Day 43: Scarcity and Value

How do you price art?


I’ve found something
No one else is looking for
I’ve found something
That there’s no use for
And what’s more
I’m keeping it to myself

Wire, Single K.O.






I call bullshit.





Day 31: Using etcd As a Mediator

etcd is a database originally developed by CoreOS, and is most famously used as the database at the heart of Kubernetes. It is a distributed key-value store, which in itself is not all that remarkable. The thing about etcd that makes it so attractive is the ability to watch a key for changes.

Other key/value stores, such as Redis, have implemented a similar feature, and may work just as well for you. I’ve been using etcd for years, and it’s worked well for me, so I’ve never had a reason to try these other tools.

For most data stores, the only way to find if a particular value has changed is to poll. You issue a query for that value on a regular basis, and compare it to the last value returned to see if it has changed. This is terribly inefficient, especially with values that don’t change often. It’s also inexact with respect time, because your system’s reaction to a changed value depends on the interval between polls. Longer intervals, while less chatty, mean that more time will elapse between when the value changes, and when your application responds to that change.

Enter etcd. Instead of polling an etcd server for changes, you can watch for changes. This is essentially a pubsub system that requires almost no configuration to work. When a key is written to etcd, if there are any watchers for that key, a message is sent to them with the new value.

This is kind of dry in theory, so let’s look at a real-world application using this system: my photoviewer and photoserver applications. These applications allow me to display photographs on monitors that can be anywhere with an internet connection, and control each of those displays from a central server. They represent the ultimate convergence of my work as an artist and my love of programming.

Each display consists of a monitor (actually a TV, but all I want is an HDMI input) and a Raspberry Pi that runs the photoviewer application. Each display has a unique ID to identify it, and when a display starts up, it registers itself with the server. The server contains the settings for that display, such as the list of photos to display, and how often to change the displayed photo.

Photoviewer running in my kitchen

I have one such display in the kitchen of my home, and like to change the photos displayed on it from time to time. To do that, I go into my photoserver app and change the album for that display. Almost instantly the image on the display changes. How did that happen? The server is a virtual machine running in the Digital Ocean cloud, not local to the kitchen display.

The reason this works is that I’m also running an etcd server on another cloud instance. When I change any setting for a display, the photoserver app writes a new value for that display’s key. The key consists of the unique ID of the display plus the type of value being changed. For example, if I change the photos I want displayed for a display with the ID of 65febdde-3e8a-4c76-ab8f-d8a653e466c7, the server would write a value of a list of the names of those images to the key /551a441f-8aba-44b5-b70b-349af0be5b67:images.

That application uses the etcd3 library to watch my etcd server for changes to any key beginning with /<unique ID>. The watch() method is called with a callback method, and when a new key is written beginning with that display’s prefix, the value is sent to the callback.

The callback method sees that the full key ends with :images, so it passes the value (the list of image names) to the photo display method, which then retrieves the image and displays it. This happens in real time, without any polling of the server needed.

The original version of these apps used the traditional polling method, which seemed wasteful, considering that it was typically weeks between any changes being made. Switching to an etcd watch makes much more sense from a design perspective, and it greatly simplified the code.

Look for cases in your applications where a response is needed to a change in data. Using etcd as a mediator might be a good approach.

Day 7: Equipment

I’m deliberately taking a step back from my more political posts of the last few days in order to mentally process the events of the past weekend to get some perspective. Don’t worry, though, I’m sure I’ll be back to political commentary soon!

When people learn I’m a photographer, one of the first questions is invariably “So what kind of camera do you use?”. This is a perfectly understandable question, and also a completely irrelevant one.

When I first started out in photography, I had a friend who was a staff photographer for the city newspaper. He used a Canon F-1, a black-bodied professional camera. I noticed, though, that he used black electrical tape to cover the words ‘Canon’ and ‘F-1’ that were prominently written in white letters. I asked him about the tape, and he said that he got so sick of people seeing it and saying things like “Canon? Why don’t you use Nikon instead?” that he covered up the identifying marks.

A camera is a tool, nothing more. If you want to improve your photographs, buying an expensive new camera, or switching from Brand A to Brand B is not going to help.

I used to golf a lot, not that I was very good at it – I enjoyed being outside with a task to focus on, the company of other men, and, in retrospect, I enjoyed time away from my (now ex-) wife. Golf equipment companies are notorious for marketing expensive new clubs with the promise to hit the ball farther and straighter. But for everyone but the top professionals, it isn’t the club that’s holding you back; it’s your skill. You would be infinitely better off spending that money on lessons with a golf pro than on new clubs. Yet every year golfers spend their money on things that won’t help them improve.

This holds true in so many areas. New tools won’t make your woodworking better, and buying a vintage Stratocaster won’t help you play guitar better. So what will?

In almost all cases, the two things that will help is a good teacher, and lots of practice. The teacher can get you on the right path, and correct you when you stray off of it. You still have to put in the time, though, if you ever want to improve.

So when should you upgrade? When you’ve mastered that equipment, and its limitations are becoming an obvious hindrance to you. Or when different equipment offers functionality that your current equipment doesn’t (and you truly need those functions).

For photography, where you get the most bang for your buck is from better lenses, not camera bodies. Last year I dropped my camera and broke the mount for the zoom lens that was my main workhorse. When I looked for a replacement, I saw that there was a professional version of the lens that had better optics, a wider aperture, and tougher construction. I really considered it, but couldn’t justify spending an extra $1300 on it. So I ended up getting the same model as the one I broke, because as nice as the pro model lens was, I couldn’t see it improving my images enough to justify the cost. Maybe someday when money isn’t a concern…


Chase Jarvis

The quote above is from a book about iPhone photography. I found out about this book after I had made a similar statement about my realization that I could create some wonderful images with my iPhone, and one of the people I was speaking with mentioned the book. I don’t own the book, but I certainly agree with the sentiment. You can have all the fancy equipment in the world, but if it’s home in your closet when an opportunity presents itself, it doesn’t do you much good.

Which brings me to the answer to my choice of camera: the Olympus OM-D E-M5 II. I was in the market for a DSLR, and looked around at the different options. I read about a new style of mirrorless camera called the Micro 4/3 system, which was significantly smaller and lighter than the full-sized DSLRs. Since my primary mode of work is walking around looking for images, smaller and lighter were big selling points. I read the reviews, and chose Olympus because of its stabilization system, and the M5 as it was the middle choice that balanced features and price. I’ve been very happy with it, and the images I create with it.

Day 2: What is an Artist?

I consider myself an artist, as do many others. But that title is thrown about quite a bit, and its meaning has been diluted. So let’s look at it.

In my mind, the essence of being an artist is creating something that not only is original, but captures or excites the interest of others. Often someone who paints or draws is automatically called an “artist”, and their product is called “art”. But that’s way too low a bar to set for that title. And for the record, I can’t paint or draw with any skill level whatsoever, and admire those who can.

I am a photographer. I recognized my attraction to photography as a child, and began taking it seriously in college. I attended a photography school for two years, and learned all about portraiture, lighting, studio arrangements, different films (yes, it was all film then!), color, tone, and print media. While I was able to master those techniques, I wouldn’t say I created art. Well, maybe with a few exceptions, such as:

Potato, 1981
Potato, ©1981

What I found I enjoyed the most was simply walking around and looking. Things would strike me as visually interesting, and I would use my photographic technique to record them in a way that made interesting images. For example, my photo school was about 6 miles from my home, and I used my bike to get there. Shortly into my first semester, though, someone cut the chain I had locked it with and stole my bike. I now had to walk a mile to a bus stop, take the bus to downtown, and then walk another mile to the school. As I was walking I would look around, and things would occasionally catch my eye. Since I was carrying my camera, I began to record them. At the end of the semester we had to produce a portfolio, and so I created one called Sidewalks – all of the images were taken of sidewalks I walked on my way to/from school.

Not only was the portfolio well-received, it was noticeably different than the others. Most of the others were what I would call “traditional” photographic subjects: sunsets, landscapes, weathered barns, pets, etc., but mine were anything but traditional. So not only did the portfolio receive a good grade, it was chosen to be displayed around the campus – my first exhibition!

This is when I began to understand my creative process: instead of creating a scene by arranging items, or posing people, or any other conscious construction of the subject in front of the camera, I would explore the world as it existed, and find beauty in what others don’t see. I take special pride in images that are unremarkable in themselves, but from which I can create an interesting image. As an example:

Castle Sidewalk, ©2011

Back in 2011 I worked at Rackspace, and the headquarters was in a refurbished shopping mall, nicknamed “The Castle”. Near the main entrance two different-colored sidewalks come together. You can see it in the center of this Google Maps view.

Over a thousand people walked past this point every day. I happened to walk past it on my morning break, looked down, and was struck by what I saw. I didn’t have a camera with me… or did I? In my pocket was my iPhone 4, so I took this photo with my phone. I’ll save my thoughts on photography gear for another day, though…

This is why I consider myself an artist: thousands walked past that spot that day, but only I saw this bit of transient beauty, and was able to capture it in a way that others could enjoy. Being able to take photographs, or paint pictures, or play piano, or sculpt clay – those are examples of crafts. But when you are able to use your craft to create something that moves other people – well, then I consider you an artist.