Job Perks

It's sometimes real tough. Having to try $230 Grand Marnier whilst trying to get things IN FOCUS at 8:30 AM! These are the most expensive bottle you can buy at the MLCC. There is a scotch in there that sells for $2300! Needless to say, the total value of this little set up was in the $5000 range. We were forced to set up in the store, as the client was none to happy about transporting these bottle anywhere. I understood completely, I didn't even want to touch them!

UPDATE: I have been corrected by the client. The total for this shot is closer in range of $8000 and the one bottle is about $3220!

Fujifilm FinePix F10 Zoom : Digital Photography Review

Fujifilm FinePix F10 Zoom digital camera specifications: Digital Photography Review People ask me what digital camera to buy all the time! It was tough to answer cuz really, I didn't really look hard at point & shoots, they weren't really something I was into. But recently I broke down and bought a small one, the Fuji F10. All in all, the camera is perfect for me. It might not be perfect for you though! See that's the thing, you have to choose the camera that meets your needs. If you're looking for a camera that can shoot wthout flash with low noise at high iso's then this might be for you. But there is plenty to not like about this camera if you care, so it's hard to recomend one camera to everyone. Persoanlly I'm pretty impressed, and it's the smallest camera I own. It reminds me of the Olympus XA I used to have back in college. So far I take it everywhere, and it does a great job for what I intended it for, quick and easy snaps, nothing more. If I want high art, I breakout one of the many other cameras I have. You can read the user reviews and specs to see if you like this one.

Geese.jpg

Geese.jpg (JPEG Image, 800x542 pixels) Rob's cool geese shot.

The Redeye Complex

The Redeye Complex
Check out Rob's Blog,... someone has to keep trying this blog thing and every once in awhile both Rob and I do this, so encourage both of us by bookmarking our blogs.

Sept's Playlist

a real mixture this month as it should be. The Year of The Cat, its schmaltz but I always liked it, even back when I heard it on 13CFRW back in the 70's. The Israelites is one of the earliest ska/reagee songs to chart in America. A string version of a Coldplay song then some more classical tinge groove. Bill Corgan does another cover (gee is there a theme here?) of an old 60's hit I can't recall who did it first. Richard Cheese is a lounge singer to does current pop songs in a swinging 60's lounge style. This is the hit from Cypress Hill, a rather hard rap group, funny as hell and is full of cheese. Techno versions of Fleetwood Mac's Dreams and Flashdance (Ok the covers theme is an accident!) One of my my fave Lightfoot songs,a sample of a Kompat compilation, Joan Jet doing Crimson and Clover, Scissor sister doing a classic Pink Floyd tune in a rather up beat Bee Gees kinda way, and just to make sure you're not nodding off, I finish with an quirky number from Autechre. Too funny how the covers accidently make this playlist. Oh well, there you go a solid hour of electic music!

Fall Skies

Isn't this always the way it goes? You get these wonderful moments of light and cloud and the shadows are long, and you can smell the leaves on the ground. But its while you're rushing to work, or on your way to the mall and you wait till you get to the next stop light so you can maybe lean just a bit more so you can catch another glimpse of that cool sky before it's gone, cuz this time of year, things go fast, including you.

Glamourous shoot

Oh who says this job doesn't have it's glamourous moments. We're shooting products for Atlas Graham in the Pan Am clinic OR, so its greens for everyone!

Current book: Under the Bridge

The True Story of The Murder of Reena Virk. You'll recall this was when the group of teens killed the girl in Victoria. It was an incrediblely senseless and cruel act that always bugged me. After reading raves in the papers about this book, I had to read it, and yes it's very well done. Painful, but well done.

Something about bullying that just really bugs me and this is bullying taken to it's illogical extreme.

Blogger Help : What is BlogThis! ?

Anyone using Blogger needs this in their bookmark bar. Rob this means YOU! :-)

iMac G5 Noise Page

We have an all in one iMac G5 at home. Everyone, Liam included LOVES this machine. Small and compact, the all in one design is great for a busy crowded house. It's just a DAMN shame that the fan noise from this machine is at a frequency that just annoys the piss outta me! It's even MORE furstrating when I read about how Apple isn't really acknowledging the problem and you have to turn to the grasss roots users to seek a solution. Velcro, carboard, a band saw, these are the items of an elegantly designed computer? I don't care what I have to do to get rid of this noise.

stupid.ca

I saw this address spray painted ona building downtown. It's an anti-smoking site for Ontario. Hip design.

AntiGravity: Your New Orleans Alternative

A really sad post on this guy's blog showing the before and after of his comic, book, and movie poster collection. This is the collectors nightmare!

Queen : a kind of magic

I went and saw the Queen tribute concert this week. First off, there will be only one Freddie Mercury. His talent and charisma was singular. As I said to Rob while watching, I am kind of glad it as as good as Queen. It would have been disappointing if a bunch of guys got together and sound exactly like them. It was great fun, and reminded me why I loved their music so much back when I was young. It certainly doesn't always RAWK out, but is full of poppy hooks and is great fun! I can remember singing along to Good Ol Fashion Loverboy when I was 16, 17 years old and loving it! This at a time when you had to be a headbanger or else. And as obvious as it seems now, I really didn't think that much about Fredide being gay. I mean it never crossed my mind! Through Queen I learnt to appreciate other genre's of music.

I always recall the comment Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails said about Freddie Mercury in an interview with an older journo from Rolling Stone or Spin. "When Freddie Mercury died it wasthe same for me, as it was when you lost John Lennon."

Paris, Texas (1984)

Watched this again. I think the last time I saw it was back in 1985-86. It's a slow moving film, but still has an effect. The cinephotography creates the American southwest as a character unto itself. Wim Wenders is definitely in love with "america" and it shows. The story is simple and pretty sparese, but the moment I always remembered, is still powerful the second time.

Ricki's part 2

This time on location within the Ricki's warehouse. We shoot a style guide on mannequins. It's beside a complete mock store where they define floor plans. Jenna's checking the images as they comeinto the laptop.

Winter is coming!

You know it's coming, when you're shooting the jackets, mitts and toques. Is that how you spell toque? Or is it touque? My spell check doesn't have it, eh? :-)

K9Storm

A biz profile on local biz K9Storm. They make protective vests for dogs in law enforcement. If you see a police dog wearing something anywhere in the world chances are K9Storm made it. Super nice people too!

"Get Published, Get Paid" on Wed, Sept 28/05

On Wednesday, Sept 28/05, MNM Presents, "Get Published, Get Paid" at
Red River College off Princess Avenue, at 7 pm sharp. Please note the
above change in date and location! Due to the lead time required for
this event we had to push our gathering back a week. A special thank
you goes out to Red River College for helping us secure the venue and
providing internet access. Chairs will be setup on the main floor in
the Multipurpose Room. There is no charge to attend this presentation.

Wedensday night's meeting will feature yours truly; Kevin Hnatiuk, Ian
McCausland, and Brock Gunter-Smith, to talk about a couple of online
self-publishing models available. Specifically, we'll be focussing on
internet services that allow you to upload a book, artwork, music,
photography, or whatever, and create a web-store quickly and easily
using print-on-demand. Cafepress.com, LuLu.com, and even Apple's iPhoto
allow you different levels of self-publishing with various results.
We'll also show you some quick and easy marketing tips to drive
customers, and CASH, to your new web store!

We'll begin Wednesday night's presentation with a step-by-step example
of setting up a web store using Cafepress.com. If you attended our
MacWorld Roundup meeting last February, you'll remember Ian and I
interviewing Tony Deweese, Front End Web Developer of CafePress and
some of the products they allow you to brand. Following the setup of
your CafePress.com account, Ian will talk about his experience
uploading and printing photos using Apple's iPhoto Book service and
show you some samples. Finally, Brock will give you some tips on how to
drive a target audience to your web store and get them to buy.

This presentation will be of interest to anyone looking at getting
their content into an online store quickly and making some money. With
Christmas just around the corner people are looking at buying clothing,
CDs, books, and apparel that will make a unique gift. Why not design a
logo or upload some photos you think others will like and make some
extra money for your own holiday shopping this season? Or if you're
like one Cafepress retailer, get serious, and make $100,000 selling
your products online! With some nice design, or a catchy idea, your
profit potential is limitless.

Found art

Shot with my new Fuji F10. It's great at available light smaall to carry everywhere and I shoot it "lomo-style"

Ricki's on location

As part of Ricki's Xmas window campaign. Shot on location at Ft Gibralter.

What's wrong with advertising in Wpg?

Can you read the copy on this or any other billboard for Kildonan Place? No neither can I. In fact I sat at a red light and the entire light was spent trying to read the copy. This was a vertical board that was 25 ft away from me, while NOT moving. I tell yah there are so many things wrong in this business. Fall outdoor ads for a few malls seem to really hi light this problem.

Moondust Part2

What a great book! It arrives at the very same moment the return to the moon is being discussed in the news. The author really wrosk through why his facination with the moon landings seems to have grown over the years and and why now it reaches some sort of climax. He does point out that at the time of writing he wa sthe same age as most who went to the moon, as am I. each of the moonwalkers goes through their own process of dealing with the what happened and coming to terms wwith it. By the end I can even agree with the author's view and understand why Neil Armstrong has said or done very little.

One of my earliest memories was being pulled from the TV watching what i think was Apollo 17, the last one, to go to kindergarten. It was life altering to see these men on the moon. After that my grandma's trips to Cape Canaveral, following Skylab, and then the lauynchof the shuttle all seemed like feeble attempts to re-live that excitemnet that I could even feel as a 5 year old. Now 30 odd years later we're all wondering if it really happened, someone don't even believe iit did, and many wonder why we should ever try and do it again. If you're at all curious about what it does to men, internally, you'll need to read this book

meebo.com

A web based Instant messenger. Supports the top 4 IM programs. Seems to work pretty good. Could be handy if you're on the road and want to chat with the folks back homeon unknown machines.

More Nygard behind the scenes

Here I am with Tressa, the model for this particular line of Nygard. A shot of Jenna with the expression of disbelief I usually get, especially when I say something that makes little sense. Which is often it seems.

Nygard location shoot

My current set up, froma Nygard shoot today The D2x with Wifi, the 12 inch iBook, which displays the low rez images as they are shot, and of course the iPod and iPal speaker. You gotta have tunes baby! A shot of me working, all eyes on the task. The last shot revealing the kid of torture models suffer to make the clothes look great.

Blue Sky

Sometimes when it's a gloomy subject, you need to get some sunshine in the image. For use in an upcoming profile on the funeral business. A great sunny and warm Sept day

The fussing before

Sometimes you just gotta take it. Mom fusses while Christian look innocent. What a cute kid eh?

In Stereo

I did the photos which are the basis for these In Stereo collages. Fun stuff

Reuters Explains Photo Of Bush Bathroom Note

Not much of a moral quandary in deciding to send this one. The note is indicative of the level of intelligence seen from this president. Is crossed leg, bursting full of pee, the way we'll remember Bush?

Stephen Kennedy Photography

This guy rocks. He must live in a world where he gets paid to make this portraits. I know that world must exist somewhere. I have read about it, a mythical photographic shangri-la where you get paid well to do some work that really gets you excited. I am searching for it.

Mark this day: Canada is flattened

July was the first month where China, not Canada was the USA's
largest trading partner. We should probably still be the biggest
overall for the year, but I imagine by next year we won't have that
smug claim to wave in front the USA when we feel neglected. And you
can be sure the USA will notice China a bit more that Canada!
Remember this time, people will look back to the good ol days before
China ruled the world and this was the beginning end of them.

The bigger question is what are we gonna do about this as a country?

Shout at the Devil of sharp focus

Was checking out what people are doing with the Lensbaby. I have one and I haven't the time to really use it as much as I wanted to. I thought checking the forums would inspire me to get off my butt and shoot. Then I started to notice a few of the posts were done by a Nikki Sixx. Yes that is the same guy who is in Motely Crue! While on the road, he dabbles with photography. The link is to one of his earlier posts with some shots from they stage. Some really cool stuff. Just want we need, another rock star who thinks he's a photographer! It's bad enough having some photographers act like rock stars.

I will have to get this lensbaby working.

You say tomato , I say...

I see in light of Apple's tiger based Widgets, Microsoft will have
"gadgets"!

http://microsoftgadgets.com/

Kinda like calling the trash can the recycle bin. Thats innovation!

So you wanna pierce something?

If you or anyone you know wants to get a piercing, I urge you to read
these true tales from the tattoo parlour first!

SCAREY STUFF!

http://www.bmezine.com/news/pubring/20050220.html

Moondust: In Search of the Men Who Fell to Earth

By the first chapteer of this book I was hooked. Interweaving glimpses of his childhood the day of the moon landing with the reality of how close Apollo 11 almost didn't make it, The author manages to give you a real sense of the era, I was riveted.

Through the course of the author search out the remaining nine men who've been to the moon. Only 9 left, it seems amazing to me that our world's collective experience of the Apollo moon landings was funneled through the actions of only 12 men and that only nine are left. He goes on a journey to see just how these guys are AFTER the trip to the moon, which I am sure is of interest of any space freak, myself included!

Over There

I caught the last half hour of the new Bochco drama, Over There,
about soliders in Iraq. It had a couple real "Band of Brothers"
moments of intensity. They were working a checkpoint in the middle of
nowhere and had to deal with vehicles approaching. The tension built
in seconds as they had to decide whether to fire or not as the cars
approach. You really got a sense of how it felt, a lot of standing
around and then suddenly forced to make life and death decisions.

Re: Corpse Bride shot on Digi still cams

On 13-Sep-05, at 7:34 AM, Robert A Szkolnicki wrote:

> yeah, like which cams were designed for stop-motion. I don't see any
> stop-motion dial setting. <heheheh>

It's funny, cuz considering how often these cameras are used for
animation, you'd think they would have developed something like that
mode

I can remember seeing a Nikon F3 shooting film mounted on a coal car to
shoot the sequence in one of the Indiana Jones films! I think they used
still cameras in Star Wars too!

Re: Corpse Bride shot on Digi still cams

Ian McCausland wrote:

> http://www.editorsguild.com/newsletter/JulAug05/julaug05_bride.html
>
> A great story about the making of the new Tim Burton film, using Canon
> DSLR's with Nikon glass mounted on it!

Here's one of the quotes that jumped out at me ...

We originally selected the Nikon D2H because of the wireless ftp, the
chip size, and the fact that we owned $90,000 of Nikon glass [lenses],”
notes Watts. However, random noise was visible as pixilation in dark
areas when the shots were played back as a movie. This pixilation effect
was only visible in stop-motion photography, an application the Nikon
hadn’t been designed for.

yeah, like which cams were designed for stop-motion. I don't see any
stop-motion dial setting. <heheheh>

Issue 3: Fabulous by JPG Magazine

well I received this issue and I have to say I am pleasantly surprised by the quality. I hope one day I have enuff ideas, time and energy to do something like this. I really feel this is the future of small publishing. On demand.

Quick fall shoot for WHO

Hard to believe this shot was a week ago and its for a fall ad. Wasn't May long weekend just a month ago? The seasons are too quick.

Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (2004): Reviews

Though it's scheduled to be on all this week on the Doc Channel, I still ended up staying up late and watching this last night.
I always find the behind the scenes of the creation of music recordings fascinating, a peak behind the curtain, a glimpse into the process that produces sounds. It's a process far different than that the creative process I do, and because of that I always find it intertesting. Now add to that, growing up and older, dealing with the demons of the past, and you suddenly have a very different and interestingg doc. Pretty brave of metallica to out this out there in the macho metal world. I have a new found appreciation for the band, and I guess that was the goal

Mash Up

Mash Ups are the coolest tunes this season, you really must get some. What's a mash up? Hit the link to learn more. The Mash Up influence is already felt in fashion, video, imagery. To those in the know, I just snagged an amazing collection off the newsgroups, called Bootie. Go get it!

Cher vs Echo & The Bunnymen Bootie
Kelis vs The Cars
Usher vs No Doubt
Ludacris vs Cameo
Madonna vs New Order
Christina Aguilera vs Radio 4 vs Siouxsie & The Banshees Bootie
Joe Budden vs The Rapture
Junior Senior vs Deee-Lite Bootie
Kylie Minogue vs Electric Six
Scissor Sisters vs The Bee Gees
Clipse vs Queen
Jay-Z vs The Eagles
Fischerspooner vs Billy Squire
Khia vs David Bowie Bootie - CD5
Missy Elliott vs Mark Ronson
Eminem vs Wings
Destiny's Child vs The Cure
Pink vs The Vines
Electric Six vs Black Sabbath
Madonna vs The Sex Pistols
Goldfrapp vs Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Pink vs Electric Light Orchestra

A Scanner Darkly

http://www.apple.com/trailers/warner_independent_pictures/
a_scanner_darkly.html

This trailer looks amazing. Looks like Cameron Crowe took all the
lesson learnt from that last film and applied to this classic sci fi
book. I think it could be pretty cool!

Corpse Bride shot on Digi still cams

http://www.editorsguild.com/newsletter/JulAug05/julaug05_bride.html

A great story about the making of the new Tim Burton film, using
Canon DSLR's with Nikon glass mounted on it!

Sound of an image

Take the info of a photo and then makes its into sound. What does your fave photo sound like?

Ken's Meme Deflector: XBlogThis!: An Extended BlogThis! Button

Ken's Meme Deflector: XBlogThis!: An Extended BlogThis! Button

The Urban Dictonary

1. pedestrian face-off

An awkward situation in which two pedestrians, who are on a collision course with each other, are repeatedly unsuccessful in averting one another. As one person moves to their right, the other person moves to their left and vice versa. Each time they attempt a new maneuver, the frustrated pedestrians find themselves confronted by their counterpart. To the casual observer, these two people may appear to be dancing, but in reality, they both just want to get on with their lives.

These encounters are far less common in Europe – especially in Germany, where the government enforces pedestrian decorum through a stringent "bear right" policy. Pedestrian face-offs have been known to last upwards of ten seconds.

Randy: I just had a pedestrian face-off that lasted a good 15 seconds. In the end, we came to the mutual agreement that both of us should step to our right.
Dina: Wow, 15 seconds?! That's gotta be a world record or something.

The Walker

We went to the Walker art Centre otday on our way out of Minni. After the rampant consumerism that is mall shopping it felt good to excerise the brain a little. Plenty of "I coulda done that" comments from Lynda at first but eventually she got into it. Liam also enjoy the different sights, and sounds. It felt good to expose him even this young, to art. I feel its my duty to do so.

Bookcrossing still a cool idea!

I still like this idea.
I am gonna try and do some more books with this.

a new toy!

Liam was such a good boy hile we toured the Walker that we felt he deserved a new toy! He loves this new ball. He can roll it and then crawl after it.

Less is more

for those wondering what camera to get. This woman is a foodie who uses a 3 year old 2MP Nikon. Its pretty good huh? Just goes to show its NOT MP that makes the photo, but the eye.

Wynn Las Vegas

I just watched an interview of Steve Wynn on Chrlie Rose. I was curiosu on what his new resort looked like. This site is very well done, nice Flash, everything flows in a very smooth way. Little touches like the the cross fade on the chef's soundbites when you switch, make this a really nice site!

Hello? The Mojave Phone Booth Site

This is one is an oldy but a goodie. The website documenting a phone booth that used to be in the middle of a desert.
Never mind you can't find a phone booth to save your life anyway these days!

something* creative ::: what* will you create?: KarenO Archives

The work of a local designer and artisst Karen Owens. All very cool stuff