Noodles

Last night I did a product shot for a parent of another child at Jason's school. It's really my first "commercial" shoot, and I got noodles and sauce (and photography credit) in exchange.

The company is Aldente Pasta, located up in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

I set up my DIY backdrop (a sheet on a PVC frame held with clamps) on the kitchen table, added a couple lamps to even out the light, and tried to remember all the techniques I learned through DPC and the CDP meetup classes. I was hoping to shoot with my camera tethered to my laptop, but I didn't have the right cable for that.

Starting from Scratch

With Jason home recovering from pneumonia*, and no sane daycare provider willing to take a child with the contagious strain of pneumonia, I'm spending the day helping him learn how to write. I used to teach programming classes at U.C. Berkeley as a teacher assistant (I led discussion sessions, labs, etc). Motivating college students is only slightly easier than motivating a four year old, but the tasks Jason's learning now are more about muscle memory in his fingers than complex problem solving.

* I'd like to thank all of the scientists, researchers, and doctors who studied this disease and developed antibiotics and treatments to make pneumonia an annoyance instead of a tragedy. I encourage everyone to contribute to the National Center for Science Education, so the next generation's doctors and scientists will have the right knowledge and skills to keep making the world better for everyone.

Which Classic Arcade Game are you?

Which Classic Arcade Game Are You?

No surprises here. I still enjoy that DigDug was a game where you INFLATE your enemies until they EXPLODE, but everyone gets all bent out of shape about GTA and fighting games being too violent.