Californians saw through Mercury Insurance's blatant attempt to co-opt our initiave process for corporate greed and blew Prop 14 out of the water Tuesday. I am proud to say I was part of this by my vote. As satisfying as it is to win an arb against these creeps, this one is even better: it goes right into the face of their sleazy CEO, George Joseph. This, and the loss by PG&E in a similar tactic, show that sometimes the California voter does the right thing. I wish they did on the primaries issue, though. Now, back to unpacking!
An apologia on the making of an acceptable photographic file. One hears from lay people and even some photographers a disdain for image manipulation, particularly using modern programs such as Photoshop, and it's ilk. I used to be one of the latter. I was all about the "in camera manipulation", ie, get the composition and exposure as close as possible to the desired result before pressing th e shutter release, then print as-is. This may have been because I had only a primitive darkroom, and depended on commercial labs for prints, with all the attendant miscommunications about the final look. I have since learned otherwise. Since photography was discovered/invented the making of a visible print was the obvious goal. Early photographers had to go through great efforts with bulky equipment and hazardous chemicals to produce an acceptable product. That is to say, from the beginning, there has been no way to make a print directly from the camera w...