Formerly ‘themonsterinthebasement’ until this hellsite deleted my account after well over a decade here. Guess there’ll be a lot less kink now and a bit more homesteading and countryside stuff. We’ll see. Set this up to follow the friends I’ve made over the years and whose lives I want to stay connected to. Male, pansexual, GenX, old enough to know better, recent ADHD diagnosis which rather changed how I look back at my life. Tags: #my stuff
100% When I was about 10 years old, you got 2 or 3 cents per bottle for soda bottles. Back then, they were all glass bottles and were NOT recycled as we would do it now but actually washed and re-used! I would collect them from neighbors, load them into my Radio Flyer wagon and take them to a convenience store not far away. I would take all the money I got and buy candy.
Also, I had a friend who spent a summer in the 80’s in Greece living the beach bum life. He’d sleep on the beach, waking early and walk up and down the beach collecting all the left over bottles to cash in. Made enough to keep himself in food and beer for the summer.
Say you break your ankle. You could know everything there is to know intellectually about the injury. Even with this vast knowledge, you will still experience physical pain.
Now take this logic and apply it to things like ADHD, autism, clinical depression, and other less visible/divergent disabilities. You cannot think your way out of feeling.
That is to say: you are not a bad, lazy, or selfish person for struggling, even if you know why you are struggling.
I listened to the meateater podcast that featured him and this book, it’s a story I knew nothing about until then but it’s definitely a book I plan to pick up at some point.
These outtakes where the flash didn't go off are also AI generated.
I like this spooky dutch angle one.
I was just starting to learn flash and I didn't have all the equipment I needed. Since corgis are quite short, I had to put the lighting on the ground. The off camera flash was on a tipped over lightstand with a shoot-through umbrella to diffuse the light.
But I had no wireless triggers. And the only other way to trigger a flash, is with another flash. So I used the on-camera pop up flash to trigger the main flash.
But I had two issues.
First, I did not want that dinky on camera flash affecting my picture.
Second, triggering a flash with a flash is best done indoors. The flash will bounce all around the room and eventually hit the sensor so the main flash triggers. When you are outdoors, there is no bouncing.
SO... I took a little handheld makeup mirror and angled it toward my main flash. This blocked the dinky pop up flash and sent the beam of light towards the main flash to trigger it.
I was lying on the wet morning grass, holding a camera in one hand, a mirror in the other, trying to aim the mirror exactly toward the main flash, making crazy noises to get Otis's attention, and trying to get the focus point on his face so I didn't get a blurry photo. Also, Otis was much more interested in sniffing things than posing for a photo.
Here is an overhead view that might help explain.
I await all of your comments saying my amazing drawring is clearly AI generated.
Only 30% of the time did the flash actually go off. Aiming the mirror was tricky and I was doing like 8 things at once. I wasn't even sure I got the photo I wanted. But when I came back to the computer there was one that stood out and it is one of my favorites I've ever taken.
It was the best combination of monumental effort, great discomfort, perfect foggy sunrise light, and just pure luck.
Unfortunately, people like me who use advanced sculpting light techniques are getting accused of using AI more and more. Not really sure what to do about it—other than show the 30 awful photos it took to get the good one.
My 80s sunglasses photo and spoon photo get called out the most.
But it's just good old fashioned gradient lighting which has been used in product photography since the days of film.
Most of my photos with artificial light added would be considered "unmotivated lighting." I think that is the term you were looking for.
The short explanation is that motivated lighting always has a logical source. Like the sun or a window or a lamp off to the side.
That doesn't mean there are no lighting shenanigans used.
The overhead office-style fluorescent lights depicted in this scene were actually powerful diffused light bars that were much closer to the actors. They replaced the ceiling in post with more traiditioinal looking lights. So the lighting was still very crafted—but it has a logic and realism that doesn't set off alarm bells in your brain saying, "Where is the light coming from?"
Unmotivated lighting is the opposite. It's crafted, artificial light that doesn't need to make sense. It just has to achieve the aesthetic goal of the artist.
All studio lighting is unmotivated. I just re-edited this old photo of my dad.
There is no room in the world where he could have sat down and had perfectly sculpted light hitting his face. I intentionally directed the light to accentuate his features and capture the best, most idealized version of what he looked like.
Coincidentally I just wrote a post about motivated lighting in films.
💬 20 🔁 208 ❤️ 349 · First, thank you to everyone who is nerding out with me about motivated lighting. I love that I can have these convers
Weirdly, I expressed a preference for motivated lighting in movies with a realism-based aesthetic and a lot of people disagreed. They said that the lighting comes from the same place as the music and that you just have to suspend your disbelief.
(Personally I think that is a bad analogy because music is *very* motivated by the emotional vibe. I would say unmotivated lighting in movies comes from the same place as women's apocalypse makeup.)
But I *love* unmotivated lighting in still photography. I love crafting an image and creating it in a fantasy realm where perfect, beautiful, sculpting light can come from anywhere. I want the most idyllic lighting possible.
It's the only way I could make fingernail clippers look beautiful.
And now people are saying unmotivated lighting looks like AI or CGI and isn't authentic. Even though this aesthetic was created before computers were invented and the tools of post-capture manipulation were done in a darkroom.
I'm fairly certain this is because AI does not have a great understanding of motivated lighting. It never thinks about where the light is coming from so it almost always creates images where the lighting comes from a fantasy realm. And now people are heavily associating unmotivated lighting with AI, even if it is a subconscious observation.
I think at this point in time, people are yearning for authenticity. We know so much of our imagery is heavily manipulated for nefarious purposes. Beauty advertising with retouched skin like porcelain dolls and liquified torsos that don't leave space for vital organs. Every fast food ad shows the perfect juicy hamburger because they paid a food stylist $500/hour to perfectly cook and arrange things.
But fast food workers are not food stylists and your burger isn't going to have perfect lettuce and a non-smooshed bun.
(Before you reply with urban legends about food styling, they don't use fake materials. They are required to use the actual ingredients. Those myths came from movie prop masters who needed to maintain the look of food during hours of shooting.)
I think AI just turned our uncomfortable relationship with unrealistic imagery up to 11.
It's a little depressing for me because I love to use light as my artistic medium. I say I am a photographer, but my passion is more focused on lighting.
And I often incorporate my other passion, which is image manipulation. I sometimes add another layer of unreality to my images by artistically editing them.
This is days of work.
I worked very hard for the in-camera image. Dragging a heavy chair and lighting equipment into a field on a hot summer day was not easy for me.
But I also worked very hard on the edit. The RAW file is overexposed, but once I corrected that, the lighting on him and the grass is actually what I captured. I hid a flash in the lampshade and lit him with my big 7 foot umbrella off to the right.
I could have shot this at night, but my area has so much light pollution, I would never have achieved the sky I wanted in my head. So I took the photo knowing I'd replace the sky later.
I like crafting images. I like picturing something in my head and then trying to manifest it in a photo.
I get why people are starting to prefer more natural looking images. I understand why they are currently preferring everything to be captured as it was in the moment. I know why they disparage the amazing work of CG artists and demand that every movie use only practical effects.
When everything is fake, a small dose of reality feels special.
But I see my photography more like a drawing or a painting. Light is my paintbrush and I am just trying to manifest my imagination into an image. I don't claim I don't use artificial light. I never say anything is "straight out of camera." I am very open about my use of Photoshop. If I were able to leave my house and go to more beautiful places, perhaps I would take a more motivated approach.
I mean, I love when the world is just beautiful all on its own and all I have to do is competently pick settings on my camera.
But I enjoy my artistic process and while some of my images may not be realistic, I think my artistry is always authentic.
I don't need every person to like every one of my photos. But when I work hard on a photo and there is clear talent and skill involved, I'm hoping people will still acknowledge that. I hope they will respect the effort and artistry involved.
I didn't enjoy the show Breaking Bad. I disliked all of the characters and the story just depressed me more and more as I watched it. But I still think it is an amazing show created by talented artists. I can acknowledge the monumental artistic achievement even if it wasn't my cup of tea.
It’s too hot to even think about going outside, let alone grilling anything. I didn’t really want to turn the oven on, either… but it still seems like an occasion worthy of something tasty.
I used this recipe and instead of making the dressing (too much like real cooking)…. I just mixed it with premade avocado lime ranch dressing. Quick, easy, suuuuuuper good. It’s either a salad, a side dish, or a snack; whatever floats your boat.
Also caved on the oven thing (briefly) and made a panzanella recipe from elsewhere. Pic and review pending.
Florence and the Machine at last night’s Spotify event in Brooklyn. As Florence began to sing Sky Full of Song a literal storm began to hit, she never faltered and embraced the storm.
On Thursday they announced plans to build data center on 800acres of farm land, two miles from my house. Apparently they’re offering the farmers £100k an acre if they sign an NDA, ten times the market rate. No-one’s going to turn that down given the state of farming in the UK.
I think we’ll be selling the farm next spring before it gets approved because if it does then the property value is going through the floor. We were planning to sell the following year but this just bumps up the schedule I think.
With the money being thrown at it and the small population around here I think there’s no chance to fight it unfortunately. We still will but fucking hell, why not put it on a brownfield site, not a few miles from a national park.
☝️🤓 it’s because the further you move toward the earth’s poles, the lower the angle of the sun is at the hottest parts of the day, meaning the radiation hits your whole body, causing it to feel 10-20 degrees warmer than the thermometer reading will tell you. People from tropical climes, aka close to the equator, are used to the sun’s radiation hitting a much smaller target- their head and shoulders.
Also the further you move toward the poles the more pronounced the difference between the length of day and night is. Worst part of a far-north (or south) heatwave is it doesn’t get dark long enough for meaningful cooling.
People keep saying the humidity, and yes a humid heat is a specific kind of misery and can be dangerous… but critical to remember, many many tropical climes are humid as well.
Infrastructure and citified heat islands also very much play a factor. And here the angle you’re at on earth also makes it worse. The sun being lower on the horizon can double the amount of solar energy affecting your house. The sun beating through your windows for 16+ hours a day when you have a house built for cold and no AC adds to the misery.
But what I’m talking about here is how hot you feel in your body when experiencing solar radiation from a lower angle. On the upside the sun’s rays have to pass through more atmosphere, weakening the UV strength, hence why populations that migrated north eons ago lost melanin (you still need SPF though). And in general the warming effect on the atmosphere is lessened. The warming effect on your body is magnified. To the tune of 10-20 degrees (yes Fahrenheit) above ambient. Winter gear prioritizes insulating your torso because that’s where all your vital organs are. It follows that the sun beating on your chest and back warms you up fast and with little relief except to get in the shade.
Visitor to Alaska are often surprised at how warm temperatures in the 70°s and 80°s feel. Read about how this phenomenon occurs.
My eye doctor also told me living in Alaska made you more likely to get cataracts younger because the low-angle sun gets directly in your eyes in the summer (unless you’re big on sunglasses) and the snow and ice in winter reflect a lot of UV back up, doubling your exposure. Though the prevalence of cataracts in Alaska and other far-north locales is contributed to by other factors, notably poverty and the resulting lack of medical care. And is still not as likely as in people who live in equatorial climes or high altitudes and get the super-strength UV exposure all year round.
Lapin au moutard, or rabbit in mustard and cream sauce. I harvested the rabbit from the field in front of the house, we have so many of them this year. About as ethical a source of meat as you’re going to find.
My plating skills aren’t the best but the flavour was wonderful. An appropriate dish to eat while watching the final couple of episodes of The Bear, a series that has touched me more than almost any other in many years.
Watching the first season not long after my brother’s suicide along with so many similarities with Carmy’s family just wrenched at my heart and it gave me a chance to cry and grieve along with them. The storytelling and the character arcs, particularly Richie’s, has been a joy to behold.
With my wife being away for work for half of the last six years, I’ve taken the time to watch them alone and submerge myself in that world and those characters. It’s felt as though I’ve been, in some ways, on my own journey of healing with them.
As Carmen talked of where his life had taken him in that interview, I remembered similar interviews I’ve had over the decades, having left careers several times and moved on to completely new ones. As we look at selling the farm in the next year or two, I felt a familiar sort of calm that comes with making that decision and moving on to whatever comes next.
When there's a wake tomorrow, but you have to work all morning, it's important to know how to make a decent hot dish/casserole the day before, let it cool and put it in the fridge overnight, then reheat and transport so it arrives crispy and hot.
Let me show you the way.
.5) Keep a suit pressed if you don't wear them regularly
1) Make a hot dish/casserole, but stop about 20 minutes from full crisp. Cool and refrigerate.
2) Put it back in cold at 375F for about 45 minutes before you have to leave tomorrow.
2.5) Trim your ear hair and line up your beard. Spend 18 minutes picking between three ties. Find your dress shoes.
3) Invest in a casserole carrier, but not one of the insulated ones. Those trap steam and the Tots get soft.
4) Drive like hell
5) Collect hugs and smooches from the little old church ladies at the reception hall as you deliver. They're the best.
6) Attend the wake
7) Talk about family stuff with the women, fishing with the men, while eating bits of different casseroles
"rickrolling is mean" rickrolling is the gentle, kind, prosocial descendant of what we used to do on the internet, which was putting a redirect to goatse in every possible misspelling of a url
Rickrolling is a beautiful achievement in collective disarmament. We designated a perfectly pleasant pop song as The Prank Song, we agreed that if someone tricks you into listening to it, that means they Owned You, and now no one has to look at goatse anymore.
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