Look at you

"Sometimes you have to look at yourself, and then look away." 
-- Terry Pratchett, Snuff

I am learning this about myself.
I've been emailed about if I was all right, since this blog has been even more quiet in the past month than it was. And yes, I have not been well, and I had a heart operation two weeks ago. (Two stents put in to expand the arteries. They went in through the arm, and the operation itself was surprising easy and pain-free.)

I thank you.

But the weakness accompanying this and aggravating circumstances, makes me feel... Let us call it "not at my best" and leave it at that. I am watching inside myself all the unpleasant aspects of the human ego, like fear and unmotivated hate, and I have no doubt that all this, though surely universal, is also a main reason I ended up in this current unpleasant place, and since I always felt myself irrationally to be Superman, this makes the surprise even more unpleasant.
I can only hope to seriously learn from it and turn it.

Well, this was fun! Let's do it again soon, only you pay the coffee and I'll buy the cake.

Art video by Ralf Hildenbeutel

Wow, this is one of the best art videos I've ever seen.
(Though, how many "art videos" do you ever see, really?)

Ralf Hildenbeutel - Disco from Boris Seewald on Vimeo.

Wintergatan (Winter Street) music machine

Did you see this wonderful Steam-punky wooden music machine? Kewl

There is some interesting talk about what he is really doing at about 0:40 on this podcast.

And this is also exceptional.

No details? No problem.

Copyright Fred S.  

Fred S posted this picture on a M4/3 forum. He was worried about the black shadows without details and asked for help.

I said:
The picture is beautiful as it is. In fact, to my tast, the black branches add drama and tension to the image.
I spendt years as a teen, with books and photoclubs, being taught that all photos must have detail in all parts. (Ansel Adams' Zone System ect.)

Why?? It's just an arbitrary idea. Did God step down and proclaim that it had to be so? Do people ask painters "why are there no details in that area or in that area?"

 It took me years to unlearn it. I now have found out that artistically, actually some of my pictures have much stronger and better effect if I sink the shadows into blackness on purpose. One datum I learned too late: The Zone System was a TEACHING AID for students, it was never meant to be a tool for an educated photographer! It was meant to teach the student CONTROL over the tones, it was not meant to teach him that "all photos must have details in all areas".

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Addendum: Obviously, in photos, like certain architectural ones, where there are important details in ALL of the parts of the photo, of course you would want to show them all. But I think ultimately that's a minority.

In praise of IBIS (in-body image stabilization) (again)

So, I tried out a Canon full-frame camera. Wow, it had ISO settings up to 25.000! Keeeewl.
So I shot some hand-held test shot with a fast 85mm lens. Most around 1/50th second.
And what do you know? They were shaken! Shaken just enough to not be useable.

My Olympus ILC (Interchangeable Lens Camera) has "IBIS", meaning in-body-image-stabilization. So whatever lens you put on it, you get really solid help with holding the camera still, when hand-held. And I've gotten used to that with most lenses, I can get sharp pictures at 1/8 to 1/15th second, sometimes even longer.  It was a small shock to be suddenly cast back to the Bad Old Days without IBIS.

So in a nutshell: Though the big and heavy full frame camera had ISO up to 25k (though rather grainy), which gained me about three stops of use in low light, the lack of any stabilization in either lens or body cost me three stops of the same. So net effect: zero.

Sony now has full-frame cameras (the A7 series) with IBIS, and the newest Panasonic Micro Four Thirds camera also has, finally. This is great. Well done those makers.

Left behind are the Big Boys, "CaNikon", Canon and Nikon. For whatever conservative reason of their own they have chosen only have stabilization in the lens, in a minority of lenses. And in many situations this costs your three stops of light. When we think of how much we have to pay (in money and weight/size) to get a lens of a given focal length which is one or two steps faster (a lot), this is just... a ridiculous waste.

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By the by, related subject: I've seen it claimed that the heavy cameras make it easier to shoot long shutter times without shake. My experience is quite opposite. I think because the heavier the camera, the more the muscles strain, and there for shake. With my first M4/3 camera, I found to my delight that even without any stabilization, but with a more relaxed position, camera at waist height, screen tilted, with less weight, a softer shutter, and no big Mirror Smash (mirrorless cameras, remember?), with a 40mm-e lens I could actually take dead-sharp pictures at 1/15 second a lot of the time.

New "drone" flying car

If you can navigate your way between the hurrican of ads* that some sites now insist on, you can find a video here of a very kool new kind of air vehicle; basically it's like one of those small camera drones, blown up to two-man size.
Unlike a helicopter, which is very difficult to fly, this is not, it's basically self-flying. And it makes for less emissions, and I think, much less noise.

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*I looked now for adblockers for iPad, and found I already had one, NeverAds, but it was turned off, possibly after last OS update. So I turned it on, and what a difference; that confusing and ugly web site is now simple and beautiful. 

What a refreshing experience to see the content without having to make several decisions about what text, pictures, and especially links, is content and which is advertising. (They're disguising it now in many subtle way, like making it hard to see immediately which is a "next page" link and which is a link to promotions.) 

Kinetic art par excellence

Short video selection of Anthony Howe's astounding kinetic art. I wish the resolution was higher, but still it's hypnotic. And amazing to think anybody building this.

Interview with a designer

Charlie Rose interviews Jony Ive, Apple head designer for 20 years. If you like insight into how sharp minds work, don't miss this.

ShelterBox

A brilliant and practical solution to really useful disaster aid: ShelterBox.org.
They started getting really noticed during the Japan disaster.

Love must illuminate

Our ol' doctor friend Pascal (he's not around so often now, as he's got his own clinic established) wrote this, I don't know where it's from, but it seems it's an original Rassi:

Le vrai amour, c'est comme la religion: il doit illuminer, pas éblouir au point de rendre aveugle. -- (Pascal Rassi)

Translation:

True Love, like religion, must illuminate, not dazzle to the point of blindness. -- (Pascal Rassi)

"Less Gear More Photos"

This guy gets it: LessGearMorePhotos

You always hear that in order to become a great photographer, you need to have your camera with you all the time. I always wanted to be that guy, the guy who carried around his [big, heavy] DSLR all the time, but to tell you the truth, I already carry a backpack, lunch bag and gym bag out to my car every morning. I tried to carry my big camera bag too. It worked for a few weeks, but inevitably I’d wind up putting it in the car each morning, and then taking it out (along with the three other bags) when I got home…with no photos on the memory card. Then the next day I forget to take it with me or just not feel like it, and kick myself when the sunrise/clouds/sunset/rainbow/storm/light/fog/foliage on the Hudson River looked amazing and I had no gear with me.

It was Olympus designer Maitani's life work: designing cameras that were as small as possible for the image quality. He wanted the perfect "take-everywhere" camera. I'm not sure we have it yet, there are many good choices, but compromises in them all. But things are moving fast now in the digital age, so in five and ten years it'll look different yet again.

The new Olympus Pen-F. A beautiful camera, and compact and light for the quality and powers it has. 

Cool plate pattern

Tommy found this fascinating video.