Ryan Estrellado

Digital photography blog Photojojo did a great post on taking pictures of food. Along with the sky and your office space, food is one of the few things you can count on being in the presence of most days of the week. I find this makes it a readily available subject, which works to my benefit when I can pull it off. Unfortunately the law of averages guarantees that for every appetite-inspiring food photo in my collection there are several that would decorate the cutting room floor at even the most modest of eating establishments. I would do well to heed Photojojo’s advice described in list item number ten:

10: Don’t Shoot

Know what not to shoot. Some things will just never look delicious, no matter how hard you try.

Meals that are all the same color and brown sauces are best left alone. And tasty though they may be, we defy you to make a haggis look good.

I still reflect fondly on the scoop of ice cream I shot while out for dessert with my wife. The half-eaten fish taco at the food court? Not so much.

Photojojo: The Ten Tastiest Food Photography Tips

The Canon G9 Series is a group of posts that discuss digital photography techniques and their application on the Canon G9. Feedback, especially from new and veteran G9 users, is welcome.

I feel obligated to qualify this series by stating that I consider myself a novice digital photographer with an interest in improving my technical knowledge. I don’t take pictures for a living nor do I have any formal training in photography. Most of my pictures are of family, friends, or other subjects I find interesting in my day to day life and work. Given my limited photography skill set, my approach is to shoot often and then cross my fingers that something memorable will be caught in the process. I’m very much a casual shooter, but I suspect (often to my wife’s annoyance) that I spend slightly more time than your average camera-toter trying to get the details correct to produce an attractive photo.

So why make the series about the Canon G9? Given the environment I choose to feed my photo habit, the Canon G9 offers the convenience of a point and shoot camera and at the same time many of the features and manual controls found on a digital SLR. In other words, I can indulge my interest in the technical details without needing to change lenses while trying to keep my one year-old out of the camera bag.

With that said, here are the goals of this series:

1. To post internet articles about digital photography techniques I’ve found useful
2. To discuss my experience with the techniques on the Canon G9
3. To allow for some discussion and opportunities for more feedback that I and others can learn from

photo by 96dpi

Given that schools are in the business of supporting the academic and social development of its children, my discussions with parents, education professionals, and graduate students inevitably lead to the topic of effective school interventions. A resource that comes up frequently is Jim Wright’s Intervention Central.

The website houses a wide variety of interventions and tools geared towards parents and teachers. The breadth of content is as thorough as it is easy to follow . The Intervention Ideas section is divided into several specific areas, including Reading, Writing, Classroom Management, and Behavior. It also presents a number of different intervention approaches ranging from individual student work to whole-school systems.

I found a model for playground rules, entitled Creating Safe Playgrounds: A Whole School Approach, particularly promising. The write-up gives a step by step procedure for designing and monitoring recess rules to encourage safe play and good social skills. Like a well-designed technical manual, the write-up even includes a troubleshooting section:

The playground intervention is not very effective. If your school discovers that the intervention is not working, be sure that:

• Students fully understand what positive behaviors are expected of them on the playground and what negative behaviors are not permitted.
• Monitors are consistent and fair when enforcing the behavioral expectations on the playground.
• Students receive regular praise and good-behavior tickets for appropriate behavior.
• Teachers follow through in their classrooms in giving students earned rewards for good playground behavior.

The write-up references two professional journals as sources for the development of the intervention.

A few weeks ago Asha Dornfest of Parent Hacks guest posted on Zen Habits about her top 20 parent hacks. Being a relatively new parent of a rapidly evolving 18 month old, I found Asha’s ideas inspiring and thought it might be useful to post some of them here.

Before I do that, perhaps more discussion is needed regarding the use of the word “hack.” What is being referred to has little to do with sawing metal or medical professionals of dubious repute. Rather, the word “hack” in the blogosphere usually refers to some modification of one’s daily routine to improve productivity and to reduce the stress caused by the modern information age. For me it’s a topic that never seems to grow old, particularly when you’ve got a toddler that joyfully grabs hold of the majority of your attention.

That said, here are a few of the ideas that I personally enjoyed reading. You’ll find the rest of them in Asha’s post.

Follow the Law of Conservation of Toys. Create a simple trade-in system to keep toy clutter to a minimum. Read more.

Digitize your kid’s artwork and school papers to reduce clutter. Hang onto those art treasures without having to save all of the bulky paper. Read more.

Getting organized: Do the small stuff NOW. Life with kids can feel like one distraction after another, and often, the little tasks we intend to do later never get done. Follow David Allen’s Getting Things Done advice: if it takes two minutes or less, do it now and get it off your mind. Read more

Kitchen timer: Multi-purpose tool of the gods! Bedtime, homework time, any time is timer time. Read more.