Real Tiny Cities, Tiny Real Cities
[ Comments Off ]Posted on March 12, 2009 by admin in Popular Media
Thursday, March 12th, 2009Fun with miniatures and tilt shift photography.
You may have heard of tilt-shift photography before, or at least seen examples of it. What is our fascination with tiny things? While some people spend all their time making tiny cities that are remarkably realistic, others spend all their time making real cities look unrealistic. That first link is the Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg Germany, the second is an actual photo of London manipulated to look like a miniature. The best examples of this kind of work use actual optics to achieve the effect, but if you want to try your hand at it without the investment, there are plenty of tilt-shift Photoshop tutorials , and now there’s even an iPhone app. The online tool at TiltShiftMaker.com will also let you upload your own photos and add the effect. Tilt shift can be even more fun with video; the clip at left is from Sydney Australia’s Mardi Gras 2009. It was created by Sydney-based photographer Keith Loutit, who has more clips on Vimeo. One of my favorites is Helpless, in which Greenpeace activists and sand sculptors build a 17-metre sculpture of a fin whale on Sydney’s Bondi Beach to send a message to the Japanese Government in protest of its controversial whaling program. For more still image examples see this collection at Smashing Magazine .
Obama On His Blackberry: Yes iCan
[ Comments Off ]Posted on January 22, 2009 by admin in Technology
Thursday, January 22nd, 2009Barackberry Jams
Well, it’s been a bitter struggle, but it looks like Obama gets to keep his Blackberry. Sort of. For official purposes, he’ll be required to use the NSA-Certified Sectéra Edge. Which strikes me as a tiny bit odd, since the phone uses Windows as its OS. Isn’t Windows historically a frighteningly insecure operating system? Don’t they realize his enemies might be using an iSnipe? Besides, if he used an iPhone, he’d be able to enjoy an occasional iBeer when he sneaks an iPuff. In light of the seeming incongruency of Obama being kind of a “Windows guy”, maybe he should try the ZunePhone (which I’ve just now redubbed the whyPhone). Which reminds me of a horrible joke I made up recently when a friend dropped their Blackberry in the toilet… Q: What do you a call a Blackberry right before it falls into the toilet? A: A Blingleberry!