Aperture Way Blog

My name is Ben Lopez, I am a web developer for Freedom Communications in Jacksonville, NC. I am not your typical developer as web development was a career change for me after working in the printing industry. I’ve been building web sites for my own company, which I run out of my home, since 1996. The first web application language that I learned was ColdFusion, if I’m not mistaken it was the only rapid application for the web at that time. I’m still a big fan of ColdFusion, but anxious to see where Adobe plans to take it.

My passion for photography goes back to my pre-teen years when I got my first camera and then was really into it when I developed my first roll of film and made prints from that roll. I soon learned that photography was a very competitive business and you not only have to be good, but also have to have an inherited natural talent. So, I took the easy way out and made photography my lifetime hobby and got a job in printing.

It wasn’t ’til I made the career change from printing to web development when digital photography started to be a recognized force that the stars seems to be aligning just right for me.

High Dynamic Range (HDR) photos are showing up everywhere. Are these photos just a fad or the future of photography? I’m not visionary enough to answer that question with certainty, but would like to express my opinion. I think HDR will become a recognized category of photo art. It has the ability to be at the forefront of photo art, with a greater range of color and tones, the possibilities are endless. I have to admit I’ve seen some magnificent HDR photos online, but haven’t seen any prints, though I’m sure there are plenty.

I’ve been playing around with HDR for about a year, so here’s my experience with it. I have PhotoShop CS3 and have tried to use it to make my HDR photos, well that didn’t work out so well. I was about to give up on it, when I decided to purchase  Photomatrix Pro 4.0. Wow what a difference. A few of what I thought were failures using PSCS3 turned out very good using Photomatrix Pro. In fact it made me wonder, will the bar be raised for all of photography? The photo here is the first one I had success with after I failed to get a decent photo from PSCS3. Now, granted I’m using a 2 version old Photoshop and I understand that CS5 does a much better job than CS3. But, when I tried to upgrade my CS3 to CS5 the upgrade didn’t work and Adobe told me that I would have to upgrade my whole CS3 suite for hundreds of dollars more than the $200 I paid for just the PS CS5 upgrade. I am very disappointed with Adobe, you would think that if a person bought the entire suite that he/she could upgrade any of the individual applications as they need them upgraded. I’ve been using Adobe products for close to 20 years and realize that some of their products are standards, however, it’s a shame that they’ve become like the old wringer washer and trying to get every last dollar out of long-time customers…what’s next lower quality products?

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Well it looks like the shopping center next to Lowes at Surf City is on schedule to open in the Spring. I for one will be happy to see Harris Teeter so close to our community. The other Harris Teeter stores that I’ve been in are usually clean and well stocked, so having a quality store like Harris Teeter near our development can only be a plus. I hope people in the area support the store.

Well it looks like the shopping center at routes 17 and 210 is really going to happen. The shopping center will have a Harris-Teeter grocery as its primary store. The Star-News had an article about the 2 shopping centers this week and it said that both shopping centers are expected to be built, though the one at Old Pointe, with the Lowe’s grocery store, has some financial problems with the developer that have to be worked out. If you’d like to read the article you can find it at: http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20100713/ARTICLES/100719918.

This photo taken July 16, 2010. The Lowe’s store is to the right. It will be nice to have some shopping close by, we certainly plan to support the new center. In fact we try to support local commerce whenever possible.

First of all let me say that I am not in the know regarding what is happening, if anything, with the sale of the tennis courts. In fact, I am not on any of the email groups, except for Dennis O’Bannon’s. All I know is from what I hear by word of mouth. Here is what I’ve heard and I hope you’ll respond if you know that any of this is not true, if you have comments or just want to post your opinion.

• The original developer, offered to sell his interests in the tennis courts to the PR HOA.
• A change in make-up in the HOA happened while the offer was on the table and the new HOA did not respond to the offer.
• Another party, not a lot or property owner, came forward and made a reasonable offer to the former developer.
• An email went out letting property owners know that the tennis courts would be sold in 10 days.
• This caused a lot of emails being send to different email groups. These are emails that I have not seen. But, just guessing that some are upset that the courts are being sold to an outside interest.
• A meeting was called on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2009, to form a committee to look into the matter

I can’t post this blog without giving my opinion. I think it a shame that we can’t purchase and maintain the tennis courts. I know there are some that prefer not to be involved with the tennis courts, I understand, I’m not a tennis player. But, owning property in this community or any community, especially a community that has amenities that benefit the value of our properties, I think it imperative that we protect that amenity and the best way to protect it is to own it.

A thought that I had is to form a consortium of “property owners” that would be willing to purchase and maintain the tennis courts, personally, it appears at first glance that it may wind up being a profitable investment.

I recieved an email from our neighbor, Janeise Collins. Janeise is a realtor at Topsail and she seems to be in the know. Anyway, I hope Janeise don’t mind, but I will include part of what she said in her email–

“The word is that Harris Teeter will start moving dirt on Tuesday. The Developer expects to deliver the pad to HT on 11/21 or before. HT is now designing the new store so that they can immediately start construction at that time. There are discussion with another development group to develop a property on Highway 17 that will be food and retail. At the intersection of 50/210 there are plans for a 20 acre “fun center” to include movie theater and bowling, plus a lot more. If all of this in fact does happen then I think that we will see our area start to move rapidly…”
 

 The Tuesday she mentions, is July 14, 2009. Let’s watch for it.

To thank Janeise for this information, let me give you her information if you are looking to buy or sale. Her website is http://www.coastalhomesforu.com/

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Careful when doing business with this company.

Why? Let me tell you my experiences. We moved to Pelican Reef, Hampstead, NC, in May 2004. We’ve hired a number of people for various services both in and outside of our house. Most of the time we were satisfied with the work and all the business transactions were cordial.

In 2007 we wanted to expand our side yard, this required taking some trees down then doing some landscaping.  We asked for estimates from 3 companies for the tree removal - one was Barewood Services in Hampstead. After all submitted the bids, we selected a company from Wilmington, mostly because they could do the work in one day while others required up to a week. All the prices were reasonable.

We then asked for bids for the landscaping. Barewood said that they did landscaping and asked if he could also bid on the landscaping. There was some broken irrigation lines that needed fixing along with the landscaping. When Barewood brought the estimate to my door, I looked at it and saw that he did not include the irrigation fix. I asked about it and he said he didn’t do that type of work. I guess I showed some disappointment in my face cause he got very beligerent and said something about “…you freakin’ people…”. Now, I don’t recall if he used the actual F word or used the word “freakin’”in either case it means the same thing. A few more words were exchanged and I tore up the estimate. I’ve mentioned this incident to a few people in the neighborhood, because I consider this man a hot head and want to warn as many people as possible what to expect from him if things do not go his way.

I have not talked to this man since that day on my porch. Until yesterday, Jan. 30, 2009.

I was working from home and there was a lot of noise coming from Heron Pond, which is in Pelican Reef. Our house is between 2 roads, the road in back is part of Heron Pond. The noise sounded like tree cutting. I looked out back and saw the trailer with Barewood on it and suspected that Barewood was evidently doing some work for Heron Pond. I walked out back and was about 10 feet from my property, looking to see what trees were coming down. I was there no more than a minute when one of the workers yelled to me “could he help me”, I said “no you can’t, I live here”. This person walked toward me and said “you are hanging around my trailer”. I repeated “I live here”. By this time I suspected that this may be the same person who cursed me out on my front porch in 2007. As he walked toward me, he kept yelling that I was “hanging around his trailer”. Now, I’m not aware of any law or ordnance that says that I am not allowed to stand 10 feet from my own property on a community road that I am a member. Meanwhile, this person was getting very hostile, he told he me was going to call the police. I, of course, was doing nothing wrong and told him to go ahead, which he then proceeded to do. I took him for his word that he was actually calling the police. While he was making his complaint to the police, I yelled into his phone that I was a resident. He then decided that maybe his complaint was invalid and said into the phone “I’ll call back”. Meanwhile, the verbal attacks continued both ways as by then I was pretty angry.

Well, what better way to start off a photo blog, but to chime in on the film v. digital controversy.

As you can tell by the photo that I took 30+ years ago, I’ve used a lot of film, mostly slide film. As I’ve scanned many of my slides, I wished I would never have bought anything but Kodachrome. But, let’s leave that argument for another post.

I love digital. To me digital has come of age. Yes, I know the arguments that film will give you better tonal range and higher resolution. But, in the instantaneous society that we live, you can’t beat digital.

As a member of the senior citizens of America, those over 60, I can understand that many my age have a hard time with the menu structures of some of the DSLR’s. I’ve had my DSLR for 2 years and I learn something new about it everytime I use it.

In my opinion, it will be a long time before digital knocks film down for the count, but it is a digital world and if you don’t want to grow old, or should I say older, being confused with how cameras, phones, TV’s and computers work I’d suggest that you jump into the world of digital SLR’s now.