OurGoods

Manual Mode Photography THEN The Banking Crisis

Alex Mallis started the night off with an introduction to the manual mode. Hopefully my attempts to document Trade School will improve!

Alex writes: Exposure, or the amount of light in a photo, is a function of shutter speed, F-stop (aka aperture), and film speed. The tricky party is knowing how different combinations of these three variables will affect the way your photo looks.  For instance, a low f-stop (a.k.a. large aperture - lots of light) will create a shallow depth of field whereas a higher f-stop (smaller aperture - less light) will greater a large depth of field and more will be in focus.

Shutter speed (the time that the “barn door” of the camera is open, allowing light to hit the film/sensor) will affect the sharpness or blur of the photo.  For example a slow shutter speed will result in any action/movement becoming blurred, whereas a fast shutter speed will “freeze” fast motion such as a racecar or person running.  Further complicating matters is the relationship between two aforementioned variables.  Simply stated, if a large aperture (low f-stop) is letting in a large amount of light, you’ll have to use a faster shutter speed to compensate and ensure you don’t overexpose.  Conversely, if you want to use a slow shutter speed, the film/sensor will be exposed to the light longer, and so you’ll have to reduce this amount of light with a small aperture (large f-stop).  Sometimes, however, despite having your camera set to the lowest f-stop, there is still not enough light to use an acceptable shutter speed.*  This is where film speed (ISO/ASA) comes into play.  By using a more sensitive film (higher ISO), you give yourself more flexibility.  For example, if you are deadset on using a small f-stop (to get shallow depth of field), but are still not able to get a high enough shutter speed, the introduction of a higher film speed will increase the maximum available shutter speed.

*Generally, a shutter speed slower than 1/60 will cause your photo/exposure to register slight body and hand movements of the photographer, causing blurry photos :(

Buying a camera? Opt for the body only and buy good lenses! Get one that has an F 1-3 aperture capability for short depth of field and another all around one. If you have old cameras, take the lenses off and buy adapters ($20-$50) so they fit your camera.

Me: Why did you want to teach at Trade School?

Alex: I love the idea of a system of exchange existing slightly (and ever diverging) outside the repressive grasp of money.

Me: Why do you think OurGoods (barter for creative projects) can make the world better?

Alex: I envision the OurGoods brand becoming a global phenomenon with thousands upon thousands of adherents, acting in symbiosis with the central tenets of equality and barterdom.  I envision a sweet logo. I envision everybody getting heather-gray crew neck sweatshirts with the logo emblazoned across the bodice.

Me: How do you think OurGoods could fail?

Alex: The word “bodice” generally refers to the part of a woman’s dress above the waist. I can imagine that definition becoming a problem, maybe.

THEN: Business for Artists: The Banking Crisis

I love Amy Whitaker because she wants artists to understand banking as much as she wants bankers to understand art. She teaches both camps at lunch-time lectures and is educated with both an MBA and an MFA.

Amy presented five basic principals of finance: opportunity cost (the value of how you’d spend your time otherwise), arbitrage (no free lunch), the time-value of money, risk + return, and insurance (the management of risk by pooling). She went on to unpack subprime mortgages and unregulated credit default swaps. If credit is really “man’s trust in man,” comprised of character, capacity to repay, and capital (reserves), why did mortgages get sold to individuals who could only cover interest become tradable objects (securities)? She showed us some faces behind Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Lehman Brothers, and encouraged us to look up company financial reports on EDGAR.