Arlen Ward dot com

A couple weeks ago, while in Barnes and Noble, I picked up a book that I thought would be interesting reading.  The book is by James Watson, who was awarded part of the 1962 Nobel Prize for determining the double helix structure of DNA. In fact, I had just read his book about this discovery, appropriately named “The Double Helix” and enjoyed the tale. So the new book, Avoid Boring People (which if you look closely at the dust jacket, says “Avoid Boring Other People”) looked to be a worthwile investment.

The premise is a book on lessons learned during a life working in science. In fact, at the end of each chapter he has a list of “lessons learned” during that phase of his life.

That was before all this news stories last week, like saying things about intelligence in Africa, having scheduled talks canceled, and resigning his position at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

I wonder if there are any lessons learned in the book with regards to saying stupid stuff to reporters?  I’ll let you know when I get to that chapter.

High Dynamic Range Imaging is a process for getting more exposure information for a single image than is currenly possible with camera sensors. It is really useful for taking pictues where there is a vast difference in lighting conditions, high contrast conditions. Your eye is has a large dynamic range, and one of the frustrations with photography is how often the picture you take doesn’t look anything like the scene you observed. Taking interior photographs of stained glass windows is a good example. For proper exposure of the window, everything else is dark, while if you set the exposure to see the interior architecture, the windows are very overexposed. With HDR, both areas are visible.

With the proliferation of digital cameras and software for image manipulation, HDR photography has become very easy to try, as is evidenced by the number of examples on flickr. I love the images that result, and how they can be either quite life-like or very surreal. So I started trying it. My Canon XTi has an automatic exposure bracketing (AEB) mode, which makes it easy to get an under exposed and over exposed image right after the normal exposure. Coupled with the software for combination and tonemapping provided by Photomatix, it is easy to play with HDR photography.

While in France, I took advantage of the AEB, and came home with many sets of images. I have been playing around with the images, and here are some of the results…

Dear 2 1/2 year old daughter;

When singing in the back seat by yourself, please note that when singing the words to “You Put This Love In My Heart” the proper word is “Love” not “Slug*”. This minor change in lyric has drastic implications for the song.

If you are mindful of the difference, it will allow your father to get you to your desination without the need to pull over because he is laughing too hard to drive.

Thank you for your consideration.

With Love;
Your Dad

*I swear, it was clear as day!

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