The site is a collection of notes primarily on photography but lots of other things tossed in as well. It was started in 2003 as a self-hosted WordPress site and I’ve moved much of the content here.
About Richard
I have an MFA in fine and applied arts, was a serious rock climber for a while, and have been a semi-serious photographer much of my life. I’m retired now but the bulk of my “career” was working with Apple, Inc. and other clients as a technology consultant. I still run my life on Apple products and am interested in technology in general and this site reflects that.
Here are two stories that will tell you a bit more about me: One person’s path to literacy and
Rooster Rock, Julia King, and a climbing trip that changed my life.
RSS
If you use a newsreader/feed aggregator you might want to follow this site and comments made on posts here:
http://richardsnotes.org/feed/
http://richardsnotes.org/comments/feed/
If you’re new to RSS, you might want to read this: What is RSS?.
Commenting, Following, and Social Media
I’m delighted this site is slowly picking up followers, an occasional comment and “likes.” That said, please note that I look at the sites of everyone who connects here but that I do not do quid pro quo “liking” or following. I acknowledge the things I like when I see them. I did an essay many years ago on problems I see with allowing concern with popularity on social media to affect one’s work and viewpoint. If you’re inclined, you may want to have a look: Flickr Explore.
The first time you comment here your comment will go into moderation and that includes people who were active on my old site (I’ve not moved the old comments database over). It’s automatic, not based on what you say. Once approved you can comment at will without moderation. If you comment on an entry, your comment will appear in the footer. The last 10 comments will appear there and will be supplanted by each new comment that comes along. Comment spam is deleted by robot (Akismet) and by human (me) as it is discovered. Off topic or innappropriate comments are deleted as I find them. Some comments get hung up in the spam filter for one reason or another and if they are legit I’ll find them and post them so be patient if this happens to one of yours.
Flickr
I’ve been interested in virtual communities for quite some time, both the software that allows us to build them and the kinds of social interaction that they enable and I’ve been involved with a few successful ones including flickr where I host most of the photography embedded at this site. I also embed other photographer’s work from time to time with link backs and citations given.
Curated Posts
I’m pulling some older content out and posting links to it on a page you can get to in the header: Curated Posts. The list there will change from time to time.
Archives
Please note: As I move content over from my older site I’m posting things with their original posting dates which means you’ll have to dig through the archives to see older posts. My older site is one of the oldest blogs on the web (started in 2003 with a very early version of WordPress) and contains thousands of posts. Not all of them will be moved over here but the best ones will in time.
Dig around and stay tuned.
Thanks for reading.
Richard
rwanderman at gmail dot com
Richard's Notes 
Hello Richard. Do you have a guide on F-stop. I have a light meter which can measure thirds, halves, and full f-stops and I don’t understand the difference. I think I’m suppose to have the same as my camera which is a Nikon D90.
2. Do you know if Aperture for Mac includes the ability to change color profiles for the image before exporting for the web?
Thanks
Eric: Aperture for the Mac is no longer made but no doubt it allows you to change the color space of a file to export. By default, Lightroom uses sRGB which is probably the right color space to use.
I’m not sure I understand your question about f/stop and/or aperture settings. Are you saying that the light meter in your D90 is giving you a different reading from your hand-held light meter? Do you know how to change the light meter in your D90? I’m sure it’s easy to do and can change from a broader metering of the scene to spot (metering the center point of what you’re aiming at).
Consider email rather than the about page of this site for more on this: rwanderman@gmail.com
Hello
1. Aperture: I’m using a colorchecker from X-rite and in Lightroom when editing I can choose the color profile created with the colrochecker. In Aperture I don’t find this option while edeting. are you saying this feature is only available when exporting images in Aperture. This is the feature I’m looking for: https://www.google.se/search?q=lightroom+color+profile&espv=2&biw=2560&bih=1274&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi40dvx6ZPLAhWkO5oKHXBxAhAQ_AUIBigB#imgrc=I0pp3ZIB11QOwM%3A
2. Light meter: Please refer to page 20 in this file http://www.sekonic.com/downloads/l-308s_english.pdf
It explains what I mean regarding 1/3 1/2 and 1 stops. These three options are on the external light meter. I would like to find out which one to choose so I have the same feature/option selected on my Nikon D90.
Thanks for getting back to me. Very mich appreciated.
/Erik
Eric, I don’t have a D90 so can’t help you there.
I don’t use Aperture so can’t help you there.
Good luck.
Good Morning Richard
Stumbled across your site the other day inre this article https://richardsnotes.org/2011/03/23/new-macbook-pro-with-ssd/
Could I just ask you (barring the obvious on a very famous search engine) if you could recommend a photo ‘how to basics’ site for amateurs. A few years ago I purchased a Fuji X100 but in all honesty have never had the best out out of it. I just randomly turn the dial and increase/decrease the parameters.
Best
TB
Glad to help Tony. I highly recommend setting the mode dial to fully automatic to start and taking a lot of pictures and then studying them on your computer to se what you like and don’t like about them.
The camera will take care of everything, all you have to do is find something to aim at and hold still and push the shutter button.
Next turn the mode dial to P which allows you to set ISO and the light meter. The light meter will control which part of the frame the camera’s exposure control uses to set the aperture and shutter speed. If you use spot metering just the center of the frame will control the exposure, if you use the other two larger areas of the frame will control exposure.
I almost always shoot in Av mode which is aperture preferred. I set the aperture (the size of the hole that opens to let light in) and the camera’s computer controls shutter speed to make the right exposure. A larger aperture will let in more light but will also make for a shallower depth of focus, useful for isolating things in portraiture.
A smaller aperture will make the depth of focus deeper into the frame, keeping things up close and things far away in focus.
But, all of that technical stuff is less important than where you point the camera and how still you hold it when you push the button.
Notice my friend Gary Sharp’s Oregon Dune shot on the front of my site right now. It was shot with an iPhone without controlling any of this stuff, just point and shoot.
Have fun, you have a great camera to learn on.
Hello Richard what a small world. Amazing. A woman commented on one of my blogs and I saw in her feed a comment from YOU!!
Duncan
Australia
Wow Duncan, that is incredible.
Richard, have you tried the Google Pixel? I’ve always been Apple (never worked for them though!), but the Pixel really does better I think, generally speaking.
I’ve never tried another smartphone Craig. I don’t switch phones because one has a few more features or is a better deal. My entire digital life is built on Apple products and it’s working great (not perfect but great) so until Apple makes some huge change that I can’t deal with I’ll be sticking with them. Thanks.
Richard, Thank you SO much for the “Julia & Rooster Rock story” I am Padi, Julia’s “little sister “.
I remember your photos of the climb, I was in 7th grade, maybe.
Her expression is unusually shy, timid, I noticed that way back when. I did NOT know until today about her friends climbing accident or death.
She always kept dark, sad situations under cover around me. She is 9 years older, and as a teen was ALWAYS stuck babysitting me, while on dates or attending events. As a a grade schooler I sat hours in the High school auditorium as they rehearsed Guys & Dolls, or Lil’ Abner. When it was diving team season, I was swimming laps on the team (all her friends called me “Tank.)
She is on a 3 year meditative retreat with a year to go. I MISS HER of course, but less now than I did.
Thank you ty THANK YOU!
Refuge as a Practice : Julia King Tamang : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/RefugeAsPractice via @internetarchive
Great to hear from you Padi. I had no idea Julia had a sister. Amazing that you remember the photos; I must have given some of them to Julia and Greg. I knew she was on a retreat but lost track of how much time had elapsed. Do say hi for me when you next see her and thanks for checking in here.