Random Creativity

Never has the Evil Empire been so darn delicious. This is a cake our family made for a Cub Scout Cake Auction for charity. It killed the boys to sell it but I promised them that we’d make another one just for them. Someone paid $52 clams for it. I’m surprised that it brought in that much considering that I joked with some of the bidders and told them that it was made with a styrofoam ball during the bidding. It’s not really. (After all these years, I still can’t keep my mouth shut at the right times.) It’s chocolate cake with ginger bread wings. )

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Truer words have never been spoken. Even if you own a trillion dollar, solid gold, super-duper, awesomest camera ever, it’s doing you no good if it’s sitting on the desk at home or gathering dust in a drawer somewhere. Sadly, it’s impossible to judge the photo quality of images you’ve never taken by not having that awesome behemoth with you when you needed it. With that in mind, a couple years ago, I had an epiphany of sorts. I realized, after missing many, many wonderful photo opportunities, that picture quality didn’t really matter to me anymore. The fact that I actually had something to take the image, regardless of how it looked, became my main concern. The fact is that most images can be saved in post-processing using image editing software after the event, if need be. The ones that don’t look so hot…well…they become artsy using black and white or funky colors.  I absolutely believe this and I have certainly missed more than my fair share of great photo opportunities by not being prepared.  Those days are over for me. These days I’m better prepared and more than over-joyed at the oddball, goofy, or cool pictures I’m able to get simply by changing my equipment perspective and priorities.

In the old days (a couple years ago) I owned a giant digital camera and that was it. I used the digital camera for artsy-type pictures and family events but is was huge and heavy; very impractical for tossing into a backpack  or keeping close by while going about the day to day stuff. In “emergencies” I tried relying on the camera built into one of Windows Mobile phones I usually had with me but the pictures were terrible. Barely viewable, in fact. It was the pits.  That all changed when I got my first iPhone. The original iPhone shipped with a 2 megapixel camera that actually wasn’t terrible. If you held it completely steady and had decent lighting conditions you just might get a decent (not wonderful) picture. More times than not, you still can. So for the last couple of years my iPhone has been my go-to camera in emergencies or when I need to get a photo somewhere quickly via the internet or sms phone service. It also comes in handy for live-blogging events/travel and a couple other reasons, which I’ll go into in a later article. Needless to say…I still use the iPhone as a portable photo device but I’ve also moved on.

After sitting back and analyzing my photo libraries, I noticed that I used my iPhone to take pictures a whole heck of a lot.   Although I was thankful to have had the iPhone when I needed it, I couldn’t help but notice that some of the photos were pretty nasty when I compared them to my “real” cameras, so I decided to do something about that. I set out on a massive search for the perfect everyday carry camera and here’s what I came up with. The Canon (yes, I’m a Canon guy, ladies) PowerShot SD940 IS. The SD940 IS is really, really light  (roughly 4 ounces) and extremely small (1/2 inch thick and exactly the size of a credit card) yet it takes fantastic 12.1 megapixel photographs. In fact, it’s so small that every morning I slip it into my pants pocket (insert joke here) and forget it’s there till I stumble on something that begs to have it’s picture taken. It’s really a fantastic day to day camera. Sure, the images are not of the same pristine quality I’m used to getting with one of my more complicated, larger Canon Digital SLR’s, but it’s always within arm’s reach and always ready to go. That’s what makes this little guy the best camera that I own. I’d highly recommend getting a small, pocketable camera to anyone but especially if you’ve got kid or grandkids. You don’t ever get those precious moments back (and it just breaks my heart to see parents/grand parents taking crappy cellphone pictures of special evens.  What are you waiting for? Go make some special memories!

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So I’m thinking of starting a new website – Mike’s Donut Log. I could roam the country trying donuts from everywhere. Then I could take pictures of each donut, log them on the website, and also log my pants size as it goes up and up. These are the things I will do for my friends. I will suffer donut torture in the name of donut education. I’m like a hero or something.

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Ok. I’m testing my new website templates. I’m digging the legos. Looks ok.

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