Automatic art again

Now Photoshop can give you a new sky with a click. I can't tell you how mixed my feelings are about all this automation. It's cool to see and use, but then... it's like, imagine a little thing you paste on your jaw, and immediately you are a perfect, wonderful singer! Well, when everybody is wonderful singers, is anybody really a wonderful singer? I don't know. It's deeply confusing.

Pics 4 Nov

(Many details. Click on pic for full size.)

(On Mac, command-click to get new window. On Windows it's shift-click or option-click.)

(Canon GX7 II, and iPhone 6S+)

Olympus EM-1 II test

The test are coming in now, and it's clear that the new Olympus flagship model E-M1 mark II is a very powerful camera indeed.
And the new PRO zoom 12-100mm, a dream all-round lens. Compact, super-pro quality (both physically and image-wise), and breaking new records in stabilization effectiveness. Up to 6.5 stops is claimed and it seems to bear out, amazing. And with that range you can use it for nigh everything (perhaps with the little 45mm 1.8 for blurred backgrounds.)

"Surviving In The Wild: Can Your Photo Gear Save Your Life?"

Love the Camera Store TV. Good reviews and good humor.
This is pretty funny. Can't believe he actually caught a fish and made fire from what was in his camera bag though!

new pics

(Click for big pic)

The last three are from Olympus Pen-F with Panasonic 14-140mm. The others are Canon GX7 II. 

A humble goal

My goal is to get back the energy to work as hard as I did when I was twenty. ... And then not do it.

Angels

Angels are messengers, women are angels.

When I was much younger there was a dress-up-dance-in-the-streets in Copenhagen. At one point I was standing in the crowds in a tiny cinema in central town, and across from me was this tall vision with bright red long hair. She had on a long, dark blue patterned dress, and the dress had a long slit while revealed the entirety of her left leg. I was mesmerised.

==
There are so many moments in the past where I now wish I'd had a camera.

Update: I was challenged to draw it. I'm out of practice, but here's a very quick sketch.

Amira Willighagen - O Mio Babbino Caro

I'm not the world's greatest opera fan, but this one has to be experienced, trust me. Amira Willighagen, ten years old.

The Passenger, covers

Covers of The Passenger by Iggy Pop. I apologize to the non-rock-fans in my readership, but I just really like these.

Alison Mosshart:


Marco Cinelli:


Elka Nagel:

(Nice HD. Enjoy the pretty faces full screen.)
(Oh: if anybody can give me the gist of what they are talking about in Polish after her song...?)

... OK, I am trying your patience now, but I just find this odd and funny cover by "Folk Grinder" to be irresistable:

--
Not all like Iggy Pop-like hard rock, but in this case I find the melody uplifting and the lyrics positive:

"The Passenger"

I am the passenger and I ride and I ride
I ride through the city's backsides
I see the stars come out of the sky
Yeah, the bright and hollow sky
You know it looks so good tonight

I am the passenger
I stay under glass
I look through my window so bright
I see the stars come out tonight
I see the bright and hollow sky
Over the city's ripped backsides
And everything looks good tonight
Singing la la la la la.. lala la la, la la la la.. lala la la etc

Get into the car
We'll be the passenger
We'll ride through the city tonight
We'll see the city's ripped backsides
We'll see the bright and hollow sky
We'll see the stars that shine so bright
Stars made for us tonight

Oh, the passenger
How, how he rides
Oh, the passenger
He rides and he rides
He looks through his window
What does he see?
He sees the sign and hollow sky
He sees the stars come out tonight
He sees the city's ripped backsides
He sees the winding ocean drive
And everything was made for you and me
All of it was made for you and me
'Cause it just belongs to you and me
So let's take a ride and see what's mine
Singing la la la la.. lala la la [x3]

Oh the passenger
He rides and he rides
He sees things from under glass
He looks through his window side
He sees the things that he knows are his
He sees the bright and hollow sky
He sees the city sleep at night
He sees the stars are out tonight
And all of it is yours and mine
And all of it is yours and mine
So let's ride and ride and ride and ride
Oh, oh, Singing la la la la lalalala

Digital magazines

Before the millennium, MyMac.com was one of my first Mac sites/magazines I was reading, and it was delicious.
And funny enough, I'm feeling very nostalgic about the formatted, downloadable, fixed-layout magazines!  I remember putting a handful of them on my laptop and feeling cool about having virtual magazines on my machine when I  brought it out to have something to read over lunch or whereever. (Of course these days an iPad or other tablet makes virtual magazines much more portable, and flexible re how and where you read them.)

A magazine, having content with somewhat lasting value, is much harder to make than a news web site, which is what most of us are reading most of. We want to know what's new. Reading or writing more in-depth stuff demands much more of the reader.

Perhaps though, in the digital age, collecting loosely related articles into fixed packages is less relevant than in the world of paper, what do you think? (I use "Pocket" a lot for reading articles.)

But I still have pictures in my head of the old MyMac magazines... ah, there starts a new page... there starts a new article. Ah, a Beth Lock article, great...
(Oh, Nemo interviews a dude named Eolake Stobblehouse. Who's this joker?)

And I still love magazines, digital or not. And I'd like to make one, one day. It does not have to have fancy modern layout; in fact I think I may have liked the old MyMac magazine even better because of the very simple layout (demanded by the tech at the time).

iPhone Seven review by Pogue

This year it's hard for many to decide whether to upgrade their iPhone or not. But I think this review by David Pogue outlines it well. David has a way of cutting things down to brass tacks.

Living canvas

Here is a cool story of two artists who actually create photographs on plates of living grass.
(It's not painted on the grass or something, it's actually developed by projecting a negative onto young grass, so it grows richer and darker where it gets more light.)