Geoff Fox: My Permanent Record
Back when I was in school teachers would always scare me with stories of how my exploits would end up in my permanent record. I believe this is it! – Geoff Fox
As they approached, Roxie made a high pitched mumble. The man looked down, then up at Stef.
“Nice wiener,” he said.
Celebrity sightings are common in LA. You’re supposed to take it in stride. Stef’s very good at that having worked on the red carpet during last year’s awards season.
Tonight while walking her dachshund Roxie, she saw a man in the distance saying goodbye to a group of friends. He looked familiar, but she couldn’t make a connection.
As they approached, Roxie made a high pitched mumble. The man looked down, then up at Stef.
“Nice wiener,” he said.
It was Ron Jeremy.
People say I’m a pretty good photographer. There’s a lot of study and experience necessary to make a camera work for you. There are also a few very easy tips which will make a huge difference in your cell pics or any pics.
The three shots here were all taken on my phone, a first generation HTC One. Your camera’s as good, maybe better.
Hold the camera steady. I know. Sounds too easy. I see your shots flash by and stalk your pages while you’re not looking. This is your biggest problem.
When a camera is starved for light (like if you’re shooting at the bowling alley) its shutter stays open longer. Your photo is now susceptible to the slightest motion.
Relax. Take a breath. Bend your elbows and hold the camera/phone in front of your chest. Lean against something if you can.
Seriously, holding steady will fix most of the problems I see online.
Shooter closer. There’s an old photographer’s expression that says get as close as you can, then take another step in.
Family members complain getting close makes them look heavy. No. Usually showing a person from the chest up is a more flattering view.
Hold your camera so the longest edge is horizontal. It’s referred to as landscape mode. That’s the way the human eye sees, more wide than tall.
Just as important, a photo shot landscape matches your screen’s shape. A landscape mode shot fills more screen than portrait mode.
There’s hardly ever a reason to shoot vertically.
These tips work for video too, especially the hold steady part.
Panning on a camera is disorienting, especially when it’s done as fast as a human head turns. Go slow. Be graceful. Fluid motions.
Here’s a bonus selfie tip. When you’re ready to take your shot look at the cameras lens in the mirror, not your screen.
Because of Facebook I’ve heard from lots of friends and viewers in Connecticut. Facebook’s great reminding you of upcoming events. It fails pretty badly when it comes to managing that influx!
Let me back up for a moment. Most people assume their friends stream by on the Facebook timeline. Yes… but!
I stopped using my “Fox on Fox” page because Facebook was only showing my posts to 5-10% of the people who liked me. Some meteorologists and TV stations who steered viewers to Facebook pages now find Watches and Warnings are poorly distributed.
Facebook assigns values to your friendships. If Facebook thinks two people really don’t engage it lowers the frequency they see each other. Overall, it probably works fine. That doesn’t mean it’s great every time. And, since the users are not Facebook’s real customers (advertisers are), our problems aren’t that important.
For my birthday I’ve gotten hundreds of greetings. Counting private messages, wall posts and folks who weren’t allowed to post (Facebook rules), but wished me Happy Birthday in a reply to something else, the total will be north of 500 and south of 1,000 by Sunday. I want to acknowledge each one.
If you think they’d be displayed on my wall one-after-another you’d be wrong. Only the last half dozen or so appear. Beyond that you have to navigate to a page of links. Then you open a page for each in order to reply. Finally, you navigate back to the page of links.
It takes three times longer than it should!
So, I’m working on it. It might take a while. Worth it. I am very appreciative of each one of you who has taken the time to write.
I miss you too.
Mickey Rooney died this weekend. He was a big deal from my parents generation, one of the last few surviving Hollywood movie stars.
Rooney was a member of a very small club. He could do nearly anything in show business. He sang, he danced, he acted. He played the drums. He did Broadway. He toured. He was a frequent talk show guest in the 60s and 70s.
The more people got to know him, the less starstruck they were. Make no mistake, he was exceptionally talented. He was just more talented than popular. It happens.
Mickey Rooney was best known for the Andy Hardy movies. They made 16.
Andy lived in small town America where everything was tidy and everyone was white. His father was a wise, yet warm, judge.
The Andy Hardy movies were often on daytime TV when I was a kid. These were lighthearted morality plays where the good guy triumphs in the end–always. I watched, but it was no childhood I recognized.
Rooney also did a bunch of successful musicals with Judy Garland. Later in his career he transitioned to character roles.
People were surprised to see he was only 5′ 2″.
He was married eight times. After three or four shouldn’t you understand marriage isn’t for you?
I’m trying to think if anyone’s ever been in the public consciousness longer than Mickey Rooney? Maybe not. He was a star nearly 80 years. That’s an incredible accomplishment.
Even 93 years isn’t enough, is it?
A few days ago I started fooling around (again) with Magic Lantern. ML is firmware for my camera which makes it do all sorts of things it wasn’t designed to do! Magic Lantern enabled me to get hummingbird close-ups. Now I’m using it for timelapse photography.
This is the norm for me. Once I get a new tool I use it obsessively until I’ve mastered it.
I set my camera up at the end of our street. Cloud timelapses almost beg for a wide angle photography. I used a 10mm lens tilted up to catch lots of sky. Magic Lantern took one frame every second, producing a video 30 times normal speed.
The hills in the background are part of the Loma Ridge, foothills of the Santa Ana range.
Here’s the result of my effort. Click the box to watch it full screen.
This story needs a setup. It is tradition with the Foxes and many other Jewish families, Christmas Day is spent at the movies followed by Chinese food. Go back in the blog to any December 25th entry and you’ll read about a movie and a meal!
This year, since we’re close to Stef, it’s likely she’ll join us. Neither Helaine, Stef nor I agree on which movie we should see.
OK. You’re caught up. The story continues…
Stef called this afternoon. Did I still want to see “Saving Mr. Banks,” with Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson?
I knew I wanted to see this movie as soon as I watched the trailer. Hanks. Disney. Nostalgia. Hooked!
Stef wanted Helaine and me go. Goodness of her heart? Not tonight. Going removes one choice for Christmas.
“Mr. Banks” opens ‘wide’ next week, but Orange, CA (not far) is among the “selected cities” showing it now. Normally a 25 minute trip, Google suggested a back way which would take 28 minutes. The usual route, 45!
Christmas shopping I suppose. That and Kanye West playing at the Honda Center in Anaheim, under a mile from the theater.
We occupied Doppler with a treat and snuck out through the garage. By the time we were on our way, Google had changed its preferred route. We were still skipping the major roads. Still saving time.
The parking lot was jammed. I dropped Helaine at the box office and looked for an open space.
She was first in line when I caught up with her, but the news wasn’t good. “It’s not playing here,” she said.
Stef and then her father had searched correctly for the movie, but didn’t look closely enough at the result. When the movie wasn’t available tonight, Fandango just offered up the next showtime: December 20! The date was on the page, but I was expecting tonight’s movies, Fandango.
We ended up at Costco.
When this movie hits cable guys will watch it enough times to memorize the dialog (and I expect there really won’t be much of that anyway).
I seldom fish for comments in the blog. I will today. “Unstoppable,” the new runaway train movie that’s had nearly as many commercials as Linda McMahon (remember her?) is now in theaters.
This is a guy movie, right? Women will have little desire to attend.
Seriously, there are guy movies and there are… oh, hell I can’t think of a good non-sexist euphemism for chick flick.
The opposite sex attends the other’s movie to be social. How many guys saw “Sex And The City II” willingly?
When this movie hits cable guys will watch it enough times to memorize the dialog (and I expect there really won’t be much of that anyway).
I see “Unstoppable” in the “Under Siege,” “Die Hard” genre, no? No matter where the movie is when you tune in it’s perfectly OK to just pick it up. Not much is lost if you’re not there for the opening credits.
Give it a few years. This will be on TNT every twenty minutes.