Contrary to popular opinion, I have not been abducted by space aliens, raptured away or joined a cult. OK, maybe I did join a cult – or at least my son did – I was drafted by the cult known as Boy Scouts. As a yearbook advisor, I already have very limited time. Now as a Boy Scouting leader AND still a yearbook advisor, free time has become a mystical concept that is heard about, but never seen. I am not blog-fading, just trying to figure it all out. With summer upcoming, I should be able to get back into a rhythm of blogging again. (I hope.) Now for the links…
1 – After months of indecision, the Texas Legislature has finally settled on the amount of pain to inflict on public school districts. If you live here and want to know how bad it will be for the next two years, take a look. Thanks to the Texas Tribune for providing our state with the best info on every twist and turn of the crazy pink building in Austin.
2 – I love photography. Didn’t start out that way, but I love it. I am intrigued by famous photos, especially of “regular” people who just happened to be in a famous photo. Listverse has a Top 10 of the lives of people made famous by famous photos – especially what happened after the photo was published.
3 – Here is a great tool for creating visualizations for news stories called Many Eyes. It appears to be free.
4 – Are our First Amendment rights in danger? They are when Police see cameras like this…
How Police see SLR Cameras
5 – I recently wrote about how teachers in the US are taking the blame for a problem created outside of schools. And Finland has been held up lately as the solution to all our problems. But Finland and the US are nothing like each other.
6 – I deeply respect Mindy McAdams, I think she is one of the best professors in online journalism today. I mainly agree with her post – that it is not stupid to major in journalism today, as long as the student understands the landscape. They must be prepared to never work for a traditional news organization, or only work for one for a short time. They must be ready to work for a small online startup, maybe even a series of them. Their career will be very different from journalists of the past.
7 – Now this is a Facebook style photo that is worthy of being called a photograph.
Houston, that is going on my Facebook page.
8 – I love my Mac, but I hate waiting for Photoshop or Final Cut to render. The Macintosh Performance Guide has all kinds of ways to help you get the most out of your Mac and the software on it, like the Adobe line of products. Worth studying.
9 – This is turning into a “stuff I love” post, but I’ve had nothing but great experiences with the wonderful people at B&H Photo. Apparently a camera they were testing (a used one) mistakenly ended up leaving their store with the photos still on it. This gave the outside world a glimpse into the world of B&H. I love the photos. I love the fact that B&H is closed on Jewish holidays, just like I love the fact that Chick-fil-a is closed on Sundays. I respect businesses that have a positive ethos and B&H does this well. They provide a great service at a good price, by friendly people.
10 – Need a free, easy to use HTML editor look no further, just click on the link.
11 – At my school, we ditched our photo company a long time ago – too costly. We now take our photos ourselves, and this means training the students on how to take a good portrait. But what is good for a thin person, doesn’t work with someone like myself – someone who has a higher BMI. dPs has a top flight post on how to photograph larger people.
12 – If you are like me, many of the photos in your yearbook are taken by staffers who never took a photo class. They got a quick and fast version of it in yearbook class and they shoot most of their photos with a point and shoot – often badly. Clifford Otto has a terrific post about how to hold your point and shoot to get the best photos.
13 – I know this is how many teachers and students feel about school right now.
Not sure you get 100% in May
14 – Do ethics matter in online journalism, maybe more so than ever. Check out this post from Mindy McAdams with 10 Rules for Online Ethics. Best takeaway – #2 Assume everything you write online will become public.
15 – Petapixel has the best explanation of depth of field I’ve ever seen.
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/1136116]16 – This is a fun site to teach kids about ISO, shutter and aperture – Camera Sim.
17 – I’ve heard that the kerfluffle over staging shots of presidential speeches has changed the official policy at the White House, but it is sad that they ever did it this way to begin with.
18 – This is pretty geeky and contains math content, but it is interesting – the f/stop scale is logarithmic because humans are bad at telling the difference in brightness, unless it is really big.
19 – The owners of Leica Camera were the Oskar Schindlers of the photo world. The untold story of how they snuck Jews out of Germany before and during WWII.
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/4613988]
I have more, but I’m saving some for later in the week.
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TEACH J: For Teachers of Journalism And Media 
With a little more than a week of school left, I’m hoping to get back into the blogging thing again. Thanks for the link on the point-and-shoots. A perrenial problem, no?
Yeah, but I think one we won’t have to deal with soon. Cell phone cameras are nearly as good as most point and shoots now.
And speaking of which, I’ve got a “rapture”-related post up today. Thanks for the tips. Helpful, as always!
I teach in the healthcare field and can’t agree more about the blame game. Nobody seems to take full responsibilty for actions, and people always look to off load the blame to someone else. Our Healthcare system is in need of serious over haul and the politicians have lost sight of the patients and focus on costs and politics.
Have you given up on this blog?
I think so, and I’m going to blog about it.
When we were involved in Boy Scouts, it always took a ton of time. I think it is a good investment but I also was a bit grouchy that 20% of the parents did 80% of the work.
Like most things in life, that 20-80 rule holds firm.