Photography with the Left Eye

I’ve created a nifty little book, titled Shapes, of some of my recent figure and yoga work, and you too can get a copy!

Go to my book (opens in a new window) page, and check it out. Then let me know that you want one.
(Some of the photos in the flip book are simply pictures of the book, so you can see the layout. For the full page images, I pulled the original image into the flip book, so the quality is much better. If you are unsure of any of the photos that are not the full page ones, I can send you a small jpg of the original image)

What is it? It’s 20 pages, all B+W, 8″x8″, either softbound ($25 + tax & shipping) or hardbound ($35 + tax & shipping)

It’s easy…just click here to send me a note, and I will get you details.

I will also post info about another book, soon.

This is Paige, featured in Shapes

Nukes have been increasingly touted as a big part of the solution to energy supply in a climate constrained world. Because the alternatives are too expensive.

I don’t think that’s quite right. Nuclear power is subsidized to the tune of billions of dollars, and has been since the first nuclear power was built. Here’s some information that I found compelling (attributed to Rep. Henry Waxman, but I can’t find the source….sorry)

Waxman has previously described nuclear as “already part of the mix” but said he does not support additional subsidies for nuclear power. “The problems with nuclear power is that for nuclear power to be successful requires subsidization by the government through legislation that we already have in place … therefore, may be more costly than the technologies that we will likely see for use of other alternatives to reduce the carbon emissions,” Waxman said at an American Solar Energy Society event in February 2007.

Other information from the same (lost) source:

Companies have submitted 19 applications to the Energy Department for $122 billion in loan guarantees, and say $18.5 billion would cover no more than three projects.

Did I say BIG money?

It seems like a good idea to have a business model based on something other than ripping off your clients. Sure, there are always scams, and in a bad economy scams seem to multiply. But companies that want to survive past next year need customers who come back. Willingly.

I have just washed my hands of a company, 1and1 Internet (domain registrar, internet presence provider, etc) which seems to have as its business model the notion that you will sign up for something because it is cheap, and then they will force you to buy it as long as they can. In this case, the something is domain registration. I registered a domain (it probably came as a freebie with something) and realized only after my credit card was charged that they had set it to “auto renew.” So I complained, via email and phone, and assumed (!) that the story had ended. Nope. Another year, another auto-renew. I search on the pages for a way to turn it off. There is not a way. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. It takes a call to their complaint center, which is not open for business, but a helpful recording directs you to the mysterious cancel.1and1.com, where you can shut off auto-renew. It’s also the same place where you actually cancel. They make that as hard as possible.

Let me contrast that with register.com, another (and probably the oldest) of the big domain registrars. They also had auto-renew for a domain of mine. They also charge about 4 times the going rate for domains. But when I got the auto-renew notice, I called, and they flipped it back. With 1and1, they won’t reverse it. And if you dispute the credit card charge, they send it to collections. Probably grossly illegal, but not worth the hassle for $10.

But I predict they are short lived as a company.

Pandora, yesterday. I am amazed and grateful at the beauty and physicality that the models I work with express. Thanks, Pandora.

And that’s how I photographed Awoke. My light, inspired by the sun.

Awoke, Saturday

You did take my advice, right?

Jessica

This is a very difficult economy. The worst most of us have seen in our lives. Even good companies that do the totally right thing are going out of business. This is a very bad time to do the wrong thing. And one way for a retail establishment to drive its customers away is with bad service.

Orchard Supply Hardward (site here, but it’s pretty bad) used to have really good customer service, especially for a chain. They had people who had worked in the business, and could help with a project. They had a liberal return policy, which kept people coming back to buy more stuff.

Now they have lost most of the people who have a clue, and have a stiky return policy. They swipe your drivers license (which raises all sorts of privacy issues), and then mumble about people stealing stuff and then returning it for cash. This does not take an MBA to figure out. Accept any return with a receipt. Don’t accept returns, or make the hurdle high, if the customer does not have a receipt.

I haven’t bought anything there since I encountered this policy. The bigger box store, Home Depot, with its liberal return policy, and the little box in the neighborhood store, Truitt and White, get my business now.

Sarah