Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 50 mm — ¹/125 sec, f/5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Thumbs Up

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Suddenly this week, for reasons that I don't know, Anthony has an extreme interest in soccer. He doesn't know much about it other than you kick a ball into a goal, and that the goalkeeper can use his hands, but he's started to “practice” with enthusiasm at kindergarten and in the livingroom (the latter with a Nerf-type ball). Today, for the first time, we went to a park to kick a ball around.

After playing together for a while, I remembered that I had the camera with me (I brought it to a school event but ended up not using it), so pulled it out for some shots of him in action. Before that, though, he wanted me to take a bunch of shots of him speaking, so he should show Mommy the “movie” of it. As he finished, my last shot of the sequence caught him in the early stages of a “thumbs up”.

But then it was time for soccer. He ran around, and I held the camera at waist level and ran around after him, shooting from the hip...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/500 sec, f/5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Pressing the Attack

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Mad Skillz
( this is the worst of the action pictures, but it's also my favorite for some reason )

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 31 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Shot on Goal

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Concentration

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/200 sec, f/5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Pitch Perfect
( okay, no, this is my favorite )

Especially with the stripe-down-the-legs sports pants, he looks quite the pro in some of these, but he doesn't have much clue yet. He's excited about it, though, and that's what counts.

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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/200 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Totally Unrelated
to this post

A couple of weeks ago I posted Lightroom Plugin Development: What To Do When a Hobby Becomes Work, a long missive about the weight that Lightroom plugin development has taken on me.... how something that I intrinsically enjoy has become, in part, a chore. I was overwhelmed by the outpouring of support and encouragement, both online and off.

I've decided to take the route that I speculated I would take, and that many encouraged me to take: Tim Armes' “donationware” model.

(The stack of unanswered email and comments has only grown while I've concentrated on implementing this system, so I've got a lot to catch up on. If I have not answered your email or addressed your comment, thank you for your patience.)

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 55 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
I Find Bamboo to be Mentally Soothing

The details of the new system are on the Plugin Registration Page that new versions of my plugins will soon reference, but in short, here's what I've decided to give a try:

• Plugins are fully functional for the first six weeks.
  I want people to have a chance to understand what value the plugin brings to them before I nudge them toward the registration window.

• After that, until registered, they are limited to 10 images at a time.
  I don't want to cripple them completely... that could really leave some unsuspecting users in a lurch.

• Registration is required (and costs 1 cent); A gift is not required.
  I hope people will choose to make a donation to me (to express thanks or encouragement), but it's not required. If it were required, it would be a “price”, not a gift

• Registration is done via PayPal
  You make a 1-cent payment to me via PayPal, and the 17-character “transaction code” they generate becomes the registration code that you can enter into the plugin's registration dialog. If you want to make a larger payment, anything left over after PayPal's fees is a gift to me.... yea!.

At least, that's the plan.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 38 mm — ¹/15 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Closing My Eyes
and trying to imagine a less stressful place

Today was a perfect example of why I'm going this route: I spent 8+ hours tracking down and fixing a Windows-filename problem that affects some users of the Geoencoding plugin, but does not affect me.

Come to think of it, much of last week was a good example, too, as I spent inordinate amounts of time tracking down and finally fixing a problem that Windows users of the SmugMug plugin sometimes experienced. I never ran into the bug myself, so had to try to figure it out remotely. It was horrendous. (Much thanks to tech-savvy photographer Kevin King for his tireless help on that one.)

These two bugs were my weekend. And so it goes.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 55 mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Microsoft Windows is like the Great Outdoors
full of bugs

In implementing this model change, I ended up creating a huge upheaval in the plugin source code, so it's possible that things might not run smoothly at first, so I'll be sure to keep the previous versions of the plugins around. I'll start by releasing the Geoencoding plugin, and see how it goes. Others will follow once the kinks have been worked out.

Crossing my fingers...

My blog color scheme does not suit itself to big blocks of running prose, so I felt it worthwhile to intersperse random photos to this post. I've been hyper-stressed about all this and the backlog of mail and stuff, so I quickly riffled through my archives for photos that are mentally soothing to me that I hadn't yet published. Here are a few extra that didn't fit above...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 62 mm — ¹/200 sec, f/3.5, ISO 1800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Just a Snapshot
but calming

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 55 mm — ¹/640 sec, f/3.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Pretty Flowers
everyone likes pretty flowers

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/500 sec, f/4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
A Little Color
lifts the mood

Photo notes:

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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/11, ISO 1100 — full exif
Quick Trip to the Store
for the first time, all by himself

Anthony's Shopping List

Receipt

We ran out of bread this morning, so Anthony ran to the store to get some. It was his first time to go out all by himself.

Things sort of started yesterday when we were both getting haircuts. While he was waiting for my cut to finish, I suggested that he go to a nearby bakery to pick out some bread for himself for today's breakfast. He'd never gone out like that himself, but it was just a minute away, so I gave him some money and sent him out. He accomplished his task well, and was proud.

So, he had his bread this morning, but I didn't have any for myself. I thought to build on yesterday's achievement, so suggested that he run to the nearby 7-11 to pick some up for me. He was excited about the prospect, so Fumie and I came up with a few things he should pick up for us. He drew up a list, shown at right:

• Bread   × 2
• Yogurt   × 1
• Drink   × 1
• Anthony's bread   1
• Small toy   1

I told him he could get a small toy, as a celebration of his accomplishment.

We gave him money and a key, and as he headed out, Fumie and I moved to the veranda to catch a glimpse of him.

We waited for a while, and a few minutes later he came marching back with bag in hand.

When he paid at the cash register, he forgot about the change and started to walk off, to which the checkout lady called after him with 「お客様！お客様！」 (“Customer! Customer!”). It's lost in translation how cute that is, those honorifics being used to a six-year-old. It's all the more cute to us because we didn't see it, but rather, heard him recount it.

It was also sort of funny that during his short few-minute shopping trip, he used the bathroom. Maybe he was nervous or it was just bad timing... or, maybe he felt it was fun to make those decisions on his own.

We should have had “milk” on the list, because an hour later we ran out. “I'll go get some!” he quickly volunteered. So he went out a second time, coming back with two one-liter cartons.

Our little baby is growing up.

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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 340 mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/4.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Onward and Upward

As I wrote the other day, Anthony went skiing for the first time this weekend. In between taking 500+ photos of him and his YMCA friends, I took the occasional generic ski-slope shot....

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 52 mm — ¹/1000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Anticipation

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 340 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/16, ISO 560 — map & image data — nearby photos
Hitchin' a Ride

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 340 mm — ¹/2000 sec, f/4.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Round Trip

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 340 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/14, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Random Play

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 120 mm — ¹/640 sec, f/8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Hero

Imagine that you're at a table in a library and the person next to you gets your attention, indicates that your pencil has rolled a bit over into their space, and kindly pushes it back toward you. You might mumble a word of thanks, take your pencil, and not give it further thought because it's a trivial matter not worthy of further thought. Okay, so remember that level of concern (or, in this case, lack of concern) as I tell a short story...

So, I was snappin' shots of Anthony and friends like film was free, and from behind I heard a crying that, as a parent, well.... I knew needed my attention. I found a young boy wandering around alone, crying, searching for his parents. He eventually said he was three years old, but it must have been just barely... he was young.

The kid says he wants to find his parents by himself, so he resists taking my hand to go look together. I'm faced with a dilemma: do I respect his three-year-old wishes, or do I force myself upon the situation and take his hand against his will? Remember, I'm a “big scary strange guy” (in adult terms, “foreigner”). I don't care what the kid thinks, but if I force the issue and his folks walk up at the right moment, it would look as if I was trying to abduct the kid. Leaving the kid to fend for himself is not an option, but how I appear to others as I interact with him is certainly on my mind.

The kid is wandering around the most crowded area in the whole place – in and among the lines for the lift, where no kid his age should be – and instead of raising the concern of those in line, he raises their irritation. (The lines of the lift were literally longer than the lift itself, so it's not like I can blame them that much.) But as I'm trying to talk to the little boy who is consistently trying to walk away, one young man, pictured above, stepped out of line to help. I quickly explain the situation, he runs to dump his skis somewhere, and returns, all the while the throng of skiers in line pulses forward.

He tries talking to the little boy, but gets the same result I did. We consult on what to do, and decide to just bring the boy – kicking and screaming if need be – to ski patrol. On the way we learn his age and name, and so by the time we get to ski patrol we've got enough info for them to make an announcement.

More or less, they didn't care. “The parents never listen to the announcements... they never listen”. Well, as a parent, I can tell you that if my child was missing, I'd be ALL EARS, so I pushed that they make an announcement. Task completed, the young helper disappears, but returns a minute later having somehow found the kid's dad.

Recall, now, the lack of concern and absent-minded muttered words of thanks I described before... that's how this dad was. Sure, probability is high that someone would find the kid and take care of him before he fell off a cliff or froze to death behind a snowbank, so it's not like we saved his life or anything, but geez, this dad showed no appreciation. He just muttered a half-hearted thanks as he went to fetch his kid.

Sigh.

I thanked the young helper (he must have been about 14 or so), snapped his picture, and returned to Anthony and his friends.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 120 mm — ¹/2500 sec, f/4.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Solitude
( it's just an illusion; the place was packed )

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — ¹/1250 sec, f/4.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Preschool Skis

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — ¹/8000 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
And On A Completely Different Note...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 340 mm — ¹/640 sec, f/8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Exit Stage Left

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — ¹/2000 sec, f/3.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Heading Home
gondola to the parking lot

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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/11, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Main Gate of the Shirohige Shrine
on the waters of Lake Biwa, Takashima Japan

On my way up to the ski area for Anthony's first ski experience, I stopped by the Shirohige Shrine on the shores of Lake Biwa (Japan's largest lake, about a third larger than Lake Tahoe). It was somewhat dark with a cloud mostly in front of the sun, with nice streamers of light emanating from the edge of the cloud, but overexposing the frame gives this interesting result.

I have no idea why the shrine is named Shirohige, which means “white beard”. (UPDATE: it's apparently related to how a white beard indicates longevity, and perhaps wiseness)

Okay, I looked it up... the name is meant to imply longevity, at least according to its Wikipedia entry, which also notes that it's the oldest shrine in Shiga (one of the prefectures that neighbors Kyoto). It's the head of the 292 shirohige shrines in Japan.

I'd not heard of this shrine, except that we passed it last year on the way to an out-of-the-way cafe with tasty pizza. Remembering it when I took the same route this last Sunday, I stopped by for some pictures.

I know of one other shrine gate in the water, the much larger, much more famous gate of the Itsukushima Shrine on Miyajima, not far from Hiroshima.