Altered Images - "Happy Birthday"

"The Lightweight Photographer"

The Lightweight Photographer, photo blog about compact cameras and quality.

Canon full-frame cameras

Both these cameras have amazing low-light quality. The less expensive 6D is even slightly better! You can get well-usable images at 25,000 ISO! This is two stops more than last generation, it's outstanding. (The newest Nikons are about the same, I believe. Hang them both for not having in-body stabilization though.)

I think this guy in the video review makes good points I agree with: The 6D doesn't have sports-shooter speed autofocus and is slightly less pro-rugged, but it's 200 grams lighter, it's currently over a thousand dollars less and has the same image quality!



(It's also the most bland-looking camera ever. It seems like Canon is determined to make it look like there are never any changes in their cameras! The new Nikons are kewler looking, at least a notch. There are some lines built into them.)

Update:

 Ken said...
It would be interesting to take some photos with the various cameras, blow them up to A3 prints and see if anyone can actually pick the difference.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...
At low ISO, it is often seen that people can't tell the difference even when a (good) pocket camera is involved, even on A3 prints (12x16"). Over five years ago I made perfect A3 prints from Canon compact cameras. (They may even have been A2 prints.)

But in very low light, the full-frame cameras blow away the small ones.
Though I'd bet it'd be difficult to tell the difference between the various full-frame models and brands in prints.

(Also with full frame, the depth of field is much narrower, which can be good or bad according to situation and desires.)

Western prawn stars

I can't believe that many porn stars still look like this. For the life of me, I can't see the attraction. I don't think there's an inch of natural skin to be seen.

Below, examples of prawn acting.
(Seems you have to be signed into YouTube to watch it. (But there's no actual prawn in it.))

Doonesbury characters

A big chart of the characters in Doonesbury and their connections. PDF file.

Below is a JPG, but you need the file above to be able to read it.

... This is obviously for Doonesbury fans, but I think pretty much anybody who like satirical cartoons should read Doonesbury, particularly in collections. It is not for really casual readers, but it pays off in spades, while often subtle, the humor is sometimes of the highest class.
(BTW, the newest collection in Kindle format, is high-res and in color, grand for use on iPad or Kindle Fire HD.)

BTW, I have written to the Kindle team and suggested an extra kink in the programming for Kindle comic strip books. They've made it so you can see a strip in full screen by double tapping on it. This is great for middle-aged eyes, and the scanning is really high quality. But then you have to close it and double tap on the next strip to go forward. I've asked them to enable simply tapping on the right of a full-screen strip in order to go to the next strip, this seems to me to be the most helpful and natural way to read them.

Paint Explosions

Raindrops

These seem to be by Chandan V.
Never seen anything quite like these, wonder what his methods are. (Like Helicon software for deeper depth of field, perhaps? Especially the second one here would seem impossible without that.)

Light drawing

My pal Laurie has made this excellent image.

"This Service Could Dismantle Copyright Forever"

This Service Could Dismantle Copyright Forever, article.

So what's to stop Mega from going down just the way Megaupload did? Mega's privacy, which is a no-foolin' stroke of genius. See, all of your files are encrypted locally before they're uploaded, so Mega has no idea what anything is. It could be family photos or work documents, or an entire discography of your favorite band. Poof: online and easy to share. And importantly, Mega doesn't have the decryption key necessary to get in. See? It's a masterstroke of copyright subversion.
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Ivy?

Somebody told me that this plant is Poison Ivy. Do we have a botanist in the audience?
(I looked it up, but it didn't seem very distinctive to me.)

(Clickable) 

(Model, Yulinn, Domai.)

Scam site?

I saw a text ad on the WSJ site, a Canon 5D III for a suspiciously low price (over a grand under normal) on a site called digitaldepotonline.com. When I clicked on it, I ended up on Google's home page! Odd, never seen that before. (It might have been connected to it being a Google Adwords ad, but it happens also if you go directly.)

I'm guess it's a scam site which has been removed. But why google home page? Instead of a scam warning page, or the usual search error page (full of ads) you get when you try a non-existent site?

(This one is only $500 below normal, but that is still suspiciously low for one of the hottest cameras at the moment.)

Ricky Gervais, a fan

[Thanks to Through The Lens]

On the picture above, Ricky Gervais looks kind and warm. This made me realize what it is about him which rubs me the wrong way, in his comedy: normally, he displays no kindness and warmth at all. One can tolerate rude and confrontational comedy better if one feels that the person respects and likes the target and people in general, but I don't get that feeling from him, normally.
I'm sure he *has* kindness and warmth, we are all children of Source. But it's hidden better in some.

At least he's a Bowie fan, so he can't be all bad.
I'm a bit envious that he met David Bowie, for Bowie is one of the very few people who I have dreamed of meeting, even literally, dreamed at night.