ratspike

web gurus - help!

2008-10-31T21:40:50Z

I'm trying to help the shelter with their website, getting the domain turned over to them, finding hosting and doing something about the godawfully ugly site itself. Making a new site is easy but finding a way to make the adoptable dog pages simple to update is making my head hurt.

Here's what it looks like now: http://familydogsnewlife.org/dogs.aspx

In a perfect world there'd be a script or something I could plug into the site that's let them choose a photo, type a description, and the script would generate the pages. They're really stuck on keeping this type of format so a regular photo gallery is out of the question, at least for now.

Can anyone suggest anything that might work with a moderate amount of hacking and chopping?

ratspike @ 2008-09-21T17:46:00

2008-09-22T00:48:47Z

My singlespeed race today at the Hood River Doublecross=massive fail

ratspike @ 2008-09-17T15:18:00

2008-09-17T22:20:06Z

ratspike @ 2008-09-07T18:51:00

2008-09-08T01:52:36Z

ratspike @ 2008-09-07T18:05:00

2008-09-08T01:07:04Z

why being a photographer really isn't that cool

2008-08-03T21:00:26Z

On the left is my original photo. On the right is the poster that's recently been made available for sale. That image is from a stencil and is a direct copy of my photo. Needless to say nobody ever asked me for my opinion about any of this. The attitude of at least one of the people involved is that it's an original work of art.

This sucks for several reasons:
1. The guy in the photo was killed the day after I shot it and the poster is a $4 limited edition, with a portion of the proceeds going to a memorial fund set up in his name.

2. The stencil image is an icon within the huge cycling community here in Portland. The artist knows he traced it from my photo but evidently nobody else does, since he's the one credited with the image. Google tells me he's a real, exhibiting artist too. Funny, no?

3. Doing anything will likely have an impact on my personal life. He was very well liked and his death hit the cyclocross community hard.

4. I provided a printable file to several of his friends so they could make prints for a memorial or whatever. I guess I should have included a damn license. See what happens when you try to be decent during a time of grief?

So now I have to sort this bullshit out. IANAL but I'm having a hard time seeing fair use. I haven't contacted the printing company yet. I'm still trying to calm down and don't want to send an email or make a phone call without a level head. It's a hipster Portland co-op so who knows how far trying to deal with them will get me. Maybe I need to speak with an attorney first.

Half of me wants to let it go. Nobody is getting rich and it's a memorial to a good human being whose life was cut short. The other half of me feels pretty sorely used, is pissed off about it and wants to make a point. Is making that point worth a bunch of drama, both on the interweb and probably in real life? I dunno.

ratspike @ 2008-07-17T22:03:00

2008-07-18T05:03:37Z

ratspike @ 2008-07-17T21:55:00

2008-07-18T04:55:23Z

Ursa

2008-07-12T13:27:15Z

Originally published at canisstudio blog. You can comment here or there.

Some days I feel like I kinda kick ass.

ratspike @ 2008-06-26T11:38:00

2008-06-26T18:39:00Z

last weekend at the office...

ratspike @ 2008-06-23T13:50:00

2008-06-23T20:50:32Z

S.K.I.D.D.S day two, part one

Four hours at the range. K-9 and SWAT training individually then together, working on handling the dogs around gunfire. Automatic weapons fire can be felt in the pit of your stomach. Flashbangs are very, very loud.

Vehicle searching and other cool stuff after the lunch break.

ratspike @ 2008-06-22T19:44:00

2008-06-23T02:44:12Z

S.K.I.D.D.S day one
Things I learned about K-9 dogs:
1. They're a lot noisier than I expected, particularly when they know there's a bad guy.
2. That Belgian Malinois is not a German Shepherd.
3. They're beautiful dogs.
4. There's not a single good reason in the world you ever want to be on the business end of one.

Things I learned about SWAT:
1. See #4 above.
2. Being in a room full of them is a little intimidating, and I've never been uncomfortable around police officers before.
3. They've seriously got the best toys.
4. Watching them do their thing is super cool.

Going over my photos I feel like I totally knocked the ball out of the park. The building was dark as hell so I was shooting at iso 3200 almost all afternoon, handholding down to 1/15 at times, dealing with smoke and tactical lights and awful backlighting and tight quarters. Lots of motion blur, lots of oddball framing with distortion from shooting at 17mm, plenty of noise from the high iso. Thing is, it all works and suits the subject matter really well. Once the school is done and all the departments have their photos I'll ask what can and can't be made public. Until then you'll just have to take my word for how cool it all is.

ratspike @ 2008-06-22T08:17:00

2008-06-22T15:17:35Z

Brides, please stop tanning yourself orange right before your wedding day. We aren't in Hawaii or Southern California. It's Oregon and we haven't even seen the sun since last summer. Nobody's buying it and it doesn't go well with your super expensive gown.

- your friendly neighborhood wedding photographer.

ratspike @ 2008-06-21T05:46:00

2008-06-21T12:46:38Z

My shooting schedule for the next seven days

Today: wedding
Sunday-Tuesday: K-9 training
Monday evening: mountain bike short track
Wednesday: K-9 training
Thursday: shelter photos
Friday: wedding
Saturday: wedding
Sunday: exhausted

ratspike @ 2008-06-19T21:51:00

2008-06-20T04:51:42Z

Had some emails back and forth with the Sheriff's Department over the last couple days. It's a no-go on photographing all the cool tactical stuff for obvious reasons, which is disappointing if not entirely unexpected. The lieutenant I spoke with did indicate that photography which didn't show any of the confidential training postures would be fine, provided the officer was agreeable and it was cleared with the instructors. I just got another email saying we're good to go, they're glad I'm available and what the start time is for Sunday morning. It's the dogs I'm most interested in anyway so whatever it is I'm shooting, I figure it'll be more than worthwhile in the end. I'm hoping this will be my foot in the door with at least one department's K-9 unit.

ratspike @ 2008-06-19T20:33:00

2008-06-20T03:33:13Z

mmmm...Softlighter...

ratspike @ 2008-06-17T15:01:00

2008-06-17T22:01:04Z

ratspike @ 2008-06-17T12:03:00

2008-06-17T19:03:27Z

My dogs are rarely this willing to put up with my silly photographer crap. I'd like to think they're as excited about the Softlighter as I am but suspect not so much...

ratspike @ 2008-06-16T08:04:00

2008-06-16T15:04:35Z

Got a reply from the Sheriff's department about shooting the training school this month. My request has to be run up the ladder for approval but so far so good. Fingers still crossed.

ratspike @ 2008-06-14T10:27:00

2008-06-14T17:27:19Z

I sent an email to the contact person for a K-9/SWAT tactical school later this month about coming out and shooting. I don't expect anything to come of it but hey, it never hurts to ask right? Keep your fingers crossed for me.

ratspike @ 2008-06-12T20:32:00

2008-06-13T03:32:30Z

I'm really happy with how adoption photos are going and learned a lot today about what's going to work and what I need to change...

A single 4'x8 sheet of tileboard is not big enough. Less is definitely not more.
I need to be shooting with my studio lights instead of Vivitar 285s.
Umbrellas are underrated and I've reminded myself that I like them even though I'd prefer softboxes.
I miss my cyc wall. A lot.
We need more brightly colored and patterned fabric.
I <3 my Duaflex TtV contraption.

ratspike @ 2008-06-12T18:16:00

2008-06-13T01:16:37Z

ratspike @ 2008-06-12T18:02:00

2008-06-13T01:02:18Z

ratspike @ 2008-06-09T13:27:00

2008-06-09T20:27:23Z

ratspike @ 2008-06-08T07:58:00

2008-06-08T14:58:31Z