Blog – Page 87 – Dave Kellam

So long Babylon, hello Olympia

The time has come to say goodbye to Babylon. This intrepid theme has served me well but never quite turned out the way it should have. We will part ways now and welcome Olympia. A longer post will ensue.

Life is random

Sometimes you walk out the front door and there’s a parade going by.

Faking the tilt-shift

Don’t have the cash for a real tilt-shift lens or even a Lensbaby? Here’s a quick tutorial for achieving the fake model photography look. I didn’t have too many photos around with a downward perspective, but I needed to give the technique a shot. This is the result:

As Marc points out on the flickr photo page, it probably would be better with the top of the chimney more focused. Didn’t really have anything better to work with on short notice. There’s a Flickr pool dedicated to tilt-shift miniature fakes if you need more. It’s really not that hard to fake.

Update: Here’s a much better example, from a trip to Bristol:

Fresh baked and fabulous

This photo is brilliant. (via marc)

Newsvine is live

Newsvine is out of private beta, read the official statement to see where the site is headed. It’s been one of my primary news sources for the last few weeks, probably because it achieves a nice balance between automated wire articles and user submitted stories. That and the news breaks fast.

Stealth Sharks?

DARPA is considering the use of stealth sharks to patrol the oceans.

By remotely guiding the sharks’ movements they hope to transform the animals into stealth spies, perhaps capable of following vessels without being spotted.

The report also indicates that sharks were not the Pentagon’s first choice. Amid growing insurgency fears, the Dolphin President refused to commit more troops to the coalition effort.

Transmit

Panic Transmit

Transmit is the best ftp client I’ve ever used. How’s that for a shill? If you’re looking for something a little more indepth, Paul’s review of the current release goes into more detail. For me, the best feature is the tight integration with text editors (I’m partial to TextWrangler). Overall, it’s simple and easy to use, almost feels like an Apple product.

Now comes the hard part where I tell you that Transmit has been my client of choice for two or three years and I’ve only just purchased it recently. Why? I’m a bastard, that’s why — one of those jerks that stiffs the little guys. It’s equal opportunity jackassery though, I steal from the big boys too. It’s mine now though, and worth every penny.

Microsoft fuzzifies the confusication

There will be six different versions of Windows Vista. Why?

Microsoft said the six versions were designed to match the demands different users have for its software.

Different needs? I imagine most of them want an operating system that works.

Focus with your feet

Photography class passed me by, so I never discovered the utility of a fixed focal length lens. Say what? For the uninitiated, it mostly means that you’ve got no zoom, just fine focus. So, you need to put a bit more effort into framing your shots. I picked up a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II on Friday afternoon, just in time for a weekend blizzard.

The low aperture makes it’s pretty solid for indoor portrait photography without a flash. Canon also makes a 50mm USM lens with f/1.4 but it costs about five times as much.

The lens is the lightest that Canon makes, and the Digital Rebel XT is the lightest camera. Thus I was walking around with the lightest possible dSLR camera and it still felt like a brick. The lightness comes from the plastic construction, it doesn’t feel cheap though. Apparently, the first version came with a metal lens mount, you might be able to find one used. The lens is probably the lightest on the wallet too, weighing in around $100 usd.

Dave Kellam