The hiatus is over. Oh yeah, we’re back.
So, my payment method for registration here on wordpress ran out, and honestly money’s been tight. Been needing to spend it on things more important than, get this, domain registration. But damn it feels good to be back at the helm.
I need to make more time for art. I got rocked pretty hard a couple of months back when I got and lost my first contracted photography job that wasn’t something I supplied the paperwork for. I was briefly a newspaper photographer. Yessir I was! Took pictures, definitely was part of a professional team, definitely felt like I contributed to a team and was supported.
Except none of that was true except for the fact that I took pictures. Which, I did quite a lot. But only a couple of times. And two images were used.
Then after three weeks from hiring I was fired over email. Among other things, this was a very confusing period in my life. I wasn’t particularly upset over the firing as much as my experience at the paper. Without getting into details, I felt like I was quite without a paddle. It sucked.
But when I got that email, I was shook. Properly rattled. Imposter syndrome started to set in really hard, and I started to… not make things again. This was also a period of time where I lost out the opportunity for a promotion at my primary job. Morale was low. Income was fine but my ego was crushed, and my ego is like the one thing I can depend on for a lifeline.
It took me a month and a half to recover and start carrying my camera again. I normally have my camera on my hip everywhere I go.
In the period after my last journal, which was in July (god damn), I was still waiting on my IR chrome filter from Kolari Vision and I finally got it. More on that later. The point is, I have geared up pretty heavily. If you browse /p/, you’ll see all those gear threads, and one thing they love is a good bag. I got myself a massive drone hardcase backpack for all my needs. I’m pretty much set when it comes to packing out for a day of shooting. I went ahead and got my second Peak Design capture clip, and now along with my IR Chrome mounted to the A6300 I have been dual wielding my cameras when I’m out and about.
Oh yeah, let’s get back to that real quick, my IR CHROME arrived. After literally 6 months after paying for it this optical marvel finally got to my doorstep.
Honestly this filter has to be one of the top three parts of my kit. Its effects are immediate and insanely cool. I gambled on a stylistic choice, and that gamble paid off hardcore, man.
These photos have not been edited. The only thing I did was set custom while balances in camera. It’s pretty awesome. Nadine indulged me by getting me the KV-FL1, multispectral flash unit, so now I am armed with one of the most powerful flashes I’ve had my hands on. I’m prepared to get a custom filter holder 3d-printed and to get some UV and IR bandpass filters to mount to it. Boom! Invisible flash unit! That’s in the wings, but for now, I am fully decked with infrared flash equipment.
I haven’t done another wedding yet, but I have done a couple of couple shoots and I even have a boudoir shoot in my portfolio now. I’m not sure if/how I should handle posting those. Does my site need a NSFW section? It’s definitely not my main source of images, but I mean, I have no idea how to handle distribution if that’s the route I want to go.
I’ve been talking with my buddy again after a long time of being pretty no-contact with people through messaging. Part of that has been due to university and part of it has been my lack of will following my experience at the newspaper.
Also, sidebar, but I’ve been in Tacoma a lot more lately. Taking the rail in downtown. Exploring around the Foss Waterway. I just haven’t edited much of the photos I’ve taken since California, so there’s not a lot to post here. I pretty much immediately post straight to Instagram under @jake_thomas_shaw so if that’s your predilection then please check it out there. I’ve withdrawn from Facebook entirely, deleted Reddit, and the only social media I really interact with is Instagram.
This leads fantastically into talking about my paranoia regarding technology. If you feel compelled to take part in commodity fetishism, stay away from all of these ‘smart’ objects. Smartphones are a way of life, but nothing else has to be. Smart home objects, smart televisions, all that jazz, you need to stay away from. Or if you engage with it, please please please know how to anonymize yourself and reduce being tracked.
As I am more and more aware of the world I’ve been becoming increasingly knowledgeable in the habits of companies that produce all this stuff. All of the analytics they harvest, the details of peoples lives they steal and sell. If you’re taking part in this, play your part in private disobedience and tell those companies to fuck off.
Get adblockers, build pi-holes to connect to your routers, disconnect your smart TV from the internet, have your own cloud backups of your data, grab a VPN service you trust, use TOR, circumvent censorship, uphold the mission of LibGen, and buy as much open source technology as you possibly can.
You gotta want the knowledge to use the hardware properly.
Before the whole system comes down, my plan is to get into cybersecurity, and buy some land. I know that in a couple dozen years when nothing has been done about climate change I’m going to not want in an ecological social hell.
Bit of a downer note, apologies.
To that effect, I’m writing in Python now. It’s a good change and its opened up a whole part of my site specifically for technology. Go check out the source code for my hawkmoon program! I think it’s pretty sweet. Lot easier than drones’ proprietary coding methods.
All part of making a sanctuary. That’s why I’m building this place. Radio Reality City exists within and without. And we’re back from a break so there’s gonna be a lot of changes happening around here. There always are.
Welcome to the Season of Dawn.
Consume Reality! 