Isolation Photo Project, Day 53

Another sunny day and another well-lit kitchen table. Yesterday I photographed my lunch at the kitchen table but later realised that backlighting the food meant a dark foreground. I send Freddy Clark a note, and he responded that I could have used a strobe or another light to add some front light. I don’t have another light source, so this morning I chose to shoot parallel to the window toward the wall of the kitchen. The yoghurt, coffee mug and Chemex were lit from one side by window light, and on the other side, I set up a silver reflector. I had some front light from the small side window.

I like the results. The shadows seem less harsh, but I think I a strobe bounced off the ceiling could have reduced the shadows even more. Of course, that means I would need stands and clamps and a lot of other stuff; stuff I don’t have. I would also need time to set up, and the kitchen is not the ideal place for all of that, especially in the morning when I just want to eat breakfast. So this is the best I can do right now.

What do you think?


Thursday 14 May, 2020 | Day 53 | Sakar International Digital Concepts Sunplus SPCA533 |9.68 mm | f/2.8 | ISO 100

While rummaging in the basement, I found an old digital camera which I think I bought for my children when they were kids. The front of the camera says Digital Concepts 6.1 Megapixel. After some intense searching on Google, nearly two hours, I think I know which camera I have.

The Digital Concepts 6.1 Megapixel was made by Sakar International which acquired the Vivitar brand in 2008.

Here are the camera specs:

  • Functions: DSC/Mass Storage/Pictbridge
  • Digital Video resolution: (QVGA) 320 x 240 Pixels
  • Still image resolution: 2720 x 2048 Pixels, 2592 x 1944 Pixels, 2048 x 1536 Pixels,1600 x 1200 Pixels, 1280 x 1024 Pixels, 640 x 480 Pixels.
  • Lens: f/8.4mm, F2.8
  • Memory Device: Internal built-in 32MB (SDRAM). SD Memory Card Slot accepts SD/MMC Cards up to 512 MB.
  • Picture format: (JPEG)
  • Shutter Speed: Auto 1.8uS~1/30S
  • USB Interface: USB V1.1 interface
  • LCD Monitor: 1.5 Inch TFT color
  • Power: 2 x AA (1.5V) Batteries

This camera is shitty by today’s standards, but I was curious to try it anyway. I found some AA batteries and turned the camera on. It worked! I snapped exactly two photographs before I saw the out of memory message. I had some spare SD cards and tried them all, but none worked. After searching Google a bit more, I learned that the camera would work SDHC cards and the SD memory card slot accepts SD/MMC cards up to 512 MB. Not to be defeated I used the USB port to transfer images to my iMac directly via a macOS mount point but also using Adobe Lightroom Classic CC. The result is what you see below.

I don’t know why this is happening. The images don’t look this way on the rear LCD of the camera. I suspect it’s some sort of byte mismatch between the ancient OS on the camera my iMac.


And one more thing. Seventeen years ago, I sat and passed the gruelling five-hour CISSP certification exam. Every year since 2003 I have completed 120 hours of cybersecurity-related training over a three-year cycle to keep my certification. This week UK CISSPs got some very pleasant news.

(ISC)2, the world’s largest nonprofit association of certified cybersecurity professionals, today announced that the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification has been found comparable to Level 7 of the Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF) in the UK, denoting that the certification is comparable to a Masters degree standard.

Submitted as part of the 100DaysToOffload project.

Author: Khürt Williams

A human who works in information security and enjoys photography, Formula 1 and craft ale. #nobridge

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