iPhone Pic

Hmmmm... I wonder where I was when I took this.

Not Cool Enough... Really?

This is a very interesting ad.

<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-US&playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:9c8be941-f76e-41e4-88a8-0fb94c64422e&showPlaylist=true&from=msnvideo" target="_new" title="Laptop Hunters $1000 – Lauren Gets an HP Pavilion">Video: Laptop Hunters $1000 – Lauren Gets an HP Pavilion</a>

From a marketing standpoint it is really well done. The problem lies in the fact that the only thing Lauren wants is a 17" screen, a nice keyboard and under $1,000. Um...okay. She doesn't care about the processor, the graphics card, memory, hard drive or anything else. Just price. Ya, the economy sucks, but how is it that Apple is still making a profit while every other computer company is laying off all of their employees? Hmmmm... I think most of us are price conscious, but you get what you pay for. Spec for spec, you will pay basically the same price for your 17" PC laptop as you would a MacBook Pro. But there is one thing Microsoft fails to mention in this ad, and that is brand loyalty. How many people do you know who are passionate about Windows? How many people are interested when Hewlett Packard comes out with a new computer? Honestly, I don't know of any. I love Apple. I love my iPhone, my MacBook Pro, my iMac, G5, Airport Extreme and Apple TV. And when they release another iPhone this spring or summer, I don't care if they raise the price to $500 like the original iPhone. I will be in line with a smile.

iPhone pic of the day.

iPhone photo of the day.... two days ago.

This is our "living room". Awesome, huh? Check out the diet too.
Coffee, 7-Eleven and chips. Delicious!

Cabinets

We are painting our cabinets and this is what our garage looks like.
Most of the large cabinets were painted in place, but I had already
finished the hanging cabinets and the drawers by the time I took this.
One word of advice; buy a spray gun. We bought one for almost the same
cost of renting one. As the old cabinet were "oak", we needed the
sprayer for a lot longer than four hours. We had to spray everything.
Inside, ouside, drawers, doors, everything. They look awesome!

Common, But Not So Common

Doing all day shoots can really wipe you out. Both physically as well as creatively. As much as I love photography it is hard to stay focused when you are trying to get so much done. Especially under strenuous deadlines and other agendas. One way I like to keep myself sharp and "interested" is to photograph unrelated material from the location or surroundings where I am working. It is fun to see what I can come up with and today was especially easy to kind of get away a little as we were shooting video at the same time. So while they were shooting video I would let my eyes and camera wander. Here is some of what I came up with today. My favorite is the image of the windows on the top-middle. 

iPhone photo of the day.

iPhone photo of the day.

Shooting a ton of lifestyle and product shots today. This reminds me
of a cooking show.

iPhone photo of the day.

Cat In The Car

I was driving down an alley full of beat up old cars, when I swore I saw a cat sitting in a car. Is that a cat? A cat in the car? Why yes, it is a cat. A cat in the car. The cat in the car did not seem pleased to have me take his picture while he sat in the car. See how the cat glared at me while he sat in the car? What an odd pair, this cat and this car.

Listen to Barney

This is the coolest coffee sleeve....EVER!

Kitchen Demo

We began gutting the kitchen today. It looks so empty now. All of the
walls use to have cabinets, but we removed them all and left nice
walls that will need to be refinished. :) Yea!

Kindle + iPhone = LOVE!

I purchased the Kindle 2 a couple of weeks ago and have been wanting to post some of my thoughts and feelings now that I feel comfortable using it. I guess that is wrong. There is nothing uncomfortable about the Kindle 2. From the first time I picked it up I knew that the designers had done a fantastic job with the ergonomics. It is the right weight and feels solid without being heavy. It feels good to hold and the buttons are right where you would expect them to be. You know you have a good product when you enjoy just holding it. That is the Kindle. So far so good.

After unboxing it, I quickly downloaded UR by Stephen King using the Kindle Store. I didn't have a specific book that I was interested in reading at the time, and this one looked interesting. Plus, it was rated pretty high. The Kindle Store is just like a mini-Amazon/App Store for the iPhone. You can search for books, see the best sellers, view newspapers, blogs, magazines and of course you can buy books from the Kindle Store. All of this without wires! You do not have to do this via your computer or having your Kindle tethered to your computer. The Kindle has Whispersync, which is Amazon's wireless connection, so you can download books from anywhere you get cell reception. Talk about convenient. I am kind of an impulse buyer and I like the fact that I can buy a book NOW! No more Barnes and Noble. No more waiting for the book to come in the mail. Instant gratification! ;)

The Kindle is a joy to read from. Amazon claimed that their E-Ink display is just like reading from paper. I must admit that I was a little skeptical. I have tried reading from my computer and iPhone, but after a while your eyes get tired and it just isn't convenient to read from either one. I was pleasantly surprised that their claim was right on. I enjoy reading from the E-Ink display and most of the time I really do forget that I am reading from an electronic device.

I love not having to turn pages and it really seems to speed up my reading too. The page refresh rate seems adequate for me as I will usually press the next page button halfway through the last line. I like that my thumbs, left or right, rests right on the Next Page buttons.

Three days after I received my Kindle, Amazon released Kindle for iPhone. Now you may be asking yourself why I would care when I have the actual Kindle. The answer is because you can read your book on either device. All of your books (purchased through Amazon) are available on your iPhone. But that is only part of the awesomeness. Where this is really cool is they sync together to always have your furthest point read. I use this non-stop. I can't tell you how many times I have been waiting for something, even for a few minutes, and will pull out the iPhone and read a few pages while I wait. Later on when I go back to the Kindle it will ask me if I want to go to the furthest page read. How awesome is that?! Of course you can purchase books through Safari on your iPhone. It amazes me that two completely independant companies have a product that works so well together.
I kind of consider myself a bit of a bibliophile. I like books. I like to read them, touch them, hold them, and own a lot of them. I even make and rebind books. But I have to tell you. The Kindle is absolutely incredible. Will it replace books? No. I don't know if books will ever be completely replaced (at least not in my lifetime). But I don't see myself going out to buy a book if it is available through the Kindle Store. It is just plain easier. Plus, the books usually cost 1/3 of the retail price. The Kindle will pay for itself.

I would like to see more features in the Kindle, but it is almost perfect for what it is. Email would be nice, as well as more computing power. You can get online with the Kindle, but it doesn't have the processing power to render anything, but the most basic sites. Below is a picture of my site, which admittedly isn't very robust, and it took quite a while opening the site, and then of course doesn't render it correctly. Who cares. I have three computers at home, one at work and an iPhone for cruising the internet. I just wanted to make the point that it was available and would be cool if it could process like a computer. I am sure we will have something like that shortly and I can't wait.All in all, I am in love. It is perfect for what it is and I think Amazon got ripped off. It is worth more than I paid. I wish they had a larger selection of cases for Kindle, but I found a kick butt site called SF Bags, and they had a slip case that I love. One of my favorite features about the Kindle is how small it is. I didn't want to inundate it with a big case. The Slip Case from SF Bags was perfect. It fits the Kindle very well and even has a soft plastic insert inside the material to protect the display while it is in the case. Awesome! On a side note about SF Bags. They had the best customer service. I received a personal email from them telling me that they had received my order and when the expected it to ship. Then I received another personal email from the owner when the case had shipped. He wasn't just telling me the case had shipped, but asked me how I found their site, if there was anything else he could do for me, and of course the tracking number. When I received the case, the person who had shipped it had written a little thank you note on the invoice. Stuff like that just doesn't happen anymore. It makes me feel like they value and appreciate my business. This company is pretty awesome in my book.

Anyway. Go buy a Kinle 2 and get your Slip Case from SF Bags. You won't regret it! You might just get smarter for doing it. :)

Bathroom

The bathroom is now complete and I am quite pleased with the final outcome. It is a small bathroom so I wasn't able to get a wider shot without getting the door frame in the photo. I will get some more photos and will shoot the master bedroom and bath, which are almost complete too. It is nice to have some stuff finished!

TOOLS!

I have decided that I need a better way of keeping my tools organized.
This is only part of them too. It is funny that I never really
considered myself a "tool" kind of guy.

Faucet Love

I am in love with our new faucet/sink combination.

Disrespect

I was photographing a property today and had to park about a block away because there was no where to park near the home. As I crossed the bridge over the river I saw this recliner laying in the water. It really annoyed me. I photographed the property and all I could think about was this stupid chair. "How could anyone be so lazy and so uncaring as to throw the chair down into the river?" I thought. "Did they think it would somehow just disappear or decompose?" I don't consider myself a very environmentally friendly person, but this really upset me. Someone needs a good ass-kicking!