problem solving

I am trying to make a kinetic photo for a contest, and it looks like I won't make the deadline.

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[Correction: It's not a contest, it's an assignment.]

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The camera must be moving for a kinetic photograph. I did not want to copy someone else's idea. Like when someone flips a compact camera in the air for a random exposure and try to catch it, lest it break. Or where the camera is attached to a moving car. My idea was to go for the effect of a space ship moving through a star field.

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I made a contraption that would hold the toy one cubit from the camera. Then, aiming at white Christmas tree lights, I pan the camera for a blurred background, hoping to keep the ship in focus.

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Instead of white streaks, I got colored dot patterns. I am not sure why. And what about that color?! Maybe the bluish led (fixed on the ship) offset the white balance.

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I'm not sure how I want to solve this problem, but sometimes you have to think outside the box:

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Here is a story about problem solving I found at Arcamax Publishing.

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Many hundreds of years ago in a small Italian town, a merchant had the misfortune of owing a large sum of money to the moneylender. The moneylender, who was old and ugly, fancied the merchant's beautiful daughter so he proposed a bargain. He said he would forgo the merchant' debt if he could marry the merchant's daughter. Both the merchant and his daughter were horrified by the proposal. The cunning money lender suggested that they let providence decide the matter.

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The moneylender told them that he would put a black pebble and a white pebble into an empty bag. The girl would then have to pick one pebble from the bag. If she picked the black pebble, she would become the moneylender's wife and her father's debt would be forgiven. If she picked the white pebble she need not marry him and her father's debt would still be forgiven. But if she refused to pick a pebble, her father would be thrown into jail.

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They were standing on a pebble strewn path in the merchant's garden. As they talked, the moneylender bent over to pick up two pebbles. As he picked them up, the sharp-eyed girl noticed that he had picked up two black pebbles and put them into the bag. He then asked the girl to pick her pebble from the bag.

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Now, imagine you were standing in the merchant's garden. What would you have done if you were the girl? If you had to advise her, what would you have told her? Careful analysis would produce three possibilities:

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1. The girl should refuse to take a pebble.
2. The girl should show that there were two black pebbles in the bag and expose the moneylender as a cheat.
3. The girl should pick a black pebble and sacrifice herself in order to save her father from his debt and imprisonment.

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Take a moment to ponder over the story. The above story is used with the hope that it will make us appreciate the difference between lateral and logical thinking. The girl's dilemma cannot be solved with traditional logical thinking.

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Think of the consequences if she chooses the logical answers.

What would you recommend the girl do?

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The girl put her hand into the moneybag and drew out a pebble. Without looking at it, she fumbled and let it fall onto the pebble-strewn path where it immediately became lost among all the other pebbles.

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"Oh, how clumsy of me," she said. "But never mind, if you look into the bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I picked."

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Since the remaining pebble is black, it must be assumed that she had picked the white one. And since the moneylender dared not admit his dishonesty, the girl changed what seemed an impossible situation into an extremely advantageous one.

hint of lime

It is hard to take low-light shots without a tripod, but my wife was at the wheel, and I redeemed the time by taking this shot of a commuter train to show movement. I like these moving shots, and plan to do more... with and without a tripod.

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This may not be the smoothest segue, but I'm going from the photo of something green, which is not exactly lime green, to something lime, which is not exactly lime green. Did you catch that? Anyhoo, the following is an interview from my friend, who is called... Lime.

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1. Since I am a fan of Mike Rowe's Dirty Jobs, what is the dirtiest job you've ever done?

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I've never had a dirty occupation per se, but there have been many disgusting tasks I've performed. Back at the Craver house, the dirtiest jobs all go to me... cleaning gutters, rodding sewage, cleaning gross spills, heinous baby and pet discharges, etc., but the worst was probably the one time in my young teens, when I was playing Spin-the-bottle and I kissed a girl right on the mouth. Sure, it's a dirty job, but somebody's gotta do it!

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2. What skill do you wish you had and why?

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Human flight-- like superman. C'mon, is an explanation really necessary here? That would be so cool!!! But if that's too "lofty," I have a backup answer...

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"You know, like nunchuku skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills... Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills." (From Napoleon Dynamite.) .

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3. I was just elected President and I am expanding the federal government by creating new departments. What new cabinet position shall I create for you?

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I should like to chair the department of simultaneously shrinking the federal government, by dissolving any programs I deem useless, wasteful or just plain wrong. I could do our country a lot of good, by addressing programs one at a time, armed with a big rubber stamp that says, "You are the weakest link. Bye-bye."

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4. You can have one meal every day for the rest of your life. What is it?

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PB&J. I think I could seriously do that. Of course, I would not have regular milk, since I'm lactose intolerant. I would need to wash my meals down with that lactose free stuff. What a great invention!

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5. An evil mastermind is going to destroy the world unless you can stop him. You are armed with a spoon, a rubber chicken, a can of aquanet, and a bucket of peanuts. What is your plan?

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Oh, that's too easy!!! Since evil masterminds can't resist monologues, I wait until he begins, then I cause a distraction by flipping the bird (the chicken of course!) and while everyone is momentarily taken aback, I use the spoon to flick peanuts to wipe out his minions, making sure I aim carefully, as I intend to eat whatever's left, then spray the aquanet in his face, emptying the entire contents. Overturning the empty peanut bucket on his head, I bang away with the empty aquanet canister until he concedes his defeat.

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I hope I get to keep the chicken when I'm done.

dancing embers

Sky Watch Friday!

"Motion" Pictures

Kinetic photography. It's loads of fun to experiment, not knowing exactly how motion will affect each attempt! (I shudder to think of the kind of money that was wasted back in the film era.) On this particular day, our dusk sky was cloudless. We were under a monochromatic dome... a very, very plain azure hue. I thought it was too subtle and understated for pure sky to yield an interesting photograph... so I took one picture from a moving car, and the other by twisting the camera. The first recording is a pageant of robust neon from a fast food eatery, but that's obvious, isn't it. The golden arches give it away. In the second photograph, it may look like the car was speeding, but it wasn't; trust me. I would NEVER take that kind of risk with our dinner (pizza) in the passenger seat.

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Click on link to participate in Sky Watch Friday!

last week in pictures

1. red²--red tailed hawk with red squirrel
2. experimenting with kinetic photography--block glass window
3. looking straight up into the sky
4. more experiments with kinetic photography--street lights
5. This tree tried to kiss me!
6. with D2 at a local playground
7. with S2 at a local playground
8. balloons from health clinic's charity event
9. plenty of eats at aforementioned charity

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I just read an article on the dangers of eating too much fat and drinking too much and it scared the heck out of me. So I told myself, "That's it!"

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After today, no more reading.