The Unorthodox Stance:

All of it...

2011-10-02T01:57:00.000-07:00

From the skies above...

To the deepest sea...

Everything seen here...and unseen...

We are of the stars... everything.

All of it.

_Bern

Original cell photo taken 10.1.11

The Test

2011-09-29T12:24:00.001-07:00

New phone with Android capabilities. This is going to be a cool adventure.

Passing...

2011-07-17T23:25:00.001-07:00

Passing..., a photo by the|shadowboxer on Flickr.

This photo was taken on 7.17.2011. The colored speckles and worn nature all natural but I boosted the color a bit that was there to give it a more "surreal" look. The picture is purposefully caught in the way that it is because the picture is worn and broken and I wanted to convey the "off kilter" aspects of it. The lower right hand corner provides some interesting intrusion by nature also.

In some way, I hope you spare a good thought, prayer and just well-wishes in general for this person that preceded us in life. We won't know their story but we can send thoughts for a good rest and that for a moment, when you look upon this, they were "seen" here and now...

13- Roslin and Adama

2011-06-04T23:26:00.000-07:00

...

2011-06-04T21:11:00.001-07:00

..., a photo by the|shadowboxer on Flickr.

As I wrestle with slow Internet connections, I have been catching up on the feeling of being on a regular schedule. I like it.

I am also counting blessings and feeling very thankful for the positive energy that has enveloped me since April. I think it is true that when you call on The Universe for something, be clear as to what you want because it did happen for me... all good things.

Also, just looking around at life and realizing that the lessons learned while going through the most challenging time of my life as I see it, it has all been a learning experience.

Everything has led to NOW.

As you know, I've discussed the passing of my Mom to the next level of existence and... though it sickens me to the pit of my stomach not to have her here... her blessing to my spirit...my being given to her for the taking care of... I am so lucky to have had her. It can't be said enough.

So, though I bust out in tears and regret so man things - and though I feel the horror of that last day so sharply when it comes to mind - I cry...but I rebound because I know she would me to.

About this pic - it was taken actually as a test that I was running on two of my low-end Canon's in the manual mode. The focus, suspiciously, on all three of my cameras are screwy and so I wanted to see which caught the best portrait shots (as I want to get more experience with folks). When I came across this one, I decided to use if for my www.dailymile.com profile and then my FB and Twitter avatars.

In ever profile piece I put together, I include my Mom's initials. She is with me everyday and this is something I want to incorporate in my personal avatars.

So, as I get ready to take some new adventures on...and think about my next camera, you will continue to see shots of where I have been and what I have done.

Things are going to only get cooler...

B

In Brightest Day...

2011-04-19T23:11:00.001-07:00

In Brightest Day..., originally uploaded by the|shadowboxer.

I am a big fan of both DC and Marvel comics. This summer, we are going to have quite a few amazing movies to watch...but I am especially rooting for Green Lantern because I love the character and the concept.

If they screw this up, I am going to have to take someone to task... HARD.

B

12.15.06 - The Totality of Some of It...

2011-02-12T00:22:00.001-08:00

The Totality of Some of It..., originally uploaded by the|shadowboxer.

The photos that made up this collage were taken, I estimate, around end of November early December of 2006. Though a couple of the images have some stern facial expressions, the central images were meant to convey a sort of euphoric state.

The original photos were taken after an experimentation with the white balance settings on the camera. With the funky indoor lighting of my apartment and the tweaking of the settings, the base colors I had to work from were already different. Boosting the saturation and tweaking the color balance a bit further resulted in this noise filled explosion. I loved how it turned out at the time.

The funny thing is this was leading up to one of the scariest points in my life. In a few weeks from this, I was facing some big challenges with my mom's health and I thought for sure if she made it into 2007, it was not going to be for much longer.

Looking back on some of these photos now, and remembering that point in time they were taken, I can't help but think of all of these memories and fears I had. It all seems so surreal to me.

B

Back In time - Looking South On Michigan Avenue

2011-02-11T18:17:00.001-08:00

Looking South On Michigan Avenue, originally uploaded by the|shadowboxer.

This was my first photo on Flickr. Nothing major or even that great but their was a certain bit of "magic" that I tried to capture with this photo. It was just an afternoon shot of Michigan Ave in Chicago. I was heading south towards Michigan and Randolph and was just struck by all the activity, life and enjoyment of the weather by myself and everyone bustling and moving outside.

I was not interested in perfect composition or framing. No post treatment or anything of the sort in terms of even auto adjusting color levels etc. It was just capturing "the hum" of the city.

The last time I experienced a moment like that, it was when sleeping in midtown Manhattan. I felt a humming of electricity...of life in that city. I felt it here in Chicago that day.

This was taken with my first Canon PowerShot camera and it was a fun beginning for me. Just capturing moments in time.

B

New Horizons

2010-09-15T14:16:00.000-07:00

I am in the process of retooling this blog over the next few days. The process, you might recall, started awhile back. However, I am now making this a priority so that I can showcase the projects completed and the ones to come.

I have retired the "re-branding" under "TheUnorthodoxStance" but will leave links here until I full replace them.

In the meantime, if you would like to check out my latest photo gallery, you can visit it at my Facebook page for "the|shadowboxer" by clicking here. The title of the gallery is "Walkabout" and showcases some of the images I captured on recent walks to Chinatown and the Broadway area in Chicago. The tone of the photos were pretty much dictated by my desire to capture these sites as daylight was fading. It certainly added a more "surreal" touch to everything. I also tweaked the manual settings on both cameras to alternate between a low-light setting and a lean towards "warmth" that added an interesting glow and gritty effect. I also increased the ISO settings to get a "wahsed" out effect on some of the photographs.

B

Just Say No...

2010-02-17T13:18:00.000-08:00

The following was something I posted regarding my dissatisfaction with Cricket's Motorola Hint QA30 phone. I wanted to share it here also.

I bought the Hint when it came out because I thought I would really benefit from the keyboard as I was trying to use the phone to organize and keep in touch while taking care of someone who was sick.

Lo and behold, after getting the phone in the mail, the keyboard really stinks. I was so shocked. It really would have paid off for me to go to the store to fully test it out.

Here are some really big challenges with the phone that I have. First with the phone and then with the Cricket service:

1) As mentioned, the keyboard is absolutely the worst. Like you are pushing down on metal studs with an atypical and not-so-great response. Very bad for texting and e-mail. The so called cheaper phones all appear to have better keyboards. My 11 year old niece got the Cricket TXTM8 for considerably less money and the keyboard feels like a dream compared to this Hint. Unreal!

2) The font choices for the display of the phone cannot be changed. Very hard to read. Hate it.

3) The toggle area in the middle of the phone has the same horrible stiff feel of the keys.

4) I have three way calling as part of my package but have found no documentation as to how to use on this phone. Unreal!

5) I am putting this in both areas as I can't say what is the problem but reception is absolute the worst I have experienced. I have to stand by one side of my apartment to barely get reception. My mobile connectivity, phone service... horrible. I feel like I am paying for these services but cannot use them at home. So, I have to "hog" all the time I can in order to use etc.

6) When texting, the keys to shift etc... the modes to capitalize etc. Because of the keys, are crazy! I was paying for mobile e-mail to be sent to my phone (one of the most important things) and it turned out that I could not create paragraphs when tping on the keyboard. The return key would not work. When I finally downgraded my plan to just have mobile access (since using the e-mail was pointless), I decided to take my chances accessing the mobile websites for Gmail and Hotmail. Lo and behold, the return key and all features worked!!! I was paying extra for mobile mail all that time and did not have access to those features but do when going to the mobile web site! Holy Moses! I felt like a fool.

7) No software with the phone. I paid close to full price for this junk when it first came out and their was no Motorola software allowing me to synch my to do note, calendar etc. What a rip if you are paying for the phone. That's how I feel about it. The software that I found on Motorola's site was just under $50!!! No thanks.

9) You can add things to messages, like your to do notes but they can't be opened when I get them in my work e-mail. File format unrecognizable. I then sent a test message to the phone with the same attachment and it wouldn't open even on the phone! LOL I was floored. Same with notepad etc.

10) Text messaging to groups does not work. When I try to send to more than two people, like when my Mom was in the hospital and I tried to send updates to 7 people in a group, I got messages that text failed to be sent. Why allow for group creation if you can't use? WTH???

11) The video camera is worthless. I changed the video settings to allow for it to take advantage of the memory card space etc. When I uploaded even 12 seconds snippets, the quality was horrible. I tried on Radar, 12Seconds and Flickr and they turned out WORTHLESS! Do not buy this phone if you think you are going to get quick usable snippets. They don't translate well to any service that I have used. I even tried pulling the file off the memory card, thinking that perhaps there was a challenge in data transfer through e-mail etc. It was still the same. WORTHLESS

Cricket's Service Challenges

1) This is a repeat of point 5 above - not sure if this is a limitation with the phone hardware versus software or service - 5) I am putting this in both areas as I can't say what is the problem but reception is absolute the worst I have experienced. I have to stand by one side of my apartment to barely get reception. My mobile connectivity, phone service... horrible. I feel like I am paying for these services but cannot use them at home. So, I have to "hog" all the time I can in order to use etc.

2)) This phone does not allow you to watch videos. I tried to watch videos and they can never play because of memory restrictions. It looks like it's doing the equivalent of buffering but it never does. I tried watching video previews in the Cricket store from the phone, just to see if perhaps they were optimized for use with their phones etc. I can never watch! The links don't do anything through the Openwave browser at all! WTH???

3) The Openwave browser capability sucks. I get so many errors. Their is no option to upgrade the browser that I know of. If this is what mobile web service is like, forget it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't when you try to post things on Twitter. Too many errors.

4) This phone is not set up through Cricket with links to social networking places like FB, Twitter etc. I see MySpace and some places listed from the Cricket area on the phone but with this version of mobile browsing, you have two things working to thwart your experience. I actually managed to get a person at corporate and explained how I could not get texts, use Twitter to get text updates etc. They didn't understand what I was talking about even though I explained clearly. I was going to post screen shots but then realized, they probably don't want this because again, network usage would be off the scale.

5) The network is undependable not only for reception in my apt but in general. There are times when I am outside in Chicago proper...and my phone is in a roaming status. WTH?? I called customer service and the rep explained to me, at the time before I downgraded, "Well, no worries because you have the 30 minutes of roaming should this happen." I mentioned to her that it was of big concern. When I am in the network coverage area, I should be able to make calls - NOT ROAM! I need my phone service when I NEED IT! If I was outside the coverage area, I would understand. Not in Chicago proper or two suburbs out!

6) No useful applications to improve your usage experience. When Openwave browser was giving me problems on the very basic m.twitter.com site, I dared to try "Twit-Twit" - a Twitter application in the store - and it sucked. Not worth the just under $5 bucks. No productivity items nothing.

7) I was a Boost customer first (tried it when I knew I was going to be laid off) - the rates included all charges. When I first switched to Cricket, I was shocked by the fees that were added. My $50 plan became a $63 plan. That means a lot when you are on a tight budget. I wish the people I talked to would have mentioned that.

8) For the most part, customer service is barely adequate. The times when it was good, I asked to speak to a supervisor and they put me on hold. When that person got on, they couldn't hear me because my reception was so bad because I walked away from my window! LOL When I went outside, in Chicago, the reception did not improve. When I tried to compliment that wonderful service rep, the service reception wouldn't let us communicate! Unreal!

***I understand that Cricket probably does not want to offer such great browsing experience on the regular plans that offer mobile web...because so many people might flock to them and overload their network...but I feel like the way this phone and service are being offered...well, that it is downright misleading.

I would like to share the positive experiences I have had with the phone and servcie here.

1) The phone itself is very durable. I like a heavier and substantially constructed phone. In the last few weeks, I have inadvertently dropped and the model holds up great. The slider is sturdy and on that front, it can take punishment.

2) The music players is pretty decent. The volume control and EQ settings are not the best but I can live with it and do enjoy as an on the go player.

3) Not only do I love the 2 megapixel camera but others have asked me what I am using. The quality of the base image is good. The onboard enhancement and adjustment tools are nice. Overall, I enjoy that immensely!

4) The screen resolution is nice but the experience is mostly moot when using the Openwave browser...but again, I like how the pictures look! Very cool!

Last Words On This Phone & Service:

Last Words On This Phone & Service:

I would not recommend this phone. With all the reasons combined above, it just is not worth it. I am so unimpressed with it that I have decided that instead of spending monies on the service any further, I should downgrade further to just phone and text. However, over the last four days, that I should just drop the service and go back to Boost perhaps. The quandary I have is that if I downgrade to a text and phone only plan here, I am still going to have crappy reception, dropped calls etc. If I go to Boost, I will still be paying $50 for their plans. I do see that they are coming out with some great new phones and... maybe I'll give them a chance. That Blackberry option looks great too. The trade-off in a higher monthly cost is that I will have all the organizational and communications tools that I need. And, still at a price that is a few dollars cheaper than what I was originally paying on the Cricket network.

Designs by The Unorthodox Stance

2009-09-10T11:19:00.001-07:00

For awhile, I have been puttering around here and there and trying to formulate a plan to get my creative juices flowing with digital photography and artwork based on that photography. Most of my experience came from creative avatars and profile pics from my self-portraits. I was not finding any volunteers to site for portrait shots where I could use their photos first. So, the following came to be...

The above were created for a photoblog account that I started over 4 years back. And, as time has passed, the avatar/profile picture styles have changed.

Visually, my influences have been from the areas of comic books, music, boxing, science fiction, pop culture/art and architecture. Together, they combine this weird hodgepodge of stuff. Whatever comes out, it's mine and I feel it has my "stamp" or personality all over it.

Since my beginnings on the photoblogs, I have helped a few small businesses and creative folks with designing web sites and flyers. In addition, some of my photography was featured in a recent issue of the Chicago flame under my artist name "theshadowboxer." Here are links to a few of the pictures used (with the corresponding article):

Chicago Summer Museum Preview

Getting Around The City and the UIC Campus

Do You Really Know What Sunscreen Is?

I am currently working at expanding my efforts to start my own "visual communications" business and hope to use any funds from my forthcoming online store to help fund that venture. This blog will include more information on those efforts and other musings from my personal point of view.

All of my other pages out there will be coming over to this one. Soon, you will see various galleries and links to my complete online work. And, some new works will be coming. I hope you enjoy the visual evolution.

B!~

www.theunorthodoxstance.com