i don’t like interacting with vendors.

ive been at sans 2006 since friday. summary: wow

i am on a security track given by the technical editor of sysadmin magazine. i just went to a scary presentation on bluetooth security. sans is awesome.

i’ll try to get some pics posted soon, the sites here are [wt]acky. i’ve been meeting cool people.

(604×800)

it’s almost creepy how buildings look when they’re completely upright in pictures.

i love the coverage of the 8/90 super angulon. this is nearly 3cm is rise. i had the camera bed at a 45 degree angle to get the lens high and comfortable. thank goodness for bag bellows. i need to shoot more like this. everything looks so proper and uniform. and so unlike real human vision.

there’s a large scratch on the polaroid in the 3rd column of windows. :-/

this was shot at embarcadeo center in san francisco. no security guards. :)

(604×800)

the title is a crack at all the stories i’ve ready regarding photographers being unnecessarily confronted by police and security. i keep a copy of the “photographers bill of rights” in my camera bag. i’ve been confronted by security and police. i think i’ve said before, if i was a terrorist, would i really stick around with a conspicuous camera that takes 20 minutes to compose a shot?

in any case. today i talked ryan into playing photo assistant. he stood by patiently while i framed up a few shots today in san francisco. mainly he told people it was ok to walk in front of the camera.

the outing went: polaroid. film. polariod. film. scratched polaroid. polaroid.. no dice. pack up and head out.

above is a scan of the first polaroid. lots of front rise. difficult to get in the right spot to be able to cover the building. also deciding the tree didn’t detract too much from the image. i have really only shot a few buildings, so this was a fresh crack.

tonight i made one of our favourite dishes: goat cheese salad. arugula, candied pecans, dried sweet cranberries, sliced bacon, home made dijon vinagrette, and soft goat cheese. soooooo good.

ryan made a herb roasted chicken.. though the chicken was the most juicy we’ve ever prepapred, the herbs were a bit overpowering. but now we know a technique for infusing flavour into chicken. we used a junior fryer from whole foods. enough for four.

changes for next time: much less herbs. possible alternative: slices of garlic, kosher salt, cracked pepper

an update on the chinese new year treasure hunt..

219 teams finished and reported. 114 beginner, 83 regular (our designation), 12 master.

we finished #22 out of 83. we got all 17 clues.

not bad!

i need a backdrop for a particular shot i need to do. full body portraits. white on top to black on bottom. there’s no such pre-made backdrop for any reasonable price that i can see. see plan b.

plan b: make one. seamless paper, paint. wouldn’t look very good unless the transition was harsher with deliberate looking strokes. may be too distracting. see plan c.

plan c: use grey paper (and give up on white) and angle the bottom back (away from the camera/light source) to make it darker. i could further darken the bottom by burning the bottom of the print.

i’ll need to clear out an area for this. make sure the paper i have is wide enough. and make sure i can frame the scene to maximize the subjects in 4×5. i could probably get this done at home.

i’m hoping B has a soft box. up above camera, pointed down. dark pants. i think it will work. especially if we had a grid. we could probably macguver a barn door.

i’ve moved my blog to http://schlachet.net/. i’ll setup a redirect for the old url, but bookmarks should be changed. all two of them. :)

i’ve been blogging for over three years now. i figured it’s time for a vanity domain name for it (and easier URL to remember).

friends and i took part in this year’s chinese new year treasure hunt in san francisco.

the goal was to hunt down 17 bits of information spread through san francisco. the clues are all two parts. the first part gets you to the right area of the city. the second part tells you specifically what to look for.

we had 7 people on our team and we finished with 15 minutes to spare (that’s four and a half hours of figuring out the clues and running up and down hills, from coit tower down to market street in the financial district.

33 wineries, 102 bottles

doesn’t count an old box set of italian table wines and some random wines and champagnes.

ok, i am a sucker for port wine.

boman took me to arlequin’s port tasting. tasty bits from absinthe and ten ports of varying styles. an importer from portugal was there to talk about the wines.

usually when i try a variety of wines i tend to like the cabs and the ports (and lately the zins). but when i try a variety of ports i found myself liking some more than others. i tended to like the older tawnys and the blends.

here’s what i came home with:

• fonseca porto bin no. 27 finest reserve
• fonseca guimaraens vintage 2000
• croft porto vintage 2000
• taylor fladgate 20 year tawny

i also picked up:

• domaine georges vernay 2004 viognier (i was told i would like this since i like gewurstraminer)
• talai berri, hindarribi zuri (recommended by boman)
• albert mann gewurstraminer 2004 bin d’alsace (recommnded by chris of arlequin – he said this was their best gewurstraminer)

so.. ya.

we met a wine judge who talked to us about how she became a judge and what she writes down about wines. we met a nice couple of ladies who share boman’s love of unpasteurized cheese and one of whom recommended i try a viognier. we met a couple from south carolina – the wife lived in plainfield, indiana and knew someone from my high school!!!!

wild. despite having a good amount of wine in 2005 i think 2006 is shaping up to be a good year.

my first usenet posting:

Newsgroups: rec.humor
From: jschl…@expert.cc.purdue.edu (Jason Schlachet)
Date: Sat, 2 Oct 1993 17:23:10 GMT
Local: Sat, Oct 2 1993 9:23 am
Subject: email jokes

–
-==————————————————————————==-
__/__/__/ jschlac…@expert.cc.purdue.edu (Jason S Schlachet)
__/__/ “On a rocket, to the fourth dimension. Total self-awareness,
__/ the intention.” HAIR – THE AMERICAN TRIAL LOVE-ROCK MUSICAL

(604×800)

this is a small scene in the corner of a hairpin curve on the way out to la honda. there’s not really any good place to park and you might never see it since the road is so fun to drive on. but for the past two times i’ve been on this road i couldn’t help but stop.

the corner is in complete shade most of the time. i decided to try my “new” heliar wide open.. on one hand, i wanted to try a wide-open shot to create interesting focus using movements. on the other hand, the lens was mounted in my cardboard lens board and the aperture ring wouldn’t budge. :-)

superbowl advertising: $80,000 per second
national football league salaries: $1,250,000 per year (meanwhile those educating the country’s children are making $48,000)
halftime show: still too racy for the american public (and more commercial than ever – seven of the first ten halftime shows were marching bands)
gambling on the superbowl: $400 million?

i spent today out on a nice drive. the weather was beautiful. i didn’t even think to turn on the tv today. come monday morning.. the water coolers, blogs, and news media will be buzzing with post-superbowl euphoria, i’m sure.