Corridor

Shot with Kodak T-max 3200 black and white film. Experimenting with the grainy style of this film. I really like its effect on concrete.

Cube of Light

Continuing to experiment with 3200 black and white 35mm film. Shot with no tripod.

Best Conditions for Writing:

1. An environment where your cell phone has to be turned off.


2. Limited access to the Internet and no access to social media, chat or personal email.


3. A place where you have to sit for long periods of time in front of a computer.


4. Limited to no contact with other people or distractions.

This, for me, has been the ideal writing environment lately.

Escalator to Fog

Photo taken on January 3rd, 2012.

Streetcar Tunnel before Midnight

Pine Street at 7:20AM

More grain-tastic Kodak 3200 on a foggy San Francisco morning.

Old Federal Reserve Building

Captured with Kodak 3200 black and white film.

Powell Street Station

Photo taken one hour before midnight on new year's eve 2011. Shot on super grainy 3200 Kodak film.

First Photo and First Omelette of 2012

Six egg omelette with bacon, grilled onions, jack cheese and sprinkled paprika. A nice way to start the new year and get my first photo of 2012 in. Happy new year.

"Grunge Box" created with Inkscape

I worked with Inkscape alongside a friend today and created this RSS box icon from scratch. There is a great listing of tutorials at the Inkscape Tutorials weblog where I discovered how to make this and other cool things. The great thing about an exercise like this is that it teaches you some useful techniques to employ in your own designs. Inkscape is a great vector graphics editor, and it's free. To learn more about vector graphics, there is a pretty decent wiki on the subject.

I made this box from the "Use Inkscape to Create a Grunge RSS Box Icon" tutorial. Enjoy!

New Sci-fi Movie "Rage of the Yeti" vs "The Thing"

I had to laugh at the title of this new sci fi horror movie premiering November 12th, 2011 on the Syfy channel. However, I still maintain that nothing can beat John Carpenter's "The Thing" (1982), which will always be the ultimate 'snowy wasteland' sci fi horror movie.

(Update: 11/27/2011) Unfortunately, the embedded Yeti trailer no longer works, so I removed it from this post. I wasn't able to find the trailer any where else online. So enjoy "The Thing"!

On National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)

Yes sir, November is National Novel Writing Month. Every year people gather to write novels together and sign up at nanowrimo.org. I've never been a fan of online writing communities. I tried some out in 2001 and found that I was much better off writing and tracking my progress offline. I carefully choose who I show fresh work to, especially if it is far from being complete. But that's what works best for me.

I say if it helps you write, do it. But then keep on going. Don't stop on Nov. 30th. If novels are what you want to write, write 'em, damn it! And write 'em year round. If you can make time for one month, you can make time for 11 more.

If you're going to sign up for this 30 day novel writing extravaganza, use it as an opportunity to learn about your own writing process. Your mission:

1. Find out what works best for you.
2. Do what works best.
3. Make it so you can do it the rest of the year.

Sounds simpler than it is... but hang in there. Write. Write. And write some more!

Here's some nice sentiments on NaNoWriMo from S. Misanthrope: Stupid of the Week #3: National Write a Novel Month.

Sunset Landscapes from San Francisco

I was out walking with my wife through the city on a Sunday evening when we witnessed this sunset over the ocean. The day had been really hot, October being San Francisco's late summer this year, and the clouds began to form in front of the sun.

 (Camera: Pentax K100D Super; Lens: SMC Pentax 50 - 200mm f/3.5; Settings: 1/90 sec, f/19, ISO 200)

 (Camera: Pentax K100D Super; Lens: SMC Pentax 50 - 200mm f/3.5; Settings: 1/90 sec, f/22, ISO 200)

Moody and Empty Glass

I did some speculative product photography for my company Dexter Washington and captured this shot as a test shot. I was working with a 50mm 1:1.4 prime lens.

(Camera: Pentax K100D Super; Lens: SMC Pentax-M 50mm 1:1.4; Settings: 1/3000 sec, f/10, daylight balanced, ISO 200)

The Four Eyed Gor Monster

A monster named by and created for my daughter in Inkscape.