Archive for 2007-04

I have a new hobby. A few people may have noticed. It’s an incredible amount of fun. It is stretching my creativity.

Last month, Missy and I decided to step up in the camera department. With a new baby on the way, it was a no-brainer. We’ve had point-and-shoot cameras for the past few years and they were great, but never really gave the functionality that I was craving. I have known for quite some time that a digital SLR (DSLR) would be the way to go, but I’ve never seen anything that “bridged the gap” between the consumer-grade point-and-shoots to the pro-sumer DSLRs, especially in terms of price.

Last Fall, Nikon released the D40, and “entry-level” digital SLR kit at a very reasonable street price of $600. The camera body is very lightweight with a conclusive feature-set, exactly what you’d expect in a DSLR. The “kit” bundles a very nice 18-55mm lens with the body. The wide angle is very nice and the zoom reaches about as far as necessary for average shooting. However, I’ve already found several instances where a longer lens would be much more handy (especially in sports photography and in short depth of field shots). I’m considering purchasing the new Nikon 55-200mm AF VR zoom lens to complement the stock kit. And at some point, I’d love to see how the 50mm reflex lens works with the D40. I’ve seen some great photographs captured with it.

Still, as a base kit, the D40 is absolutely amazing. I’ve been blown away by how accurately the camera responds to my control and snaps the picture just as I want it when I want it. That shutter opens and closes in the exact instant I want it to. That may sound trivial to some, but it’s an element of the creative process that has become immensely important to me. In fact, each and everything I’ve learned in my few weeks with the D40 I’ve taken into deep consideration. Much like web design and music, there are facets of photography that can completely revolutionize the creativity of the artist, but they have to been meticulously learned and implemented. It’s a very disciplined art that requires time and energy to accomplish something great. It’s these kinds of disciplines that keep me thirsty to learn and grow.

I wish I could really give a technical analysis of the Nikon D40. (I’ll point you to Ken Rockwell and DP Review for that.) It would be great to really evaluate the mechanics of the camera and discuss a few best practices. But I’m still learning. I can say that I’m really happy to be embarking on this new creative journey. It is a joy to discover photography.

I’ve met new people. I’ve had some interesting run-ins with strange people. I’ve chatted with brilliant artists. I’ve looked more closely at a flower than I ever thought possible. I’ve taken over 3,000 photographs in 45 days. Now, I’m constantly “looking” at life as though every scene deserves to be recorded forever. I’m always looking for that shot.

I’ve also had some great mentors help me in ways they could never know. And so I’ll say a great thanks to Stephen Elliot who has been my primary inspiration and knowledge base so far. His expertise is vast. We’ve already snapped a lot of pictures together, and we’re bound to grab a bunch more—and often. Thanks so much, Stephen.

I’d like to say thanks to Flickr as well. It’s a constant source of inspiration and the folks I’ve met through that community have all been really great. In the creative world, it’s often easy to get caught up in ourselves, what we produce and how talented we get, but I really appreciate the folks that I meet along the way that are humble enough to take time with a total noob and hook me up with some practical expertise and spot on advice.

So, for the folks who check into davidrussell.org from time to time, thanks. You might also want to keep an eye on my Flickr profile. (There’s a feed, too.) It’s been rather explosive lately and you might find a better stream of content there right now. For all you photographers in the audience (amateur or veteran) please critique, critique, critique. I’d love to hear any thoughts.

What next?

The Nikon D40 (on Amazon)
My Flickr Profile (Collections: Flora | Life | Transportation)
D40/x Challenge Flickr Group
NCC Flickr Group
Stephen Elliot
Tamrac Adventure 7 Gear Bag

Technorati Tags: nikon, d40, photography, flickr, picture, hobby, dslr, digital, slr, camera

Good grief. What a link fest.

The tragedy that struck Virginia Tech on Monday, the aftermath that has unfolded since, is all inconceivable.

Today, I am still mournful for the lives that were lost. And I celebrate the lives that were saved through the heroism of others. Some of those heroes paid the ultimate sacrifice so that students and classmates would live.

It’s difficult to describe the emotion that is running through the pulse of our nation. I don’t think it really has to be put into words. I can hardly pull away from the news channels in the evenings. Still, I’ve found such hope and peace through prayer and reflection. I pray deeply for the families who are affected by this senseless act of violence and hate. And I pray for the leadership of Virginia Tech as well as the law enforcement authorities who are investigating the massacre.

This event, as tragic and unbelievable as it is, has become a reminder that evil does exist and manifests itself against anything that is good. May God tune our hearts to be sensitive to the spiritual warfare that is all around us. And may God bless Virginia Tech and the hearts of our great nation as we mourn.

I was pouring through my RSS feeds during a short escape this afternoon and came across a recent article at The Washington Post describing an awe-inspiring event that happened recently at the L’Enfant Metro™ stop. The event was monumental and yet the circumstances that pervaded the course of this brilliance was nothing short of shocking.

One day in January, world-class violinist Joshua Bell took the “stage” at the top of the escalators that dump commuters from the rail onto the street-level at L-Enfant Plaza. In forty-five minutes of musical perfection, most of the 1,000-odd passersby did just that—passed by, without even acknowledging the internationally-acclaimed virtuoso who stood and played some of the finest music of all time. That is absolutely incredible—and frightening.

The article is long, but worth reading every word. I hope I am never blinded so deeply by life that I miss an opportunity to experience sheer grandeur.

Pearls Before Breakfast at The Washington Post

Experience the Street Concert

Technorati Tags: life, washington, dc, metro, busy, music, classical, violin, joshua bell, washington post

Lately, I’ve been researching a couple of different options for battling referrer spam. It’s bloating my stats and wasting my bandwidth and I’m tired of it. The real problem is that I’m the only one who has access to my server logs, so the spam has no function other than waste.

The solution I’m trying to find defeats referrer spam at its core nature, referrer headers (often spoofed) by an automated machine. Certainly any authentic referrer information needs to shine through. The .htaccess solutions I’ve found have either not done enough or broken my site entirely at places like Google. And I’m not into a purposeless or over-zealous response to this. I just need something that works and, preferably, something that stays out of my way. I really don’t want to have to maintain anything if I don’t have to. I will, but as a last resort.

Over the past six months, I’ve seen a rise in four-letter domain names coming into my logs. I don’t necessarily mean four-letter as in profane, I mean literally four-letter domains that are seemingly just random combinations of letters and occasionally numbers. If I blocked referrers from four-letter domains it would probably solve 60-70% of my problem. But that’s the type of compromise I don’t want to do. I’d give up information about referred visitors from authentic sites, like digg.com and cnet.com. (Not that I have much of either of those, but you get the point.)

Has anyone found a decent solution to referrer spam? My personal research hasn’t turned up anything that really works. Shoot me an email if you’d rather stay off-record.

Technorati Tags: referrer, spam, web, security, htaccess

Literally everywhere. All of Creation is monumentally amazing.

I also dig on Godbit, CSS Beauty, and really good designers.

Seriously, I think most designers and developers make the early mistake of sensationalizing their own abilities at the cost of missing some really grand work that already exists in the field. If it weren’t for exploring the work of others and gleaning positive inspiration and encouragement, I wouldn’t be doing creative work today. In every art, there is discipline to be learned and applied. Once you are disciplined in an art, then you have license to break the rules, especially for the sake of beauty.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been a full year, but it’s time for round two of CSS Naked Day. Today, I’ve yanked my cascading style sheet to show my support for Web standards. It’s a fun time of the year when many people from around the world drop their “design” and let that markup show through. And this madness really does drive home the point of creating Web sites that separate presentation from markup and adhere to standards. It just makes sense.

The Official CSS Naked Day Site

XHTML.com Article - Excellent overview of the “why”

Technorati Tags: css, naked day, naked.dustindiaz.com, web standards, HTML, XHTML, design. development

Normalcy will resume soon enough.

I spent about ten hours of yesterday outdoors with camera in hand. In the end, I came up with a few shots worth a look. I’m still learning. But I told Missy last night, I really love photography. It’s just a great creative outlet for me.

View the Complete Set at Flickr (Photos from April 2)

Technorati Tags: images, washington, dc, people, nature, architecture, cherry blossoms

Over the past several months, I’ve received many emails about Web design and development. Some of the questions are simple and have complex answers, while other complex questions have quite simple answers. There have also been plenty of questions that I did not have the answer to and those questions inspired me to research. Over the next several weeks, I’ll answer many of the questions that have been frequently asked. This will centralize my responses and save valuable time when replying to a frequently asked question. Ultimately, all the questions will be gathered on a static page of this site for archival and easy access.

I started tinkering with Web design and development in 1996 after discovering the World Wide Web and the Yahoo! search engine. At first, I learned HTML and hand-coded (or copy/pasted code¹) to build single pages. They were gray with horizontals rules and quite ugly. I discovered Microsoft FrontPage around the same time and decided to fully rely on WYSIWIG creation of sites and abandon the process of hand-coding. After a couple of years of mild interest, I gave up the hobby and concentrated on music and school.

In 2003, my interest was renewed and I was quite surprised by how much the Web evolved since I had last been involved deeply in it. Specifically, there was so much discussion (perhaps heated argumentation is the best description) amongst Web developers regarding the issue of Web standards. I was amazed at what I discovered, but never really practiced standards-based coding. In fact, I spent the first year of my renewal doing simple WYSIWIG-created sites using Macromedia Studio MX (now Adobe CS3 Web), honing my design skills in Fireworks and allowing Dreamweaver to create the layout based on “slices” from Fireworks. The right tools. The wrong approach. It’s embarrassing now, but that’s what I knew to do. Soon after, I really began to buy in to the Web standards movement and slid back into HTML with relative ease. I also began learning CSS and voraciously consumed as many tutorials at the W3 Schools as possible. At the same time, I was carefully researching information about the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Web Standards Project (WaSP).

My professional career in Web design and development began in April 2005 as I was employed by the Alabama State Bar. Not only did I increase my skill in HTML and CSS, but I learned so much about server administration, managing Apache, analytics and security. Most importantly, I started working in programming languages, namely ColdFusion on the job (I learned a ton from our resident programmer) and PHP at home. I collected and installed many open source applications like PunBB and WordPress and just opened the hood and started learning the ins and outs of each system. I love the power and flexibility of these applications and the way the content just flows out of the MySQL database and into the markup with such ease. Needless to say, I was hooked on what could be accomplished with the power of the dynamic Web. And I developed a deep appreciation for content management systems. My whole idea of Web development took a radical shift into developing Web sites using these powerful systems as a means to publish content. I started this site around that time and began to chronicle my experiences in the profession.

Working a full-time job in the industry was probably one of the most enriching things that could have happened to my craft. Since then, I have continued to learn both fundamental and bleeding edge techniques in the art. Even today, I learn something new with each project.

Feel free to comment here. If you are a Web designer/developer, when did you start? What’s your story?

Technorati Tags: web, design, development, html, css, w3c, standards, adobe, macromedia

¹I do not recommend copying and pasting code as a means of web developing.