Our World

The Loreta in Prague

2012-02-22T20:00:00.000-05:00

Here is a look at the Loreta in B&W. Even by the lofty architecture standards of Prague, I found the baroque structure of the Loreta to be amazing. Loreta or the Prague Loreto is a remarkable complex of buildings in Hradčany consisting of a cloister, the church of the Lord’s Birth, a Holy Hut and clock tower with a world famous chime. It was originally constructed in the 1620s and has since then been renovated a few times.

Glow and grow

2012-02-20T06:00:00.000-05:00

Kids - everything you do is to set them free while never really wanting them to be free.

Week #243/300.

Eighty-Two

2012-02-19T07:41:00.002-05:00

While lenses and f-stops with shallow depth-of-field are great, sometimes you wish the depth wasn't that shallow. This photo is an example. I'd really have loved to get a bit more clarity on the silhouettes in the background of the mother and the sister.

This is from week #82/300.

Evening Light

2012-02-16T06:29:00.000-05:00

There is a spot nearby where the sun sets beautifully and you can take some interesting pictures. This is one of those. With that strong evening light of long shadows the colors come out strange, half-blown, presenting some opportunity for experimentation. This is from Week #242/300.

Eighty-one

2012-02-15T13:50:00.000-05:00

This is her at Aruba last year. Week #81/300.

Contagion: Soderbergh's brisk thriller about a brisk virus

2012-02-13T06:39:00.003-05:00

Steven Soderbergh's Contagion, is the story of a fast-moving global virus that brings about the end of the world scenario in under four weeks. Soderbergh's star-studded tale, builds on the modern paranoia of fear and conspiracy, some real and some made-up, and tells a compelling tale. It is the retelling of 'The Andromeda Strain' (a brilliant film) in the modern world of social networks where the real contagion may be beyond the virus itself.

The film wasn't very successful and didn't win critical acclaim I think Contagion is an exciting, super-fast-paced, engaging, brilliantly edited film. There is a conscious attempt to match the film's pace to that of the contagion itself.

Contagion's glitz could be seen as a juxtaposed prequel to McCarthy's overbearingly dim, "The Road", if he (Cormac McCarthy) had cared enough to explain the reason for his dystopian world.

Eighty

2012-02-12T13:49:00.001-05:00

The younger one takes center-stage and the older one lurks behind. How cruel can the world of the young be sometimes.

This is Aroma's week #80/300.

Moneyball: Pitt's run at the Oscars - well calculated but (hopefully) unsuccessful

2012-02-07T07:00:00.000-05:00

Brad Pitt has always wanted to make good pictures. He makes movies that make him money on the side but he mostly wants to make a legacy. In Moneyball, he plays the celebrated general manager, Billie Bean, of the Oakland Athletics, a baseball team with relatively empty coffers. He is tasked to come up with a winning strategy against the odds. For which, he mostly relies on Jonah Hill's Peter Brand, who by the way, should win his supporting actor trophy for an underplayed, almost delicate but nuanced performance.

Pitt certainly does a good job but it is unclear if there was enough material for him to really make a compelling performance. He sulks, he is smug, he throws things and sulks some more. He is tortured by the past (what movie character isn't?) It is unclear whether what Pitt plays on screen is his take of Bean or the real Bean. This is a very clear run for the Oscars and hopefully he doesn't win, for his own good.

Moneyball is still an entertaining film, even for those not into baseball, however it is much less entertaining than it is being given credit and Pitt has played better roles than this many times.

Hugo: Scorsese's endearing masterpiece celebrating films

2012-01-31T19:00:00.000-05:00

Not since "Cinema Paradiso" has a film celebrated the power of early film, it's birth, it's pioneers more than Hugo has. In fact, rarely do films (or much else for that matter) celebrate its early days. Hugo, while celebrating earliest films, tells the story using the most modern of technology. Filmed in gorgeous 3D - the first 3D film that feels made for 3D and would seem incomplete without it. There are no fancy projectiles jutting at you - just a subtle distinction of depth. The film has this beautiful, golden glaze, a glow, this intense celebration of light and selective focus. It is how you'd dream a Paris in a fairytale, in your dreams. Filmed in a wonderfully rich detailed Paris train station of Gare Montparnasse, Hugo is not just a celebration of films and the beginning of films, it is a celebration of film-making, of dreams and of the reasons why we need to go to the movie theaters.

Hugo is the story of a young boy who likes to tinker and fix things. He lives, impecunious fixing clocks in a Paris train station. He roams around searching for something, amidst a great jungle of gears and machinery. His beloved father leaves him a gift that he must decipher. He tries to figure out the secret and along the way makes friends and enemies. His nemesis is an enigmatic old keeper of a toy store who seems to know more than he is telling. His friend is Chloe Moretz, reminding us of a lovely young Hermoine with big words and a giant glowing smile. Sacha Baron Cohen, plays his best (and only good) role since King Julian in the Madagascar movies.

Brian Selznik, the author of "Inventions of Hugo Cabret", the book behind the film, takes a lot of credit. His rich, detailed book certainly made Scorsese's job easier. Martin Scorsese, who is a bit of a film historian, has made some of the most powerful films for grown-ups in Hollywood ("Taxi Driver", "Last Temptation of Christ", "Raging Bull", "Good Fellas" to name a few) seems to shine the most in this fairy tale for kids of all ages. It is clearly a film of love and attention, of care of passion. The academy, that showered an Oscar on him for one of his weakest films ("The Aviator") thinking it was last hurrah, could never have predicted what an amazing adventure awaited them.

Hugo is a must watch. It is a beautifully made film, one of the most endearing films to come out of Hollywood in a while. It is the kind of movies Spielberg made 20 years ago. It is the stuff that made me fall in love with Hollywood films. It is beautiful.

At the Yankee Stadium

2012-01-28T19:08:00.000-05:00

Here she is at the Yankee stadium last year. It was late in the day and the light wasn't great from where we were but the 16-35mm opened wide at 17mm at f/3.2 helped though the colors are a bit off. I tried different crops and thought the square presented the most interesting perspective. Her crazy expression with nutty eyes helps as well.

This is from Week #241 of the 300-week photo project I am doing for her. A simple concept: a photo every week for the first 300 weeks of her life.

Seventy-Nine

2012-01-25T06:59:00.001-05:00

There you have it: Mrs. Field's Shoes! She loves to play with shoes. She loves to steal her sister's shoes. She doesn't love cookies much, at least not yet anyway.

This is from week #79/300. One of my favorite shots of her. The nifty-50 at f/2.0 is just an amazing, creamy look and truly shallow depth-of-field and beautiful late-morning light from the windows on the left. The hardware floor helps as well.

Descendants: George Cooney is the man of above average movies

2012-01-24T20:00:00.000-05:00

George Clooney was once a "man of constant sorrow". That was probably the last time he was in an extraordinary film. Everything since then has been mostly above average but not great. He wants to be. He tries ("Good night and good luck") and tries ("Up in the air", "Michael Clayton") but only sometime gets there ("Syriana") and that makes him sport one of the best resumes in film industry in a long long time. To some degree it is unfair that his desire to make good movies is almost indistinguishable at this point from his desire to win Oscars.

The Descendants is the story of a man who owns a bunch of land in Hawaii but not his family. The story was supposed to be about Clooney's relationship with his daughters but it is mostly the story of his dying wife and her relationships. This is mostly the story of a modern man: emotional, circumspect and forgiving to the point of impotence. In one winning scene in the film, its only one, Clooney's aged father-in-law is able to smack a young kid far more easily than Clooney can even yell at him for a similar type of offense.

There is also the issue of the land but that is just a distraction. The film is slow-paced, entertaining at times but generally more like a made-for-TV movie. This is certainly the weakest in a series of wonderfully engaging films from director Alexander Payne ("Election", "About Schmidt", "Sideways") but it is certainly watchable and certainly worth his while as the film got three key nods from Oscars today.

Ides of March: Entertaining political thriller

2012-01-23T06:51:00.000-05:00

There aren't enough political movies made in Hollywood so the bar isn't set particularly high. However, Ides of March is entertaining nonetheless. Packed with a lot of very smart actors and a good play (Farragut North by Beau Willimon) it was probably easy enough for George Clooney to make a low-budget Oscar-style end-of-the-year film. Clooney wrote the screenplay, produced, directed and starred in this film. Ryan Gosling does a good job and seems like a young Clooney in making.

Watch it for an entertaining cast and the season. The film offers not too much else.

Rarely simple

2012-01-22T21:14:00.000-05:00

A rare, simple pose from her. Week #240/300.

Ice-cream at Aruba

2012-01-16T18:12:00.001-05:00

She was happy to find a Haagan Dazs store in Aruba after a tough day at the beach. This should have been a beach photo but things didn't turn out that way on the beach for her.

Week #239/300.

Seventy-Seven

2012-01-16T18:09:00.000-05:00

Sometimes the 300-week project is much harder than it seems and some photos are just blah. The whole week goes by and there are barely any photos to pick from. This is clearly one of those weeks. This is shot at the Hoboken walkway by the Hudson. Week #77/300. .

Rockstar: Rahman trying too hard

2012-01-13T20:00:00.000-05:00

Rahman generally produces excellent music but there is something terribly amiss with the latest hit "Rockstar." He seems to be trying too hard. It is a contrived piece of work that seems confused and confusing with way too many motifs and styles jammed together into a very noisy, pretentious mix. Yes, there is something interesting about Kun Faaya Kun and maybe even Nadaan Parindey but overall it is a mess.

Seems like Rahman is trying something new and if this is the first in a series of experiments then that is very good news, however, if this is just one of those fake attempts at difference then I feel somewhat sad. Let's see how it goes.

Cure for the common cold

2012-01-12T18:00:00.000-05:00

Here is some relief from the cold, a warm memory from the beaches of Aruba from last year. Something fascinating about sun and sand. The photo is shot using the wide-angle Canon 16-35mm at the widest 16mm -- hence the boats in the background seem to tilt in. That is just distortion because of the wide lens but often the distortion from wide-angle lens creates a pleasing, intriguing effect.

I've used Nik Color Efex Pro to process this. I've used a bicolor filter to highlight the blue/yellow or cool/warm tones in the photo from across the horizon.

Album of the day: Celebrity Skin by Hole

2012-01-11T21:14:00.001-05:00

If you ever wanted to hear semi-modern, semi-grunge, semi-industrial all female classic rock record look no further than Hole's amazingly powerful record titled Celebrity Skin. Hole or Courtney Love have never done anything before or after that even remotely comes close to the musical, lyrical or poetic genius of this album. There is a something raw, intensely feral about Love's voice and something extremely poignant about the lyrics. The atmosphere is dark but not depressing. The mood is angry but not violently so. It is one of those rare records that you could here from start to finish in one sitting.

Let's save USPS (if it must be) by making junk mail more expensive

2012-01-10T09:00:00.000-05:00

Can the USPS be saved (if it must be) by bumping up the prices of commercial bulk (more popularly knows as junk mail) by an order of magnitude? Do we really care for our Pottery Barn catalogues? Do we really care for those credit card offers? Barring perhaps the fine Victoria's Secret catalogues, do you think we await any unsolicited commercial junk mail?

Funny Camera

2012-01-09T21:57:00.001-05:00

She seems to love having fun. She clearly takes after her mother :-). This is a particularly favorite shot of ours. Many years from now she will probably look at this and wonder what could've been that funny. I cannot remember it myself and it hasn't been that long.

Technically also this is a fun shot. Extremely shallow DOF of the 55mm at f/2.0 but I managed to keep the focus on the eye. There is some photoshop blurring, a bit overdone for - she is jumping out -- effect. Other than that it is mostly a simple shot with simple editing.

Week #238/300.

Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan: If you eat you must read

2012-01-08T08:00:00.000-05:00

Michael Pollan's excellent book The Omnivore's Dilemma is a must for anyone who eats food. That probably includes most of us, at least those in the West. Pollan's book takes a look at three food chains that primarily exist or can exist in the modern age. The Industrial - which is what afflicts most of us; The Pastoral - the one that we all think we want until we actually realize we might lose some of our comforts; and The Personal - where he describes the many benefits of foraging for your own food with little or no help from the industrial revolution. This one is clearly only for those in Portland.

The theme of Pollan's book isn't unfamiliar: Modern food industry is bad in more ways than we can understand and we are doing irreversible harm to ourselves, our environment and our future generations by letting it run rampant. This isn't a new theme. Pollan strengthens this argument by providing more detail than has ever been provided earlier.

He is able to because he didn't just write about the three food chains from his armchair but he participated in them to the extent that he was able to. This is where he and this book differs from most others.

However, where he is most compelling is with the storytelling. He is engaging, informative and entertaining. His story about the beginning and rise of corn and how it took over the world has a "Planet of the Apes" sensibility to it. Filled with interesting facts and thoughts, The Omnivore's Dilemma is easily the best book on food I've ever read.

Pollan's book is a must for every user of food, specially in the western world.

Seventy-Six

2012-01-07T09:00:00.000-05:00

I've enjoyed Nik's Silver FX Pro software for B&W conversion. In this particular shot I tried to get rid of the mess behind her but adding grain and vignette. I've also played with a Coffee tone to bring some warmth to accompany the smile.

Week #76/300.

NY Times for iPad: The Worst, Most-Needed App

2012-01-06T08:30:00.000-05:00

How is it that The New York Times, one of the finest produced papers in the world cannot make a relatively simple app work properly or consistently. It was one of the first apps out there, it had inside access to Apple and the iPad, Steve's personal blessing (from his biography, it is the one company he wanted to "save") and one of the most expensive apps and still remains the one app that everyone wants to be good, longs to be good and yet, it cannot help but disappoint. Can it really be that hard? WSJ is managing it just fine and so is every other magazine, even the Onion does it better. NPR and BBC are almost out of this world superior.

NYTimes, how can I help? I share Steve's sentiment. I think your company needs saved but I see you screw up every day and I don't know what to do. Can I be a volunteer tester? Maybe you can open-source the code so I can contribute?

A frustratingly slow app that never knows to refresh properly. It claims Newsstand support and shows that it updated at 3:00 am every morning but still shows you yesterday's news. The articles repeat across sections and some just never die for days or even weeks. It constantly wants you to leap out to the Browser from inside the app. The app doesn't even have half of the paper's content. All new features are buggy and take weeks to stabilize if they do at all. The section re-ordering feature is still not working after weeks. And all fo this when the app actually manages to not stay up and not crash all the time.

And this is just not me. Read the reviews on the app store. Overwhelmingly negative.

Funny Princess

2012-01-05T09:00:00.000-05:00

I've lately been losing faith in my 50mm but sometimes it can still take stunning shots. I was lucky here to get the focus right on the eye - even at f/2.

Week #237/300.