Asleep

Asleep
Originally uploaded by WierdyBeardy

The internet can be a strange place sometimes.

I uploaded this photo of me yesterday evening on flickr, but somehow it has already become the most viewed image in my collection.
I'm not sure what people find intriguing about it, are they looking for an interesting back story? do they think there will be some deep and meaningful reason for this picture to be taken at all?

Personally I'm baffled.

TED - -Ideas Worth Spreading

"TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design."

Ever since I discovered TED last year, i have been watching videos on subjects so far ranging and  numerous that it excites me to think that there is so much potential, passion and knowledge in this world.
The other day i watched a video of a performance of a Theremin and an explanation about its history and construction, before that i watched a video where a designer and innovator was showing a prototype phone that hangs around the neck and has a built in camera and projector, to enable instant information relating to anything its pointed at. One use was for finding your way, you can turn on google maps, project it onto a surface and, using finger gestures as seen on the iPhone but also in Minority Report, you can zoom in, out, drag, drop, right click on items and find information about businesses, amongst a host of other things.


The latest video from TED was an 18 minute talk by Clifford Stoll. I had no idea when i clicked to watch the video what the topic was, the only clue was in the title "18 minutes with an agile mind". It ended up being an amazingly entertaining and informative talk by a physicist that im sure most people have never heard of, but who managed to leap through about 5 different topics before coming to a climax with the actual topic of his talk. But to find out what that is, you'll have to watch it yourself. :)

Behind The Scenes

Earlier this year I attempted to add another feather to my cap by trying my hand at filming and producing a behind the scenes video for a 2-day music video shoot by Silvertip Films for an upcoming female artist that goes by the name Hashell.

I filmed on a Sony Z1 and used Sony wireless lapel mics for the interviews. The video was created to show the process of making the music video and to show the production companies work.

Have a butchers





to see the music video this was shot for CLICK HERE

Christmas without batman

robin
Originally uploaded by WierdyBeardy

My first year as a "real" adult, having recently graduated was an interesting one, partly becuase i had no real terms to judge holidays by, and also because my family's christmas day wouldn't be the traditional affair it has always been.

It happens to nearly every family, but it felt strange this year that my older sister wasn't around on christmas day, and i didnt see my older brother at home. We also went to visit my auntie instead of staying at home for christmas day, which brought its own adventure. (If at first you don't see the road, try going further before turning around and approacing from the other side of town)

There wasn't any real snow to talk of in cardiff, just a light fall that turned into ice overnight, but in milford there was good crunchy stuff, and i took the opportunity to take some pictures of this rare event.

While i was on the common a robin came and landed on a branch by my head, i hadn't expected a robin to come so close and even when he hopped away he didn't go ar so i tried to take some pictures of him. He must have known what i was up to because he barely gave me any time to focus and frame up before he hopped off somewhere else!

After a few minutes though i managed to get this picture, which i think is a cracking shot of a cheeky little fat bird.

isomeric chlorinated derivative

isomeric chlorinated derivative
Originally uploaded by { tcb }

I've had a Flickr account for a while now, but haven't really used it for much, apart from uploading the odd photo to share with people without having to succumb to facebooks image compression.
Recently i have started to investigate the photo community in Flickr more and more, the cardiff photo group has 20,000 images alone!

One photographer i have been going back to see regularly is {tcb} (aka twin cities brightest), who uses various light sources to create amazing photos in urban landscapes. It has inspired me to be more creative with light, especially at night when unnatural light surrounds us.

The path to St Pauls

The path to St Pauls
Originally uploaded by James Cummins

Competition is healthy and can lead to some great things happening. Granted the arms race during world war two wasn't such a great thing, but it did lead to the early advent of the jet engine, canned foods, and computers.
I have always wanted to take better and better photos and by comparing myself to others and striving to be as good as them i (think) i improve every time i take a photo.
My friend James is one such person that i aim to be as good as. He hasn't been doing photograhy for long, i think he's only had his DSLR for about half a year, but has always exhibited a keen eye for composition.

This is one of his photos from his Flickr account, and i hope you can see why i think he's so good.
check out his other photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/24483638@N08/ (especially if you're into steam trains)

Photo catch up!

The last month was pretty hectic, doing photography at Guilfest, attending a wedding in bath, and a holiday in north Wales!

-------------------------------
Guilfest 2009

Its a scientific fact that nuns love rock music...


Guitarist, Trumpeter and Vocalist from District Six


Lead Wailer from According To Her

---------------------------------

Presenting Jon and Abi Fant!

Me and gilbert went to Combe Down near bath for the wedding of two friends, in a nice chapel, and Abi's father conducted the service!
It was a great day, and even a few moments of mild panic from both gilbert and I including the dilemas:

1. Will we get it set up on time?
2. The par cans are on Shucos and we need them on IECs! and who could forget
3. We've got half an hour to drive from the reception to the church that is miles away down little roads, pack everything up and get back to the reception before it finishes!

------------------------------------------------

Later in the month myself and my family went to Bala Lake (Llyn Tegid) in Gwynedd for a weeks camping and sailing and relaxing. The lake is a mile wide at its widest point, and 4 miles long. Legend has it that a beast called Tessie lives beneath its murky depths...
The photo below was steph's idea, she found a little stone and started writing on it. When she found out what the welsh for wales was she just HAD to add it for a bit of authenticity.

After all that excitement, i'm just pottering around ponty doing some photo stuff, some audio stuff, and admiring the view from my window.

Strange sights i've seen

Its handy having a phone with a camera, otherwise I wouldn't be able to share some of these with the world!

Sweet summer rain

It's been a bit warm in Caerdydd the last few days. The nice weather made setting up for the ball enjoyable, but somehow the easier task of taking it down seemed harder with the heat!
I burnt in all the obvious places, I now look like a clay bust that got dropped on its own sculptors head!

I've been mixing tracks for Cardiff LMS for their freshers CD the last few days, im up to about 8 tracks, some of which are the genuine thing, the real deal, a finely polished turd. On the other hand, some of them were really nice to mix and the songs were good!

Worry is starting to set in about getting enough work to keep me in wales. I've got sporadic union shifts, and im hoping to get some photography stuff from back home, but everything starts to go a bit quiet halfway through july. God's led me through difficult times before, even when i didn't know i was being guided, so I have faith that I'll come out fine.

Let's go see a movie

Today I got given a DVD of a film I engineered sound on a while back. It was a single day shoot involving over a dozen cast members all playing on character, one after the other.

The film "Delusions" was one of two films I did sound for that got sent off to the Cannes film festival, the other being a film called "Displacement", which was a final year film project for some film students.






















The shoot went really well, with a rigorous schedule kept to so that the younger cast members could go home at a reasonable hour, and with a good level of professionalism from the cast and crew.

Upon watching the DVD though, I despaired again at the ability of film-makers to discern quality from crap.

The sound wasn't uniform; they chose to use the sound from whichever shot was on screen, which meant on-board microphones for the other two cameras (the wide shot didn't have a microphone so that wasn't an issue.) So in one shot the sound was tinny, then another it was full and louder. There is one part where the shot changes halfway through a word and the second half is lost.
I'm not saying the sound recorded was amazing but all cameras were running at the same time so my boom audio could have been used for every shot.

Other issues included bad focus, panning, tracking, framing and some editing where it repeated a frame in the new shot.

I think i'll stick to non-video recording in the future.

The upside is that apparently BOTH films spelt my name wrong in the credits for cannes, so people won't know I worked on them if they say the sound is bad.