Recently I went ahead and used a lens that I had to my disposal that has been sitting around for some time now.  The lens is an attachment that I can put on to my AE-1 Canon 50mm lens.  It is an ultrasonic super wide macro lens. When I chose to use it, Oct 15, 2009, the weather decided to act up.  There were leaves on trees still and the temperature was not too low.  Surprisingly snow fell.  It seemed like we were in a cartoon or on some special Hollywood set.  The way that the snow was only on the grass and the leaves was odd /surreal.  Night came really fast as well.  I took this opportunity to do some night photography.  There is something about the night and needing a long exposure that I enjoy because the outcomes become unpredictable.  That night that I was shooting I noticed that the snow was landing on the lens which led me to hope that it led to something good.  Standing around for one exposure that is more than thirty seconds allows me to make thoughtful decisions about the shots and then appreciate the space as I stand there. My results were rather nice.  The water molecules allowed for the light to reflect on to.  The image became mystified.  As cars would come towards me I would cover the lens so the image wouldn’t be blown out by the headlights.  Allowing for the lights to be shown of cars going away from the camera and me gives the sense of time spent there.  Yet the images are not long enough to be able to see that which is in the far distance.  We only get a hint/peek of what the space is like.

I also decided to use the wide angle to take some photos of an area that walk everyday and shoot it at different times of the day.  The interest came in with wanting to show more of the area with the camera than I was first showing with the 50mm lens.  Sure I could very easily have used a different lens instead using an attachment but why not use the attachment since I have it.  This specific lens also allows for a distortion but it is not directly recognizable unless one knows what to look for.

No outdoor picturing for me today so I brought the macro lens (Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM) out to play, and went in search of shapes and details to try and capture something a little bit abstract. If you click on through to Flickr the tags will help you figure out what it is… if you’re interested.

Just personlig bildstil är något som verkar vara ett måste som fotograf, ofta pratas det om regler som ska brytas hit och dit. Om det finns någon regel om att ha en personlig bildstil tillhör jag nog dom som bryter den faktiskt, det är inte många av mina bilder som är den andra lik såvida jag inte fotograferat flera bilder inom samma plats. Kanske är jag en oduglig fotograf men jag är en glad amatör för det. I min värld bland fotografer finns det dock inte många fotografer vars bilder jag skulle kunna peka ut fotografens namn på, några bilder skulle jag nog klara direkt och några bli tvungen att chansa på fotografens namn istället. Kanske jag som amatör inte har just det där “ögat” för att kunna lära mig att just hitta andras personliga bildstil i deras bilder. Kan det vara så att många fotografer inte hittat just sin personliga bildstil eller kanske dom gör som jag bryter regeln om det nu finns någon regel för personlig bildstil. Titta tex på bilden i detta inlägg och jämför med några andra här i bloggen, ser ni någon gemensam nämnare för bilderna!?…-Knappast! Det är väldigt mycket olika bildstil här, kanske är min personliga bildstil att göra just olika…-vem vet…

Last week I wrote that I had stacked my macrolens away for the winter. That resulted in some protests from Ed and Marleen and they were right. There are still lots of subjects around for that lens, especially on a sunny day like these dried blossoms and even a ladybird that had woken up form its hibernation.

The last of the tomatoes from my garden this year.

# # #

Tomato Trio, 2009, Dolly Salazar.
Kodak 400 CN

When people talk about the economy these days, it’s easy to get wrapped up in numbers and data.  Just take a look at market activity on days when the BLS Unemployment figures comes out.  The hand-wringing.  The pontificating.  It’s enough to make your head hurt.

And it completely misses the point.  The economy is about people.  It’s about their lives & livelihood.  The choices we make about those issues are merely reflected in the data we twist, strangle, and well, possibly waterboard and apply electroshock therapy to.  It pays to get out of the office and actually see what’s going on.  So on that note, I went (somewhat belligerently at first) to the Southern Christmas Show.

The show is an annual event here in Charlotte, NC.  This was only my second time going, but my purpose was two-fold: 1) Do some research for friends who are starting their own artisan businesses. 2) Take the pulse of the holiday shopping season.

Judging by the pictures, you wouldn’t think you were looking at a down year.  But it is a down year for the show.

I have to admit, it was easier to get around and see booths and vendors than I thought it was going to be.  But I only had one other year to compare it to whereas my wife had decades.  So anecdotally, we’ll note foot traffic is down.  Having said that, foot traffic tended to be concentrated around a select few vendors. Belk department stores had a huge amount of floorspace and a lot of the traffic was dominated by them.  Pareto efficiency in action.

Another thing worth noting: huge markdowns, discounts, and excessive inventory.  Vendor after vendor was offering their merchandise at steep discounts.  About the only ones who weren’t following along?  Food vendors, because they don’t have to.  When you put on a craft show like this in a convention center/merchandise mart, you have a captive audience when it comes to concessions.

Regarding the inventory: some of the vendors we heard talk about sales being lackluster or dismal.  One vendor we bought from said that on the previous day, Thursday, they only sold 3 items with the first sale coming after 5PM.  It was also interesting to note when we made our purchase from the same vendor, they had to go to their truck where they kept the bulk of their inventory to pull it.  Doesn’t seem like something to note, until you put that little observation together with what they said happened the day before.  My interpretation?  Sales volume/churn was much slower and lighter than they thought – they’re bloated with inventory.

Which leads me to the real question: if vendors like this are bloated with inventory, reducing prices at every turn to try and generate traffic and interest, what will more credit do for them?

Try pushing them over the cliff:

Trying to give businesses bloated with inventory more credit is tantamount to saving a drowning victim with more water.  It won’t help and it will kill them.  Businesses in this situation don’t need more credit, they need less.  They need to liquefy their balance sheet as best they can, as s0on as they can.  Yet Secretary Geithner, says credit access is the key to expanding our economy and we need to ensure credit is flowing.

Which brings up the latest Federal Reserve Senior Loan Officer Survey results:

Domestic banks indicated that decreased originations of term loans and reduced draws on revolving credit lines were generally more important sources of the declines than paydowns of outstanding C&I loan balances. More specifically, decreased originations of term loans and decreased draws on revolving credit lines were cited by 45 percent and 30 percent of banks, respectively, as “very” important sources of the decline in C&I loans this year.

Or if you prefer the chart, here it is:

Loan demand is collapsing, just not as fast as it was before.  The point is, with the uncertainty in the macro backdrop, the obvious slack and excess capacity in the economy now, there’s no way I’d expect a bank to make a loan right now.  And if it did, I’d expect the terms to be really tough.  Yet Geithner says we need to do the opposite.

I have nothing but contempt and loathing for Tim Geithner.  In an upcoming post, I’ll dissect a speech he gave in 2007 at a conference I attended and give you the play-by-play to what I can only describe is a total mental train wreck.  To say I think his thought process is misguided is unfair to misguided thought processes.

At any rate, what does my “boots on the ground” view show me?  Small businesses need customers, not credit.

And the customers are going to be few and far between with tight purse strings.

(precedente: +0,4% t/t; preliminare: +0,7% t/t, -4,8% a/a previsione: +0,7% t/t; consenso: +0,7% t/t ) *FRANCIA 08h45 – indice fiducia imprese novembre (precedente: 89 punti; previsione: 90; consenso: 91) *GERMANIA 10h00 – indice Ifo (precedente: 91,9 punti; previsione: 92,4; consenso: 92,5) *EURO-16 11h00 – nuovi ordini industria settembre (precedente: -23,1% a/a, +2,0% m/m; consenso: -17,2% a/a, +0,6% m/m) *PAESI UE 27 11h00 – nuovi ordini industria settembre (precedente: -22,3 a/a, +1,2 m/m) *USA 14h30 – Pil preliminare 3* trim.

(precedente: -1,2%; flash: +3,5% previsione: +2,8%; consenso: +3,0%) 14h55 – vendite dettaglio Redbook (precedente: +4,4% m/m) 15h00 – indice Case-Shiller prezzi case settembre 20 maggiori citta’ (precedente: -11,3% a/a; consenso: -9,2% a/a) 16h00 – indice fiducia consumatori novembre (precedente: 47,7 punti; previsione: 48; consenso: 47) *FED 20h00 – minute Fomc MERCOLEDI’ 25 NOVEMBRE *AUTO 08h00 – immatricolazioni veicoli commerciali ottobre Europa (precedente: -27,7% a/a) *ITALIA 09h30 – indice Isae fiducia consumatori novembre (precedente: 111,7 punti; previsione: 111,0; consenso: 112,2) 10h00 – vendite dettaglio settembre (precedente: -2,9% a/a) *G.B.

(precedente: +0,3% t/t) *USA 13h00 – richieste settimanale richieste mutui (precedente: -2,5% a 611,7 punti) 14h30 – ordini beni durevoli ottobre (precedente: +1,0% m/m; previsione: +0,3% m/m; consenso: +0,5% m/m) – ordini beni durevoli ex trasporti ottobre (precedente: +0,9% m/m; previsione: +0,6% m/m; consenso: +0,8% m/m) – ordini beni durevoli ex difesa ottobre (precedente: +0,5% m/m) – richieste settimanali sussidi disoccupazione (precedente: 505.000; previsione: 500.000) – spese consumi personali ottobre (precedente: -0,5% m/m; previsione: +0,5% m/m; consenso: +0,5% m/m) – redditi ottobre (precedente: inv.

Nessun dato verra’ rilasciato *ITALIA 09h30 – indice Isae fiducia manifatturiero novembre (precedente: 77,1 punti; previsione: 79,6; consenso: 77,1) – indice Isae fiducia servizi novembre (precedente: -7) – indice Isae fiducia commercio novembre (precedente: 93,4) – indice Isae fiducia costruzioni ottobre (precedente: 77,4) *EURO-16 10h00 – massa monetaria M3 ottobre (precedente: +1,8% m/m; previsione: +0,8% m/m; consenso: +0,7% m/m) *ITALIA 10h00 – commercio estero extra Ue ottobre (precedente: -513,0 mln) VENERDI’ 27 NOVEMBRE *USA: mercati aperti meta’ giornata fino alle 19h00 *GIAPPONE 01h30 – tasso disoccupazione ottobre (precedente: 5,3%; consenso: 5,4%) – inflazione ottobre (precedente: inv.

Fonte:
http://www.milanofinanza.it/news/dettaglio_news.asp?id=200911202000001983&chkAgenzie=PMFNW

I ran across an article on Seeking Alpha by Andy Sutton about a concept that often gets overlooked in discussions of GDP and macroeconomics in general – potential GDP and growth in capacity.  The article starts out talking about Qatar and its recent bond issuance:

This past week, this small country, known primarily for its exporting of natural gas, managed to garner $28 billion in orders for a $7 billion bond auction. Given the still partially fractured state of global credit markets, this level of interest borders on remarkable. The $28 billion bond sale is the largest by an emerging market player to date.

Holy bid-to-cover, Batman!  That’s a 4:1 ratio.  Impressive.  He goes on:

What is not so remarkable, however, is why this level of interest was present in this bond auction. The small nation state listed among its purposes for proceeds from the auction infrastructure projects, international oil and gas investment, and the purchase of stakes in companies such as Volkswagen (VLKAY.PK). Perhaps we in the Unites States should take notice as the seats at our own bond auctions continue to empty and we edge further down the dangerous path of overt monetization.

This situation shines a good deal of light on the proven economic principle that capital formation comes from the foregoing of consumption and the resulting investment. Even though credit has gotten a bad name recently, it plays a vital role in any healthy economic system. Borrowing money to build productive capacity and to make strategic acquisitions that will produce cash streams to pay for themselves is a wise use of credit. This is where the US has departed from the tenets of economic common sense and descended into the depths of absurdity.

I have no quarrel with his conclusions.  He’s dead-on.  Capital raises are a lot easier to achieve when you can tell potential debt buyers you expect an IRR/RAROC/RAROI of X percent.  What’s the RAROC on the stimulus plan?  Ok, just checking.  You get back to me when you figure out that one.

In the meantime, I’ll just bore you with another chart:

This is year-over-year change in real private non-residential fixed investment.  The idea behind Sutton’s article of course, is that a build-out of productive capacity is a great use of capital.  Whether the capital is physical, intellectual, or some other form, the fact that capital is expanding is usually a good indicator of an optimistic outlook for a country and its economy.  This isn’t looking so good.

Back to the article:

Still, adapting the old saying, a lousy hotel investment is still better than a good US Government debt obligation, apparently. If these recent developments don’t demonstrate the ongoing metamorphosis of the global financial structure, then nothing will. Maintaining reckless fiscal behavior here at home will continue to have a deleterious affect on our currency, our ability to finance future activities legitimately and ultimately our standard of living.

The lesson in this week’s news is a simple one: use credit wisely and for productive purposes and there will be demand at your bond auctions. Behave foolishly and you’re going to have empty seats and the need to monetize.

The story about monetizing the US debt is a bit of a stretch, since part of the Fed’s actions include replenishing the Treasuries it had sold off previously.  But the point is still the same.  Unless we get our fiscal house back in order and until we get back to plowing investors’ money into productive uses (i.e. building out domestic capital stock), GDP growth is going to be dampened and standards of living along with it.

The final project for my Digital II photography class was to begin building a “body of work.”   We were to photograph and print 8 to 10 pieces that were related or connected not only by theme but by style.  The pieces were to be newly photographed and taken during the semester.  Additionally, we were to select our theme following a writing exercise that was intended to help us think about ourselves as individuals.

After doing some “soul searching,” thinking about my photographic style, and what interested me most or defined my work, I selected “Textured By Time” as my overall theme.

It’s been very fascinating working with Alison in selecting which photographs to print for the final class presentation as well as discussing how pieces work together for “gallery display.”   Some of my favorites didn’t “make the cut.”

Learning the steps for print preparation has also been valuable lesson.  With Alison’s help, we are learning to make “fine art prints,” not just photographs.  The final class project is to display our work as 11 x 14 matted fine art prints in our classroom; the class will join Alison in a critiquing session.

(For those who might be interested, we are using Red River paper and Epson printers.  Quality you can see and feel!  Learning about these items has been a valuable lesson in itself.  WOW!)

In the next couple of posts I’ll share the images I am preparing for my final class project.

Part One — Abstracts from Rural Life

Smoko?, originally uploaded by CpPhotoNZ.

Was Going Down An Alleyway And This Made A Good Picture, Its Nice That The Everyday Object Or Rubbish Can Create A Good Picture.

In what has been a major policy shift, US president Obama declared that the rise of US government debt should be contained to stop a possible double-dip recession.

This prompted Paul Krugman to comment:

What happened? To be sure, “centrists” in the Senate have hobbled efforts to rescue the economy. But the evidence suggests that in addition to facing political opposition, President Obama and his inner circle have been intimidated by scare stories from Wall Street.

The grip of Wall Street on political power is still tight. It is unclear to me how anybody could argue that the government failed or the financial system failed in and before the crisis when it is so hard to see where one thing ends and the other begins. Think of the bail-out of AIG, for example. Geithner and Summers are so connected to Wall Street that as an academic I find it hard to see their independence.

The Fed is supposed to be independent, but it will be hard to justify this. Inflation-targeting has failed, monetary policy is helpless, the balance sheet of the Fed is full of risky assets and deflation redistributes income from debtors to creditors. While the banking system was saved, jobs were not. And during this whole decade, the Fed failed to recognize the problems in the international picture, despite warnings from the BIS, the central bank’s best friend. And all this was not caused by an endogenous shock but by failing to recognize or actively creating bad policies and bad institutions. That is a horrible record.

There must be economists with a better track record (William White, Joe Stiglitz, Paul Krugman, …). President Obama should look for these people and consult with them. A discussion that also includes Geithner, Summers and Bernanke would perhaps be really helpful.

I hust could’nt resist some more flamingo pics, there is something about their beedy little eyes staring back at you while they attempt to nap. First closed, then the eye opens and they give you a dirty look…
The first is a youngster who is just starting to get his colours, and the second it the brighter pink adult.
Have a great week…Ed

…

I havent written for about a week. I was planning to the other day, and then I got sick with suspected swine flu! I am taking the Tamiflu meds that I have been prescribed and feel slightly better; the pain killers seem to help me faze in and out of the real world. All in all, I dont think I have had the worst case of flu ever, but it has been horrible. I am still not better in the slightest but should be in a few days. To take 5 mins on your hands and knees to get upstairs to the toilet doesnt really help esteem…

It was my friend Lauren’s 21st birthday yesterday, but alas I was too poorly to go out with her, and then go to work I will make it up to you I promise, and I hope you had a good birthday!

Today I found out that my dad has been taking great photos of Lego men!? He stole a load from me before the summer but I hadnt seen any of the produce. Here is my favourite:

Click the image to see all of his work. He does a lot of nature and macro photography, which I think is great. There is no dispute that my photography inspiration and knowledge has always come from him

What else have I found while laying around feeling sorry for myself…? A beautiful place called Stitch Lab, which looks too good to be true!:

When I feel better I am planning to sort out the spare room into a spare room/sewing and crafts room! I cant wait!

This living room is very cute! I love the crochet throw on the sofa, the little green table in the back and the kitchen too…:

I also want a typewriter like this! Its amazing!:

Im not sure what else to write about at the moment, my brain is a bit fried from all the pain killers. Hopefully I will feel a bit better tomorrow.

[No picture - poorly-state face]

Jenn xx

P.S I finished Tomb Raider: Underworld on the 360, and now I am in the middle of Wet. Both games are great!

P.P.S

Dive Team

Sunny saturday and warm air temperature, still unexpected for this year’s periode. Water is definitely going cold (14 degrees) but the visibility quite good.. finally, 55 min dive at Cala Ferriola, max 20 mt at the tunnel entrance.Some strange weight troubles – maybe because of the purge valve of the drysuit didn’t work properly. 105 mm macro. Using the second strobe as slave-TTL to reduce the number of cables, maybe not a good idea,  images a little underexposed on its side.

Anyway, good macro encounters!

Vädret är verkligen varierande så här års. Tur då att jag har gott om foton från dagar då det inte regnar stup i kvarten. Ytterst lite redigering på dessa tre bilder, tyckte att de var fina nog redan. I övrigt var dagens största bedrift en tacomåltid med väldigt mycket stark sås.

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Hej…

I just noticed that I missed to tell the winner photos… going into the hamsterboard calendar competition…

Because of the sparse comments, I counted flickr. comments and others too.

Nr. 8 was the picture of Lotta which found most of the attention…

And Joda goes with picture Nr. 1 where he is cleaning out his chops (has packed them with a self baked hamster cookie )

I’m so excited if they will make the race and get a place in the calendar…

Definately I will tell, if they do or don’t…

So now it says: Keep your fingers crossed for Lotta and Joda.

Have a nice and colourful Sunday…