A fantastic capture from a contact on flickr, who i think was up in a helicopter above Rio on the 2nd, waiting for the Olympics bid results!
Saturday, October 03, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
I'll be there for you, cause you're there for me too
A man after my own heart :) Its actually nice to know that I am not a weirdo in thinking that Friends was and will remain the best tv show ever!
Monday, August 17, 2009
Resource List - Digital Photography
Examples
- 23 Astonishing Examples of Light Painting
- 43 Mind Blowing Architecture Photography Examples
- 15 Amazing Examples of Tilt-Shift Photography
- 22 Amazing Examples of Firework Photography and How to Take Them
Guides and Tutorials
- 15 Cool Digital Photography Links
- 4 Rules of Composition for Landscape Photography
- 11 Surefire Landscape Photography Tips
- http://digital-photography-school.com/10-questions
- How to Turn Your Favorite Photo into a Miniature Masterpiece
- Shotbox Photography Guides
Books
Textures
TBO
http://www.lightroomkillertips.com
http://www.apertureprofessional.com/forumdisplay.php?f=27
http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/aperture/
http://tacksharp.tv/
http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/02/welcome-to-strobist.html
http://www.planetneil.com/tangents/flash-photography-techniques/
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=75678
http://www.dpreview.com/
www.kenrockwell.com
photo.net
luminous-landscape.com
bobatkins.com/photography
photozone.de
the-digital-picture.com
flashflavor.com
http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/index.asp
http://www.dtowntv.com/
http://blog.chasejarvis.com/blog/
http://blog.livebooks.com/
http://duncandavidson.com/
http://www.butkus.org/chinon/
http://www.thetrainedeye.co.uk/
http://www.lovegroveconsulting.com/
http://www.chrisweston.uk.com/workshops/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/netwolfuk/
http://www.whf.org.uk/aboutwhf.cfm
http://www.magnumphotos.com/Archive/StartPage.aspx
http://yervant.wedshooter.com/category/Post-Production/
http://www.scottkelby.com/blog/2009/archives/4108
http://www.good-tutorials.com/
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/04/17/40-amazing-online-photography-magazines/
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/
Thursday, August 06, 2009
China Is Near / La Cina è vicina
China Is Near / La Cina è vicina, originally uploaded by Osvaldo_Zoom.
The photographer above added the following description:
"In the late eighteenth century, the political economist Adam Smith predicted an eventual equalization of power between the conquering West and the conquered non-West. Demonstrating Smith's continued relevance to understanding China's extraordinary rise, Arrighi examines the events that have brought it about, and the increasing dependence of US wealth and power on Chinese imports and purchases of US Treasury bonds. In the twenty-first century China may well become again the kind of non-capitalist market economy that Smith described, under totally different domestic and world-historical conditions.
Giovanni Arrighi, Adam Smith in Beijing: Lineages of the Twenty-First Century."
Got me thinking, what a neat way to bring together 2 of my personal favourite subjects: Economics and Photography! Ok, 3 :-)
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Netbooks and cloud computing
The article and specifically this line from the Economist on netbooks had me thinking again about one of my favourite topics - centralised computing (a.k.a "Cloud computing" nowadays): ".. a near permanent connection to the internet permits simpler technology...changing the economics of the PC business." Allow me to elaborate...
My first experience of a "computer" in the non-pedantic sense (a ordinary calculator is a computer too) was my dad's black and white screen Windows 3.1 laptop in the early 1990s. Some megs of RAM and some megs of storage etc. I only ever played Snake on it though, found Wordperfect too complicated and it didn't have BASIC so games.. Anyway, my first real "computational" experience was at college/uni where we used UNIX based central systems with dumb terminals strewn everywhere. All my data, programs, papers, resume everything were stored in this central place along with the data of everyone else. Fast forward 4 and a bit years and I am sitting in front of a Windows NT 4.0 "workstation" with all my data stored on "personal" computers. Fast forward a few more years and now my data is distributed. My work data is now on a shared "storage area network" and my personal data is still stored on my PC, with a few bits "shared" or "hosted" on sites like flickr. (Pardon the overuse of the double quotes - am trying to identify jargon as its emerged). And I haven't backed up my data, so when my PC gets knicked I lose my honeymoon/holiday/travel snaps and major heartache ensues. But it didn't have to be that way....
We now have netbooks with minimal storage, cloud computing and data storage (which admittedly hasn't taken off as much) and ubiquitous internet access. Netbooks are pretty much pared down PCs - not as "powerful" as a laptop or desktop. More or less like the centralised computing dumb terminals of yore that we started off with. Why does humanity always have to move around in circles? I always imagined that one day in the not too distant future, storage and internet access will become utilities like telephony, gas, electricity or water. We are nowhere there! Why do I have to shell out on a so called "depreceating" asset called a personal computer, continually upgrading to greater storage space, latest software and faster processors, when all I want to do is to read/watch/hear my favourite websites, store personal data and access paid for content (music/videos)? I don't have my own power generator, water or gas storage so why can't I have a "pipe" to my local data centre where all my data is and access the internet? Why do I need to care about "bandwidth"? Do you care about your telephone's bandwidth? What's the difference?
Maybe people have issues with storing their data on a system away from their immediate vicinity? Let's see - all of my contacts and my calendar are on the likes of hotmail, gmail, facebook and linkedin. My credit card numbers, phone numbers and address are stored on a million sites. My photographs are on flickr, my CV on job sites, my medical history on some super giant NHS computer, my phone calls and text messages logged by my mobile service provider and so on. Even a blog of my (more civil) thoughts is here! In short, "my" data is already out there. Why did I recently purchase a 1TB drive and a 1TB backup drive then? In my particular case, it was pretty much for my music and movies. But iTunes could have had a different subscription based model, where "my" music meant I could listen to content I had paid for, anywhere and anytime. I didn't have to store my music on my mac AND my iPod, continually upgrading both with greater storage-ability.
Similarly, I am sure we can work out a counter argument to every other objection to centralised data storage. Except one very irksome question - data "ownership". My snaps are on facebook, but do I own them or are facebook free to use those snaps as they choose? After all, fb are providing me storage free of cost, there has to be some payback. And I can't think of a non-radical answer within my limited abilities.
My first experience of a "computer" in the non-pedantic sense (a ordinary calculator is a computer too) was my dad's black and white screen Windows 3.1 laptop in the early 1990s. Some megs of RAM and some megs of storage etc. I only ever played Snake on it though, found Wordperfect too complicated and it didn't have BASIC so games.. Anyway, my first real "computational" experience was at college/uni where we used UNIX based central systems with dumb terminals strewn everywhere. All my data, programs, papers, resume everything were stored in this central place along with the data of everyone else. Fast forward 4 and a bit years and I am sitting in front of a Windows NT 4.0 "workstation" with all my data stored on "personal" computers. Fast forward a few more years and now my data is distributed. My work data is now on a shared "storage area network" and my personal data is still stored on my PC, with a few bits "shared" or "hosted" on sites like flickr. (Pardon the overuse of the double quotes - am trying to identify jargon as its emerged). And I haven't backed up my data, so when my PC gets knicked I lose my honeymoon/holiday/travel snaps and major heartache ensues. But it didn't have to be that way....
We now have netbooks with minimal storage, cloud computing and data storage (which admittedly hasn't taken off as much) and ubiquitous internet access. Netbooks are pretty much pared down PCs - not as "powerful" as a laptop or desktop. More or less like the centralised computing dumb terminals of yore that we started off with. Why does humanity always have to move around in circles? I always imagined that one day in the not too distant future, storage and internet access will become utilities like telephony, gas, electricity or water. We are nowhere there! Why do I have to shell out on a so called "depreceating" asset called a personal computer, continually upgrading to greater storage space, latest software and faster processors, when all I want to do is to read/watch/hear my favourite websites, store personal data and access paid for content (music/videos)? I don't have my own power generator, water or gas storage so why can't I have a "pipe" to my local data centre where all my data is and access the internet? Why do I need to care about "bandwidth"? Do you care about your telephone's bandwidth? What's the difference?
Maybe people have issues with storing their data on a system away from their immediate vicinity? Let's see - all of my contacts and my calendar are on the likes of hotmail, gmail, facebook and linkedin. My credit card numbers, phone numbers and address are stored on a million sites. My photographs are on flickr, my CV on job sites, my medical history on some super giant NHS computer, my phone calls and text messages logged by my mobile service provider and so on. Even a blog of my (more civil) thoughts is here! In short, "my" data is already out there. Why did I recently purchase a 1TB drive and a 1TB backup drive then? In my particular case, it was pretty much for my music and movies. But iTunes could have had a different subscription based model, where "my" music meant I could listen to content I had paid for, anywhere and anytime. I didn't have to store my music on my mac AND my iPod, continually upgrading both with greater storage-ability.
Similarly, I am sure we can work out a counter argument to every other objection to centralised data storage. Except one very irksome question - data "ownership". My snaps are on facebook, but do I own them or are facebook free to use those snaps as they choose? After all, fb are providing me storage free of cost, there has to be some payback. And I can't think of a non-radical answer within my limited abilities.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
The Daily Rant - Journey By Torture
I have a twice daily feeling of loathing for life in this great city of London and both those instances are immediately preceded by a journey on the London Underground. This is the commonest of the common complaints in London, of course, but it still doesn't make it any less annoying. My particular rant has nothing to do with the externals - the delays, the strikes, the failed signals, the passenger actions, the emergency alarm activations, the suspect parcels at tube stations, the fire alerts and so on. Its the internals - the belly of the monster - that gets me.
I feel particularly hard done by. You see my closest tube station is Hounslow Central. So eastbound trains will have originated at Heathrow. Where our esteemed tourists would have filled the train up with their luggage and their asses and, to ensure a royal ride into town, placed their bags on the seats next to them and would rather not move them even when they can see us local commuters dying to rest our own hindsides while we get our daily fix of Metro. Equally annoying is everyone's refusal to acknowledge that an old lady/man, a pregnant woman or a woman with a young child might need the seat more than them. But I am told we desperately need tourist dollars/yen/euros so that we can start spending again ourselves so - so much for a seat when travelling to work.
If, however, the Underground Gods see it fit to grant me sitting space on an especially auspicious day, a new dilemma presents itself. Should I sit on that seat which has white muck stuck to it, smells funny, is playing host to a copy of the Metro, an empty juice carton/paper coffee cup and a chocolate wrapper all placed artistically and looks like its been recycled from the rubbish dump from hell? Do I really need to? Or should I act chivalrous and let someone else take the seat, even though its been reserved for me by aforementioned Underground Gods? Chivalry wins, legs take a 45 min pounding on the way to South Kensington where a new thrill awaits. The brush (or should I say crush) of (in)humanity as it rushes past you on its way into the carriage while you are still trying to work out whether you should get hit by the left or right closing jaw of the door on your desperate escape from Tubeworld.
The ride back home in the evening presents a different set of challenges - usually of the auditory kind. People on mobiles talking loudly coz you can't quite hear them. People playing their iPods loud enough through those dinky white headphones so that you can keep up with musical trends and the top 10 dance/metal/pop anthems on a daily basis. Wailing children, talkative excitable tourists leaving and Londoners escaping, ringing mobiles, humming weirdo old women, busking twat murdering latest Coldplay song - all add up to be the perfect recipe for a mini brain explosion. Ergo expletive laden outburst on first "having minded the gap" step out.
So - what's wrong with me? Clearly its lunacy to expect civil and well mannered behaviour from presumably educated and cultured citizens of the world. Equally transparent is my utter inability to withstand a sensory assault in the audible frequency range. And shameful is my complete lack of athletic ability in being unable to stand for a couple of hours while dodging assorted items of luggage and paraphernalia.
Therefore, I must return to the tube and learn to bite my lip and reflect on my own inadequacies next time I feel that rising tide of bile and thunder in the eyes.
I feel particularly hard done by. You see my closest tube station is Hounslow Central. So eastbound trains will have originated at Heathrow. Where our esteemed tourists would have filled the train up with their luggage and their asses and, to ensure a royal ride into town, placed their bags on the seats next to them and would rather not move them even when they can see us local commuters dying to rest our own hindsides while we get our daily fix of Metro. Equally annoying is everyone's refusal to acknowledge that an old lady/man, a pregnant woman or a woman with a young child might need the seat more than them. But I am told we desperately need tourist dollars/yen/euros so that we can start spending again ourselves so - so much for a seat when travelling to work.
If, however, the Underground Gods see it fit to grant me sitting space on an especially auspicious day, a new dilemma presents itself. Should I sit on that seat which has white muck stuck to it, smells funny, is playing host to a copy of the Metro, an empty juice carton/paper coffee cup and a chocolate wrapper all placed artistically and looks like its been recycled from the rubbish dump from hell? Do I really need to? Or should I act chivalrous and let someone else take the seat, even though its been reserved for me by aforementioned Underground Gods? Chivalry wins, legs take a 45 min pounding on the way to South Kensington where a new thrill awaits. The brush (or should I say crush) of (in)humanity as it rushes past you on its way into the carriage while you are still trying to work out whether you should get hit by the left or right closing jaw of the door on your desperate escape from Tubeworld.
The ride back home in the evening presents a different set of challenges - usually of the auditory kind. People on mobiles talking loudly coz you can't quite hear them. People playing their iPods loud enough through those dinky white headphones so that you can keep up with musical trends and the top 10 dance/metal/pop anthems on a daily basis. Wailing children, talkative excitable tourists leaving and Londoners escaping, ringing mobiles, humming weirdo old women, busking twat murdering latest Coldplay song - all add up to be the perfect recipe for a mini brain explosion. Ergo expletive laden outburst on first "having minded the gap" step out.
So - what's wrong with me? Clearly its lunacy to expect civil and well mannered behaviour from presumably educated and cultured citizens of the world. Equally transparent is my utter inability to withstand a sensory assault in the audible frequency range. And shameful is my complete lack of athletic ability in being unable to stand for a couple of hours while dodging assorted items of luggage and paraphernalia.
Therefore, I must return to the tube and learn to bite my lip and reflect on my own inadequacies next time I feel that rising tide of bile and thunder in the eyes.
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