digitalrevolution blog

Documenting An Eventful Saturdays Togging

noreply@blogger.com (ianm) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:11:00 +0000

Saturday (the 18th of July) just gone was one busy and fun day, strengthening contacts and making a load of new ones. Initially it was the day of Scott Kelby's Worldwide Photo Walk - second annual that is - which I was taking part in by joining the Newcastle Upon Tyne contingent of the event along with Dave my usual tog buddy.

We, being people that want to fit as much as we can into a days photography, decided also to get in some more shots and become more known amongst the North East Cosplayers who were doing gay pride in their own way (see below).

These guys are hilarious and we were able to spot Wally from "Where's Wally" outside the station.

We followed as they marched on their well trodden path around the anime shops with their gay pride banner.

The Photo Walk

Leaving the cosplayers to do their stuff, we headed to the quayside for the meet passing some buskers who were pretty good and took a snap - they posed too while playing :D

Hard to think of different ways to take photos of a subject like the quayside that you have done times before, I ventured for the abstract mostly...

...which seems to work as "different" plus a bonus on the Millennium Bridge opening up to let a boat through.

I didn't take much else of worthiness from that point, sky was awful spoiling shots and to be honest I'd done the quayside before but happy with the few I did get. The group ventured onto the Gateshead side and the Sage which I hadn't been in before, so another bonus.

Then tried something really abstract in the Baltic Art Gallery entrance (and yes I know, it's not straight because I took it at an angle on purpose).

And we came to the end of the Photo Walk event and people went their ways. A great day and great to see new faces and meet new photographers - and not just from this area as a couple had come down from Glasgow.

...But Our Photo Walk Continued...

I had some experimentation with a sinister looking underpass shot (and yes that's Dave, he's the sinister bit :D)...

...investigated a graveyard...

...found an alien on a wall...

...and finally a space invader to finish the day.

Can't wait for the next one, let's hope this one is as successful as last years or more and gets into the record books.

Orkestra Del Sol

noreply@blogger.com (ianm) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 09:33:00 +0000

Orkestra Del Sol are a group I saw at the Mouth Of The Tyne Festival, they have a varied mix of influences from Russia and the Middle East to South America putting together with brass to create a unique performance. One of the best, if not the, of this type of musical performance I have seen and thoroughly enjoyed.

I am however slightly annoyed with myself, as with such great opportunity for photos I still haven't grasped the use of my manual focus lens and lost some potentially great shots due to what should be the main focus of the photo being out of focus. But one struggles on and to be fair to myself I did get some some really good shots considering I was shooting between heads and shoulders.

Mouth Of The Tyne Festival

noreply@blogger.com (ianm) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 22:25:00 +0000

Partners in crime, Dave and I, went down to to Tynemouth or a look around the Mouth Of The Tyne Festival for some photo opportunities - and boy did we find.

I personally took over 450 shots, needless to say most were binnable, but with the set I came out with at the end it was well worth the effort. Of course the entertainment was great too.

Street Performances

Musical Performances

http://www.jimithepiper.co.uk/

http://www.chicagostompers.it/index-en.php

http://www.orkestradelsol.co.uk/

I didn't really know what was going on with the street performers - but they provided some good photo opportunities. I was into the music though and bought Orkestra Del Sol's CD (which is unlike me at festivals :D), but Chicago Stompers and Jimi & Sam were also great. Unfortunately I wasn't around long enough to take in the other two jazz bands but maybe I'll see them some other time.

A Saturday Spent With Cosplayers

noreply@blogger.com (ianm) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 22:19:00 +0000

Cosplay - short for "costume roleplay", participants dress up in outfits that portray a specific character usually from various Japanese manga, anime, comic books and fantasy movies.

As just by chance, a week ago, the last of a cosplayers meet were in Newcastle station. A great spectacle and opportunity for photographs they were more than happy jumping into poses naturally for some shots.

They also also invited us to along with them on their meet this weekend gone in Newcastle, with opportunity for more cosplayers and opportunity for a greater set of photographs. We, me and my friend Dave over at Deliciously Dave, gladly obliged the opportunity to get them some event photographs for their sites and thoroughly enjoyed the day as a welcome experience shananigans a plenty worthy of documenting.

The group on the day

Some of my favourite shots from the day

An interesting part of culture to be around, a fun group of folks who meet to enjoy the company of like minded people. Not all that different from us togs to be honest, meet up for company, a laugh, food and share an interest.

The people we met up with have various sites themselves, listed below, so if you are interested check them out.

North East Cosplayers specific links

North East Cosplayers - Deviant Art
North East Cosplayers - Myspace

Related links

Anime League

Newcastle Upon Tyne

noreply@blogger.com (ianm) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:49:00 +0000

I love Newcastle for many things, and photography is one of them. No matter how many times I go with the camera, thinking that I've taken everything possible, I always end up finding new angles and things I hadn't thought of - I'm guessing it's all down to who you shoot with, go lone shooting and your ideas are limited but in a small group or with a buddy ideas bounce around.

Some Newcastle shots to date, no doubt there will be more attempts :)

Street Life

Tyne And Sage

Crossing Lines - Millennium Bridge

Grainger Market

Swing Bridge

Looking Down River

Old Rope

Marsden Rock And Bay, South Tyneside - Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (ianm) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:14:00 +0000

Marsden Bay photos continued.

Marsden Rock And Bay, South Tyneside - Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (ianm) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:46:00 +0000

My first visit and exploration at Marsden Bay in South Shields, South Tyneside. A great beach and cliff face along with Marsden Rock for photographs - and as I love the coast I was in my element.

More to follow from this set - taking a while to sift through them all.

Marsden Rock Links:

Marsden Rock And Bay
Marsden Bay Wiki

Putting Sunderland On The Digital Map

noreply@blogger.com (ianm) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 10:38:00 +0000

More photographs from around Sunderland, my home city.

Roker Harbour

River Wear

Beach

Cemetery

Penshaw Monument

My First Studio Photo Shoot Experience

noreply@blogger.com (ianm) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 09:31:00 +0000

Trying to get a model to work with you I found is the hardest thing, luckily Kershia here was kind enough to let me at her with a camera to get some shots for her portfolio. To be quite honest I am unsure as to whether I had much success at the kind of thing she wanted in her portfolio, but there are a few I like which is good from a shoot of 360 odd photographs.

Here's some I'd like to say I'm pleased with.

Kershia Studio Shoot - June 09

Rainton Meadows - April 09

noreply@blogger.com (ianm) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 10:40:00 +0000

Rainton Meadows is a Nature Reserve in Houghton-le-Spring, Sunderland near Durham. Lovely place to wander around on a summers day with some good photo opportunities on wildlife and scenery.

Reflection

Tranquil Waters

The Wall

Joe's Pond

Admittedly not much wildlife, I hope to catch a lot more on my next visit, but I enjoyed exploring and the the exercise.

Rainton Meadows and Joe's Pond

York Jun 09

noreply@blogger.com (ianm) — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 15:12:00 +0000

Meeting friends and chilling was great on such a fabulous sunny day. Here's a few shots from around York and some candids.

The Touristy Shots

The Candids

Some Local Shots

noreply@blogger.com (ianm) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 21:33:00 +0000

Newcastle Bridges

Newcastle Keep

Roker Harbour & River Wear

Wear Docks

Digging Up Old Photos

noreply@blogger.com (ianm) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 19:59:00 +0000

Logging Photography trips starting back to beginning of 2009. To start off here's some from my visit to Sycamore Gap and Lake Crag Lough in Northumberland in January. to see the photos bigger, click the photo and it will take you to the flickr page.

Robin Hoods Tree

Sycamore Gap and Robin Hoods Tree

Farmhouse Beside Lake Crag Lough

The Northumberland Countryside

Free Magazine Findings

noreply@blogger.com (ianm) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 11:22:00 +0000

As anyone does I scour the internet for useful and interesting things, information relating to my interests and hobbies one of the biggies. For the people that read magazines (me included) I guess one of the negative points is always going to be the price - it's amazing how much magazine pricing has shot up over the years.

Hope there free PDF magazine resources I've hunted out may be of interest to you folks out there in the net. I'll keep an eye out and update my findings every so often, but for now here's some interest to keep you going.

Creative/Art and Design Magazines

Root

Destructed

Photography

Apple Mac

Smoking Apples Magazine

Mac Companion Magazine

Simple CD Collection Cataloguing With InCDius

noreply@blogger.com (ianm) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 10:37:00 +0000

InCDius is a searchable and scriptable Audio CD cataloguing application. InCDius works with freedb so once you insert a CD it will retrieve all the information for you automatically.

First of all to set things up is choose a freedb server near you, this is done via the preferences of the application like the screenshot below.

screenshot of lookup tab

When you have set that up and insert your first CD, the import pane will pop up and you will see the connection to server and retrieval of CD information displayed as below.

screenshot of imported CD information

On this pane you have the two other tabs to input extra information, like your rating of the album an your specific genre for the album.

Once you have imported your collection, you can view all the imported data via the CD Browser window and scroll through your entire library.

screenshot of CD Browser

There is also a CD Controller window which lets you play the Cd's without having to open iTunes so you can review the tunes and refresh your memory.

Firefox - Some Useful Integrations

noreply@blogger.com (ianm) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 22:47:00 +0000

I'm always trying to find new functionality of Firefox's extensibility - admittedly uninstalling most of the add-ons through lack of need. However I really like the useful ones that just integrate.

Here's three new ones I'm using at the minute - might come in handy for you too.

Minimap Sidebar is a handy tool that can be used as a sidebar or in a tab, drag location or address into the Multimap page to make the map load or enter locations by typing it in. Also adds contextual menu item.

UrlbarExt adds commands to your location bar giving you the options to copy url, use tinyurl to shorten the url, tag pages, browse anonymously and search the site you're on.

Juice can act as a search sidebar for rich content and your google searches.

Opensource Alternative For Creatives

noreply@blogger.com (ianm) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 21:46:00 +0000

In the current climate what better way to save money to make money than to employ open source free software as your creative tools.

Your alternative are as follows

For web design > NVU, a simple straightforward WYSIWYG editor for you web needs.

For animation > Synfig, 2D time-line animation creation tool.

For vector graphics creation > Inkscape, a vector graphics application similar to Illustrator and CorelDraw.

For page layout > Scribus, open source professional page layout design application.

For multimedia design > Libavg, create media rich interactive presentations akin to Director.

For video editing > Avidmux, video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding supporting many file types.

For adding video effects > Jahshaka, edit and add visual effects like After Effects.

I just made my Thunderbird experience better.....and more useful

noreply@blogger.com (ianm) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:02:00 +0000

I have been using Mozilla Thunderbird for some time and found it quite sufficient in what it does never needing to or wanting to take it beyond it's construct.

Recently I started to use a calendar application but discovered Lightning, a Thunderbird add-on bringing the features of Mozilla Sunbird calendar application into the same application as your email.

A couple of other add-on discoveries in ThunderBrowse and the Sender Verification Anti-Phishing Extension installed and behold the new found usefulness, well at least all the usefulness I need for now.

And for one last thing I added some aesthetics in the Azerty 'mail 3.0 theme, and I'm now quite a bit more happy with new look Thunderbird application.

Ho hum, carry on. :)

Tools For Making Things Easy, Basic Maintenance & Those More Technical Things On osx

noreply@blogger.com (ianm) — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 21:20:00 +0000

Here's something someone mentioned to me, really useful tools and utilities for your mac - the kind of things that keep your machine ship shape, easy to use and dig you out of a hole when everything goes pear shaped - or indeed preventing things from going pear shaped.

The Basic "Must-Have"

Quicksilver - Total ease of use, it's not just an app launcher check out the documention.

Growl - System wide notification, hardware and applications integration.

MainMenu - System maintenance application that sits in your notification area in finder. One click batch task performance or just do what you need to do.

Something Useful

MuCommander - Old style file manager application like Norton Commander with a wealth of features.

System Monitoring

Geektool - Display system logs, Unix commands output, images from your hard drive as well as from the internet.

Basleline - Baseline disk analyser.

Disk Inventory X - Disk usage monitoring tool.

Something More Technical

IceClean - Unix based system maintenance toolset to help keep your mac running smoothly.

Carbon Copy Cloner - Clone syncronise and backup your drives.

Internet Findings: IT Pros and IT Certification Resources

noreply@blogger.com (ianm) — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 00:08:00 +0000

With the likely event these will prove useful to other folks out there like myself, I'd like to share some findings from searching around the internet on IT Certification.

Technical Information

TechNet - Direct from Microsoft archives.

Windows Security - Security articles and forums on Windows Security.

Windows Networking - Networking articles and technical information relating to Windows.

MCP Magazine - Microsoft Certified Professional Magazine, articles by IT Professionals.

Redmond Magazine - An It Professional lead magazine.

Training Information and Certification Resources

Global Knowledge - Certification and training information.

ProProfs - IT Certification preparation resources.

CramSession - Study guides and certification exams.

PrepLogic - Practice certification exams.

Oh, The Joys Of Camera Bag Shopping....

noreply@blogger.com (ianm) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 11:30:00 +0000

With advent of a new lens for Christmas I needed a new camera bag for the purpose of...well, what you normally do with a bag :D I like carrying my stuff in a back pack, so there it was, go for a backpack camera bag and one that will hold plenty of stuff and lenses should I get them in the future - and no doubting about it, I will.

A second thought came into my head, yeah ok I want a backpack to hold my camera gear but what if I needed to take my laptop with me? I'd need two backpacks! Not that I will carry it with me all the time, just if needs be. To the internet I go - a wonderful wealth of information and views on camera bags from people in the know on makes and styles and uses, etc - and so many there was.

I whittled it down to two makes of back and a few different backpacks, but I wanted to see, feel and try them before buying. On the highstreet there aren't many places to go except your local camera stoe of which I only have one here in Sunderland an that is Charles Eagles, who's staff are really helpful in not just service and sales, but unfortunately they had nothing in that really suited what I was looking for - I don't count Jessops as a local store, besides they are pretty unhelpful and have limited stock to look at.

All I could find after a wonder through Newcastle too were Lowepro bags amongst a two other brands, but Lowepro have some real goo sturdy backpacks and I found the perfect one for outdoors, waterproof, it's own little rain coat, fits my laptop and also fits my tripod to it which is a bonus.

The backpack to fill my needs was the Vertex 100 AW and it's fit for a full days Photography and will hold your filters, extra batteries, memory cards, cleaning gear and upto 5 lenses as well as a laptop which I mentioned, pretty darn cool I reckon.

There you go, I'm swayed, if you need a good camera bag Lowepro certainly have some damn good reasons to look at theirs.

A Happy Christmas For My Mac

noreply@blogger.com (ianm) — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 10:32:00 +0000

Thank you Macheist for giving us these great gifts for Christmas via the Givingtree. A wonderful array of applications and games including Synergy, Enigmo 2 and 1Password amongst others adding up to 8 gifts in all.

Merry Christmas Everyone

noreply@blogger.com (ianm) — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 09:54:00 +0000

Here's wishing you all a very happy Festive period and best wishes for the New Year.

Enjoy and be Merry, don't y'all get too drunk :)

Best Regards

Ian

Microsoft Certification and Windows Vista

noreply@blogger.com (ianm) — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 11:15:00 +0000

A Mac user doing Microsoft qualifications you say? Well, yes and aiming high for a new career - bout time I started this blog up again.

So, if you hadn't guessed, I've been gaining myself some further professional education and it's something new to get my teeth sunk into. In an attempt to aid me (which it did) I invested in a high end box of chips and electronics with Windows Vista on it - I find that with all the hoo har going on about it being no good "XP was better" and "it's just copied from Leopard" well I just like it, maybe because of the new learning maybe because of it being something new.

I has opened up my interest in Freeware and Open Source again on the Windows side of the coin, which to be honest I am quite impressed with the quality of - considering I was totally bowled over with the quality and depth of Mac Freeware and branded Windows alternatives as poor in comparison.

Above all of the system maintenance freeware that i put on here (Vista machine) the one that most impressed me (and this may seem daft) is Launchy for the one sole reason of what it is and does, which is act like Quicksiler on my Mac.

Estetica Designer Bloggers Interviews

noreply@blogger.com (ianm) — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 13:45:00 +0000

As per my last post Estetica Design Bloggers Q & A - the Interviews went ahead, and here is my interview with multi talented multimedia designer Aaron Russell over at www.aaronrussell.co.uk.

I sent my interview questions over to Aaron Thursday evening and he came back with these great in depth answers for me, thanks Aaron;

You pretty much cover all the bases with your services, what inspired you to get into the creative industry in the first place?

A few years ago I had a job in marketing where I spent the vast majority of my time producing print based marketing materials, brochures, magazines and that kind of thing. I really enjoyed the creative element of the job and every day I was working alongside designers from various agencies. It soon became clear to me that I wanted to work on 'the other side' - be the designer - so I retrained and made it happen.

On your blog you say you've been doing websites for quite some time, what made you move into the graphic design too?

I taught myself HTML in 1997, but at this point it was nothing more than a geeky hobby - I certainly couldn't 'design'. When I retrained I studied Multimedia Design which by its nature is diverse and covers many design-based disciplines. I think the design industry crosses over with itself a lot and once you have learnt the fundamentals of design you can apply that knowledge to many different niches of design. I've had a lot of experience producing print-based projects so it makes sense that I offer that experience to my clients now.

Your portfolio is pretty impressive, what is it you find most self gratifying about the web work, the development, the design or just seeing another piece of good work role out?

I love the diversity of what I do. I recently have completed a Facebook application which was a very technical job. Learning how to use the Facebook API presented a very steep learning curve, and for a solid week I did nothing but look at code. After wrapping that job up my next job was a 12 page glossy brochure - no code involved. I get to get my notepad out and scribble little sketches, spend hours playing with colours and images, and be very creative.

You got yourself into what sounds like a pretty high brow brand and marketing job, you must have been there a while to get to that position - did you enjoy your time there?

I worked for three years in that role and I absolutely thoroughly loved it. Before I started that role I would never use those words to describe any job I had - at the time in my early twenties I didn't really know what I wanted to do for a living or what kind of job I wanted. I actually stumbled into marketing by luck more than anything else, but three years later I had retrained, knew exactly what I wanted to do and was set on the path that has taken me to where I am today.

What was your motivation in choosing to go the freelance route?

It's always been a dream of mine to work for myself and support myself. I still take on short-term permanent contracts to subsidise my freelance activities - effectively working two jobs at once, but my aim is to take the plunge as a full time freelancer before I'm 30. Which doesn't give me long, but I'm on track.

How are you finding the transition, any major setbacks?

No setbacks as such, but I do find the work-flow can be very much boom or bust. Typically I'll have more jobs on than I can handle for a couple of months and be working every hour that God gives me, then the next month I'll be sat around scratching my head wondering where all the work is.

If you were advising a colleague, what tips would you give in building up a client base?

Networking, friends, families and referrals. The vast majority of freelance jobs that I take on are the result of someone I know telling someone else about me, or a previous client referring me.

You must have difficult client stories, care to share any?

If you advertise your services online via your website, you are opening yourself up to enquiries from all sorts of weird and wonderful people from all four corners of the globe. People who want you to work for free, people who want you to complete unrealistically complex projects for a hundred dollars, scammers , or just nutters. When you are starting out as a freelancer it can be tempting to treat every enquiry as a serious potential job but this will eventually result in horror stories. Over time you learn to spot which enquiries are worth a polite "thanks but no thanks".

What was behind your decision to become a blogger?

I first started blogging in February 2007, more out of a geeky curiosity of what it was all about than anything else. I soon realised that it is a fantastic way to network with other designers, learn from others and share what you have learnt, build and develop your online profile and 'authority', and ultimately promote your freelance activities.

When it comes to blowing off steam, what's your sure fire way of giving yourself some "off time"?

When I was a bit younger I used to be a DJ and so I still have a deep passion for music. These days though I've traded in being young and trendy for being a workaholic. I don't really have "off time". I do like to get away every now and again though and take frequent holidays with my girlfriend.