Tag Archive: rants

How Not to Be a Photographer

By Richard X. Thripp at 2008-06-30T23:37:27Z in Photography Articles, with these tags: cameras, freedom, guides, lists, rants, 1 Comment. 932 words.

• Make sure everyone is smiling and pretending to be happy before taking the picture. Candid photography? Never heard of it.

• Don’t take photos of people; they don’t want you to take their photos anyway. Just stick to rocks and plants.

• Make your rocks blurry and your flowers over-exposed. Then claim it’s art.

• Pump up the saturation and contrast on that rose, so it’s just (255,0,0) all over. Then everyone will appreciate the beauty.

• Print your photos, then scan the prints at 600 pixels per inch. Now you have 48 megapixels!

• Never switch from auto mode. Only scary people use …

10 Reasons Why Photography Sucks and Isn’t an Art Form

By Richard X. Thripp at 2008-06-20T08:32:30Z in Photography Articles, with these tags: art, lists, myths, photoshop, rants, 4 Comments. 1,313 words.

The wishing well

“I wish photography could be an art form. I love it so much, but it’s just too easy. If only there were some way to mentally cripple the majority of the population from being able to take beautiful photos, or if I could make the craft so needlessly difficult to only be accessible to a tiny few. Maybe then I can trick others into thinking I have talent where there is none. Oh photography, why must you be so simple and uncomplicated!”

We’ve been tricked—all of us—into believing that photography is an art form requiring skill, …

The Profit Police and How They Kill Everyone

By Richard X. Thripp at 2008-03-30T05:03:51Z in Personal Development, with these tags: enlightenment, internet, money, rants, 0 Comments. 972 words.

Silhouette of a man holding a hammer -- Photography by Richard X. Thripp

The profit police are as old as eternity, but insidious as the devil. They threaten to steal our happiness, to sour us with envy, hatred, and guilt. Their orthodoxy is codified in institutional policies all over the world. They kill everyone. They are us.

Profit is not just money. Profit is also prestige, notoriety, and mere exposure. The profit police take keeping up with the

The Thievery of richardxthripp

By Richard X. Thripp at 2008-03-29T05:11:24Z in Technology, with these tags: internet, rants, 0 Comments. 228 words.

the pain of it all

I tried to register my name at blogger.com but got the error message above. Turns out someone’s swiped the name: http://richardxthripp.blogspot.com/ is just a parked spam blog, set up just over a month ago (2008-02-20). It’s about two thousand spam link ads.

One thing that I’ve always counted with my name (Richard X. Thripp a.k.a. richardxthripp), is that it is so unique that I can go to any website and register as richardxthripp with no fear of …

The Return + Film is Pointless

By Richard X. Thripp at 2008-03-18T02:48:45Z in Other, Photography Ramblings, with these tags: education, film photography, myths, rants, 4 Comments. 759 words.

I’m coming back. I mentioned way back on the 7th that I had a sore throat, but was recovering. That turned into a cold; I’d recovered by the 11th, but on Wednesday, March 12, I woke up with an awful sore throat, headache, and fever. Two days later, I noticed the white patch at the back of my throat, so Dad took me to the doctor (it’s expensive without health insurance), who proscribed one gram of amoxicillin (a sister of penicillin), twice per day. He assumed it to be strep

$1500 Daytona Beach College Scholarship Revoked

By Richard X. Thripp at 2008-02-04T23:27:24Z in School, with these tags: education, money, rants, sarcasm, satire, 5 Comments. 1,153 words.

Richard's picks:

I lost a $1500 scholarship today.

I won a $1500 scholarship from the Daytona Beach College Foundation (of Daytona Beach, FL, USA) in the Fall of 2007. It is split into two semesters. There is a rule: “You can only receive one DBCC [sic, DBC used to be Daytona Beach Community College] Foundation Donor scholarship per semester.” Many of the scholarships are spread out over two or even three semesters. So, in my strategic cunning, I interpreted the rule in the manner that is most beneficial to me: you may only be awarded one scholarship per semester, but you …

10 Ways to Get Your Camera Stolen

By Richard X. Thripp at 2008-01-21T10:54:38Z in Photography Articles, with these tags: cameras, lists, rants, satire, 2 Comments. 249 words.

1. Wear that “Canon EOS Digital” neck-strap proudly so the whole world can see what expensive equipment you have.
2. Take the camera on a plane; no need to keep it in your carry-on bag because you won’t be using it. If it doesn’t magically disappear, I hope you like broken glass.
3. Keep all your gear in your fancy new Lowepro bag, then leave it at a restaurant table to go the the bathroom. Don’t worry, it’ll only take a minute!
4. Use a lens with a big red ring around it.
5. Leave your big red ring and “EOS …

Write Concisely

By Richard X. Thripp at 2008-01-01T04:57:35Z in Personal Development, with these tags: conciseness, english, language, lists, new year, newspeak, rants, writing, 2 Comments. 296 words.

New Year’s Day. A time to make commitments for self-improvement and then break them a week later. I have one I’m going to keep.

My resolution is to speak and write concisely and correctly. While filler and disfluencies are excusable in speech, in print they are intolerable. Rewriting is writing, so the standards are higher because you can polish your work easily. “Kinda,” “sort of,” “like,” “more than,” and “less than” have no place in writing. If I ever use “in all circumstances that I know of,” yell at me to replace it with “always.” More …