High Contrast graphics - based on Elinor Stecker

I bought a copy of a book today by Elinor Stecker titled "how to create and use high contrast images", it was published in 1982 by Fisher Publishing in the US. The book was written when Lithofilm was used and I'm not sure if this film is made these days, Kodak was one of the main suppliers and I don't even know if they still sell film for consumers anymore in the digital age. Lithofilm was high contrast black and white film where no grey was rendered, so the contrast factor was incredibly high. We've all seen lots of images using this kind of technique. The way the images are produced today is digitally and this makes the range of options for creating images much greater today than it was with film and chemicals. But it's a tribute to the photographers, graphic artists and technicians who worked with this film that high contrast images are still everywhere we look today. I wonder whether Elinor Stecker ever wrote an update to her book for the digital photographic medium?

In an attempt to use some of the ideas presented in the book, I've used Gimp on a couple of my photographs. Hope you like the results below. Hopefully I'll get better at this, I was just playing around this time and having some fun.

Football season starts again

The football season has started again today. It must be a day full of excitement and anticipation for UK footie fans. I'm usually excited to a degree about football and this year I am again but not as much as I thought I'd be. My team didn't end last season very well, however they survived and are in the Premier League yet again this season, so that's something to hold on to. Today's game was one they should have won because of the team they played and they were in the lead at 2-1 but eventually the visiting team scored again and it ended a 2-2 draw. Draws are not very satisfying, at least it's not a loss though. My team has a new strip this season, much more white than in previous seasons and thinner blue stripes. I think it looks pretty good though, better than recent strips in my memory.

Supermoon

I managed to get a shot of the "supermoon" tonight from my son's roof-window. I balanced the camera on a mini tripod, the legs didn't properly fit the window ledge so I had to handhold one of the legs. I used Aperture priority mode and spot metering on the camera to get the exposure of the moon's surface correct against the dark space. I also used the digital zoom capability, which explains some of the noise in the quality of the photo. For my first shot of the moon with my new camera I don't think this is a bad attempt. Clouds obscured the moon just after I took this shot.

Kendal Mint Cake

I've been staying in Kendal in The Lake District for 4 nights and I don't recall buying Kendal Mint Cake before for myself. I might have tried some in the past because when I tried some today it tasted quite familiar. It was a translucent white minty bar that was brittle enough to break but biting it revealed it to be soft enough to easily chew and break down because it is made mostly of sugar. The mint flavour wasn't overwhelming, just pleasant sort of similar strength to an After Eight mint if you know what that is. I was trying the white bar but there is also a brown bar and a chocolate covered bar. I can say that I have eaten Kendal Mint Cake in Kendal now.

Holiday time

This week I've spent quite a bit of time on my own exploring photography techniques with my new camera and also shooting some video. I've visited Ivinghoe Beacon and Dunstable Downs for the first time ever. And now into the second half of the week I'm in The Lake District. I'm hoping to see more scenery this afternoon but a quick stroll around Kendal yesterday revealed a lovely town.

Holiday breakfast

My morning got started a little stressfully. Had to take my wife and kids to the rail station but they were running a little late and that sent everything into a bit of a mad panic at the end. However, I managed to drop them off in time for them to pick up the tickets. Then I went to Tesco and picked up some food, including my breakfast. I have always enjoyed sausage rolls. My preferred way of eating a sausage roll is hot, the only time I eat one cold really is when I just have one in a picnic hamper or something like that. Here is my breakfast, two lovely hot sausage rolls with a streak of HP sauce down the middle - this was an artistic surge!

 

The photo was shot on my iPhone 4 using the Hipstamatic app: using the Jane lens and the Blanko film with Standard quality.

Holiday

I finished work yesterday for two weeks, yay! I shall be blogging regularly I think. The weather has been very hot recently, which has been great. But as soon as my holiday begins here comes the rain! This is a picture of the rain falling outside my window right now.

We were going out for a bike ride this afternoon as a family but I don't think that will happen now. Day one of my holiday is a bit of a wash out because of this really. Shame. But not completely unexpected.

Hair

My hair is long enough now for me to need another haircut. It comes around quickly enough. Last time I got my hair cut was ... I don't know exactly. Not that long ago, it was a Sunday and I walked in with my son and we were able to get our hair cut straight away. I have been considering getting a self haircutting product called the Babyliss Easy Cut. It's a handheld device that has a central circular series of blades and you just attach a guide that cuts your hair to the desired length. It looks very simple and seems to give reasonable results if you aren't too fussy about having an even cut all over your hair. I don't know whether I'll buy one but am considering it.

Manchester skyline

Here is a photo I shot tonight on my iPhone. I like taking photos with my iPhone camera, it is a well used camera. Digital cameras allow the cost of an individual photograph to come right down. So much so that it is often cheaper to shoot a photo than copy information down. Digital smartphone pictures can also be used to capture evidence - for example we were travelling on a train without tickets but had a photo of the ticket machine that was out of order as proof.

This photo has been slightly adjusted by a photo app, not sure which but it's possibly one called Snapseed. There are a huge number of photo apps for the iPhone. Here are the apps that I like to use in my iPhonography. I use PhotoShop Express for image editing on the iPhone itself.

World conflict: Ukraine and Gaza

There is always some conflict in the world. At the moment, it seems that Israeli and Palestinian conflict has escalated to another extreme. What seems so ironic is that this conflict should occur in what is supposed to be the holy land. The way the Middle East was just carved up administratively by super powers has a lot to answer for.
Ukraine is another area that has seen escalating violence. The apparent shooting down of an airliner bound for Asia from the Netherlands is a tragedy. Fair play to the Ukraine Prime Minister for calling those responsible "bastards". It's the first time I've seen a politician express himself like that infront of world media. And what does the UK get? David Cameron displaying outrage just for the cameras in his stage managed way.

Germany win world cup

Well Germany must be a pretty happy country at the moment. They won the 2014 World Cup Soccer Tournament and on Sunday Nico Rosberg, a German, won the the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim. I must confess however that although I watched the soccer final, I was slightly disappointed with the result. I don't know exactly why though.

Pictures from new camera

For the web I have had to edit these and scale them down. I have only scaled down the size. The photos themselves haven't been edited in any way. There are a lot of settings to play with in the Panasonic Lumix TZ40: program modes, metering modes, exposure compensation, film speeds, white balance etc. (if you're inclined, of course) or you can just leave the camera on iA (Intelligent Auto) mode and snap away. I was in Brighton yesterday and took a few shots, the light was very bright so I used exposure compensation to increase the colour saturation. There is a vivid colour mode however so I could have used that. Do you see what I mean about there being a lot to play with? The information below each photo wasn't written down at the down, it comes from the properties of the image file that the camera records behind the scenes.

First up is a photo I shot of a flower in my garden. I used a tripod to prevent camera shake, although the camera software itself has a stability option that I had turned on. This photo was taken as an example of using the Aperture Priority program mode and a shallow depth of field, I wanted a shot with a foreground subject in focus and a blurred background. The light wasn't as strong as it could be, it was shot after 7pm and the flower bed is in a corner of the garden. I used the widest aperture I could and an ISO of 100.

f/6.4; 1/60 sec; programmed mode; ISO 100; 0.00 EV; pattern metering

 

The next photo was taken through the glass of my hotel window in Manchester. I was also trying out a travel tripod I had just purchased that evening from Jessops. I don't take many night shots but as I had my tripod with me I thought it would be ideal. A lot happens in Manchester at night so it was a good location to shoot. I switched to the manual program and relied on the metering to get the exposure right.

f/5.1; 4 sec; manual program; ISO 100; 0.00 EV; pattern metering

New camera

On Sunday I decided to buy myself a new camera. We have a very good HD video camera but were missing a high quality digital compact camera for taking on holidays and day trips. The camera I decided to buy is a digital compact camera and is also made by Panasonic. I saw it advertised on the TV from Currys & PC World, it's the Lumix DMC-TZ40. In my next post I'll include some photos I've shot with it.

 

 

New coffee

I don't know how long this coffee has been on sale but I never really noticed it before. It is Kenco's Millicano and it is freeze dried instant coffee but it is nice and tastes like filter coffee. If you like your coffee strong, I'd recommend it. Two teaspoons of this coffee in a cup would be really strong, I just have the one. Nice coffee though, instant but with the taste of filter coffee.

Festival Fever

Summertime is here and it is the festival season again. What surprises me every year is the number of festivals around. I'm not just talking of the big festivals (and my God there are a lot of those) but also there are lots of smaller festivals that hardly get much national press but yet exist all over the place. The big festivals usually have some kind of televised coverage and this year I managed to catch some of Glastonbury on the TV. I don't think I was blown away by most of the acts I saw, Jack White's performance was a bit disappointing but Metallica's set, which I watched live, was what I would consider a triumph. How nice to be sitting at home watching it than out in the field. I've looked at the line ups of some of the festivals and in a future post I will put out there my own top festival line up for my imaginary festival. The festivals I think most worthy of attention are the ones below, Bloodstock Open Air has the coolest logo in my opinion.

Nandos

Over the last few weeks I've been to two different Nandos restaurants a couple of times. I'd never been to a Nandos restaurant before and I have to say I enjoyed it. I found the food very tasty. It was quite simple - pitta bread, chicken, rice and peas. I had the hot sauce and it wasn't too hot but was spicy and tasty. Perhaps the most surprising thing is that you pay for the food when you order it before it arrives. So when you've finished the meal, you can just leave and I actually prefer this. My wife doesn't rate it at all surprisingly but I do. It's one of my favourite restaurant chains now although it doesn't surpass Wagamama who produce probably tastier food on balance.

 

I cooked my own version of a Nandos meal last night for the family. I cooked rice, sweetcorn, roasted vegetables and chicken (obviously) and served it on a plate with chicken and salad in a pitta bread. Only I had chicken cooked in the sauce though, it was very tasty and I used the sauce I bought a few days ago from Tesco who were selling it cheap. I've still got a bottle of the mild sauce left. I will have it again soon but I'd prefer to have it with peas than sweetcorn, I also used some Linghams sweet chilli sauce on mine.

 



Soundcloud

On my tablet I've had the Soundcloud app for a while. This week I've actually used it a bit more and I have to admit I quite like it. The music is very good and it is useful as a tool to discover new bands I'd not heard of before. I have only just logged into the desktop version and created my account. Worth checking the service out if you enjoy music.

Brazil 1 Germany 7 (World Cup 2014)

Germany got through their semi-final match with a total drubbing of the host nation Brazil. The pictures below tell the story. It was like a casual Sunday game for Germany who easily tapped 4 goals into the Brazil net within the space of 20 minutes. It was hilarious to watch really because Brazil were such a joke. I could not believe what I was seeing and I think millions of other viewers probably felt the same. It was so notorious a defeat that it became the most tweeted sporting event ever, reaching nearly 37 million tweets during the game. That's another unbelievable statistic. I enjoyed the game in a cruel way, it felt slightly sinister to take pleasure in such an agonising defeat. Brazil has to face the Netherlands in the third place play off, which I think is played today. If Holland play how they do in some of the matches I've seen and if Brazil play how they did on Tuesday I think I can see another collapse coming. But surely, Brazil now have to play for pride? Surely they cannot afford a defeat? Let's see...

Blisters

The shoes I wore for the Cancer Research UK relay at the weekend weren't great for my feet. I have toes that rub together and blister quite easily. Maybe I should plasters on my feet as a prevention measure? It's a bit late to think of this now. I wore an older pair of training shoes because I thought I would ruin them in the mud, thinking the weather would be wet. But actually, after a downpour on the first morning, which we avoided anyway. The weather the rest of the weekend was quite good. It was good enough to be able to forget about it mostly and concentrate on enjoying ourselves. I was vey tired yesterday afternoon once we got home. I started to watch the British Grand Prix but eventually fell asleep. I popped the blisters today and squeezed out the juice, so they're a little painful but not as bad as they were last year. It helps me think about the people who have had their lives touched by cancer and remember that they're pain is far greater than anything my blistered toes give me.

Tent out again for another year

At the weekend I was part of a team of people raising money for cancer research. It was an event we also did last year. It's not an easy event for a number of reasons but it has some nice qualities, such as getting together with other families and helping each other with tents and setting up. We haven't used our tent for a year, so it was good to get it out again. It's a sizeable tent, not exactly huge but too big for a single person to erect. It always reminds me of an armadillo in shape. There are a couple of tears in the ground sheet but I hope to be able to fix those with some tape or tent repair fabric. The outer fabric is still waterproof, which is good. We bought the tent from Costco a few years ago.

Maxitone Meal/Snack Replacement

I've been trying to cook Low GI recipes for a few weeks, trying to find the balance with lifestyle and weight loss. I was nearly 73kg but now am 67.9kg, so it has been helping but I would like to lose a few more kilos because I'm fairly short and have a naturally slim build. I look better when I'm not pudgy around my middle. My wife wants to lose more weight than I do, so finding the combination that works for both of us is difficult. This is why a low GI diet works quite well, it helps us to eat healthy but also fill up on nice tasting foods. The trouble is we both have a sweet tooth and there are some foods that tempt us too much. Feeling hungry between meals is a killer, sometimes fruit isn't enough. So, my wife has been talking about trying these shakes you can buy. On Sunday, Boots had some on special offer so she decided to use up some of her Boots card points.
I'm trying my first shake right now, to replace breakfast. It tastes alright, I added the water to the powder in the shaker we bought and left it to cool in the fridge for 10 minutes or so. The product is marketed to a female audience, so it is all a bit too pink for my taste but I can live with the feminine branding, I'm man enough to take it!

The Music Charts

In early July the music charts are going to include streaming statistics when they are compiled. Services like Spotify, Deezer, Napster will be included. It will be interesting to see whether this makes much of difference. I used to religiously listen to the chart show on the radio when I was a teenager interested in such things but my interest has waned considerably since those days. The music industry has changed so much since the early days. I reckon most acts now make more money from playing shows than they do from royalties but I suppose royalties can pay for years into the future. Writing a successful Christmas song seems about the best way to make a lot of money for not doing very much.
I listen to some music on Spotify but I only have a free account. I have considered a paid account, mainly to avoid the adverts, which are very annoying.

Kevin Turvey (Rik Mayall)

One of my favourite comic TV characters was created by Rik Mayall in the 80s. Mayall was one of the Comic Strip comedians and was already edgy as an angry young man can be even before The Young Ones. I loved Kevin Turvey's ridiculous investigations in and around Redditch in the West Midlands. I liked the fact that he had a Midlands accent and that he was an underdog, one of life's less successful people at a time in the eighties when success was all that seemed to matter to the media.

England Knocked Out

England played their second match of the World Cup on Thursday evening against Uruguay and again lost it effectively ending their hopes of progression to the knock out rounds. Their first two matches were against tough teams, Italy was our first opponent, but the score was the same in both games. The opponent score first, England scored an equalising goal but then the other side catch England with a winning goal to leave England adrift at 1-2.
I don't think the manager should be fired, Roy Hodgson has done the job asked of him. The team played well but were missing a star player who can make some magic, which the best sides seem to have. We certainly don't have a Luis Suarez, like Uruguay, or a Mario Balotelli, like Italy do.
England's final game will be on Tuesday against Costa Rica who are on top of the group. I'm excited in a way because I think England will beat them, as mad as that sounds. It's a shame that it won't make a difference.

Weekend thoughts

It's Friday the 13th today. My children thought we should go out for a meal tonight, I suggested Nandos because I'd tried it recently in Manchester and enjoyed it. My children had the mildest chicken but it was still too spicy for them. I had Hot but to be honest I thought it was just tasty, not mega hot as I'm not a heat freak. My wife seemed to enjoy hers because she ate it all but often leaves some chicken because she doesn't like wobble. I don't think she encountered any wobble tonight because she ate it. I don't get that I had to pay however, if it was supposed to be a Father's Day treat in advance of Sunday. Ah well. I don't have very high hopes for the rest of the weekend. I have a strong feeling that it's going to be one I think I might rather forget.

World Cup 2014

Not so long ago I blogged about not being very excited about the World Cup this year. Well, that has changed a little bit over the last 24 hours. I have watched  two games now and am starting to think that I might enjoy the tournament more than I first thought. I watched the first game played by Brazil and Croatia, and tonight I watched Spain against the Netherlands. Spain were the title holders from the last World Cup but tonight they were drubbed. They really were slaughtered. It was entertaining to watch though but I'm so glad I'm not Spanish tonight. England play tomorrow night and I always feel quite tense when England play. I will watch the game though (hope that we win convincingly).

Pet hate: Beats headphones

I like good sound quality don't get me wrong. But really, the cost of Beats headphones is surely so absurd! And yet people pay these prices. I think anybody who pays that much for Beats headphones is completely stupid. And get this: you even look stupid wearing them! That's right. People who wear Beats headphones think that they look cool and trendy. You look like Jerks! get real. Here's how trendy you are: see the photo below? That's Craig Oliver, he's the Director of Communications for the Conservative party. How bloody cool and "down with the kids" do you feel now?  The other annoying thing about Beats is the recent deal they have done with Apple. It's not a deal Steve Jobs would have made, I can tell you that much for nothing. Utterly astonishing move by Apple, the soul has really gone out of the company.

I like good quality audio from my headphones and I also like headphones that don't leak sound. Nothing as bad as sitting on public transport and some idiot flooding the carriage/bus/whatever with the sound of an annoying fly buzzing around. My favourite headphones, after years of trying different brands is that Sennheiser makes the best audio quality headphones.
The following are a few of the models I use.

World Cup 2014

Funny I know but I'm less excited about this World Cup than previous ones. Perhaps my feelings will change (they can depend on the infection of excitement around me) but my level of excitement is extremely low at the moment. I haven't seen much about England in the press, which is odd because I think in the past the build up has been massive. The amount I've seen so far this year has been very little, I haven't desired to buy a football top nor a commemorative World Cup football. I bought a replica football for my son during the last World Cup. This year I have only had one conversation with him about it. I hope the football raises the interest rather than all the politics that can surround these big events in sport.

Sad News - Rik Mayall dies

It was a shock and very sad to hear this afternoon of the death of one my favourite comedic actors, Rik Mayall. He was aged only 56, a young age to die. He first caught my attention, most people's attention I'd say, as the character he played in The Young Ones. It was an anarchic sitcom in the life of ordinary working class university students. I liked the way he played slightly mental characters. The character in the series Bottom was very funny and I liked the cameo roles he had in Blackadder and those he played in various The Comic Strip Presents. I thought he played the character Alan Bastard well in The New Stateman but it wasn't a character I particularly liked but that was probably the point. Sad, sad news for someone who brought a lot of pleasure to watching the TV. It's hard to describe the effect of The Young Ones but for me it really was a show that changed my world. It probably played a part in convincing me to go to university.

Space 1999

I've been loaned the first series of the 1970s sci-fi show Space 1999 by a friend. It was produced by Sylvia Anderson, wife of Gerry. The series has gone down in history in the same way that U.F.O. and other Anderson productions. I remember watching the show and it seeming quite scary when I watched it as a kid, I don't remember the details of the episodes as a kid but I remember watching the show and making Lego models of the communicator and the stun guns. The first series aired in 1975, I was only 7 at the time. I certainly remember the second series, or rather I remember the character Maya who could shape shift, her strange alien eyebrows scared me! The series is set on Moonbase Alpha, which suffers a catastrophic explosion knocking the moon out of Earth's orbit and sending it through the cosmos on an extraordinary journey. I've watched three episodes so far, the third was the strangest, titled Black Sun the moon passes through a black sun and because it used a shield was not destroyed. Very weird. There was also some illusion to an unseen benevolent force protecting them. It was the most expensive British TV show ever produced at the time. The sets were fantastic and the special effects. The great thing about the show as far as I was concerned at the time was the Eagle Transporters. These were the space ships that they used and featured heavily. My toy version was a die cast model. It had a central transporter pod that could be dropped. This had opening doors. I loved it. It's only later that when I remember it, mine was green but in the TV show they are white. I remember green and blue ones. You could also get ones that had winches to lower radioactive canisters, these were white. I don't know why they didn't make them all white?

Mine looked like the one on the left

Gorgeous looking interiors

Pacific Rim

I bought this film on DVD a couple of weeks ago and on Saturday night I finally got to watch it. I thought it was very good actually, a good action film. Perhaps a little bit implausible but nonetheless entertaining. The director has made other interesting films in the past, such as the Hell Boy films. He manages to create a world that is somehow believable and yet strangely implausible. The art direction is excellent. The way the machines and the creatures move was also very good. I've played a few mech videogames and this brought the whole genre to life for me in a way I've not seen in a film before. The mechs were called Jaegers (in Front Mission Evolved, the videogame, they're called Wanzers) and the alien monsters are called Raichu (I think but my memory might be playing tricks). I think the film will also improve on further viewings. There is a lot of visual detail in the film to enjoy. The scientists are quite funny in their mannerisms.

 

 

X-Men Days of Future Past

On Friday I had the day off from work. My son had a friend around for the day and I decided it would be a good treat to take them to see the new X-Men film. I'd heard good things about the film before seeing it but the film was far better than I expected it to be. I didn't really like a lot of the third X-Men film, The Last Stand. But in this film, there is time travel involved. It all hangs together convincingly though (sometimes time travel in films can be really confusing).

 

 

The day off was good, I suppose I could have done more but I was in part recovering from a difficult week. It was difficult in two main senses: I was away from home for an extra night, I was recovering from my back injury from the Saturday before AND I was recovering from a painful episode of piles - brought on by constipation that the codeine-based painkillers I used for my back gave me. It all turned out okay though and I was glad I took the day off, it was needed.
After the film, I took the boys for lunch, it was a Kentucky Fried Chicken - not really the same as it was when I was a kid. I had a wrap meal and it was so so. Presentation was a bit sloppy.
I was lucky I didn't get a parking ticket on getting back to my car. I'd parked in a bay that gives 3 hours free, I'd also bought a ticket and didn't realise I didn't need one. The parking attendant was writing me out a ticket but fortunately I could explain in person that I was leaving and he let me off, which was quite decent of him I thought. I do think that rules are stupid sometimes, I mean I'd bought a parking ticket and it was just that I'd parked in a 3 hour free zone. Apparently the rules are that the car can only stay there for three hours regardless if you've bought a ticket or not. I find that confusing when there is a parking meter close to the parking bays. It's not like the signs give you much of a clue either! I'd paid for parking, it was just that the silly rules applied in a way that was not obvious. At least I escaped without a fine that time.