Archive: 2008 November 10

Reframing Negativity

By Richard X. Thripp at 2008-11-10T22:20:14Z in Personal Development, with these tags: courage, emotion, fear, growth, positivity, thoughts, 0 Comments. 1,929 words.

At the college, we have a ritual each semester where we have to evaluate our professors. Student feedback, or so it’s called.

There are 14 categories, including things like “gives examples,” “answers questions,” and “is fair.” You can rate 1 to 5 on each.

This seems like a negative thing, because you have to rate your professor’s performance objectively. You have to decide how he’s done, evaluate him in many categories, and then write suggestions (most people don’t do this). It’s a big responsibility, because college administrators will be judging his merits, worthiness, and teaching ability based on your report.

But in my …

Photo: Orange Bottles

By Richard X. Thripp at 2008-11-10T01:52:49Z in Photography, Stock Photos, with these tags: beauty, bright, canon rebel xti, contrast, drinks, ef 50mm 1:1.4, orange, orange bottles, shallow dof, still life, sunshine, yellow, 0 Comments. 227 words.

Orange Bottles

Three bottles of orange juice, lined up on the roof of a black car, with shaded trees (left) and sunny trees (right) in the background.

This was store-bought orange juice I dispersed into water bottles. Then I removed the labels from the water bottles.

I like this composition… the colors, shapes of the bottles, lighting, and spacing came together that day. I made the colors warmer in Photoshop, brightened the bottles, darkened the edges. It’s a lot more idealistic.

The bokeh highlights in the background are eight-sided because my 50mm lens has eight uncurved aperture blades. …