It’s been almost ten years since I picked up a camera to earn a living on a daily basis, back when I was in Savannah, Georgia as a staff photographer for The Savannah Morning News and Evening Press. I was recently doing some housecleaning and found an old Kodak PhotoCD I’d created from my best chromes and black-and-white negatives when I was job hunting in 1994. I posted the collection of images on Flickr, seen in the photo gallery here. I was trying to be so bleeding edge – I remember sending out portfolios on a floppy disk (yeah, a 1.4 dual-sided deal) and I put together a slick one-page dye-sub print from this collection of images using all the gusto our office Mac IIcx could muster. Meanwhile, we shot all our color images on Fujichrome 100 or 400 – talk about challenging. Later that year I took on my next job at Morris Communication’sAugusta Chronicle as photo editor, and cut way back on daily shoots – and at least had the chance to shoot color neg film! I do miss those days, chasing news on the scanner, trying to produce something compelling from otherwise mundane assignments. Today’s work has it’s own set of challenges, and thinking on my feet – but at least I’m not working nights anymore!
Just weeks after closing their deal to buy Meedio, a software developer of a ‘roll-your-own’ digital entertinament solution akin to Microsoft’s Windows XP Media Center Edition, Yahoo! has put a branded version of the software out for free download. called Yahoo! Go. Download the software here and give it a spin. It includes features to access video, music and photos on your local PC, as well as TV tuner integration should you have one, including DVR features. I do wish the Flickr piece was a bit more feature-rich; currently there’s no way to select your own photos or specify a tag to view, it simply includes a half-dozen or so pre-selected tags/groups to view as slideshows. One nice bit of integration is the ‘Video’ area – with Yahoo video content presented alongside your own, as well as search features for other video content. Overall, a very nice UI with a ton of features.
Two big bits of news today – first that Apple unveiled the new 17" Intel MacBookPro just in time for the kickoff of the NAB show out in Vegas (via TUAW). Along with that, there’s an interesting article discussing efforts between ESPN (and most likely other members of the Disney Internet Group) and Apple to integrate advertising in a more significant way (reg. required at Advertising Age). Two rants as a result – where is my 12" MacBook Pro? My back cannot deal with the 6.8 pounds of computer in that 17-incher. And on the ads front, I’m all for it. With the size of the podcasting audience today, there is a real market for ad-supported content for those of us who just don’t want to pay for premium materials. Bring on the tracking and reporting, and Madison Ave will beat a path to your door.
As you can see in the photo above, Sam had a fabulous time during our visit yesterday. It was a beautiful sunny Sunday, so we headed out to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. On display were sculptures by Niki de Saint Phalle, featuring glittering mosaics of glass, stones and mirrors. Sam loved these, and we enjoyed all the flora. See the full gallery here.
