mine*knowledge

Another beautiful Tilt-shift video.

I never really believed New York existed anyway, and this just proves it.

I had no idea LEGO were working on an architectural range when I last posted about it. Thankfully it looks like they are using the standard pieces, with the only concession being the more architecturally useable brick colours. On the downside it looks a bit short on something very dear to architects; detail.

LEGO Architecture

Though I have yet to splash out on a tilt-shift lens I have toyed around with the effect in Photoshop. These are a couple of photos I took on a summer holiday in Cornwall a few years ago.

   

Click here to download:

Its_only_a_model.zip (386 KB)

I was going to wait with getting into tilt-shift photography until moving to large format cameras, but this beautiful stop-motion video is tempting me to find a T-S lens for my camera sooner rather than later.

Small Life in Saxon Switzerland from Christoph Schaarschmidt on Vimeo.

Last week's workshop ended with a small expo of our finished models.

The assignment was to create a structure that was modular and incorporated the idea of flow and flexibility.

It is great to see that my favourite company is making an effort to become more environmentally friendly. Their new pages detail what they are doing to improve, how they have improved and what their goals are. How great that upgrading your computer also means doing a little something for the environment.

I am currently embroiled in an epic attempt to get my mom to bike to work.
She lives about 5 kilometres from her work in the centre of Copenhagen, allegedly (one of) the world's most bike friendly cities. The trouble is, she has somehow got into her head that biking is a mortally dangerous bloodsport confined to the young, fit and ruthless.
I'm hoping this beautifully written commentary on the subject will soften her up a bit:
 
http://adrianshort.co.uk/2009/08/24/456/

Nokia gets into the mini notebook market with a Windows machine.
This must be what has been taking all their attention away from competing with the iPhone/Android. Or something.
Why does this bother me? Because it widens Nokia's portfolio at a time when they should really focus on their phones. I want someone to provide good alternatives and competition to the above mentioned phones and Nokia has been well placed to do so.

Minutes after taking this photograph I was up there myself, hanging on for dear life.
The weird thing was, that despite the fact that it wasn't, by modern standards, a particularly
scary looking ride, it turned out "worse" than expected. And by worse I mean better. Why?
Because it creaked, it groaned, it was made from wood and the brakes were operated by a
disaffected teenager in the cart at the back.

Somehow, despite the shaky voice in the back of my head reassuring me that it *had* to be safe, the uncertainty was the added thrill that pushed the ride above average.
All the other, insanely wilder rides, looked much too safe.

Today I went to an exposition of Ansel Adams' photographs.
I have often seen reproductions, posters and images on the web, such as the one below, of this master of photography. 

Whilst I could see that they were perfect monochrome compositions of beautiful landscapes I never knew the amount of detail and the subtlety of those tones. 

I feel invigorated and inspired to improve my own photography and that, I know, is something he would have appreciated.