Whoops - a miscalculation!

This morning, wondering whether there was enough data left on the MiFi pad for today, I checked and saw that the figure I read yesterday as 135 megabytes was not actually true. It was 1.35 gigabytes. In other words, I've been so successful at saving data that I have a ton that's going to expire because it hasn't been used. In the last month I have used 2.5gb on my cellphone and 3gb on my MiFi pad. That tells me an awful lot.

That tells me I could probably get away with 6 or 7 gigabytes on my phone and sod the MiFi pad since my phone can be used as a MiFi pad on its own. So, what to do? The cellphone connection is $50 a month and the MiFi works out at $40 every two months or rather $20 a month. That's a grand total of $70 a month approximately.

Now my communication costs have risen and fallen. A month or two back, I gave T-Mobile as Family Mobile the boot because they claimed to have a service in Pelion that they certainly did if I stood in the pouring rain on the left hand side of the porch with the rain cascading off the roof, straight down the back of my neck. Otherwise, no - pure fiction about a service.

Over time my cellphone costs have gone from $20 every 3 months with Virgin for talk only to $25 a month for talk, text and data albeit spotty service that didn't seem to exist around Christmas each year and data that was so slow I could see my fingernails growing while webpages downloaded. Then I went to Family mobile at $43 a month but again, can't get the service where I go because it's T-Mobile. Thus I went to Straight Talk at $50 a month and that runs on AT&T.

Meanwhile my internet went from none initially to $55 a month to $40 every two months. Thus, the monthly costs have risen and fallen in a very serpentine manner. What I need now is to look again to see how much more money can be saved by combining services. Again, this has to be a pre-pay network. I don't believe in being tied to contracts at all.

The biggest problem, 4 months ago when I dumped Windstream was I had absolutely no idea how much data I used. Windstream wouldn't tell me so I had to suck it and see. With care and elimination of watching YouTube, data usage has dropped dramatically. I expect with further care, it might drop further. Indeed, since Straight Talk gives me unlimited 2G data and 3GB of high-speed data, I'm wondering whether 2G will be good enough for what I do. Heck, all I use 90% of the time is my phone and my tablet. Today is the first day in forever I'm using my macbook. Mind, there's a backstory to that. The screen has a tendency to keep switching off. Until I get it to the Mac gurus in Greenville, I won't know for sure if it's hardware (or as I suspect) software that's the cause.

So, to recap. I'm bloody happy with the MiFi data usage and happy with my lower data costs. I'm not too chuffed about increasing phone bills. I'd much rather pay Virgin $25 a month and get everything but they just don't perform well enough. I can't really go over to Verizon because my phone only works with GSM networks and should it fail then I will simply replace it with either a very cheap talk-only phone now that I have a mifi pad and a tablet or with another GSM mutiband phone.

My life as a videographer

For those that don't know, as required I shoot video. Again and I must stress this, I'm very happy being an amateur videographer and have no desire whatsoever to be a professional videographer. Indeed with video cameras being as available as stills cameras and stills cameras being as available as cigarettes, the chance of anybody going into business with the aim of being a videographer/photographer with any great success is slightly slimmer than the chance of the Titanic docking in North Dakota.

One of the people I shoot video for on occasion is a larger lady who goes by the name Dixie Nash on her YouTube site. The videos are not artistic as the video camera work is focused on what her audience likes. I've pretty much given up on doing selfie videos for my photography blog for the moment. My own videos are done on an aged and decrepit Canon S1 IS that was gifted to me back in 2004. It's 11 years old which is an eternity in the electronic world and has been repaired once for a manufacturing flaw. After the repair the photos were terrible but the video remains excellent. In fact, the video probably beats that of my phone in all but size.

The Dixie Nash videos are all aimed at people - usually men - that like to watch larger ladies with food. There's a fetish out there that is called feederism. I don't understand the fetish myself but it revolves around watching women eating and watching women getting bigger and bigger. Indeed, the world's fattest woman has quite a following on her YouTube account and make most of her income from people watching videos of her with food.

One of the biggest problems is the YouTube comments. Some people seem to like nothing better than to set up multiple accounts in order to write multiple negative comments on the videos. This is not something I really quite understand myself. Maybe I can. I did once know somebody who would follow a semis conservative stance and would happily denounce others for no apparent reason. In public they were polite to everybody but in private their true feelings came out. Indeed the same person would announce their true feelings online under an anonymous identity. I'm wondering if the same kind of person does this on YouTube.

Dixie Nash is a pleasant, gregarious, generous, positive thinking lady who merely puts up videos on YouTube catering toward a specific audience. When she sees the negative comments, some of which are obscene, she wonders whether the commenters have yet left grade school. I look and wonder how long its going to take Google to delete their accounts after reporting their obscenities. Today, for example one poster was advocating "remove yourself from the gene pool". That with any luck will result in the commenter's account being deleted. Dixie does not deserve nastiness If you don't like her videos, you have my and her permission not to watch them!

My own theory is that the internet allows a cloak of anonymity that is abused. Perhaps China and Russia - two of the most repressive regimes in the world have a point when they make users register their web identities. It might make people more responsible for what they say if they were more accountable. More than that - if they knew how fully accountable they were. Of course all this goes back to a total lack of respect for self and others that is plaguing today's post religion world. We have become a world where God has been replaced by Madonna, John Wayne, Oprah and Dr Phil.

In years gone by, my father commented ruefully on the graffiti on the wall of a bus shelter we used to pass that given the style, content and grammar of the graffiti, some people would have been better off not bothering to learn to read and write These days, I'm pretty sure that had Tim Berners Lee realized what use the world wide web would have been put to, he would have designed it differently. In fact, I do wonder sometimes whether it wouldn't have been better if electricity had not been discovered.

Thoughts on exposure

F4 being just one stop slower than F2.8, it would indeed be interesting to try taking a star photo just to see how much of a difference there will be. With film there was something called reciprocity failure which meant that above and below the film tolerance, exposure could be outside expected limits. Thus, a 45 minute exposure might well produce results under the same conditions as a 5 minute exposure or even as a 90 minute exposure. It would not be unreasonable to expect that digital sensors exhibit a certain amount of reciprocity failure and a 30 second exposure would place film at the lower end of reciprocity failure.

So, the proof of the pudding being the eating, I intend to have a go at star photos with an F4 lens. Anybody that knows me in real life knows that I'm very willing to challenge asserted facts. As an example, I'm quite happy to compete against .22LR rifle shooters on a 75 yard range with a .177 air rifle. Given the right pellet (which I have) my accuracy is just as good yet the commonly held belief is that air rifles are good only to 25 yards. The commonly stated belief is that you can only do star photos with a minimum of 3200 ISO, a 30 second exposure and an f2.8 lens. Well, baloney to that! I did mine with 1600 ISO, a 30 second exposure and an f2.8 lens and they were quite decent. Changing more of those variables could be entertaining.

If there's one thing I have learned in life, it is that people are all willing to peddle bullshit and to believe that bullshit. If ever there was a call for an anti-bullshit campaign, it should be very loud when "facts" are stated definitively. Heavens above, outside of photography I have people telling me bullshit. This ranges from insurance salesmen to civil servants and more. One entertaining piece of baloney was given to me the other day. I'm quite happily working where I am and somebody was trying to tell me there were wonderful jobs to be had in another organization and that I'd have to apply as a warehouse operative and make a sideways move. Uhm.... Organizations don't work like that. They class a warehouse operative as manual labor and manual labor stays as manual labor forever.

Photography, just like life in general is full of bullshit kings, queens and divas. Go to any photography forum and they're all parading their baloney. In years gone by, they would have paraded to a more limited audience in clubs and magazines. Now they can parade online in forums. It should not surprise regular readers that is why I barely frequent such online dens of iniquity.

And what now?

Right now I've reduced my photographic equipment to two very elderly DSLRs that would struggle to raise $100 but which work really well and a pair of lenses, one of which is a rather unpopular model that exhibits an image stabilization flaw. Basically, I have reduced to a level of equipment that I am not afraid of using. The old saying is that the poor man walks easily whereas the rich merchant walks nervously looking over his shoulder for cutpurses. I hated having the huge value of equipment just lying around. I resented the money tied up in stuff I never used.

My fastest lens is now F4 which means that I probably couldn't do another star photo. As I've probably said, to do star photos I'd need an f2.8 lens and/or a better camera. To do more high-speed photography I would need to get a fast flash. I can't say that I could really justify the expenditure on something of such limited use.

So, what is the way forward for my photography? Well, I'm going to concentrate on making the most out of my more limited equipment. The honest truth is that though I have used the stuff I sold, it wasn't often enough to merit keeping it. I'd rather have things I use than things I don't. I have all I need for autumn color photography. That is my oldest passion.

Each year there has been some reason why I didn't go to photograph autumn colors. The first few years it was because somebody else didn't want to go. Then it was because of work and lack of money. This year I should have my bus and should be ready to head North.

For several years a friend has wanted me to visit Canada with him. For years I have had excuses. Excuses no more! This year is the year of doing. My accommodation will be sorted out as is my transport. All I have to do is to stop being afraid of missing out on things that aren't worth as much as the experience and the photos.

150 megapixels

News came my way of a 150 megapixel sensor that one of the camera manufacturers had demonstrated. All I can say is "How utterly ridiculous". Currently we have digital SLRs that produce 50 megapixel images. Again, how utterly ridiculous! Just what in tarnation would anybody want that many megapixels?

I'm trying hard to fathom what anybody would want with 50 megapixels let alone 150. There's a crazy notion that all photos should be printed to 300dpi whereas in fact, the human eye cannot see more than 150dpi. So, putting reality to one side for a moment, a 50 megapixel sensor is used (for this calculation 54 megapixels) with dimensions of 6,000 pixels by 9,000 pixels. At 300dpi that would yield an image printed to 20 inches by 30 inches. Drop to the sensible 150dpi and the image grows to 40 inches by 60 inches.

Now, how big is the biggest picture hanging on your wall - the image size itself, not the matte or the frame? I bet it's nowhere near 10 inches by 15 inches. I wouldn't mind betting it's 10 inches by 8 inches. This is just ridiculous!

The biggest and most ridiculous thing ever is that many amateurs foolishly believe they need ever more megapixels when in fact 6 to 10 is about all they really need. Given that most images are now viewed solely online or on a tablet or digital picture frame, even 2 megapixels is excessive. Truth be told, the biggest argument I hear is "But more pixels means you can crop" yet the fools don't realize that correctly composing means that cropping is unnecessary.

So, how big would a 150 megapixel image be, anyway? Well, 128 megapixels is 8,000 by 16,000. That's an image size of 53 inches by 106 inches. That's so ridiculous that it's unbelievable. In terms of storage, it's 192mb per image. That's over 100 floppy disks for one image, 3 images on a CD or 40 on a dual layer DVD. That's just ridiculous.

My recommendation is that rather than join onto the stupid upgrade bandwaggon, you stick with what you have. I've been using 8 megapixels for 10 years. I'd like a few extras on newer cameras but I'm happy with what I have despite almost selling the lot to be free of bad memories.

The experiment is a resounding success!

About 4 months ago, I dropped Windstream as my internet service provider largely because they decided to charge me a $5 late fee due to a one-off missed payment. I think I was late twice in 3 years - both times because work was so busy I just plain forgot. I worked in retail for years and after a stressful day dealing with Joe Public, the only way to de-stress is to imbibe heavily, hence I just plain forgot.

At the same time as I dumped Windstream, I commenced construction of my new motorhome. Being mobile would mean a cable connection would not work. Thus, I purchased a MiFi pad and some data. It seems that I did a good thing there. Strange how everything came together.

My 2007 Macbook pretty much died, Windstream overcharged me and I started my motorhome. Having started the motorhome, I wanted to find out what a mobile Internet lifestyle would be like. It was a rip-roaring success. My internet costs used to be around $55 a month. Now, I pay $40 every two months and use public wifi for updates. My MiFi pad which cost me $100 has paid for itself. In 4 months I would have spent $220 on Windstream. In 4 months I have spent $80 on data. Add in the MiFi pad and it still represents a saving of $40 or 25%. A saving of 65% in just data costs.

There are things I do differently now. I seek out public wifi for software downloads and file uploads. I don't do anything with YouTube any more. I used to spend hours viewing nonsense on YouTube. So, my time is now better spent. I can have my fun writing content for my blog via a tablet and all the stuff takes up less space.

I will need to fix my Macbook or perhaps replace it for doing real photography but what to replace it with is the question, given that Macs just seem so expensive when Google's Chromebooks seem to do it all for a tiny fraction of the price. Even a cheaper Windows laptop cleansed of Windows and Linux installed seems good value.

I am all about doing things cheaper, with less bulk and more modern equipment.

Selling the last lens

After forgetting to take the Tamron 17-35 to Charlotte, I was kicking myself. Its a good little lens that I used in Key West and for night photo is but its duplicated by my 17-85 although the 17-85 is f4-5.6 whereas this lens is f2.8. I'll be honest - I barely use the Tamron because its range is so short.

Thus, I announced my huge bake sale of camera gear on a Facebook group and the only things people were interested in were the two Tamron lenses I had. That was weird! Mind, as I've said before, I believe expensive electronic flashes are on their way out. They're so expensive most amateurs don't buy them. ISOs have become so high that flashes are almost redundant. By way of example, the photographs of a few posts ago of the night sky. They were shot at 30 second exposure with ISO 1600. With a more modern camera with a really high ISO such as 102,400 the exposure would have been 6 stops different. The actual exposure time would have been 1/2 of a second. That's almost hand held territory.

Two people expressed interest in that lens. One showed no more interest after the first inquiry. The second wanted to beat an already low price even lower. Seeing as it will either sell to them or go for God knows what on eBay, I let them have first choice and hence sold the lens.

The plan having sold the lens is to continue astrophotography but there are two interesting routes that could be followed. The first would be to get a wide angle fast lens for between $300 and $600. The second would be to use my existing lenses but possibly use a newer camera with higher isos for about $500. Were I to go for the new camera route, I could sell my existing cameras (with which I am happy) to part finance it all.

Kinky Talk

For about the last 10 years, I have suffered the vagaries of American phone mobile systems. To put it extremely mildly, the American mobile phone system is a turd in a fur coat. Let's examine my experiences so far...

Virgin (running on Sprint) - at Christmas right next to the transmitter, no signal. Go a little out into the countryside and... no signal. They had a great package $25 for 300 minutes and unlimited data. The data was dog slow and I was lucky to find a service.

Family Mobile (Walmart - T-Mobile) - generally good except where my girlfriend lives, where service will be pretty much nil.

Straight Talk (Walmart - AT&T) - runs reasonably well except it keeps turning my phone's wifi on automatically after I have turned it off. No wonder data is vanishing on networks I have passwords for!

Then we have this really kooky thing where AT&T & T-Mobile operate GSM networks but not on GSM 900 and GSM 1800 like the rest of the world. Oh no, America has to be different. GSM 850 and GSM 1900. Not only that but Sprint and Verizon are even kookier - they don't use SIM cards. That's way too user friendly. Instead they issue handsets that are locked to their networks that have no sim cards.

The US phone system is as close to broken as can be. The only thing that currently works for me is my MiFi pad. I don't know what network it's on. It's Straight (aka Kinky) Talk so it could be Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile or AT&T. This is how I connect to the internet to upload photos etc.

As far as the phone system, a connection is a miracle. Sprint won't connect anywhere I go so I dropped Virgin (which piggybacks on Sprint). T-Mobile won't connect at my girlfriend's house. AT&T won't connect at my house. Tonight for example, each message has to be sent 4 times before it actually goes. The connection is up an down like a whore's drawers.

It truly amazes me that America with its complete intolerance of anything remotely crap manages to stumble along with their mobile phone system being such a shameful shambles.

As I have said before, I switched from T-Mobile to AT&T because T-Mobile had negligible reception at my girlfriends house. AT&T seems to make my choices over how my phone operates ineffective by over-riding my choices and my free will!

Jesus Christ, America. Wake up and see the crap you have as a phone system!

Bothered by agencies

As most regular readers will know, I'm always on the lookout for better paid, more interesting work. I don't think I have ever looked on CareerBuilder for photography jobs other than for a laugh to see what the scams on offer are. Anyway, I went to CareerBuilder yesterday and applied for a load of non-retail managerial positions. The calls I had were all about what I'd assume are entry level sales poitions. Nothing remotely like what I actually applied for.

In a similar vein, when I apply for many CareerBuilder positions, I find that respondents calling invariably ask for my resume despite having had it via CareerBuilder. Clearly a load of timewasters so applications now are accompanied by the following as an experiment to see whether anybody actually reads anything bar name and phone number..

Accompanying letter:

Read this very carefully...

No sales positions at all. I've done sales and don't wish to repeat the experience. I excel at anything I do so give me something new and challenging.

Agencies... If you are an agency and can't get an answer that means that your number has been blocked due to your past unsatisfactory performance. I never unblock a blocked number but do hand them over to my telemarketer, Jehovah's witnesses and Christian scientist associates.

Telemarketers... I simply block and report you.

Genuine employer looking for staff... please leave a voice message stating your name, your company's name, the position you wish to interview me for and the location.

Please note, I do not waste my time with LinkedIn, facebook, twitter, Pinterest or any other online time waster. I will not be visiting websites at your request, no matter how big the carrot dangled is - its not good value for my time.

Think very carefully about the message you leave and about the fact I am after a stimulating, challenging position that will fully utilize my considerable skills and intelligence. 

end accompanying letter

I then applied for a load of jobs not in sales. How many sales jobs will be in my voicemail tomorrow? I'm taking bets on greater than ten!

And tomorrow we will return you to your regular schedule of photography articles.

The future and freedom

Now that I am free of the fear of losing money (already lost it all), I can attack photography with a renewed passion and vigor. I realize that my cameras aren't exactly the latest and greatest but they work well and to be brutally honest there's not much difference between them and the latest cameras.

My XT has a maximum ISO of 1600 which yields very good photos. My 30D has an extended maximum ISO of 3200 which has not been tested yet due to the fact when I took my last night sky photos, I didn't know how to extend the range. I do now - it's in Canon's crazy menu system, hidden away where nobody sane would ever look. Really, seriously, Canon - do camera users look like children that want to play hide and seek? I will have to test that 3200 ISO this weekend.

Meanwhile, once I have sold the 17-35 Tamron then I shall feel freer to hunt eBay for a secondhand Rokinon 14mm since my passion is now night sky photography. Years ago, my passion was high-speed photography and I was so passionate about it that I commenced a book. Sadly somebody got in my way and decided that I should not be writing a book. I remember the words used now "You can't spell. You can't put two words together grammatically. Nobody will buy your book because nobody is interested in anything you have to write about". I am so glad that I found the incomplete parts of the manuscript a few years later and published because although its not a great seller, it does sell, proving the point that people are interested. As far as spelling and grammar are concerned - that was laughable as in the dim and distant past I was an English grammar and vocabulary instructor.

Maybe when my passion for night skies fades, I will take up high speed photography again. Maybe even go further and go into Schlieren photography or high-speed Schlieren photography. I know I sold my flashes that I used for high-speed photography but that doesn't particularly worry me. I believe we are at a crossroads for photographic lighting. LED flash units seem to be being experimented with currently. Most cellphones have LED flashes. They work well. Already somebody is attempting that which I predicted and which some idiots on a Flickr High-Speed photography group dismissed as impossible, namely building an LED powered high-speed flash unit. I suspect the same individual/s is/are responsible for the 2 bad reviews, which if you read the books will be seen as the nonsensical reviews they are. I have a feeling that I might be building my next flash unit from LEDs rather than buying a commercial unit.

The future is bright. At 1600 ISO I can't get the colors of the interstellar gas clouds to be visible. I suspect with 3200 ISO albeit extended (whatever in God's name that means, Canon) then they might become visible. It will also be interesting if I get a 14mm lens, to see what difference that makes. See - now that I am not held back, I can go forward. It's a lovely feeling! 

The Phoenix Rises

My night sky photo of the clouds parting of a few posts ago is somewhat evocative of my photography. After years in the doldrums, having now sold that which was weighing me down both physically and emotionally, my interest in photography has returned.

I'm not somebody that particularly cares whether their photos are appreciated nor condemned as in the past many have sought to condemn yet few ever to praise. This is not, I suspect, because my photos are remotely bad but more because it's more fun for people to tear other people and their work to shreds than to be constructive. I seem to attract the negative comments. One of my friends gets all positive comments and her comment about the worth of the comments is the same as mine... The commentaters wouldn't recognise a good photo if it got up and crowned them! I could put up the most brilliant photo and get only negativity and she could put up the worst and get only praise.

The sole remaining thing to sell is my Tamron 17-35. It's a great lens but the length is duplicated by my Canon 17-85 though the Canon lens is F4 - a whole stop slower. After that I might get the Rokinon/Samyang/whatever in 14mm - if I can find one secondhand. I refuse to pay new prices for anything anymore.

Rather than trying to be all things to all people as I had to when I had a photography business, I'm concentrating on the things that interest me. I really couldn't care less what some balding beer gut hiding behind a computer in their mother's basement has to say about my images. I am reclaiming my photography for me and my pleasure. If you like it then good, I'm happy. If you don't then I'm not going to rush out and buy a razor blade to slit my wrists. No! I'm going to get a length of sturdy hemp rope, tie a good sized noose in it and toss it over the branch of a tree and offer my critics the opportunity to try swinging from the rope!

Viva la revolution

Yesterday morning I was all for selling everything. I had been so frustrated by the lack of progress that I just wanted to wash my hands. I'd been trying for several years to sell those miserable Canon flash units. It didn't matter where I advertised, either nobody responded  or when they did, they wanted to pay way below market value or wanted some funky conditions attached.

After conversations with various friends, I eventually resolved to sell the items that I had been going nuts trying to sell over the last couple of years. Since I closed the photography business I'd been pressured to start - despite having zero interest in making my hobby into a business - in 2011, I'd been struggling to find buyers. Hence when I found a dealer was in town to buy gear, I was resolute to be there.

Thus, after a long drive to Charlotte, I sold the stuff I didn't want. It was without a doubt very therapeutic. I hated having money tied up in stuff I don't use and had no use for.

In the end I kept a minimal setup of two lenses with my elderly camera. It just didn't make economic sense to sell adequately megapixeled equipment in order to buy just different equipment.

So today I hope I laid some ghosts to rest and reclaimed my hobby.