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keeping up with Bill's traveling has been difficult and a new non-profit has come up with the idea of putting a small camera on Bill's head...to update live where he is at any given time...
This POV is from a large bird Bill is using as a local " jump" between large airports...
oh well.. bad news....
my documentary is a dead duck.
Since you've been following this for over a year...on and off...I feel obliged to be specific...
I finally got the historical society to vote ( board meeting ) to give me access for free to their images etc.. in this little town on the west shore of Lake Minnetonka ( is a nice town ).
Today I had emails with this nice woman ( volunteer ) who does tons of charity work around here ...and has been scanning and saving TONS of original images ( photos , newspapers, etc ) for the society. She's nice but IMO really stupid when it comes to dealing with ME...
Cause...today ( after the big break through for me to get shit without cost..which took a year to do ) she tells me her life story ( all the charities she's busy with etc ) and then says, " I don't have much time, so tell me what you think you need and I will pick out some stuff for you to start with ".
I'm looking at another month or so before she might be available to sit at the computers with me and work together.. and that is her "solution " ... to give her some idea what I need and she will pick out some stuff for me to " start with "....
SOOOOO.. basically ( you know me.. ) I FREAKED OUT ! LIKE, WTF !!!!! She's gonna write my freaking screenplay for me and tell this STORY I've literally been working on for a freaking YEAR .. giving her and her cohorts updates every WEEK...
And now she writes " let me know what you have in mind and I'll try to put some pictures together for you to start with "....
PLUS.. she writes ... and I quote , " I grew up here and raised a family and have been here for 40 years " or some stupid stuff....like huh ???? now it's about me from NY and her from HERE ?
GRRRRRR
So anyway, I deleted every single thing about the Mound documentary from my computer, including links in browser ( which was HUGE ..hundreds of links )....all the sound files, email folders , research stuff... everything..
and wrote HATE MAIL to at least 3 people here in Mound... ( if you are one of them you deserve it !!!! )
I told Jeanne that " I wouldn't work with you on a real job if my life depended on it ! "
I meant that if I was producing a movie in this area and she was around I would ask the cops to say to her, " it's a closed set so get outta here ".
I went from being 100% into doing this thing to being ZERO percent in about 1 minute...and thank Gawd !
So anyway, the question remains.. " what am I working on now ?? "
( burp, scuse me )
nothin ?
well... you wouldnt believe the barrage of emails going on now... between me and those I HATE HATE HATE ...
and its hard to fathom it's only been like an 'hour' beween postings.. am I in shooternz land ? some kinda time warp? IT feels like it's been a REALLY long time since I died....but I'm still here... whats up with that ???
So anyway, I deleted every single thing about the Mound documentary from my computer, including links in browser ( which was HUGE ..hundreds of links )....all the sound files, email folders , research stuff... everything..
I sure hope you are kidding. 
Steven Gotz wrote:
Where you work is a rather secretive place for good reason, I imagine.
The "where I work" and "what I do" isn't necessarily secret, I just don't discuss them on public forums. The "what exactly am I doing right now" part is something I don't generally discuss with anyone at all because it's really no one's business. And I've signed all sorts of NDAs anyway.
Jason,
My last job change wasn't my idea and I took a job that just isn't very, how shall I say this.... challenging? Necessary yes. And I am glad to have the job. And management listens to what we have to say. And they recognize excellence. I like to hear "Thank You" from the bosses. It makes it seem more worthwhile.
But it isn't particularly challenging. And when you drive a van with the company name in huge letters on it, walk into offices and say, "Hi! My name is Steven and I am with ..." it becomes a moot point. 
Take today for example. I have a two hour drive to swap out a router to provide additional security and backup services. This has to be done during their lunch hour and should take all of about 30 minutes. So I work from home for an hour or so then start my drive.
I will eat my lunch at the far end, then drive two hours back, and finish my day getting ready for tomorrow. Getting paid full pay to drive four hours, listening to the radio (and where I am going has better radio stations that we do) just seems a little silly to me, but it has to be done. The cool part is that quite often I end up eating lunch in places where I can wander around with my camera. Like tree lined parks, or downtown areas, or along rivers or lately, near where the America's Cup races are being held. I now carry my camera with me about 95% of the time I am in a vehicle going anywhere.
oh...
well, it didnt take that long to give you that info...and maybe you can use it later on to solve some other problem. or help someone else with the info..
maybe someone else will read the thread and get something out of all that re: thread adapters, etc... who knows.
running out of room is pretty much par for the course.. its surprising how fast you suddenly find you need more space in photo stuff dont you think ?
The garage sounds like a good idea...
I have one garage experience, which turned out to be really funny... so I will share it with you.
Some guy called me to shoot a portrait of him in his brand new fire chief uniform. This was on Long Island. We talked a little on phone about the shot and we kinda came up with a cool idea.. to have an American flag in the shot behind him...sorta "waving " instead of the more normal 'hanging flag on stand' you usually see with portraits like that ( military, cops, firemen, polititicians, they all like the hanging flag on stand thing ).
We would basically set this up so he would have to FREEZE for one second...and I figured it would take about a gazillion shots to get him good...where he isn't blinking, moving etc.
Meantime I would be making a flag " wave" by hanging flag from rafters of garage, in a wavy pattern, and hook it up to my leg via rope and pulleys...so I could pull the flag 'straight' during shot ... by moving my leg sideways back and forth.
We picked a date and time for him to come over after settling on a price for the shot(s).
I then went to Manhattan and bought a bunch of film for the mamiya 6x7 film camera.. chromes, negative, and polaroid...as I have many film backs and could load them beforehand...and shoot lots of stuff...That cost about $80.00
Then I went to some giant flag factory in nyc ( they make real big flags, like the one hanging in front of the ny stock exchange )... and bought a big flag... about 12 feet long....which cost me about $150.00... nice heavy cotton cloth...
All in all, with train fare, cabs and so on.. this cost a little bit.
Then I pre-lit the garage...blacking out some stuff, hanging flag, putting pulleys in place with rope to flag, putting key, fill and back lights in place, and so on...
Then the next day I was ready.. camera on tripod, scene lit and ready to go...and waited for the guy to show up with his nice new uniform. About an hour late I called him, and got voice mail. Two hours.. called him, and got voice mail. He never showed up and never called and so the next day before taking everything down and out of the garage I took this picture of the waving flag. As I was doing it , and moving my leg back and forth, the dog kept looking at me like I was out of my mind...and barked at the flag that was magically moving all by itself...
Pretty hilarious ... that story... hahaha.. I still laugh about it today, years later....
After all that trouble / expense, you should have done a 'selfie'.
able123 wrote:
very funny ! hehe... howd you do that ?? you didnt draw a path around me did you ? and then make selection ?
I've only really got decent using ps7.. and haven't played with cs6 yet...
Ae:
.
It took about 3-4 minutes (I didn't save the setup).
This image is a re-creation... it took about 30 seconds.
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