Unbecoming Levity

Watching Ants

Abacquer — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:04:49 -0400

Yes I know, first I'm writing about the likelihood of contacting alien civilizations, then I'm talking about immortal humans who have sex for three days straight and write books in their sleep, and then about creepy flickrites, and now I am writing about watching ants. You don't come here for consistency.

I was leaving my office around lunchtime the other day for a brief walk. The front of the building has a raised garden with some azaleas and a really nice looking stone wall bordering it. As I walked out I noticed the wall was swimming in tiny black ants. Not the big ones you see wondering solo, but hordes of teensy ones. Usually that means that a tasty food item has been discovered and the colony is out to disassemble it and carry it back. I could see where the ants were clumped up, but didn't notice anything there that I recognized as anything ants would want to eat. But I figured maybe somebody had spilled a soda and they were gobbling up dried sugars right off the rockface. I went off to my walk and didn't think any more about it.

Later that night when I left work, I glanced at the wall and noticed the big cluster of ants was still there, but it had moved a few feet to the right. Again no food was evident. Just ants in a big tangled mass. So I leaned close to peer at them and noticed that ants were bunching up around other ants, and apparently biting each other. Other ants seemed to be carrying away dead (or dying ants). I leaned back and noticed that unlike a typical feeding situation where you see a river of ants leading from the colony to the food and back, this was the meeting place of two rivers of ants. One from one crevice about 5 feet to the left, and another from a crevice about 4 feet to the right.

That's when I realized I wasn't watching a feeding frenzy. I was watching a war. It was an epic battle between two colonies of ants that had both claimed this rock wall as their territory. Thousands upon thousands of ants continually poured from both crevices, and converged in the center to engage in a massive melee. It was mesmerizing to watch the supply lines bringing in fresh ants as the wounded or the dead were hauled away (presumably as food). They moved in tides and complex whorling patterns as they made war... it was so intricate it was actually mesmerizing. I checked my camera bag but I had neglected to bring ANY macro lenses with me that day, or I would have had pictures of all-out insect warfare and abject carnage to upload to my photostream.

It made me a little sad to think of these ants fighting for hours over a few feet of turf. After 15 minutes I suddenly realized the time and made a mental note to bring my macro lens to work today.

But when I arrived this morning, the battle was over, and the battlefield had been swept clean. Had I not noticed it, the day before, I never would have known it had happened. In my inner thoughts I could not help but make the connection between the affairs of the ants and the affairs of humanity. In 100,000 years, if humans are still here, what great battles and wretched suffering of ours will have passed into the unknown? Will we forget World War 2? Will we forget the Holocaust? Will we repeat it? Big thoughts from the tragic ant war of June 25, 2008.

Creepy

Abacquer — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:02:00 -0400

What is it that prevents some people from realizing when they are being creepy? I recently uploaded some photos to my flickr photostream from a birthday party I attended. Then later I was tooling around in the Fitchburg Photo Pool and saw some cool architectural photos, so I left a comment telling the photographer I thought the shots were nice.

Within minutes I had three e-mails. The first was flickr informing me that the photographer had added me as a contact. The second seemed nice enough, the photographer wanted to talk about other landmarks that were good to shoot. The third seemed a little peculiar and forward for someone who doesn't know me from dirt:

"Hey how do you know that girl XXXXX in your photostream? She's a real knockout!"

So I responded about Fitchburg landmarks, and on the second item, remarked just that she was a friend of a friend, and that she was very photogenic.

Within minutes, two more e-mails. More chatting about landmarks and camera gear as well, and the second:

"Man is she cute. Hmm."

So I'm getting a little weirded out by this dude. I mean, if you are friends with someone it's one thing to compliment someone they know once, but if you barely know a person it's kind of creepy to do it repeatedly. So I decided I didn't really want to keep talking to this guy, and chose not to respond.

A few minutes later, another e-mail comes along:

"Do you think she would let me take some shots of her sometime?"

Yeah. That will happen. She's going to pose for some stranger on the internet because a friend of a friend photographed her at a party. Who asks a question like this of someone they barely know? I have a terrible time just asking people I do know if they will pose for me.

Any way, I really didn't want to talk to creepy dude any more, I knew if I called him on it I'd get assured up and down that his request was completely innocent in nature. As if it is quite normal to ask strangers on the internet if you can photograph their friends. I mean seriously, if you are THAT desperate for models, there are places to go (http://www.modelmayhem.com/). So I just blocked him... that will be the end of that, thanks.

I generally think it wise, when someone adds you as a contact on flickr, or favorites one of your photos, to check their profile and see what groups they subscribe to, and to also check their favorites. It's usually quite clear when they are using flickr for something other than an appreciation of great (or even mediocre) photography. If you see anything that looks creepy, it's probably a good idea to block them.

Creepy dude didn't have any bizarre group subscriptions or prurient favorites that I could see, but his behavior was enough to warrant the block IMHO. The only thing his profile had to say about him other than a laundry list of his gear was that he was "Male and single".

Call me "Male and unsurprised".

Name of the Earth

Abacquer — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 02:07:13 -0400

Mara finished her book and wandered into the atrium Kennis had entered a few days earlier.

"What are you doing Kennis?"

"I am watching the moon."

"Why?"

"It pleases me to do so, Mara."

"Will you do so awhile longer then?"

"For at least a thousand more years."

Folding her delicate arms, Mara leaned against the doorway and stared at her. Kennis sat, legs folded, mouth slightly open, her olive skin and brown eyes awash in the moonlight that poured through the windows of the atrium and bathed her slight features.

"Will you stand there and study me all night?" Kennis asked without turning to look at her.

"Yes, for a thousand years as it so pleases me."

With a faint exhale Kennis smiled and glanced down with a smirk.

"My love you have forgotten the moon..." Mara admonished coyly.

She looked back at Mara, with her hair rimmed by the moonlight. Her eyes, even darker in silhouette, held a mischeivous promise floating in a sea of devotion. "But I have remembered something more important."

With a playful glance over her shoulder Mara feigned ignorance. "Whatever could that be? A star perhaps? I may have spotted one out of the library window."

In a fluid motion Kennis rose, her silk kimono changing from aqua to burgundy as she approached. Her message was clear, Mara looked down and changed her simple white sari into a demure amber robe in response.

"And after that, shall we sleep?" Mara asked.

"It has been many years."

"Seven hundred and twelve."

"Do you remember how?"

"Do you remember the last time either of us forgot anything?"

Kennis leaned in close, her kimono faintly disappating in wisps of wine-scented mist, "I forgot the moon a moment ago." The kiss was sweet, long, and pulled gently at something deep within Mara... something she had indeed forgotten.

For many days afterward they laid on the couch by the atrium window in each others arms, their garments a pool of particulate mist on the floor nearby, and watched the moon together.

"What did you write about?" Kennis finally asked.

"When?"

"The day you entered the atrium and spoke to me. I assume you wrote a book that day."

"I write a book every day."

"And on that day?"

"I wrote about humans."

"What species?"

"Homo sapiens."

"Ah, our progenitor species. May I read it?" Kennis asked.

"My love you may read any book I publish, and even those I don't."

Kennis closed her eyes and became quiet. Mara stared at the moon. Kennis was right, it was pleasing to do. Perhaps her next book would be about the moon. Kennis smiled and opened her eyes.

"That was wonderful, you almost make them appealing."

"There was among them everything that gave rise to us, my love, to you, and I find much appealing in you."

"And I in you, Mara, but there was also among them everything that led to their extinction."

"Nothing that couldn't be cured with education."

Kennis raised one eyebrow at her.

"Well, " she smirked, "maybe that and a little genetic surgery."

"Shall we try to repopulate the species?"

"I think I would like that, as long as we don't have to impersonate deities."

"Shall we do it tomorrow?"

"No, Earth must process the poisons in its environment before humans can survive there."

"Nanos."

"No. No nanos. Else they would not be Homo sapiens, but Homo lentus." Mara said.

"Not without genetic surgery--"

"Which the nanos would automatically perform."

Kennis thought a moment. "Shall we create them on the moon then? Construct an environment for them?"

"Humans belong on Earth. They are bound to that world, genetically suited to live there. This was the birthplace of Homo immortalis--but we are suited to dwell anywhere."

"Do you not worry that the humans will simply make wars again? Poison their world again? I deeply felt your sentiment for them, but they are barely out of the realm of the apes, they will fight over anything, and are able to maintain such cognitive dissonance that they will destroy their own environment and doom their own species. Do you really think education can save their species, preserve it?"

"Why not?"

"Because, my dear, education was what caused the division in the species last time. Homo lentus was the result of those humans who actively worked to improve their species. The only thing that 'preserved' Homo sapiens were those who willfully remained uneducated out of fealty to mythological creatures. Right up until they destroyed themselves. It's perverse to be favored by natural selection because of your intelligence and refuse to use it--a lemming gene at work perhaps."

"I should still like to try."

Kennis closed her eyes briefly and then reopened them. "Latest estimates are 36,000 years before the Earth has processed all of the poisons in its environment."

"Shall we sleep until then?"

"I think I should like that. What books will you write while we sleep?"

"I have three I started while we made love that I need to finish, and then I think I shall write one about the Moon."

"You didn't finish? Was I that distracting?"

"Yes, although one I cannot finish."

"Why not?"

"I don't know how it ends." Mara yawned. "I have not felt tired for many centuries. This is a peculiar sensation."

She reached out with one arm and touched a finger to the pool of mist on the floor. Immediately the mist swam over them and solidified into a patchwork quilt of subtle grays resembling the lunar surface.

Kennis watched Mara sleep for a day and then turned her attention to the Earth outside the atrium window, shrouded in soupy haze. She doubted the wisdom of returning to the planet the species that had proven so ill-equipped to look after it. Mara's book about the moon was published while Kennis contemplated the Earth, and Kennis found it as fascinating as Ellan's volume on the geology of Ganymede and forwarded it to her to read. Mara's voice floated unbidden into her consciousness, woven into the stream of information entering her network receiver. I thought you were going to sleep with me.

Sorry love, I was thinking. I loved your book on the moon.

Do you not wish to sleep?

I might enjoy looking at you more than sleeping.

Come nestle in my mind with me, let our thoughts tangle together in wonderful disarray. There will be plenty of time to sort them out later.

I can do that with my eyes open, Mara.

Try feeling tired. Your biology will take over from there.

Kennis felt tired, and soon she slept. Once she was no longer conscious, all of the furnishings apart from the couch and blanket immediately dissolved into mist and disappeared through vents near the floor to be stored until needed. The habitat maintained its position automatically and carefully so that the light reflected from the moon would pass through the atrium window and illuminate the photosynthetic skin of the sleepers for many thousands of years.

"Mara, wake up." Kennis said.

Mara opened her eyes. "Did I oversleep?"

"No. It has only been 24,078 years, but there has been a development."

"What happened?"

"See for yourself." Kennis said, indicating the window.

Mara glanced out and was shocked to discover the Earth was unshrouded and most of the landmasses were a glorious shade of orange.

"Is this a predicted stage in the processing of the poisons?"

"No. There is a new species of life on this planet borne out of the poisonous environment, which has converted the pollutants into new compounds and created a new state of equilibrium."

"Suitable for Homo sapiens?"

"Not remotely. I checked with Ellan and Tyr and they have modeled it is likely that this species will achieve sentience in a few million years. I'm afraid that Earth does not belong to Homo sapiens anymore."

"No return to Eden, " Mara said softly. A small tear travelled down her cheek. She touched it and glanced at her finger, with a faint mote of puzzlement on her brow.

"I assume the moon is off limits, then?" Kennis asked.

"Of course, it belongs to this new species." Mara said.

"Perhaps another world? There are thousands that might suffice."

"Perhaps. I think I am going to miss looking at the moon."

"We can remain here for a few million years and contemplate it. Maybe get to know this new species when they venture forth from their world."

"No. Let's leave. This was our birthplace, and it is about time we left the nursery and explored our universe. It has been nearly 100,000 years since we last saw Ellan and Tyr."

"What about making humans?"

"Call it a romantic notion."

"Your book on the idea received some great reviews."

"Another time maybe."

Sensing the subject closed for the time being, Kennis closed her eyes and cast out the sensor net.

"Ellan and Tyr are at Regulus. They would love to have us for a few years. We can be under way immediately if you like."

Mara glanced thoughtfully at the Earth for a moment and then rose from the couch, wrapped the blanket around her and left the atrium.

"Well I'd best make myself presentable then."

In the harsh light of Sol, the habitat finally pivoted away from the moon, wavered in many shades and colors, and then vanished.

The orange world waited for those who would give it a new name.

NOTE: I wrote the above story fragment off the cuff in a forum I frequent. You can find the original post here.

Silent Sky - A Thought Experiment

Abacquer — Wed, 28 May 2008 12:57:30 -0400

This is an interesting thought experiment and it involves statistics and some figuring, so I welcome any of my smart friends or anybody who cares to think about it to chime in here.

Assume that sentient civilizations with the ability to transmit some form of radiant communications signals (radio, light, whatever) started appearing in our galaxy as early as 4.5 billion years ago (when the Earth was forming), and assume that they continue to appear (each on its own evolutionary trajectory) for another 4.5 billion years. Further assume that over this timespan of 9 billion years a total of one million different intelligent civilizations begin transmitting radiant communications. After a random time period of 100 to 1000 years each civilization stops transmitting radiant signals, either because they move on to a better technology that does not require radiant communication (pretty much necessary for interstellar communications) or the civilization dies out. Finally given that our galaxy's diameter is about 100,000 light years, assume that any of these civilizations when transmitting would be at some random distance from us which does not exceed 100,000 light years (yes I know that's a little big since we aren't at the very edge of the galaxy, but bear with me.)

Now, here we are, smack-dab in the middle of that timescale, halfway between year 1 and year 9 billion. We turn an array of radio telescopes to the sky and listen in all directions simultaneously, constantly, for a period of 1,000 years.

Is our sky silent? Or is it noisy? With a million civilizations out there at some point or another, all sending signals out at different times, what are the chances we would hear none of them at all even if we listen for 1000 years?

I threw together a crude simulation last night to try and answer this question, and I have a result which you might find surprising, but I'm curious to know what other people think first. Care to venture a guess? Or perhaps create your own sim and see what results you get? I'll post my results tomorrow.

Making Product

Abacquer — Tue, 27 May 2008 09:08:44 -0400

Well, I spent my spare time last week working hard on the photos from the dance recital. All in all I was happy although many of the images were too blurry to use. The problem was my shutter speed, it just wasn't fast enough, but I am still learning. On Saturday I shot a play in a dark restaurant and got much better looking images by pushing up the shutter speed. Gotta get to work on those images next. All unpaid work of course, but I continue to hold out hope that good things will happen if I keep trying and keep talking to people about what I do.

Never heard back from the director of the dance recital, but I'm not too surprised. I don't think anyone has ever called me back after an initial contact. I have gotten e-mails from some people to say they really like the photos I took for them (for free) but sometimes not even that. People are busy, and I think most don't realize the amount of effort that goes into making a good photo. Anyway, as I promised the director of the dance recital, I put together a set of discs containing the best images from the show and have sent those off to her today along with a letter requesting her permission to post them on my business website. For the amount of work put into this production, I hope that she at least calls me back, even if it is only to say "no". Click these thumbnails to see the letter and the CD's (dancers faces are obscured):

The problem here is that (for both the recital shoot and the play shoot and probably just in general) the groups that put on these productions already have a photographer. From what I've seen so far though, these "staff photographers" shoot posed shots backstage, as opposed to shots of the actual performance--I suspect because it's hella easier to get a really nice shot in a controlled environment than it is actually during the performance.

After I shot the play this past weekend, one of the actors' parents caught a glimpse of some of the photos on my camera and immediately asked if she could buy a CD of the pictures... so hopefully something will come of that. I also talked to the people who ran the play--they pretty much immediately told me they had a staff photographer, but when I showed them a few of the pictures in-camera they seemed really impressed. So I'll spend another week churning through those pictures and hopefully something will come of that. We'll see. No expectations.

Watching Street Photographers at Work

Abacquer — Thu, 22 May 2008 18:39:13 -0400

Street photography isn't really my thing, but I try to do it from time to time. The problem I have is that I am very shy about taking pictures of people without their permission, even though by and in large, I have a right to do so in public. I find if you get permission, the subject changes and loses the look that drew you to the photo in the first place.

This is why I am always amazed (or cringing) when I see real street photographers at work. I am just not as brave as these guys:

(video) Joel Meyerowitz On Street Photography

(video) WNYC Streetshots: Bruce Gilden

Music Review - Madonna - Hard Candy

Abacquer — Sun, 18 May 2008 13:59:15 -0400

I picked this CD up last night with much anticipation and listened to it today on a long drive.

It started strong, quickly soared to awesome, and then made a meteoric descent to absolutely awful and only recovered marginally after that point. *sigh* Too bad. I admit, that by track 3 I was beginning to wonder if we had another Ray of Light on our hands. Things stumbled a little in the fourth track but came back strong for tracks five and six.

Then came track 7--the inexplicably named song Incredible. The only incredible thing about this song is that it came from Madonna. I'm sorry to say it is the worst song she's ever created. Dischordant, screwy pacing, strange change-ups, and just an all around mess. This one song utterly destroyed the mood and made it hard for the album to come back, which wasn't helped by the fact that the next 3 songs were mediocre at best. I have no interest in hearing any of them again. Madge, you can do better.

The mixing on tracks 9 and 10 was also pretty poor. Madonna's voice was often drowned out or subdued against the music. I understand it's supposed to be dance music but her voice is way too strong to be so downplayed.

Track 10 was the best of the mediocre songs, but Spanish Lesson is no La Isla Bonita... far more cheesy and contrived. I may listen to Spanish Lesson again... I have a feeling it might grow on me.

Thankfully, the tail end of the album was saved by track 11 The Devil Wouldn't Recognize You, definitely an awesome number that I'll be putting on my new MP3 player whenever I can afford to buy one.

Track 12 Voices had a good sound but pretty silly lyrics. I got the impression Madonna was trying to do a sort of "haunting" piece, like perhaps Frozen--but the lyrics were too weak for me to enjoy it.

Obviously I hold Madonna to a pretty high standard, let's face it--7 good songs on a 12-song album makes it a good album. And this really is a good album--in fact if it had been an 11-song album minus Incredible, I probably would have enjoyed the later tracks more.

So here's what I recommend to people who buy this album and who loved Ray of Light and Confessions on a Dance Floor. Listen to the tracks in this order:

2. 4 Minutes
3. Give It 2 Me
6. She's Not Me
5. Miles Away
1. Candy Shop
4. Heartbeat
11. Devil Wouldn't Recognize You

After that, stop and leave the other tracks until your next listen. And I recommend just skipping Incredible forever.

Hard Candy is an awesome album. It is almost another Ray of Light, and once again Madonna rocked my world. Get the album and dance your ass off.

EDIT: After several more listens I have to say this album seems increasingly more kickass. There's no hope for track 7, and track 10 doesn't stand up to a second listen, but track 8 Beat Goes On was much better than I originally thought. On a second listen I enjoyed it much more and I think the first time through I was just so disappointed by Incredible that when the next song came on I was already soured on the experience. So add track 8 to my list of good tracks above. I'm going to be listening to this album constantly for awhile... and "4 Minutes" is frigging huge.

More Unpaid Work - But Perhaps Something Will Happen?

Abacquer — Sat, 17 May 2008 13:03:48 -0400

My canoe outing pictures were apparently a huge hit. I asked my wife to deliver the following message to the teacher: "I'm glad you like the pictures, and I would appreciate it if you could put in a good word with the principal about me making them available to the parents on my business website." No further news on that front.

I shot another dance recital (this time at Dartmouth Middle School) last nite. I really need to carry more CF cards, things got tight toward the end of the program. Apparently 8 Gb of storage isn't enough for an intense 2-hour shoot. Shooting was so-so--the auditorium had no photographer's booth and was pretty much wall to tall audience. In addition the stage was low and the sound and light crew sitting in front of the stage had their heads blocking the view of the dancers. The light stands stood in front of the stage, as did the speakers and floor lights. All in all trying to shoot in the room was a nightmare. I spent a solid two hours squatting in the aisle between the front row of seats and trying to dodge the optical obstacle course between me and the dancers.

So a lot of my shots were not keepers, but I did get some really nice shots and I think after the post processing I'll have 100 to 200 decent photos. After the show I talked to the producer and she seemed (a) very friendly, (b) somewhat receptive, and (c) really busy. But I managed to explain to her that I have a business website and would be willing to host my photos of the event so that parents could buy prints, and that I would be willing to give her copies of the pictures for free. She didn't commit either way but did take my card and said she would contact me on Monday. Hopefully I'll hear from her and maybe get my first gallery of photos for sale up on the Sagewood Site.

Other work - I was asked to shoot some staff photos for my employer. Technically, I guess you could say this is paid work, since I am salaried, but I'm not choosing to call it that. It was an opportunity though to test my mobile studio set up. I pretty much had a conference room set up with standing lights and reflectors in about a half hour and then shot sporadically over the next 3 hours. It was actually a pretty small shoot considering the number of employees who had to be photographed (about 20 or so), but the good side of it was a lot of my coworkers got to see me working and the equipment I was working with and it helped (I hope) to drill home the idea that this isn't just intended to be a hobby.

I do have one coworker who has asked me to shoot some family portraits for her (she's trying to work out a date) and others who have hinted that they might be interested. We'll see if any of that pans out.

Getting Off the Ground...

Abacquer — Sun, 04 May 2008 23:19:46 -0400

So yesterday I was photographing a first communion ceremony and passing out business cards. On Thursday I photographed a school canoe outing. Two more unpaid engagements under my belt. I've been joking with Patty that I'm rapidly becoming an unpaid success.

But I need the experience so I don't mind so much, and I've been pretty much on my own trying to figure this all out. I have been taking scads more pictures than I have actually uploaded to flickr, mostly because the people depicted haven't given permission for me to upload them, so what I can upload is limited. The experience shooting and working with subjects has been great. Now I'd like to experience getting paid.

For the short term (maybe the next couple years, maybe longer) I have decided to sign up for a turnkey service which will allow me to put my photos in web galleries where people can order prints. Since these galleries can be password-protected for security, I'm currently negotiating with a local school who has had me in to shoot four of their events to let me put these events up in secure galleries so that parents can buy prints.

I chose Exposure Manager to be my turnkey service after comparing and contrasting several such services. Since I'm kind of not feeling well today and wasn't going out anywhere, I finally signed up and then went back to beef up my languishing Sagewood Studios website. It's still unfinished of course, but it looks better than it did. Assuming people start hiring me for portraits and other work, I will be able to get a better handle on pricing and so forth and put more information up there.

There's a link there to a "test gallery". Ultimately there will be links to real galleries, but you can click the link if you want to see what a typical Sagewood Studios gallery will look like (the password for this gallery is "test"--obviously not secure at all... I just chose that password so I can demonstrate how the security works). The turnkey service automatically watermarks my photos to keep people from just copying them off the website, and lets me decide what products will be available, and how they will be priced. The service will process the orders and handle the printing and shipping direct to the customer. After the printing and shipping is paid for, they take a percentage of my profit in exchange for providing the service (plus an annual fee) and cut me a check at the beginning of each month.

If it works out, I may contact other local schools and see if they have any interest in having me photograph their events. We'll see. As far as being hired outright I have at least one serious lead from a coworker who wants me to do a family portrait for her and is willing to pay. That's something at least. Start small and all that.

Anyway, I'm staying positive and I'm loving the shooting.

Das Rad

Abacquer — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 19:46:54 -0400

Here's a funny animation I caught on Pharyngula, the excellent science blog by P.Z. Myers. The audio is German, but there are subtitles. I got a kick out of it, perhaps you will too?

Das Rad

Comment Moderation is now On - Thank the Asshole

Abacquer — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 14:06:20 -0400

Friends and readers, ULev has acquired its own troll. I should feel flattered I guess, but this coward is such a scumbag he's not above leaving anonymous comments insulting my daughter. What does this mean for everyone else? From now on once you post a comment it will be sent to me for moderation. This means it will not appear on the blog until I approve it. I apologize for the delay. Thank the asshole.

Madonna - 4 Minutes

Abacquer — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 19:26:26 -0400

Kicks ass.

Weird video though.

Soil Bacteria of Antibiotics: "Delicious!"

Abacquer — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 10:17:03 -0400

I was listening to NPR Science Friday on podcast a few nights ago and caught an interesting segment detailing a recent discovery regarding bacteria found in soil. It has been demonstrated (for example, by the discovery of the nylon bug) that bacteria in the presence of an abundance of one substance or another may evolve to be able to metabolize that substance... even if the substance is synthetic. It's also been shown that bacteria in the constant presence of antibiotics will evolve immunity.

These newly discovered soil bacteria have done both. That is, not are they only immune to a disturbingly long list of known antibiotics, they have evolved to the point where they can actually eat antibiotics. The Royal Society of Chemisty has an article on this recent discovery:

[...] The soil samples were taken from many different places [in the USA] including public parks and farms, pristine forest, and land treated with wastewater.

'The increase of multiple-antibiotic resistance in human pathogens is continuingly weakening our ability to fight infectious disease, and any accessible reservoir of resistance mechanisms that could transfer to pathogens could exacerbate the problem,' say Dantas and Sommer.

So far, the researchers haven't found any known human pathogens among their antibiotic-consuming organisms, but they say that some are closely related species. This might make it rather easy for pathogens to acquire antibiotic-resistance and antibiotic-metabolising genes from innocuous bacteria. [...]

Scary stuff! But rather unsurprising since antibiotics get into the environment every day through their continued use.

The segment on the antibiotic-munching bacteria was followed by another segment on an alternative form of antibacterial treatment called phage therapy. Phage therapy, instead of using chemical substances to combat bacteria, uses viruses, specifically bacteriophages--viruses that only infect bacteria. This sort of therapy was predicted shortly after the discovery of bacteriophages in 1917. Once antibiotics were discovered (in 1941) phage therapy wasn't pursued further in the west, but continued to be studied in Russia.

The advantage of phage therapy is that the anti-bacterial agent is also a living organism, so as bacteria evolve to become immune to it, the phage species also evolves to continue to prey on the bacteria. Antibiotics, being chemical compounds, do not evolve, hence eventually bacterial evolution will defeat an antibiotic unless you can rapidly deplete the bacterial population to the point where your own immune system can fight off the infection successfully. As bacteria with antibiotic resistance can be found in the environment, and people have been infected with resistant strains, there is apparently renewed interest in phage therapy.

No human phage treatments are presently approved in the USA, though the use of phages to prevent bacteria from growing in food have been approved here. Phage therapy on humans is used in some states of the former USSR, especially Georgia. In the NPR podcast linked above the scientists interviewed spoke of a patient with a resistant bone infection that was successfully treated using bacteriophages after being told here in the USA that amputation was his only recourse. Interesting!

Red States and Republicans Do Not Have a Monopoly on Knuckledraggers

Abacquer — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 12:51:05 -0400

"What you have to spew and spread is extremely dangerous ... it's dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists! This is the Land of Lincoln where people believe in God. Get out of that seat ... You have no right to be here! We believe in something. You believe in destroying! You believe in destroying what this state was built upon."

-- Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago), speaking to atheist Rob Sherman

If Rob Sherman was a Jew or a Muslim or a Methodist or anything but an atheist, Representative Monique Davis would be openly castigated from every direction (and deservedly so). But it's okay to hate atheists here. Welcome to my country.

Mr. Sherman was testifying to the Illinois House State Government Administration Committee about a one million dollar grant slated to go to a Baptist church that was trying to rebuild from a fire. As you know churches already don't pay taxes, so it seems rather curious that anyone would think it okay for tax money to go to a church--especially in a country where church and state are supposed to be separate. The grant money story is pretty smelly all on its own, but I am not at all surprised that any outspoken atheist would have an opinion on the matter, and might choose to testify to government bodies on the matter.

But Monique Davis feels otherwise. She feels atheists have no right to testify to the American government. And for that matter we are destroyers, and dangerous to children. And it's okay to censor or silence us. Oh and the country was founded on Christian principles.

How does someone like this even get elected in the first place? Shame on you Monique Davis. You madam, are no Democrat.

Hat tip to the excellent science blog Pharyngula for the story. You won't be hearing about it on Fox.

Happy Birthday Patty!

Abacquer — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 10:56:53 -0400

Today the lady of my life is another year older.

Happy birthday hon!

Let's go out to breakfast!

Mister Clean Mouth

Abacquer — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:24:34 -0400

So last night I went to bed with a "sippy bottle" of fruit punch on my bedside table. Sometimes I wake up at night and my mouth is really dry and I like to take a sip of water or juice. Also sitting on my beside table is a squeeze bottle of hand sanitizer.

You can already see where this is going can't you?

At about 4 AM this morning I went from "half asleep taking a drink" to "wide awake what the fuck is THIS".

What followed was a jog to the bathroom to spit out the small amount of purell that was in my mouth followed by extensive rinsing--that's some nasty stuff to have in your mouth. Then I had to go downstairs and get on the 'net to find out if I was going to need to call poison control--I didn't really think I would need to but just in case. Within 15 minutes I was back in bed, sipping fruit punch and going back to sleep.

And the hand sanitizer was moved far away from my drink and out of easy reach.

So for once in my life, I really was Mister Clean Mouth.

Of course I overslept this morning, and was late getting to work. Had to order a birthday cake and call my Mom's financial advisor, as well as prepare for a shoot I have tonite--doing another school dance, again for no pay. I'm rapidly becoming an unpaid success. :-/ Ah well, experience is good, and truth be told I really enjoy taking pictures.

Bye Nana

Abacquer — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:18:04 -0400

My father's mother, and my last surviving grandparent passed away last week. She was 92 years old. I'll be attending her funeral tomorrow. This was pretty rough on all of us, coming as it did shortly after the first anniversary of my Dad's passing. I find myself wondering if I will always greet spring with sadness. My Nana was a spirited character throughout most of her life, and I remember many happy afternoon visits with her when I was a kid. I'll miss her.

Here's an obituary for my Nana.

OIC, No Human Rights For Me

Abacquer — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 01:40:00 -0400

This freaking blows me away. I'm speechless (literally.)

Another Indie Music Dump

Abacquer — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 10:57:21 -0400

So it's been awhile since I've posted a summary of the indie music I am listening to. As you know I follow 3Hive, GigaTracks, and also Obscure Sound to find out about new small independent bands and get some of their music. I check these sources every few months and backtrack through the posts to see if there is anything good. Usually, I like very little of what I hear, and that which I do like is merely "passable".

Well this time I waited over six months, and let me tell you my favorite source (3Hive) has been positively dry... dry dry dry. But even when it's dry you can usually find a few things, and some of these are quite fun. There's been a dearth of kickass dance music lately though, and I would say only one song in this list (Duality by The Martial Arts) qualifies as a song you could dance to.

Anyway, I've got most of this stuff on a mix disc and I'm listening to it in the car these days to get a feel for which bands I might want to purchase a CD from. There's definitely a couple I would like to hear more from. Anyway, throw on your headphones and have a listen... I don't think anything here will knock your socks off (there's no Afroganics or Aviatics in this bunch) but you may find something you like here.

Christine Fellows

3Hive describes Fellows as "Experimental Pop"--but I'd simply describe this as thoughtful acoustic music. The only song available via 3Hive is "Advice" which is a beautiful piece advising young people not to be in a great hurry to find love, or at least to "give themselves away". I find it quite pleasant.
- Advice
Club 8

I have a soft spot for Swedish bands, but I would love this duo even if they weren't Swedes. Lovely soft-pop with lots of acoustics and simple vocals that you can sing along with. It isn't dance music… in fact, it's Christian music. Strange that an atheist would enjoy Christian music? It's just words folks, and I can sing them and enjoy them without believing them. Maybe you can too.
- Jesus, Walk With Me
- Heaven -- I particularly like this one… very happy.
- Spring Came, Rain Fell
- What Shall We Do Next? -- Less acoustic, more poppy.
Colour Revolt

This band from the deep American south makes a good attempt at wailing guitar rock with "Naked and Red". It's also a bit of a refresher after the happy spirituality of Club 8. The song opens with a line about God swinging from the "licker tree" and it only gets weirder from there but ties up its interesting message with the idea that "Eden is a hell of a place." I'm glad somebody noticed!
- Naked and Red
Elk City

I seem to be on a spiritual kick lately, because Elk City also serves up a religious offering with "Los Cruzados" (The Crusaders) -- I'm a sucker for a good hallelujah chorus, and Los Cruzados delivers. 3Hive has another song by them available which I didn't enjoy but you may. Check them out.
- Los Cruzados -- Hallelujah… hallelujah… my wife heard me singing some of these Christian/spritual songs and asked "Are you having second thoughts?" Hee hee hee.
Empty Rooms

Sombre and haunting, I'm not sure how to characterize this rock band. In some ways they remind me of Duran Duran, and in some ways they remind me of The Fixx, but their sound is definitely their own. I'm linking two songs here, there's a third on 3Hive that I didn't particularly enjoy.
- Off with His Head
- Try Again
Hasch'm'Méneum

Is it electronica or jazz? It makes me tap my toes and rock my head whatever it is. Unfortunately some of the available tracks seem to cut a little short… probably because the band wants you to buy their CD… well I'm considering doing just that. If you like chirpy electronica with a comical side to it, this may be the blurps and bleeps for you. There are no vocals, or at least no lyrics... it's all instrumental.
- Christerium -- This song is a little funny. Something about it makes me smile. Sadly it is cut short.
- Heliotrope -- This piece is more meandering and contemplative… it would make great background music to read to or engage in some other mental activity.
- Red Sniper -- Stronger rhythm track and a hint of some sort of illicit activity going on in the mood of the music. This would make a good movie soundtrack for a montage where a character is putting his evil plan into action.
- Slide -- Probably my favorite song by Hasch'm'Méneum, this one is goofy and fun. It's another one that makes me tap my toes. Alas it is also cut short. :-(
The Heavy Circles

I have to see if I can find some more music by the Heavy Circles. This pop piece definitely sticks in my head and includes some great whirling sound.
- Henri
The Hermit

Some songs are background music, some songs are dance music, some songs you sing along with, and some you just want to close your eyes and slowly rock from side to side. "Wonderment" is onesuch with its sweeping poppy electronic sound and gently echoing vocals.
- Wonderment (Affekt remix)
- Flutterbye (Sputnichek remix) -- Faster paced than wonderment.
The High Water Marks

Squelchy retro guitar beach music... at least that's what it feels like to me. 3Hive has three of their songs up. The only one I've included here is "The Leaves" although I felt that "Queen of Verlaine" was passable.
- The Leaves
The Martial Arts

Okay, this is another group I need to find more music by. This is great summer music--even beach music perhaps. Music you can sing along with and even dance to, which makes it a little unusual because this latest 3Hive dump doesn't include much in the way of dance music.
- Duality -- Probably my favorite song of all the songs listed here today.
Oslo

This is darker stuff. Sometimes when you are disgusted with the state of the world, it's cathartic to listen to something dark--or at least therapeutic. Rise and Fall of Love and Hate is about divisiveness and how we are taught to be divisive. Sure touches a nerve with me, because I am fed up with all the demonizing I see going on these days.
- The Rise and Fall of Love and Hate
Sittser

If 3Hive has been dry, GigaTracks has been postively barren, but this one piece makes up for all that. It sounds like of a great 80's guitar ballad.
- Losing My Fear of Heights
Sneaky

So if you took Indian music and set it to a funk track and built in a solid driving whorling drone and a lot of repetition you would probably get a hypnotic piece just like this one. Excellent driving music this. I dig it. Purely instrumental.
- Beduija
Spitzer

Okay, I was iffy on including this piece by the French group "Spitzer". This is definitely electronic, like Trash80-style electronic. No vocals and very very synthy, but it has a good beat and it gets the head bobbing and the fingers tapping. Give it a listen... come on... you know you can't pass up a song called DISCO BISCUITS.
- Disco Biscuits
Wojtek Godzisz

I'm not sure what to make of this artist. 3Hive refers to this as "theatrical pop" which as good a way as any to describe it. They listed three songs but this was the only one I enjoyed.
- Light Over Dark Earth

Hope you enjoyed at least some of these... I'll keep trolling the intertubes for good indie music... check back in 3 months!! :-P

Hope Never Dies

Abacquer — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:12:08 -0400

Well it's been a little over a year since my Dad passed away, and it's been a sad time. Work has not been going very well, and it's hard sometimes to stay motivated. But good things happen too, which cheer me up some.

Dad loved Spring, especially when the birds returned.

Today as I was driving to work feeling a little blue I spotted some red-winged blackbirds in a small marsh still specked with ice.

Spring returns. Hope never dies.

Farewell Gary

Abacquer — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 18:36:21 -0500

Gary Gygax, creator of Dungeons & Dragons, a pastime that occupied many happy hours of my childhood, died today at the age of 69. c|net News.com homage to Gygax. Bye Gary... thanks for all the wonderful adventures.

Congressman Patrick Murphy

Abacquer — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 19:32:50 -0500

He's not exactly eloquent, but he's clearly a decent, intelligent, man. He's also the only member of the US Congress who is an Iraqi War Veteran, having served the military as a paratrooper captain before running for office against a Republican incumbent in Pennsylvania and winning despite all expectations to the contrary.

One of my favorite NPR/WBUR programs "On Point" had a 45 minute call in interview with Congressman Murphy yesterday, and it was fascinating. Murphy pulls no punches on his opinion of the Iraq war, his informed opinion of some of the hawkish nonsense arguments that crop up whenever getting troops out of Iraq is discussed, and touches on everything from veterans support, to whom he's backing for President.

It was so refreshing to hear a congressman talking so straight and with so much candor and making sense. Just listening to it gave me hope. The interview is available as a podcast, and I recommend you give it a listen.

Civic Duty, Done

Abacquer — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 13:02:08 -0500

Well I hit the polling station this morning on my way to work and did my civic duty. I stared at that ballot for a long hard time trying to decide what was most important to me.

I like both of these candidates, and I have an admiration for them both. In the end, in what was to my mind, a battle between practicality and idealism, practicality won, and Hillary Clinton got my vote.

But I think Barack will be the winner, and that's okay too. I'll be just as happy to vote for him on election day.

After voting I asked the election observer if I could photograph the polling station. She called her boss and checked and said that I could do so but only if I stood "behind the rail" which put me in an awkward position, leading to the overly wide crop you see above. But that's okay, I was still happy to take the shot. I think it came out pretty good considering I was rushing. Two different wards vote here, 2B and 2A. I'm in ward 2A. Turnout, according to the volunteers and staffers present, had been slow. When I put my ballot in the counting machine said it was number 67 for the day. One of the volunteers said the weather was contributing to the slow turnout and that she thought it would pick up later.

I would hope so!

I had heard on Save Fitchburg that someone would be present collecting signatures for a petition to revisit the charter of the City of Fitchburg for possible revision. The charter hasn't been updated since the early 1970's, but nobody was there doing that when I showed up. Hmm.

EDIT: I forgot to mention, I handed out a couple of my photography business cards while I was there! Hopefully something good will come of that.

Super Tuesday!

Abacquer — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 09:10:14 -0500

Well voting day is here, and I am still undecided. The youthful idealist in me wants to vote for Obama. The practical realist in me knows it's better to vote for Clinton. What's a person to do? Were I registered an independent I might vote McCain just so I can vote against Romney--it amazes me that people who thought Kerry was a flip-flopping panderer think Romney is an okay guy. Talk about insincere!

But I'm a registered democrat and I couldn't in good conscience vote for McCain. So that leaves Barack or Hillary, or as it has become crystalized in my mind idealism versus realism, experience versus enthusiasm.

I was originally going to vote for Hillary, but when I listened to Barack's victory speech in South Carolina I teetered over to him. The man is a powerful orator and he has a strong message of hope. Then I listened to the debate in California and I was swayed by Hillary's grasp of the facts, she really is very experienced (and why wouldn't she be after 8 years in the White House?)

There's always a candidate who rides on a desire for change, but that's not enough, and personally, I'd like to know where that change is going. Deval Patrick ran on a message of hope, and I voted for him. If he had run on a message of casinos, I would have stayed home.

For what it's worth, I think Obama is going to win here in Massachusetts. And he certainly seems to have the momentum.

I hear a lot of people complaining that Hillary responds to opinion polls and is not genuine. I suppose she does respond to opinion polls, I've seen her do it. And sometimes it seems to me that she does it a little too much. But then she is running for office.

Urrgh. This is making me nuts. Two historic possibilities here. Which one will I cast my vote for? Just this musing has me leaning toward Hillary again.

I guess I'll find out when the ballot is in front of me. And then later you'll find out.

Why Debate the Existence of God?

Abacquer — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 00:55:20 -0500

So I watched an overly long atheist/theist debate on YouTube the other day. It was held by an American Muslim organization and featured two Muslim debaters and two atheist debaters. It was depressing and nightmarish to watch. I thought the atheists did a horrible job, frankly, and let the other side get away with dodgy logic and word games. In their defense the environment wasn't friendly to them in the least, but they weren't really doing anything that would have won the crowd over.

After the sorry affair was over, I found myself wondering what possesses atheists to want to debate the existence of God or Allah or what-have-you. I can understand giving a talk, taking questions and answers, writing an essay, but a debate? Would you debate the existence of the tooth fairy? What's the point?

We hold political debates to see how potential representatives think on their feet, but not to find the truth. As I have long noted, debates are not about truth, they are about winning, and this is precisely why I do not like them. You get people playing semantical games with each other and trying to win over the audience instead of working together to reach truth or at least understanding. And since the most outspoken debaters tend to insult each other, or each other's position, they do little to convince anyone of anything. Instead these events tend to drive wedges between people instead of bring them together.

So if it is about winning as opposed to truth, what good does debating the existence of supernatural entities serve? Even if you win you haven't proved anything beyond the fact that you are the better debater.

Personally I think irrational beliefs are not the sort of thing you want to try to debate--your theistic opponents will simply expand their belief beyond the boundaries you try to set for them--whether it makes sense or not. And why wouldn't they? The beliefs were irrational in the first place. As the old saw goes you can't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into.

Neutralizing Free Radicals

Abacquer — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 23:57:32 -0500

That's what I'm doing. No I have no idea what that means either. As I slide downslope having gotten over the peak of this gout attack (it was not pretty) I have been drinking 100% blueberry juice. Blueberries and blueberry juice is apparently nature's #1 antioxidant. I know this because it says on the bottle. The back of the bottle helpfully explains that antioxidants are good for me because they neutralize free radicals. Ooookay.

Wikipedia to the rescue...

...a "free radical" is any molecule that has a single unpaired electron in an outer shell.

I guess free radicals readily combine with other compounds in your body and thereby oxidize them. Apparently this can have some damaging effects, but an antioxidant combines with the free radicals so they can't oxidize other compounds in your body. Okay. If you say so. I'm just drinking it because it is recommended for gout sufferers.

I have to tell you it's pretty acidic and has a sharp taste. I don't think I could drink a lot of this stuff. It's also a little thicker than other fruit juices... has a little more body to it. Not like syrup but noticeably heavier. Can't say I like it very much but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do.

Return of the Gout!!

Abacquer — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 09:14:14 -0500

Crap! My daughter was sick all last week, but thankfully she is feeling better now. Unfortunately now it is my turn with her cold... which is bad enough in and of itself. Except that I was stuck at home all weekend and there was a shortage of beverages in the house. And generally when I have a choice of water or nothing, I choose nothing unless I am direly thirsty. (I'm sure this will provoke a "typical man" comment from somebody.)

Anyway most of the food I ate was salty. On Sunday I snacked on Ritz crackers with easy cheese spread, quite a few crackers actually. Okay a LOT of crackers. As you know those are quite salty as is the cheese spread. I barely drank anything except one cup of tea. It should have occurred to me that this would dehydrate me, but it didn't.

That is until late last nite when I woke up with a sharp pain in the knuckle where my big toe ends and my right foot begins. Then it occurred to me that what I ate just before bed was a big bowl of salty lipton cup-a-soup. Greeaat. So I staggered downstairs and got a glass of filtered water and then hobbled back to bed. It's probably too late now. Once the gout starts it really needs to run its course. I had managed to eat well enough to avoid it for a few years, but here it is again.

Ouch.

Lens Cults and The Isoceles Field

Abacquer — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 19:14:59 -0500

So early this morning I couldn't sleep and I ended up writing an article on flickr in one of the many "what lens should I buy" discussions that goes on there. I have noticed, in my days on flickr, that certain pieces of equipment and certain techniques have a following, and often get recommended simply because of the following rather than because the equipment/technique is actually suited to the purpose of the person asking. In an effort to supply a counterbalancing opinion, I found myself in need of trigonometry.

The Argument

One such "cult" item is the "nifty fifty" (the EF 50mm f/1.8) lens made for Canon EOS cameras. It is very sharp, very fast, and very cheap ($80). If you are on a tight budget (or even if you aren't) it makes sense to have one for your EOS camera unless you have a better 50mm prime, or don't need a 50mm prime.

While I will not argue that it is probably one of the best value-for-money lenses, it is not versatile at all, and yet it seems to get hailed as a magic-bullet lens. I regularly see people making claims like "it never comes off my camera". And after having used it myself, I can only conclude that these people shoot one type of thing and one type of thing only, or it never comes off because they don't own any other lenses.

There is a certain love affair with the 50mm focal length because it was the standard focal length for 35mm film for decades. But in the age of digital SLR cameras, things are different for the less expensive consumer DSLRs. These DSLR's tend to use an image sensor that is smaller than 35mm film. The APS-C style sensor, or crop sensor, does not render the entire image cast by a standard lens, but only a smaller piece in the center. This results in an apparent magnification factor of 1.6. Hence if you put a 50mm lens on a crop-sensor camera, it's like working with an 80mm lens (50 x 1.6 = 80). The end result is a smaller-than-expected "field of view" (FOV).

On an old Canon 35mm film camera, a 50mm lens has a FOV of 46°. But on a crop-sensor camera the FOV is a hair under 29°. This loss of over a third of the FOV means that on crop-sensor cameras the EF 50mm f/1.8 lens has distinct limitations as to how much you can fit in the frame.

Fortunately, on my EOS 5D the 50mm behaves as expected. Because the 5D is a full frame camera, its sensor is the same size as a 35mm film frame. So I get 46° out of my EF 50mm, just as nature intended.

The "nifty fifty" on crop-sensor cameras is often described as a "portrait lens". With the crop factor, the 50mm lens behaves like an 80mm lens, and 80mm is ideal for portraits. But if you want to shoot anything larger than a head-and-shoulders portrait with the EF 50 1.8 on your Rebel XT or 30D, you'd better have a lot of room behind you, because you are going to need to back up... a lot.

But how much?

The Trigonometry

Well that's where the trig comes in (you can skip this section if you don't want to see how I figured it out). In order for me to say how much, I needed to be able to reliably compute the distance necessary to view an object of a given width. But how? I started by drawing a diagram like this one:

V is my viewing angle. Okay it's not 29° (or 28.98333° which is the actual FOV of the nifty fifty on a crop sensor), but close enough. The legs of the triangle extending out from V represent the edges of my FOV as the distance to the subject (marked by the dashed line, d) grows. The base of the triangle (marked as w) is the width of the field of view at the distance d. Basically this is a representation of the wedge or cone of that falls within a particular FOV, in this case 30°.

I can pick any distance I want for d, but what I really need is a way to say what d should be to accomodate a subject of a certain width. In other words, to fit a subject 10 feet wide in my viewfinder, how far back do I need to stand with the nifty fifty on my EOS 30D camera? I supposed that given a formula for that, I could solve the formula for the width so that one could also compute the maximum width viewable given a distance.

The triangle depicted above is an isoceles triangle, as both the legs are the same length, and consequently the angles where the legs meet the base is also to the same. I spent some time looking online for computations for isoceles triangles, but what I was looking for didn't appear (namely, given the length of the base, and the angle of the peak, what is the height or altitude of an isoceles triangle?)

I studied trig over 20 years ago so I remember very little of it, but I did remember there were a lot of simple equivalences for right triangles (that is, triangles where one of the angles is 90°). And I realized while looking at my diagram that the line I had drawn to represent the distance, bisected V and split the triangle into 2 right triangles, each of which looked like this:

Bisecting V gives me a 15° angle (V'), and a base width exactly half of what it was before (w'). So if I could take a given distance d and come up with a formula for w', then I should be able to solve that formula for either d or w', keeping in mind that V' is V/2 and w' is w/2.

Doing a quick check online I found the two rudimentary trignometric equivalences for right triangles: for either of the angles other than the 90° one, the sin of that angle is equal to the length of the opposite side divided by the length of the hypoteneuse, and the cos of that angle is equal to the length of the adjacent side divided by the length of the hypoteneuse. Here are those equivalences for the right triangle above:

Sin V' and cos V' I can get with a pocket calculator, and I'm going to pick a value for either d or w' and solve for the other. I can solve the equation on the left for w' [w' = (sin V') * h] and I can solve the equation on the right for d [d = (cos V') * h], but both of these solutions require me to know what the hypoteneuse of this triangle is.

But in order to get w' from d or d from w' I need to do more work, mostly because I am not going to know what the hypoteneuse is. I'm only going to be starting with either V' and w' or V' and d. So what I need to do is solve one of the equations for h, and then plug that into the other equation. That should give me a formula I that I can use to solve for either d in terms of w' and V' or w' in terms of d and V'. So I picked the equation on the right. Solving that for h gives h = d / (cos V').

So I should be able to substitute d / (cos V') in the equation on the left, like so:

Now I'm good. I know what V' is, I can get sin V' or cos V' from my calculator, and I am going to pick either d or w'. So now I can solve for either one, like so:

Done, right? Well, yes, if I want to know what the appropriate distance is for half the width of my subject using a lens with half the field of view. Now I want to substitute in the equivalences that w' = w/2 and V' = V/2. In the equation on the right that will put w/2 on the left of the equal sign, so I will multiply both sides by 2 to solve the equation for w. That gives me:

Okay they probably aren't the cleanest formulas in the world, but they work and let you get the height of an isoceles triangle from its base width and peak angle, or vice versa. Using these formulas I could handily compute the needed distance for a given width in a given field of view, and this allowed me to present something more concrete than "gee whiz, that EF 50mm 1.8 is awfully confining on a crop sensor camera."

Back to the Argument

So how confining is that nifty fifty?

5 feet wide = 9.7 feet away
10 feet wide = 19.3 feet away
15 feet wide = 29 feet away
20 feet wide = 38.7 feet away
25 feet wide = 48.4 feet away

Pretty confining! If you are trying to capture 3 people sitting on a couch which is 8 feet long all in one shot, you need to stand 15 feet 6 inches away. Better have a big living room, or one where there isn't a TV 10 feet from the couch. Or maybe if you moved the couch outside... that would be cool for an album cover, but for Aunt Bea, Uncle Joe, and Granny, it is probably less so.

Working with the EF 50mm f/1.8 is a good exercise though for learning how to push a lens to do what you need, and it's plain old good exercise, because you're going to be backing up a lot. You can get that 8 foot couch in shot if you shoot from an angle, but then you will need to stop your aperture down to widen up the depth of field so that everyone will be in focus... which means you can't shoot low light anymore so you might need lamps or a flash. Or you could give up on that shot and shoot the people individually.

Or, you could simply not get the EF 50mm 1.8 in the first place, if you are not planning to shoot primarily portraits. If you want to consider the traditional FOV that the great 35mm film artists shot with, you need a lens that gives a FOV on a crop-sensor camera similar to a 50mm lens on a 35mm film camera (i.e. 46°). The closest bet would be a 28mm lens, like the EF 28mm f/1.8 or EF 28mm f/2.8. These have a crop-sensor FOV of 47.25°. With one of these lenses the width to distance figures look like this:

5 feet wide = 5.7 feet away
10 feet wide = 11.4 feet away
15 feet wide = 17.1 feet away
20 feet wide = 22.8 feet away
25 feet wide = 28.6 feet away

Much more reasonable. And quite interesting how the distance to subject is almost the same as the width of the subject. No surpise that the 50mm lens became the standard on the cameras of old.

Christmas Day

Abacquer — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 19:35:57 -0500

Our Christmas Eve was a late one, with Lynnea finally in bed my wife and I wrapped gifts until the wee hours. She was very tired because she had been traveling all day, and I was in a lot of pain because I'm having trouble with some oral surgery I had done recently. But we finally finished by like 3 AM.

However, every Christmas morning I always want to get a shot of my daughter Lynnea as she sees the tree for the first time, and also a shot of the tree with all the presents piled around it, and each year my daughter sneaks down early before I can get up. Heck last year, when I got down, she had pulled all the presents out from under the tree and sorted them into piles by recipient!!! So much for getting a nice photo! :-/

So call it proactive discipline, but this year I sealed the entrance to the downstairs with wrapping paper and put a sign on it telling Lynnea to go back to bed and wait for us. To no avail... she was too keyed up about christmas and tore the paper while trying to squeeze around it so she could peek at the gifts. However at least this time she didn't move anything and came back upstairs and harassed us until we dragged our exhausted asses out of bed at 7 in the morning.

Money's been tight this year so there were almost no gifts for Patty or I, which is okay, we don't really need anything. Pat asked only for a Nintendo DS Lite--she had picked up some "braintwister" type games for the DS and she wanted to have her own DS to play them on. Me, I got a copy of Understanding Exposure by Brian Peterson, the xbox 360 game "Mass Effect", the ridiculously bad horror film "Black Sheep", and a replacement for my copy of the film "The Eye" which was damaged when I loaned it to someone.

Lynnea had a blast and tore into the presents with gusto. And we also had another visit from our friend the cardinal and I managed to snag a few shots of him. Then it was off to my sister Donna's house for a Christmas meal and an afternoon watching Pirates of the Carribean 3.

All in all, not a bad christmas, except me having to pop tylenol with codeine all day to keep the pain manageable. *sigh* It's always something.

Anyway hope you all are having a happy holiday season, and I wish you all the best in the new year.

Merry Christmas

Abacquer — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 00:46:17 -0500

Unbecoming Levity wishes you

MERRY CHRISTMAS!