HNT: A Sarong for Reihan Salam

A Sarong for Reihan Salam

A confession.

For all of my bluster and enthusiasm for risk-taking, there’s one thing I’m terrified of: not being taken seriously – and part of what this blog is about for me is to make a very deliberate attempt to let my guard down and loosen up a little, and this is part of a larger self-improvement project to force myself out of my comfort zone.

To that end I’ve been reading and commenting at TheAmericanScene.com, a conservative group blog; a place where people who believe in erototoxins get the benefit of the doubt, and people like me, well suffice it to say, I am somewhat of a curiosity.

And that’s where I came across this post featuring a Youtube clip of rising star of the right-wing blogosphere Reihan Salam rapping about, um, well, I don’t know what he’s rapping about, but he’s rapping:

Reihan also makes a confession about his longing to wear a sarong:

Some years ago, a beautiful woman told me that she thinks more men should wear sarongs, and this left an impression on me. The trouble is that I know my limitations, and I’m pretty sure there’s no way in hell I can pull off a sarong. I might be able to pull off a sarong if I were wrestling multiple grizzly bears at the same time. But that hasn’t happened in weeks. Moreover, the pro-sarong woman — full disclosure — sort of shattered my heart and ate it. And it wasn’t even an entrée: it was a side dish, like sauteed spinach, yo. Only it was my heart. Damn you! Earlier today, another beautiful woman told me that wearing a sarong would represent a serious lapse in judgment, and I guess I’ll defer to her superior wisdom.

I am a long devotee of the living “the sarong lifestyle” and I think Reihan would totally rock a sarong; and I said so in the comments, but so far no images of Reihan wearing one have surfaced on the internet. And despite what I hope will be an ongoing effort to force myself out of my comfort zone, don’t expect any YouTubes of me rapping anytime soon either!

Camera Notes

This was shot on a very foggy afternoon in our front yard with our Canon PowerShot, auto-everything, with the zoom lens on widest angle. Auto everything because the LCD screen is on the fritz and that’s the only damn way to change the setting. Wide angle because that exagerated the perspective an makes the objects in the background much smaller than the subject. Peggy took about 8 shots in about 5 minutes.

I imported them to iPhoto and tweeked the look with the following settings: Exposure +.39 Contrast +100 Highlights 56.5 Shadows 11 Saturation 80 Temperature 17.9 Tint -1.6 Sharpness 1.00 Reduce Noise 14.2.

The light quality on a foggy day actually has a soft, wrap around everything, no harsh shadows quality that can be quite lovely. But it’s also very blue and very low-contrast. I boosted the over-all color level quite a bit and added more contrast, then brought the shadows and highlight back (a little on the shadows, a lot on the highlight.) Then I warmed up the color balance and tipped the tint away from the green side to the purple side. Lastly I added a dose of sharpness and noise reduction to give the photo a slightly painterly look.

This all stuff that years ago I would have have done with additional lights, reflectors and filters, and probably would even today if this were a “professional shoot”. None the less I’m pretty impressed with iPhotos ability to take a pretty dull light and dress it up enough that I’m happy with it.

I also like the way I look in the photo. Yeah, my belly looks bigger than I’d like, but I think my arms and chest look powerful, and the rendering  feels “honest”, if that makes any kind of sense. I also like the way the sarong sits on my hips. There’s a certain easy confidence that seems to express how I feel when I’m feeling my best. It’s nice to see the camera can capture that.