I work in IT (Sysadmin). “Oh, you fix computers? Can you look at my laptop?”
“oh wow your photography is so nice what camera do you use?”
._. photography is 80% skill and 20% gear and yet, i never get asked “what technique did you use?”, it’s always about the camera i use, as if this entry level DSLR is framing and shooting on its own
What techniques do you use?
oh various ones! what i pick always depends on the lighting conditions, if the subject is stationary or moving, and the vibe i want for the photo.
i definitely prefer single thought out takes rather than rapid fire 20 photos with hope that one of them is the one (i don’t shoot sports often). And overall i really like framing things with the foreground to give a feeling of depth to the photo. In post processing i focus on making the photos look like i remember them to have been, coloured by memory and all that, rather than try to recreate realism 1:1. i’m being kinda vague but my photos are mostly on my PC and i use lemmy on mobile so can’t point to anything more specific, and tbf, a lot of my best takes are just patience and or luck
above all though, i like experimenting with how i shoot or edit :)
thanks for asking <3
I’m the opposite, lots of rapid fire photos, but I do photo a lot of animals. I don’t pose them either. I like candid shots of the pets doing there thing.
I got to sit through a photos and editing class as a para last year and I learned so much about it! I really wish film was easier to get developed because I have this beautiful 60 year old agfamatic that I adore using and now I actually know how to adjust for lighting and angle, different framing techniques, and everything, but I still can’t afford to develop the shots.
I took this photo with my iPhone 12 mini:
https://metapixl.com/p/Stoy/797570781570361213
It is a fantastic photo, I use it as my current lockscreen.
This photo was taken with my Lumix S5
https://metapixl.com/p/Stoy/795407386229307789
They are two very different photos, I hesitate to rank them in terms of how good they are.
A good camera gives the photographer more tools to get the photo they want, but you still need skills and experience to take good photos.
._. photography is 80% skill and 20% gear and yet, i never get asked “what technique did you use?”
How do you even answer that question? “Rule of thirds :)”? It’s not like you’re using a technique, it’s a mixture of many techniques. Do you just go into a Photography 101 lesson?
“What equipment do you use?” Has a simple, exact answer, which can open the door to more in depth conversation.
there’s a bit more to it than the rule of thirds
there’s always a leading style, technique, or idea behind the process that happens before you take the photo. and that process can be explained, to a degree
Yes, I know, that’s why I used it as an overly-reductive example. I’m saying you can’t just easily explain your technique. Even if you identify the leading style, a good photo is going to incorporate a number of principles and techniques. That’s why my alternative was launching into a Photography 101 lesson.
When someone asks you what equipment you use, they probably fall into one of two camps:
-They’re making smalltalk about your hobby, in which case again, that opens the door to a more in depth conversation if that’s the vibe. “I used X camera with Y lens, which works really well with this kind of framing at these settings.” You can even skip the equipment entirely and just focus on a particular effect and how you achieved it, explaining how it’s more to do with lens settings and composition than a specific camera.
-They’re interested in the hobby themselves, and looking for information that will inform what kind of equipment they will start using. A good photographer can make use of a disposable camera, but someone starting off needs a bit of guidance to find equipment that is good enough for serious work, but cheap enough for an entry level enthusiast.
That I spend all day coding, I spend most my day reading. Code usually but still
I’m a web developer. People assume the following:
- I’m an expert with operating systems.
- I’m good with math.
- I eat junk food and drink energy drinks/soda.
- I’m a proponent and consumer of all new technologies.
- I like (insert) TV, Movie, or Anime.
Hey bro, can you hack my ex GFs Facebook?
Yeah, by social engineering. You would probably be better at that than myself though since you can get a girlfriend.
I’m knowledgeable about operating systems.
I’m good with math.
I eat junk food and drink energy drinks/soda.
I read about new techniques but am very wary of heavily marketed stuff.
I read a ton of Asian comics.People assume that I know how to do webpages, they don’t know what a web developer is. No, I don’t know l. Well barely but not really, I’m a data engineer goddammit.
I assume you wear programmer socks. DM pics?
I wear black GOLDTOE socks or leather sandals.
Hello? FBI? Yes, this post right here.
deleted by creator
People praise me up for “saving the bees”. Honey bees don’t need saving. It’s the other bees that do, the hundreds of species of bumblebees, mining bees, solitary bees etc etc. Bees that are outcompeted in some areas due to the number of hobbyist beekeepers and commercial bee farms. I’m one of the baddies.
I’ve always been interested in the business side of beekeeping, do you rent out for pollination and is it worth doing?
We get free use of a spot next to an apple orchard, so I guess pollination is our “rent”, plus some honey. I don’t know what arrangement commercial beekeepers have - near us they move 60+ hives in when the oilseed rape (canola) is flowering, then move them again when it’s finished. A guy I was talking to said they reckon they can break even with 300 hives, because one person can deal with that many. More than that they have to employ someone else, and bang go the profits. Sounds like a nightmare. I struggle to cope with 7 hives!
I have a wildlife garden with lots of wild plants and insects and stuff. I thought I was helping the bees but I mean just helping some body make artisanal honey to sell to me at the craft fair?
No, you’re helping all the other pollinators too! Keep a corner of your garden nice and rough, with tumbled bricks or rocks, twigs, dead leaves etc to make a wee nesting spot for bumblebees.
Therapists are not “always analysing” you.
Seriously, you gotta pay me before I’ll spend the energy to do that
My ex girlfriend is a therapist, and she was CONSTANTLY “analyzing” me, even when I begged her to turn that shit off and just be my girlfriend.
Count Dracula doesn’t like in a castle because he’s a vampire.
He lives in a castle because he’s a count
I feel like even after paying therapists don’t do much
Sucks that you’ve not found them helpful.
Therapy can be great, a place to get stuff that’s hard to find in the day to day life.
But it’s not the only place to get that stuff. So I hope whatever it is you need, you find a place that works for you.
- unless they are autistic. Then they analyse every little twitch
I’m a general contractor, and I think a lot of my customers assume I know everything about construction work - that whenever I’m doing something, it’s something I’ve done dozens of times before. But quite often, that’s not the case. Sometimes, all I know about the task at hand comes from a YouTube video I watched the night before, or I’m just following the manufacturer’s instructions step by step.
People don’t realize how often I’m just winging it and hoping it turns out fine. The fact that someone hires me usually means they know even less about the job than I do, which creates the illusion of much greater expertise. But in reality, the main difference between me and them often just boils down to the fact that I’m not afraid to try.
And that you have the experience of trying
In many cases, yes - but my work also involves a lot of things that I’m doing for the very first time.
That I smoke all day, everyday. I don’t. I read reports, I check environmental variable, I take readings from and make adjustments to tanks, I instruct people on how to prune and I sob over the new room of completely bare ones because nobody fucking listens to me.
AI can do it - translator.
Example of Google lens fail:
That I can fix their computer or home network.
Sorry, Bubba, if your router costs less than my PC, there’s not much I can do. Same answer if your PC costs less than my car.
Also, I haven’t been good at troubleshooting windows (to the extent that is at all possible) since Tobey was Spiderman.
People assume that because I’m into technology that I can unlock
stolenphones or do XYZ whatever with their Facebook/Twitter/Instagram accounts or whatever. One, I don’t touch stolen devices. Two, I don’t have any accounts with any of those sort of services, and ain’t about to start one to learn the ins and outs for other people.Software dev and game dev: Being lazy, it not being a real job, not much effort, it being easy, everyone is a super genius, AI will replace us
User end hands on IT for the elderly.
that it’s hard. “Oh I could never do your job”
It’s literally a customer service job with tech paint. Reboot the device. Don’t yell at the decrepit person doing their best in a digital world. Collect check and praise.
The amount of times I’ve been called a genius for relogging into someone’s email is greater than 7.
Yeah. Real hard.
Lol, I was the computer genius in my office job because I knew how to change the paper size on the printer from Letter to A4. Soak up the praise!
It’s one of those things I’d probably have to Google because how many times do you do that, but yeah think most people just give up when they hit a technical problem and stop thinking.
Software engineering.
Most people don’t have a clue what we do. Especially management. Most people think we’re code factory workers, just writing code all day. In reality, it is closer to being an artist than it is a factory worker. There’s a ton of thinking, discussion, design, and unfortunately politicking.
Hey collegue!
Fully agree with you. People think anything can be done with Software. But often not really and we just create a work around. Its always funny to see people think developing is easy and then get shattered by reality. Sometimes you just sit there, screaming for why it doesnt work!..then you see you set the wrong variable.
Sometimes you are an artist, sometimes a high mathematician, sometimes a wizard and sometimes you want to get an axe and hack your computer
Thats interesting. I am one of those people who assumed the job was pretty much just coding all day on some team project. What does your day to day routine look like?
It can vary a lot depending on the day and the company/job. Frequently there are meetings that are update/planning discussions, discussions with one or more other engineers on how to build a given feature, debugging existing code to figure out why it’s not doing the thing we want (which is a different but overlapping skill set with coding).
Ultimately there isn’t really a “typical” day because we wear a lot of different hats. My current job is more coding heavy because I’m at a small startup with only a couple of engineers. In a given week I’m probably doing 10% meetings, 50% coding/debugging/configuration, 20% code review (reviewing other people’s code), and 20% thinking/designing/experimenting with ideas. Those numbers vary a lot though. At a previous job I ended up spending an entire week just doing project management to alleviate my boss’ anxiety over a project (which was somewhat self defeating because it meant I wasn’t getting work done on said project). That job in particular had a lot of politicking and communication which was due to micromanagement.
A lot of what people don’t realize is that we aren’t just building a feature. We’re building a feature while thinking ahead to known or potential future features. How can we build feature A to enable making features B, C, and D easier/better/faster without also making feature E much more difficult or impossible? It’s about building flexibility into the system while also balancing against time and cost restrictions. We as engineers have things that we see as necessary while the business wants more features and it’s necessary to balance the two. At a healthy org that means that there’s a negotiation of priorities between the two forces. If you only focus on the technical stuff, you won’t ship features. If you only focus on the features, how fast you can deliver features will come to a grinding halt. Your system will also start breaking in unexpected ways which takes time away from building features.
It’s kinda a rambly response to your question but I hope it helps.
I’m a physical substation designer, and people ask me if I can do electrician stuff.
No, I can’t, and don’t ask me anything about electricity, thanks.
I just had to google what a substation was. My initial guess was that you made subways lol.
