Tim's Reflection Connection

Imagine My Delight: The Planets Align Again!

2010-03-12T02:13:25Z

Yesterday was an interesting day for me—most days are, actually. But the planets seemed to be especially aligned, or maybe yesterday was a "rip, a hole in the time/space continuum" that "take us thru the event horizon." *

1. I got an email invitation to connect with another Tim Tyson on a social network site. What was particularly interesting is that I've been receiving emails for over a year, maybe two, intended for this guy. Apparently our email addresses at a particular email service provider are very similar, and people would type his incorrectly. Since we both have the same name, it's understandable.

At first I thought these were all some sort of junk mail. But they followed a pattern. Apparently he is a well respected videographer who travels the world filming special projects. Nice. (Maybe he's really me in another life?--hence my quotation above)

I'm not really sure how he figured out who I am or why he asked me to join his social network, but when I checked out his social network site (which talked about what he does for a living) along with his email address (which is almost identical to mine), I realized the connection. (You realize, of course, that this could only happen in a digital world with palm-sized, time-warping transporter devices, right?)

Even more amazingly, the "other" Tim Tyson recently finished projects with the British Council about Global Schools Partnerships. Amazingly, the last year I was a school principal, the Director of Bilateral Programmes from the British Council came to visit my school. She was interested in setting up partnerships between the UK and my school. And now the other Tim Tyson is shooting video about these projects?! What are the odds, I ask—even demand?!

The multi-year-long bizarre mystery of the Tim Tyson emails has been solved! But I save the best for last...

2. Imagine getting an unexpected email from a former student who writes this sentence: "I have come to realize that doing what is comfortable or popular tends to be far less rewarding than doing what is right." Now, this young man is only 18! He apparently has become somewhat of an activist for issues related to respect and social justice "for historically marginalized groups." His efforts have earned him national recognition, honors, and some significant opportunities.

My first encounter with younger students who felt a moral imperative to act on issues of social justice came during the Ronald Reagan years. (To cut big government spending, Reagan eliminated funding for homeless shelters thereby forcing the homeless to literally live on the streets.) Shortly thereafter, one of my 8th grade students first saw homeless people in downtown Atlanta. He was from an affluent home and had no idea such a thing could exist in our country. He was outraged, and, as an 8th grader, on his own, took it upon himself to launch a letter-writing campaign to the Georgia governor to have the issue addressed.

I've known many such young people since then—all with an inner calling directing their efforts to make the world a better place. I celebrate all of these young people who, at a very early age, feel compelled to act for positive change.

Their lives color the world with hope.

* Yes, I stole that line from a tweet by Miles Kahn, a producer for The Daily Show. That's actually part of what he said about tonight's show. I laughed out loud when I read his tweet.

Lacks the Ring of Truth

2010-03-10T17:21:07Z

Everyone is reporting about the silver-headed gentleman who frantically called 911 early in the week stating that his Toyota Prius was accelerating out of control down the San Diego interstate. In my mind, these are some of the salient things he says in his on camera CNN interview:

The the floor mat was not stuck up under the gas pedal.

The car reached speeds in excess of 90 miles per hour causing him to narrowly miss hitting other vehicles traveling down the road.

The accelerator took on a mind of its own and was stuck.

That his attempts to reach down with his hand and physically pull the gas pedal back up were unsuccessful.

That, since the vehicle was speeding out of control down the interstate, it was unsafe for him to take one of his hands off of the steering wheel to place the car in neutral.

That, since the vehicle was speeding out of control down the interstate, it was unsafe for him to take one of his hands off of the steering wheel to turn the car off, fearing the steering would lock up and cause a horrible accident at the speed he was traveling.

That he was standing on the brake pedal with all of his weight and this did not slow the run away vehicle's speed very much.

That when the highway patrol pulled up beside him and, using the speaker, told him to stand on the brake and use the emergency brake at the same time, the car slowed down to 50 mph, allowing the patrolman to pull in front of the speeding car, make contact between the the patrolman's trunk and the Prius' hood and use the patrol car to brake the Prius to a stop.

Thank goodness the story ends safely.

Now, I could be wrong, and forgive me if I am; but, I don't buy this at all! This sounds like total hogwash to me.

Allow me to elaborate...

As a crazy teenager with very little driving experience, I was driving a car, with around 350 horsepower, that got stuck in full throttle, with that huge engine racing at full power down a two lane road, with traffic, at night! Needless to say, I was shocked and dumbfounded. But bringing the car to a full stop was a simple, yet frightening thing.

I put it in neutral.

The frightening part was that the engine then revved to the max and sounded like it was going to explode. I turned it off.

Since I was out in the middle of no where, I then decided to turn it back on and drive it (stupid kid) to the nearest gas station to call my dad. Remember, this was before any kind of portable phones even existed. I could control the car's speed, with this huge engine, by Pressing firmly on the brake and dropping the car into neutral when needed.

But this isn't why I think this man staged this whole event. Aside from the fact that he is an experienced driver, look at what he says. His own words make zero sense to me.

If you own a Prius (I do.) odds are very high you are fully aware of the media reports about runaway Prius(es?) that have allegedly killed people. (One report said he was aware of this possible problem and had previously asked his dealer if his car was affected.) If you haven't given some serious thought to how you would bring your vehicle, of any make or model, to a full stop should something like this happen to you, in my mind, you are negligent!

He said it was too dangerous for him to take one of his hands off of the steering wheel to reach just a few inches over to place his car in neutral. WHAT??!! But it wasn't too dangerous to reach under the dashboard all the way down to the floorboard with his hand to try to pull the gas pedal up, thereby not just taking his hand off the steering wheel but his eyes off the road he reported speeding down at 94 mph?! (I can't see the road and touch the gas pedal at the same time in my Prius.) Please!! Get real, dude!!

He said it was too dangerous for him to take one of his hands off of the steering wheel to reach just a few inches over to place his car in neutral. But it wasn't too dangerous to get out his cell phone and place a call to 911? (Did the officer give him a ticket for using his cell phone while driving, which, because it reduces the driver's response time more than driving under the influence of alcohol, is against the law in California?) Even with a USB headset and the phone options package on the Prius, I still have to touch the phone or the dashboard several times to dial 911. Don't tell me you couldn't reach a shorter distance to touch the vehicle's on/off button once or place the car in neutral! No, no, no!!

No, I just don't believe his story. In the terror of the moment, it could be true I guess, but it is so improbable as to reach the level of incredulous!

Toyota Reviewing U.S. Report of Prius With Stuck Gas Pedal (businessweek.com)
Toyota Driver Spins Out Of Control At 94mph (news.sky.com)
Runaway Prius halted by Calif. police (cbc.ca)
Toyota With 'Stuck' Accelerator Hits 94 MPH, Driver Rescued by California Highway Patrol (abcnews.go.com)

Tiny Toy World, NYC

2010-03-09T03:33:23Z

I love video. I love timelapse. I love tilt-shift. What could be better than putting them all together? Well, watching it in full screen. Check it out.

Hands-On With the Lensbaby Fisheye and Soft-Focus Optics (wired.com)

You Meet Interesting People

2010-03-08T17:12:46Z

At the master class last Saturday, I saw many bright, creative people. Jeremy Ian Thomas, the creative director at RawWorks, was among them. He wrote, along with Robert Lehman, and shot this short, micro budget film ($3.00) that has a compelling message and is really well executed.

Vimeo Link and additional info at the RAWworks blog.

Great Utilities

2010-03-08T15:23:01Z

Philip Bloom mentioned, in his master class yesterday, a file utility I had not heard of before, one that seems brilliant to me: ShotPut Pro. This program will copy your media files from their source (camera card) to up to 3 locations simultaneously. Brilliant!

I think that always having an untouched copy of your original media files and a working copy of them is always a bright idea. This practice not only gives you the option of having an emergency backup of your files in case of drive failure or theft, but provides you with some measure of future-proofing your media files for later use—perhaps in projects using CODECs we don't even have today.

I also use BackBlaze to automatically and continuously sync all of my data off site. The three important parts of that last sentence are: off site, continuously, and above all: automatically! BackBlaze is a steal of a deal at only $50 per machine per year for unlimited storage! I just do my work using my machines, and BackBlaze is always keeping my offsite backup up to date.

If you were doing professional projects, where setting up the shoot required a significant investment or was time sensitive (can't be easily repeated, for example), using locally redundant copies of the original media and off site backups is essential!

Philip Bloom Master Class

2010-03-07T15:30:54Z

Neil Smith, at hdiRAWworks, arranged for Philip Bloom to conduct a Canon HD-DSLR masterclass yesterday here in LA. This was the first time I've ever attended such a thing, and I rather enjoyed it and learned a lot too. The little tidbits you pick up are also interesting: like why the Canon 5Dmkii will only shoot video for 12 minutes. I always thought it was just a storage capacity issue. No. (We live in such a weird world.)

Philip showed several of his shorts, which, of course, are amazing. I've embedded a few of them here at tt.us from time to time. While they look great on the computer screen, they were stunning on the big screen with the HD projector.

He spoke of many things related to his craft, but I suppose I learned the most from his talk about setup, actually using the DSLR for video. I've never bothered with custom camera settings before but have already imported the superflat settings he recommended and am eager to try the workflow: shooting with the increased dynamic range, though visually initially less "interesting," and then grading the footage in post. It makes sense as I do the equivalent process with still photography all the time. We just can't get raw data out of the 5D. Philip says: "Yet..." (See Luka Crnkovic-Dodig's post: How to increase the Canon 7D/5D dynamic range, which includes this link to the superflat settings file, among others.)

In my own casual exploration through this space, I've ended up with a lot of the same software and equipment, and now have a better understanding of implementation and process for video and timelapse using my 5Dmkii. It's now time to play, play, play! I'm also eager to explore timelapse.

Aside from being brilliant at what he does, Philip is very personable and has a great sense of humor. He also comes across as completely genuine and open about what he recommends and why. If you ever have the opportunity to attend one of his masterclasses, jump at it! I'm glad I stepped outside of my comfort zone.

Canon Rebel T2i DSLR: 18MP and Legit 1080p Video for $899 [Digital Cameras] (gizmodo.com)
Canon EOS 7D digital SLR (go.theregister.com)
Canon's EOS 1D Mark V DSLR defying death, launching tomorrow? (engadget.com)
The First Clips Shot on the Canon T2i Look As Good as the 7D [Photography] (gizmodo.com)
Gorgeous (timtyson.us)

These Guys!

2010-03-06T01:33:41Z

The Unhappy Hipsters just slay me!

Unhappy Hipsters (socialhallucinations.com)

Interview with the Unhappy Hipster (trueslant.com)

Unhappy Hipsters' parody Web site is a hit (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

'Tis the Season

2010-03-06T01:33:11Z

Yes, The Oscars are upon us!

Back when I first visited my new dentist (who, incidentally, I really like!), I drove by a building I thought to be a church. I was surprised to see that it is The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences—the people responsible for The Oscars! I made a mental note.

Today, with the festivities fast upon us, I drove back out there and took some pictures of the building as well as the Hollywood sign, which is only about 5 miles further. Three pictures of the Academy lurk behind the one shown below. Click it to see them all.

And, in a moment of delirium, I've decided to share with you two versions of the identical photograph of the Hollywood sign: the actual shot itself as it came out of my Canon 5d Mark II, and then the "public version" of the same exact picture after I did a little bit of piddling.

The image is cropped; the roof, telephone pole and wires (enlarge to see) are removed; the sky especially (and the image as a whole) has a bit of my 11 different herbs and spices; and the electronics, fence, and road at the top of the hill are all removed.

Related articles

Download the official Oscars App for iPhone and iPod Touch (teabreak.pk)

Barbara Walters: Final Oscars Special Is Best (huffingtonpost.com)

Oscar nods aren't translating into ticket boom (msnbc.msn.com)

Borowitz, Again...

2010-03-04T23:47:32Z

"Palin's standup: I was like, don't quit your day job, and then I remembered she already did."

Starbucks Loses My Patronage

2010-03-04T20:11:07Z

I've never been much of a coffee drinker. I don't like the aftertaste. However, I love the smell of coffee. I'll go to Starbucks and order an Earl Grey Tazo Tea just to savor the smell of the coffee while drinking my tea! I'm crazy, I know.

But, after reading this CNN article, I will no longer give my business to Starbucks. I don't know if California is one of the 43 states that allow people to tote guns around with them. But the last thing I want is to be in a Starbucks, which allows their patrons to bring their guns into their stores if state law permits it, with patrons drinking their new 31 ounce coffee!

Now some hair-trigger, gun-toting, chip-on-his-shoulder nitwit with the caffein jitters can pretend he's back in the wild, wild west when he gets in an argument with the barista over the temperature of his grande mocha latte. No thanks.

If people feel the need to have guns in their homes to protect them, that's their business. If people feel the need to have guns for the sport of hunting, that's their business. But I've worked with the public too long to trust most people's spur of the moment judgement. Put a gun in their hands at the Starbucks?! No, I won't be around to see how this turns out.

Starbucks, you just lost a customer.

Good grief!

[Image via Wikipedia]

Great CSS Border Radius Tool

2010-03-04T20:05:23Z

Jacob Bijani, Tumblr’s Creative Director, said “I always have to stop and think when setting a border radius in CSS, so I built a tool for it.” And so, Border-Radius.com was born. Easy, intuitive, interactive, practical, and gorgeously designed.

Stairway to Heaven

2010-03-04T20:04:36Z

Beautiful! But I would fall to my death!

Source: FFFFound

The Dreaded Taxes

2010-03-04T20:03:47Z

I have finished my income taxes.

In sackcloth and ashes, I wail!

So, let me see... what did my tax money help purchase? Well, that money continues to fund wars I believe are immoral. My taxes allow greedy bankers to get millions in bonuses while their banks all but put the economies of the world in collapse. Umm... no health care reform. Stupid, evil senators block continued unemployment benefits, because we can't afford that for the millions who have lost their jobs as a result of reckless, unchecked, capitalists' greed.

CNN reported last week that 86% of Americans, and I'm sure those would be the "real Amurrrricans," think our government is broken. Who the hell are the 14% that think anything about our government works?! How long can this continue?

I Am Simply SHOCKED!

2010-03-04T20:02:25Z

Bloomberg reports today that, astoundingly, Iraq is now opening its doors to BP, Exxon Mobile, and Shell for the first time since 1972, when the country, under the leadership of the now executed Saddam Hussein, nationalized all of its oil fields. Astoundingly, this will open the 3rd largest oil reserves in the world directly to western countries.

And, um... why are we complaining about the bank bailouts? How much money did the citizens of this country spend on (and will continue to spend on) making this happen for the oil corporations? (Not to mention the number of people that were killed!) If there is a hell, unfettered capitalist greed needs to rot in it.

Clever Time-Lapse Shot in Tokyo

2010-03-02T11:15:56Z

Very clever time-lapse shot in Tokyo. To see the video in full HD, check out this link. Or you can click below to watch a smaller version from YouTube. To learn more about how the video was shot, go to the Laughing Squid.