Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
Australia Day 08: The devil is in the details
Damn, I’m still dating things 07!
Made an effort to kneel down onto the super heated sidewalk (sunny day) and take some macro shots.
Old dudes would walk past and inform me that ‘whatever’ widget I was paying so much attention too could now be bought in Sydney, or that they had hundreds of that thingamabob and could give me one if I wanted.
I thought it was a bit strange until I realised that I was surrounded by car nuts (which doesn’t quite convey the depth of feeling these guys had for their machinery.)
They thought I was scouting for parts.’
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Australia Day 08
That time again where Oz celebrates itself.
This is a link to last years entry...
This year I got down to the annual antique car show and took a lot of photos, and made an effort not to get sunburnt. This is the first batch...
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Happy New Year photographers.
Just a quick note to highlight a couple of ‘micro interest groups.’
Cloud Porn (public group)
Dedicated to Bad Mojo who first gave voice to my secret vice.
Dead person’s storage facility (public group)
This is a group for photos and videos with cemeteries as a focus.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Cool! All my favourite Photoshop features for only US $99
I was under the impression that the ‘Elements’ series of software products from Adobe were nothing like their big brothers. But Photoshop Elements 6 has some really powerful features borrowed from its sibling.
Image stitching from Photoshop: Once you have taken a series of shots, and stitched them together into one huge detailed image,’ you’ll be hooked on creating huge mega pixel monsters. I’m impressed with the way the function handles random areas like waves in water, and chooses what features to include and what to leave out. The coolest aspect is the way the process leaves your layers intact so features can be brushed back into the final result.
Shadows / highlights process: This is great for restoring areas in photos that are too dark or over exposed.
Layers: Enhanced with 'adjustment layers' for non-destructive edits of functions like Levels and Saturation.
Raw support: Less fully featured then Photoshop’s
Reduce noise: Less fully featured then Photoshop’s
Saves and loads Photoshop files: This is great for if you upgrade to Photoshop in the future, or take your files along to a bureau.
The attached photo shows a panorama I built and the individual images the program used to create the file.
There is a demo that you can download from Adobes site to try the program out for thirty days.
If you do any video, you might want to download Premier Elements at the time and pay a reduced price for both.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
One of the things I like about this city is the Sydney Festival
It runs for a couple of weeks in the summer, with great music and activities.
Especially good are the free events. The backpackers must love Sydney in the summer.
Golden beaches, northern winter gear forgotten, and free gigs all over the place.
Last week the festival opened and a big chunk of the city had its roads closed, and stages were erected.
Huge range of music, and a trio of couples had public weddings.
I ended up with a couple of mates down at the Domain Park where a local musician, Paul Kelly was playing a warm up set for an international. Brian Wilson.
Weather was a bit crap, but the intermittent showers were really light and refreshing.
Mr Wilson seemed to be very distant and kept scratching himself. He looked like your dad sitting on the couch at home but suddenly transported to a stage in front of an audience of thousands. Huge video screens amplified every movement.
The crowd loved the music and everyone was dancing and singing along to songs which seem to have embedded themselves into the group unconsciousness.
The people I was hanging with, kept making comparisons with how dynamic contemporaries of Brian, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger were.
I argued that Mick and Keff weren’t musical geniuses that had had suffered a breakdown and a long reclusive period.
They are brilliant showmen, but Brian was never really a 'front man.' This is possibly the secret to the harmonies and instrumentation, and why the entire band ‘features’ in a lot of the Beach Boys music.
I got to thinking about it, and I reckon some performers like Prince can be both amazing live, and as creative forces.
Last night it was the famous ‘Jazz in the park.’
This event has been regularly held for years. It was shut down for a while cause it was ‘too popular.’ The audience in the Domain Park would overflow and cause the organisers to have conniptions.
The event was restored and this year the main act was El Barrio. I reckon there were possibly more people who showed up for the Salsa then to gawk at last weeks Beach Boys living legend.
When we arrived a valiant four piece jazz band on stage was almost inaudible over the racket of picnic dinners.
We made sure we didn’t sit behind the ‘installation like’ jerry-rigged Bedouin tent held aloft with inflatable trees.
Found a spot behind an old couple who looked like they had been there since lunch quietly reading books and ignoring the hub bub.
The field was covered with picnics and blankets, and umbrellas, and booze, and children, and pillows, and collapsible or inflatable furniture.
I saw one older couple Unpacking folding chairs from the back of a huge Honda Goldwing which was parked amongst a crowd of tiny little Italian scooters.
I’ve been overseas for a bit, and busy the last couple of years so it’s been a while since I attended a ‘Jazz in the park’ and things have changed a bit…
Being buzzed by the police chopper during the Paul Kelly set was a bit crap. They whipped out the flashing lights and played the search light over the nearby buildings as though they were hunting for those evil (huh can’t really call them ungodly these days ha ha) terrorists.
Bicycle parking and chair hire: funny little bike parking station had been set up behind the stage, and the queue to return rented chairs once the performance was finished was almost as long as the queues to the toilets.
The sound-desks have turned into sound-towers
The food stalls are better quality. For some reason the beer drinkers had to use plastic cups but people supping wine were allowed to walk off with liquid filled glass clubs (a full bottle of wine.)
A little bird told me...
This is just for the 'Wildlife' group.
This little fella landed next to me while I was on holiday in New Zealand.
The game we will play is 'what the hell is the name of this birdy?'
First cloud type shots for the year...
Taken during a trip to New Zealand.
Since N.Z. is known as the 'land of the long white cloud' it would have been nice to take some photos that were a bit more interesting.
One of the things I like about this city is the Sydney Festival
It runs for a couple of weeks in the summer, with great music and activities.
Especially good are the free events. Backpackers must love Sydney in the summer.
Golden beaches, northern winter gear forgotten, and free gigs all over the place.
Last week the festival opened and a big chunk of the city had its roads closed, and stages were erected.
Huge range of music, and a trio of couples had public weddings.
I ended up with a couple of mates down at the Domain Park where a local musician, Paul Kelly was playing a warm up set for an international. Brian Wilson.
Weather was a bit crap, but the intermittent showers were really light and refreshing.
Mr Wilson seemed to be very distant and kept scratching himself. He looked like your dad sitting on the couch at home but suddenly transported to a stage in front of an audience of thousands. Huge video screens amplified every movement.
The crowd loved the music and everyone was dancing and singing along to songs which seem to have embedded themselves into the group unconsciousness.
The people I was hanging with, kept making comparisons with how dynamic contemporaries of Brian, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger were.
I argued that Mick and Keff weren’t musical geniuses that had had suffered a breakdown and a long reclusive period.
They are brilliant showmen, but Brian was never really a front man. This is possibly the secret to the harmonies and instrumentation, and why the entire band ‘features’ in a lot of the Beach Boys music.
I got to thinking about it, and I reckon some performers like Prince can be both amazing live, and as creative forces.
Last night it was the famous ‘Jazz in the park.’
This event has been regularly held for years. It was shut down for a while cause it was ‘too popular.’ The audience in the Domain Park would overflow and cause the organisers to have conniptions.
The event was restored and this year the main act was El Barrio. I reckon there were possibly more people who showed up for the Salsa then to gawk at last weeks Beach Boys living legend.
When we arrived a valiant four piece jazz band on stage was almost inaudible over the racket of picnic dinners.
We made sure we didn’t sit behind the ‘installation like’ jerry-rigged Bedouin tent held aloft with inflatable trees.
Found a spot behind an old couple who looked like they had been there since lunch quietly reading books and ignoring the hub bub.
The field was covered with picnics and blankets, and umbrellas, and booze, and children, and pillows, and collapsible or inflatable furniture.
I saw one older couple Unpacking folding chairs from the back of a huge Honda Goldwing which was parked amongst a crowd of tiny little Italian scooters.
I’ve been overseas for a bit, and busy the last couple of years so it’s been a while since I attended a ‘Jazz in the park’ and things have changed a bit…
Being buzzed by the police chopper during the Paul Kelly set was a bit crap. They whipped out the flashing lights and played the search light over the nearby buildings as though they were hunting for those evil (huh can’t really call them ungodly these days ha ha) terrorists.
Bicycle parking and chair hire: funny little bike parking station had been set up behind the stage, and the queue to return rented chairs once the performance was finished was almost as long as the queues to the toilets.
The sound-desks have turned into sound-towers
The food stalls are better quality. For some reason the beer drinkers had to use plastic cups but people supping wine were allowed to walk off with liquid filled glass clubs (a full bottle of wine.)
Sunday, January 6, 2008
First item of the year
Hiya folks,
Wishing you all ‘a good one’ in 08.
I’ve just got back from spending two weeks in New Zealand and there will be further posts.
This is going to be an interesting year for me. I intend to quit my job at some point. The company is relocating into an area of the city which is stupidly hard to travel to. It doesn’t help that that part of town is also a bit of a soulless desert.
I curious to see where I end up this time next year.
I’ve got a few bits and pieces left over from last year and I’ll post them now.
For those who found that the YouTube videos of the ‘Bondi to Bronte Swim’ to be chewed up beyond comprehension by the compression artefacts (Click here for entry,) I’ve compiled a series of VEOH videos.
There are also some photos of the Christmas party…
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Happy New Year, to all of our fellow group members.
There have been some great contributions, and very few who
have strayed ‘off topic.’
I'm looking forward to enjoying all of your great posts in 08.
Dave T.
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