Who Will Hold Your Hand?
Introducing Zipline Quick Reply
[I’m CEO of Zooomr]
Well I’m pleased to announce that Kristopher has just rolled out the latest enhancement to Zooomr, Zipline Quick Reply.
Zipline, Zooomr’s photo and message notification service, continues to be one of the most popular features on Zooomr. Today Kristopher added the ability to quick reply to individual zipline messages. If you find a message that you want to reply to, simply click on the reply button on that message. With this reply the original message and replies will be bumped to the top of the zipline.
Check it out and play with it. It should make it much easy for people to interact on Zipline.
Listen
Had a Great Time Photowalking Sutro Baths and the Castro Last Night
Well I had a great time shooting last night with a great group of friends. We started out at the Sutro Baths and were rewarded by God, Mother Nature or random weather, depending on what you believe in, with an awesome sunset. San Francisco looked to be somewhat overcast yesterday, but the clouds just opened up out at the Sutro Baths and we got to see that big orange ball sink slowly into the sea.
After we shot the Sutro Baths for a while we drove over to the West Portal Muni Station. West Portal is one of muni’s architectural gems. It’s got this brilliant wide arch in the station that just dares you to whip out that ultra wide angle lens. And you better believe I did. We grabbed a train at West Portal next and headed up to the Castro Street Station.
Shooting was pretty trouble free in the Muni until the end of the night when the Castro Station Muni operator told us that we were not allowed to shoot in the Muni station. I told her that we could. She said that her supervisor from West Portal has called her and told her to be on the lookout for us. I insisted still that we were allowed to shoot in the Muni. She kept saying that it wasn’t her rule that her supervisor had called her. Finally after I kept insisting that we could shoot in the Muni she asked me if I was still going to shoot. I said yes and she said that she was then going to call her supervisor. Whoop di do dah!
The Castro was a pretty fun place to shoot. Lots of neon and great window displays. I found this great gas mask to shoot in a window display and then we also found these awesome little drink umbrellas.
While we were all shooting the Castro Theater lots of passerbys stopped to ask us why we were all shooting the theater. I told them that we were paparazzi and that Tom Cruise was inside. I figured that was the most appropriate answer given that the Castro Theater was showing a remastered version of the gay themed Al Pacino film “Cruising” back from way back. People were excited to hear that Tom Cruise was in the Castro. (Don’t sue me Tom, I was just kidding).
Anyways, we grabbed some Pizza at Escape from New York Pizza, ran into Kevin Rose there, and then continued our shooting.
Jeff Grosse and I set up the photowalk a few weeks back when he said he was coming to town with a few friends from Sweden. I guess with the Swedes on board that made this photowalk an especially international one.
I’ve only processed a few of my photos from the night. I’ll have more of them up sporadically up over the next few weeks. The shot above is from a reflection that I shot of the group while we were shooting at the Sutro Baths early on.
To see some of the shots from last night be sure to check out the photowalking091507 tag on Zooomr.
Beauty in the Moonlight
A Lot of Living
Last weekend Will, Holly, Kate and I took a wagon ride to the cemetery by my house. On the way there we found this superball on a storm drain. William loved playing with the ball. We found this giant flat tombstone and were rolling the ball back and forth to each other over it. We had a great time. It reminded me that this world belongs to the living and even moreso to our children.
I love taking my kids to the cemetery and see it as a sort of park. It’s quiet, nobody’s hardly ever there and they can have fun together while I take pictures. We talk about death and what the place means and the memories of all the people burried there. Mostly though they just like to run around and play and be kids.
Scobleizer Version 3.0, Welcome Milan William Scoble
Well if Robert Scoble is the original Scobleizer and his first son Patrick is Scobleizer version 2.0, then early this morning we got version 3.0 in the form of Milan William Scoble who arrived on this earth 9 pounds and healthy.
I had an opportunity to go down to Stanford and visit with Robert and Milan this afternoon and it was really something. I didn’t get to see Maryam because she was still recovering after a very, very, tough labor. I’m not going to get into the details but it was long and hard and painful. But everybody’s healthy and the final result is this beautiful, beautiful healthy 9 pound baby boy Milan.
There is something special about holding a life in your arms that is less than 24 hours old. I held Milan for a bit this afternoon while visiting with Robert and my heart just about melted. Milan is an amazing child. He was incredibly alert while I visited. He was awake and taking in this great big world.
It was really nice watching Robert with him. As a father myself I know the so intense emotions and love that come with the birth of a child and there was a peacefulness with Robert as he held Milan gently in his arms and kissed his baby boy and when the tiny baby cries would start he’d shhhhhhhhh… and quiet his son down.
I took a bunch of shots of Robert and Milan and later Robert’s dad William who arrived and got to see his new grandson for the first time. Milan’s middle name William is named after Robert’s dad.
Robert hadn’t had very much sleep and although there is no way you can compare that to Maryam’s massive feat of actually delivering Milan he was certainly tired. But even tired I could see the happiness that came from Robert as he sat there with his son. This quiet peacefulness and this proudness that I saw in him for his new baby boy.
The world is rough. I hate that so many babies are born in this world into tough situations. Which is why it gives me such joy when I see babies born into loving stable families who will nurture them and give them every advantage in life that all babies deserve. Milan is one of those babies. He comes into this world with two great loving parents, a proud older brother Patrick, and lots and lots and lots of other friends and family who will love him and help nurture him as he grows. This afternoon was a very happy one for me.
I wish Maryam a speedy recovery and welcome to the world Milan!
To see my set of photos of Milan this afternoon click through here.
45 Fremont
The Guard at 45 Fremont gave me crap when I was taking this photo from outside the building the other day. I asked him if he remembered the last guy whose portrait I took there. The guy who flipped me off. He said he did. I asked if that guy still worked there and he said no. I told him that I wasn’t going to take his portrait today but that I was shooting from a public area and that he should go back inside and let me finish up with my shooting and that I’d be leaving when I was done. He said ok and went back inside.
Some people never learn. It kind of pisses me off a bit because 95% of people who are asked not to shoot from public areas will just listen to the security guard and not challenge their authority. He wasn’t going to give me crap because of the fallout over it the last time at this building, but it makes me wonder how he would have treated a different photographer.
On an unrelated note, I’ve always seen the bridge walkway that connects 45 Fremont and 50 Beale Street as a lifeline between two hearts. I’m not sure why. I think you can see it better as a lifeline here.
Welcome to the World Milan William Scoble
My friends Robert and Maryam Scoble had their son Milan last night. Robert hasn’t posted about it yet on his blog (understandably), but the photo above is from his Flickr stream. He’s updating on Twitter as well.
I’m not sure on all of the details yet but from the Flickr photo above he looks like a beautiful, healthy baby boy. Robert said on his Twitter account that Milan was 9 pounds and was born at 2:24am. The camera time stamp on the photo above is from a few hours ago about 3am this morning.
This is Robert and Maryam’s first child together.
I’ve got four kids myself and the birth of each of them was an amazing thing. Watching new life come into this world, first breathes, first cries, is like something that just can’t be described. The love for your child stays with you always, it never fades, but the emotional wave of love that rushes over you when a new child is born is like nothing else in this world.
The birth of a child makes you reassess so much about your life. They change your priorities. They make you want to be a better person.
Congrats to both of you Robert and Maryam. Milan is lucky to have such two great parents who love him and will nurture him well in this world. Congratulations on this amazing news and this amazing new life that the two of you have created.
Oh, and look for some more awesome photos from Robert of Milan very soon. I talked to him yesterday on the phone and he told me that he bought a Canon 5D with a bunch of great prime lenses. One of the lenses he bought was the EF100 f/2.8 macro which is an amazing portrait lens as well. I’m really looking forward to seeing some of the shots of Milan that he got with that one! If Canon was smart, they’d also get a 135L series to him at the hospital asap. 😉