How to make a Sock Monkey

They don't take any batteries, are cheap to make and are not tied to any licence deals with Disney, Hasboro or Warner Bros. Not enuff Sock Monkies in the world. Make some.

A Pictorial History of Nikon Cameras

It's kinda neat and kinda sad, this link. Neat cuz there are so many cameras, so little time. Sad, cuz most of them are not as valuable as they used to be, cuz digital roolz!

This also illustrates the one reason why Nikon is one of the biggest camera companies. I can still mount most lenes Nikon made on my current D2x

World Trade Center - An Oliver Stone Film

Trailers are up. Looks amazing well done. We'll see how ready people are to see something like this.

iView joins Microsoft

Dunno if this is a good thing. Not that we have a choice in the matter.
iView joins Microsoft | iView Multimedia: "Today marks an exciting new chapter for iView and its relationship with our customers. We’re announcing that iView has been acquired and is now part of the Microsoft Corporation. With Microsoft’s purchase of iView, we are in a position to enhance our industry-leading product, whilst strengthening our customer service and support.

As digital asset management has become an essential requirement for all creative professionals, many of you have told us that iView MediaPro is a critical component of your business. We take that responsibility very seriously.

In my view, this Microsoft acquisition affords us an unprecedented opportunity to be even more responsive to a thriving market and ensure that iView MediaPro continues to perform to its full potential. Our engineering and marketing team here at iView are energized and excited to be joining the Microsoft team, and I personally will continue to be involved in the evolution of the product for years to come.

What this acquisition will mean for you, our customers, is that together we face a bigger and brighter future in managing your creative workflow. The product that was born on the Mac will remain on the Mac as well as on the Windows operating system. All iView products will continue to be sold on the iView website and through our partners and channel. Bottom line: You all can continue to use and buy iView products knowing that they will be fully supported as Microsoft evolves the products in the future on both the Windows and Mac platforms."

Tracks.mov

Wacky movie, dunno what it's for. But it's neat!

Investors Group on location

Skype Introduces Free Calls to Traditional Landlines and Mobile Phones in the US and Canada

Skype Introduces Free Calls to Traditional Landlines and Mobile Phones in the US and Canada: "Skype�, the global Internet communications company, today announced that all US and Canadian-based Skype customers can now make free SkypeOut™ calls to traditional landline and mobile phones in the US and Canada. Previously, Skype users in both countries were required to pay for Skype calls from their PCs to traditional telephones. Free SkypeOut calls to the US or Canada will be available to US and Canadian-based Skype users until the end of the year.

Skype has now removed any cost barrier for its American and Canadian customers to keep in touch with friends, family and business associates. Skype anticipates that completely free calling in the US and Canada will expand Skype’s increasing penetration in North America and solidify Skype’s position as the Internet’s voice communication tool of choice. More people will now have the chance to benefit from Skype’s premium services and online calling capabilities.

“Millions of consumers around the world are flocking to Skype every month, and we believe free SkypeOut calling will rapidly accelerate Skype adoption in the US and Canada,” said Henry Gomez, General Manager, Skype North America. “We’re very excited to be bringing Skype’s convenience and voice quality to so many people for free.”

While SkypeOut calls within the US and Canada will now be free, SkypeOut calls to and within all other countries will continue to incur charges. Those charges are unchanged by today’s announcement and remain among the lowest available to consumers."

allmusic review of The Drift

You'll have to read the entire article, this is the last paragraph, to get a sense of the kind of dialogue this album is generating. Some of it edging upon pretension, some of it quite good. I have listened to The Drift several times now, on headphones. There is a lot there to digest! Love it or hate it, he is brilliant.

allmusic ((( allmusic The Whole Note ))): "Walker's The Drift has literally nothing outside this moment to do with rock & roll. He treats it as another myth in his use of composers such as Morton Feldman, Iannis Xenakis,Giacinto Scelsi, and Luciano Berio. He undoes rock by playing it in the context of ruin, as something already gone, leaking from faulty memory. He can't duplicate it, so he plays a simulation of it (which is what Mick and Keith do in their own way, too; they can't remember really, because if they did, they'd never need to try to play 'Satisfaction' again). He offers no place to run, no place to hide, only absence, littered space, and the wandering around of unseeable beings and buildings across the landscape, lifting the whole thing to the level of Shakespearean tragedy. 'Jesse' is one of the strangest, most disturbing tracks I've ever encountered, on one of the most unclassifiable records ever to come down the pipe in the (dis)guise of rock. If anything, Walker has done something else here, given the discussion of The Drift: he's succeeded in creating such an album -- probably against his own desire -- by becoming more fiction than flesh, more mystique than human mystery. He's carved a place in the ever-shifting terrain of pop by becoming a living, albeit marginal, myth himself."

New version of Bibble adds B&W conversion

I really like the stuff their doing with Bibble, adding all sorts of plugins, including this B&W conversion plug in. I find the whole UI a little bit to get used to but if you're not tied to any one RAW convertor you should download the demo

Bibble Labs - Professional Photo-Manipulation Software: "With Bibble 4.8 is a new plugin - Black And White conversion. This plugin allows you to convert an image to Black and White with much more control that simple desaturation - you can choose what color channels to use. But the real power in the plugin is in re-adding one or two colors back into the image."

I cringe to think

that raising a boy will be full of photo ops like this one. From the FlickrBlog

Talk about knowing your best side!

SUPER HUNGRY | 'LOMOGRAPHY' directed and edited by Jerad Sloan

Catchy lil movie/commercial about Lomo cameras. You don't need a Lomo to make art, just shoot with what ever you got.

Bruce's light painting

Bruce's breakdown of a shot he did with light painting. Something fun to do while camping or in the back yard.

Drew Carey the Photographer... on TV

A thread on Sportsshooter talking about comedian Drew Carey's ability as a photographer. He is currently shooting the Wolrd Cup and he is not bad at all!!

Ricki's Summer Visual is UP!

The images I did for Ricki's are now up in the windows. Regular readers will recall these images I posted a few weeks ago. This was a pretty quick turnaround.

Breakfast Television

If you ever wonder what it's like to be on TV, this is what you see while on camera. But don't worry, relax and enjoy it! Erin and the production people are such pros and make you feel so comfortable.

UPDATE: here are the links to my appearance Here and here
I gotta learn how to smile more while talking about technical stuff!

The Stone Roses

It seems every 6months or so I find myself listening to this album. That's been the case since it's release in 1989! This time its fueled by the latest issue of Uncut, with a look back interviewsof all the members and rumours of a possible reforming. Apparently price is no object in the Uk for these guys to get back together, as this album is viewed as one of the best of all time over there. It certainty is good and holds up over the years.

Nygard On Loc Hecla

That's me pulling myy hair out waiting for hair&makeup while the rains approach. To say we got rained out for a few hours would not be describing it accurately. We were soaked through and through. Eventually it cleared and we got everything done.

Wacky Folgers Commercial

Good morning and Happy Monday. Watch this commercial to start your week right! ZING!!!

Manitoba Spirited Energy - Can you feel it?

Someone tries to do something other than bitch.Let the haters do their thing. Meanwhile, try and look at the whole thing with a positive spin.

Instructables: step-by-step collaboration

Cool site full of DIY projects with step by step instructions!

Warehouse One On location Old Market Sq

Any day on location, great weather, great stuff. I did my best Austin Powers "Yer a caged animal, baby, YEAH!" I camped it up with Robyn, known her for years, always great to work with. We even had some of the locals try and get into the act! Now if only I had known you needed a permit! :-)

Warehouse One On location

On location at the Winnipeg Soccer Complex. Results to come. This gives you an idea of just how many people are running around on set. It's like a 3 ring circus!

6 over 20

That's 6 Walleye over 20 inches, including a Master Angler 28 inch. Quesnel Lake was very good to me this year.

Nygard at Falcon Lake

Einsturzende Neubaten.mov

Rather creepy video from these guys. Very Chris Cunnigham! Anyone want to make a video like this with me? Even the simple ones are hard work.

Leonard Cohen

Watching him get inducted to the songwriting hall of fame, reminded me of the first time I learnt of him. It was in the 80's when SPIN magazine was truly hip. They had an article about how all these really cool artists of the day attribute this massive influence by this old guy who sang folks songs from Montreal. I had to investigate, bought the first album, The Songs of Leonard Cohen on vinyl, and once again opened my eyes to a new music. Folk music as poetry, something you can wear black to and remain cool? Who knew!? I always have the utmost respect for artists who remain steadfast to their vision over the years, and from that moment in the 80's I did for Leonard Cohen.

Nygard on location

Shooting on location, at Nygard cottage on Falcon Lake, as well the Falcon Lake Ranch.
A bit windy off the water, see:softbox but a great day out at the lake. results to follow.

Portrait Photographer Arnold Newman Dies At 88

yah know how everyone laments the passing on of one of the old classic rock n rollers from the 50's and 60's?

It's kinda like that. But which rocker would Newman be? Not the Chuck Berry or Jerry Lee, maybe Buddy Holly?

Lost Girls

A test frame from a series I just shot, called Lost Girls. The frame by the way is 16X9. That's the frame for HD and I wanted to play with that shape to see how it composes. It's narrower than I am used to

Scott Walker Drift

It's sitting on my desk, I am waiting to be in the right space to hear it. For now read the accolades.

musicOMH.com
This is out in the margins, removed from 'pop' and 'alternative' genres by the scale of its reach, its bloody and bold ambition. It is complex, multilayered, densely plotted, wordy. It's also scary, harsh and bruised.

Observer Music Monthly
Despite its complexity, every twist and turn of The Drift is absolutely compelling.
The Guardian
The Drift is a record that demands a lot of work and repays tenfold.

The Onion (A.V. Club)
It's unlikely that any other album will sound much like The Drift this year, and even less likely that it could be forgotten if heard even once.

Dusted Magazine
No easy listening feat by any stretch of the imagination, Scott Walker's The Drift will provide critics and general music fans with talking points for the next 10 years. It is, simply, a work of staggering emotional sentiment and complexity that few will be able to match.

Pitchfork
Even at its most dissonant and abstract, this record is human to the core, and if you're ready to face a few demons, it's as inspiring as music gets.

PopMatters
The Drift--in all its nightmarish, bloody glory--is as bold and profound a comment on our times as has emerged so far this century.


Playlouder
'The Drift' is an extraordinary piece of work, even more challenging and expansive than Scott Walker's startling last album.


Austin Chronicle
The lengths of hiss and silence can be unnerving, especially when his ethereal prose floats into a void. Yet when the swells come and Walker breaks the waves, it's a thing of absolute beauty, and the black turns neon.


Uncut
This is a record that genuinely sounds like nothing you have heard before. If you can rise to its portentous challenge... The Drift will prove to be a frightening, bewitching and rewarding experience. [Jun 2006, p.96]

New Musical Express
Every bit as stark, foreboding, but utterly singular as 'Tilt'. [6 May 2006, p.33]

Blender
The Drift is like a nightmare you look forward to repeating. [Jun 2006, p.148]

Dot Music
Quite simply, "The Drift" is unlike any other record on Earth.

Slant Magazine
The album is powerful stuff, and though it's unlikely to be heard by many, it's even more unlikely to be forgotten by those who do hear it.

The house on the hill

Saw this house on the way home from Spruce Woods, just outside Carberry. It was bright and sunny, but with help of my lensbaby and my meloncholytron filter for P shop, I try it give it a more omnious tone.

Magazine Rack

That's it, no more! I have continually forwarded the email versions of this blog to several of my mag loving friends. That's before I knew of the online version, so hit the link, bookmark it, or subscribe and get it your email. Sometimes the writing is quite clever at knocking the crap out of magazines.

For those of you who don't know, I am a magazine junky. If I haven't gifted you with a big heavy pile of mags I think you'd enjoy, well you haven't bought me enuff large Latte's at the Second Cup beside Dominion News. It seems I leave at least $40 there everytime I visit. It's bad

Have a whack

Calling your slurpee rip off a Whack is a sure fire way to get the kids to giggle at your commercial.
Hit the link and let the grade 8'er in you laff a bit.

MyPublisher Mac plug in

MyPublisher, the comapny that does the books for iPhoto, now has support for Macs. Pricing seems somewhat the same. The softcover book Lynda and I did of Liam seems to continue to generate amazment. The second thing they notice, after how cute my boy is, the Made on a Mac tag on the back cover. Even designers who work on Macs have no idea of this service within iPhoto.

Liam!

I know everyon ehas these kind of shots, but I still wanna share!