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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm — 1/1250 sec, f/5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
A Little Over-Exposure
works out well.... sometimes
from last autumn's outing that produced “Thatched Roofs and Colored Canopies at the Himukai Shrine, Kyoto Japan”
This is a long post. The executive summary is:
Lightroom plugin development consumed me to the point of breakdown, and something needs to change: I'm going to revert back to treating it like the hobby it is, doing what I find pleasure in (developing my plugins), but avoiding what brings me stress (being subjugated to my mail and comment queues).
So, the end result is that my plugin development will continue, but if you send me a note about the plugins, I probably won't respond. Sorry.
The verb “to scale” in computer science refers to a solution's ability to handle dramatically increasing demands. Filtering spam by personally inspecting each message, for example, works fine if you get only a few each day, but reaches its limits when you get hundreds a day, and becomes totally unworkable if you got thousands. Personal inspection just doesn't scale to those kinds of numbers, which is why in real life we need a totally different approach, such as automatic filtering as a first line of defense.
When I first started writing my plugins for Adobe Lightroom and giving them away, I was thrilled to get a response back, whether a “thanks!” or a bug report or a feature request. Engineers like to build things that people use, and though it was just a hobby, the gratification I got from the response was real. But after several years and more than a dozen plugins, the constant flow of feedback from users became fairly overwhelming, and after some fretting about what to do, I decided to move to a “donationware” model that kept my plugins free for everyone to use if they wanted, but also allowed people to easily express “thanks” through gifts. The extra “thanks” would keep me encouraged though the more dreary aspects of this hobby.
Unfortunately, it didn't work because it didn't address the real problem.
As my plugins got more popular (and more plentiful; I'm up to 20+ plugins now), so did the feedback of all kinds. The problem is that my original idea — that I write and maintain these plugins, and handle all feedback — just doesn't scale to the number of folks using them. All the thanks and gratification in the world doesn't put more hours in the day, and I eventually found this summer that merely doing an initial triage on my daily plugin-related email — reading them and responding to the low-hanging fruit — consumed 100% of my hobby time.
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1/100 sec, f/13, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Reed-Thatched Roofs Look Pretty From a Distance
but show their rough nature when viewed up close
The vast majority of messages I got were about problems at best tangential to me (e.g. people having general problems with their systems or Lightroom that happen to affect them while trying to use a plugin, or problems at a photo-hosting site that they run into while using a plugin), which repeated over and over and over all day, every day, and on the best day, my hobby time was completely saturated by email and blog comments that benefit only a relative few. Early in the summer I made a plugin FAQ and linked to it from everywhere, but it made no apparent dent in the flow of messages, and all summer, I got no new development done. I'm a geeky engineer and I like new development, and so the pleasure was now completely lost, replaced by an ever-increasing stress that grew with the number of messages awaiting my response.
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/4000 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
( just a pretty picture from the same outing as the others )
The stress and pressure was taking a toll on my life that came to a head after the added strain of a 21-hour trip back to Kyoto and the ensuing jetlag. My body just gave out, and I got sudden intense pains in both arms that made it impossible to use a computer.
The prospect of never being able to use a computer again is a fairly big deal to someone like me, especially since the photography I enjoy so much is now all digital. I gave up the computer for a while and consulted a bunch of doctors, and it seems that it's just stress-induced muscle cramping that can be healed, and thankfully not something irreversible like carpel-tunnel. I've settled on a particular sports-massage therapist whose treatments are both expensive and painful, but he clearly knows what he's doing and the prognosis looks good.
But it was a real wake-up call... all this stress and pain for a hobby! Something's got to change.
(The photos on this page are from the same outing that also produced last year's “Gate of Disrepair” post, which somehow seems fitting.)
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/3200 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Looking For a New Path
For some, this would be the time to turn it into a business, moving to a sales model, hiring developers and customer-service reps, etc. But I never wanted to make this a business... I love Lightroom and photography and software development, and this is my hobby, which is why I've always been adamant about not selling anything, not having customers.
So my plan is this: once my arms are fully healed, I'm going to return to what I find pleasure in (blogging and plugin development) and more or less ignore what I don't find pleasure in (dealing with plugin feedback). This is either remarkably selfish or long overdue, depending on your point of view. I certainly don't want to leave people in a lurch, so I plan to be attentive to bugs, but I will no longer take the weight of the world on my shoulders and feel the need to respond to every request for assistance.
I'm going to flush the hundreds of pending blog comments and emails, and will feel free to repeat that process from time to time.
I'm going to return to the pleasurable roots of plugin development. Taking this approach benefits me, of course, but it should actually allow me to get more stuff done (fix more bugs, add more features, and release more plugins) thereby benefiting many. But if I don't respond to your message, this is why. Sorry.
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/1250 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Unexpected Beauty
Autumn cherry blossoms, as seen in “Cherry Blossoms Amid the Fall Foliage”
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Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Strike
Keeping mostly off the computer for a week has been good for the arm pain I suddenly got at the beginning of the month, so I'll hazard a short post.
Today we visited Gen, and all went bowling. Was fun. I bowled a 137, which was good for me. (Once long ago I dated a girl whose folks both bowled 300, and with their pointers was able to bowl a 172, a personal record unlikely to ever be broken.)
I totally missed focus and exposure on the shot above (though the version seen here is after trying to overcome the damage in Lightroom), but I somehow seem to like it anyway. 🙂
I took this next shot today as well; if I had the energy, I'd put it as one of my “What am I?” quizzes, but I'll just leave it as a sort of interesting something-or-other for the viewer to muse on....
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1100 — map & image data — nearby photos
icon next to them have been artificially shrunk to better fit your screen; click the icon to restore them, in place, to their regular size.
Having some arm pain since 21-hour trip back last week, so I'm mostly staying off the computer for a few days, so no posts or email for a while.
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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 34 mm — 1/125 sec, f/2.8, ISO 220 — map & image data — nearby photos
Grandma's Helper
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/125 sec, f/3.5, ISO 360 — map & image data — nearby photos
Clearing Vines
Mom thought the vines on the side of the house had crossed over from “quaint” to “a bit too much”, so we cleared them off for the first time in years. Of course, Anthony was excited to help as long as it meant climbing the ladder.
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 32 mm — 1/125 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Safety First
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 29 mm — 1/125 sec, f/2.8, ISO 220 — map & image data — nearby photos
I went up to tidy some small bits...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/640 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Tidying Up
Photo by Anthony
The siding looks dirty, but it's actually all the remains of the adhesive tendrils of the vines...
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/320 sec, f/16, ISO 1250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Remains of the Vine's Adhesive Tendrils
These things seem to adhere on the molecular level; when I would try to pull them off of the wooden fences at my place in California when I lived there, they would take bits of wood with them because the bond was stronger than the wood. Amazing....
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/320 sec, f/11, ISO 1800 — map & image data — nearby photos
These Bonds are Forever
I searched around on the web but couldn't find anything on what this adhesive is or how on earth the plant makes it.
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 32 mm — 1/125 sec, f/5, ISO 220 — map & image data — nearby photos
Checking Out The View From Above
one last time
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 58 mm — 1/1000 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/800 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Back at Play
The little edge of roof I'm standing on in “Tidying Up” above is covered with the same standard asphalt roofing shingles that cover the rest of the roof, and while they look bland and uniform from a distance, up close with a good macro lens they show all kinds of detail...
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/320 sec, f/2.5, ISO 900 — map & image data — nearby photos
Roofing Shingles
perhaps 1/8th of an inch thick
This is, of course, the answer to the Rocky “What am I?” Quiz from the other day.
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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/320 sec, f/11, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Big Clouds
half an hour out of Tokyo
After 15+ hours of flying, and 6+ hours of layovers, we're back in Kyoto after our annual summer visit to my folks. Cloud pictures make for easy posting fodder when I'm jetlagged, and though I didn't see another plane out the window, some big dynamic clouds made for some interest during a brief span a half an hour out of Tokyo. Previous years' “Back in Kyoto” posts (2009 · 2008 · 2007 · 2006 · 2005) tended to also include an “Anthony sleeping on the plane” picture, but with not much room this time he slept with his head in my lap, so I was sort of stuck.
I cropped a small bit of the plane window off the bottom of the picture above, but otherwise that's pretty much what it looked like. Lots of strong shadows and bubbling towers. I didn't realize it at the time, but you can see mountains in the far distance.
Going wider brought some of the blue sky in, but also made it harder to shoot “through” the dirt on the window...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1/640 sec, f/13, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
10 Minutes Later and 3½ Miles Lower
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 48 mm — 1/1250 sec, f/8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
A Minute Later and a Mile Lower
last of the big stuff
By this time our horizontal speed (“ground speed”) had slowed to less than 500mph, but we were bleeding altitude as if we were going straight down at 37mph. Couldn't tell a thing about the speed at the time, though.
A few minutes later and the big stuff was all left behind, and we were about to descend into the heavy haze that is “summer in Japan”. A big monster cloud in the distance provided a backdrop...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 48 mm — 1/1600 sec, f/8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Dipping Into the Haze
It looks similar to this Tokyo big-cloud shot, but I think that was taken the previous day, so it's probably just coincidental.
On the way out near the start of our trip, between Cleveland and Chicago, I was startled to look out the window of the plane to see what immediately struck me as the splat of a giant bird poop:
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/2000 sec, f/3.2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
hazy dayz in
Birdpoop City
As I've posted many times, we're well acquainted with birds and all that goes with them, so perhaps that's why the visual association came to mind. My apologizes to Fostoria, Ohio for the momentary ill-mannered thought.