 2008 Challenge. What is it? I’m challenging each participant to spend the whole year of 2008 documenting their community. All you need to do is commit to shoot just one great image a week. Just one a week. That’s not bad!

The one important thematic issue to follow is to shoot your community. We’re going to get out there and document our immediate community. Wherever you live, commit to shooting it. This will take a bit more work, thought, and planning however. I’m not looking for your best shot from your weekly photowalk. I’m looking for a thoughtful image representing your community from that week. So, for example, on Independence Day (in the USA), I’d like to see how your community celebrates our nation’s independence.

As the next week approaches, I’ll publish another post, with many examples of other photoblogs doing similar things. Until then, take a look at Kathleen Connally’s; A Walk Through Durham Township.

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Thanks Jerry!

As many of you know, we homeschool. The other day, Deanna told me that she had been watching The Padawan as he was playing The Bee Movie game on our Xbox360. He was playing a mini-game. He had to acquire 30 flowers. With just 26 completed, he numbered the remaining flowers 1-4, ultimately figuring out that he needed to acquire 4 more.

Deanna was excited as she watched The Padawan learn a basic subtraction lesson, all without her help or the help of a flash card.

Thanks Jerry!

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