The Blog of Brian Iannone

Flat-Headed Penguin Is Not Amused

Brian Iannone — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 10:27:47 +0000

I was watching the latest episode of The Penguins of Madagascar (Skipper Makes Perfect) when I came across this scene. Skipper is trying to convince Kowalski, Rico and Private that he can do anything since he’s having a “perfect day” and gives them this look. I immediately knew this would make an amusing “Is Not Amused” meme. :D

Full-resolution PNG:
http://blog.brianiannone.com/resources/20121107/flat_headed_penguin_is_not_amused.png

Space Shuttle Endeavour in Los Angeles

Brian Iannone — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 01:32:22 +0000

Some photos of Endeavour as it passed through the intersection of Crenshaw and Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. on October 13, 2012.

Panorama of the crowd at the intersection before Endeavour arrived.

iPhone-shot 360° panorama.

iPhone-Shot 360° Panoramas from Berlin

Brian Iannone — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 03:08:34 +0000

I used Occipital’s 360 Panorama app on my iPhone 4S quite a bit during my trip to France and Germany. It’s does an excellent job of stitching images together considering it does it in real-time.

Hauptbahnhof Lower Level

Hauptbahnhof Upper Level

Ostbahnhof

Bundestag

Alexanderplatz

Alexanderplatz & Station

Alexanderplatz at 01:00

KaDeWe Berlin

Brian Iannone — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 06:35:45 +0000

I’ve been going through the 16,589 photos I shot during my trip to France and Germany in July and came across some shots I took in the eight-story-tall KaDeWe department store in Berlin. (Which, by the way, is the most amazing department store I’ve ever been to.) Photography is not necessarily allowed inside the building, so I quickly took some “snapshots” with the Nikon D800 as I walked around.

SEISMUSIC Test 2 – “Antifaschist” by Irie Révoltés

Brian Iannone — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 02:11:23 +0000

After doing the first SEISMUSIC test a few months ago with a song from the TRON: Legacy soundtrack, I thought I’d try recording a seismograph from another song. But this time, something with just a touch more bass. :)

Berlin Protest – July 20, 2012

Brian Iannone — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 06:16:23 +0000

One day during my trip to Berlin last month, I was walking back to my hotel after a day of shooting and saw this group of protesters marching in the street. So, I started following them. :D

4TB G-Technology G-DRIVE Disk Replacement

Brian Iannone — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 21:51:47 +0000

I’ll be going to Europe for a two-week-long photography trip in July. I plan on bringing 10TB of hard disk space with me; two 4TB drives and one 2TB. My primary camera on the trip will be a Nikon D800, so I’ll be shooting in RAW using lossless compression and storing a primary copy of all the data on the first 4TB disk while using the second as a backup. However, I’ll also be converting all the images to DNG using lossy compression to store on the 2TB drive as a third copy.

So, about a month or so ago, I bought a 4TB G-Technology G-DRIVE to bring with me. I was planning on using it with a MacBook Pro by going through LaCie’s eSATA Hub to Thunderbolt on the notebook. Unfortunately, the eSATA Hub just adds more equipment (and weight) to the list of items I need to bring with me on my trip. And, while I really like the appearance of the G-DRIVE, it’s unnecessary large due to the PCB located behind the actual disk within the aluminum enclosure that adds eSATA, FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 connectivity. So, after Apple released the new MacBook Pros with USB 3.0 (which I bought a Retina-model of on launch day), I found an enclosure with USB 3.0 that was 1.37″ shorter on the depth, 0.4″ inches shorter on the width and 0.24″ less tall, so I don’t need to use the eSATA Hub and it’s smaller. =D This amazing little enclosure is Sans Digital’s MobileSTOR MS1UTP. (And I have to say, it’s really, really great! In fact, I’m picking up another one today from Newegg.)

All right, so back to the video… Since I had a 4TB disk in the G-DRIVE, I decided to take it out an install it into the Sans Digital MS1UTP. (It worked.) For the second 4TB drive I’ll be bringing, I’m using another MS1UTP but was able to order just an HGST 7K4000 bare drive from OWC while they had a few in stock. (They’ve been difficult to find lately.) Though, since the G-DRIVE enclosure is so nice-looking (hehe…), I thought I’d try taking a spare 2TB and installing it back inside. And of course, it worked. :)

By the way, G-Technology’s G-DRIVE 4TB units use HGST (Hitachi) 7K4000 disks (model HDS724040ALE640). I had contacted G-Technology to ask what specific model of disk were used in the 4TB G-DRIVES before I bought mine and was told that, “We do not have information regarding the model on disks used in our products.” Which by the way, I have to admit, I thought was just a tad odd. G-Technology is owned by Hitachi, and they’re saying that they don’t know what model of hard drive they use in their enclosures? Hmm…

HGST (Hitachi) 7K4000 (model HDS724040ALE640) disk used in the 4TB G-Technology G-DRIVE

Enclosure, disk tray, heat sink, metal PCB cover, disk and precisely 14 screws

Nikon D800 Night Shots

Brian Iannone — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 08:18:24 +0000

Some sample shots showing the huge amount of dynamic range Nikon’s D800 is capable of recording. The four images were taken between 12:11 and 12:19 on June 25, 2012 in Los Angeles, CA. (I say that just so no one thinks that they were shot in the Arctic where it’s sunny all day.)

iPhone photos are posted below the D800 shots as a reference so you can see just how dark it really was. :-)

Sample 1 – Nikon D800
50mm | 5″ | f/1.4 | ISO 1000

Sample 1 – iPhone 4S

Sample 2 – Nikon D800
50mm | 5″ | f/1.4 | ISO 1000

Sample 2 – iPhone 4S

Sample 3 – Nikon D800
50mm | 5″ | f/1.4 | ISO 1000

Sample 3 – iPhone 4S

Sample 4 – Nikon D800
50mm | 1″ | f/1.4 | ISO 1000

Sample 4 – iPhone 4S

Also, here’s a 100% crop of one of the photos taken at 12:29.

50mm | 13″ | f/1.4 | ISO 100

Interface Transfer Rates Infographic

Brian Iannone — Thu, 24 May 2012 23:08:22 +0000

I just finished creating a bit rate infographic for the most commonly used data transfer interfaces and thought I’d share it. It’s sometimes interesting to put things into perspective. :D

Full-resolution image here.

Weekend Project: Recording a Seismograph from a Song

Brian Iannone — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 04:30:18 +0000

A few weeks ago, I was playing a song from the TRON: Legacy soundtrack in my room and noticed that my floor was vibrating slightly. So, I wondered what would happen if you turned the volume up very loud and tried recording a seismograph of the vibrations.

So, for my weekend project, I opened up a seismometer app on my iPhone, placed it in front of one of my JBL E50s, played the song “Derezzed Remix (NTEIBINT Remix)” from the TRON: Legacy soundtrack and set the volume to maximum. The speaker was outputting 98 dB of sound, so I (of course) had to leave it playing in the room while I waited outside with two doors closed. :-)

The video above is the result; a seismograph recording the sound waves from an electronic-genre song played really, really loud.