You know those voice over announcers you hear the at tail end of pharmaceutical commercials telling you about all the dreadful things that the advertised drug can do to your body? I hit those verbal Autobahn speeds a couple times in this interview. Me nervous?

My most profound thanks to Nic Fillingham. Brilliant, engaging and one of the best interviewers I’ve encountered. The only thing I hold against him is my girlfriend thinks his accent is hot.

Also a very large style thank you to Rob Mackie, the man behind the camera. Amazing in his ability to run two cameras at the same time. I hung out and watched Mr. Mackie film a few other interviews for the sheer joy of watching a master at work.

This is a great post that supports much of what is written by Matt Mason in his fabulous book The Pirates Dilemma. I highly recommend reading both.

Thanks to Charlotte Barry for bringing the Reg Braithwaite post to my attention.

From the Polaroid site;

Due to marketplace conditions, Polaroid has discontinued almost all of its instant analog hardware products. Polaroid has also made the difficult decision to cease manufacturing of instant film products in 2008

Jason Santa Maria offers a brilliant perspective here.

This is so good it is useless to say anything except I implore you to take the time to watch.

Today I received an email from Brent Hatton;

Hi Lou, my names Brent, 20 years young from Perth, Australia. I work in a camera shop, and while sitting in the loo at work today I read an article about you in an old ProPhoto magazine. Flattered?

Hell yes I’m flattered. There something regal about being the subject of preferred reading in the throne room. A room where one can sit comfortably and have a cogitate in the miasma of yesterdays supper.

Lavatorial reading is a decidedly male pursuit. True there are a few female followers of the ritual, but they are a minority to their gender. Taking a few moments quiet time at home or at work should be taken seriously with the following comforts considered;

• Lighting: a well lit reading space is a happy reading space. Sadly most bathrooms have awful lighting. Consider the purchase of soft style light bulbs.
• Library: a healthy selection of reading material organized in a magazine rack can make your visit to the loo diverse and interesting by catering to your mood of the moment.
• Seating: although a seemingly innocuous activity, reading in the can is rough on the back and butt muscles. Assign the same considerations to choosing your toilet seat that you do when choosing a couch.
• Supplies: the calming effect of concluding a novel can be shattered by having to yell to someone outside your sanctuary to toss you a roll of toilette paper. Avoid this unfortunate circumstance by checking the roll before dropping your pants.

Finally, practice good hygiene by shutting the lid before flushing. Tests have shown that flushing without a lid sends up a cloud of spray, invisible to the naked eye, a considerable distance away from the toilet (easily filling the volume of an average bathroom). The spray has the potential to contain a variety of viruses and bacteria, which will happily eke out a wretched existence on anything it can in your bathroom.

Many thanks to Brent for inspiring this post by taking the time to write to me.

I learned two very valuable things at the Microsoft Pro Photography Summit.

1. Type written notes shrink to the point of being unreadable as soon as you walk on a stage.
2. I should drink a martini before speaking to a large group of people about a highly controversial subject.

The Microsoft Pro Photography Summit revealed some extraordinary technologies that are currently evolving for photographers. When I wasn’t on stage I sat next to uber shooter Brian Smith and we calmly and collectively wet our pants over some of the things we saw.

To give you and idea of the level of genius, there is software that uses GPS data to map the positions of buildings in cityscape so that it can remove the haze from a photograph shot on a less than ideal day. By knowing the position of the buildings the software can effectively discern noise particles from particles that lend themselves to the the image.

Another speaker who I found captivating was Miss Aniela. A girl from Brighton, England who started shooting self portraiture and placing the images on photo sharing site flickr. She has parlayed a hobby into a full blown career that has resulted in, so far, two international gallery openings. All the exposure came as a result of being involved in an online community.

The event was highly successful and interesting. I’ll post a summary of my presentation next week as soon as I can secure some video and we get the infrastructure in place to commence the grand experiment that I promised to the audience.

“They might as well raise the overall fare, so at least you know what you’re paying,” said Renata Wasserman, who was flying to Krakow, Poland. “Pretty soon they’ll be making us pay to go to the toilet on the plane.” (by)

My first year of college I used ride with friend who would frequently drive from Southern to Northern California. The gas was generously paid for by her father until he hit a financial rough patch and asked for his gas card back. She asked if I wouldn’t mind chipping in for the fuel. Why would I, she let me put my suitcase in her trunk for free.