Van Gogh's Paintings Get Tilt-Shifted (updated)

Van Gogh's Paintings Get Tilt-Shifted, picture post.

Tilt-shift refers (here) to the popular method of artificially making a seeming very shallow depth-of-field in images, which gives the impression that the landscapes are very tiny, because you do get that effect when you photograph up very close. You can do it when photographing with large cameras which can tilt the lens.  You can even do it in Photoshop to already existing photos. And to add insult to injury, even to paintings!

I feel a deep connection with ol' Vincent, so I'm not sure what to think of this, to be honest. :-)

Update:
Sam said:
This reinterpretation brought me into action: I thought about the original, I looked for it, and I now have a different view. That's great. 
And here's something else that's great: Picasso's Guernica rendered in 3D.
Have you seen the original? I've stood in front of it and looked at it for a long time in Madrid's Reina Sofia museum. It's very, very impressive and watching this 3D rendering has only deepened my feelings for it. 

File handling trick

Here is a file handling trick I had to find for myself. It works in OS X, I haven't tried on Windows.

Say you have folders A and B. All the files in folder A are also in folder B, but not vice versa. And you need to isolate the files in folder B which are *not* in folder A. How to do it? Manually is tedious and error-prone.

1: Make sure you have backups of both folders.
2: Select all the files in folder A, and drag them to folder B.
3: When Finder asks you if you want to replace the files, select "apply to all" and click "replace".
4: Use Edit--->undo.

This last bit is the smart part. It will put the files back in folder A, but it will *not* replace the deleted files in folder B! (I think we can call that an error in the OS.) So you now have a folder of what you wanted, all the files which were in folder B but not in A.

Scrivener, a writer tool

I think I will try Scrivener. It's a sort of combination of a word processor and an outline tool and a research tool... It has many glowing testimonials, including from many professional writers who have tried many other apps, so it seems it works right. (It needs OS X. They say a windows version will come in 2011.)

Vibrating chess set

Like Ferrari and Hasselblad, another function cross-over which has me scratch my head. It seems that the actions of chess playing and of dildo play could hardly be more different, or less compatible.

But  I always welcome things which are a bit quaint. Seminal ideas. And things which disregard the braindead taboo on anything sexual. So what the heck. I won't even go into the question of: If that's an about-normal-sized set of chess, won't the pieces be, uhm, kind of small for real enjoyment in the other capacity? Unless of course they have really powerful vibrators and you can just insert one, dress and put on your face, and go have a relaxed day at the upscale lawyer's office you work at.

Oh, and by the way, apart from the fact that the two sides are supposed to have two different colors (it must be confusing to play, seriously), I must say this thing is really very nice looking.

From zero to hero

Here's a funny real life story, just happened to one of me mates. He's about to shoot the video for a TV commercial, and he has his Nikon D3100 (I saw it, it's very charming, I'd like one) set up, it will handle it easily, top pro image quality.

But the customer comes in and says: "no way, buster, that's a still camera, we need a professional video camera on this job."

So my mate thinks for half a sec and says: "not to worry, of course I only use this one for measuring the setup and such, and then I bring in the pro gear. So while the customer is out, he puts video rails under the Nikon, mounts it with a professional video lens hood, you know the huge ones with swinging gates and everything, and he puts a shoulder grip and a focus grip on also.

So the customer comes in, looks, and say: "hey, well done, I'm glad you brought in the professional video camera, go ahead".

Very impressive professional video camera, n'est pas?

Frances Dilorinzo

Life is...

"Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans." 
--  Allen Saunders

---

"Content makes poor men rich; discontentment makes rich men poor."
-- Benjamin Franklin

Does this mean that content is not king after all?

---

By the way, I just found this in the middle of my notes of important things, I have no idea where it's from or why I noted it down, but I think it's very lyrical and funny:

"There is that to be said for a hairless head", the schoolmaster crowed, almost dancing on his desk.

Make me a leather bag

I've been trying to find somebody to make me a simple leather bag to hold my iPad and Apple Wireless keyboard (together they are about 20x30x4 centimeters). It's surprisingly hard. Does anybody know anybody who does that?

Update:
Right now I'm considering this. I think it will just fit the keyboard also, which is only 4cm longer than the iPad. I already have a Crumpler carrier bag, a bigger one, and I really like it. Strong and very useful.

A crane

My friend, Italian artist Umbra, currently visiting my ol' stomping grounds in Copenhagen, snapped this great pic of a crane, with a Canon G11.

More from Irv Thomas

I was visited this week by Irv Thomas, I took this pic Thursday.
In his eighties, he is currently on a tour of Europe!

And he has lived on the road for long stretches of his life, money-free.
There is much of interest to be learned, see my earlier post.
"The desire to get laid is a honey-in-the-pot trap for staying with the old grind, just like money and fame are. With your nose always buried in the pot, however, you really can't see what lies beyond it. And you tend to discount whatever anyone says lies beyond it. But let me tell you a couple of truths I've learned to live by..."

Mounts and stands

Here's a brilliant camera mount and stand for the iPhone 4. (Info via TMO.)

And a very cute oldie-timey-TV holder for iPad.

Nerds and informality and covering up

Nerds don't just happen to dress informally. They do it too consistently. Consciously or not, they dress informally as a prophylactic measure against stupidity.
-- Paul Graham

I don't have the brains to be a nerd, but I have the aspiration. When I won a position in the Writers Of The Future contest and there was this big event in United Nations, I was the only male in the whole hall who turned up without jacket and tie.

I just have an allergic reaction to formality of all kinds. It seems to me to all too easily become a cover for a lack of some kind. Formal speech can cover that you really don't like the other person, and formal dress can cover that you suspect that you really don't qualify for being there (whereever "there" is).

And for places, say restaurants, which won't let you in if you are not formally dressed, well... I guess they are trying to cover up that their exorbitant prices don't really pay for anything much.