Chuck, a spy story

Chuck, a hapless geeks who gets involved in high-stakes spy ventures with guns and hot chicks (very hot).
Considering the lack of a budget for special fx and big sceneries, it's very well done, and often very funny. Recommended.

Gary Fong Lightsphere II

I'm considering getting the Gary Fong Lightsphere II.
I don't shoot flash often, but I'm pretty sure I'll want to have a good diffuser next time I do, so maybe I'll order this so I don't have to wait for delivery when the time comes.
(Here's a review of the Lightsphere.)



Admittedly, $49 (for the most basic version) is a bit expensive for what it is and does, so there are very cheap home-made options.

You know what I'm just realizing... one of the reasons I don't often use Flash is just because I don't have a diffuser! Just for one thing, I often photograph objects and stuff for this blog, but I'm torn between barely-adequate indoor lighting and harsh direct-flash. If I had a good flash sitting on my Canon 5D, with a good diffuser, this would be perfect for it! I'll do it, by gum.

The Largest Car in The World

[Thanks to Tommy]

Sweet Dreams compilation

Marilyn twists a classic:



Man, that's some nightmare imagery. But that pretty much goes with his territory, I guess.
(And what a big pig!)

Funny, I notice how nobody manages to sing "made of this" so it does not sound like "made of these".

Marilyn wanted to be a rock star, but he's not handsome and manly, more of an ugly, nerdy-looking little fucker, so wisely he went the opposite way: making himself look as androgenic and ugly as possible. It worked for him.


And different: Eurythmics' original version:



I dunno, I think I prefer Marilyn's version. The Eurythmics' one is very "poppy", especially considering the very dark lyrics.


And a drum/bass/chipmunks remix for real fans:

The GF1 in the Himalayas

[Thanks to Luke]

The GF1 in the Himalayas, field test of the Panasonic GF1.
"I covered the camera in sweat. I hit it against rocks (unintentionally). The air was often dusty and this dust, by the end of the trip, had worked its way into every nook of the GF1. And yet it performed flawlessly."
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It was just yesterday I thought about how a camera in front of the face is surely more offensive to people: it's like a half-mechanical predatory beast with a big glass eye, staring at them.
And this is what Craig Mod reports regarding that:
About halfway through the trip I realized something strange was happening — the people I photographed were looking me in the eyes. Indeed, they could see my eyes! I had spent so long traveling with a DSLR strapped to my face that I had forgotten about true eye contact.
For better or worse, a camera without a viewfinder is less intimidating. You are no longer half-human half-camera. You're all human with a tiny play thing in your hand. The GF1 is so compact I don't think people take it seriously. Which is wonderful if you want candid, real photographs. Subjects focus on being human rather than being a subject.
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Craig critizes the camera for a low-light performance which is mediocre. And I agree. It is a pity, since the reason for a big sensor in a small camera is mainly high-ISO performance (all cameras today do well at 100 and 200 ISO). Unlike Craig, I'd say that the GF1 does quite well until around 800 ISO. But still, to be comparable to DSLRs, it should be doing Quite Well at 1600, which it is not. Let's hope the future brings some developments there.

White X

Maybe we'll have a white Christmas for the first time in I don't remember when. Winter has arrived in UK: it's white outside, and brutally cold. Brrrr.
Well, it's relatively brutally cold. Compared to the winter they get in Russia or Canada, this is very mild indeed, even though it is frost. Always a good thing to attempt to get or hold a bigger perspective.

Ray said:

I have lived in some remote places, mostly at hydro-electric power dams, where it was often 50 or 100 miles to town. I've had a moose walk through the back yard, while I was five miles away in the bush, hunting for one. I've been bitten by a baby red fox, after I caught him one morning near the den, and as a result, I ended up feeding the young ones all one summer, instead of going 90 miles to town for rabies shots. Those were the healthiest little foxes I ever saw, and they just loved canned fish-flavour cat food.

I was also bitten by a young seal while in the Arctic, after I decided to rescue it it from where it fell asleep on a rock at high tide, and then by low tide, was too far from the water. You wouldn't believe how many needle-pointed little teeth they have, and those are angled inward, so that their dinner doesn't escape.

Fortunately, my leg did. The kids at the settlement's boarding school

had a great time with my seal until it found its way back to the

ocean from the fresh water pond we put it in. Believe it or not, those Eskimo kids told me they'd never seen a live seal close up - only dead ones - so they had a lot of fun watching this one.

One's mediocrity

It is cruel to discover one's mediocrity only when it is too late.
-- W. Somerset Maugham, 'Of Human Bondage', 1915

Hmmm, "too late"? I wonder if ol' Dubya meant "after you're already successful"?

I like that the title 'Of Human Bondage' makes bondage non-gender specific. It's not just a gay thing, anybody can enjoy a nice game of bondage.
(Just kidding, I'm pretty sure he did not mean that kind.)

Panic Attack, a mini-movie

It seems this video (which TTL also alerted me to) has earned its creator a huge Hollywood contract. And it is beautifully done, not only the very realistic CGI, but also the image compositions, the light, the timing, etc.

Amy Walker

[Thanks to TTL]

And what a bonny lass she is too. And she's a writer and comedian, some people get all the talent. (Not that their lives are usually easier for that!) Here's her utoob channel.
Here's an interview with her, about her rapid viral stardom.

TC[Girl] recommends this sketch by Amy.
TCG also confirms the accuracy of what women are doing all that time in the Ladies'. (Speaking for my own gender, the Gents' is really not a place you feel like lingering.)

Should e-Books Be Copy Protected?

Should e-Books Be Copy Protected? article by David Pogue.
"the illegal copies are just advertising for you; people will download them, try them out, then go by the physical book. [...]
The results? It was true. The thing was pirated to the skies. It's all over the Web now, ridiculously easy to download without paying.
The crazy thing was, sales of the book did not fall. In fact, sales rose slightly during that year.
[...]
But none of that addresses my reader's initial complaint: what if, someday, you want to jump ship from Amazon's reader family to Barnes & Noble's? This is precisely the nightmare scenario that faced iPod owners who wanted to switch to a Zune. (O.K., there's no such person, but you get the point.)
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Gnags - Live Vilde kaniner

Gnags - Live Vilde Kaniner Youtube video.
"Wild Rabbits" was never my favorite Gnags song, but dang, their new "yoo-hoo girl" (as Danes call background singers) is lovely.
Gnags, forty years on the stage, go guys.

Photos from today (updated)

The sign below made me laugh. The good word to new cancer victims is "not a good day?" Holy frig. (I actually like the picture too, even though it was a snapshot caused by the sign. And the camera Canon S90 handled the contrast well, there's detail in both the white sign in the sun and in the dark street in the shade.)

I like the "take-everywhere" camera. Put it in the thigh pocket in my combats and forget about it, and when I see a subject, whip it out (the camera, please). And in decent light the image quality is the same as a large camera.

Update:
... BTW, silly me: I have set the S90's control ring to control the zoom, and it runs in steps of the old major focal lengths-equivalents: 28mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm, 105mm. It seems a quicker way, correct or not, to get to the approximate focal lenth you want.
... And so today when photographing the church, the 85mm-equivalent (18mm) seemed just slightly too narrow, so I also photographed it in 50mm. I'd plumb forgotten (standing on a tiny pedestrians island in the middle of a busy street) that I could fine-tune it with the regular zoom lever! (Not with easy precision, like all compacts, but still.) Weirdly, though, the zooms in the opposite direction from the lever, an unfortunate choice from Canon. (At least if you see the top of the ring to be the "direction" it is moving, which feels logical to me.)