Random Lair Of a Photographer

My first Photoshooting session in a concert

2008-10-24T22:34:00.000-07:00

On thursday, I went to my first ever concert photoshooting session at the Volta with my Pentax equipped with a regular lens 18-55. The band playing was Red Eyes. The guitarist is a friend and work colleague of mine. I loved the show, and was quite happy with the shoot I took. I had to do some tweaking though on the camera and then re edited the pictures with Photoshop. I put here some of my best shoot. I loved doing it but needless to say, I got to buy a better lens for this kind of event.

I hope they will like my pictures, and who knows maybe they'll put some of them on their myspace page.

4chan: An image-based bulletin board.

2008-08-24T13:47:00.000-07:00

No pictures to be posted in my blog this week. However, I'd like to bring you something very interesting, especially if you are into photography. I found a picture board which is, in my humble opinion, better than any image hosting such as flickers or picasa etc.
4chan is hard to understand at the beginning. It isn't an image hosting service, as everything gets pruned at some point. It is a place where you can add pictures for other to comment. There isn't hardly any words in their menu interface, but browsing the thousands of pictures hosted there, is an interesting experience. Not only you'll find some pron content (me giggles), I noticed a really cool high resolution pictures section, and a wall paper section. Across all the section,the contnent is very often surprising and inspiriting. You'll find all kind of pictures and comments, submitted by users without the need to register, therefore it is a bit like walking in a jungle, expect many surprises.
If you are not too shy, or easily shocked, have a look at 4chan. I promise you, with time, you'll feel there like at home. Enjoy anyway!

http://www.4chan.org/

Russia Georgia. Stop the war NOW!

2008-08-10T12:45:00.000-07:00

Really saddened by the war starting in South Ossetian, a region of Georgia, I decided to create logo and banners asking to stop the hostilities on both side. I do support Georgian people, but I condemn the war started by the Georgian army, I condemn the Russian repeated intrusions in Georgia territory. South Ossetia needed international Peacekeepers, not russians peacekeepers, they were not really helping to calm things down in this area, as considered as enemy by the Georgians.

Bloggers, feel free to copy those logos and banner to add them on your blogs, web profiles or websites. Anywhere you can. The war needs to stop now, and it can if the international community, the UN, ask the Russians to stop their aggression within Georgian territory.

Gay Parade Amsterdam. 1 Pix.

2008-08-02T23:53:00.000-07:00

That's what you get to see when you arrive too late to find a place along the canals... Wherever you go, no gay, no lesbians, just an hermetic wall of people, and some random stuff floating in the air.

Old soviet pictures, darkness and a torch light.

2008-07-31T14:00:00.000-07:00

Last evening, I wanted to try something on some old Soviet propaganda pictures I keep on a shelf.
Rather than just scanning them, I tried to add an effect on them using an torchlight nearly battery depleted. Equipped with my Pentax and a stable tripod, I took a few shots and I posted here the best results so far. I then cropped and resized them with photoshop to make them internet friendly, but no effect were added.

"Salute to the Red Fleet"

"Aces High"

"The Russian Smoker"

This last one is my favorite.
This was a simple idea for a quick job, with an average effect. I bet it would be easier to do much better with more time and a better adjustment of my camera. This is something to explore but I am getting lazier and lazier.

Tower Destruction project

2008-07-13T01:19:00.000-07:00

Lego stuff are very fashionable on the net these days, but my young padawan is too young for me to buy those to her, therefore I replaced them with Cubes. Everybody played with cubes when little, and I am surprised nobody still play with them as adult. My big thing when I was kid was to try to build the highest tower I could, and then to look at it falling. Therefore I have decided to allocate a bit of my time photographing those towers as they got destroyed with the help of my 2 lovely assistants (my wife and my kid).

Here is my two first attempts, and I will post more soon.

First Tower:

And then the blow, I shot too early but it clearly shows the concept: The base is pushed, and then we observe what happens and how it collapses.

2nd Tower...

Before:

The fatal moment : While the base is being pushed, the piles are falling, the middle stays pretty much straight, and the top collapses on the side.

I think this is a pretty interesting idea to digg deeper, therefore I will shoot more test and post them here soon. Let me know what you think about it!

New architeture in Amsterdam East

2008-06-15T15:10:00.000-07:00

This weekend, we went to visit an urbanized polder less than 10 minutes away by tram from the centre of Amsterdam. I shot there a little provision of pictures that I will slowly infuse in this blog when appropriate. I am not sure how this place is called, but many architects had some fun designing the perfect living place. It was a world appart, residential, very structured, family orientated, quiet.

The picture below has not been photoshoped, or edited. This is the corner of a house, sharp as a blade, like if it had to cut the wind. And there was a chill little wind on this polder indeed.

We stayed there the whole afternoon, imagining what it would be to live here. In the evening, we came back in Amsterdam by tram. And somehow, we were relieved. It is a choice to live outside Amsterdam. It is a different life.

Spring in Amsterdam

2008-05-25T13:49:00.000-07:00

This picture has been taken in the peaceful Jordan, my favorite part in the old center of Amsterdam. Never overcrowded by tourists, it is a very pleasant place where to loose yourself. Canals, very narrow streets, 3 storey high old houses, a village atmosphere, I find this area both unpractical and lovely to live in.

Bicycles are really everywhere in Amsterdam. It is virtually impossible to take a picture of the city on which there would be no bicycles. These last are the best mean of transportation in the old town.

Below, a red scooter in a street of the Jordan. In the distance, the church of Westermarkt.

An UFO has officially landed in the Netherlands (3 pix).

2008-05-19T10:32:00.000-07:00

These pictures were taken a few weeks ago in Utrecht, The Netherlands. An U.F.O (perfectly identifiable for once) has landed on top of this building. Although it was not moving, I had some difficulties to get a proper shot of it as there was always something hiding it (Houses, streets..etc). I have no information at all about the building itself, the locals did not seem to be paying attention to it anymore. The mystery remains complete...

And one more:

And a third one:

Update: People are asking me more information about these pictures. I found the exact location of this building on Googlemap.

View Larger Map

Rather than reading digg.com...

2008-05-18T01:13:00.000-07:00

...Better do a bit of job with my photographs.
Casual Photographer, I take a hundred of shots every month. Around 5 % of them only are worth being published, and this is not so bad actually. I am using a simple Pentax K100 which is not the top of the top, but like every camera, you get to find out its possibilities and its limits, and learn to do with them or work around. I also use lightly Photoshop CS2. In this blog, not only I will post some of my pictures, I will distill a bit of a philosophy of the photographer. There are hundreds of websites and blogs about photography, mine is only a random one that I hope you'll enjoy (with time).

For a first picture, I will give the honor to my wife who took this one a few days ago on the balcony of our flat in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.