Notices by Matt Blaze (mattblaze@federate.social)

AT&T Long Lines "Oak Hill Tower", San Jose, CA, 2021.

All the pixels, none of the RF exposure, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/51261791084

#photography

Though I don't live in the target region (Western US), and the free version is completely fine, I've been a paid pro-level subscriber to Watch Duty since something like 5 minutes after I first used it. It's an important, life-saving public service, and also an extremely clean, usable design supported by a non-profit.

https://federate.social/@anildash@me.dm/113801314115612488

Anyway, it’s mine now, Donald.

Damnit. I just accidentally clicked on the “buy it now” button for Greenland and it already charged my credit card. I don’t think there’s even space in the mailroom for this.

Anyone know of a USB-C power supply with multiple ports (and that can negotiate the usual range of voltages) that does NOT briefly drop power to every port every time something is connected to any port?

(This seems to be an annoyingly common behavior among all the major brands I've tried.)

Actual experience >> speculation.

Thanks!

Now someone else is yelling at me for "promoting air travel which contributes to climate change".

I think you either meant to include a comma after 'air travel' or use the word 'that' in place of 'which'. But your complaint has been noted and a ticket has been opened.

This is an extraordinary collection, not just for the extraordinary subject material, but because for many of the images we have access to both Adams' final result (scans of his prints) as well as "straight" scans from the negatives. It shows how utterly essential darkroom post-processing can be to the final impact of a fine art photograph. And now you can download the scans and see what you can do with them yourself in, eg, Photoshop or Capture One.

Consider this image, a simple composition of birds on a power line.

Here's a straight scan from the negative:
https://www.loc.gov/resource/ppprs.00162/

And here's what Adams did with it:
https://www.loc.gov/resource/ppprs.00291/

So next time someone tells you you're "cheating" if you make adjustments in post processing, tell them to go pound sand.

It's also instructive to compare Adams' work from Manzanar with that of another great 20th century photographer who was granted access: Dorothea Lange.

Adams took a superficially upbeat approach, portraying his subjects as highly relatable, ordinary Americans making the best of things under somewhat difficult circumstances.

Lange showed them more as victims, emphasizing the rough conditions and fundamental injustice: https://artsandculture.google.com/story/dorothea-lange-39-s-visit-to-the-japanese-internment-camps/fwVR8MHEGsn72g?hl=en

Both were subversive, though in different ways.

#photography nerditry:

In 1943, Ansel Adams (with camera) was granted access to the Manzanar Japanese-American internment camp to document the people held there. While Adams was not quite as a great a portrait or documentary photographer as he was at capturing the American landscape, he gave his subjects rich humanity and life.

He subsequently donated both his original negatives as well as some prints to the Library of Congress, without restriction. You can see them at
https://www.loc.gov/collections/ansel-adams-manzanar/about-this-collection/

This was captured with the Phase One IQ3-100 back, Phase One XF DSLR camera, and the Schneider 80mm/2.8 "Blue Ring" lens. I had planned to use a technical camera and Rodenstock 70mm, providing movements, but a cable was missing from the kit I had with me in the city that night. Fortunately, the 80mm was just wide enough to not require movements, though the Schneider lens renders highlights (as prominent starbursts) a bit idiosyncratically for my taste.

Officially the "Ed Koch Queensborough Bridge" but more generally simply the "59th Street Bridge", the view from Sutton Place at 58th Street on the Manhattan side is probably as flattering and uncluttered a perspective as you'll find for this piece of NYC infrastructure.

Immortalized in song by Simon and Garfunkel, in literature by Fitzgerald, and in cinema by Woody Allen, something about this bridge exemplifies the glamor and bustle of 20th century New York in a way that still holds up.

Queensborough (59th Street) Bridge, NYC, 2019.

Slow down, don't move too fast, and make all the pixels last at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/48418025131

#photography

Your threat to me to not visit the UK because of their new electronic travel authorization requirement is not likely to get me to change the policy. Try offering me a large bribe instead, maybe.

Back in the day on Twitter, there was (and maybe still is, dunno) an account called "scotusblog" that posted summaries of current US Supreme Court decisions. I think it was a small law firm. Their replies were completely full of angry and indignant complaints, threats, and insults from people who assumed
- that they were the Court itself and;
- that tweeting at the Court would get them to change their decisions.

I understand now a little bit what that must have been like.

@SteveBellovin If you follow the links on that page, it circularly sends you back to the page telling you to download the app (or at least did a couple days ago).

For the record: This is inconvenient, and I don't like some of the security implications (needing a foreign govt app to apply, possible third parties handling data, etc), but this is NOTHING compared with the invasive visa application processes travelers from many countries have to go through.

Also, all the information the ETA application requires is (and has long been) captured at the border control checkpoint, too.

Also, with my (recently issued) US passport, I had the best luck scanning the chip with the top of my iPhone near the top of the INSIDE of the BACK cover of the passport (contrary to the app’s instructions).

Also: I am not the UK government. I didn’t create this policy or the app. I cannot do anything about your complaints or concerns about this.

I used my spare phone to apply, but you do you.