Sue and I hiked the Purdy spit this morning. There were big geoducks sticking their necks up in the air by the dozens. We could have easily dug a couple up for dinner.. We had to be careful not to step on the poor little guys.

Geoduck on the Purdy spit

Not sure what this was, but it had pretty colors:

star fish?

Almost exactly a year ago a client contacted me. They wanted an interactive map built in Flash. It was a great learning project for me. It forced me to update my skills, and move out of my comfort range into unexplored territory.

Client work is a win-win for me as an instructor. I benefit from being forced to stay current, and my students benefit from the knowledge I acquire working for clients. I pass that knowledge on to my students…or at least as much as they can absorb.

The same client contacted me this spring and asked me to expand on the interactive map, but not in Flash. They wanted it to work across all devices including IOS devices (iPhone, iPad, iTouch), Androids, and even some of the smaller smartphones. I watched a few tutorials on the new programming language this required…but was not able to ‘jump in and swim’.

I found I needed a broader base of understanding of the language. I broke down and bought a book, read half way through it and the light came on. I got it very very close to working…but came up against my lack of knowledge again. I showed it to a programming friend who is  a graduate of our program. He came up with a better solution…and half an hour later I had a working rough draft.

I really like web design. It reminds me a lot of printing. There is trouble shooting, guessing at solutions, throwing things at the wall to see if anything sticks, and finally knowledge, followed by production work. There is an instant payoff when things work…in printing, we had to wait for hours before seeing the finished product. In web design, if you program it right, you press F5 and there it is instantly.

Sue, Lisa, Tim and I went up to Vertical World today and climbed for a few hours. I started strong, even finished a 10a out across the roof, but ran out of steam quickly. Still it was a good time for all. Afterward I went to Glazer’s Camera shop and bought a new lens to replace my 18-250 Sigma that broke after 3 years. I think I might be done with Sigma. A $500 lens ought to last more than 3 years. It was made from mostly plastic, even the moving parts. I did a little reseach on the problem and it looks like it would be too expensive to be worth fixing. Instead I opted to buy some higher quality glass…professional quality…hopefully it will last longer.

The OT I’ve been working has worn me out so much I’m not even excited about finally replacing my broken lens. Maybe tomorrow I will feel refreshed.

I’m selling my Speed Graphic 4 x 5 camera

Speed Graphic 4x5 camera

I bought this to take transparencies of my landscape paintings. I don’t use it anymore because my digital cameras are good enough for my needs. Really though, if I was making a living as a painter, I wouldn’t sell it. Even the best digital only shoots at 40 megs, and that’s not big enough for a  30 inch print of a painting.

Sue (working as camera operator) and I shot a video with my new Canon 7D about the Speed Graphic. I go over the controls and function of the old beast. It’s a cool camera if you are into old stuff that still works. Here is a link to the page.

I’ve taught myself Adobe Premiere by watching an online lesson at www.lynda.com. For a while, I was in a panic because I didn’t have enough video footage to work with on my own projects in Premiere. But now I have too much video footage and not enough time in which to edit it. Editing is slow work, especially on a 3 year old mac.

My next big editing project is to compile a bunch of videos from the climbing gym into one short video. It’s a sunny Saturday and I am spending it at the computer. I keep telling myself that it’s ok, I need to learn this stuff…but the sunshine is calling to me…

These are a couple photos I took on Spring break on a climbing trip. My daughter is all grown up now. She and her brother save lives for a living at a local ER room.

Lisa and Tim at Smith Rocks

Lisa at Smith

I’ve been studying Adobe Premier

www.lynda.com has a great tutorial on Premiere. Simultaneously I’ve been learning to shoot my own video footage on my 7d. The weather has been steady rain, so I rarely get any decent light outside. A true cameraman could get some nice footage of raindrops in a puddle or something, but I am far from a skilled cameraman.

I had three former students, all very successful, come by today. Brett has been working in SEO for several years. Jeromy runs his own freelance business, and Rob learned Photoshop and Dreamweaver from us before heading over to Bates. They have all done great things since leaving here.

It was nice seeing them all in one day, and knowing that I played a small part in helping them get where they are today. Teaching is a cool job.

The new stuff I’m learning about video is relatively easy compared to web programming. You are basically just dragging things around, there is no code involved at all. Editing video seems very clear cut compared to if, else and for loops.

Where it gets less well defined is the artistic side of video. Rob was talking about how he wanted to learn how to “tell a story” in video. An analogy for that would be the situation a painter finds himself in after taking a class in oil painting. Okay, I know how to prepare my canvas, and mix my oil paints correctly to make all the various colors, but what do I do with this blank canvas?

What is my story? And if I have a story, how do I tell it with video? We were talking about Janet, and how much we miss her. She told Rob that no video should every be longer than 2 minutes, unless you have a very compelling story to tell that will keep your audience riveted to the screen.

DIY video camera slider

I’ve spent the last week tinkering out in the garage with a video camera slider. They are also called glide tracks. This is version two. I made my first version from copper pipe, but that was a disaster. This one is a copy of something I have only seen in you tube videos. If you buy it from him, you get a finished, very professional product. It is totally worth the money to buy it pre-made from the guy who invented this concept…you do NOT want to spend 3 long days out in the garage making all the mistakes I made to come up with a poor copy of his amazing invention.

Still, it was a fun way to spend time, and I learned a lot. If you do insist on building this, you will need a good drill press, a hack saw and some aluminum, plus $90 worth of stainless steel rod. I got the metal at http://www.metalsupermarkets.com/

camera slider

I’ve not yet filmed any good footage with this. My camera and I are still getting to know each other. When I get some good slider footage I will post it here.

camera slider

These are pictures of my DIY ham radio Tarheel antenna mount for a 2004 Toyota Tacoma pickup truck.

I built this from steel bar purchased at Home Depot. The bolts are stainless steel one quarter twenty. I did not do a good job of painting it. Ideally it would have been made from stainless steel, but that is a bit harder to find. I have recently discovered http://www.metalsupermarkets.com/. They are an amazing chain of stores that sell all kinds of metal in small quantities for home inventors.

Notice the bare unpainted metal. I kept all the contact surfaces free of paint so there would be an electrical ground to the car body, from the antenna.

Here are the holes I drilled in my Tacoma pickup. I made a dummy out of cardboard to get the measurements right before I started cutting metal. When this antenna was mounted, I had scraped off all the paint where the antenna was mounted on the truck for electrical ground. I have since removed the mount and repainted the truck. No holes show from the outside of the truck.

If I remount this in the future, I will use a better paint. I hurried the paint job, and it peeled as you can see in the photos. I took my Tarheel antenna off because I got bored with ham radio. I sold all my ham gear and put the money toward my new hobby: DSLR cinematography.