Canon Service Repair Center – Irvine, CA

After damaging my Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L lens, I shipped & insured it to its destination at the Canon Service Repair Center in Irvine, CA where it arrived on Thursday, February 16th, 2012 at 9:10am EST wherein the package was signed for under the name ‘Robinson’. 

After calling the center’s service support number (866-510-1335) today, Monday, February 20th, 2012 at 12:25pm CST, I was told that the lens returned no results because it’s not yet in their system. If I haven’t received an email by 2:00pm CST on Wednesday, I’ll be calling back with a little more urgency. 

Historically Canon has always provided me an email update on the status of my lens (e.g., ‘received’), and historically this has happened as quickly as the day its been received, so this is a little unusual behavior. (P.S. My experience with Canon service repair has only been at the Irvine center). 

Regardless of what happens, I will write a follow-up post on Wednesday afternoon. 

20120217_DallasOverpass-2792

20120217_DallasOverpass-2792, a photo by The Higgs Boson on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Friday, February 17th, 2012
Dallas, TX
Overpass

20120127_DallasSkyline-0013_SM

20120127_DallasSkyline-0013_SM, a photo by The Higgs Boson on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
As a resident of Dallas I’ve always wanted to capture the beauty of the city, but the conditions were never right. I finally seized the opportunity in January 2012 after years of waiting and planning.

Photography students and recent graduates – please read this.

Here is an awesome article I found that talks about not giving your work away for free to organizations that should be paying for it. Even over the past several weeks, I myself have been contacted by organizations looking to use my work for free in exchange for ‘credit’ or ‘exposure’. Only on rare and specific occasions do I give my work away for free after an agreement has been reached concerning the usage and terms. Historically, these rare instances have only involved non-profit organizations seeking to help the community we all live in. However, that having been said, I also wasn’t hurting for cash during the times I was contacted. It is my opinion that it would not be wrong to request payment even under these circumstances, however I don’t mind providing it free of cost because of the rarity and specific organization contacting me. I can not admit that this will always be the case.

Here’s a brief excerpt of the article:

Here is a cold hard fact:

‘Exposure’ won’t buy you shit.

Before you look away, let me elaborate a little bit. As creatives, we do all need a certain amount of exposure; if you want those people who commission photography to hire you, then you need to get your work in front of them. There’s plenty of ways of doing this while preserving your integrity – there’s a number of good blogs with a wide reach, and you could even (gasp) just pound the pavements with a portfolio or a box of well presented prints.

However. Please, please, please – don’t give your stuff away for free to organisations that should be paying you for it.

Here is a little case study that happened to me earlier this week.

I got a mail in my inbox titled ‘Photo Request’.. this is what it said…

Click here to continue reading.

Facebook Pages: “Liking” pages and @mention’s

Here’s a problem I’ve run into more than once on Facebook. VERY annoying, but glad I found a solution that finally works (verified on Google Chrome). 

Q: After “liking” another Page, why can’t I immediately @mention them in a post on a Page?

I understand that you can only @mention other fan pages that your fan page is following. However, when I “like” a page and am interested in immediately tagging them in a post, it won’t allow me to so right away. I normally have to wait until next day before it will allow me to tag. Not exactly sure of why this is happening, but it is so frustrating when you are trying to get something out that is timely. Anyone else having the same problem? Does the organization have to be following me back before it will allow for it (I didn’t think this was so)?

A: This is just a caching issue.

I don’t know how exactly it technically works, but I’d assume that since the @mentions feature has to search through thousands of users quickly as you type, it caches the list of users so that it can quickly search through them. If you opened up another browser tab and liked a new Page, this Page won’t show up on the other tab since it’s still accessing the old data.

Every time I run into this issue, I clear my cookies/cache (or just open an Incognito window) and login again and I’m able to mention the page.

And no, they don’t need to be liking you back.

Facebook Pages: After “liking” another Page, why can’t I immediately @mention them in a post on a Page? – Quora.

Derby Training – Arlington

Derby Training – Arlington, a set on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Certifiable Derby Training – Arlington, TX

Saturday, January 7, 2012

WBC – Arlington

WBC – Arlington, a set on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
The Westboro Baptist Church pickets at Richard Greene Linear Park during the Cotton Bowl in Arlington, TX on Friday, January 6, 2012. Headquartered in Topeka, KS the church’s 40 members (approximate) protest homosexuality, football, US soldiers, and America. (Photos/Stephen Masker)

PLEASE VOTE!

Hey Everyone! I’m happy to say that one of my images titled ‘Hunter and Michael’ has been selected as a finalist image in the My Gay Texas Photo Contest hosted by The Dallas Voice, a newspaper for the gay community in Dallas.

Whichever image receives the most votes, that photographer gets $1k donated in their name to any non-profit of their choice. My non-profit is AIDS United. Please vote for my image by clicking the attached link below and help spread the word.

All you need is 5 seconds of free time and an email address; you will not receive spam mail. Thank you guys so much for your support. I really appreciate it.

Vote Here: MY GAY TEXAS  ::  DALLAS VOICE READERS VOICE AWARDS BALLOT.

Westboro Church – Cotton Bowl

Westboro Church – Cotton Bowl, a set on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
The Westboro Baptist Church protests Penn State’s football team, gays, and America outside of the AT&T Cotton Bowl Stadium on Monday, January 2, 2011.

D Magazine, Yahoo, & 2011

 

First off I apologize for the long delay between this post and the last. It’s no excuse, but I’ve been busy taking care of some health issues (everything is ok), and I’ve been working on a few things in between. As always I strive to ensure that each contribution to my blog is meaningful and purposeful. 

Secondly I’ve been very behind in updating my blog with photographs, so in leu of my online presence here, you can always follow my projects, successes and failures in my photographic endeavors over on my Facebook page. 

In recent weeks I’ve been kept busy with work from The Dallas Observer, photographing parades, tomato fights and square dances. Lately work has been a little slow, but because its so close to Christmas it just means that I get to spend more time with my family and focusing on my photography business (which had a lot of loose ends). More than anything I’ve been focusing on my photography website, stephenmasker.com, which has recently been updated with a brand new CV paired with a downloadable version, new assignments added to the ‘recent’ tab, a redesigned and now-live splash page with access to my blog, main site, and – at last – my photo cart, which now supplies a small variety of premium prints available in various sizes. 

In more important news, I recently received a job opportunity as the newest photo-intern for D Magazine. My orientation is in late January, but I’m pretty excited about the opportunities ahead and I’m very much looking forward to gaining an invaluable experience working for such an esteemed and well respected publication. The position title is ‘Online Photography Intern,’ and if I understand the position correctly I’ll mostly be responsible for supplying images to D Magazines online editorial content, specifically their blog, FrontBurner. In addition, it will be my responsibility to search out and photograph events in the Dallas area and to fulfill photographic requests from staffers. 

Moving right along, I’m also proud to announce that an image I took of a U.S. Marine in the 2011 Veteran’s Day Parade infront of Dallas City Hall was recently selected for inclusion in the U.S. Yahoo! Editorial 2011 Year in Review Gallery. And last but not least I’m excited to announce that I’ve recently been published in my first two foreign news publications. The first is a Catholic monthly magazine called Palabra Nueva (New World, in English), based in Havana, Cuba; the second is Sky News Italy, who actually contacted me today. 

That’s all for now, more to come soon!