December, 2011 | Dangerous Common Sense

A Shout Out for a Year-End Photography Workshop Deal

Photographer John Ater

Earlier this month I had an awful lot of fun being educated in the basics of taking pictures by professional San Francisco photographer John Ater. I had bought a Groupon for a three-hour workshop which was limited to 10 people, and right before its expiration I signed up for a Saturday Chinatown group shoot.

Ten of us showed up at Portsmouth Square for a talk, a walk, and shutter-snapping practice. The workshop was set up to let us experience looking at the streets with the eyes of a photographer. The day was a satisfying mixture of professorial tips, individual hints, and photographic assignments… all strung together in a very informal, non-stop four-hours that covered about four blocks of territory.

John doesn’t teach how to use your camera and its features. In fact, nearly all the class shots were taken on the cameras’ automatic settings. Rather, John leads you to explore framing what you see, leaving spaces, and looking up and down and all around.

Most of the students showed up with digital SLRs, but John is no equipment snob. One of his first commentaries is about his two-sided business card. One side features a model in a department store photo shoot. The other is an iPhone-snapped gritty city picture of people on a bus. (Guess which one I felt was more compelling.)

John advertises the workshop as a three-hour experience. Ours lasted over four, if you count the 30 minutes or so we gathered in a tea house and swapped photographs and commented on each others work. That unwinding show-and-tell finale made me want to keep snapping and figuring out how to play with the images I saw.

John is offering a better-than-Groupon deal if you purchase a workshop directly from him before December 31st. You can buy an unlimited number of workshops for just $60 each. My Groupon was a half-price $75 and the experience would be worth the full rate of $150. I think this direct deal is a good buy. I am happy to report that I received a certificate for another workshop as a Christmas gift!

So, if your shopping for yourself, your professional life, or for a friend, I recommend John’s photography workshop deal.

6 Top Gifts for Your Techy Geek Friend

My personal Christmas list is often too geeky for my family and friends to believe. I want software and utilities and tools that make my time at the computer easier, more interesting, or more fun.

If I asked for games, especially if I wanted them to run on an Xbox or Wii, people would understand what is on my list. Instead I hear, “I can’t get you that! It’s too much like work. Shouldn’t you buy that yourself and declare it as a business expense?”

To support my fellow geeks… or to give hints to the family and friends of geeks, I’ll share the best 6 gifts that have been on my list:

A Kindle… now a Kindle Fire.
This is probably the easiest to understand, crossover-to-the-mainstream, geek gift. Kindle is simply a great technology to take a lot of books with you on trips without getting overweight baggage fees, plus you can get new books on a whim in less than a minute via the Internet.
Why is this a geek gift: Only a Kindle Fire is really geeky in 2011. Other Kindles are great, but really not geeky any more (sigh!). The Fire is 1st generation, controversial, color, and probably a lot of fun.
Cost: $199.
ESET anti-virus and security system.
By now everyone knows that they need an antivirus program on their computer, and ESET’s software is the best in class. Experts say that ESET watches for and protects against all of the known evils, and in our house it protected my computer against a virus that got on to other computers that were running a different anti-virus program. Plus, ESET’s products run very quickly and don’t take over and slow down your computer as others do.
Why is this a geek gift: Your geek probably has months left on their old anti-virus subscription. Giving them a better security solution without waiting until the Norton (or McAfee or whoever are using) expires is a geek luxury!
Cost: $59.99 a year.
A WordPress blog hosted by Blue Host.
WordPress is the free software that drives this blog and many of the most popular ones on the web, and Blue Host provides one-click installation and updates. It’s the easiest to use that I’ve found.
Why is this a geek gift: Your geek wants to share their wisdom. Giving them a hosted blog not only will let them sound off, they’ll get to tinker, download, and tune the many add-on customizations available for WordPress systems.
Cost: As low as $6.95 a month for hosting. The WordPress software is free.
Dreamweaver.
Fire your web designer and do it yourself! Dreamweaver is the industry-standard web page authoring tool. Your techy person can show their artistic design side while geeking out on the latest in scripts, panel layouts, and even mobile formats. Hours and hours and hours of ~~work~~… I mean fun.
Why is this a geek gift: Complex, robust, and top-of-the-line software. Give this to your Geek for Christmas and you won’t see them again until Ground Hog Day.
Cost: $399. Ouch!
Photoshop Elements.
Everyone wants to edit their photos, and most of the free software does a tantalizingly okay job. Photoshop Elements is a more satisfying group of commands and functions than the free programs. The industry standard in photo editing is Photoshop, and Photoshop Elements is a sub-set of commands that will let you do anything a mere mortal — not a photography god — will want to do.
Why is this a geek gift: Your geek will be able to create custom mouse pads, touch up photos for Facebook, and create a whole new visual reality. What fun!
Cost: Currently on sale for $89.99
Food for Your Hungry Neighbors.
In our balance budgeting frenzy, government grants to local food banks have been cut back or cut out. Too many people are un- or under-employed, and don’t bring home enough money to feed their children and themselves. If you can afford to give your geek something, but there’s nothing that they trust you to buy, then donate a nice gift to your local food bank in their name.
Why is this a geek gift: Because geeks are caring people. Really!
Cost: 100% of what you can afford.