Category: arts and letters

Another book…

I finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at five this morning. It was okay that the package came at around noon because I had to finish re-reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (early senility).

I’m actually a rather slow reader, it’s just that I don’t stop. Besides, I had to finish it because Caitlin was hot on my tail (and she was re-reading the entire series, not just the last book).

I should exact revenge all all you blogger idiots who spoiled the ending of Book 5 before I had a chance to finish it two years ago…

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Posted on by tychay 1

Astrophotography for the Amateur

When we arrived in Yosemite on a new moon late at night, the most noticeable thing was the stars in the sky. It was so dark you could easily pick out the Milky Way. So I stayed up even later to take 30 second bulb exposures with a tripod and timer. I wanted to edit some of them and asked Sean if he could suggest something.

He suggested “Astrophotography for the Amateur” by Michael A. Covington. Even though the book is “hardcore” there is apparently a whole section on taking photos without telescopes with separate chapters on comets/meteors, the moon, and eclipses. (I wonder if there is anything on taking photos of the sun.)

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Posted on by tychay 1

“God’s Own” AppleScript?

AutomatorAbout a year ago, when Tiger was in Public Beta, Thies told me to check out Automator. I didn’t get around to it because Thies is in the habit of saying things like, “Skype is God’s Own phone.” When everything is “God’s Own” X, then saying something like, “Automator is cool” isn’t going to get me jumping onto BitTorrent, especially since I never grokked AppleScript.

Earlier this year, I gave a talk in Vancouver. After Cal, the lead developer of Flickr, complimented me on it, I decided to see his talk. Okay, so his doesn’t have cool Keynote transitions like mine, but in terms of content, it totally rocks. What he and Ludicorp were able to do building Flickr is textbook case of why LAMP rules in the right hands. Go see his talk! I was impressed.

I registered for Flickr.

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Posted on by tychay 7

Google Video “Up Yours”

Google Video BETA

Hello,

We’d like to remind you that in our continued effort to respect the
rights of copyright holders and content providers, Google is only
accepting video uploads from persons who hold all necessary
rights to the uploaded material.

Both U.S. copyright law and the Google Video Terms of Service
prohibit distributing copyrighted works, unless you have the legal
right to do so. If you’re not sure whether you have the right to use
any of the content you submitted to Google Video, including any
music in the video, you can remove your uploaded video to the
product by following these instructions:

(blah blah blah)

Yeah, that’s nice but you still haven’t verified the two test videos that I uploaded two weeks ago. What’s the point of a “video upload” program if the user can’t download/link it?
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Posted on by tychay 4

BFD Today

Once a year, driving around work becomes impossible and and I become Grumpy Old Man. That is because of BFD at Shoreline Amphitheatre. Does anyone know how long this lasts? I have leave at a regular hour (5:30pm) to visit my brother and I need to know if I need to allot an extra 30 minutes to get picked up.

Caitlin pointed out that “for my safety” that “professional cameras” are not allowed there “point and shoots are okay”. How does that work?

Would my camera be banned? Probably. No wonder Ken Rockwell is obsessed with surreptitious uses of his digital camera. And yet when I buy plugins, I can get the consumer editions because my camera isn’t cool enough.
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Posted on by tychay 1

“Blowing” highlights?

Before I go on my rant, I need to give a little background.

book cover
When Andrei purchased his Nikon D70, we discovered that we had purchased different eBooks. I had purchased Peter iNova’s book and Andrei had gotten Thom Hogan’s. So after we had read our respective books, we initiated a exchange of CDs.

The two books are very different. Peter’s book capitalizes on features unique to PDF (actually somewhat frustrating since I hate Adobe Reader), is prettier, and doubles as an introductory book on Photography. Thom’s book is more practical (specific camera setting advice), has some nice tips you don’t get elsewhere, and is laser focused on one thing: talking about the Nikon D70. They both come with a bunch of Photoshop Actions, which I haven’t had a chance to use.

What I’m trying to say, in my roundabout way, is that Thom Hogan’s book is really, really good. It’s the user manual that should have been included with the camera.

[Good, I’ve gotten that off my chest. Now let me rant.]Continue reading →

Posted on by tychay 6

Why computer magazines shouldn't review cameras [reprise]

Nikon D70sNikon EOS 350D Rebel

To further emphasize last week’s tirade, PC Magazine usurps C|Net’s position as poster child for digital photography review incompetence. This time it is a review of the Nikon D70s, a small upgrade of my Nikon D70.

Check out this gem:

We love the D70s’ feel and design as much as we did the D70’s, and for those with larger hands, these two models may be preferable to the lighter Canon Rebel XT. The Rebel XT, however, ups the capacity ante to 8MP, which gives you the ability to print very large images, still besting the 6.1MP Nikons. The Canon kit (lens and body) is also cheaper than the D70s kit, although the Nikon lens is longer.

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Posted on by tychay 10

Buying photography equipment

In 2001, I tried to purchase an Epson 1280 I found at a good price. Instead of the product, I got a “hard sell” over the phone trying for ink and a USB cable at an outrageous price—they didn’t want to ship me just the 1280. I had them cancel my order and went to MicroCenter.

That was my first exposure to the dark underbelly of Brooklyn camera dealers. After that experience, a network search told me my experience was a common modus operandi.

DigiexpoOften when buying photography and video gear the best price you see often isn’t. What goes on is you try to purchase something from them at the price listed, and they’ll try to do things like sell you parts that are supposed to be bundled with the product or other accessories that you don’t want or don’t need.

Even when you find multiple similar (but not the same) prices for the same product from different stores, it turns out the stores are actually the same store—the DNS records and web design offer a clue. Also, these places will spam the merchant review sites to artificially pump up their ratings. It takes a lot of work to winnow the good from the bad.
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Posted on by tychay 8

PTMac

I stitched my first panoramic shot in 1994. I had just gotten an IS-10 and went to the top of the Duquesne incline plane and took a picture of Pittsburgh. I then digitized the photos with a scanner and stitched it together using my limited Photoshop skills. (360 degree panoramas aren’t the only use, there are some amazing wide aspect ratio shots that are impossible to get otherwise.)

Now things have improved greatly for me. I own a a real camera and a auto-leveling tripod with a panoramic head. So it is time to do some panoramic photography again.

When I first started digital photography, the software to use for stitching panoramas is the Apple Quicktime VR Authoring Studio ($400) which is still sold by Apple even though the web page for it has disappeared from Apple’s website and hasn’t been changed in 5_ years. Unfortunately, it stitched and blended really well, many commercial programs today can’t compare to it.

Well the lack of Mac OS X support is a deal killer (along with its exorbitant price). Time to look for another solution.

I decided to try PTMac.
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Posted on by tychay 3