A Piece in the New York Times today by Stuart Elliott titled “Don’t Tell the Creative Department, but Software Can Produce Ads, Too”

Creative Artificial Intelligence . Basically, the concept is an ad agency creative team within a software program. If they’re going to replace creative, why not make the software do everything, including placement of the ads online and in print?

Scary proposition.

NYT | Dewey Hicks Article

Link to the Video – You have to see this

Had dinner with friends at the Keg in Vancouver last night.

That is me on the left handholding my D3s with an 18mm Nikkor – such a lovely portrait lens – not really. In the center is my friend Daisy Gilardini. Daisy is an ace Arctic and Antarctic wildlife shooter. Holding down the right side of the frame is the man of grace himself, Mr. Alastair Bird. Alastair shoots amazing large format portraits of children – on film!

One-day intensive workshop on all good things centered around Capture One and Phase One.

http://www.captureintegration.com/2010/07/01/826-washington-dc/

I know these guys very well. Doug Peterson is a walking C1 guru and wealth of information about Capture One and how to get the best files out of it. Steve Hendrix knows digital capture and medium format better than any rep I have met. Dave Gallagher, the owner of Capture One is smart, sharp and an all around good guy. His only fault is he considers beef to be Bar B Que. But he did give me a Firewire 800 cable once while in the middle of a shoot, so I retract my comment about Dave and Bar-B-Que.

C1 is a killer raw converter and in many ways is much better than the others. PLUS Phase just bought rescued iView/Expression Media from Microsoft and now there is a solid alternative to LR and Aperture for cataloging your stills and videos.

Yesterday afternoon, my neighborhood was slammed by a fast moving line of thunderstorms. The storms had been brewing up for the better part of a day, fueled by high humidity and heat.

The section of Alexandria where I live is hilly and known for its lofty and stately old trees. The power failed a few minutes into the onslaught. I have APS units on my imaging machines and RAIDS, so I was able to shut down the computers with a couple of minutes of reserve power.

I drove around for a few minutes after the storm. Cleared a few fallen trees on the main road with my neighbors and photographed our local fire department responding to calls for downed power lines.

Here are a few blur-o-graph frames shot with my iPhone as I was driving around. It was only good as a camera, because the network was overloaded and I could not make or receive calls. I plan to buy two simple phones this morning from Verizon. I am never going to trust AT&T again. They failed miserably and their system was quickly overloaded.

The Del Ray section of Alexandria was hit hard along with the George Washington Parkway which was closed after a bus and two cars were hit by a falling tree.

Route 1 through Alexandria became a slow moving parking lot as all of the traffic from the George Washington Parkway south of National Airport was funneled onto it via Slaters Lane. The King Street Metro had problems on its tracks and for a while, Metro were single tracking trains into Old Town.

I’ve sat through quite a few natural disasters including tornados and hurricanes. This little squall line was intense. This morning, power is still out in sections of South Arlington and Alexandria. Fairlington, my old neighborhood, took a huge hit with the loss of many of the oldest and grandest trees.

This morning I drove up to Capital Bakery for a bagel with my trusty Canon G10 by my side. Capital Bagel Bakery were serving untoasted bagels, as all of the Bradlee Center was without power. It was funny, two women walked in and remarked its dark in here, how can you serve bagels in the dark and why are your lights not on. They drove through two non-functioning traffic lights with police officers into a dark shopping center and they ask how come the lights were not on. Most of the staff broke out into laughter. It reminded me of the expression used by me and my friends as a teenager in Michigan. Observant, eh?

Don’t you hate it when a blog or site settles into occasionally updating with new imagery or text…..well, add me to the list.

I’ve been busy with a several projects. Shooting video from the air on an Arnie Mount,(the four KS-8 monster) aerial still shoots plus now I am in the midst of a travel project. Next week I direct an aerial video plus a very cool and fun people campaign.

The Chesapeake Book is done and slowly grinding its way through production before delivery to the printer.

Have a couple of very cool online projects about to hit and will post links once they are ready for viewing.

A redo on the site is in order including new design and logo/font. One thing at a time. I am going to change the focus of the blog and hopefully all of you will enjoy it.

Advertising Photographers of America (the trade organization that I belong to and also was a founding member of the DC chapter) has changed their name to ——– American Photographic Artists.

Ok.

ASMP changed theirs a while ago from magazine photographers to media photographers.

I always thought of APA as a mostly Ad Shooter organization.

A friend sent this list to me.

HOW TO WORK BETTER

1. Do one task at a time

2. Know the problem

3. Learn to listen

4. Learn to ask questions

5. Distinquish sense from nonsense

6. Accept change as inevitable

7. Admit mistakes

8 Say it simple

9 Be calm

10. Smile

Cam’s rules

Show respect to to others.

Give the benefit of doubt.

If someone is disrespectful to you, cut them out of your life. They will do it again when you turn your back.

Trust your instincts about clients and friends.

Jon’s Rules (a former editor of mine who passed away a few years ago.)

Always surround yourself with good people, who are more talented than you. You will rise and that is how are judged.

Milton Glasers Ten Things I have learned (this page is worth bookmarking!)

READ THE COMPLETE ESSAY HERE

1. YOU CAN ONLY WORK FOR PEOPLE THAT YOU LIKE.

2. IF YOU HAVE A CHOICE NEVER HAVE A JOB.

3. SOME PEOPLE ARE TOXIC AVOID THEM.

4. PROFESSIONALISM IS NOT ENOUGH or THE GOOD IS THE ENEMY OF THE GREAT

5. LESS IS NOT NECESSARILY MORE

6. STYLE IS NOT TO BE TRUSTED

7. HOW YOU LIVE CHANGES YOUR BRAIN

8. DOUBT IS BETTER THAN CERTAINTY

9. ON AGING (delightful paragraph)

10. TELL THE TRUTH.
(The rabbit joke is relevant because it occurred to me that looking for a cabbage in a butcher’s shop might be like looking for ethics in the design field…..)