iPhone photo of the day (Fri 5/28)
May 28, 2010 by Brad ·
Subtitle: What is the best camera?
No, it’s no wonder of artistic merit. (And no, the iPhone doesn’t actually take x-rays.) But how often does one typically run into a turtle’s radiograph on display? I was in the vet’s office for my cat Bigelow, whose photo you saw yesterday. While I waited in the exam room, there was this turtle’s x-ray.
There’s a saying*: the best camera is whichever one you happen to have with you. I certainly have more technically capable pieces of photographic equipment than my iPhone. But it’s impractical to try to be one of those photographers who takes an SLR camera with them everywhere they go. But I take my phone everywhere. And when that’s all that’s with me, it’s the best camera I’ve got.
iPhone photo
*and a book, and an app, and my hat is tipped to Chase Jarvis
·iPhone photo of the day (Thr 5/27)
May 27, 2010 by Brad ·
I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to post an image of a cat. I’ve been resisting, really. I could probably post nothing but cats and bicycles. If cats and bicycles got married, I wouldn’t know how to contain myself!
iPhone photo
iPhone photo of the day (Wed 5/26)
May 26, 2010 by Brad ·
I’m not going to say much about this photo, as I am posting a link to it on Twitter (@Monkey_Brad) because I know that a few of my followers have been where this image was made. I want to see if they’ll recognize this unconventional view of a place they are familiar with. Hopefully some consternation, and some fun, will be had in figuring it out. Yes, I know, there’s a pretty big hint right there, but we’ll see if they can figure out “what” it is that we’re seeing here, if the “where” was too easy.
iPhone photo
iPhone photo of the day 5/25
May 25, 2010 by Brad ·
The old clock on the wall says it’s time to post this image from the wonderful Rincon Market in Tucson. It’s a great place to shop, eat, or just hang out with excellent coffee. It really has been there since 1926, though I suspect not in exactly the same form. I read a Yelp review or two that lamented its sale to new owners. I think it was just a case of a reviewer or two missing old established relationships with fine people. But as a first-timer there a few months ago, I was thoroughly delighted with it. I even went back the next morning. Never would have suspected it hadn’t been in those good people’s hands all along.
This great clock lives on a beautiful old brick wall. I had fun playing with the incandescent lights flaring in the little phone’s camera lens. I’ll have to post more from there soon. But for today, just the one.
iPhone photograph
Self portrait as avatar (not the blue kind)
May 24, 2010 by Brad ·
A friend of mine, Chanelle, is in the middle of an ambitious series of self-portraits. The series seems to have something to do with coming to terms with being in front of the lens, and some things more profound than that, which I ought to leave to her to put into words. As for me, I can empathize. I am not a big fan of getting out from behind the camera. It’s safe behind it. It’s risky in front, if you’re at all uncomfortable with aspects of your own appearance, expressions, being open to misinterpretation, or if you simply have control issues. I plead guilty to all of those to one degree or another.
Recently I was reminded of an article I read about one of Flickr’s biggest stars, who hit it big through her own self-portraiture in Iceland. One of the issues that Flickr self-portraitists have to deal with is the community there and its comments and links. Most comments I’ve seen on Flickr are supportive, but there are pockets of crankypants party-poopers, and when any topic gets enough attention, they will spill over and taint the scene. Female self-portraits suffer from a dual edged sword of critique. If they’re pretty, they’re accused of pandering to make viewers. If they’re not, well… that comes with its own obvious set of harsh commentary, or dismissal and little attention. Male FLickr users sometimes feel like they are at a disadvantage to female self-portrait creators, because our current culture appreciates the female form and aesthetic over the male. And that can make the men even less attractive: they can get whiney about it.
In actuality, I don’t have the answer to that matter at the moment. But I noticed some of that whine creeping into my thinking. So I told myself to get over it already, fired up the iMac’s built-in camera and Photobooth program, and cranked out an approximation of her current Twitter avatar self-portrait. Okay, so she’s still objectively more attractive than I am. But I wound up with a self-portrait that I can live with. And as I break it down, my issue with most of her other self-portraits that I wouldn’t feel comfortable trying to recreate is that I’m more than 10 years older and probably 100 pounds heavier than she is. It’s not really a male/female issue.
I’m a believer in actual distinctions between males and females. Some are natural. Others are cultural. Some matter in certain arenas, macro or micro. But on the subject of self-portraits, I think my little exercise of copying Chanelle’s vision for this photo has helped me get past an unnecessarily applied distinction.
Chanelle's original avatar
My version
iPhone wedding photograph
May 23, 2010 by Brad ·
Being Sunday, and with this series of iPhone photos not having found a defined rhythm yet, I figured this church image should be posted today.
iPhone photograph
iPhone photo (first in a series)
May 22, 2010 by Brad ·
I love using my iPhone to create lo-res images of beautiful or interesting scenes that I happen across through the day. I hope to get into the habit of posting my favorites here as they are collected. I’ll start with one from yesterday at Cartel Coffee Lab in Tempe, AZ. I have a few from this unique little shop that I imagine will make the cut into this series, if not a collection of their own someday. In my imagination, I see my Cartel Coffee photos as a temporary installation actually at Cartel someday. The ever-changing real flowers at the counter and the window light from the far-off entry way make for an irresistible combination in my eye. So many things there are interesting, and the darkness that’s common inside can make iPhone photography deliciously challenging.
iPhone photo
The Floyd Landis admission (w/ original photos)
May 20, 2010 by Brad ·
I remember watching Floyd’s amazing Stage 17 performance in the 2006 Tour de France live on television. I was dumbfounded and thrilled. When my wife got home, I showed her the entirety of the stage’s television coverage, watching along with her. We even sat on the couch together afterward as I read aloud the live-blogging entries of a writer for VeloNews whose blow-by-blow account of Landis’s shocking recovery and devastation of his opponents on that epic mountain stage. We laughed and reveled in the unexpected and unorthodox moves and the bewildered descriptions they elicited from commentators on tv and online.
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© 2010 RB Jones Photography
© 2010 RB Jones Photography
Well… we probably all knew this day was coming. Not all of us, certainly. There were those who either wanted to believe bad enough, or who knew just enough about chemistry or medicine to be able to see a glimmer of possibility in the explanations that the test(s) [that showed his two types of testosterone levels to be too far apart] were a result of his body’s conversion of medication for his ailing hip. Alas. I had my strong suspicions, particularly since reading David Walsh’s book From Lance to Landis. Since then, I’ve considered everyone who had ever been a part of the US Postal team to have been part of a systematic doping program with Johan Bruyneel at its helm.
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© 2010 RB Jones Photography
© 2010 RB Jones Photography
Why would Landis say what he’s saying now? Because it’s true. And because he did exactly what so many other cyclists did. They won. They got paid millions and enjoyed superstar status. Floyd did all the work, took all the risks, and won the hardest victory there is in cycling, over opponents who were using the same doping techniques (some confirmed, some just presumed). But Floyd made a tiny mistake on the worst day possible. He somehow mismanaged the masking of the previous night’s standard (to most of the peloton I presume, or some whole teams I’m very confident) recovery regimen of a testosterone patch on the scrotum. He got caught. Caught for something that pales in comparison to his real doping regimen. But it cost him everything. He was cut loose, hung out, and backhanded by the sport’s omerta – the code of silence. And he was expected to play along.
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© 2010 RB Jones Photography
© 2010 RB Jones Photography
So why come out now? Conscience? Sure. But I can’t dismiss revenge. And I can’t blame him. Most of the riders he’s implicated along with himself in his admissions are currently riding in the Amgen Tour of California. (For the uninitiated, I should point out the irony of Amgen’s title sponsorship of that race. Amgen developed and manufactures synthetic EPO, a drug that boosts red blood cells for treating anemia, kidney-disease, and cancer. But cyclists use it to increase the amount of oxygen their blood can carry. There may be no sport in which such a factor is more decisive in the advantage such doping can provide.) By disclosing his charges now, he casts a pall over the pinnacle of the racing season, as the “grand tours” commence. There is NO WAY this will all be settled or out of the news before the Tour de France, which Lance Armstrong will be trying to make a big splash in this year in his high profile comeback.
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© 2010 RB Jones Photography
© 2010 RB Jones Photography
Remember, Floyd’s accusations are about 2002 & 2003 when Landis, Leipheimer, Zabriskie, Hincapie, and the rest were doping FOR Lance, to be his support team of supermen. (And blood doping is a long, expensive, sometimes risky [to health and career] process that impacts one’s whole training regimen.) I would be shocked if it weren’t required of them as a condition of employment on that team. Landis rode subservient for years in service to Armstrong. When he finally came out of the shadows and had a chance to lead his own team, start beating Lance is non-tour races, and then ride the tour with Lance retired… Floyd got pinged for a tiny (in relative terms) substance infraction. Lance was the king. Lance is once again the king. I think Floyd has finally had enough of pretending he can’t see that the king wears no clothes.
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© 2010 RB Jones Photography
© 2010 RB Jones Photography
It’s a sad story. But I feel for Floyd. Being around him earlier this year was pleasant but a little uncomfortable. I admired him, but I’m glad the weird twilight is over. I prefer the darkness of this night. (Though Floyd might want to humbly apologize and make amends somehow to the supporters who contributed to his post-disqualification appeal process defense fund.) It means that for Floyd the man, he’s finally a step closer to a new day. But if (non-doper and harsh critic of dopers) Greg Lemond’s last decade is any indicator, Floyd’s proverbial night will be a long and cold one. Dopers suck, as they say. But journeys of redemption and personal renewal are something worth undertaking.
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© 2010 RB Jones Photography
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