Chris Casciano’s Place Name Here

Last week I had the pleasure of speaking to the great crowd at the New York Web Performance Group Meetup. Fellow presenter Marco Carag (Front End Manager at The Knot) laid down a strong foundation with a discussion of where HTML and CSS sit on the Progressive Enhancement ladder. Following that I came in and talked about JavaScript’s different roles in PE, client side performance, and browser support of upcoming Web Standards. Here’s the slide deck from my portion of the presentation:

I saw this wall by Shepard Fairey of Obey Giant and the Obama Hope poster fame whlie killing time before the NYC.js meeting last Thursday. Check all the detail in the large size photo

There’s been lots of buzz surrounding Content Aware Fill in Photoshop CS5 but I’ve seen a bit less about the updates to the photo merge and HDR features. These were the tools I was most interested in taking for a spin when I installed the upgraded applications. If they delivered at making it easy to create High Dynamic Range Photographs, particularly that are more photorealistic then fantastical and candied looking, then it would save me from buying other apps to do that processing or forgetting the genre existed all together.

After watching a video of the new HDR Pro features and some desire to play with new toys firmly seeded I decided to rattle off a few bracketed exposures while in Central Park earlier this week and give the new HDR Pro a spin. I hadn’t gone out intending to shot for HDR and without a tripod the handheld, roughly steadied and quickly taken photos aren’t the best platform to use for an analysis of the application. Still, I have to say I was really happy with the results and the lack of manual input and fighting in the process. Features like image alignment and the new ghost removal features performed better then expected and gave me passable results.

I’ll leave the in depth analysis and comparison between tools to other people, but I thought it would be helpful to others to see a quick rundown of my proces to create the two photographs featured.

What’s in the Hudson, Passaic, Hackensack and other local waterways that has people increasingly using them for recreation — or maybe the better question is what isn’t in the water. Boaters and kayakers enjoying these rivers some might be afraid of due to pollution or other fears aren’t exactly new, but this story of some local school kids building their own canoes and paddling down the Passaic caught my eye today, and caps off a few weeks of hearing or reading about the local rivers.

N.J. students in environment-education program ride self-built canoes on Passaic River [The Star-Ledger]

Last week I had the pleasure of attending an evening talk followed by a full day workshop by wildlife and landscape photographer Moose Peterson. The event was hosted by Adorama and Nikon.

Presentation Night – All About Food & Sex!

Thursday night at Adorama’s workshop space on Moose gave a nice presentation both on his photographic passions — shooting endangered wildlife and other little critters on the west coast — as well as some instruction on his compositional technique and working with light and your environment. Moose has been shooting for 30-some-odd years and shared with the group his top tip for getting close to animals in the wild

It was part celebration and exploration of intenet celebrity and part an excuse to let your geek out. Most of all, ROFLThing NYC 2009 was a fun way to spend a cold, wintery Saturday . When else are you going to have the faces of “You Suck at Photoshop”, Sockington, Improv Everywhere, the Tron Guy and a bunch of hackers all in one room? Oh, and the most maligned man in the typography industry — the creator of the Comic Sans font.

I had planned to write up a big review of the event with hReview and all that jazz, but that would have been far to serious for an event like this. Instead I’ve recapped some of the panels and gathered a whole bunch of links for you to to chase and waste time on this week at work.

Comment on this photo at Flickr

Comment on this photo at Flickr

I’ll again be attending the Future of Web Design conference in NYC tomorrow [after running out to vote] and as usual I’ll have the camera in tow. If you see me, say hi.

This past week brought the PDN PhotoPlus Expo to New York City once again. The show is a photo gear geek’s dream — where you can handle the swankiest new gear from the likes of Nikon, Canon, Adobe and Epson. And if gear isn’t your thing there are lots of demos, presentations and signings from famous photographers like Joe McNally, Moose Peterson, Vincent Versace, Jay Maisel and Scott Kelby.

Jaromir Jagr’s 2nd goal puts the Rangers up 3-0. Stanley Cup Playoffs, 2nd round, Game 4. May 1, 2008

comment on this photo at flickr

view all photos and comment at flickr

comment on this photo at flickr

comment on this photo at flickr

I meant to post this earlier, but if you’re in NYC next monday:

Good times, good people, good cause, and an open bar. I should be at the 7:30PM screening.

Five year ago today, on September 11, 2001, I was on my way to the work but never got there. The commute at the time was a NJ Transit train to Hoboken and then the PATH train to 9th Street where I got out and then walked across Broadway to the office. I made it to Hoboken shortly after one of the planes hit the towers and by then all transportation there was shut down and I was let wandering Hoboken all day like so many others.

Gallery

When putting together this gallery and looking through the photos I had taken and digesting it all I wrote:

Look elsewhere for words. I have not yet found any that does what I saw justice.

I still don’t have the right words to describe the events, and 5 years later I fear the attempt would only be muddied by feelings about the events and changes that have taken place since.

Last Thursday I had attended the one day course on presenting information by Edward Tufte.

The full day lecture style talk consisted of jumping through 4 of his books (which are included in the cost of the day) as he takes you through his thesis about how to present data and information so that it is understandable, credible, and in context.