Posted my Photos in Video: On YouTube

February 5th, 2012 Thomasso

I spent some time editing a little video of some of the photos, and a short clip, that I took today from my Sony A33. The video a sort of the spur of the moment project, very amateurish, and I put it together in less than an hour.

Basically what you about to see is the short video clip of the bridge going over the Fraser River, then some of the photos I took of that hike along Brae Island outside of Fort Langley, BC. The music is mine – done on the LMMS, and the video production and editing was done suing the OpenShot on my LINUX PC, with Ubuntu 11.10.

Enjoy.

Posted in Around Town, Art, Astronomy, Audio, Photographs, Software, Video | No Comments »

Going through Last Year’s Photos

January 29th, 2012 Thomasso

Since it is raining out like crazy, to the point that I cannot get any sleep becuase at times it is so loud, I thought I would spend some of that time going through my photos from last year and try and organize them into something more manageable. Then, of course, finding photos that look awesome from my rearranging and sorting is what I would like to post and present to you today.

Remember that these photos were taken before I had properly set up my camera. All of the first 300 or so images I captured with my Sony A33 camera were basically set in “AUTO” mode, letting the camera decide what is best for me.

Now that I have a ten-fold better understanding of shooting techniques, and a twenty-fold better understand my camera, these photos are atrocious now that I see them in my humble opinion.

Now I see a nap time coming on as I fight off insomnia.

Posted in Art, General, Humour, Photographs | No Comments »

More Trick Photography – the Smoking Hot Potato Effect!

January 21st, 2012 Thomasso

Actually, this photography trick falls under the category of creating fake smoke, or the illusion of smoke without using something that is smoking. You can use just about any object, as the example I seen on the Internet was an apple, but becuase I did not have any apples, I substituted the prop with a potato instead.  Also, string is the main part for the effect; I did not have any string handy, so I used a rubber band as a stand-in for the smoke effect. Lastly, the flashlight, which, if you can adjust the light beam to a narrow focus, then better the effect, but it is not necessary.

Make sure everything is focused up, then set your lens focus to manual (if you are using a zoom lens with “AF” switch on it), and of course, your camera has to be mounted on a tripod. Tape your string to the end of the flashlight, or in my case, a rubber band. Next, turn out the lights in the room, and set the exposure to about 5 seconds. Press the shutter button, with the flashlight on and wiggle and aim the flashlight over top of the potato until the five second exposure is finished.

The wiggling rubber band with the flashlight makes the effect of smoke, while having a black background. Looks like real smoke! Cool eh?

This took me five minutes to set up and about ten shots before I was happy with what I got. DSLR cameras are so much fun! Mine is a Sony A33, a beginner’s camera.

No potatoes were harmed, maimed, or killed during this exercise!

Source:

“Fake Smoke” by Jbphotography June 2011.

Posted in Art, General, Photographs | 2 Comments »

Breaking News: Changed My Twitter Pic!

January 7th, 2012 Thomasso

Breaking: I just changed my Twitter image, the image that is used as your avatar when you use your Twitter account. After almost six weeks having the new camera, it dawned on me to shoot a better looking image for my Twitter Identity with it instead of the web-came one I had before. So keeping with the theme and tradition, I used the same pencil that I have always used.

I have kept the same general image because I find it is hard to follow when Tweeps (Twitter users) keep changing their images around, especially when they use obscure alphanumeric names as their handles which are almost impossible to keep track of. I am now at just over 800 followers, and I am following the same number on my Twitter Account. Keeping track of that many people with weird names, I need all the help I can get, so changing your photo throws the whole memory game out the window for me.

After having the new camera for almost six weeks, I finally just got around to taking a good quality image for my Twitter Account today. Below is the stock image that I cropped and edited my final image from.

Regrettably, using Twitter, you are limited to an image size of only 700k bits, so any edge on image quality is a boon once you start reducing your image size down to this small 76 x 76 px size area.

Posted in Art, Diatribe, Events, General, Humour, Photographs, Socail Media, Twitter | Comments Off

Happy New Year – Last Post of 2011!

December 31st, 2011 Thomasso

Well, this is it! The last post of 2011, and tomorrow will be next year.

Everyone please behave yourselves tonight. Drive safe, and please do not drink and drive, and try not to wake up the neighbourhood at 2:00am in the morning, as some of us do like to keep our regular sleeping times going through the holidays.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2012, here we come!

Posted in Art, Events, General | 2 Comments »

Another Inspiring Moment in Art, Done in Five Minutes

December 27th, 2011 Thomasso

Yes, another inspiring moment in art, all done within fine minutes using my 9 by 12 inch USB drawing tablet. As per usual, I was board out of my tree, and needed some mental stimulation last night to get me through. I was tired from my marathon of reading, and had a few hours to kill before I needed to get to bed to sleep to start my work week on the right foot. My sleep cycles got all mixed up from the long weekend, so setting myself up for sleep was a priority. I plunged in my graphic tablet and away I went.

I know, it is not much to look at, but what do you expect for five minutes of drawing time?

I used a program called My Paint, which is an open source and it is free to use. It has some amazing brushes and brush effects in it, and it is very easy to use. It is nothing like the thousand dollar proprietary software you see on the market, but for its cost, this program rocks!

I did have a hard time sleeping. My sleep through the night was difficult becuase I was not that tired; in fact I was a little cranky this morning from the lousy quality of my sleep last night. My five minute art therapy was a bust in that regards, but it was fun.

My hand and eye coordination is off becuase I am drawing on a tablet, and the results, or what you are seeing, are up on the monitor, so I found my arm wanting to do weird positions while I was drawing; I was having to really think out what I was doing. A very weird feeling to get used to if you are only used to drawing on a piece of paper instead of looking up at a monitor while drawing on the table.

Posted in Art, Diatribe, General, Humour, Software, Story Telling | 1 Comment »

Mr Fluffy Face – 15 Second Sketch

December 11th, 2011 Thomasso

Kids, both young and old, love drawing, even if they do not do it as a full fledged hobby, just playing around with new technology is the fun itself. Case in point are a group of “older” kids that I was showing off a 21 x 14 cm drawing graphics tablet that can be plugged into any computer using a USB port. Watching their eyes, watching the screen, as I started sketching this image, below, was an amazing experience for me. For them, it seemed intriguing as the different colours and shapes appeared in front of them.

I wish I had more of these graphic tablets, as some never got a chance to play around with it; time just ran out. Those that did play with it seemed to be more on writing their names than actually drawing. Perhaps I reinvigorated some artist sleepers to a new medium at the Senior’s Centre.

Posted in Art, General, Humour, Linux | Comments Off

Unexpected Saturday Stuff to Do

December 10th, 2011 Thomasso

I guess with being sick for so long with the flu, I put off more than I should have over the last two weeks. I completely forgot things like paying some bills, meeting some friends for some potential business arrangements, and my commitments with some volunteer organisations I spend time with. My head is still a little light from the flu, but I am on the mend. Now I just need to catch up from all the time off.

I wish I could find more time to play with my new camera too. With such short days and the weather not being to terribly co-operative, finding good shooting conditions has been a pain. Those small moments of available time where I can get out and shoot, are few and far between. Of course, I have been focusing on night time photography, doing things such as shooting the night sky, so finding that perfect clear night to shoot has been, well, a rare event over the last three weeks. Fall and winter time in Vancouver is less than ideal for finding clear nights, and being cold out, and having the flue, is just pure torture.

Last night we had the full moon for December, which featured a Lunar Eclipse for Saturday morning. Friday night was perfect shooting conditions, as the sky was clear and it was not too cold out. The moon looked brilliant. My only regret was not having a good telephoto lens with me. Life as a poor photographer; making due with the tools I have.

And to end the post off with, my act of weirdness in art. This was me doodling with my drawing tablet using a drawing/painting program called “MyPaint.”

Have a great weekend!

Posted in Art, General, Linux, Photographs, Software | Comments Off

A Blend of Rendering and Camera Work

November 17th, 2011 Thomasso

It has been cold out, so I have been staying indoors, both at home and at work. With all this time hiding from the cold, I am spending it with my camera, and using it with the instruction handbook that I never read since I bought it. Also, I have been seriously working with some of the these 3D graphic programs that I had downloaded last month. It has been so nice to get better acquainted with the computer and camera.

The first image came from my new camera. I was taking photos of the Moon, using my 18-55mm lens, that came with it, when a seagull flew by in front of my shot. After looking at it on the monitor, the photo jumped out at me as being a very good image, so I processed it and posted it on Twitter, and now here on the blog. I do not own a telephoto, yet, but when I do get one, I want to do more shooting of far away objects with the camera. I am still drooling over that DSLR, the rang of options are incredible compared to my point and shoots cameras.

The next two images are from the same program I talked about earlier this week, called Wings3D, that renders using Povray. I am just starting to see the cool stuff that I can do with this program. I hate that this software has next to no help files, compressive guides or user manuals with it. There are some YouTube videos, and a very basic PDF files to download, but that is it. You are running it strictly by trial and error; which is sad when I am finding that it is a wonderful program to use, but it is complex and has unusual mouse and menu options.

The end results of working with Wings3D are very cool. I can now see why this is a heavy-duty modeller program. You can take a primitive object, like a sphere, and turn it into a 3D face by stretching and manipulating the mesh. I am still finding some options difficult to figure out, but I am making progress.

So this is what I have been up to when sitting idling by at my computer, or outside, going to and from work while it is still daylight.

I am waiting for the sky (weather) to clear up so that I do some night time photography. One of my primary goals with the DSLR is to take shots of the stars using long exposures and apertures adjustments. I have a 25.5cm reflector telescope, and for it I have purchased a mount to use with my DSLR, so I want to start using it for taking photos of celestial objects.

I cannot wait!

Posted in Around Town, Art, Astronomy, General, Photographs, Software, Twitter | 2 Comments »

Unpinning Your Poppy

November 11th, 2011 Thomasso

I saw something that I never seen before here in British Columbia, people unpinning their poppies from their jackets and placing them by the wreaths at the cemetery after the Remembrance Day ceremony was finished.  It was not until I started watching the CBC News channel on the television that I saw people in Ottawa and Winnipeg doing this very same thing in their ceremonies.

This is a very interesting and a most fitting way to honour this day because it allows everyone to go up to the memorial and contribute a part of them, the same way the Veterans place their wreaths. Although only a few people were doing it, I can see this becoming part of the ceremonies in the years to come across the country.

Posted in Around Town, Art, Events, General | 2 Comments »