Funny Name - Blogging Network

Blogging, blogging, blogging

2011-09-07T08:18:00.000-06:00

Turns out most of what I do these days is blog. Mainly about cars because that is what I'm passionate about, but there are other things as well. This is odd to me because I don't consider myself to be an excellent writer, but this goes to show that there's an audience out there somewhere for you. You just need to carve out your niche. -Trent

Four down, one added

2011-04-05T19:16:00.000-06:00

Thinning the herd was something I mentioned yesterday that I'd soon be doing. Didn't realize it'd happen so quickly. Thanks to a computer issue that lead to a reformatted hard drive, I had some time to kill while it was doing its thing. So, with that, I axed four blogs today. I technically started one a few weeks ago, and so I'm just starting that one, but it'll stick around. More details on it in the coming weeks. A figurative cleaning house was needed. Now to make my own luck.

-Trent

Full time

2011-04-04T17:04:00.000-06:00

I started to write, then re-write this post numerous times. But the short of it is, this has now become my full-time job. Funny Name Media was started two years ago as a passing fancy, and its purpose has changed numerous times. I've been contemplating where I should take it as I've been getting less and less satisfied with the confines of a 9-5. I realize running this means MORE than 8 hours a day, but it's ultimately much more rewarding.
Today was my first full day working on my own and I haven't stopped working since 8am this morning with the exception of getting a haircut. It took until now(5pm) to actually finish this post as I've been too busy doing other things. I've dreamed of this day and feared it(in a good way), but I look forward to what the future brings.
Speaking of the future, I will be thinning out the herd, so to speak. I currently pen numerous blogs on various topics, and it's spreading me too thin. Time to re-align focus and follow my passions. Thank you for your support in the past, present, and future.

-Trent Bray

New site

2010-10-14T13:31:00.000-06:00

I didn't have a direction I wanted to take this blog, so it has languished. My tech musings are now at a new site, Talk Tech Now. Check it out, I'll split the photography blogging off onto a different site in the future.

-Trent

Launch successful

2010-06-17T09:01:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I launched my online automotive magazine and despite a few hiccups getting it going, it has been a success and the response has been great. In one day I more than doubled the traffic to the website. It goes to show it's all about content, content, content. And fortunately the content is decent. I look forward to continuing this magazine for some time.

-Trent

Cars and Modifications Online Auto Magazine

2010-06-15T19:02:00.000-06:00

It's been a long time coming, I've been working on this with Yom for some time now, but tomorrow, our first issue hits. It's the launch of my own online car magazine called 'Cars And Modifications' or CAM for short. Take a look at it tomorrow where you can download a PDF of the first issue. Cars and Modifications online auto magazine

Wedding Photography update

2010-05-21T09:00:00.001-06:00

Last week I told you about a wedding I had to shoot on short notice. Unfortunately time constraints means I haven't been able to edit them yet, but I thought I'd post up one un-edited photo(except for the copyright overlay). I'll get more posted soon.

-Trent

Casualty

2010-05-20T08:30:00.001-06:00

I've had this MacBook Pro for a few years and after getting my new 13" MacBook Pro, this computer went into semi-retirement. I had recently come up with a way to utilize this computer again as it's still a decent computer. After a couple days of cleaning it up and getting ready for some more use...the N key came off. Now I cannot get it back on. Looks like it's time to put this on desk duty with an external keyboard. It's been done before...

-Trent
Posted from my iPhone

Technology Challenge Postponed

2010-05-19T23:29:00.002-06:00

So thinking about it, I'm leaving town next week and will not be able to lug a heavy iMac G3 around. Also, I'll only have an air card or my iPad 3G where I'm at. So June 1st, the Technology Challenge begins!

-Trent
Posted from my iPad

Technology Challenge

2010-05-18T22:04:00.000-06:00

I was talking with Yom tonight about a challenge I wanted to present to myself. I want to only use my Tangerine G3 266MHz iMac for one week. It runs Mac OS 9, with no wi-fi, but does have Photoshop 5.5! I have two shoots I'm working on editing right now and I do need to finish those first.
Also, I do need a modern computer at work so this will be my only computer at home. No iPhone, no iPad, etc for anything other than texts/phone calls.
Why do this? Well, a PC of this vintage would not/could not function given the tasks I usually need to do. I want to see if the Mac is up to the challenge.
How do I plan to do this? Well, I can use the Twitter web interface, I have Photoshop to perform the most basic image manipulations, and I can design web pages the old fashioned way...with a text editor!
Starting next week I'll try to prove to anyone who will listen to me, that a G3 iMac can still fulfill basic computing needs because somehow my netbook freezes after opening two images in Microsoft Picture Viewer.

-Trent
Posted from my iPhone

Wedding

2010-05-14T15:39:00.001-06:00

Something I haven't done in quite some time is going to happen tomorrow. I'm shooting a wedding. It's always interesting going into these things, but even more so this time. I was giving very little notice and am doing it as a favor to a friend. I'm up for challenges though! What has been your experience when thrown an assignment at the last minute?

-Trent
Posted from my iPhone

Video rig

2010-05-12T10:00:00.000-06:00

At my day job, we have been doing a lot of video lately and the majority has been done with my iPhone. Seriously. With plenty more video projects coming that will require sound better audio, we picked up a Canon Rebel T2i and a Rode microphone.
Playing with it so far, it's been great. We recorded some video over the weekend and with the exception of poor image stabilization, it's what we needed. So far it's provides pro level video without the pro price.
As far as the still picture quality, I'm loving the High ISO capabilities! No noticeable noise at ISO 800, something unheard of on my Canon 1D MK II.

-Trent
Posted from my iPhone

Hack attack

2010-05-11T21:47:00.001-06:00

Over the weekend I had the displeasure of dealing with two attacks on different sites, both Wordpress sites. I spent a good amount of time cleaning up the mess. Hoping Wordpress 3.0 fixes the vulnerability.

-Trent
Posted from my iPhone

Caved

2010-05-03T13:59:00.000-06:00

I managed to get a 3G iPad recently and have been doing some light work with it, and despite my initial comments about my netbook being so much better...well, I haven't been using my netbook. For most of the reasons I use a netbook, it has been replaced by the iPad. You win this round Apple!

-Trent

Props

2010-04-27T09:10:00.001-06:00

I figure I need to give a little love to my friend's blog. If you're into car photography or skate photography, check out Michael Chandler Photography.

New Blog...again

2010-04-20T22:00:00.003-06:00

Starting yet another blog. I think this will be the most fun and I always, always have material for it. So check it out for yourself If Dogs Could Blog.

-Trent

Domain Day

2010-04-13T14:16:00.000-06:00

Every once in awhile I come across a bunch of domain names I want to register, today is one of those days. I managed to get a bunch registered, but each one of those is a new project idea. Let's hope I can tackle each one of those.

-Trent
Posted from my iPhone

Equipment change

2010-04-12T09:33:00.001-06:00

Saturday my wife had a photo shoot and needed to use my camera. No problem, but as we were doing a pre-shoot check, my camera focused in all the wrong places and wasn't consistent despite setting it to one focus point. One shot it'd back-focus, the next it'd front focus. So not given much time, we ran to Best Buy and picked up the cheapest Canon camera they had. That happened to be the Canon Rebel XSi. It worked out great for the shoot and I have a vacation coming up, so it'll get it's legs stretched there as well. So far it's been a pretty good camera despite it's limitations. I'll keep you updated on how it continues to work.

-Trent
Posted from my iPhone

iPad Peek

2010-04-05T09:40:00.000-06:00

In case you've been living under a rock the past week, the Apple iPad came out over the weekend. Roughly 300,000 iPad's were sold on Saturday. Pretty soon, you'll want to make sure your website looks good on the iPad. Fortunately a site has come out to show you how your website will look on the iPad. It's called iPad Peek. This site is worthwhile to developers and as you can see from the screen capture, this blog will need a little work. Not having an iPad myself, this is very helpful.

-Trent

Photo Shoot

2010-03-29T15:03:00.000-06:00

Over the weekend, I drove up to North Salt Lake to take some pictures of a couple of Mustangs. One is a 2003 Mach 1 with some tasteful mods while the other is an ex-Champ Car pace car with a fuel cell, roll cage, radio communications, etc. A pretty cool combo. Here are a couple sample shots from that shoot. I'm working on editing them. Both shots were with the 85mm f/1.2L lens I recently rented.

-Trent

Rush

2010-03-25T11:21:00.000-06:00

Ideas happen fast...too fast sometimes. My basement as it sat yesterday, was a disaster. Not exaggerating in the slightest. Well, I am renting a Canon 85mm f/1.2L lens starting today for the next week. It's considered to be one of the best portrait lenses. My wife heard this and decided she wanted to use this lens in a studio setting. Only place we have for a studio in our house is...the basement. Time to start cleaning. Spent some time destroying what was at one-time going to be a home theater room and starting to turn it into a studio of sorts. It won't be traditional, it won't have backdrops, it'll look more like a living room. Today, it's time to paint and clean some more. I'll try and post some pics next week.

-Trent

Ideas

2010-03-21T18:24:00.000-06:00

My mind is always full of ideas. It's always running at full speed. Sometimes the ideas are good, sometimes...not so much. Turning ideas into projects is always more difficult than I remember so consequently some ideas sit on the back burner for awhile. Worst case scenario, the idea fails, life moves on. Two such ideas are starting to see daylight. One involves a website that I have in testing phase right now and the other involves actual product. It might actually go somewhere this time around, so keep reading.

-Trent

Rusty

2010-03-14T21:05:00.000-06:00

It's been awhile while since I've been taking a lot of pictures. It's really only been family pictures and vacation pictures I've been taking. Recently I got to borrow a Canon 5D so I went to my sister's studio and shot some pictures. I've now convinced myself I need a new flash as hers is much nicer than mine, but my pictures weren't where I wanted them to be. Granted I've spent very little time in a studio so that's a little different, but I definitely need to brush up on my photog 'skills'. It's always good to re-analyze how you do things every once in awhile though. More time behind the camera and less in front of the computer will be a good thing.

-Trent

Re-design wonder

2010-03-05T09:00:00.000-07:00

I've been busy designing and re-designing sites and at my full time job I've been experimenting with how Content Management Systems can help that company. Between all this, I haven't been promoting things as hard as I usually do. Blogging has slacked a bit too. During this time though, my main site has had a huge surge in traffic. It's amazing what a little site re-design with better SEO tied in will do. How the sites have ranked for the last little while in total views is 1. Fail Hard 2. This Blog 3. FNM Site and so on. The FNM site has never been the most visited site since I started this blog or even back when Would You Rather was going. Now it sits at 1. FNM Site 2. This blog and Fail Hard(same amount of views oddly enough). A little SEO goes a long way apparently.

-Trent

Site Re-Launch

2010-02-23T06:30:00.003-07:00

Cereal 411 was a pet project for Spyder and I. Shortly after starting it, Spyder went on a partying spree and was rarely available so I devoted my time elsewhere and put it on the back burner. No big deal as it's more of a website for fun than anything. Well, today, it's re-launching. I'm testing more often with Spyder as well as guest judges. It's a fun site and can be very informative for your next cereal purchasing decision. Check it out.

-Trent

HDMI (2 meter) 6 foot cable HQ 1080P 1.3b