Paul Lester Photo

Some of you know that I am not a fan of raw. No, it’s not that I have anything against it, at all. It’s just that I’ve never seen an advantage in using it. I’ve shot pictures with it and without it and cannot tell any difference between a raw picture and a 1:4 compressed JPG. None. However, that does not mean that I close my eyes to the possibilities. I’ve never had trouble with banding, shadow detail, highlight detail, etc. Either I’m very lucky, I choose easy subjects to shoot, or perhaps I get my exposures right every time. I don’t know. Personally, I find ‘evangelical articles’ that extol the virtues of raw by regurgitating the same old things over and over again, without providing the least bit of evidence, a bit annoying.

Every once in a while you can come across something that might make you reconsider, at least in part. In reading a post by Mark Graf, I found that I had become interested in HDR. Historically, I haven’t liked HDR because it just seemed ‘weird’ and unnatural. Well, after reading Mark’s post and part of the article that he referred to, I started doing a bit of research. I was curious as to the difference between 12 bit raw and 14 bit and ran across this article. Interesting reading, especially the part about shadow detail and the mouse-over image was interesting in what it showed.

Mind you, I’ve not yet found a compelling article that has convinced me of the merits of raw, save for that it might get you a bit more shadow detail or highlight detail should you happen to botch the exposure. However, doing HDR, that little bit extra just might help, versus using the JPG and having the camera apply its own tone curve and possibly clipping those little bits of information out. I don’t know. Certainly, the higher JPG compression that you use, the more of a difference you’ll see.

As I like to keep my beliefs a bit pliable, I’m not above experimenting with HDR, raw, and 12/14 bit processing. Disk space is pretty cheap; I have a very fast card reader, so copying files is faster. I no longer use Mozy, it just proved to be to slow, instead I have switched to Acronis, so days-long backups are no longer an issue. Yet, I just cannot bring myself to shooting entirely in raw. As I said, if I cannot see the difference in print or on the monitor, there isn’t one. The mathematics of it are, well, just math. Also, we output to 8-bit printers as well as 8-bit JPG to display on the web …

That said, though, I’m going to put my camera on lossless compressed raw for a bit and do some experimenting. The only thing that I do know is that changing to this mode slows my camera WAY down from 8 fps to 2.5fps! So, this is certainly a landscape only thing.

I’ll keep you informed.

Let me start off with this: I know that a lot of people really like their jobs. I used to be one of them. I still do enjoy programming, but am thrown off by arbitrary deadlines with little or no information as to what is to be done; the old-school mentality of, if I cannot see you, then you must not be working, and last, but certainly not least, the endemic greed that seems to be pervasive in a lot of companies. I’ll call it: “Corporate America”.

Cuts! Cuts! Cuts!
Regardless of how a company ends up short of money, the first idea that comes to mind is to start cutting jobs. Nothing else. A few of the contractors that I know and worked with closely, have been sending me e-mails letting me know that they too have been let go the most recent rounds of cuts from Bank of America. Last week was my first week of unemployment, and it sailed right through. I was able to knock a few items from my honey-do list, as well as shuttle my son here and there.

As I have lots of down time, my mind turns to different thoughts. Primary among them are:

• Why would I ever want to return full time?
• Have I been successful?
• Why do I work?

Why would I ever want to return full time?
The short answer is that I don’t want to. Yet, I feel that I have to. My expenses demand it. As I’ve grown older, read lots of books, and learned a great deal about myself, I find that I’d like to be a hunter-gatherer, so to speak. I don’t want for much, honestly. Ideally, I’d like to have my house paid off and have only utility bills to pay on a monthly basis, Internet included. Being a hunter-gatherer, I’d work only enough to provide a very modest lifestyle. Small house. Single automobile. Very few amenities. Simple. We are in the position where we could have this scenario realized in about 3 years, but it would take some degree of discipline.

My feelings about work now, and for the past few years, is that it is self-imposed slavery, or perhaps indentured servitude, at best. That is, the more stuff that you want to buy, the more that you have to work. Each new thing requires some amount of work to pay for. How much ‘stuff’ do we need? My wife and I seem to be in a constant state of reduction. This morning I made another trip the Goodwill to make a sizable donation of clothing, etc. I still have a long way to go in my office, as far as organizing and removing clutter, but I’ll get there.

Have I been successful?
In a word, yes! No longer do I measure success in terms of dollars/hour, or accumulated savings, etc. Success is a feeling that I’ve done a good job at being a good father, a loyal and loving husband, and a good provider. Success, for me, is also about learning how to do those things even better. Sure, I’ve made some huge mistakes along the way, but I can be happy with my efforts to clean up those areas that need a lot of improvement.
Why do I work?
Well, I was brought up with the belief that I should go to college, get a good job, have a family, etc. Working was required to become prosperous. Prosperity, or success, is usually measured with an external yardstick. Take for example the show, Lifestyles of the rich and famous. For a long time, this was many people saw as success … living the lifestyle of conspicuous consumption! My values have changed and I now see work as a means to purchase food, keep a roof over my head and to help provide a good education for my children … of course, to buy the occasional piece of camera equipment. So, I’d much rather work 24 hours/week and have the rest of the time for leisure and my ‘pursuit of happiness’.

Looking back and going forward.
During my job search I have received calls for 3 jobs:

1. Interview with Wachovia’s Corporate Investment Bank – 12 miles from home
2. Interview with client in Columbia, SC. 110 miles from home.
3. Interview with a client in Greenville, SC. 110 miles from home.

I consider these as two options, basically. The first option, working in Wachovia’s investment bank. No thank you. I’ve worked in the Bank of America’s IB before and the expectation there is for about 50 hours/week minimum. If you work the minimum you become sort of an outcast. 60 hours/week is more of the de facto standard, though it is never stated until you work less.

The second option, drive 100 miles away from home to work is, well, not gonna happen; however, should I be without a job for a significant time, then perhaps I might consider it. I’d have to be allowed to work from home a couple of days/week. The other 3, I would stay in a hotel or something and then make the commute home. This is not the life for me, so I’d have to be in a pretty bad situation to accept this.

It’s funny, I just received a call from a recruiter wanting to know of I was interested in going back to Bank of America’s investment bank. My stomach did a clutch instantly. The requisition stated 40 – 50 hours. I may return, but with a different agenda. That agenda being to maintain the current level of spending and allocating 100% of my income into paying off all of our debt. Fortunately, we can do that. Within about 6 months, perhaps less, we could be left with only a house payment and private school tuition. Food for thought …

What about your job? Do you like it, or do you do it because you need the money? Do you have more stuff than you need?

About the photo
The name of the statue is: Self made man. It is located on the campus of the University of North Carolina @ Charlotte. The sculpture is © Bobby K. Carlyle 2002.

To put it mildly, my folks were not outdoorsy people. We never went camping, hiking, or exploring in the woods. Heck, we never went to a picnic in a park. I guess that it would be not quite accurate to say ‘we’, because as I got older and had access to transportation, I spent a great deal of times in the woods, or what I would call the woods, which turned out to be a rather large state park in Akron, Ohio.

None of my childhood friends ever went camping, either. I guess you could attribute this to the fact that we were pretty poor and lived in poor neighborhood and camping was a luxury. Only a few kids at school told tales of going camping with their parents during the summer months. We had no such stories to tell.

I seem to be inextricably drawn to camping, though I’ve never done it before. Each time that I am in a park and see sign mentioning campsites, I’m intrigued. I just have a feeling that it is something that I’d like to do. It’s also something that I think that I’d like to start very simply. At this moment, I don’t have a clue as to how to take care of such daily activities as going to the bathroom, cooking, dealing with bugs, snakes, bears, etc. So, perhaps I am thinking of starting in the backyard with a small tent, moving up to a campground that has facilities, then perhaps moving on to something a bit more remote or challenging. However, it’s not the challenge that I am looking for, it’s the experience. It’s my perception of sleeping out of doors all night and awakening there.

I’m sure that some of you have camped out before and I’d love to know the ins and outs and reading recommendations, etc. BTW, I’m not talking about camping out in an RV with a generator, satellite television, full kitchen, etc. I can as well rent a cabin and have the same, which I’ve done. Neither am I talking about making my own lean-to, gathering wild berries and plants, and living off of the land. I’m talking about one night, to start, a very, very short hike from the car, and a tent and whatever else is necessary. Naturally, I’d take my camera gear.

Please chime in with your suggestions!!! Get me started … cheaply.

About the picture: The photo to the right is another shot of Quail Creek Reservoir in St. George, UT. There were a number of people camping near here. I wish that I had been one of them. What a lovely sight to see when you first wake up!