Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Molly




Our family was in good spirits having just celebrated Thanksgiving and anticipating the busy holiday season. However, yesterday put a huge damper on our spirits, and taught us a lesson as well as reminding us of how precious life is.

Don't worry, there is a happy ending, but first, the rough stuff.

Molly was out for her daily morning walk, not far from our home, near a river that runs alongside a walking path in the county park, when it happened. The park is heavily wooded, and is an oasis in the middle of suburbia. While playing off leash by the river, my wife was about to clip on the leash to walk Molly home when Molly spotted a deer.

It was a big deer, with antlers. Molly bolted, crossed the shallow river and tore after the deer who was high-tailing it into the woods.

In seconds, Molly was gone. As quickly as she could, Julianne wadded through the cold, ankle deep river and ran in the direction of Molly. Molly had vanished, but Julianne persisted and walked for several miles through the heavily wooded park, while calling for Molly.

Molly was gone. Julianne thought to back track and look again, and while doing so, called my cell phone. I was seconds away from boarding my train to work when I received the terrible call.

I raced to my car and drove home as fast as I could, to help search for Molly.


Over time, we had begun to trust Molly. She never ventures far from us, and so we've become accustomed to letting her play off leash at times.

Lesson 1: Never again.

The weather was cold and cloudy, and the forecast said heavy rain is on the way.

With little time to spare, I went out with Julianne again, searching for Molly.

Nothing. No sign or sound of her.

We were devastated.

We searched for miles, back and forth in the woods, through rough foliage, sticker bushes, and some rocky terrain.

With no luck, we hiked back to our cars and drove along the roads and dead-end streets that run parallel to the park, but to no avail.

We notified the authorities, three police stations, animal control, and the local animal shelter and left them our phone number. This was our greatest hope.

We were desperate to find Molly, and heavy despair and the shock of losing her was overwhelming. Our voices were hoarse from calling Molly's name, and our legs and back were sore from searching. We were exhausted.

After driving around, we headed home. I made flyers and we both headed back again. I handed out flyers to every walker and jogger, and I stapled flyers to trees.

I found it difficult to look at Molly's photo on the flyers, and tears began to well up.

The grief was beginning to overwhelm us, but we were committed to finding our Molly, no matter how exhausted we were.

After traversing the park for dozens of miles, scratched from stickers, completely exhausted, we decided to head back to the car. It was raining, we were wet, hope had faded.

The possibility that our dog was lost, hurt or killed by a deer was now in our thoughts.

We were once looking forward to watching the special show with the lighting of the Rockefeller Christmas tree, but instead we were beginning to mourn our loss.

We didn't want to give up, but reality was pulling us the other way. We were heading back when Julianne's cell phone rang. The battery was nearly depleted, with barely enough power for the call.

"We think someone found your dog!" said the voice.

OMG! HOPE at last! Could it be our dog?

Julianne repeated the phone number out loud to me, of the woman who found a dog, miles away, and brought it home. Her name was Elizabeth. I entered her number into my cell phone and we called it immediately.

"Yes" said the voice, "My daughter picked up this dog that looked lost, and brought her home"

"Brown, with a black muzzle, short legs, approx 35lbs., and a BLUE collar".

Or despair turned to hope, but he BLUE collar threw us. Molly's collar was GREEN.

Could it still be Molly?

It took what seemed like hours to reach the car, and we quickly drove to the address.

The side door openend when our car was spotted, and there was our MOLLY!

We cried with relief, we have Molly back.

Lesson 2: We were reminded of how fragile life can be. In an instant, it can be taken away. We were lucky.

Molly will never be allowed off-leash again, unless she's in a fenced-in, safe area.

That evening, we all sat together, exhausted and bruised, and enjoyed the holiday special on TV.

Happy holidays to all!

Sunday, November 7, 2010

The power of photography

This morning, I noticed a tweet from photographer Juan Pons that contained a link to a short photo essay on Time.com.

The essay was about a photographer who has an autistic son, and how he used his photography to find an emotional bridge to help connect with his son. I found the story to be profoundly moving. If you know anyone with an autistic child, I encourage you to read it and see the wonderful photos.

One of the characteristics of autism is an emotional disconnect, and the inability to sense others emotions, or even their own emotions. Another characteristic is repetition and the need for routine.

Here's the link to the essay: www.time.com

This little story struck home because I am an uncle of a child who has a form of autism.

Although Katie's form is much more severe, she doesn't speak and cannot easily communicate, or follow directions, I feel that perhaps this essay may be on to something that could help.

Katie's way of communicating what food she wants is to point to pictures that her mom and dad pasted in a book. It has proven to be a godsend.

So, why not use photography to connect with her in other ways?

Here's a photo I shot of katie at her birthday:



This got me thinking that perhaps Katie's mom and dad might try using photography to help Katie communicate with them on another level, not just food.

I can't wait to share this story with them.

Thank you Jaun Pons for sharing this amazing Time.com story.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

My Lightroom 4 Wish List













Improvements I'd like to see incorporated in the next release of Adobe Lightroom:

1) Clone Stamp tool — Round-tripping to photoshop, and returning to LR is too inconvenient. Slow's workflow.


2) Better Tool Tips —
Too many commands are buried and are hard to remember. Would be nice to have tool tips that pop-up when you hover the mouse over an item.


3) Finder Integration –
I'd like to see better integration with the "Finder" (Macintosh), or the Desktop on PC, with the Import feature.

4) Improved Slide Show – There are very few options and choices for designing the look of slides. I'd like more control over type & fonts, frames, layout, and transitions.

5) Improve Stacks — The interface is awkward and it's tricky to unstack and re-stack photos.

6) Quick Collections – I just don't get this one. I occasionally create them by accident. Drives me crazy.

7) Hiding Lightroom – would be nice to have a keyboard shortcut to hide Lightroom to reveal the desktop.


8) Photographic edges or Simulated Mat –
As a preset panel, would be nice. Anyone can create the edge effects or Mat effects and save them to a file, for presetting.


That's it for now. I'm sure I'll have more as I continue to use Lightroom 3.5. It's a fantastic program that is a must for most photographers.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Why I chose Canon over Nikon












First, let me say that this was a tough decision.

As a kid, my father owned Nikon equipment, and i was inclined to follow in his footsteps, as most kids are influenced by their parents choices.

So, I thought I'd list some reasons that you may find interesting.

1) The Canon cameras just felt better in my hands and were more comfortable to hold. The depressions in the grip fit better than the others.

2) The cost of a full frame sensor, in the Canon 5D, was reasonable for a high-end DSLR.

3) A friend whom I trust recommended Canon.

4) Looking at the whole system, the cost of the lenses and accessories was more reasonable in comparison, and I noticed how many more "white" lenses were used at sporting events, than I could tell for others. The tell-tale white lenses seemed to be everywhere. How could I go wrong?

5) Canon is a larger company, makes more diverse products, so they most likely can spread development costs, and they develop their own CMOS sensors. Although any company can make mistakes and go down fast, I felt more comfortable going with a larger company that has a solid base.

6) Canon's "L" lenses are highly regarded, and their in-lens image stabilization system and quiet, electronic auto focus system was rated excellent in most reviews I read.

7) The user interface on the Camera's LCD was easier for me, and looked more user friendly.

8) Ergonomic design and placement of the control dials, buttons and wheels. Like I said, everything just seemed to fit better in my hands, and accessing the buttons and dials felt more natural than the other systems.

9) Cosmetics and design. The Canon camera design was more appealing to me. Not a deciding factor, but a small contributing one.

10) Service and support. I had a good experience before with Canon support, and they have a good reputation for quick turnaround on repairs.

So, there you have it!

It's a fine line between the top camera systems, particularly Nikon and Canon. And, now that I'm a Canonista for several years, there have been some moments I wondered if I made the right decision. Clearly, Nikon has leaped forward with their high-end, D700, D3 and D3X models, for their unsurpassed low-light sensitivity and their excellent Creative Lighting System (CLS) in their compact Flash units. Something I hope Canon will address in future Cameras and Flash equipment.

Generally speaking, I've been very pleased with my choice of Canon, and I know they'll continue to develop new and improved cameras, flashes, lenses, etc... for the future!

Ivan

Disclaimer
The information in this blog post is based on an opinion and is provided without warranty or claims of accuracy or completeness. Use the info at your own risk. All trademarks mentioned belong to their respective owners.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Upper Saddle River Public Library


Many thanks to the USR library for exhibiting my photography!

Friday, September 10, 2010

Kiki & Yasmine

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Best URL Names ever!

Here's why you should choose your URL carefully:

Speed Of Art
www.speedofart.com

Who Represents
www.whorepresents.com

Pen Island
www.penisland.net

Therapist Finder
www.therapistfinder.com

Mole Station Nursery
www.molestationnursery.com

IP Anywhere (computer software)
www.ipanywhere.com

Go Tahoe
www.gotahoe.com

Publish It Yourself
publishityourself.org

:-)

Ivan