If you conquer a culture using tools that they imagined, developed, and produced, you have still failed utterly to demonstrate the superiority of your ideology.
Indeed, by cutting to the front of the evolutionary line, by championing inferior civilization, you have endangered the very future of humanity itself. Being a meaner bastard than your fellows is no virture; mean bastards are ten thousand a penny in the Universe.
Shots from the 2014 Daytona Classic are up on the site.
Well, almost up.* Probably under a hundred shots to go at this point. I thought I’d better at least get what is up announced before the 2015 season arrives.
It was an unexpectedly BIG show, over 160 competitors if I recall, so there was a LOT of raw material to sort through. I was expecting about half that number.
I also shot this show from further back, full manual, and that’s really helping to solve some of the consistency issues I’ve had from shooting closer to the stage. However the lighting in this venue was extremely dim around the edges, and some of the larger classes flowed past the center-stage area, so a considerable number of photos were not salavageable as color, and another smaller batch just couldn’t be saved.
Consider: If the subject is a dark-tanned physique guy wearing fluorescent jams and tucked away in the armpit section of the stage, that shot is next to impossible to pull off. I’m already walking a tightrope on the exposure levels, and the fluorescent colors make the light meter think there’s WAY more visible light coming in than there really is, so setting the levels is basically just a SWAG at that point.
We are going to have to have a conversation about competitor attire in the near term, though, especially in the bikini and men’s physique classes.
(Generally when a large group is on stage and the edge lighting is less than perfect, the head judge will rotate the competitors like an airplane propellor and they are judged a second time. Of course if the stage is dark on both sides, then the competitors on the ends are just moving from one dark spot to another. A better solution for extreme lighting discrepancies might be to do the rotation similar to the propellors on a twin-engine plane, which would give everyone at least one viewing in the best light. )
We are going to have to have a conversation about competitor attire in the near term, though, especially in the bikini and men’s physique classes. I’m not keen on having to vet every photo for “wardrobe malfunctions” and in way too many cases that situation seems about one hiccup away. So far I have tried very hard to simply cover the shows, not editorialize by omitting certain classes, but it seems things are heading in the wrong direction and there’s a limit to what I’m willing to put on a site with my name at the top.
Even with the large number of competitors it was another great show by Mike and Tony. The competition was first-rate and the show ran smoothly. Enjoy the shots.
*They are all up now.
It’s funny that when the alarmists wave the “climate change” flag, they’re not asking us for solutions or alternatives, but for political power and funding.
My only interpretation is that our plan is to vote climate change out of existence, and if that fails, buy it off.
Shots from the night show at the 2014 Gainesville are up on the site.
As usual promoter Tony Curtis put on a first-class event. I did have a slightly rough time with the morning show shots; even though I had a great seat and an occasionally unblocked view of the stage, I was sitting too close to the stage and I found myself “sweeping” the view across it, meaning I was constantly tweaking the exposure triangle instead of composing shots.
On the way out I realized that I could use the venue’s smaller scale to my advantage; checking from the back of the room that my longest lens had all the range I needed plus some, I asked promoter Tony if I could shoot the night show from the sound booth. He thought I was nuts, but he needed someone to handle a few lighting chores anyway so he agreed.
I deployed on a tripod and, well, the results speak for themselves– some of the best show shots I’ve ever taken. The deep range meant that the “sweep” angle was just a few degrees; parallax was negligible, the lighting consistency across the view was outstanding, and I was shooting over the heads I usually have to shoot through.
On the down side, I did lose quite a few shots to motion blur, mostly in the fingertips– I really didn’t want to push the ISO past 1600, but looking more closely I think I left some light on the table; I probably could have shortened the exposure time enough to compensate had I known that blur was going to be an issue. (I really need to spend the time to figure out how to shoot tethered to a laptop, or get a monitor– there are details the camera screen just can’t show.) And shooting from the tripod meant I spent 95% of the show on my feet, which got a bit painful near the end.
But overall, a resounding success. I used the same concept at the Daytona show the next weekend and from first glance the results are also very good. It will be a little before that show is up– since I was experimenting, I took almost 4000 shots (!) — and it will be even longer before I get a chance to move Susan’s page from “mini-shoot” to full page status and then get the Gainesville prejudging shots up (if they’re even worth salvaging).
Due to unavoidable schedule conflicts, though, Daytona was likely my last show for this year, so there shouldn’t be any other distractions. Enjoy these shots; I certainly enjoyed the results.
Here, once and for all, is why raising– or even having— a minimum wage is a dangerous idea.
Once you start creating rules that employers have to live by, you create a lot of things you maybe didn’t intend.
For example, if there are rules, then there must be inspectors to ensure the rules are being followed.
And enforcement in case they aren’t. And legal fees in case of dispute over the rules or whether they’re being followed.
And people to collect the penalties from violators. And people to count the money collected from violators.
And nice buildings for all these people to work in.
And loopholes, endless loopholes. And validation of the inspectors, to ensure they’re not on the take. Et c., et c., ad infinitum, ad nauseum.
To pay for all of this infrastructure, how much of that money is given to the people the rules were supposed to help? NONE OF IT. Read that again.
And taxes are going to go up. Okay, that’s a progressive thing, because others who are better off will help shoulder the burden (I’m against that concept personally, but I know others are not).
But that just means it’s a slightly fairer payment model for a parasitic infrastructure that should never have been created in the first place. It represents a tremendous amount of wasted, non-productive effort.
And when the cost of living does inevitably go up, those who needed the assistance are WORSE OFF than before, because to make up the same percentage in lifestyles now requires even MORE dollars– the scale has expanded, but the dollar is worth just what it was before the rise.
Tangled web? Shakespeare had NO IDEA. ;)
Fighting poverty with welfare is like fighting alcoholism with vodka.
I sewed a button onto a shirt tonight. However last month I put a new engine on my lawn mower, so I should have plenty of testosterone cred left over from that.