Notices by My camera shoots fascists (mikal@sfba.social), page 3

For newcomers, continued:

People here value authenticity, quirkiness and idiosyncrasies more than performance. Rage-baiting, "influencer"-ing, trolling, punching down, and other inauthentic, shitty behaviors tend to get you unfollowed and ignored since there is no algorithm to game, no advertisers to impress, no sponsorships to try to drum up.

Want to get seen and have interactions with real people? Be one! Share cool stuff that informs or entertains. Even if you think it is just your own quirky interest, you'll probably find others who will appreciate it. Or just post cat pics.

Politics, controversies and arguments about any subject are fine, of course, but unlike eXTwitter or Facebook (and, I'm presuming, Blue Sky and Threads), where being a dick gets you amplified by the engagement algorithm, here you just get ignored or blocked.

In that vein, I'd recommend observing the culture here for a bit before venturing into any of the hot-button topics.

Welcome newcomers!
Hey, a quick heads up about Mastodon: it's a little different. There are LOTS of really cool things here and some annoying ones — like anywhere else.

But here's the deal: the really cool parts sometimes take a while to figure out or notice or sink in, but some of the confusing or annoying things (or types of people) might get your attention at first.

So give it time. Ask questions. People here generally like to be helpful. Filling out a basic profile helps. Ignore/mute/unfollow/block liberally if someone is annoying. Once you get used to the feeling of not working for free for sociopathic billionaires, feeding their slop machines, or trying to game an algorithm, there's no going back.

So, there's all this talk about how terrible it would be to require everyone to hand over government ID to view anything online, but already so many companies just casually ask for it! FFS, do not do that or comply with it when asked.

I got a text from my hotel for a recent trip and they were asking me to "check in" to confirm on the day before arrival and asked me to upload a copy of my driver's license "to help prevent fraud." I texted back and said I would not do that, but would show it at the front desk upon arrival. They texted back "okay, thanks for letting us know."

I'm writing a letter to the management with a link to the latest 70K Discord credential leak. I'm going to ask them what compensation I would get if I'd uploaded my ID and this happened?

TBH, I think it's a data gathering scheme under the guise of fraud prevention and I bet 99% of people just go "okay, sure."

#infosec #privacy #YouCanNotLoseWhatYouDoNotCollect

Hooo weee! This has become a monster storm! I was pointed at Elephant Head Rock hoping to get a direct lightning strike, but then the storm blew up and now is advancing across the flat toward me. I'm hiding in the car. Any minute now the rain will start and I'll have to pull the cameras in but I'm hoping for one big gnarly bolt first.

(Note, the powerlines aren't in the frame of my two proper cameras.)

Update: I believe I just got the shot I was looking for! That bolt was close and big!

#StormChasing #LandscapePhotography #Thunderstorm #Arizona

Well, I got at least one decent shot yesterday. Striking out today so far. Gonna switch locations cause it doesn't look like this one is gonna produce anything for a while and there's a big train of storms moving across to the east of here.

This would've made a killer time lapse and I can't believe it didn't occur to me to set one of the cameras up for that.

#StormChasing #LandscapePhotography #Monsoon2025

OK, now the sun's coming out! I'm getting a faint rainbow, but the end of it I can see is behind the powerlines. 😐

The sun is fairly low on the horizon so I'm hoping for a good sun break, some dramatic clouds, a rainbow and then maybe a couple big bolts in the right place.

At the moment the storm is advancing north and all I see in front of me is a gray wall with no lightning. Now I have to decide whether to drive farther north and find a nice set up or maybe head south on the interstate where the mega cell is popping off lightning bolts nonstop. This area is tricky if you can't see the mountains because it's kind of dull scenery otherwise. And there are lots of powerlines.
#StormChaserProblems #StormChasing

Finally going through the shots from my Arches trip. This is from a nearby arch were I took cover as storms passed overhead. (Not safe! Caves aren't safe! I know! But neither is being anywhere on a ridgetop in a thunderstorm, so I might as well stay dry before getting zapped.)

#StormChasing #lightning #ArchesNationalPark #LandscapePhotography

I got a few bolts that afternoon. Here's the first one I've done a quick edit on. It's a horizontal panorama, so you might have to click to see the whole thing.

#StormChasing #LandscapePhotography

These storms have been training right over the spot and across the valley all afternoon.

#StormChasing #LandscapePhotography

Well, this just happened. The blue circle is my location. Note the lightning strike icon. Freaking cloooose! ⚡️And loud!
I have two cameras set up under a picnic shelter, but I'm hiding in the truck!

#StormChasing #Lightning #LandscapePhotography

Got one shot of yesterday's storm over Grand Junction.

#StormChasing #lightning #LandscapePhotography

I struck out a storm chasing at Grand Canyon in the last two days. 50% chance of thunderstorms never materialized. But I'm getting this consolation prize farther up in the canyon country.

I have one camera set up doing a time lapse and the other set up with the lightning trigger catching the bolts coming from this big cloud. (Ooo! Two more!) I only wish there were some sun breaks to light up the towers in the valley in the foreground because it's quite striking. It's hard to tell in this very flat light. It might still happen because the massive storm to the northwest is fizzling now, so maybe it will let some sun breaks through.

If anyone's curious, the lightning trigger is set up on my 24 mm tilt-shift (which I love for landscapes) and the time lapse is on my 17 mm to 35 mm zoom, set at 28.

#StormChasing #LandscapePhotography #CanyonCountry

Unsolicited fire-safe advice:

Especially in California, but anywhere in the West or other fire prone areas, this is a really good time to clean your gutters and those odd corners of your roof that might accumulate leaves or other combustible materials. My house has a very complicated roof geometry, full of odd corners that tend to collect leaves. This is not direct leaf fall, but places where the prevailing breezes create eddies that deposit leaves.

If the wind will deposit leaves there, it will also deposit sparks and embers from nearby wildfires or structure fires.

Even if fire isn't a concern, leaving organic matter to pile up and rot will cause premature wear of your roof.

In the photo, even though I have a metal roof, there are wooden structural and siding elements very close by that could be ignited if all this leaf litter were to catch fire.

I cleared this out with an air hose hooked up to my compressor, but a garden hose will also work well. If you can't do it yourself, hire someone!

Practical Fedi post visibility question:

If I comment on one of my follower's public posts and set the privacy setting to "followers only," presumably that person and my followers can see it.

But how about commenting on a public post by someone who doesn't follow me if I set the comment visibility to "followers only"?

Can the OP still see that?

Okay, to clarify, what I really want here is a "no boost" setting.

FTR, these are supportive/neutral boosts (I think?), not hostile ones, so that's not what I'm trying to avoid. Some things are just meant as in-context comments, not stand-alone boosted posts.

It appears we'll have granular control over quote-posts, so why not over boosts too?

Tagging @Gargron here. Is granular control of boosting in the roadmap? I suspect it would be popular.

Professional photographers: how do you price your prints for sale? I'm trying to decide how I should price mine.

This has been one of the biggest barriers to getting my print sales online. It's seriously anxiety producing 😳😵💫

I'm also interested in the thoughts of people who buy "fine art" photo prints.

Comments and boosts appreciated!

#photography

I'll add a few thoughts in comments below.

Well, they haven't replied yet. Guess they're going to pass up my amazing offer to make them rich 🤷♂️

Usually I will lead them on for a while, but I'm almost done with lunch 😂

#Spam #Scam #FunWithScammers

Set up on this one, hoping it'll drop some big bolts near the lake. Unfortunately another big cell behind me is starting to spit rain, so I might get booted out of here soon.

Update! As I was writing that, a big bolt triggered both cameras, but I was looking at my phone typing so I didn't see it so I didn't see it 😂⚡️

#StormChasing #CraterLake