“Avatar” was pretty in 2-D, and the 3-D version brought an extra element to the visual experience.
Trying to stay ahead of the curve, though, we insisted on watching the film in *4*-D.
What a time-saver! The effects looked great, and we were able to leave the theater before we actually got there.
Shots from the 2010 All South, held November 6 in St Augustine, FL, have been added to the site.
Post-processing was slowed somewhat due to what I shall graciously call “pre-planned wardrobe malfunctions” in the Bikini class. Predictable in retrospect, such inappropriate displays are an issue that will need to be addressed as soon as possible.
That aside, though, Gene and Pete put on yet another spectacular show. The level of competition was superb, the venue is outstanding, and the audience was enthusiastic.
That wraps up the 2010 season for me. According to Deke, the annual meeting has been moved to the Holiday Inn near Universal due to a scheduling conflict at the Rosen. With luck I’ll have a sneak peek at the 2011 schedule up shortly thereafter.
Reflecting on the catastrophic
leadership
experiment
of the last two years
it has occurred to me
that one of the side effects of having hubris
is that the possibility of your having hubris
would never even occur to you.
Shots from the 2010 Southeastern USA show, held September 18 in Kissimmee, FL, are up on the site.
I apologize for the delay– I have been quite insanely busy, and the shots themselves required some TLC because the show’s experiment in pure-LED stage lighting, while well-intentioned, turned out badly.
Shots from the 2010 Florida Championships, held August 21 in Orlando, are going up on the site.
The lighting was marginal at the Rosen Center ballroom– two cans on either side of the stage plus the room’s incandescents set low. Not trusting the light, I shot at 1600 ISO with custom white balance and that seemed to turn out passably well– though of course I prefer some room to work with. (There’s a firmware hack to allow the Rebel to shoot at 3200, but I’ve never been able to get it to work.)
I’ve never been a big fan of flat-floor venues for contests, either; the view from the back rows and side wings is nearly always problematic. That said, both the number of competitors and the level of competition were wonderful.
The bikini contest took up an excess of time, both in the judging and in the post-processing. I am seriously considering just skipping that portion of the shows… we’ll see how many hits those shots get in comparison to the shots of the athletes. To their credit, though, some of the bikini class participants are getting noticeably more athletic… likely tired of looking like the Sta-Puft Marshmallow Man in comparison.
I also did a shoot afterward with amazing competitor Iris Davis, and those shots came out spectacularly. Look for it shortly…
Because Thursday has just ended, today must be Causal Friday.
You have to admire Microsoft for their success. Before Bill Gates, only the government could support a business model based on selling you what you already own.
These days, though, everyone seems to be gawking at Google. “What would Google do?” “How can we be more like Google?”
It might be smarter to instead be looking at IBM. They’ve been in business an order of magnitude longer, and still rake about twice as much profit as does Google. They’ve also successfully reinvented both their business and their culture on multiple occasions… a feat not to be dismissed lightly.