Archive for June, 2008

Blogging the Class: Week 5

Monday, June 30th, 2008

Tonight’s class started off by demonstrating a camera obscura constructed by taping black tarp over the windows except for a penny-sized hole cut out of a flattened piece of soda can. When we killed the lights, the whole room was turned into a canvas for an upside-down projected image of the scene outside. It was impressive to see how much detail was visible as well as the rich, full color. All this served as an elementary example of the optical principals of reproducing an image.

Then, of course, it was back into the darkroom for more print making. Tonight I took a different path with my test strips; I used multiple strips with a single exposure time on each instead of incremental exposure times along the same strip. This allowed me to have a better idea of how the different exposures would affect the whole image instead of different patches. I think the results were an improvement, and I was able to make three prints after a contact sheet.

There was no particular assignment this week, but as we finished up we were given handouts with additional information about how images are reproduced. Christopher may send us something to work on via email during the week, but otherwise we’re simply to shoot more film :-)

I think I’ll cut up some of my pre-class negatives this week so I can make prints from those images next Monday…

Netflix Customer Service For the Win

Monday, June 30th, 2008

Proving once again that its customer service department listens and acts, Netflix has decided to keep profiles after all. Less than two weeks after pissing off hordes of subscribers, Netflix sent out this glorious message:

good news from netflix

Thanks for listening, guys. The goodwill you earn from this is worth more than any perceived technical hassle from keeping profiles in tact.

Ansel Olson

Monday, June 30th, 2008

side of a car

As if you couldn’t tell, I’m hopped-up on photography these days. I’m also, as you may have noticed, a fan of my locality, Richmond, VA.

It’s truly a shame, then, that it’s taken me this long to highlight the photography of Ansel Olson. With a background in photography and interior design and a practice in the graphic arts, Olson has a clear eye for well-conceived photographs, be they digital or film. From the literal to the abstract and sometimes surreal, there’s a rich variety of work, and plenty of inspiration for a novice photographer like myself.

Wall-E End Credits

Saturday, June 28th, 2008

Okay, there are enough gushing reviews of Pixar’s latest release, Wall-E, that I needn’t muddy the waters with my lesser writing skills. I loved it. Best movie of the year so far in my opinion.

This post, on the other hand, is about the brilliant end credit sequence. Not only do we catch a glimpse, in a combination of stills and light animation, what happens after the conclusion of the feature, but we also see the visual design of the titles transition from cave drawings through hieroglyphs, to impressionism, and even up to 8-bit video game graphics. Pixar outdoes themselves with their films quite often, and the attention to detail – artistic detail, mind you – in an oft skipped part of a movie was a surprise indeed. Give these folks a Best Picture nomination.

Picture Imperfect

Saturday, June 28th, 2008

painted school bus

Ten fresh frames on my Flickr pro-feezy.

Debts to Society

Friday, June 27th, 2008

Today I was thinking about our national debt in the United States, as of this entry estimated at about $9.3 TRILLION, or nearly $31,000 per person. This got me wondering whether other industrialized nations suffered from similar financial problems. So I did what any nerd with an internet connection would do, and researched my quandary on the Internet. Here’s what I found:

France has a debt as of this writing well over 1.2 trillion Euros, which is close to $2 trillion, and considering their population this is nearly $30,000 per person.

The UK, in a 2006 estimate, is around 1.3 trillion Pounds, or $2.6 trillion. That’s a hefty $43,000 per person.

Sweden, on the other hand, reported today that it expects a surplus this year of 163 billion Swedish Crowns, or $27.4 billion. They’re expecting their total national debt to fall to around 933 billion crowns by the end of 2009, or a little more than $17,000 per person.

Land AND Sea Yacht

Thursday, June 26th, 2008

Yes, it’s conspicuous consumption. Yes, it’s impractical. Yes, it’s so awesome my head asplode.

BEHOLD! The Terra Wind Amphibious RV:

rv boat
(via Uncrate)

Outsourcing Human Memory

Thursday, June 26th, 2008

There’s an article in The Atlantic making its rounds ’round the blogosphere about the affects on the human mind of the Internet and its immediate information availability. The general idea is that with the advance of the Internet the very mechanisms of human thought are changing, affecting our attention spans and memories. Slate recently published two related articles – one about GPS and its effects on learning about our surroundings, and another about how we read online – that support this notion of technology standing in for our own brain function.

On Tuesday, I posted my short quiz about memorized phone numbers because I wanted to emphasize the dulling of this simple ability. I got to thinking about this after reading the Slate articles (but before The Alantic’s piece) and wondering just how many people with GPS units forget simple directions after extended use. If this even happens, how long does it take? Is it different because of the different sensory experience that comes with driving around?

Sure, some people have a hard time remembering all sorts of small details, but I bet for most of my (admittedly few) readers, the idea of memorizing a phone number was commonplace before cell phones went everywhere with us. For my part, I used to know anywhere from three or four times as many phone numbers by memory as I know now. I don’t personally have a GPS, but I know several folks who do. I wonder if they’ve found a tendency to rely on that more than an understanding of where, exactly, they are.

I’ll be looking out for other ways in which we turn over our own brain functions to technology and other systems. I can only imagine what impacts yet-to-be-developed devices will have on the way we interact with and understand our history, our world around us, and ourselves.

The Ha-Ha-Happening

Wednesday, June 25th, 2008

Oh boy, where do I start?

The only reason I went to see Shyamalan’s waste of celluloid, The Happening, was because Val really wanted to see it, and wanted me along for the ride so she’d have an arm or knee to grab if it was frightening. I was glad to go out for the night with my wife, but WOW! was this movie horrible. The script, the acting (I hope just from bad direction), the direction, and worst of all the story were all third rate. I really can’t tear apart the details any better than Christopher Orr over at The New Republic, so check out his review for a thorough take-down of The Hapless. I mean Happening.

This past weekend Val’s mom showed us some old high school report cards from her husband which she dug up in the basement. The cause for interest was the grading scale – widely different from today’s typical American report cards. The letters ranged from “A” through “G” and every letter in between, with “A” as outstanding, “B” as excellent, et cetera.

I give this R-rated feature a “G,” for BAD FAILURE.

Park

Wednesday, June 25th, 2008

This one is hilarious, but if you’re at work or are sensitive to profanity, beware some of the language…


Park from Amir on Vimeo.

(via Jakob Lodwick)