This blog

I've been thinking about this blog and what exactly to do with it.

I have the tendency to randomly blablabla about just about everything, and surely, no one is interested in that. What I might interest you in, are my pictures. That is the only thing my blog and I offer that no one elses offers.

So the natural conclusion is that this blog should be only used to promote/talk about my pictures. And that's exactly what I will be doing. No more random posts about this or that, just my pictures. But, a very small but, when I think there is something abso-f**king-lutely worth posting, then I'll probably will :D .

So.

There you have it.

Where are the pictures then, you ask?
Well, not today. Not only am I too tired to write about anything (cept for this ofcourse), I haven't yet developt a kind of schedule of uploading my pictures to Flickr, Fotolia, Fonanza, Bigstockphoto and such, and posting on this blog. Oh and my real life.

As soon as I have 'automated' the process a bit, this will become much more worthwhile to read.

Bye for now,

Coen

Illness

Yes, after like 10 years this is the first time I've been quite ill for a few days. Unnerving to say the least.
Unnerving? Yes, the intensity of it so suddenly.

Well, it wasn't really unexpected, as my mother had some sort of illness because of which she needed to vomit from thursday. I got ill on sunday. It was inevitable.

It was really bad, I puked my guts out. While I had the runs. But you probably do not want to know that information.

Anyway, I was thinking of buying another soundtrack cd.

My choices are between the three of these;

- Superman The Movie
- Alien vs. Predator
- Predator

I'm haven't chosen yet. I only want to buy one this semester.

When I get the one that I want, maybe I'll post a review of it. In fact, maybe I'll post reviews of the other cd's I have/like.

My Future Lightbox

Some posts ago I talked about a lightbox I was going to construct, as to make my productphotography more professional.

Ofcourse, I thought for a while about what I wanted, and made a list of requirements the light box needs to satisfy.

I haven't begun building the thing yet, but I can tell you this; it's going to be a hefty one!
I took 5 pieces of wood home today of about 60x60cm, all out of 18mm plywood. So, when the need arises, I'll be able to stand on it.

Also, I brought home the appropriate connection hardware, except for screws, because one of my requirements was that the light box needs to be dismantable. That way I can store it withouth loosing to much space.

I'll begin building it, take pictures along the way, and when I am finished, I'll post a short tutorial on how to build it yourself. I'll even provide some sample pictures.

Till then!

Coen

Fcking Windows Automatic Updates!!!

I wrote a whole post about why the Dutch people would prefer good law-obeying citizens to get lung-transplants before criminals would get those transplants. I wrote about how 50% of the Dutch wished that in matters of health care, good people should be preferred over bad people (ie criminals).

So, when you are a surgeon, and you have a choice;

Do I;

A) Transplant my only available lung into this good, hard working, wife and kids, donating person?

or

B) Transplant my only available lung into this psychopatic maniac serial killer who cut up someone's wife, cut off her head and put it onto a shelf, for someone to find?

Anyone with half a brain would choose option A, because, well, the psychopatic maniac serial killer really used up all of his rights on health care. To be frank, that someone who found his wife's head on a shelf should just buy this and blow his head off:

But hey, that's far to extremist for most people. Most people would ofcourse stay perfectly calm when you find your wives head on a shelf.

Anyway, I typed my post about all that (well not the shooting part), when I had to go someplace. I wasn't finished yet with my post, so I just left the browser windows open and decided to finish it when I came home.

Little did I know that that fekking Windows Automatic Update would suddenly kick in, install some obscure stuff, then reboot my system! All gone. You bastards!

Ofcourse, at this point I don't want to write it again anymore, so instead I'll just post this. A post about how much a hate Windows at times. NOT to say that Mac's or Linux are any better. I just hate computers in general. Actually I hate everything digital. Especially mobile phones. You cannot have a decent conversation with someone without having one interfering. They should make a law against them. They are also generally responsible for societies decay.

Take changing a tire for example. People used to know how to change a tire, because if you wanted to get moving again, you needed to change you tire. No one to help you, except maybe someone passing. Nowadays all those lazy bastards with a mobile phone just call the roadservice, who will change the tire for you.

Kids nowadays. Mom and dad are downstairs making dinner. Son 1 and Daughter 1 are playing in Room 1 on the first floor. Son 1 wonders if dinner is ready, so he sends a sms to his mom downstairs whether dinner is ready yet. Mom sends an sms back that it is in fact ready, and if Son 1 would go get Daughter 2. Son 1 then sms's Daughter 2, in Room 2 on the second floor, that dinner is ready. Daughter 2 sends an sms back that she is coming down to Son 1. Son 1 then sends an sms to Mom saying they'll be down in half a minute.
Son 2 however, being the oldskool bugger that he is, depends on actual mouth-to-mouth conversation and communication, never gets any message, and so never came down to eat. He sadly died out of starvation.

*No people with knowledge how to communicate verbally were harmed during this sketch*

BTW, this is good stuff coming from someone writing digitally on a digital blog which is in essence a glorified sms.

Anyway, it's late. Enough of the world for today.

Goodbye,

Coen

Exams, how I hate them, and especially this one.

I don't know how many of you *still* go to university, but most of you surely remember the time when you had an upcoming exam which you couldn't possibly get a high grade for.

I had such an exam today. It was horror. It was a nightmare. It was a worthy excuse for suicide. Well, that's pushing it a bit. Let's just say it wasn't fun.

Normally, I wouldn't be pleased with a badly made exam ofcourse, but this one is different. I didn't make it well, my closest studentcollegue's didn't make it well. To be honest, the entire group didn't make it well. There even are students from the fourth and last year of university, who are only missing this exam for their graduation, who sat in today. It's that though.

Now, I know my school is famous for it's well trained and knowledgable students, and heavy and difficult exams sure are a way to keep it that way. But exams which are barely do-able? Is that right? I mean, is that the way?

Ofcourse, considering the subject of the exam, Machine Parts, it is logical that the teacher who grades the exam only gives points for correct answers, as opposed to partial points for the calculation itself in addition to the points for the answer.

This is logical because in real life, in my job later on, when I'm designing some sort of Machine Part, I wouldn't want to make any mistake in my calculations. Those mistakes could end up in horrible accidents because of things breaking when they shouldn't and so on.

But given the level of the other exams for other courses in this year of college it just seems illogical to give this course/project now, as it's level exceeds the other courses. By much.

But it's done now, and I highly highly most probably 99,99999% certainty didn't make it. I'll probably get one of the lowest grades possible.

Oh well, maybe next semester.

Greetz,

Coen

Horse Statue I

Horse Statue I
Originally uploaded by Praetorianator.

So, do we all like productphotography? Yes we do!

At least, when the photographs are executed right. There are alot of photographs in the productphotography group floating around not executed well. I've done it number of times too. Just take a look at the first few pages of my Flickr page, you'll see alot of bad macrophotography.

Many people doing macro and/or/thus productphotography do not consider the background and it's impact it has on the overall picture. For example, many of my first macro shots have horrible grey-ish backgrounds, while I really wanted to have a white background. Also the lighting of the subject is bad, and the focussing point is hardly ever spot-on. Usually the focus lies on something other than the main subject of the photograph, thus drawing the viewers attention away from your subject.

To produce white backgrounds, correct lighting and spot on focus points, one has to do one thing; take time. As with any form of photography, the only way to produce good to superb shots is to take your time. Check composition, lighting, focus, depth-of-field, angle. Then check it all again, and make adjustments as needed.

I think the picture I made above, named 'Equinity', is an example of good lighting, good background, good focus. Ofcourse the composition is debatable. Some people do not like the stretch of white in front of the horse, they would've cropped the picture tighter. I, on the other hand, like the bit of white on the right. It gives the horse room to go (as if it's going anywhere, but you catch my drift).

Anyway, I really like this picture alot, and I'm quite proud of it. I like it's simplicity and contrast. The border only adds to the picture.

What do you think?

Greetings,

from Coen.

PS. This picture is available for purchase at Oypo (Dutch) and Fonanza (Dutch)

A talented photographer

This is a self portrait of a photographer who frequents a forum I also frequent, found here.
I personally think he is incredibly talented. He has this eye for good stuff, stuff I like. And he apparently does it all with a Nikon D70s and 'just' a kitlens 18-70mm DX Nikkor. Goes to show how you do not need heavy and expensive equipment to make truly great shots.

I really suggest you check out his photo portfolio; called Edwin Bol Photography.

It is a shame he doesn't allow for his pictures to be downloaded. Understandable, but I personally wouldn't see any harm in letting people download pictures with the longest side 800px orso. Anyway, if he would allow it, half his portfolio would be downloaded into my Photo-Favorites folder on my computer.

Kudos to him!

I'm adding him to my links list to the right. Check it out!