tim merritt [dot] net

Several years ago, while working as an adjunct instructor teaching film studies, two of the more sarcastic students I taught asked me to sponsor a student club, a club to be their response to the Campus Crusade for Christ. They wanted no more than to register the name of the group, and for that they needed a sponsor. I thought it was just clever enough to agree to, so I signed the form for the Campus Crusade for Cthulhu. Their motto: “Why pick the lesser of two evils?”

In that vein, Boing Boing posts about Family Circus meets Cthulhu mashups. Cute.

Saw the Johnny Cash biopic tonight (spoiler: he marries June and sings at Folsom Prison). E and W liked it more than I did, and I liked it, but it was too… patterned. A.O. Scott describes it well in his comparison with the Rac Charles biopic: Walk the Line”offers more tribute than insight.” I recommend it, but it won’t blow you away. You will want to buy some Johnny Cash music afterward.

Turkey, dressing, gravy (mmmm, gravy…), pie… we feasted. I hope you did too, if you’re in America and were well fed if you’re not. We missed those not with us today, and thought of them, and celebrated those who were with us.

We watched the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular this evening at the Fox Theatre. The show was fun, the precision dancing was impressive, and the Fox is a great venue for this kind of old fashioned entertainment. My favorite part was how impressed the little kids were. One little boy walked by during the intermission and said, “It’s a great show!” He was right.

Petteri Sulonen provides a careful, step-by-step guide, with several examples along the way, for making high-quality black and white images from digital color photographs.

Digital Black and White
Black and white was what first got me “seriously” into photography. While I never attained real mastery in black and white printing, I have spent a long time in various darkrooms. I still enjoy the aesthetic of black and white a great deal, and of course have tried to get the “look” I like in digital as well. Thanks to a lot of experimentation, some reading up, and tips from people who are a lot better at it than I am, I’m finally starting to see the kinds of results I wanted. In particular, thanks to Jim Fuglestad, aka Shutter at DPReview, who thought up the “dodge and soft light” technique described in this essay.

Stef sent me this link.

stock.xchng – the leading free stock photography site. So go and find photos.