Dear Paul, Bloom? WTF is that?........ This was a VERY late dusk pretty nasty storm in Hawaii - put the camera on the dash board while driving. It WAS getting very dark. Just found it after a long time. Mark
Dear Rob, thanks for the comment, one of the better ones I've gotten - I take it as a back handed compliment. You may see me as mixing my work with politics (occasionally) but I don't see it as politics as much as simple "Logical Mathematical Predictation" based heavily on the understanding of typical human behavior and Newton's first law of Physics - "things in motion tend to stay in motion". 99% of the time you can mix all these elements together and you will have a pretty good idea of what the future holds.
I suppose spending my younger days traveling through Communist Eastern Europe on dozens of visits to spending substancial time in South Africa's Aparteid you become highly aware to the methods these Governments used to stay in power (now I see it used here more and more - fear tactics for example). Check out my about on this shot : http:www.usefilm.com/image.asp?ID=1070670 which I wrote about a year and a half ago but it could have been today. Nothing has changed, and nothing will because there aren't any good solutions (the only good solution was to never begin the invasion).
As far as my politics go since the Government makes zero money on it's own and we pay for their cushy lives (in other words, they ONLY exsist due to our FORCED surrender of hard earned money - A.K.A. Federal Taxes) I expect it to be a Government for the people FIRST (I mean, we paid for it - would like a return on that "investment") To elaborate slightly that means I expect "people things" to get funded first - Universal Health Care (we're rated 36th in quality at this time, #1 in costs), Highest Quality Public Education (in 27th place worldwide currently), Military used ONLY to protect this country from Invasion - not to "nation build" or take on the role of Imperialists, protect citizens from random violence by serious gun control, etc, etc. If it's good for the people I'm probably for it. If it puts Multi National Corporations and the Military Industrial Complex first I'm 100% against it.
To answer your tech question - I just put the slide in the Nikon Coolscan and try to make it look as similar as possible (on my older G4 with a CRT(?) screen) - then I see it on my G4 Powerbook Pro LCD screen and it's not the same. what can I tell you, I'm a photographer, not a tech guy. Whatever my ex - assistant set everything at is where it's at. New guy starts in August, I'm sure things will improve. All The Best, Mark
PS, weren't you living in the Bay area in Ca. before DC ?
Can't wait until you separate your politics from your photography...lots of noise in this and gradation is broken up...intentional???? Blur is good....
0 
