Today has been the warmest and sunniest day this year, so I went for a walk along the riverside and took pictures.
Seems like I'm not getting anything done for the blog that involves actual work these days. Well, that's because I'm always busy doing something else, and when I stop pretending and admit that this is a shitty excuse I get really lethargic about the whole thing.
I'm actually working on new songs (and still have several on hold) so who knows, maybe I'll put something on here if anyone is interested.
Yup, it's another rehash. This time, since it's this time of year again, we'll revisit the old bridge crossing the river that served me as a beautiful photo model last year; check back here to have another look at the pictures if you like.
This year things are a little different though: I didn't use the digital reflex cam I usually take my pictures with, I just wanted to try out the cam of my new mobile phone, a Samsung Wave II. Of course, such an inbuilt cam holds no candle to an expensive 'professional' camera, and I didn't want to recreate last year's images. But I was actually surprised to find out that the pictures I had taken were pretty decent, even in their highest resolution (2560x1536). The contrast and sharpness isn't as crisp as with a reflex but you could still print them in high resolution if you wanted to and be absolutely happy with the results.
I experimented with some so called 'Scene' modes. With them you can automatically adjust the colours and the focus of the picture depending on the photo scene; on the images below I mostly used 'Sunset' and 'Against-the-Light-Shot' (or something), sometimes even 'Night'. Whenever I tried switching the Scene mode off, you were actually able to control the focus a little better (by tapping the screen you can set the focus) but also the contrast and colours would become dull, and everything seemed like Winter again. The pictures have not been modified afterwards, but I think that's pretty clear when you look at them. Especially when it became darker it was harder to get any decent (aesthetical) lighting done, but if you then turned off the Scene mode you at least got a brighter image.
So yeah, in conclusion the cam is surprisingly good for a mobile phone, and it should be sufficient for snapshots and maybe the occasional scenery or landscape shot, but if the lighting isn't in your favour you'll run into problems.
Anyway, enough rambling - enjoy the pictures! CLICK HERE FOR MORE, you rascal!
Remember how I did a little posting last year, the one about the video game The Ripper and how it featured music made by the band Blue Öyster Cult? And how a whole sketch on Saturday Night Live was based on that song and that it needed more cowbell? If you don't, check it out right now, I'll wait.
Are you done yet? Aight then.
Guess what: I gots me a little christmas present by Awesome Phil who you might remember from my Guitar Hero escapades during Winter-Een-Mas 2010. And this present looks something like this: CLICK HERE FOR MORE, you rascal!
I spent the weekend in Holland with Phil and Dominique, just camping and relaxing. We had to search hours for a place to crash (we left on short notice), but in the end it paid off: We had a whole meadow basically for ourselves, it was cheap, and we even had a shower!
We took a whole lot of pictures, but not with my camera - as you will clearly be able to see on the following pictures, there was dirt within the camera and I wasn't able to remove it completely. But Dominiques cam was great for high quality pictures as well, at least that what we were told and what it looked like on the big LCD display.
So here's a collection of photographs we took the first night on our camping site; more images will follow. Enjoy! CLICK HERE FOR MORE, you rascal!
So recently I was in a recording studio with one of my bands, Brilliant Thieves. It's a cover band and we basically wanted to have a demo record for anyone who books us, so they know what they're dealing with.
I was seriously more than impressed with the professionality of the studio. I have never been in a studio as big as this one, so naturally I wanted to take pictures. The only thing I had was my mobile phone, so the quality sucks, but you get a nice impression of the rooms and gear. Also, for everyone interested, I put the demos at the end of the post so have a listen if you like. CLICK HERE FOR MORE, you rascal!
There's a lot of great photography sites on the net, and those are the most recent I have stumbled upon.
Roads leading to nowhere- despite some pictures having a poor quality, these shots are absolutely amazing. Can't pick favourites, but I definitely like the mysteriously unfinished bridges, and everything sand-, water- and beachrelated (I really need a day at the beach right now).
The Moscow underground river Neglinnaya - creepy! Those photographs have something very alien to them. I love how the photographer used the given light spots and sources.
Dad and Son Switched - These manipulated family portraits are hilarious. Simple, yet effective. And of course, Michael Jackson has a cameo.
The VERY First Kiss - Adorable snapshots. The 8th one is my favourite :D I think my mom still has a picture of me kissing a girl in kindergarten somewhere... if I recall correctly I was more into blondes at the time ;) Do you still remember your very first kisses?
The Chess Kid - I like that. I'll keep that one in mind.
...admittedly, some things I posted here came from friends and readers, but hey, maybe we can make this an official segment or something?
My fellow lady blog writer and Madame Awesome Tiny sent me some pictures AGES ago, but somehow I never felt like doing anything for my blog recently. Now I do! And it feels good.
She had some amazing pictures that were perfect for an earlier blog post of mine, called Hey Kid, wanna play? Now, these pics weren't anywhere on the interwebs yet (because they were shot by Tiny herself), and since I had them on my computer for so long Tiny gently reminded me to put them here. And rightfully so, because this is something that should not be held back from the web.
So brace yourself as you delve into the scariest, most scarring things you will ever encounter.
While browsing thatguywiththeglasses.com I stumbled, quite by accident, upon Eric Power - gamer, artist, reviewer, Cullen-lookalike (but don't let that one scare you off - keep reading!).
He talked about what things he misses about 90s era gaming, and what made his (already interesting) list that I can totally relate to even more special was his use of paper cutout stopmotion. It's cute and interesting, and not too badly done either.
I did some research and found not only great animation about videogames (yay! can't have enough of them!) but also some amazing music videos Eric did. Be it animations with clay, cut outs, photographs or, of course, drawings; every video supports and strenghtens the lyrics of the song it is set to perfectly and beautifully.
Here are a few examples I can't stop watching and listen to:
The Pandas - Belly Of The Whale
In Cadeo - City Lights
... and my absolute favourite, musically and visually:
Fictionist - Blue Eyed Universe
Related links: The Prodigals - Whiskey Asylum: Another amazing song/video. Very deep and touching. The Life Of Gamers: A BBC-like mockumentary about... well. You know. Mario Meltdown: A nicely done short including everyone's favourite plumber. Zelda On Paper: The first of several small Zelda clips in paper cut outs. Check his homepage for more, including Metroid and Resident Evil!
Sometimes I stumble over some pretty cool stuff on the Interwebs that I'd like to put in here but have no idea of how to classify them, since I tend to put stuff together that is connected somehow. So I decided to classify them as Randomness. I know, right? I'm a genius! CLICK HERE FOR MORE, you rascal!
It's March 1st (at least it was when I attempted this post), and the sun outside makes me feel all Spring-y. Nevermind the (once more) dropping temperatures and the still very lifeless looking trees - I want Spring and damn I'm gonna have it!
This is why today I set out to shoot the world.
Camerawise that is - after running some errands for myself downtown I went to one of my favourite spots, the old railroad bridge crossing the river. With the camera at hand and sunny music in my ear (more on that in a later post) I enjoyed the sun and took some pictures of the surroundings, gradually learning more about the cam and increasing my snapshot-skills (at least I felt like I did).
On February 13th I got together with some mates to finally celebrate WEmas.
Diego managed to borrow Guitar Hero 2 & 3 for his Xbox 360 including two guitar controllers (although the Strat one was broken or something), I provided snack material and booze.
Buler, by the time he had had some booze, refused to let go of my Indy hat and played some Duke Nukem 3D, when he wasn't rocking. Phil pretty much failed despite being more than a decent guitar player, and Tello only gave it a few tries but provided very uplifting feedback when others were playing. Diego was by far the most awesome looking chap of the bunch - have a look for yourself: CLICK HERE FOR MORE, you rascal!
Winter can be a time of near-accidents on icey roads, wet feet due to snow slush and frosty temperatures, thus providing plenty of reasons to just stay inside, build a bed fortress with blankets and pillows and consume hot chocolate and cookies.
Still, Winter can be beautiful, as can be seen in Tiny's blog. Also, when I once went through my kitchen, I saw something I immediately needed to take pictures of:
Yeah well... it kinda made me go awww. And it definitely made me appreciate Winter a little more. But it really makes me crave for a comfy bed fortress.
The Oberhausen Gasometer currently holds an exhibit called 'Out Of This World - Wonders Of The Solar System'. It depicts the human exploration of the universe in a stunningly beautiful and very informative way, containing dozens of oversized pictures, recreations of space stations and historical/modern age tools for cosmic measurement, and - probably the main feature of the exhibition - remodels of the planets of our solar system, sized in scale to each other, shown on the lower floor of the Gasometer. Only the Moon appears a little larger (it is considered 'the largest Moon on Earth'), floating above the heads of visitors on the main stage, illuminated so that it is simulating its phases.
View from the top of the Gasometer. Picture taken by Tiny (2010)
I visited the exhibit with my fellow hobby scientist Tiny; check out her sweet blog for more cool pics and impressions!
Btw: Just the name alone made me want to watch the great documentary series from the early 80s, 'Cosmos: A Personal Voyage'. Carl Sagan really built himself a monument with this series; the whole universe (as far as we knew back then) explained by a very charismatic Sagan with visual greatness and deep philosophical elements, but still so very easy to understand that you feel really smart. Go check it out, if you can and if you are at least a little interested in our universe; 'Cosmos' is probably the best way to learn about it. When I visited the exhibit, I felt really clever because I knew some of the facts already - and more, since you can only put so much text on a single information panel.
Here's a great song made entirely from 'Cosmos' quotes (including a cameo from Stephen Hawking) for the five people out there who don't know it already.
'If we do not destroy ourselves, we will one day venture to the stars'. Yes please.
The same guy who made this great video made another song consisting not only of Sagan quotes, but other great scientists as well. It doesn't flow as well as the first one though (at least in my opinion), but the quotes are grand. Also, check out Sagan explaining our limited understanding of the Fourth Dimension:
' 'Hello', says the three-dimensional creature.'
Always blows my mind if I think about it for too long.
Tiny sent me an interesting video featuring Carl Sagan, Richard Feynmann and others, talking about 'The Fine Art Of Not Knowing':
'Science is not about the truth. What science is about is making our beliefs less false.'
And to end this little rant, here's another great quote by Carl Sagan considering early assumptions about the atmosphere of Venus.
'The arguments, if we can dignify such a phrase, went something like this:
I can't see a thing on the surface of Venus. Why not? Because its covered with a dense layer of clouds. Well, what are clouds made of? Water of course. Therefore Venus must have an awful lot of water on it. Therefore the surface must be wet. Well if the surface is wet it's probably a swamp. If there's a swamp there's ferns. If there's ferns, well maybe there's even dinosaurs.
Observation: You couldn't see a thing.
Conclusion: Dinosaurs.'
I love music and a few other things. I'm a musician and I like to write. I play video games, watch movies and like it when things come full circle. I also like by-the-ways and sidenotes.
