Planet #photogeeks

Image # CE07 View in Gallery.

This is the last image in the Colourflow: Stella series. There will be one more Colourflow series in a few months with a more graphic-design feel; principal photography for that is done but processing is on hold so I don't rush Stella too much in look/feel.

The next series to be shown will be one I'm shooting presently involving water. I'm kind of annoyed that the wind has been so still lately, but I think I can get what I need anyway. Processing it will be fairly simple but I think the results will be lovely, especially printed large. (Of course.)

I'm also wrapping up the planning for a conceptual series called Seven; hopefully, shooting for that will happen over the next couple of weeks.

And between series posts, I've got some other assorted images to finish and share.

Image # CE38 View in Gallery.

I posted about this on twitter already, but I hacked together a quick user theme for the excellent whoisi service.

It works with either stylish or greasemonkey (there are two versions on the theme’s page, one for each excellent Firefox extension).

I was intending on going to this year’s GUADEC in Istanbul, Turkey… but, unfortunately, I’ve been having an amazingly horrid apartment experience.  I call it “the flat fiasco”.

Fireworks on the Navesink takes place along the banks of the Navesink River the eve of 4th of July. The epicenter of the event revolves around two Red Bank parks -- Marine Park, at the base of Wharf Avenue, and Riverside Gardens Park on Front Street. More than a dozen food vendors set-up to provide food and drink to the over 50,000 people who pour into downtown Red Bank for the event. Launched from two barge locations, Garden State Fireworks of Millington shoots over 10,000 shells, all choreographed to an eclectic mix of popular and patriotic songs.

This being my first time in this part of the universe, I didn't know what to expect from the event - my only measures of comparison being the ones from Lake Linden and Copper Harbor. Seeing the fireworks choreographed to songs, amidst the usual oohs and aahs, was a unique experience while meeting, hard-to-find, cool people felt good as well.

Red Bank, NJ.

Image # CE37 View in Gallery.

Liza and I went to a conference in Las Vegas last week, called TAM: The Amazing Meeting. It's kind of hard to explain but it's hosted by the James Randi Educational Foundation, and it's basically a bunch of people getting together to discuss issues surrounding critical thinking and skepticism. They had some cool special guests including Adam Savage of The Mythbusters, and Penn & Teller from their famous show. The show was hosted at the Flamingo Hotel, a pretty nice place.

Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson, and astrophysicist and author, gave the keynote. There were some standout talks including ones by Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer, Dr. Ben Goldacre, a doctor and author in the UK, Dr. Michael Shermer, a writer and well-known skeptic, and Dr. Steven Novella of the Skeptic's Guide to the Universe podcast.

But the best part about the conference wasn't the talks, it was the company! We had a great time every night hanging out with newly-made friends. The first night we ran into Brian Dunning and his wife Lisa, and had a bite of supper with them. Brian produces an excellent podcast called Skeptoid, and he's working on a television show pilot project with Dr. Novella, Dr. Shermer, and others. Very cool.

Thursday night we went to the Penn and Teller show at The Rio casino. It was a fantastic show, of course, and we were able to stay a bit later and get signatures from both P&T. Friday night was supposed to be the the Skeptic's Guide podcast dinner at a restaurant in Caesar's Palace, but the place was completely full. We grabbed a couple of people and went to The Palm where I had an excellent steak. After dinner we went back to the Flamingo bar to relax and chat.

Saturday night was the Randi.org "forum" party, again at Caesar's! They rented a suite that seemed to have no air conditioning, and people kept spilling out into the hallways, and we got kicked out by hotel security pretty quickly. We regrouped at the Flamingo bar and didn't get to bed until about 4 AM that morning. The next day had paper presentations instead of talks. We didn't get up very early for them.

I don't like Vegas for Vegas's sake, but TAM6 sure was a great time! We'll definitely be back for TAM7 next year.

I tried by best to keep the more incriminating photos off of Facebook, but...

mikeacar posted a photo:

San Francisco Conservatory of Music, San Francisco, March 15, 2008