December 2008 Entries
While writing John Aho’s gallery piece I also came across the illust’s PSCombine image set at flickr, again I am stunned at the varied set of images created. If you have generated any images that you would like to share, send me some by email, or upload them to flickr and tag them with PSCombine.
John Aho recently created a set of images on Flickr generated from my PSCombine program. Seeing other people’s results is always cool. The first (above) image is my favorite from the entire set, the “light trails” that are behind the plane’s path seems almost to confidential if I didn't know if was purely random. The to combinations below are also very cool. If you have generated any images that you would like to share, send me some by email, or upload them to flickr and tag them with PSCombine.
In the epic remodel of the summer we stained and varnished all of our own wood trim for the house. While I was working with all that wood I remembered Audrey Kawasaki’s work, which inspired me to create some wood art of my own. Working with wood as a canvas is an entirely unique experience, the uneven texture and angles make creating a drawing that covers multiple plains more like crafting something then drawing. There are three pieces in this set, I’ll be posting the other two as the mood strikes.
I’ve just released version 1.5 of the PSCombine program. I’ve put quite a bit of time and effort into it the last few days trying to make it more flexible, and easier to use. Head over to 4volt.com/projects/PSCombine/ to download the new version. If you enjoy PSCombine, you can always donate, or just drop me a note. Here’s a quick rundown on the new features: Live View When you are actively generating images you can use the “Live View” tab to view the images that Photoshop writes immediately after they are...
Here is a light switch from a partially demolished wall. I’ve always liked walls made of lathe and plaster. This was a wall in the old stairwell. When the construction team was working on the house I used it in the morning and when I got home from work it was gone, converted into a pile of rubble.
I made a bunch of my Hex Connectors for Christmas gifts and I spent a few minutes taking a few more photos, here are some of the things you can make:
For directions on how to make see my previous post: Hex Connectors
Here are a couple of detail shots of the antique Singer sewing machine we recently acquired. You don't see detail like this on modern machinery. I really love the electricity free household machines of the early 1900’s, somehow it’s satisfying to wind a clock that doesn't need to be plugged in as well as running the foot pedal on this sewing machine. My current favorite desktop item (other then my computer) is a 1940’s-ish wind up clock with timer. It looks kind of like a old style transistor radio but only about 8 inches high....
I’m a sucker for textures and the one I snagged from our old chimney is one of my favorites. The concrete texture with the cracks and water marks really gives it interesting character. These are from the day we had our “extra” chimney knocked out, I don’t think I've never cleaned up a bigger mess.
Every year I choose my top favorite photos and and have them printed and bound to give to family and friends. This year’s edition is 121 pages and includes some of the photos I’ve been posting here.
JP ImageBook 2008 14mb PDF
JP ImageBook 2008 Press Quality 40mb PDF
Also, I have...
Here are some photos from The Faint concert earlier this year. I brought along my 50mm f1.8 lens and it worked great that night. Unfortunately I got too close to the action and smashed the focusing ring with the forward lens element. The concert was pretty crazy and I had fun. You can see the entire gallery here: 4volt.com/photo Also, while I was at it I posted the Shiny Toy Guns gallery.
Here are some photos of clouds from above them. It’s interesting how much like landscape and mountains they look like from that perspective.
Here are some macro shots of a bunch of old keys we found in our house (it was built in 1914). The texture of the old metal gives the keys great character, and the close up shot brings it all out.
I've posted the first version of my image randomizer program, I like to think of it as "Computer Assisted Art".
http://4volt.com/projects/PSCombine/
If you have any issues installing or using the program, email me, or post a message here.
Update: I've released version 1.0.4 that solves some incompatibility issues with Photoshop CS3. If you previously were having issues and were running CS3, download and install 1.0.4.
Here’s a few of the good shots from a Shiny Toy Guns concert a while back. In these shots I find the crowd almost as interesting as the performers. Bonus Image: Here is a photo from the Random Set 2008 gallery that just happens to be from the same concert, if your not familiar with the process see my post here.
This is a photo I hand traced for effect, the black lines really give it a different feeling.
I skipped posting on Sunday, so I'm double posting today. Here are a couple new photos from my macro set, the top photo is the aperture and focus rings on a Yashica f1.4 38mm lens made for a made for an old 8mm camera. Since I don’t have a camera for this lens it makes a great paperweight. Below are the actual blades of the aperture mechanism. This lens is great for explaining what aperture is since the blades are so easy to see.
Here in Portland we don’t get too much snow, and when we do no one is prepared to handle it, including the city. On Saturday we ventured out to get a couple last minute Christmas Gifts and I took these photos after nightfall. Snow at night is always more interesting to me. Today I’m stuck at home hoping the power doesn't go out.
I’ve written a program that randomly selects photos from my collection and then combines them with a random opacity and blending mode. Generally, I generate 5,000 random combinations then manually sort though them and select my favorites. About 1 in 150 make the cut.
The following photos were randomly combined and mixed to create interesting new art. I like to think of this as "Computer Assisted Art".
I’ve published my most recent gallery here: 4volt.com/art/, the images in this post are from there, as well as part of my ImageBook 2008 printed book (also available as PDF) that I'm giving...
I took some time today to get re-acquainted with my 300mm lens to get some super detailed photos for a review I'll be doing soon and took some macro shots of nick-naks laying around my desk. On another note: I took the 20,000th photo on my current camera. I’m currently using a Canon Rebel xt which it has served me well for the last two and a half years. Neither of these photos are retouched in any way.
Description
It seems that many of my things I'll be giving as Christmas presents this year are small, less then a few inches in dimensions. That brings up the question, How do I pack it? One could put the thing in a envelope or a small plastic bag, but all of those like a distinct "giftiness", they don't really look like a gift.
Enter the Folded Box, it's small enough to print and/or cut from a piece of standard size card stock. You can also easily customize it with a logo or name to make it that much cooler.
The box is...
Here is a quick macro of the grass in front of my house. Getting these shots was harder then I thought it would be, since the camera is so low to the ground you would have to be laying on your stomach in the snow to look though the viewfinder. For this one I set the camera to auto-focus and took about 20 photos at various angles, this is the only one that turned out. The photos below were taken of a different kind of grass while it was still dark out with a ring flash,...
There are two kind of people in the world, the kind that divide everyone into two groups, and those who don't. Also there are the people that like flow chart jokes, and I am one of those. Perhaps it's the hours I've spent staring at them at work, but I do like them. XKCD's most recent is quite enjoyable in a dry humor kind of way.
This is a shot from the passenger side of a car, it was a stereotypical Portland night. I love the third shot because of the coincidental person waiving to someone unseen. (Click to enlarge)
Hannah Stouffer's work under the name Grand Array is a suburb mashup of natural macabre objects and unnatural colors and configurations. I would hang this on my wall.
Here is an quick photo from a night I was working in the attic at night laying down floor boards after cutting them to fit. At the time there was no lights installed and I had to work with this and one other work light. This light has a porcelain socket and a metal cage to protect the bulb, I inherited it from the previous owner with a whole workshop of other old tools.
This is a unique and very cool non-destructive form of street art. I am very impressed. From simonk on Flickr
The irony of the fire truck on fire is not lost on Mr Irony.
Jordan Clarke's "get up and go" is a wonderful piece of fanciful video that uses human motion and color to achieve a sublime video experience. I highly recommend watching this video and checkout out his other work. Broadcast 2000 "get up and go" Full from Jordan Clarke on Vimeo.
I've experimented around with pinhole photography on by digital SLR camera a few times, and been disappointed with the result. If anything the photos came out too good, they really just looked like photos taken with a poor lens, and lacked the cool imperfections that makes pinhole photography cool. Here's an awesome find by the good people over at SuperForest, it's basically a pinhole camera made from a film canister. The film is placed on the curved outer wall, which would make the light hit the film distorted and warps the image. If you are familiar with film processing, everything...
I don't have any entertaining stories behind the origins of this photo, though I was told by the old man in the magic shop I bought it from that it carries many mysterious properties. He also made me promise not to wind it after midnight or Mechagodzilla could be awakened again. In my opinion, he could also be a distant cousin to Bender Bending Rodríguez. (Bender from Futurama)
Here's a new gallery of some various art-ish photos I've taken around Portland and San Francisco. Enjoy.
This is a stencil I found in San Francisco, I find the layering of paint fascinating, it's almost monochromatic. Also, if you look closely you can see where the stencil was held on the door, and the hand print in the upper right. Evidently it was a messy procedure.
I created this design while learning how to use my laser, it's a good simple project that creates 35, 1.2in hex pieces that can be pushed together to make abstract sculptures. They make a great desk toy or gift because you can engrave a custom logo or name on each piece to make them truly unique. I'll be giving several sets out this Christmas.
This pattern creates about 35 pieces, and the only material you'll need is a 8x8in piece of Plexiglas, which I've been able to regularly find at my local home improvement store for $1.50.
35 pieces is enough...
Here's a follow up to this mornings post about Hot Sams. I've posted a quick gallery of the interesting photos.
In other news, I'm in the process of overhauling my photos page using a new ASP component I've written that takes a folder of images and resizes and generates HTML on the fly for those folders. Once I'm happy with the code I'll be posting it here.
I am a collector of many things, photos is one of them. If I see something interesting, I'll snap a few quick photos and add them to my collection. I took about 7,000 photos in 2007, and I'm up to about 6,000 for 2008 so far. I make an annual physical photo book to give out to friends and family, but I don't do much else with the photos other then let them sit on a drive, so I'll be posting some of them here each day.
About these photos:
This is the AGFA PD16, marketed in 1935 (possibly). It's...
Recently, I made a copy of the Planetary gear calling card by phooky from (thingiverse) with a more permanent material. My version is made from 1/8in (3mm) fiber board that is very inexpensive, a 4ft by 8ft sheet is only $9.50 at Home Depot. This cut only costs about 7 cents in material.
What is this wondrous and mysterious material? It's cheep imitation wood-grain wood paneling. Normally this is used to nail to the back of inexpensive bookshelves, or for fake wood wall paneling. The type I found is smooth on both sides, there is also a version that...
These rolling ball sculptures are very ingenious and extremely inexpensive to make, the tracks and structure are made from bamboo skewers that generally are sold in packages of 50 or 100 for just a few dollars. This makes me wonder what other types of DIY structures could be made with this inexpensive material. The chaotic nature of the construction makes the path the ball will take hard to visualize, watch the videos to get the full effect. http://www.ohthebanter.com/rbs/
HC Gilje posted an the minimal requirements for running the atmega168 with the Arduino bootloader. The schematic is easy to add to any project, and brings the price down from $20 to around $4. The Arduino makes programming an AVR micro controller easy since you can use C, and all the pins are useful for all sorts of projects, this configuration runs at 3.3v at 8mhz. http://hcgilje.wordpress.com/resources/arduino-standalone/
Wondermark just released a Hierarchy of Beards poster that will help you with your beard classification efforts at the World Beard and Moustache Championships. This writer hopes that someday he will have a beard worth of the annals of history. http://www.beardrevue.com/2008/12/heirarchy-of-beards.html
I came across Tiffany Bozic's work today and the realistic weirdness of some of the pieces really tickle my fancy. http://www.tiffanybozic.net/
8-Bit Jesus is a chip-tune pop album with Christmas-ish overtones which was released free of charge from Doctor Octoroc.
While I usually hate Christmas albums, this one is worth a listen. Most of the songs Octoroc made a good effort to make something new instead of just playing the same thing on a non-traditional instrument.
So get your download on, this distribution method is the way of the future, and I think many stars will be made with free music.
I am a big fan of VIA's line of ever smaller ITX motherboards, although it is sometimes hard to get your hands on the smaller models as until now they were marketed primarily to manufactures.
The Pico-ITX form factor is 3.9" x 2.8" (10cm x 7.2cm), and VIA has released a kit that includes the board and case for 299$ called the ARTiGO. This makes the Pico board easier to find and VIA has a list of resellers.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/12/8/crisis/
A Penny Arcade comic with the joke that Barack Obama's office is terrified that he uses a Zune instead of an iPod.
(1 part Microsoft is evil) + (Everyone you know has a iPod) = the Zune is still not cool.
I would love to see Apple's choke hold on the portable entertainment market broken, but the iTouch is leagues ahead of the competition, and I don't think Microsoft can do it.
"What are you shooting?" he asked.
I Said, "Either it's a music video, or a really weird porno."
*Disclaimer*
This is a last minute guest post by myself intended for SkidmoreBluffs.net. Zander was stuck in Vegas and too poor to shell out for access to the web-o-sphere. If you ask me, he gets what he deserves for spending all his money on booze and hookers.
I came across this flash based genetic algorithm on Hack A Day.
If you are unfamiliar with genetic programming, the concept is for a program to "evolve" a solution to a given problem. A random population of candidates is generated and each is scored against each other and the fittest survive to the next generation where they are again randomly modified. With enough time and a good scoring system you can evolve a solution, this little flash app perfectly illustrates the concept.
In this instance flash tries to evolve a car where the red dots (passengers) are protected from the bumpy road....
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