Shaine Mata Blog

I found these decorations outside an antique shop in town that I discovered when riding around town on my bike. Riding around town in a search grid can provide great photo opportunities and even give you a good sense of your town's history. I've only discovered some neighborhoods around town. Some of the newer ones have nicer homes; but, not much character is worth photographing. It seems that homes used to be an expression of the owner, which has been lost since modern standardization began. The art of having a garden seems to be largely lost too. Too many homes strive to have a good lawn, period. But then, that's what makes finds like this garden such a treat.

There are a lot of places around town that are great photo subjects for black and white. I especially love the older buildings and neglected areas. I think capturing them in black and white evokes some sort of nostalgic feel, even though these places are "contemporary". The old County Commissioner's office in Mission, Texas. The office moved to a newer building out of town some years back. The old building remains vacant.  An old Head Start central kitchen. The county Head Start schools do not have kitchens, they have their food delivered. Hidalgo County Head Start has since then centralized their kitchen.  Bench outside the old County Commissioner's building. It offers seating to visitors who no longer come.  Railroad switch.  Painted-on handicap parking sign on the wall.  Stone angel in a church garden.  Old gas pump near the ruins of a burned down building. 

Getting the right light can be a work of love. I was up and out early in the day to attempt to get the best lighting on these cacti on morning after dropping off my daughter at school. The toughest thing about getting sunrise or sunset light on your subject is that the lighting doesn't last too long. By the time I started to get the hang of shooting, the lighting changed. I've been meaning to go back and reshoot these cacti; but, haven't had a chance. With winter coming on, mornings are later and evenings are earlier. Maybe in the spring.

You would think that after a few days my opinion of the Samsung Chromebook would diminish a bit. I think, if I had unrealistic expectations, that it would. However, knowing that the $249 laptop is essentially a dedicated browser, I have had a few surprises and one disappointment that comes to mind. Let's get the disappointment out of the way. The Bluetooth on my Chromebook sucks. It has difficulty detecting devices; and when it does detect them, it can't connect. It's quite possible that the trouble connecting the Chromebook via Bluetooth is limited to this particular machine. I'm disappointed; but, I'm not so disappointed that I'll get on the phone with Samsung about it. In addition, it seems to shut down sometimes, when I simply close the lid to put it to sleep. The only way I know is when I open it up again and see the white boot up screen.  I suspect that it crashes. However, it's not too big a deal; it boots fast enough that it's not as agg

I discovered some cool things that may possibly be in the works for the Chromebook over at the Samsung website. Tonight I was going through the Chromebook Central forums to see if anybody has the same Bluetooth problem I have on the Samsung Chromebook. I didn't see any references; but, I did learn that the power adapter is a pain in the butt to find, should you ever lose it. Samsung has a habit of using non-standard connectors for their devices, especially when first released. So, I went over to the Samsung USA website to see if you can just order the power adapter directly. Theoretically, you can; but, it's not available. Same thing in the Google Play store, listed but unavailable. In any case, while browsing through the product page for the Chromebook, I saw a third Chrome device we haven't seen on the market. It looks like an all-in-one desktop Chrome device with its own LCD screen. In the image above, it's the device in the middle. It looks like a swe

If you’re reading this, chances are you’re a tech geek looking for justification to blow $250 on a new toy, the Samsung Series 3 Chromebook. I can’t tell you that it’s a must buy, or that you should buy something else. So far it meets my needs; I am satisfied. Before going into why I got the Chromebook, let me tell you that what you have heard about it is true. It has a 16 GB hard drive. You can expand storage with an SD card. It’s small and lightweight. It has enough horsepower to run; but, it will chug a bit on steep hills. Battery life is pretty good. It’s silent. No fans or drive noise.   It’s a good computer for $250; it’s not a great computer. My initial reaction was not good. The ads say there’s nothing to set up when you buy a Chromebook. Well, it took about 20 minutes to set up and download updates before I could log in. It also hung up a couple times. Since then, it’s been pretty smooth. As for how I justified to myself why I needed it, here goes. Why I Got It