Virtually everyone thinks in first person when they imagine their recent past, present, or near future. Likewise, almost everyone switches to third person when they think about their far past or far future, usually defined in the scientific literature as ten years in either direction from today. This shift in mental perspective is why you can often look back at emotionally charged moments in your life, after enough time has passed, and see things from a more detached, clearer point of view. Your brain is literally processing them from a more insightful vantage point. Likewise, this is why taking a mental time trip ten years to the future can help you feel “unstuck” emotionally. You momentarily get a break from your normal mode of thinking and feeling and get to float above it all, like a satellite looking down from space.
Jane McGinigal – Imaginable
Category: Quotations
Pentagon Puts Cyberwarriors on the Offensive, Increasing the Risk of Conflict
“The chief risk is that the internet becomes a battleground of all-against-all, as nations not only place “implants” in the networks of their adversaries — something the United States, China, Russia, Iran and North Korea have done with varying levels of sophistication — but also begin to engage in daily attack and counterattack.”
Last fall, I attended a wonderful street photography workshop in Paris led by Valérie Jardin. On one of our morning walks, there had been a bit of rain overnight which provided a lovely sheen to the streets. By mid-day, it was gone and the day turned sunny and bright. Turned out to be one of the gifts – a morning after the rain with the payment still wet and the skies beginning to clear.
Last night I revisited this image to post-process it again. I’ve recently subscribed to Lynda.com and yesterday watched one of the courses about Photoshop taught by Adobe’s Bryan O’Neil Hughes in which he revisited many old techniques and brought to light new and better ways to do things. As I watched his lessons, I was using this image as my test case. One of the points he stresses is using a non-destructive workflow in Photoshop – something I’ve not been doing but will certainly make much more use of in the future. With this image, I’ve got all of the layers saved in the TIFF file which is now in Lightroom. At some point in the future, I’ll come back to it – and continue a bit more post-processing doing some dodging and burning through luminosity masks.
I’m having fun revisiting Paris as I post-process this particular image. It was a quick “grab shot” at the time I took it – as I had fallen behind our group and was trying to catch up. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky – this was one of those times!
I’ve been enjoying reading Greg McKeown‘s new book “Essentialism” – and, after listening to the beginning, put together this image suitable for desktop or screen saver use. It’s a shot made in the kitchen at the James Johnston House in Half Moon Bay – and was one that seemed to focus on the essential!
Here’s a link to Greg’s book and perhaps an easier to download version of my image on Flickr.
Access to Each Other
I love this quote by Clay Shirky:
We have greatly overestimated the value of access to information and greatly underestimated the value of access to each other.
Tina Roth Eisenberg cited this quote in her talk – “Sharing my 5 Personal Rules” – very much worth watching.
Just finished up a phone call with an old friend of mine. He ended by asking “Is there anything I can do to help you?”
What a delight! It’s the perfect question, isn’t it?!
This image is of the Eclipse sculpture in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero in San Francisco – a favorite spot of me and my photo buddy Doug Kaye. This version was captured using my Fujifilm X-E2 – a simply wonderful “mirrorless” camera that take beautiful images.
The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away. — Picasso
The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it. – Ansel Adams
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