Photowalk: 5 of 52
Feb/103
by John Wilson
Today I took my wife with me on the photowalk. On the way downtown we stopped at the Ritz Photo. It was like Christmas. I got:
- Tripod
- Neutral Density Filter
- Multi Coated UV Filter
- Circular Polarizer
I also figured out I have a huge passion for chasing squirrels around parks and taking their pictures. The squirrels at Battery Park are especially fun, because they aren’t afraid of humans.
View the shots below in the slideshow and post your favorite in the comments. I will pick one reader at random to receive a print of their favorite in the mail.
You can view the whole set here.
Here are a few of my favorites:
The “Idea” of Las Vegas
Feb/101
by John Wilson
Me and Parker headed to Las Vegas
I was joking with my “any-day-now-hurry-up-and-deliver” pregnant wife about whether or not our unborn son would love Las Vegas as much as I do.
Her immediate reply (she’s pretty witty) was, “If he has to hear you talk about it as much as I do, then I’ll guess no.”
She has never understood why I enjoy it so much. I have only been there three times, twice with family and once for a job interview. I was a VP’s whim of reorganizing the department from moving there, and I’m currently gambling positive, thanks to a strong streak in the Poker Room at the Sahara. I also wrote a “mini-thesis” to complete my MBA on how the marketing campaign What happens is Vegas… positively impacted the Mandalay Bay Resort Group.
The reason I enjoy it so much is the “idea” of Las Vegas. The fact is, Las Vegas strives to be over the top. It is like Disney World for adults. There is a casino where elephants and lions walk behind you while you’re gambling. There are diagonally rising elevators, roller coasters on top of space needles and huge man-made waterfalls viewable just to the folks in the casino.
The “idea” of Las Vegas for me is that the hotel-casinos will do whatever it takes to get you in the door, and then take care of you in such a way to make it easy for you to come back. Stay in the Wynn Las Vegas. The rooms are nicer than your bedroom, the food is better than you can make, and the decor makes your $500 an hour interior decorator look silly. While you are here, they are monitoring all of your eating and spending habits so that they can target their marketing and promotions to your specific tastes, all with the goal of treating you like a king or queen so that you will come back next time, and tell all of your friends.
This glamorous “idea” caters to everyone. If I want to put on some shorts and a t-shirt, I’ll fit right in gambling at the Sahara or the Luxor. If I want to take my kids to Vegas we’ll have a blast at Excaliber or Circus Circus. Want to take some friends to see a UFC fight, or a boxing match, or a concert, you can be sure something is going on at MGM, Mandalay Bay or Caesar’s Palace. There are enough restaurants and enough restaurant turnover in Las Vegas to never eat at the same restaurant twice, ever.
The “idea” of Las Vegas for me, is that if you can get there, you are guaranteed to find something you enjoy, and you can guarantee that activity will be over the top. I think Carlos Parker will love Las Vegas.
One Month with Nike+
Jan/100
by John Wilson
My wife gets Runner’s World Magazine in the mail. Strangely enough, just having this magazine around the house inspired me to start running in late December. I ran a 10k in 2007 with my wife without training, which was a very bad idea, and I got very sick from doing it. So this time I’m going to actually train, and hopefully in that training lose a few pounds (40?). My ultimate goal is to run a half-marathon in Las Vegas in December.
Running for the sake of running started as difficult for me. I would just run for time with no real idea of how far or how fast I was running. Sometimes I’d get on the treadmill just to be able to track my progress. Having played 11 years of football, including four in college, I was used to having every aspect of my training measured. Be it a timed 40 yard dash or a measured benchpress, it was pretty easy to see increases. It was much more difficult with running. Enter: Nike+.
A gadget geek at heart (much to my wife’s dismay), I saw an advertisement for it somewhere, and knew I had to have one. Nike+ is a three part gadget: a pedometer like chip that goes into your shoe, your iPod, and a receiver attached to the bottom of it. The chip has an accelerometer that can determine when your feet are up, and when they are on the ground, and can tell you your speed and distance accurately (after calibrating to your running style).
With the device, you can set your race distance or time, and it will talk to you throughout the run about your pace, time and distance remaining. At anytime throughout the run you can push the center button and it will tell you time, distance and speed. What I typically do is set a distance, run away from my house until it tells me I’m halfway done, then I turn around and come back. There’s no way you can do this without a device like this. I tried to pre-map runs like this before I got Nike+, but I could never remember where to go once I got out there.
What I enjoy the most is sitting down after a long run and plugging my iPod into my computer. The iPod automatically uploads my run data, including second-by-second speed readings, to the Nike+ website through iTunes. You can use this data to track your improvements over a long period of time. It’s fun to see how many miles you’ve done over the month, how many calories you’ve burned and how fast (slow) you are. You can also track friends (which is motivating in that you don’t want them to see you loafing), set challenges for yourself (a specific number of runs in a specific amount of time, for instance) and upload your time and distance to your favorite social networking site.
As silly as it sounds, this device has definitely motivated me to run when I certainly didn’t want to. This month’s stats:
- 10 workouts
- 3:32 total running time
- 18.61 miles
- 11′24 mile average
- 3125 calories burned
- fastest 5k: 35:32
Not bad for my first month running, ever.
Check out the Nike+ website for more information or to buy your own.
Photo taken by me. See my Flickr feed here.
John Wilson’s Current Reading List
Jan/101
by John Wilson
Inspired by my friend Lauren’s Website about Books I wanted to list a few of the books I am reading now. I’m typically a nonfiction book reader, but every once in a while I’ll pick up a classic. Mostly because it makes me feel smart. I also have a habit of reading more than one book at a time. So here is what’s in my “library” currently:
I’m on page 150 of 900! of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. This is one of those books that I’ve always wanted to read, and had heard great things about, but have never taken the time to pick it up. The story is great so far, the lessons (at least 1/6 of the way through) are timely and the characters well-developed. I’m looking forward to knocking this one off, as it was one of my New Years Resolutions to finish it.
Another one of my resolutions was to read the Bible. You can read my adventures of purchasing a Bible here. Instead of plowing through it from page 1, I found a great website that guides you through it depending on your interests. Go to Bible Gateway.com to choose your path. I am using this one.
I recently finished Glenn Beck’s Arguing with Idiots. Regardless of how you feel about Beck’s politics, his books are always humorous and well written. This book shines a very bright, conservative light, at subjects such as the economy, unions and the public school system. I believe it’s a strong read for folks on both sides of the aisle.
And, with only a week or two to spare, I’m reading Caveman’s Guide to Baby’s First Year: Early Fatherhood for the Modern Hunter-Gatherer. I’m only a quarter of the way through this book, but it is very informative and entertaining. It leans a little too much on the caveman history side, but the baby-content is very useful and friendly.
Lots to read, and coming soon, probably very little time or energy to read.
Photowalk: 4 of 52
Jan/101
by John Wilson
Today it was pretty cloudy, and I got a late start, so I didn’t want to venture too far from home. I shot these at the Charles Pickney National Park on Long Point Road. I didn’t have much sunlight, and I have a bad habit of blowing out the skies when I shoot near dusk. Once I get better, I think this would be a great place to shoot spooky photos.
Here are some of my favorites. If you’d like to see the whole set, visit it at Flickr. You can see all of my pictures by visiting my Flickr site.
Photowalk: 3 of 52
Jan/101
by John Wilson
For photowalk number three I went to Isle of Palms and Breach Inlet.
I learned a lot today about my camera and taking pictures at the beach. I took probably 250 pictures over the course of an hour or so, of that, about 230 were over exposed. I used the aperture priority mode on the camera, but I think I had it too low (or high?) and the shutter couldn’t fire fast enough. I was able to save some of the pictures (see below), and I enjoyed the 74 degree weather we are having in the middle of January.
You can see the whole set here. My favorites are below.
This is my favorite from the set. It is the rust that has formed below the spout at the shower beside Coconut Joe’s.
Me and this guy danced around for quite a few minutes. This is the best one that came out.
This picture got blown out, but I got a nice shot after playing with it in iPhoto.
New: About, FAQ and Gallery
Jan/100
by John Wilson
It’s a rainy Saturday and the WVU Mountaineers are stinking, so I took the time to update a few out dated sections of this website.
The “About” page has a little bit better description of what the website is about. It’s really a variation on the theme of “where” and how “where” has changed a few times since I started working on the site more than two years ago. I read once that the average life of a blog is less than one month, so we’re not doing too bad.
The FAQ page has answers to some of the most basic questions I get asked, via email, from readers.
The Gallery page is a few of my favorite photos from recent photo shoots. It also has links to my Flickr account to see all the photos from my photowalks. I’m not completely happy with the way the gallery looks, but I have yet to find a WordPress plug-in I’m happy with.
Some new things coming soon for the site:
- The birth of my son
- A link to my twitter feed
- The oft-requested newsletter
- The return of “Are you John Wilson” directory
Sad Headline of the Week
Jan/100
by John Wilson
As found at Drudge Report.
Weight Watchers clinic floor collapses under Dieters
Division Champions
Jan/100
by John Wilson
Here are some photos of a game played by the Charleston City Champion Benefitfocus Flag Football Team. I typically play but I twisted my ankle in the game before this one.
I learned two things from this shoot:
1. I need a tripod
2. The field needs more lights
I took almost 250 pictures, but because I didn’t have a tripod, most were too blurry. Also, the ISO was so high there was a good deal of artifacts in the pictures.
Click here for the whole set, or visit my Flickr page.
Here are some of my favorite shots from the night:
Photowalk: 2 of 52
Jan/102
by John Wilson
This week’s set was taken at the Mount Pleasant Memorial Waterfront Park. It was REAL cold, so I didn’t stay very long. The further out the pier I went, the stronger and colder the air got.
Below are my two favorite. You can see this set, and all of my other travel pictures on my Flickr site:
