What took you? (or: It's About Fucking Time!)

     Well here we go again. Since 1991 I have been constantly been playing catch-up. Not the 57 varieties type but the technology type. Since the digital revolution just about null and voided everything I had learned in various schools I (as I have stated in many posts) have had to re-educate myself. This really hasn't been too much of an issue. I consider myself a smart enough guy to be able to roll with the punches as long as I give a shit about what it is I am trying accomplish.
     In 2001 I bought my first computer. Some say I was late in the game on that one. It was a Dell Windows ME. Yes I know... I can hear the groans from here. Well I thought that was one of the best machines ever and I used most of my time trying to keep it alive. At one point in 2006 I was talking with my friend Mitch about replacing the motherboard and what not. He gave me a look and said I should just trash the piece of shit and buy a new one. I was hesitant because I saw that as wasteful. Long story shortened, in April of 06 I bought a new Acer Aspire Windows XP. This computer was a dream come true. To this day(or at least until these past 6 months) the Acer Aspire has been a workhorse. It has done countless jobs and without incident. I will still hold this model in highest regards but alas time moves forward and the XP OS, the processor, and the memory cannot handle the ever evolving technology.
     Cut to today. It seems that my computers last from 5-6 years before I have to re-outfit. Today is that day. What am I getting? Which model am I putting on the frontline of my arsenal? 
HP? Fuck no! 
Toshiba? Get the fuck out!
Gateway?  Who????
Acer? I would, in a heartbeat, buy another Acer. Like I said before I have respect for the Acer line. But alas I have had my fill with the Windows system.
What does that mean? Yes folks. You guessed it. I have purchased my first Mac. Today I bought an,
 iMac 21.5-inch 2.7GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5.  Here are the details on my new system;

Processor	2.7GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5
Cache	6MB on-chip shared L3 cache
Memory	4GB (two 2GB SO-DIMMs) of 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM; supports up to 16GB
Hard drive	1TB Serial ATA1; 7200 rpm
Optical drive	Slot-loading 8x SuperDrive with 4x double-layer burning (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Display	21.5-inch (viewable) LED-backlit glossy 16:9 widescreen TFT active-matrix display; 1920 by 1080 pixels; millions of colors; IPS technology
Video	Built-in FaceTime HD camera; Mini DisplayPort output with support for DVI, dual-link DVI, and VGA video (requires adapters, sold separately); supports input from external DisplayPort sources (requires cables and adapters, sold separately)
Graphics	AMD Radeon HD 6770M with 512MB of GDDR5 memory
Thunderbolt / Firewire	One Thunderbolt port and One FireWire 800 port; 7 watts
USB	Four USB 2.0 ports
SD Card	SDXC card slot
Audio	Built-in stereo speakers with two internal 20-watt high-efficiency amplifiers, built-in microphone, optical digital audio output/headphone out, optical digital audio input/audio line in
Ethernet	Built-in 10/100/1000BASE-T (Gigabit)
Wireless	Built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n Wi-Fi wireless networking2; built-in Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate)
Included accessories	Apple Wireless Keyboard and Magic Mouse
Other	Built-in IR receiver

     So good news from SCI today. I plan on doing a lot of things that my system had a hard time accomplishing. There are a lot of projects swimming around in my head that just might come to fruition.

On the winds of a Dreamweaver

Freelance work is sparing for me. Where I reside people seem to look for the cheapest or "barterable" (invented word) deals when it comes to hiring artists and there are more than enough people here working for free under the guise of "this will be good exposure for you". Well I don't subscribe to that philosophy. So, that being said, I try to accept every and all jobs offered.
I have been dabbling in web development for a while now but have no real training. I would love to be able to get into a classroom and learn more but alas have not found any down here, but like I said I try not to say no to a job. I have read that my createive style regarding websites is refered to as a "Designer" as opposed to a "Coder". So I start off with Photoshop creating the base template for all pages and finish off in Dreamweaver.

The past few months I have been working on two websites. Two charter boat companies in town hired me to create websites for them. Poledancer Charters & Conch West Inc (site name, sunsetsailkeywest.com). Each company wanted a unique look. Something that separated them from the myriad of water related businesses here in the Keys. I rolled up my sleves and dove right in and here are the results so far.

Poledancer Charters

 

Poledancer is a family run business. Jammie Ward and his son Kyle offer full and half day trips for fishing, beach combing, snorkeling as well as sunset trips. The site is still under development pending copy from the client. It consists of a static background under a scrollable body with custom logo on the right side of the page. Custom photography from SkyCrab Images as well as client snapshots are included. Some images have rollover attributes sometimes indicating a click-able link. An announcement will be made once the site is live.

Conch West Inc: Sunset Sail Key West

 

Sunsetsailkeywest.com is the site of Seth Salzmann & Cassie Castillo. They run a 42ft. Island Trader and offer full and half day trips for sailing, snorkeling, and sunset cruises. They also offer a 24 hour "Overnight Adventure"

Their site consists of a scrollable body over a custom made static background. Although their site is live right now there are pages that need to be updated. Coming soon is a filled out FAQ page and photography will be shot to showcase the boat and it's crew. A logo for the company is also under works and will replace the orange/yellow placemarker at the top left of the page.

Tags: The Good, The Bad, All Ugly

     When I was in high school and just starting to decide what I wanted to do with my photography as a career I would look thru magazines for inspiration from different photography careers. Rolling Stone, Playboy, National Geo., Circus, American Photographer, and the like. I'd thumb thru looking at composition, lighting, trying to understand darkroom techniques and figure out how and why an image made it to the pages of whatever publication was in my hand at the time. I always noticed the small print usually in the lower corners of each image by the border that would read  "photo by, Insert Photographer Name". I thought to myself, man, that is where I wanna be. Right there in small print on the corner of my image. That was the top of the hill. The summit of the mountain I was climbing. 

     Cut to twenty some odd years later and the digital age (I wont go into the discussion that we all have about the backside of digital photography and how many people who picked up a camera last week who now attach the title of Photographer to their Vista Print cards) what with Photoshop being the digital darkroom of choice there are so many options to creating an image the one prevalent theme is to slap ones name to every image produced. I will admit that if you go to some of my images online I am guilty of this as well but have not practiced it in some time. Personally, I find it to be one of the worst trends in the art form. I do not understand putting in hours of work to create an image just to muck it up with a bunch of text and a logo. And some of these logos, well lets just say that if I were a psychologist I am sure I could have a paper published on the direct relation to logo size and ego size.

     I know that this is probably not the most popular stance I have taken. I also know that I have friends in the industry who, if they are reading this now, are thinking, "Hey man, you're talking about me!".  Maybe, but  I am not writing this to criticize or down anyone's work or choices. I just think that there should be a better way. Perhaps thru metadata or EXIF .
     Yes we need recognition for our work. Yes we want credit for our work. I would just like to see it take another form so when we show our work we don't find it necessary to soil it with some sort of brand recognition. Ultimately what I want is for someone to see an image unclouded by Myriad Pro font and say, "I know that photographer. That's 'Insert Photographer's Name '." But until that time if you need to find me, I'll be  in the corner. By the border.