Rush the Iceberg

I am not sure where I came across this on the web, maybe Kotkke, but the idea of a Personal Canon has stayed with me, begging me to write about my own Canon.

The quote below by David Cole is what captured my thoughts:

“These are the pieces that I find myself referencing regularly in my work life, the pieces I wish everyone would read. Big, small, philosophical, practical, and between.”

I think a Personal Canon is a great way to look backwards and forwards, like Janus does.

Cole has his set up within Quora, but I want to create something little easier to navigate and update. Perhaps another Tumblr?

I keep thinking about my grandpa’s old army chest that has random, yet personal and revealing, things waiting to equip me for a better understanding of who I am.

I also keep thinking about what am I leaving for my 50, 60, 70, 80…year old self to remind me of life lived that makes living so great.

Thinking about my kids when I am no longer around…my grandchildren…

I have many fond memories of both sides of my family: parents to third cousins. I know the big things: marriages, children, deaths, war. But I want to know more…I want insights, questions, and understandings from the cumulative lives of my family.

I am thinking about creating yet another Tumblr just for this project. I envision this as an ongoing journey.

What are your thoughts? What areas of one’s life should be included?

P.S. - As a teacher, I often talked about the metaphorical tool box, yet my tools are not in a single place, easily referenced. Maybe I should create a My Teaching Canon, too.

I have always been interested in photography. One of my favorite classes in high school was Photography. To be honest, though, the only thing I actively remember from that class is the famous “Rule of Thirds” rule. I always new there was much, much more to photography, but I always felt overwhelmed!

You can find my photos on 500px and on Flickr and I am “rushtheiceberg” on Instagram.

Presently, I really do not have any desire to learn about f-stops and shutter speed and much of the other technical aspects of photography. I’m sure I will get there in the future.

I am much more interested in composition and post processing of photos.

I also have a 2 1/2 year old and a 6 1/2 month old, so I do not have much time, well, to do anything.

Enter the iPhone and all the obligatory photography apps…

Below is my iPhoneography camera bag and my work flow…

6X6 - I discovered this app through Nicole Dalesio and her awesome collection of iPhone photography apps. At first I was not sold on this app because I was so used to shooting pictures with the iPhone camera app, then crop from there. After a few tries, I got it: perfect for shooting 1:1 square ratio that is all things Instagram. This app really allows me to compose my shots without worry of if it fits in the Instagram box. I am now using this as my everyday camera. Highly recommend this app!

PHOTOTOASTER - My photos go here first. Basic touch/tune ups…add clarity. I really like the cropping options: square and rectangle with 4:3, 4:6, 5:7, 8:10, and Golden Ratio. Many other apps have the same feature set, along with many filters and effects. However, I really like the intuitive UI with this app.

PHOTOFORGE/PHOTOGENE2 - I then generally throw my photos in one of these two next. My favorite part of Photogene2 is the curve adjustment. I have NO idea what the technical aspects of adjusting the curves are, but I do like to see the real time change as I slide my finger around on the screen. There is a whitebalance tool that I am sure I need to figure out how to use…

PICFX- Love this app for various filters and effects. Most of these can likely be found in other apps, but again, the UI of this app is simple and intuitive. All of my photos go through this app; however, not all photos end up being processed with this app – I like to see what my options are. I didn’t realize this for the longest time, but you can adjust the intensity of the filter/effect with a verticle slide bar on the right side of the photo!

PHOTOWIZARD – I am starting to play around with this app. It seems overwhelming to me, yet the promise of power and versitility is present.

Lenslight – Just got this last night and I love it! At first I thought I could not really use the app much, but playing around with it proved me wrong. The controls for different lighting effects are intuitive and creative. Highly recommend this…you may not use it much, but when you do, it will take your photo to the next level…The moon is the next photo is from Lenslight….

—Updtate: I used Photowizard (and Snapseed and Lenslight for this photo)

SNAPSEED – I want to use and like this app more than I do…UPDATE – I have spent a few days with this app and really like it a lot! I know I am not using it to its fullest potential. The thing I like most is it is pretty easy to experiment with different “things” in this app without causing too many problems.

POSTAL PIX/POSTAGRAM - You have too order prints of your pics for the refridgerator and family!

SHUTTERCAL - I use this app to upload the photos for my 365 project to this site – the site has a cool calandar view…

COUNTDOWN – Not a photo app, but I use this to keep track of the chronological day of the year…

HIPSTAMATIC – I have this app for over a year, however I rarely used it. The layout was simple, yet all the combinations of film, flash, and lenses overwhelmed me. In addition, at first I did not like that you have to shoot the photo in this app – so I stopped using it. About two weeks ago, I started using the app again. I am not sure why, either! I am super happy that I did! I feel like the quality of my compositions and over photos have stepped up a notch. This app really makes me think through the shot before snapping the photo! When the combiniation of film, flash, and lenses is bad, it is HORRIBLE! However, when the combination is good, I get so much joy!

INSTAGRAM – Well, you know…I do want to say that, for about a month, I thought you could only take the photo within the app. Boy was I wrong! I finally figured out that I can take pictures with the iPhone’s normal camera or our DSLR, save the photos to the phone’s camera roll, and then select the photo from there to add flters and stuff to…

Favorite iPhoneographers on Instagram – I strongly suggest tegold, billselak, doremigirl, fodograph, furius_spurius, intrepidteacher, jimconnolly, kshelton, needleworks, maryannreilly, magrelacanela, rjob50, rvesper, robertogreco, seani_, tfullerton …

I’m sure I have missed some apps and photographers…please include your favorites in the comments!

I started a Tumblr blog a few months ago and have been trying to figure out what role it takes in my life. My wife has asked me this numerous times to which I stumble for an answer.Last night it dawned on me: it is my commonplace book. I had never heard of one of these until I came across Luke Neff’s excellent Commonplace Book.

I have grown tired of writing great quotes on post-it notes and paper clipping cool pictures I come across.

Basically, my Tumblr is a place where I can post the randomness I come across while online. Most of this “stuff” does not fit in with education or anything like that. Rather, the “stuff” is more akin to scraps of knowledge, quote, photos, videos, songs, and other serendipitous randomness.

My Tumblr, Commonplace Book, has been refreshing in that I do not have to worry about a continuous theme or, interestingly, my voice.