Flight of the Conchords: Papercraft Style!

Friday morning fun: making Flight of the Conchords paper crafts! Time: about 40 minutes. Skills required: scissoring and glue-sticking. Optional: rocking out to FOTC albums while assembling.









Colour templates here. What are you waiting for?! Go make your own little Jemaine and Bret paper crafts now!

Fun With Bridges & Motion Sickness

While on an hour long cruise down the confluence of the Saone and Rhone Rivers in Lyon, we passed under a thousand and four bridges or so. I had the goofy idea that I would photograph these as a series of stills and stop motion animate them into a dizzying animated gif. Enjoy... or if you're anything like me, enjoy puking from the motion sickness this gives you.

Paris Anonymous

Street photography is a genre that I don't often shoot, nor am I any good at it. But while we were in Paris, passersby backdropped against the many interesting streetscapes just called out to me to be photographed. On this trip, I brought the D300 and Kiev 88, neither of which are subtle cameras. So to capture these candid 'street' photos, I just shot with the iPhone. Like a NINJA. Ninja's use iPhones, yes?

The black and whites were captured inside the Charles De Gaulle airport terminal, while the colour shots were taken throughout Paris and Lyon.

Calgary Film Photography meetup and photowalk

We've returned from our short trip to France (photos to come soon, I just haven't had time). I'd write more but I have to work today (blegh...)

Anyways, I just got my film back from the lab from a Calgary Film meet up and photowalk I went on a few weeks ago. Thought I'd post some of the results. All shot on a Kiev 88CM on Kodak Ektar 100. A couple recurring themes with the Kiev and Ektar - 1) The Arsat lens on the Kiev is brutal at handling flare and I should really make a mental note to always use the rubber lens hood; 2) Ektar produces oddly reddish skin tones (I've seen this on a few rolls now, has anyone else noticed this?)

A Sucker for All Things Camera

I'm a fiend for all things camera related. I don't think there's ever been a camera themed object I've encountered where I didn't think, 'OOOOOH!' So my brother-in-law bought me this retro styled rangefinder camera iPhone case, and yep, my reaction was a predictable, 'OOOOOOH!' This is in spite of the fact that using the case would turn an otherwise sleek phone into a bulky, unwieldy, clumsy brick that would require a fanny pack to carry it around. Calling all hipsters: I need you to make those cool again!

A Splash of Fall Colour

As we approach the 'official' end of summer, it's easy to get depressed knowing that the fall season is about to usher in months of stuff to complain about: colder weather, annoying teenagers listening to their iPods way too loud on the bus, daylight savings time, CBC running daily NHL lockout updates when there's actually nothing to update ("Gary Bettman seen at JC Penny", or "Donald Fehr takes a shit in KFC"), etc. Ugggh...

However, I do also find the next couple weeks of the year to be the most interesting, colour wise, in Calgary. The neighbourhoods are awash in a splendour of golds, ambers, reds, and even a bit of orange foliage. Coupled with the bright blue skies and beautiful late afternoon sunlight, it's hard not to be impressed by the beauty of nature soaking in the last rays before the snows come. If you're one of my little students in my DSLR class, Professor Mach commands you to go out and shoot some of these late summer/early fall scenes.

Lightpainting: G.Mach's two minute tutorial

A friend asked me about light painting, and I got a bit intrigued, having never done it myself. So I figured, it's 2am, what the hell, let's give it a go. I'm sure folks in the neighbourhood seeing the rave-ish lightshow through my window were thinking, 'That Asian kid is on THE ECSTASY again'... whatever. That's about as close as this middle class yuppie will get to being a misunderstood artist. So after two minutes of set up, and a couple tweaks, I doodled off a few random things with my 'laser' (flashlight) for funzies. I also made an attempt at the USS Enterprise, but it turned out more like a flying sperm whale, so I didn't post it.









Quick tutorial

Gear:
-Camera with self timer, long exposure mode, and (preferably) manual focus
-Maglite with front hood removed (or any small point LED light should suffice)
-Tripod or other surface to set camera on

Instructions:
-Set up camera on tripod and self timer for long exposure
-Prefocus on where you will be drawing from
-Turn out lights
-Start long exposure (I did between 20 - 30 seconds)
-Face camera and draw with light

I don't think this needs to be said, but just in case, you want to do this in darkness, or your effect will be greatly diminished.

Life Drawing - Calgary Edition

I finally found out about some life drawing groups in Calgary! One of them held a multiple model session last night at Eau Claire's community room. See below.













These next four were done on an 18" x 24" sketch block, which is too big for my scanner, so I had to photograph them, hence they don't look nearly as good here than they do in person. Come visit, I'll show you. :)