On Sunday, I fly to San Francisco to spend a couple days at the Adobe mothership before heading to Salt Lake City for the Omniture Summit. With each trip to the west coast, I try to learn from the experience, so the next time is smoother. For example, I will never again fly with a suit bag. Of course, “pack light” is a given, but there are other things, like essential pocket occupants, that are a necessity (see travel tissues, Burt’s Beeswax, black Bic pen).

Wherever I fly, I make sure to bring my camera. And, depending on the location, I have a number of decisions to make—which lenses to bring, whether or not I’ll need a tripod, etc. The first time to San Francisco, I brought my tripod—an 11 ft Gitzo with carbon fiber legs. It was obvious afterwords that this was a big mistake, so the next time I packed my Gorillapod. With a height of about a foot, this was pretty limiting, so I rarely used it.

This time, I’m prepared. On Monday, I placed an order on B&H for a Gitzo carbon fiber monopod. It weighs less than a pound and supports 26.4 lbs!—making it the perfect travel companion. It arrived today and I noticed something I wasn’t expecting. Instead of using the ballhead from my tripod and nullifying the lightweight aspect of the monopod, I thought I’d use the quick release system from my DIY steadycam. Unfortunately, the lock on the quick release interferes with the monopod’s base.

To correct this issue, I ordered a swivel/tilt head. It provides one-axis movement to quickly switch between landscape and portrait—perfect for monopods. It’s expected to arrive on Friday, just in time for the trip. I’m excited to see how it performs, so look forward to a follow-up post after the trip.

My good friend, Luke Williams, finally launched his weblog—yes, I used the full word. Even though it has only been live for a short time, he already has a solid amount of fresh content. I know Luke is determined to keep this one active—as opposed to his first attempt, which ended up being comment-spammed by myself impersonating some of the more interesting people from MICA. Check it out and let him know what you think.

It’s been a solid 17 days since I started Destroy Everyday—the creation-a-day mini blog aimed to balance my life between coding and off-the-computer mediums. So far, it’s been a success, meaning I have yet to miss a day. It’s been such a personal success that I’ve somewhat neglected the mothership—Destroy Today. Now that I have a solid routine down for the new year, it’s time to get back to business and stay active across the board.

I have a number of new DestroyFramework classes ready to document and check-in over the next few days. I plan to get back into sharing interesting and useful things I come across, regarding both programming and design. And, now that I’ve been introduced to MVC(S) and RobotLegs, I have a lot more to talk about—expect a tutorial in the near future.

To add some imagery to this post, below is yesterday’s Destroy Everyday post featuring Andy Mangold. I also included a detail shot because the web-sized image really doesn’t do it justice.

It’s the new year and the best day to start anything. In my search for a hobby off the computer, I compromised and found a semi-off-the-computer challenge. Jen led me to the “Make Something Cool Every Day” concept. It’s a great motivation to consistently produce work while strengthening creativity. The best example I’ve seen yet is Brock Davis’s portfolio on Behance. Surely, I don’t expect to think up ideas as original as his, but I plan to use this as a stimulus to return to photography, print, and any other physical mediums I’ve neglected over the years.

The daily creations will reside on destroyeveryday.com as a Tumblr blog. The service provides a dozen different ways to post content, so “I didn’t have access to a computer” won’t be an excuse for missing a day—believe it or not, you can post content via a 1-800 number. Here’s to the new year and the beginning of a new venture.

Yesterday, Jen asked if we would still be able to go out today because of the snow forecast. I said, “I don’t see why not. It’s probably going to flurry.” Two feet of snow later, we decided to take the camera out for a walk. It was a lot colder than expected, so we didn’t stay out very long. At f/2.8 with my new 50mm f/1.2, I was able to snag a few beauties of Jen.

Jen and I recently went home to PA for a weekend visit with my newly acquired Canon 50mm 1.2L. When I had the Canon 30D, my 35mm 1.4L had the perfect focal length, but after upgrading to full frame with the Canon 5D MKII, it became too wide. Since the 35mm on the 30D’s 1.6x crop body is the equivalent to 55mm on full frame, I decided to take the plunge and pick up the Canon 50mm 1.2L. I couldn’t be happier with the lens—its bokeh makes butter feel like concrete. While in PA, Jen, her sister, and I stopped at the Linvilla Orchards for some test shots and fresh apples. Check out the photos on Flickr.

This is a great photo by Jim Lind. I really appreciate the balance of raw photography and subtle retouching. There was certainly a solid amount of time put into the composite, but it doesn’t scream photoshop like his other images.

via ShareSomeCandy »

This video looks like it’s making the rounds this week—it’s a time-lapse, by Peter Belanger, of what goes into a Macworld cover, including the photography, photoshopping, and design. I always love to see how professionals photograph, especially in the studio setting, so this was certainly a treat for me.

via Ben Kutil »

First off, Ruud Baan is probably the most badass names I’ve ever heard. Secondly, this Dutch photographer has some gorgeous new work, a series of ballet dancers underwater. It’s a beautiful set of images—I’m just dying to see the setup. One of these days, I’m going to get underwater housing for my 5D. And when I do, I’ll still be too afraid to take it underwater.

via NotCot »

This little bad ass is a young Destroy Today. The photo was taken in the National Building Museum, where my dad and I attended one of his flying contests. He builds rubber-band-powered airplanes out of balsa wood and flies them throughout the east coast. I was there because I built one of my own—a Baby Jodel. It flew miserably, but I had the time of my life watching all the pros fly their creations. Here’s a video of one of the launches—at 3:45 you get to see the only time my plane actually flew that day:

By the way, here’s a photo of Destroy Yesterday (dad) circa 1997—it’s just too good not to include: