This commercial isn’t real, neither are society’s standards of beauty. – Jesse Rosten

A pair short films by Jesse Rosten offers a humorous but blunt commentary on what is considered beautiful in today’s fast-paced advertising-fueled market. Sometimes makeup isn’t enough. Sometimes, just sometimes, you need Fotoshop by Adobé.

5.11 Tactical B Class Uniform Shirt

Although I haven’t written up a review yet I’ve become a big fan of 5.11 Tactical Taclite Pro vented polyester/cotton ripstop shirts which MSRP for $54.99 USD. They’re absolutely perfect for both photography and travel with hidden document pockets to store your phone, passport, travel documents, memory cards, and anything else you can stuff in!

So when I saw that 5.11 Tactical had their polyester/rayon B Class Uniform Shirt on Closeout for only $5.99 I jumped at the chance to pick up a few. They’re not vented like the Taclite Pro (which actually makes them a bit dressier) but have the same Teflon® treatment and hidden document pockets.

The only thing I’m a bit weary of is that these are indeed police/military uniform shirts with badge rivets and shoulder straps which may make wearing my Lowepro Fastpack 350 uncomfortable. But for $5.99 I’ll take that chance for a great shirt to toss into my Go Bag.

As a bonus, use coupon code 511TACSIGN at 5.11 Tactical to get 15% off your order (may not be valid on closeout items; I haven’t tried).

Lowepro Fastpack 350 (Black)

Lowepro, Electronics, $84.82

5.11 #71175 TacLite Pro Short Sleeve Shirt (White, Medium)

5.11 2011, Sports, $49.99

It’s déjà vu all over again! It looks just like last year, only a bit more organized! Since getting everyone balanced in a group photo the size of this is akin to herding cats I decided to lay down boundaries with gaffer tape like at UDS-O in Budapest. It worked out extremely well; it’s much easier to say “stay inside the pink tape” than to bark orders over the crowd to get individual people to move and fill in the gaps. And remember, if you can’t see my lens, I can’t see you!

UDS-P photos cc by-sa 2011 Sean Sosik-Hamor (prints can be ordered by clicking the Buy button in the gallery):

• UDS-P full photostream (285 images total)
• UDS-P group photos and close-ups
• Monday night Meet and Greet
• Friday night UDS Party (Ubuntu Allstars)
• Chippoke the Traveling Hedgehog
• Google Plus album for tagging

Shot with my workhorse EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM mounted to the usual EOS-1D Mark IV on 10 FPS burst to increase the chances of getting a usable shot with all the movement in the crowd. Apologies for taking a while to get these posted; it’s been a hectic four weeks of travel, event support, and sprinting.

Following what appears to be a new UDS tradition Randall managed to capture me herding everyone into the photo box made out of pink tape! (cc by-sa 2.0 rrnwexec)

Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Bastard at House of Toth (October 2011)

Even the rain couldn’t dissuade the dedicated competitors from battling for the honorary title of Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Bastard at House of Toth while consuming massive amounts of bacon!

4th of July (07/03/2011)

Tasty grilled dead critters, blowing stuff up, cakes and pie, and roasted marshmallows! What could be better?

Town and School Warrants Voting – Pelham, NH (03/08/2011)

A few months ago I brought my camera with me to grab a few photos when I headed over to the local high school to cast my ballot during the Pelham, NH 2011 Town and School Warrants Voting. I didn’t get anything spectacular; just a few run of the mill snapshots of people in a high school gymnasium. But as I was going through my Lightroom workflow preparing to upload to my album I came to a realization. The filled-in ballots were clearly visible in one of the photos and you could clearly see who or what some of the people voted for.

This left me with somewhat of a conundrum. Do I publish the photo as-is and possibly reveal who or what these people voted for or do I violate universal journalistic ethics and manipulate the photo to camouflage their votes? Since I wasn’t sending these photos off for news publication and they wouldn’t be under scrutiny I opted to do the edit and protect the subjects’ privacy. If you inspect a high-resolution version of the photo you can clearly see the votes visible on the voided ballot the election official is holding; the votes would have been as clearly visible on the other voters’ ballots as well.

Searching Google Images and Google News turns up thousands of photos taken at polling stations. The money shot of the ballot getting dropped into the box or reader is a popular one. And many of those photos clearly show the voter’s face and votes on their ballot.

But this brings up an interesting question about when journalistic integrity clashes with expected privacy. Individual voting booths and voting stations hold an expectation of privacy because they’re enclosed with curtains or barriers. But what about when you step away and are walking through an open space to turn in your ballot? Does that same expectation of privacy hold true? No one thought twice about me snapping a few photos. But modern DSLRs have the capability to capture fine details from afar even with wide angle lenses.

When taking the time to carefully frame and compose photographs I always have a set of rules and guidelines running subconsciously through my mind. Lighting and exposure. Framing and composition. Am I in danger? Am I in someone’s way? Am I blocking another photographer’s shot? Am I invading the subject’s privacy? Is the subject’s dignity preserved? Do I have to recompose the shot to hide embarrassing features or transform a possibly embarrassing feature into a flattering or striking highlight? That all goes through my mind in a split second almost every time I hit the shutter release.

But this was different. I was just randomly pointing the camera in interesting directions and grabbing snapshots without thinking. It wasn’t until I got home and looked over the photos that I thought about it. In the decades I’ve been behind the viewfinder this innocuous looking snapshot is the first photo I’ve ever taken that truly made me really think twice about where to draw the line between journalistic ethics and privacy.

After 8544 miles traveled, 16 days on the road, 40 GB of RAW photos, and two days of post-travel coma, I’ve posted the official group photos and my personal photo set from Ubuntu Developer Summit Oneiric Ocelot (UDS-O) which took place at the opulent Corinthia Hotel Budapest (formerly Grand Hotel Royal), Budapest, Hungary, EU (9th – 13th May 2011). UDS was insanely hectic as usual trying to keep everything running smoothly behind the scenes. Luckily there were enough lulls to give me a chance to meet a bunch of new faces and catch up on some of my favorite projects.

UDS-O photos cc by-sa 2011 Sean Sosik-Hamor (prints can be ordered by clicking the Buy button in the gallery):

• UDS-O full photostream (542 images total)
• UDS-O group photos and close-ups
• Linaro group photos and close-ups
• Monday night Meet and Greet
• Tuesday night Linaro Technical Showcase
• Friday night UDS Party (Ubuntu Allstars) at Orfeum Club
• Chippoke the Traveling Hedgehog

In addition to the above SmugMug gallery I’ve added the group photos to Facebook for tagging! And if you’ve ever wanted to see what goes on behind the scenes and what gets packed for UDS, check out the UDS-O Logistics gallery.

Unlike UDS-N in Orlando where I found out on short notice that I would be the official photographer I came a bit more prepared this time toting my EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM on top of the usual EOS-1D Mark IV, EF 50mm f/1.2L USM, and pair of 580EX II Speedlites that permanently live in the Fastpack 350 that always accompanies me everywhere. Immediately upon arriving at the hotel and checking in I scouted locations and found a gorgeous spot to take the group photo shooting down from the fifth floor catwalk into the Southeast atrium bathed natural light from the skylights and six-story street-facing glass wall.

Unfortunately the hotel staff disagreed with my selection and pushed us into the lobby spilling up the main staircase when it came time to actually shoot the group photo. This location was less than ideal forcing me to shoot at a strange angle from an offset second floor guest room window overlooking the lobby with mixed tungsten, CFL, sunlight, and shadow.

This required a bit of pre-planning and creativity to make sure everyone would be in the photo and wouldn’t be blocked by pedestals or balconies. Liberal use of pink highvis gaffer tape on the floor to mark the boundaries of the frame and verbal instruction (if you can’t see my lens then I can’t see you) seems to have ensured that everyone actually got into the photo…including some creative trolls folks who made their way up to the first floor balconies!

The rest of the photos shot throughout the week were dead-simple and accomplished by utilizing natural light or by dragging the shutter with on-camera bounce flash with catchlight panel. While the more difficult nighttime outdoor bar and cafe photos had the Speedlite pointing straight up into the air with only the catchlight panel bathing the subject with fill flash, the indoor Orfeum Club photos also utilized a strategically-placed remote Speedlite and glass ceiling to create some interesting effects.

Ubuntu Developer Summit Oneiric Ocelot (UDS-O) Logistics at Canonical Group Limited, London, England, UK – 11th – 15th April 2011

Canonical Platform Sprint and Launchpad Epic at The Renaissance Dallas Hotel, Dallas, Texas, USA – 10th – 21st January 2011 [cc by-sa 2011 Sean Sosik-Hamor]