Mike Munhall

I got an email from a woman at Javis Davis today, letting me know that I am the runner up for the “Pregnancy Announcement” prize on NaBloPoMo. Being the runner up, I guess that means that the pregnancy announcement on my blog (which really wasn’t as much an announcement as it was a statement) was the second in the month of November among all NaBloPoMo participants.

Hi Mike, it looks like you are the winner of a “runner up” prize in NABLOPOMO! Go to our website, www.javisdavis.com, and you can pick out fabrics for a pillow and blanket set. Look under “Fabric Collections” and pick a main fabric for your pillow, and any two “furry” fabrics for your blanket. Furry fabrics are the ones that say “fluff, chic mink, polychenille, and chenille”. Just email me back with your fabric choices and a shipping address and we’ll get it to you ASAP. Congratulations!!

Also, Dorrie and I went for the first ultrasound yesterday. Baby is healthy and normal. We now know the baby’s gender, but aren’t sharing (sorry). Baby must have my sense of humor: In one of the pictures, he/she is sticking his/her tongue out. That’s my boy/girl!

The only reason I decided to participate in NaBloPoMo was that I discovered a way to post photos directly to my blog via my phone via Flickr. I realize that posting a photo to a blog is a cheap and dirty way out of the obligatory post-every-day rule, but I am a photographer more than I am a writer and I wouldn’t have participated otherwise. At the beginning of the NaBloPoMo experiment I thought I would end with about 28 posts containing a photo with no text, and maybe two “real” posts with text but no photo. I ended up writing much more than I though I would, especially in the end.

Over the month of November, as I thought about things to write about, I came up with ideas for actual writing projects related to photography. One of those ideas, “Stupid Tricks”, I started during NaBloPoMo (here and here). I’ll be writing more of those in the future, but I’ll probably come up with a better title at some point.

NaPoBloMo gave me an idea for my next blog-related project: Cameraphone 365. This is (or will be) a variation of Project 365, where you post a single photo every single day for an entire year. The variation is that I will use my cameraphone to take the photos rather than having to lug my Nikon around with me every day. I’ll set up a special blog for the project and begin January 1. Anyone care to join me? All you need is a cameraphone that can email pictures and a free Flickr account. I could host your blog. Come on. You know you want to. We’ll do it together. It’ll be fun.

GPS, originally uploaded by mmunhall.

Dad bought me this awesome GPS.  I always thought it would be fun to have one, but now that I’ve used it I can’t believe I got by without one for so long.  This is one really cool tool.  My favorite feature so far is that you can find any restaurant, gas station, museum or anything else simply by pressing a few buttons and letting the GPS tell you where everything is.  The data is thorough and current, too.  All of my favorite non-chain restaurants are listed.

If you ever get a GPS for your car, my only advise would be to be careful driving while the novelty of the toy is still fresh.  It’s easy to get distracted while driving.  Trust me on this.

Ammo, originally uploaded by mmunhall.

This stack of balls is a very small part of the arsenal that is hurled at my coworkers every day.

Impression, originally uploaded by mmunhall.

I’ve been photoblogging for nearly nine months now. Here are a few things I’ve learned about blogging photos.

The photoblogging community is huge. The internet, being the wonderful thing that it is, has spawned thousands of photoblogs and hundreds of photoblog communities. Cool Photoblogs, Photoblogs.org, VFXY, and Photo Community are just four of the hundreds of photoblog communities out there. Each of them have hundreds or thousands of photoblogs listed. Finding inspiration is easy by browsing the new photoblogs that are added every day.

There are a lot of bad photographers with popular photoblogs. I’ve learned that the popularity of a photoblog, as rated or listed by a photoblog community website, is not always proportional to the quality of its photographs. Because it is popular, it is always displayed in the most prominent areas of the community websites. The popular photoblog’s high ratings just perpetuate its popularity. Conversely, there are a lot of good photographers with unpopular photoblogs. Legitimately good photoblogs sometimes get buried in the community photoblog websites and are never noticed.

Keeping up is difficult. I think most photobloggers try to post one photo every day. I find this extremely difficult to do without diluting the overall quality of photography on the blog. I’m happy posting three good photos each week and leaving out the four that I’m not truly happy with.

Photoblogging makes you a better photographer. One reason I started my photoblog was to watch the progression of my photography. I want to be able to look back in a year or two and see all the things that have changed, including my style, the subjects I’m interested in shooting, the technique I use to shoot subjects, and the overall quality of the images I produce. Assuming I regularly update my blog means that I’m regularly shooting material. One could only hope that over a year or two I would become a better photographer for my efforts.

Photoblogging is a great way to document your life. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then every picture that I post on my photoblog is like writing a thousand words on my regular blog. When I look back at a photo that I posted nine months ago, I can remember things from the day that I took the photo that I would not remember otherwise. It’s just like keeping a written journal, but in pictures instead of words.

Photoblogs provide a means for getting feedback on your photography. The comments that are left on my photoblog (the very few that are provided) help me greatly when trying to determine what is working and what isn’t. I am constantly surprised by the photos that turn out to be favorites. The photos I like the most are usually the ones that receive the fewest comments, while the ones that I think are borderline acceptable often get the most praise. My only wish is that I got as much honest feedback for the bad photos as I get praise for the good ones.

The photoblog itself is a good reason to get out and take pictures. Occasionally the photoblog itself is motivation enough for getting out to take photos. Without anything else driving me, it would be too easy for me to blow off an evening eating chips and drinking beer. Not that the photoblog is my only motivation for taking pictures, but having the occasional visitor keeps my camera in my hand more often than it would otherwise.

I’ve been crazy busy with photography and some new programming tasks recently, and as a result I haven’t finished a book in over a month. (It’s not like I actually do book reviews here anyway). So, for the sake of something different, here’s what’s on my “to be read” shelf (which grows much faster than I can keep up).

What’s on your “to be read” shelf?
Do you have an opinion on any of these books?

Living in Colorado affords me plenty of opportunities to photograph winter landscapes. The problem with winter landscapes in the mountains, though, is that the temperature can get beyond just cold. Frigid temperatures are a particular problem for me because I lug around an aluminum tripod that practically freezes skin on contact. Here’s an awesome solution I put to the test a few days ago on hike through Red Rocks park. It cost me four bucks.

This is a two-part trick. The first part involves six feet of copper pipe insulation that you can get at Home Depot for less than $2. Simply measure the legs of your tripod, cut pieces of the insulation to the appropriate length and wrap the pieces of insulation around the legs . The insulation comes in different diameters for different size pipes. My tripod legs are one inch in diameter, so the one-inch pipe insulation worked for me. I recommend the kind that is pre-split and has adhesive to connect the sides after you wrap the insulation around the tripod legs. The adhesive will stick a little bit to the aluminum and prevent the insulation for sliding around. Nevertheless, you could save a buck by buying pipe insulation that is not split and then just split it yourself. You’ll just need to use duct tape to keep the insulation from sliding around.

As an added bonus, the pipe insulation is perfect padding for when you want to carry your tripod over your shoulder on hikes. It weighs next to nothing so I plan on keeping it on my tripod permanently.

The second part of this two-part trick is a no-brainer: gloves. I’m a big fan of the $2 pair of cotton gloves that you find in the clearance bins at Walgreen’s every spring. The trick is to find thin gloves that provide enough dexterity to operate your camera in really cold weather. I wear them under my regular winter gloves on really cold days and just take off the winter gloves when I operate my camera. The added bonus of the gloves is that they make good padding for gear in the camera bag when you’re not wearing them on your hands.

1125071058.jpg, originally uploaded by mmunhall.

It is difficult to see the bruise there under my eye, but believe me - I can feel it. This is the type of bruise you get for mouthing off to your wife, I’ve learned. In this case, though, I gave it to myself with a racquetball racket while playing with Ronk and my brother-in-law, Patrick. I won the damn point.

Alex & Dana & Nadia, originally uploaded by mmunhall.

Alex, Dana and Nadia stopped in for a night on their way back to Albuquerque from Wyoming. (Nadia is crashed out on the couch in the background.)