Auswanderer Quatsch

Have 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?

Today’s story starts a long time ago… 6 or 7 years ago at least… and ends in the snow beside our window!

Those have been my winter shoes for ages, could it be 6 or 7 years? Actually more since I got myself this pair after my foot went through the exact same pair (and that one was at least 5 years old as well). Anyway, those (the very ones on the picture) have been my all-weather-dry-feet partners for many seasons. I handled them with care, I kept them tidy after running in the mud, removed the stones from the soles and even greased them every now and then… oh such a good relationship we had :’(

Last Summer – like every Summer – I put them in the basement to relax and recover from a long and exhausting winter.

I don’t know why, they did not like it. I guess it was the moisture of the summer that they did not understand… our winter jackets did not either actually, but they recovered… the leather did not. When I took them out a few weeks / months ago, they expressed their depressed mixed feelings by smelling like hell.

I told myself that it was just a passing mood, that I just had to express my love again by wearing them a couple days by foul weather and they would find back the feelings they once had for me and all would be like before… but no. They refused to dry-up, they insisted on keeping this nasty smell, even after I forced them to sleep on the balcony and greased them with love and patience once again.

Full of despair, I set them back on the balcony… as far from my sight as I could, secretly hoping that the rain, the snow and the wind would finally wash my smelly-pain away… but no. Even after the weeks of extreme cold we had, even when they were hard and cracked under my fingers like paperboard, they hung up to this smell that I now loathe.

But I still cannot make my mind to throw them away…

Tank: player or unit designated to protect weaker players or units in combat by drawing enemy attacks and absorbing damage.

I did not talk much of my gaming activities lately. Well, among my 1000 things to do for work, I still find some time to play World of Warcraft and experience a side of the game that I let aside for the last 4 years.

You might remember a post in May last year, where I presented my new character, the little Ellianna and her not much bigger friend Rigwyn. Why Gnome you may ask… well… Gnomes are not really loved in Warcraft and that was really a lot of fun to run around like two self-imbued, totally proud of themselves, 50cm high, bad-asses

She was not intended to be my main Character… but she now is and I’m happy of it. Björn and I joined other Siemens colleagues and now play in a nice Casual guild (we play a couple time a week at most) together. We are now starting to make our way into the Ice Crown Citadel in order to beat the crap out of Arthas The Lich-King.

Elli was not really intended as a tank either. This position always scared me (yes really) and I was fine, healing oder damage dealing, as from away from the evil-guys as one can be. But after tanking our way into the levelling phase – and enjoying it – it soon became clear I would try to tank in high-end as well.

After tanking pretty much all of the high (but not “end”) available content, I started Off-Tanking for the guild and now even Main-Tanking when the situation requires it. I can say it now, I’m not afraid of tanking anymore, of being the first one to run toward the boss… and often the first one to die as well.

Wipe: sudden death of all the player of a group

My last ingame experience was an evening of wipes on the first boss of the Ice Crown Citadel (ICC). I was the main tank  there, taking an incredible amount of damage and I could not do much more about it than observe the situation and give advices while trying to help the rest of the group by… not dying.

Even though we did not progress much, it was really fun to see all the efforts everyone put in the encounter.

After that evening, I felt very powerless in helping the guild… so I analyzed my character once again, searching for new improvement possibilities. As a result, Elli had to perform a few changes. I modified some enchants and I swaped a couple stones in order to gain in survivability and I deeply reviewed my way of tanking.

But the most impressive change definitely lies in the [Flask of Teldrasil Blood] that Ellianna drank two days ago and which turned her into an Aarpalis a big blue Night Elf.

As much as it pained me to leave the little body (overcompensating for its height by tanking bigger and bigger monsters of course) behind, I did it for the sake of the survivability improvement it brings me… and hopefully brings the guild as well… even if it cost me the wrath of the little Rigwyn now

There are still some guys I did not tank though. I’d like to stand in front of Ragnaros and Nefarian, almost as much as I would like to tank the four wings of Naxxramas and Yogg’Saron… Rigwyn? Bizzy? Chasil? Anyone interested?

I never went there before. This is the school we can see from our window. At night, coming back from work, I pushed the open door, crossed the basketball fields, stepped on the snow and put my tripod in a small corner. On my right the sports hall sending white/blue light in the night. In front of me this huge manor like building hosting hordes of kids during the day and probably ghosts during the night…

Sometime I see them, at night when I come back from work… just before going to bed…