Monthly Archive for February, 2009

Photowalking Utah – Studio Lighting Event ’09

Published February 22, 2009 in Photography. 0 Comments

As some of you know (And some of you don’t know) I participate in a Utah photo group known as Photowalking Utah its a once a month event of photographically minded people who get together once a month to “Photowalk” a location. It’s a chance for photographers to get together, talk, discuss, and to take pictures at interesting and new locations. The group is open to anyone interested, from the absolute beginner to the seasoned professional. This last Photowalk was slightly different than the usual outdoor locations, it was designed to help people learn and experiment with studio lights in several different areas, each area was setup with a different lighting setup from natural light, to Strobist style setups, to full blown Softbox and studio strobe lighting to give a wide range of the various off camera lighting styles and systems that people use. It’s a very creative bunch of people with a very diverse set of skills and areas of expertise and a community that supports and helps its members become better. This group has been growing at an unbelievable rate since it started in October 2007 by Bryan Jones, Ann Torrence and Rich Legg, many thanks to you all for starting the group and for all the effort you guys have put into it, it’s really paid off.

A Black and White Portrait

Levitate

Smashing Keyboards

Rockin all Night Long



- Paul Rohde

WCF Manual Service Hosing on Windows Vista and Windows 7

Published February 17, 2009 in Development. 5 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , .

With the new security features introduced in Windows Vista and now in Windows 7 there are some, not so obvious, problems that have crept in and cause weird errors in even simple code. I was building a simple web service for the first time a simple HelloWorld in a console application to make it easy to debug and output trace information. Nothing complicated, a little different because I was configuring everything manually in code as opposed to using configuration file. Here’s the code for my simple, stripped down HelloWorld service:

ConsoleServer.cs
 
using System;
using System.ServiceModel;
 
namespace ConsoleServer
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Console.Write("Server...");
 
            ServiceHost serviceHost = new ServiceHost(typeof(HelloWorldService),
                new Uri("http://localhost:9000/TestService"));
 
            serviceHost.AddServiceEndpoint(
                typeof(IHelloWorldService),
                new WSHttpBinding(),
                "");
 
            serviceHost.Open();
 
            Console.WriteLine("Started");
 
            Console.ReadLine();
        }
    }
 
    //operation contract
    [ServiceContract]
    public interface IHelloWorldService
    {
        [OperationContract]
        string HelloWorld();
    }
 
    public class HelloWorldService : IHelloWorldService
    {
        public void HelloWorld()
        {
            System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000); //sleep for one second
            return "Hello World Service";
        }
    }
}
 

And the client:

ConsoleClient.cs
 
using System;
using System.ServiceModel;
using ConsoleServer;
 
namespace Client
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Client");
 
            ChannelFactory<IHelloWorldService> myChannelFactory =
            new ChannelFactory<IHelloWorldService>(
                        new WSHttpBinding(),
                        new EndpointAddress
                            ("http://localhost:9000/TestService"));
            IHelloWorldService wcfClient = myChannelFactory.CreateChannel();
 
 
            System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(3000);
            Console.WriteLine("Calling Hello World");
            for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(wcfClient.HelloWorld());
                Console.WriteLine("- Called HelloWorld");
            }
 
            Console.WriteLine("Done");
 
            Console.ReadLine();
 
 
        }
    }
}
 

The code is fairly straight forward as far as services go, running it however I began getting the following error:

HTTP could not register URL http://localhost:9000/. Your process does not have access rights to this namespace (see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=70353 for details).

Extremely unhelpful, and the link provided by Microsoft offers no solutions (insert eye roll here) so I went off to consult Google… After a bit of research I discovered that it was the security features in Window 7 and Windows Vista that had been causing the problem, mostly because I’m trying to do everything manually in code some of the permission requests or other behind the scenes magic that normally occurs when Visual Studio 2008 creates and hosts a service from an application configuration file don’t happen. (My guess is that when visual studio installs it sets up permissions for Cassini, it’s inbuilt web server, and that when you run your service the ‘normal’ way that it automatically wraps your service in Cassini, effectively bypassing the normal application security measures, but that’s another story). Long and the short of it is that if you want to do this yourself you need to add some permissions to your user (by default even administrator accounts in Windows 7 and I *think* Windows Vista run in a restricted mode) to allow you to register your service with windows. (The original article is here)

Run a Command Prompt with Administrator privileges (Actually right click and select it), type and run the following command (replace the port number with whatever port you are using, 9000 for the code above, and your domain(or computername if your not on a domain) and username).

netsh http add urlacl url=http://+:8000/ user=DOMAIN\UserName

And *BAM* everything magically works. Cool huh?

- Paul Rohde

Service Integration and Mashups

Published February 15, 2009 in Development, Life, Photography and Site Specific. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

As we move forward in our world of technological inspiration and development I’ve seen the explosion of not only social networks, but of internet services, open source software, and powerful content sharing and distribution mechanisms. Services like Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, Smug Mug and the Suite of Free Google Services and so on are growing at a mind boggling rate. I still remember sitting in a cubicle about two years ago in the Winona State University tech department at my first job trying to design websites to be fast and optimizing each image and layout to be as small as possible so that they would download quickly on a modem. I remember how small my view of the vast amount information and the petty prejudices I would have against various ones, not seeing ahead to the measures that would be taken to distribute and organize that information. I believe the information age is no more and that the information itself has become expected and transparent but the networking and organization of that information has and will continue to surpass it as the primary commodity in the world today. As I’ve moved out of my little world, gone to college Utah, and am now five weeks away from graduation I’ve seen Google go from a small beta company to the biggest and most well known company on the planet, I’ve seen Facebook go from a little personal networking site to one of THE leading social network today in the US (Not sure how the foreign market for social networks is going).

What does it all mean?

I spent most of today re-evaluating MANY of my online priorities and ways of doing things. These last two months has seen me extensively pick up my networking and social skills and apply them in ways I never have before. I’ve spent more time updating, writing, and networking than I ever have in the past, the simple fact that you’ve been seeing blog posts here that are over 200 words on a regular basis is something that I’ve never done before. I’ve moved into the world of Twitter, a micro-blogging and status service and took the leap of getting a pro account at Flickr so that I could integrate large versions of the photos here on this site.

But why?

As you look at the conglomeration of things I’ve mashed together, there are several things that I’ve begun to be able to do. The problem is that I have hundreds of people spread over an entire spectrum of networks, locations, and mediums. I have a friends on Flickr, different friends that watch my blog feed, personal friends on Facebook, random followers on Twitter. The trend that I have begun to noticed is the integration of one service with another. With a twitter update I also update my status on Facebook and my blog, with a new post on my blog a new note gets automatically written on Facebook and anyone who watches my feed also gets updated. A new image on Flickr now shows up in my Facebook story feed and is now accessible for me to use on my blog with a link to the Flickr photo for comments and discussion. Not only do I now have all these services at my finger tips, but common users have created links between these applications with whole markets sprouting up around these links because of the efforts of the developers to create easy to use interfaces allowing others to link the services.

I’ve spent the last few days experimenting and working out the kinks in many of these network linkages. About a month ago my twitter account became linked to my Facebook status, about that same time the RSS importer for Facebook allowed me to import my blog posts as notes in Facebook, even pulling thumbnails of the images that are in the posts in. About two weeks ago when I went live with a new design to this site I added my twitter status to the top of my blog. Today I went through, tested out and have begun using even more service links, I redirected all my RSS feeds to FeedBurner for tracking and analytics, I added an application to Facebook to show any new photos in Flickr on my Facebook story feed, I even added a plugin for WordPress (The blogging engine this site runs on) that allows me to now insert photos directly from Flickr into my blog, because the photos are displayed full size by default on my blog they now will link directly to the Flickr photo page allowing for much more commenting and discussion on the images outside of the scope of this blog. Something else I may do is add a Flickr album importer into Facebook so that I will no longer have to upload photos to both Flickr and Facebook simultaneously.

The point is, this environment is changing at a rapidly and exponentially increasing rate, as I’ve grown in my networking savvy I have no longer been turning to the network with the most people or services, but I rather look to see what best allows me to integrate these services with each other and access them simultaneously. I don’t have time to go and browse each location, or to update every place separately. This mix and mash of services is allowing to do one thing once, across multiple platforms simultaneously and update everyone quickly and without hassle. Personally, it’s cool when you realize the sheer scale of things, almost to the point of being scary as to how efficient I can mash up an entire system of services together in a way that suits exactly what I need to do and that allows me to reach hundreds of people, each in their own preferred medium.

With that being said, good luck to you all in your social-network-service-mashup-mix-and-match endeavors and I look forward to hearing the thoughts of others on this.

– Paul Rohde

Its your turn

Published February 10, 2009 in Life and Photography. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , .

As I’ve spent a lot of time learning and practicing my photography there have always been people along the way to give advice, provide mentorship and vision for me to reach for. Some never even know how much they’ve helped me along this little personal journey of mine; so today I’m going to be taking the time to recognize some of the people who have both served as mentors and peers to me and to those who have provided encouragement.

However, As I step into the ‘real world’ out of college I also want to take time to give back to the community as best I can. Without that, without many of the resources that people have put together, I really do not think I would be anywhere near the photographer I am today. One of the things I’m going to start doing is taking the time to answer photography related questions here on my blog and to begin writing down much of what I know in the form of tutorial posts. Its YOUR TURN to let me know what you want.

I personally wanted to thank each and every one of the following people (you can click on the pictures to enlarge them):



20090104_paulrohde_yourturn__mg_9532

My Mom & Dad

Meet my parents, they got me my first camera body and lens and have always supported and encouraged me to become better, that camera still rarely leaves my side :) They’ve always been a blessing in so many ways and supported me in the many interests and hobbies I’ve had throughout my life. Thanks you both!



20090110_paulrohde_yourturn_img_9673

Jordan Ogren

Jordan is one of my best friends and also got me my first interview and job at WSU (Winona State University). As fellow photographer he and I were always competing and critiquing each others work as we both started out at around the same time. He also appears likes the taste of plastic V8 Splash bottles ^_^



20080524_paulrohde_yourturn__mg_1780

Rich Legg

Another fellow photographer that I met through my Church here in Utah he started getting back into photography, stock photography in specific, helps run the Photowalking Utah group and is an amazing photographer and networker, in addition to being a good friend. He’s one of those people you look up to and try to model your work after, many thanks Rich for all the critique and encouragement!

(Rich is the photographer on the left)


20080917_paulrohde_yourturn__mg_8581

Dani Jae

Dani is one of those people that you first meet and wonder if they ever get tired, sleep, stop going… or stop talking. I still haven’t figured it out :) Over the time I’ve known her she’s introduced and recommended me to more people than anyone else I know, and is an amazing friend to boot. If your reading this Dani, many MANY thanks for the friendship, the shoots, and the crazy conversations over pie :)


20080205_paulrohde_yourturn_img_8048

David Figge

Though not a photographer this guy has helped and encouraged me in my photography and been a great resource to me as I’m working to start my own Photography business. Many thanks for the time and input you’ve put into me Dave!



20080329_paulrohde_yourturn_img_0299

Peter Boysen

Another photographer that’s both a friend of mine and Jordan’s; he has a good set of work and I’ve often wished I had the skill he does. Thanks for all the inspiration, direction and criticism Peter!



20081031_paulrohde_yourturn__mg_1228

Jared Anderson

A former Disney performer come to life Jared is another photographer whom I met at Neumont and have since kept up and done occasional shoots together. Many thanks for the time, critique, and the Nikon vs Canon rivalry!



20081216_paulrohde_yourturn__mg_2915

Nathan Sweet

A photographer that I met through Ute-Nighted up at the University of Utah we’ve been collaborating (him borrowing my lights) *ahem* and occasionally critiquing each others work, bouncing ideas back and fourth, and so on.


Many thanks to each and every one of you, and I hope to be hearing from those of you who have something they would like to hear me write about here on my blog!

- Paul Rohde

Career Week Kickoff Part 2 : Website Revamp Process

Published February 8, 2009 in Development, Graphic Design, Life, Photography and Site Specific. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

Again in the spirit of “find a job week” here at Neumont I went back and instead of doing photography I revamped my entire website over this weekend and spent about 20-30 hours designing, creating and implementing a completely new look, feel and theme for my site. For those of you who have a vested interest in Graphic / Web design I am going to delve a bit into the design and thought process behind how this entire image has been evolving and try to cover the different aspects that played a part in this particular design.

But first, a trip down memory lane of how this sites theme has evolved:

This is the first WordPress theme I used from March of 2007 until some point in 2008. It was a highly modified version freshy theme including a revamped sidebar and posts area, and I believe a revamped comments section as well (not pictured)
Paul Rohde Photography



A concept page, created as a design in late 2007 but never used or turned into a template.
Paul Rohde - Concept Page



This particular theme was created in June of 2008 to the point that I had an entire working template, all that would have been required was to insert all the PHP that was needed to turn it into a fully working WordPress theme and it would have gone into production on this site. At some point I realized it didn’t really reflect the media centric nature of who I was and the direction I was headed; it defiantly portrayed my technical software side and even the graphic/web site but it didn’t fit with all the photography and work I’ve put into developing my photography into a potential business. Eventually I stopped work on it and focused on other things (University classes among other things).
paulrohde.com



After finally getting really tired of the Freshy theme I went template hunting on http://www.wordpress.org/extend/themes and found a red and black theme that piqued my interest. After playing with it, removing some vines and flowers and replacing them with something a bit more ‘techy’, switching to a fluid width instead of fixed width site, I activated this theme:
Obsidion Tech



An interesting thing to note at this point was that this theme has been setting not only the color and tone, but also began reflecting the entire ‘brand’ I want to portray. After this theme I began transitioning away from the logo I had created when I first began at Neumont and moved towards using just my name as my identity instead of associating a particular set of shapes or a particular symbol to my name as well. Around the end of November 2008 I began to develop this whole concept of image and identity, about who I was, what I wanted to be, what direction I wanted to take myself and where I want to be in the next 3-5 years. That was around the time I began brainstorming identity, font’s, layouts, colors and so on. I wanted to start with the core, the basics of how I was going to display myself and the most simple level and then build out a web and print identity from there. So, I started with my name. I scrapped the logo I had been using for most of my time at Neumont and created about two photoshop scratch sheets full of ideas. The first sheet here is the original starting sheet, the second is taking the favorites and beginning to refine it down more.

(click to expand)
pjr_2009_identityscratchsheet1pjr_2009_identityscratchsheet2



The problem I inevitably run up against is the balance between technology, which is a rigorous logical and mathematical discipline, and art, which is creative, random at times and completely unique depending on the individual creating the art. I needed something that would appeal to both, especially as I knew I was beginning my job search soon. I ended up with a requirements spec in my mind that looked something like this: I needs to be clean, simple, not confusing, it needs to include at least my first and last name, and it to have enough flair to appeal to someone in an art position, models, photographers, other designers, etc… I finally ended with the logo that’s at the top of my site today, black or white text with a red J initial that gets slightly darker as you reach the bottom.

The first step in the design process was creating a watermark, I use it all the time, all over the place and on everything digital. Its also one of the hardest parts to get right and will let you know if the logo and colors you chose can be used effectively on a variety of different backgrounds and situations. It did require some minor tweaking and adjusting to get right, and I suppose the perfectionist in me will never stop changing it, but for now I have a fairly stable brand so to speak.

Finally, the current site. I built it off of the K2 engine I had used on a previous site for Arrowhead Bible Camp, and began with that template as the starting point. I’m a BIG fan of reusing things, modifying them to get what you need. Now, that being said, there are times when you should be creating things all the way from scratch, and I have in the past (the gray and orange template up above and all the logo’s I’ve designed to date for instance) so don’t get me wrong here. Anyways, that aside, I started by creating the backdrop for the site, working through various layout ideas, building a glassy menu bar to add some tech in there and adding feed for twitter right below the menu bar. If you look right now I only have one header image, but one thing that was important was that I could easily change the visual appearance of the site, and k2 allows me to use a folder of images and rotate through them on each page reload, thus my next step is to take a good chunk of my photography and build out several good looking header images with some color in them (I KNOW I don’t want to see myself in the header every time I visit my site).

New site and Theme


I hope you enjoyed my technical reminiscing and will look forward to hearing your comments,

Till next time,

Paul Rohde