Timelapse Restoration and Colorization, Jammie Rogers, Daredevil 1917 Published on Oct 13, 2014 ~ c.1917, Washington DC, USA by Harris & Ewing, 5x7 glass plate negative, colour by Jordan J. Lloyd, 2014. Courtesy of the Library of Congress
"Jug
‘Jammie’ Reynolds, also known as ‘The Human Fly’ balances precariously
over the edge of the Lansburgh furniture building on 9th NW, Washington
DC, 1917 as part of a wider routine including acrobatics. Reynolds
toured his daredevil act across the USA, and began his routine by
climbing up the building like Spider Man before his acrobatic and
balancing displays. Whilst the date of this particular image is dated
around 1917, a similar showcase in Carlisle, PA in October 1915 drew a
crowd of 1,500 people. The local paper covered the stunt, Reynolds
“starting at the awning and landing on the high tower… after reaching it
successfully, he placed two tables and on them several chairs,” the
article reads. “Then he balanced himself on a chair while people held
their breath.”
With many new features one feature added to the new and popular iOS 8 (iPhone, iPod, iPad variants) camera application is it's new panorama function. This news has many upgrading to iOS 8 excited as it now make's it easier for them to create a panorama image. Although I am sure that is great news for iOS 8, also many cameras from the humble Point & Shoot and all the way up to the best DSLR now offer panorama but "How would I create a panorama if my camera does not have the function?" According to Luminous Landscape the answer to that question is "Easier Than You Think."
However not to be dismissive and as complete or comprehensive as Luminous Landscape's tutorial is I used a FREE Windows PC application called Hugin - Panorama photo stitcher to create the images shown below.
Presented within the Luminous Landscapes tutorial are various methods for creating a panorama but mostly uses Photoshop. Of course the method you choose to make yours is entirely up to you.
Awhile back a contest was offered at SLR Lounge but had long since closed with their chosen winner. However still being interested and up to a challenge on an otherwise boring Saturday I thought I would try editing their image anyway, if only for the FUN of photo-editing and Why the Hell NOT!
The Rules of Engagement, were simple enough "Edit [raw image file] to your liking"
Many have said one of the best days of a persons life is their last day of work. Their retirement or not having to live by our alarm clock.
A very good friend, actually my best friends recently celebrated one of those days. My good friend's partner and wife for over thirty years, Linda, no longer lives by the annoying buzz of the alarm clock. The photograph below show part of their celebrations. Linda's Gift Table shows the gifts her hubby, family and friends gave in celebration of what I am calling 'The Blessed Event' or 'Just The Best Day' ...
For my macro (WiKi) photography and because of the limited depth of field (what is in focus) usually associated with macro images I need an application that will extend said field of focus.
Therefor I am currently testing a commercial package, two applications, Helicon Focus and Helicon Remote from HeliSoft. Together this software will allow for focus stacking (WiKi) and tethered camera control. Where Helicon Remote will automate the gathering of all the images (shot at varying focus points) needed for Helicon Focus to do it's focus stacking.
A few days ago I purchased my first SSDrive, that drive was delivered yesterday morning and chosen was the 120GB Kingston SSDNow V300. It is a solid state Hard Disk Drive replacement as my old drive was showing its age, much like me. According to the marketing material SSDNow V300's leading feature promises "faster data throughput." Hey, who am I to disagreeindeed SSDNow certainly does deliver on that promise. Following is my impression of the new hardware, for what it's worth, a User-review.
The KIT contained all the necessary connections, a USB External Drive Enclosure to help clone a notebook and came bundled with a lite version of Acronis True Image HD (video) cloning software on bootable CD. Thus resizing the new drives partitions, making it bootable then copying the data off my old drive was done automatically, resulting setup was easy as pie. I was expecting a more involved setup procedure but to my surprise, I was up and running in less than an hour. For the advanced or power users, options for an SSD customization and configuration are available. Although a number of functions such as incremental backups were disabled in the "lite"version I soon discovered the software's limitations was never an issue.
However, all was not perfect in the Happy Land of w00d. According to many reviewers, the drives tested with somewhat of an average speed although selling for a good or a better than average price. I paid $99CAD before taxes and shipping were added. Apparently, all V300s were optimized for price over speed and were given a lower than average MTBF therefore, I think compromises should and can be expected.
Additionally, Kingston and their V300s managed to draw a little controversy when they quietly switched to slower NAND (memory) after many review sites had given the early drives a number of favorable reviews. This news came to light when early purchasers were reporting (via the forums) lower performance than reported by the reviewers. For the details on this story, "Update to Kingston SSDNow V300: A Switch to Slower Micron NAND".
With the 120GB V300 being my first SSDrive and given a recent Graphics Card (ZOTAC Geforce GTX 760 review) or GPU upgrade my 'Toaster' has never been faster. They were not kidding when they say "an SSDrive upgrade is the best bang for your buck".
My old hard disk served me well over the years although it was long overdue for replacement. The drive was a 10-year-old 35Gb IDE HDD which ironically was installed because two modern at the time 100GB SATA drives prematurely and unceremoniously gave up their lives within a few weeks ofpurchase. Therefore with my new SSDrive not only did I get a boost in data throughput but I also gained additional storage with the peace of mind that only comes with brand new hardware.
When talking about the old drive I think I should mention the difference in noise levels between the two drives. Obviously, the new V300 produces absolutely zero noise whereas my old 35Gb is a little screamer. In the defense of old boy it ran flawlessly for many years and is still running as a second drive butit isshowing its age with excessive noise, it's loud!
Would I Recommend Kingston's SSDNow V300?
In my opinion, the prices of SSDrives are starting to look very attractive therefore the time was right for me to buy. With that said as far as the V300s are concerned if one is a power user and if it is raw power and speed one needs (say for gaming or video editing) then I would look at buying something faster. Again, if cost or low cost is your priority then given the low prices of the V300s I think would make them a very good choice for anyone who is building a low budget system.
Yes, I am more than happy with my choice.
In closing the gains I saw were indeed impressive if only because my Toaster was so damn-darned-old-and-slow any upgrade that could guarantee an increase in system speed would be readily apparent. Nevertheless, the "best bang for my buck" for a system speed boost I hit on the top two with the new SSDrive and faster Graphics Card! Next on my hit-list would be a new motherboard, improved memory with a blazingly-fast-kick-arse CPU ...
I wanted to share a quick and easy tutorial I discovered. This lesson would be easy enough for anyoneto master therefor it's perfect for beginners including myself.
Search the NET a you will find an incredible amount of these sensor size comparison graphics so why in the world have I created yet another? Asking myself that very question I came up with or the story I'm going to go with, it gave me an excuse to play 'photo-editor' and as they say "practice (or perfect practice) makes perfect". The result, here is what I came up with. The small graphic under index, just above The Muse's URL is an approximation or near to the actual size of each sensor.
