Alex found this for-pay service which apparently will let you use those kinds of web sites which insist that you are in the US (like some TV services and so on).
I haven't tried it, but I might well do so if I get a barrier which is just irritating enough.
Monday, November 01, 2010
The right to bare breasts
The right to bare breasts, article.
Sophie Kaner, the author, has a purty kool Q&A column.
Far from preventing sexual assaults, the law against women’s toplessness is part of a way of thinking that is harmful to both men and women. If we take steps to change the law, our society’s attitudes will adjust and such a change in attitude will protect women far more effectively than a t-shirt ever could.
Sophie Kaner, the author, has a purty kool Q&A column.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
NaNoWriMo
"National Novel Writing Month" is up.
I'm not sure if the word "national" means you have to belong to a specific country (USA?) to participate? Or if it's just unthinking adoption of the usual territorial language.
It any case it sounds like a good chance to fire off a novel, good or bad.
Some people do it in 24 hours. And some of the books have even been good, according to reports.
I'm not sure if the word "national" means you have to belong to a specific country (USA?) to participate? Or if it's just unthinking adoption of the usual territorial language.
It any case it sounds like a good chance to fire off a novel, good or bad.
Some people do it in 24 hours. And some of the books have even been good, according to reports.
This week's films, and Tara McPherson, artist
My DVD rental service's three films this week seems to be all winners, a nice occurrence.
The Hangover, a crazy and funny and outrageous "bachelor party" type comedy.
Get Smart. Not seen much of it yet, but it feel perfectly timed and quite funny. Though not exactly original.
Juno, a youth drama of sorts. Now this one is original. Even seminal. Seems to be one of those films that simple are "done right". Beautifully filmed, and funny in a subtle way. It has this poster, by Tara McPherson, on the wall. Very impactful. They used the color version for the film.
(Notice it's a balloon, not a sperm, though I'm sure the confusion is on purpose.)
The Hangover, a crazy and funny and outrageous "bachelor party" type comedy.
Get Smart. Not seen much of it yet, but it feel perfectly timed and quite funny. Though not exactly original.
Juno, a youth drama of sorts. Now this one is original. Even seminal. Seems to be one of those films that simple are "done right". Beautifully filmed, and funny in a subtle way. It has this poster, by Tara McPherson, on the wall. Very impactful. They used the color version for the film.
(Notice it's a balloon, not a sperm, though I'm sure the confusion is on purpose.)
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Glowing leaves (updated)
Pentax K-r, 70mm F:2.4 (at 2.4 and F:13), 1600 ISO, Photoshop fx.
Not much light, so some (like the top one) I shot at 1/30 second. With a 100mm-equivalent lens, I was sure I couldn't hold that still, so I used the trick of setting the camera on continous firing, and fired off 3-4 shots of each. This will, amazingly enough, usually give one shot which is sharp.
But the in-body Shake Reduction of the Pentax must be better than I thought, because all the shots were sharp!* Very interesting. I guess it means if I use both methods, perhaps I can get sharp shots at 1/8 second with that short tele. ... Hey, why not test it?
No sooner thought than done:
It's decidedly dusk outside, much darker than it looks in this picture. (Yep, ten minutes later it's night.) It's F:6.4 at 1/8 second, and pin-sharp! Kewl. I took four shots in a burst, the first two were blurred, the last two were sharp.
Below is a 100% view (if you click for full size), first fresh from the camera, then with application of sharpen and de-noising filters. Remarkable.
Update:
By the way, "sharpening" in the computer does not create more detail in the photo. What is does is simply enhance the contrast at the edges, which gives the appearance of sharpness!
That type of sharpness is called acutance. An old Agfa film developer called Rodinal created the most amazing acutance, photos seemed so wonderfully sharp. But it had the same downside as Sharpening in software has: it also sharpens noise ("grain" on film), so the noise become more prominent. So it's a whole science to use this (and anti-noise filters) to the best effect.
*I dunno how "sharp" the leaf-pictures seem to you, cuz I did not process towards that in this case, I did not apply any sharpening in Photoshop, which is otherwise pretty standard, and furthermore I used a filter to get that "soft-focus"-like glow the pictures have. Just for fun, now we're talking about it, here's a more standard processing:
Friday, October 29, 2010
Early TV
I just realized I was a bit hazy on exactly when television started. I had the feeling it was maybe around 1950, but that's only when it became mainstream. Both Europe and the US actually had TV in the thirties! It was just very, very low-fidelity, and way expensive. And nation-wide broadcasts only came to the US in 1951. Nation-wide anything is a big deal in the US because the country is so dang friggin' huge. In Denmark, which you can drive across in like five hours after the latest bridge was built not long ago (one of the world's longest), anything is "nation-wide" from the start, almost. Well, there are local newspapers, though I wonder how they are doing these days. ... Not so great for my own town it seems, the paper they used to have doesn't even have their own web site, seems the paper was "et up" by a bigger one servicing all the towns on Sealand (Sjælland, the island where Copenhagen is), I guess it's gone.
2nd Look and square photos
Second Look blog. Specializing in square photos. Nice ones too.
I wish somebody would make a digital camera with a square format option which optimized the use of the sensor and lens circle (as opposed to cropping the ends off a rectangular image, which wastes a lot of the sensor and lens).
In the old days Hasselblad published a little book (or several) promoting the aesthetics of the(ir) square format. And it is fun, if for no other reason then because it's rare. It's a more laid-back format in itself, so it's a bigger challenge to get some tension in the composition.
Update:
Last period I painted (acrylics) I used square canvasses. I don't recall the decision process, but it seemed natural.
Come to think of it, a very high percentage of my paintings (as differentiated from drawings), probably most, have been square, on board or canvas. Funny, never really thought of that before, but it goes back even to my first solo exhibition in the early eighties. It feels like if you start from zero as with painting, anything else than square needs a reason.
With drawings I usually used an ordinary 4/3 format, because they needed frames, and reasonably priced frames come in that format.
I wish somebody would make a digital camera with a square format option which optimized the use of the sensor and lens circle (as opposed to cropping the ends off a rectangular image, which wastes a lot of the sensor and lens).
In the old days Hasselblad published a little book (or several) promoting the aesthetics of the(ir) square format. And it is fun, if for no other reason then because it's rare. It's a more laid-back format in itself, so it's a bigger challenge to get some tension in the composition.
Update:
Last period I painted (acrylics) I used square canvasses. I don't recall the decision process, but it seemed natural.
Come to think of it, a very high percentage of my paintings (as differentiated from drawings), probably most, have been square, on board or canvas. Funny, never really thought of that before, but it goes back even to my first solo exhibition in the early eighties. It feels like if you start from zero as with painting, anything else than square needs a reason.
With drawings I usually used an ordinary 4/3 format, because they needed frames, and reasonably priced frames come in that format.
Dusk and autumn
It was quite dark, actually, barely enough light to hand-hold a decent image even with modern cameras with high sensitivity and "shake reduction", and I knew it would get darker second by second, so I grabbed the nearest camera which had a wide-angle on it (kit zoom, actually). Pentax K-x, 18mm, F:4.0. I have removed the lamp in the foreground and fiddled a little with contrast and such. Original:
Shelfari
My sad and shameful lack of respect for FaceBook is no secret. But it's not that I think social networks are stupid, it's just that I think they should have a center, be about something other than mostly mindless chatter.
One which looks promising is Shelfari, which is a book-reading community. Put up a virtual shelf of whatever you have read, review them if you like, and read others' reviews.
One which looks promising is Shelfari, which is a book-reading community. Put up a virtual shelf of whatever you have read, review them if you like, and read others' reviews.
Tommy's blog
Regular readers may remember a fella named Tommy who has found some cool videos for us. Turns out he has a blog too.
For example I found this one there:
(As usual, click on the YouTube logo to see it in bigger size.)
For example I found this one there:
(As usual, click on the YouTube logo to see it in bigger size.)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)