I’m always looking for good tips to improve my photography and Digital Photography School always seems to provide the most useful and timely articles. — Douglas
I wouldn’t be able to count the number of potentially great photos I’ve missed because I visited a location with only one image in mind. It’s easy to fall for the temptation to set up, get your shot, then pack up and leave. I’ve done it countless times, and I’m sure you have too.
Check out my first guest blog on the Friends of the Island Fox web site. — Douglas
What is like to visit the island fox at home? Walk along with our guest blogger – Douglas E. Welch
Island Journal – My First Visit to Santa Cruz Island
It took me over 25 years living in California to make my first visit to Santa Cruz Island. The Channel Islands have always intrigued me, but they seemed so difficult to visit.
Finally, the day arrived when our entire family boarded a boat for Santa Cruz Island. This was a trip sponsored by the Friends of the Island Fox. They took care of organizing our transport and acted as interpreters for all we hoped to see that day. The sun was shining brightly when we left Ventura Harbor, but as we got closer to the island a deep fog set in. Santa Cruz had to be out there somewhere, but we also could have been in the middle of the Pacific for all we knew. It was only by looking at my gps position on my iPhone that I knew we had to be close.
I consulted on the technical side of this podcast and it is great to see it up and launched with 3 shows all ready for your listening enjoyment
“How I Wrote That is a podcast presented by The Stephens College M.F.A. in TV and Screenwriting, and hosted by Khanisha Foster. In each episode, we sit down with the top women in writing. They invite us into their homes and studios so we may ask how they got there. We discuss how they write, what they write, and the advice they would give to those listening. Stephens is dedicated to increasing the number of women working in television and film. How I Wrote That cultivates the relationship between those who have already made it and those who are dreaming up. “
Take a listen to learn about all sorts of screenwriters and “how I wrote that!”
In the first podcast with Carol Barbee, Showrunner for Girlfriend’s Guide to Divorce, gives us an inside look at what it means to lead a writers’ room. “It’s not my job to have all the answers, but it is my job to recognize the answers.”
An amazing idea, and similar to past “Slow TV” programming. You can enjoy a 3 min preview of the experience in the YouTube video below.
In a Slow TV Christmas special, BBC Four rigs a traditional reindeer sleigh with a fixed camera for a magical journey across the frozen wilderness of the Arctic. Following the path of an ancient postal route, the ride captures the traditional world of the Sami people who are indigenous to northern Scandinavia and for whom reindeer herding remains a way of life.
Filmed in Karasjok, Norway – 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle – this journey takes us through breathtaking scenery not normally glimpsed by anyone other than the Sami. Deliberately unhurried, the rhythmic pace of the reindeer guides us along an epic two-hour trip that takes us over undulating snowy hills, through birch forests, across a frozen lake and past traditional Sami settlements.
Facts about the reindeer, natural history, Sami culture and the Arctic climate are delivered by graphics and archive stills embedded into the passing landscape. With no commentary, music or presenter – just the crunching of snow and the soft tinkle of a reindeer bell – this hypnotic sleigh ride is an enchanting experience to put everyone in the Christmas spirit.
A new hour long documentary for PBS’ series, Building the Great Cathedrals, explores the mystery of how, in the 15th century, Florentine architect Filippo Brunelleschi constructed one of the largest domes the world had ever seen. Winning what could be considered one of the earliest architectural competitions, Brunelleschi developed a unique system that allowed construction on the dome to occur while services were being conducted in the cathedral 100 metres below. The team in this episode model this freestanding structure in an attempt to understand just how Brunelleschi achieved such a feat of Renaissance engineering.
Photogrammar is a web-based platform for organizing, searching, and visualizing the 170,000 photographs from 1935 to 1945 created by the United State’s Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information (FSA-OWI).
A lot of the pushback I get on blogging from people is “It’s too much work. I can’t add all that work. Oh my god, I’ve got to update every day. I can’t do that. That’s too much extra work” And I tell them, it isn’t extra work. Your goal is to simply capture what you are already doing. The fact is, each and every one of us creates content every single hour of every single day. The trouble is, for most of that content, we throw it away. We don’t capture it. We dont’ sit down and write a 4, 5 sentence paragraph of “Wow. I had this problem and this is how I solved it” — and post that to the blog. It just evaporates. This is why people think, “Oh gosh, it’s so much extra work. I have to sit down and look at the blank page and write.” Which is probably secondary to standing up in front of people as one of the biggest fears that a lot of people have. “What do you mean I’ve go to write? I’ve got to write a paragraph. Oh my god, I can’t do that.” The fact is you’re already doing it. What you need to do is capture it. And that means, capturing a 4 to 5 to 6 sentence paragraph of how you solved a particular problem you were faced with today. How you addressed a particular issue for a client.
Anyone who’s been to Normandy, France or has a solid interest in spirits knows the wonders of Calvados, the high-proof apple brandy that really packs a punch. However, apple brandy happens to be an American tradition, as well. It’s known as Apple Jack and, while the ABV is still high, the finish is definitely sweeter. Black Dirt Distilling—named for the Black Dirt region where the distillery is located, which was a hot bed of Apple Jack production prior to Prohibition—produces a small-batch Apple Jack. It’s handcrafted on location in upstate NY and made with the state’s apples. Though potent and powerful with the first sip, when that initial strong brandy impact recedes, the tongue is left with the richest fresh apple taste—and it lasts long into the next sip and beyond.
Do you ever wonder why almost all disposable and reusable water bottles are round? I’ve always disliked that because they’re big and bulky and take up so much room in my bag. As people are moving away from the disposable, single use bottles, reusable ones are popping up more and more and everyone is trying to get ahead of the market. This one, actually made me pause and dig in to find out all about it. What is it? It’s memobottle, a slimline, BPA free, dishwasher-friendly, reusable bottle that resembles the size and shape of pieces of paper.
