Netbook

originally uploaded by billaday.

Pat the Sound Guy built his own Netbook, and installed Mac OS X on it. Dude! Super awesome, super tiny. And, under $400. Wow. I have a brand new MacBook Pro, and I'm totally envious of this. His explanation:

"This is the kinda thing you could take for a bike ride."

Year 3, Day 88

thermal camera

originally uploaded by billaday.

This shot is significantly cooler if you've played Splinter Cell, or if you've work thermal goggles before. I ran the image through a sort of Photoshop thermal filter workflow. Kinda cool. Yes?


Year 3, Day 87

shopping graph

originally uploaded by billaday.

I had an hour to kill before picking my sister up at the Burbank airport, so I found free mall parking and took some photos of downtown Burbank. This shot is me shooting the first floor from the third floor.

Year 3, Day 86

wick

originally uploaded by billaday.

These days, I'm burning the candle at both ends. I've been shooting (much more than and) at least one photo every day. Sorting, geotagging, editing, uploading, and publishing... I have not had time for such things.

Year 3, Day 85

electric mayhem

originally uploaded by billaday.

Some day, Everet will be a rock star. And I will be able to say that I was there in the early days. He already has a cool pose, and he's just 3.

This is 1/2 second exposure, f4.8. I color corrected using Photoshop's lab mode. That gave me a lot of control over how much yellow light I wanted to leave in. I added a few adjustment layers, notably a contrast layer with contrast +65 and layer properties set to vivid light (to make the background more contrasty).

Year 3, Day 84

matt

originally uploaded by billaday.

Ilearackedonryinhowitmorsurmosofmyshotwithhisenswilltaybttdoesn'teedo
Year 3, Day 70

Matt Maher rocked out. My buddy Francis knows Matt well, and got us in for free. Turns out, it was a free concert.

I'm most excited/proud of this photo because it's a big step forward for me as a photographer. Typically, I'll bring my small point-and-shoot camera with me to events like this, and try to get a good shot from where I happen to be. At this concert, I brought my D70s and SB800. Towards the end of the concert, I walked up to the stage, and snapped a bunch of pictures. Sure, I was supposed to stay in my seat, but I wanted good photos. And, sure enough, nobody stopped me or made me leave. Yeah me.

Year 3, Day 83

prison break

originally uploaded by billaday.

The plastic fork poking out of the bag caught my eye. I wonder if it was trying to make a break for the outside? I suppose it's right; get busy living, or get busy dying.

Year 3, Day 82

fitting in

originally uploaded by billaday.

We all feel like we don't fit in. Mark just makes it look good.


Year 3, Day 81

1, 2, 3

originally uploaded by billaday.

I'm not sure who was enjoying playing more, Isabelle or Geneva.

Year 3, Day 80

5 seconds of Scotty

originally uploaded by billaday.

We saw Scott Ryan play last night. Very cool stuff, and a very tight band.

This is a five second exposure. My canon point-and-shoot wasn't capturing enough light for a crisp portrait shot. I didn't want to be obnoxious and use a flash. So, I decided on a long exposure. I like how the smooth black curtain in the background contrasts with the guitar.

Year 3, Day 79

behind the waterfall

originally uploaded by billaday.

Here is a waterfall (or a fountain, really) from behind. I'm glad I didn't drop my camera, or accidentally get too close and dip it in the water.

Speaking of behind the scenes stuff, I set up a wiki on my web page. Help out and edit the Flickr for Teachers page.

Year 3, Day 78

birthday cake

originally uploaded by billaday.

I miss the days when getting birthday cake on your face was expected, rather than frowned upon.

Year 3, Day 77

endless

originally uploaded by billaday.

Endless: the colors in the construction paper seem to go on forever.
Endless: the work required for kinder prepping seems to go on forever.


Year 3, Day 76

argyle

originally uploaded by billaday.

This is the clean up from our science experiment (landforms, sand, and erosion). The view from above reminded me of a giant argyle sock. I'm sad to admit, but it looked way cooler in person. I didn't do a great job capturing the impressiveness of it.


Year 3, Day 75

mirrors

originally uploaded by billaday.

Finally!

Finally the eyes are in focus with my f1.4 lens. With every other photo, the eyebrows have usually been in focus, and the eyes out of focus. Anthony's eyes are so in focus, you can see me and my camera reflected.

Year 3, Day 74

Isabelle looks

originally uploaded by billaday.

This photo title sounds like a Ben Folds song.

I worked on this photo in Lab mode, as suggested by Deke in DekePod. You get more control, and keep the histogram pure. I'm planning on working in lab mode, so I made F7 an action to switch to lab more and F8 is an action to move back to rgb.

Oh yeah, Isabelle looks great here.

Year 3, Day 73

snowman

originally uploaded by billaday.

We brought a truck full of snow down from Mt. Baldy for our kindergartners. It was very cool because it was about 78º outside. Also, most of my students had not touched snow before. We talked about how water changes from ice to water. We built a ramp, sledded down it, and then built this snowman.
Year 3, Day 72

custom drink

originally uploaded by billaday.

I think that a third grader with a good writing teacher invented how we order drinks at Starbucks. And the third grader got extra credit for extra adjectives. For example, one of my drinks is an iced venti soy upside down caramel macchiato. That's seven words!

Year 3, Day 71

teacher mugs

originally uploaded by billaday.

We have a giant pegboard in the teacher's lounge to hang mugs on.

Year 3, Day 70

me - rain = happy bill

originally uploaded by billaday.

I know, it's tough to tell... I hate the rain. I am so not a fan of being wet, of my hair staying wet, of my socks staying wet, of having to wear a jacket to stay less wet. I actually can't imagine living somewhere where there is actually inclement weather. It only rains a few days each year, and it's already too much. I want to write a song with the lyrics, "Rain, rain go away. Come again never.".
Year 3, Day 69

Tron

originally uploaded by billaday.

Though I haven't seen Tron in years, if ever, this is what I remember it to be like. I don't think we'll ever be robots inside a computer, but I do think that playing that one Tron light game on your phone is fun. You know what I mean.

Year 3, Day 68

iron off

originally uploaded by billaday.

I like the texture in this shot. It reminds me of an old t-shirt that's fading.

Year 3, Day 67

heartless

originally uploaded by billaday.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Though this photo is kinda dark, I had a great, romantic day with the wife.

Is it obvious what this photo is?
Year 3, Day 66

here is the church, here is the steeple

originally uploaded by billaday.

300 more days to go. This is day 65. I must admit, I've bee so focused on teaching EDUC 515 that I haven't been super motivated to go out and take pictures. I'm still taking one every day, but it's not at the forefront of my mind. I could argue with myself, however, that still taking one picture every day shows that I am in fact thinking about taking pictures most all the time. And, after all, that is one of the main goals of the photo-a-day project.

Oh yeah, The Francis Band rocked out at XLT (that's where I took this picture).
Year 3, Day 65

broken heart

originally uploaded by billaday.

We had a Valentine's party in class. Lots of cookies, lots of red food.

Year 3, Day 64

francis a la iPod

originally uploaded by billaday.

I found a great web site for free Photoshop brushes. Brusheezy has some cool categories, like grunge brushes. So when I found myself spoofing the old iPod ads, I added a few layers of Abstract Brushes (by Krakograff), and found it to be more modern.

Any suggestions would be helpful. I'm just now getting my feet with with the "new" grunge Photoshopping.


Year 3, Day 63

eyeball

originally uploaded by billaday.

I got this nifty webcam for my 515 class. It's a killer USB microphone with a built-in, pop-out camera. The camera is twice the resolution of Apple's built-in iSight, so it makes podcasting videos looks great. The giant sphere is actually the mic, and the tiny rectangle is the camera. Pretty cool stuff.
Year 3, Day 62

large diaphragm

originally uploaded by billaday.

We're podcasting in the new APU class I'm teaching. I got to bring in and use my Shure KSM32. It's a large diaphragm condenser microphone, and it's overkill for podcasting. It sure sounds nice, though.
Year 3, Day 61

fresh as a lemon

originally uploaded by billaday.

I don't understand why you need special soap for dishes. I think you should be able to just use hand soap. It gets hands clean; why can't it get a dish clean?

Here's a heads up for Blogger users: Flickr's "Blog This" does NOT work. You have to manually copy the embed code, then figure out how to make it look like the other posts. It takes a while to figure out how, and it takes a while to actually do it. If you're stuck, leave a comment here, and I'll send some markup your way.

Year 3, Day 60

bookshelf

originally uploaded by billaday.

I like being married. Here's a small, yet important reason why.

I have way more pictures of people in my house than I've ever had before. I like having photos of friends, family, and the wife.
Year 3, Day 59

Ryan at dinner

originally uploaded by billaday.

A cute kid. Sorry though, Ryan, I think you look more like your dad.

Year 3, Day 58

my shoes

my shoes, originally uploaded by billaday.

I'm still learning my new 50mm f1.4 lens. I backed off the f-stop for this one, trying to show a bit more context in the photo. I'm sure most of my shots with this lens will stay at f1.4 (cuz it's awesome), but it doesn't need to.

Year 3, Day 57

folded valleys

folded valleys, originally uploaded by billaday.

I bought the wife a bunch of flowers. She's been working really hard in life, and deserves them. Getting these turned out well for me, too, because I got this great photo.

Year 3, Day 56

I made homemade

I made homemade, originally uploaded by billaday.

This photo goes out to Nicole, Francis' wife. She gave me her secret family recipe for homemade spaghetti sauce. Very cool. She just made me promise that I couldn't tell anyone else that she gave me the recipe. Don't worry, Nicole. It's our secret.

Year 3, Day 55

highs and low

highs and low, originally uploaded by billaday.

This is one of my favorites shots I've taken in 2009 so far. It looks really nice on black. It looks like a study in painting shades of gray.

Year 3, Day 54

rewind

rewind, originally uploaded by billaday.

Occasionally, I think that I don't need my iPod. Occasionally, I forget to bring my iPod into the car. Those are the times I realize just how much I enjoy/need my iPod.

Year 3, Day 53

Stout hearted

Stout hearted, originally uploaded by billaday.

On a trip to Portland two years ago, I discovered that stouts are amazing. As luck would have it, I also discovered my favorite beer ever: McMenamin's Terminator Stout. It's creamy, rich, and dark, with a smooth coffee finish. If you're ever around Portland, go visit. You can't find it anywhere else.

Dedicated to Kristin, who sent this to me.

Year 3, Day 52

wtr sptlght

wtr sptlght, originally uploaded by billaday.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage...

Year 3, Day 51

unShure

unShure, originally uploaded by billaday.

I bought the Shure KSM32 10 years ago, when I was recording 9 bands for my senior project. It's a killer vocal mic, great on acoustic guitar, nice on a guitar amp, and works really well for a drum overhead. Basically, it rocks. I plan on using it much more often with some upcoming podcasts.

This looks nice large on black.

Year 3, Day 50

Rules of podcast engagement

Rules of podcast engagement, originally uploaded by billaday.

After much thought, time, and research, I have decided that this book, Podcast Solutions, is everything one needs to know about how to podcast.

Dedicated to Pat the Sound Guy.

Year 3, Day 49

iLife

iLife, originally uploaded by billaday.

I love the new iLife '09. So far, I've really only spent time with iPhoto. Faces & places are amazing. Here's why.

Faces is a new choice in your library. You click on a few picture of people, a square shows up around their faces, and you type in a name... like on Facebook photos. This is FAR from automatic, but it helps organize picture by person, which is a fantastic tool. I've spent hours typing names in photo by photo, but it's been worth it. In a few software updates, this should be beyond impressive.

Places also rocks. I've been using HoudahGeo to geotag my photos before sending them to iPhoto and Flickr. And I still love and use HoudahGeo. But now, I can see my photos on a map in iPhoto. I used to have to go to Flickr to show people my maps... no longer. As with Faces, Places is still a little tricky to navigate; I expect it to also be amazing quite soon.

Year 3, Day 48

fenced in

fenced in, originally uploaded by billaday.

I like selective color. Only the fence is green here. On that note, I have been using the hue/saturation adjustment layer much more recently. It gives me control over 6 different color ranges. I've been just tweaking the saturation in this adjustment layer.

On a tangent, my new favorite Photoshop shortcut is Shift Plus, or Shift Minus (Shift +/-). When you've selected the move tool (v), push shift plus, and you cycle through layer properties. Very cool.

Year 3, Day 47

rllr cstr

rllr cstr, originally uploaded by billaday.

Sorry I haven't uploaded photos this past week. I've been prepping for my new class EDUC 515. Look for upcoming photos of podcast-related stuff.

Year 3, Day 46

USB

USB, originally uploaded by billaday.

Ah, the USB cable. It has transfered lots of information that I needed it to. Thanks for bussing.

Year 3, Day 45

frozen vine

frozen vine, originally uploaded by billaday.

It was one of those rainy day. I didn't want to go outside for anything... work, food, or taking pictures. I heard a melody outside (as I was taking out the trash)--this candle holder thing was getting hit from roof drops. It was playing a melody, 1 down to 5, over and over. So I begrudgingly squatted down in the rain, and took a few pictures. I must admit, it was way cooler being stumbling onto this than anything else.

Year 3, Day 44

wshr

wshr, originally uploaded by billaday.

If you wash it, they will come.

Year 3, Day 43

table and wall at Starbucks

table and wall at Starbucks, originally uploaded by billaday.

Coffee places seem to have cool reflections on tables.

Year 3, Day 42

Obama

Obama, originally uploaded by billaday.

President Obama was not in my classroom today. That's actually me, holding a mask in front of my face. Today, we talked about dreams, working hard, and hope. So did President Obama.

Year 3, Day 41

sew what

sew what, originally uploaded by billaday.

Sewing machines are a pretty crazy invention. I don't know how they sew so quickly. My hands are way slower... I guess that's why someone invented a machine that works faster. How do they work anyway? Hmmm.

Year 3, Day 40

Maggie inside

Maggie inside, originally uploaded by billaday.

Here's the effect I imagined when I bought my new f1.4 lens. Eyes: in focus. Everything else: out of focus.

Here's a tip: when the aperture is that wide open, make sure to take plenty of extra pictures. Only 4 out of 50 pictures had Maggie's eyes in focus.

Year 3, Day 39