Its done… they’re gone… :’(
Stomping no more
February 7th, 2010Some lines
February 5th, 2010Here we go again with another strange night shot from my now very-well-known bus stop. I had 10 minutes to spare, so I did some manual shooting again. This one was not really 10 minutes long but a 25 seconds exposure at f/8.0.
I particularly like the red lines going out on the right side, it somehow breaks the monotony/parallelism of the whole picture…
Yeah… not much more to say…
Alvin Maker (Book)
February 3rd, 2010Alvin Maker is unfortunately one of those books that tingles your imagination for a few hundred (thousand?) pages before leaving you senseless with a pretty bad smell in the mouth. Feel the irony inside – that’s the passionate reader speaking – I loved the begining book, I loved it so much that it pains me that Orson Scott Card, the author, twisted it in a way that ends up so fucked-up.
The story takes place at the crossroads between the American colonization, Native American legends, the birth of our modern civilizations, pure magical fantasy… and builds itself up to become the story of a fight against something that is more than god: the Unmaker.
Consistent with the pure fantasy guidelines, the story follows one character named Alvin, the seventh son of a seventh son – it is of course a birth status that comes with great power (and thus with great current squared times resistance 
) – on his path to become a Maker, a modeler of the matter itself, a guy strong enough to curve the path of destiny (sounds epic huh?).
As you can see, the story promises a lot and starts on a path that will really leave any fantasy reader speechless. The battle of the elements, the earth being strong and welcoming while the water being treacherous and murdering. The religion is strong and plays a big role as well, but is constantly manipulated by the greater evil of the unmaker and its tools used against their own will. The indians legends of the knacks (between magic, genius and extraordinary abilities) and the precise use of key history elements produces a wonderful background that could have led to a legendary story. The whole book in which Alvin discovers how to manipulate the matter is simply astonishing, one just cannot stop reading.
Unfortunately, if the first books are simply fantastic, the story pretty soon stops expanding and starts repeating itself. The first part of the story seemed so far from our daily troubles and thus so wonderful. The personal discovery of his powers and the learning curve of Alvin, coupled with his moral righteousness and constant combat against the Unmaker were more than enough to create a great story. Why in hell did Orson Scott Card need to bring there some law-troubles where Alvin cannot do anything (and twice) and the more-than-mystical-crap of the Crystal City? It is as if the author had an overload of ideas about the background but did not know how to make this all coherent in a really interesting story.
Sorry Orson, as you can see I’m pissed because the story had such a fantastic potential.
Fatherland (Book)
February 1st, 2010It’s been a while since I wrote something about a book here. Well, that’s partially because I had less time to write but also because the books I read were not that good that they required/deserved a post right away.
But some where good anyway and Fatherland from Robert Harris is definitely one of them.
The context of the story – in the form of an alternative history – is very disturbing. Germany won the Second World War on the European side of the Atlantic and Hitler is confortably installed at the head of the 3rd Reich while former leaders of the Nazi-Party are dispatched in all the governing seats. The SS are integrated in the whole society and the Gestapo is still the most powerful / dreaded tool of the State. You really have to imagine the 3rd Reich as a part of the Modern World, world at peace with the USA led by a J.P. Kennedy for example. You can get why that may be disturbing right?
The story begins in spring 1964, a few weeks before Hitler’s 75th birthday, with a mere murder and an almost banal investigation from the Kripo, the Kriminalpolizei. No information about the victim, not even a name or a matching missing-person profile, nothing. That sounds strange to detective Xavier March, moreover when he discovers that the victim is a high-ranking Nazi representative and when the Gestapo starts taking over and rushing into closing the case. Of course Xavier does not give up and ends up being trapped into a dangerous political scandal.
This book is really interesting for many reasons, the first one being the uncover of the “final solution”. There is a huge enphasis about the jews being “replaced further east” but no one dares thinking let aside talking about a “final solution”. I know I spoil a bit there, but this is the subject that Xavier is going to uncover and tackle during the whole story. As surreal as it is, this subject is still one of the most complicated questions that the younger generations are and will keep asking. Maybe it is also a question I would somehow like to ask around but I did not dare…
The second reason would be the relations between Xavier and the SS-Corp. (he himself is a SS-Major) and Xavier and his son. Xavier March came in the SS when the Police was merged inside the organisation, not the otherway. His relation with the Uniform is somehow twisted and he loathes the Corp. but stays in as it is the only way for him to continue inquiring as a detective as well as not wishing to give up the modest advantages of being a SS-Officer. But during the whole story, R.Harris deeply describes the way other people look at Xavier with and without his uniform and let transpire the mixed feelings of his character. On the other hand, there has been a lot of talking about the Hitler Youth in our history, but try to imagine how it would be in a 30 yrs old Nazi Regime… Xavier’s son – Pili – is a pure Nazi product and neither his father or Philip himself can do anything about it. This leads to a disgusting – at best – relation as well as horrible scenes that reminded me of (pardon my sources) the film “Equilibrium”.
Anyway, beside triggering curious stares in the bus (Swastika on the cover) it was a really interesting book to digest and think about; I really recommend it.
Tramotion Blur
January 29th, 2010Have you already tried to play with motion blur? You sure know there are two very different types of blur in photography:
- “Motion Blur”, coming from a subject moving too fast in regard of the chosen exposure time,
- “Shake”, coming from the photographer moving while holding the camera.
The motion blur will result in a sharp background with some blurry forms where your subject used to be. Beside messing up with scores of underexposed party pictures, this is an effect that can be really interesting for photographers. The shake blur on the other hand is way more annoying because it will mess with the picture as a whole. One way to disminish this unwanted effect is to use a tripod or stabilized lenses / onboard chips that will reduce the unwanted shake and help to some extend prevent this type of blur.
Both types of blur are of course deeply linked to the exposure time and the aperture you will use. The longer the exposure, the more likely you are to get something blurred on your picture. And since the smaller aperture you use, the longer you are to expose…
Today, I’d like to tell you about an experiment I did playing with both blurs at the same time called “filé” in French (if anyone can point out the English name for that… don’t hesitate).
Try taking a picture while quickly moving your camera horizontally ; what you will get is a blured picture displaying some horizontal lines. Now imagine what it would look like if you had a static sharp object in the foreground… yes, the object would appear to be moving, that’s the neat effect of the “filé”.
To achieve this, you must first tweak your camera to expose quite a long time (0.5 -> 1.5s in my tests). Then simply point your camera at the moving object you want to capture and move with it. The whole idea is to take a picture of this moving object while making it appear static to the camera. You achieve this by moving the camera at the same time so that the object stays exactly at the same place (for your camera’s chip) during the whole exposure.
I took something like 50 tram pictures this week… and all the pictures you can see below are the ones that are not totally screwed-up… one tip though; pick yourself an object that come back frequently… not every 5 min like a tram >_<
… so what do you think? Have you already played with this effect? What would you advise in this case?