Daniel Greene

Tag: Arizona

  • Capturing the Light



    Capturing the Light
    Originally uploaded by Daniel Greene

    The act of photographing reminds me of the constantly changing world and the preciousness of each moment.

    Andy had set this artichoke on the kitchen windowsill. The artichoke was past its prime, but I liked the way it looked with the sun hitting it this morning, so I ran and grabbed my camera.

    The light had changed in the 30 seconds it took me to get my camera, and even during the taking of several shots, the light kept changing. While seeing how the light kept changing, and how quickly I was losing the light that had originally caught my eye, I was reminded of the constant changes going on in the world around me (and in myself as well, I suppose), and the preciousness of each moment. As a photographer, I am "delineating light" (photos meaning light and -graphy meaning delineation, see etymology of ‘photography’). Since natural light is constantly changing, we as photographers capture fleeting moments of light.

    But, as people, what do we miss that we don’t capture? Are there moments in our lives, in relationships with people, when the moment is right to be silent or speak up, to be still or to make a move, to look or to listen? Photography is a highly technical hobby as well as an art, and I find that I must remember, as a human being, that there is much to capture other than light.

  • Geotagging with my AMOD Photo Tracker AGL3080



    Los Olivos Finishing Tent
    Originally uploaded by Daniel Greene.

    This permanent tent has shade, a misting system, and blowers that they use to blow the water out of the crevices of your car so the water doesn’t come out of the crevices while you’re driving and leave water spots. Interestingly, you can see the tent in the satellite image of this geo-location if you click the map link. I’d say my GPS data logger captured my location almost perfectly for this photo.

    To explain my workflow on this public, geotagged photo:

    I bought a GPS data logger called the AMOD Photo Tracker AGL3080 for $69. All it does is record location from second to second. I synchronized the clock on my camera to the clock on my computer (which is automatically synchronized to an atomic clock). When I got ready to start shooting, I clipped my Photo Tracker on my belt with the carabiner that came with it, and turned it on. I took all the photos I wanted to take, and when I was finished, I turned off the Photo Tracker. When I got home, I hooked up the GPS unit to my computer via USB and dragged and dropped the log onto my desktop (the device shows up on my Mac as an external drive). Then I put my camera’s SD card into a card reader and connected it to my Mac via USB (it shows up on my Mac as an external drive as well). I dragged and dropped all my photos from the shoot into a folder on my desktop.

    Now that I had the photos and the tracklog in my computer, I launched a freeware app called GPS Babel+ and opened the NMEA log and converted it to a GPX XML file. Then I launched another freeware app called GPSPhotoLinker and I loaded the GPX file and the .CR2 (Canon Raw) photo into the app, and I had the app insert the geodata into the EXIF of all the RAW photos.

    I then imported the geotagged RAW photos into Aperture, where I added keywords, version names, and captions– which show up on Flickr as tags, titles, and descriptions respectively (GPSPhotoLinker automatically added the tags Phoenix, Arizona, and United States). I made whatever images adjustments I wanted to. Finally, I used the Aperture FlickrExport plug-in to upload this photo to Flickr and the photo automatically showed up on the map.

    I’ve been manually geotagging for months now by using the Flickr Organizr to drag my photos onto the map, and as complicated as the above process might sound to you, I assure you that this new process is much less time consuming and much more accurate.

  • In Memory…



    In Memory…
    Originally uploaded by Daniel Greene.

    …of all those who have died in service to the United States of America.

    I almost kept this post to just that first sentiment, “In memory of all those who have died in service to the United States of America.” But that would be too safe. And I can imagine being criticized for copping out and pandering to blind patriotism.

    Yet I know that many Americans’ patriotism is not blind at all, but rather… forgiving. I am reminded of a story my Granny Greene recounted. She spoke of a woman she had known who worked for the USO during World War II. She said, “When you walked by a young man in the canteen and he patted your fanny, you just smiled and kept on walking. That’s patriotism!”

    And that’s what many of us do– smile and keep on walking. We know that countless men, and now women, have died in battles we wish had never begun. We know that the current war is not a popular war (and I use the word “popular” not only in the sense of “well liked” but also “of the people” because many American know that this is not our war, but a war waged by politicians either we didn’t vote for or we regret voting for). And we know that some people make it hard to be proud to be an American. And yet we forgive these deaths, these wars, and these people. We smile and keep on walking. We are proud to be American not only because of everything that is American, but in spite of things we might not quite approve of.

    I believe we have more reasons to be proud of our country than to be ashamed of it. And we must always remember that no matter whether or not we believe in war, our countrymen and countrywomen who have died in wars deserve our gratitude and our honor. We cannot know what it is like to fight in wars unless we have fought in them. But we can remember the inestimable value of every human life and have the deepest respect for each individual who gave his or her life for America.

    And let us not allow patriotism to blind us to the value of each and every human life lost on the other side as well. Our enemies are not necessarily evil, at least not down to every last person who has fought us in honor of their country. We must remember the fallen not only here, but there as well. We must force ourselves to have some compassion for the mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, sisters, brothers, daughters, and sons who have lost their beloved family members to these wars.

    And we must work toward peace for our sake and for theirs.

  • You’ve Been Served – Version 2

    This is a revision of the original. I tried to bring out the shadows well enough to make everything more visible and compelling. I think it is more iconic and compelling, especially at small sizes.

  • You’ve Been Served



    You’ve Been Served
    Originally uploaded by Daniel Greene.

    For some, this is an eviction notice.

    One thing I’m beginning to realize I need to work on is taking photos with iconicity, photos that are clearly pictures of something. I think if people can’t tell what a photo is of from a one-inch-square thumbnail (as shown on Flickr in a person’s photostream ribbon or in the “Photos from your Contacts” and/or “Everyone’s Photos” strips on the Flickr home page), then they won’t click and view the image.

    And yet there are photos worth looking at that don’t look like anything in a 72×72 pixel thumbnail. Or are there? Perhaps the test of a good photo is its iconicity, or its ability to convey a compelling message even in a one-inch-square icon. If that is true, then my challenge is to tell stories like this one is a more photogenic way. Perhaps if I had squatted down and taken the photo from an angle looking across the Official Notice from the bottom-right corner to the Tickle Me Elmo doll in the upper-left corner? Maybe that would have been a more visually compelling and easy-to-read ironic juxtaposition. To borrow a stage term, this image just doesn’t “read” from the “back of the house.” Just as one wants a “stage picture” to be dramatic even when seen from the last row of the audience, a photo should be compelling even when viewed in a one-inch-square thumbnail.

    Am I wrong? What do you think?