@mattblaze@federate.social
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mattblaze

@mattblaze@federate.social

Scientist, safecracker, etc. McDevitt Professor of Computer Science and Law at Georgetown. Formerly UPenn, Bell Labs. So-called expert on election security and stuff. https://twitter.com/mattblaze on the Twitter. Slow photographer. Radio nerd. Blogs occasionally at https://www.mattblaze.org/blog . I probably won't see your DM; use something else. He/Him. Uses this wrong.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

mattblaze, to random
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Periodic reminder that the Mastodon DM/PM mechanism is an unreliable and generally ineffective way to reach me. I don't check them, and will only see your message by happenstance.

And the whole mechanism is a trash fire of insecure, unusable design and unclear, dangerous semantics. E.g., merely mentioning someone in a DM sends them a copy. Don't use it for anything even remotely private or personal.

mattblaze,
@mattblaze@federate.social avatar

Every time I warn about this, it infuriates the Mastodon fanboy zealots, who live in absolute denial of the possibility that anything here could possibly be improved. But that's why it's important to mention it.

mattblaze, to photography
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Philadelphia Inquirer Building, Philadelphia, PA, 2017.

All the pixels that are fit to print at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/32309131520

mattblaze,
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This was captured with a DSLR and a 19mm shifting lens. There's a bit of barrel distortion from the lens, but I decided this image looked better uncorrected.

The Inquirer building, completed in 1924, to me evokes a cigar-chomping editor who calls everyone "kid" and who says things like "bring me back a scoop".

The building had been vacant for a few years when this photo was made, the paper having moved to cheaper and leaner facilities. It has since been repurposed as police headquarters.

mattblaze,
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The Inquirer building also housed (until a few years before they moved) their printing plant, making it one of the last major dailies where it was at least theoretically possible for an editor to run downstairs and yell "stop the presses!" if a major story came in. But I'll bet that never actually happened.

mattblaze,
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@LinuxAndYarn There was a lovely sign at the loading dock memorializing a reporter who had been killed pursuing a story.

mattblaze,
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@kolb The sad part is that the police moving in was actually the least bad of the serious proposals for the property. There was a chance it might have been turned into a casino.

mattblaze,
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@billjanssen I'm sure I've posted this before.

mattblaze,
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@LinuxAndYarn They took it out when they moved.

skinnylatte, to SanFrancisco
@skinnylatte@hachyderm.io avatar

my recent TSA experience at SFO was surprising.

someone saw my camera in the tray and was like, is that film? lemme hand check the film for you. what film are you shooting? where did you get the waist level finder? i really want one too.

hahahaha

mattblaze,
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@skinnylatte Hahaha!

Screener at SFO a few years ago asked me, with a very serious face, when I was carrying a TON of specialized RF equipment, "are you a ghostbuster?".

mattblaze, to random
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Today is seriously testing my general disinclination to make light of someone's medical condition.

mattblaze, to random
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Someone asked me (in a reasonable, non-trolly way) why I don't do more in color. It's a good question. Here was my answer to them.

Two main reasons. First, occasionally, though rarely, I do work in color. But most of my fine art stuff is indeed B&W. This is not because I have anything against color photography, but rather because, for my subjects and compositions, I generally find that color distracts from, rather than enhances, the shapes and tonalities that I'm trying to capture.

mattblaze,
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Second, and more importantly, it's just not a medium I feel as comfortable in. Color is very different, and doing it well requires an eye that I may not possess or have developed.

When you ask, "Why didn't you make this photo in color?", you might as well ask why I didn't make it a poem or a sculpture.

w7voa, to random
@w7voa@journa.host avatar

Hong Kong court bans a protest song, claiming it could be used as a weapon. https://hongkongfp.com/2024/05/08/breaking-govt-bid-to-ban-glory-to-hong-kong-protest-song-approved-by-appeals-court/

mattblaze,
@mattblaze@federate.social avatar

@w7voa As Tom Lehrer sang:

So join in the folk song army
Guitars are the weapons we bring
To the fight against poverty, war, and injustice
Ready, aim, sing

mattblaze, to random
@mattblaze@federate.social avatar

Email from a student: "Can I use bullets in my project?"

Me: worriedly looking through the student's project proposal and wondering if I need to call the cops.

Turned they were asking if they could use bullet lists in a project document.

Context matters!

mattblaze,
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@SteveBellovin Oh dear...

mattblaze, to random
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Periodic reminder: I'm grateful for the interest, but I'm not currently set up to sell prints of my photos.

However, almost every photo I post here is accompanied by a Flickr link, from which you can grab a high quality jpg at full resolution (sometimes north of 100MP). You're welcome to download that to have a print made locally. Almost everything is available under a CC non-commercial license.

A few suggestions follow.

mattblaze,
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First, find a local print shop that does larger-format fine art photo printing. A place you can work with in person is generally going to have much better (and quicker!) quality than an Internet-based service, many of which aren't great or make it too much of a pain to iteratively tweak things.

Most cities have such a place; a local photo store might be able to point you in the right direction.

mattblaze,
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Second, the paper matters. I generally print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Baryta, which is a heavy slightly glossy photo paper that works well for many B&W images. It comes in rolls of various widths (including over 5 feet). It's not cheap, but no good papers are, unfortunately.

I use a Canon PRO-4100, which is a 44" wide beast. I use the stock inks, which are quite good.

A good print shop might not have exactly this, but if they have no idea what you're talking about, that's a bad sign.

mattblaze, (edited )
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Third, as expensive as a good large (2x3' and up) print may be, be prepared to be utterly shocked at the cost of framing.

I generally go for a simple black wooden frame, a matte about 2-3 wide, and UV archival glass. "Museum" glass, which is both archival and non-reflective, looks a bit better but is much more expensive, especially for large pieces.

There are also now good quality acrylic glazings available, which can reduce cost and weight (making it easier to hang the piece safely).

mattblaze, (edited )
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Finally, remember that the most expensive part of a large print is the real estate in your walls at home. You're going to be living with this thing every day. Make sure you actually want that before you invite it in.

This is why I almost never make unsolicited gifts of prints of my photos. It can end up being a super passive-aggressive gesture if they feel obligated to hang it.

mattblaze,
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I may at some point sell limited edition (signed and numbered) prints of select images that I personally produce. But I have no interest managing general retail sales for unsigned prints. Just download it and have it made locally. I'm cool with that.

mattblaze,
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(I should also point out that "I'm cool with that" does NOT apply to COMMERCIAL use of my CC-licensed photos. Want to use one of my photos on a book cover? In an ad? On coffee mugs? Contact me and we'll figure something out, maybe.)

mattblaze, to photography
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De-Electrification, Philadelphia, PA, 2005.

Too many pixels at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/2155416560

mattblaze,
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Precisionism, a roughly century-old modernist American art movement related to cubism, is a strong influence on my work. Its practitioners included Joseph Stella, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Charles Demuth. Paul Strand was probably the most prominent precisionist photographer.

Precisionism is concerned with structure and geometry as well as the relationship between humans, machines, and the industrial landscape.

I'm interested in how the precisionists might interpret the world as it's become today.

mattblaze,
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@dan131riley The link loads for me fine.

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