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Flickr a Day 25: ‘Decisions, Decisions’

What’s not to like about this fantastic photo? Someone tell me. Bokeh, silhouette, and story told in the caption shorter than a Tweet: “Do you think this ice is thick?” We want to know. Step out and show us!

Freelance photographer Rick Harrison snapped this mesmerizer on March 4, 2006, using the Konica Minolta DiMAGE A2. Nine years later you’ll find him behind the Nikon D800. From Wakefield, United Kingdom, he is based in Leeds. Rick is the first Flickr-a-Day photographer who specializes in landscapes. Most of the others shoot on the street and/or focus on people. 

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Comic-Con Heroes: The Collectors

Two weeks ago, I started serializing my ebook Comic-Con Heroes: The Fans Who Make the Greatest Show on Earth. Welcome to the third of 13 installments before the book releases into the public domain, on July 8, 2015, after my current commitment for Amazon KDP Select ends. In the first segment we met The Dark Knight, and in the second a Medieval, Scandinavian fighter.

The third profile gets more to the core Con—not people who attend to dress up and be someone else for a day or few—but those who are there to collect. Comic book and toy collecting are undercurrents that keep the event vital. Hollywood productions may get more media attention, and for sure lots of people line up for television show and movie star-studded panels. But the show’s lifeforce are the artists, their fans, and people who look for rare comics or limited-edition items. 

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My First Nexus 6 Photo

Happy Caturday! Neko is the subject of the first photo shot using my new Nexus 6—last night around 6:30 pm. The room wasn’t well-illuminated, being dark outside, but an IKEA floor lamp did cast some light upon him. I wondered how good a shooter the smartphone could be, given its large size and Moto X’s so-so camera.

The photo was quickly taken and it’s arguably not the best composition. But in auto-mode, using the Google Camera app, Nexus 6 responded quickly—and the photo looks like what my eye saw. Vitals: f/2, ISO 314, 1/30 sec, 3.82mm. 

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So Much for a ‘Classical Education’

I wanted to attend St. John’s College in Annapolis, Md., after graduating high school. But my admission application was rejected, and attendance costs would have been too high, regardless. But I tried. Mine is a “don’t give up” attitude, until there is no other choice. The school specializes in a classical education in the truest sense: Learning from and thinking like dead Greeks or Renaissance-era Europeans, among others.

“Through close engagement with the works of some of the world’s greatest writers and thinkers—from Homer, Plato, and Euclid to Nietzsche, Einstein, and Woolf—students at St. John’s College grapple with fundamental questions that confront us as human beings”, the school’s website explains. “As they participate in lively discussions and throw themselves into the activity of translating, writing, demonstrating, conducting experiments, and analyzing musical compositions, St. John’s students learn to speak articulately, read attentively, reason effectively, and think creatively”.

Maybe attending the school would have prevented thinking myself so clever today—only to be rightly, and smartly, corrected later on. Live and learn, eh? 

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Flickr a Day 23: ‘What I Wish For’

Searching Flickr for “what” churns up more shots of people’s bags, and what’s inside them, than you can imagine. It’s my strangest pic-peek voyeur experience yet. The look-see also reveals today’s selection—one of 11 related images spotted among the backpacks, messenger bags, and purses—chosen for what’s behind: The story and the photographer’s impressive portfolio.

Jorge Quinteros comes from Jamaica, Queens, New York, but lives in Brooklyn, where he shoots some of the best street photography portraits I have seen on Flickr. Today’s chosen pic isn’t representative of his style, which captures character in vivid photographs. Many street shooters are discreet. The self-titled “What I Wish For” series is what happens when a creative mind gets up close to his subjects,, engages them, rather than captures images from a distance. 

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Nexus 6 First Impressions

About five hours ago, UPS delivered the Motorola-made Google Nexus 6. I ordered online yesterday afternoon from T-Mobile, for expedited delivery, expecting two-day shipping but getting one (under-promise, over-deliver is good customer service). T-Mo only sells the Midnight Blue model, and I chose 64GB capacity.

I could order from the carrier because we still have one line there, on a low-cost plan, which won’t change. The clarification is important because I popped in my Verizon SIM. It is my understanding that T-Mobile sells the same Nexus 6 as either Google or Motorola. Any carrier customization occurs during setup with the SIM card inserted. So far Verizon services seems to function normally. 

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Waiting for Nexus 6

My Apple exodus and return to the Google lifestyle progress at rapid pace. I am full-time back on Chromebook after buying the Toshiba model one week ago. Whoa, it feels so much longer. Selling my MacBook Pro paid for the laptop, and another for my wife, with some proceeds remaining. I also use Nexus 9 tablet, replacing iPad Air (which is Craigslisted but not sold). Today, I await delivery of Nexus 6, which replaces iPhone 6.

A law-enforcement officer bought the Apple smartphone, which sale exactly covers cost of the N6. This morning, I am without any handset, waiting for UPS to deliver the Motorola-made Google phablet, which I purchased from T-Mobile. Google Play and Motorola are sold out, although during the time yesterday when placing my order, Play Store had the 32GB N6 in stock; both colors! 

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Flickr a Day 22: ‘How Not to Shoot Thor’s Well’

When is a bad photo really good? That’s the question today’s selection poses. During summer 2013, “whilst idling planless in San Francisco, I decided to try and replicate one of the epic shots of Oregon’s Thor’s Well that I see plastering the Internet”, Zach Dischner explains. “That was the extent of my planning. I had a smartphone to lead me there, and hope that I would get there in time for an epic sunset”. The Well wasn’t so well.

The story behind this epic disaster pic makes it today’s Flickr-a-Day pick. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but sometimes a few explaining the shot’s context make all the difference. This could be just another black-and-white sea shot—the wanderer looking out onto the raging sea. The pic is so much more. 

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Chromebook Returns

Yesterday afternoon, a San Diego State University student bought my MacBook Pro—13-inch Retina Display, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD—for $1,100. I purchased the laptop from local dealer DC Computers in late-August 2014 for a few hundred dollars more. The buyer’s interest was my own: Mac, large SSD, and extended warranty (expires April 2017). The photo is one of several from my Craigslist ad.

The proceeds go to buying Toshiba Chromebook 2 (two, another for my wife) and Android phone for her. She moves from iPad Air, which has been, since September 2014, her PC—and that experience should be another story (be patient). If time travel was possible, I would keep, rather than sell, my Chromebook Pixel early last summer. The Chromie lifestyle suits me best, and I am excited to be back to it. However, in December, when reviewing the tech products that changed my digital lifestyle last year, including the switch to Apple’s platforms: “I can’t imagine using anything else”.  I lied to myself, and unintentionally you.