Friday, March 30, 2007

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

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

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.

Saturday, March 17, 2007

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

Friday, March 16, 2007

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

Thursday, March 15, 2007

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

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

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)

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

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!

What I've read in the newspaper today...




It has happened again. Yesterday some trains crashed into each other at train station Muiderpoort. That's like the fifth time in 2 years a train accident has happened at or around Amsterdam Central Station. One of the trains, a luckily empty two-deck passenger train, rolled on it's side after the collision, almost rolling off into a ditch.
I'm feeling less and less save in our Railwayservice. Point is, I have to take two trains everyday to school, one of which starts at the dreaded Amsterdam Central Station, and back at the end of the day. This is a bit over the top, but it does make on wonder...

Another nice one; two families dead because of trains. One family, a father and his two sons, jumped in front of a racing train. They ofcourse did not survive. This isn't the fault of the Railway service ofcourse. But this one is; a father and his two children died because they were hit by a speeding train at a railwaycrossing. The warninglights were probably faulty.

Now, why oh why is almost no self-respecting automobile driving commuter willing to simply go by train to his/her work? I really wouldn't know.

I love trains though. Remember, it is *still* a safer mode of transportation than by car. As most people can't drive. But that is another story.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Nice composition on my cat


MyCat
Originally uploaded by Praetorianator.
Isn't this a wonderful picture of my cat?

Sure, I know what you are thinking; 'why the hell would his cat be of any interest to me?'
Well, most likely, she's not of any interest to you.

But I do wanted to share this pic because I generally find it quite difficult to make a photograph of something so 'moving'. Moving targets aren't my strong points, with photography that is.

I do like this picture though, nice composition, quite sharp and nice lighting.
Yes, I know, the cats back is overblown. That's like the most terrible sin in photography. But I still like the damn picture. Overblown or not, the shadowy face makes up for it.
I especially like the blurry background.
And the fact, and I probably shouldn't say this for the people who haven't noticed yet, that the background is terribly slanted, doesn't even really bother me in this photograph.

All in all, this is one of the only pictures of my cat that came out well.

Friday, March 9, 2007

Lenses I still want

So, lately I've been shooting just about everything with my new 60mm Micro-Nikkor lens. It's absolutely a wonderfull lens, with it's tack sharp representation of everything, and it's macro function. I love working with it.

However, I do find the 60mm focal length a bit...restraining. There simply are shots I cannot take because of the 60mm focal length. I both need less or more, I'm talking about a range of about 20-200mm. Ofcourse, such a lens sadly does not exist. Well, maybe it does, but that would be a lens with a magnification factor of 10, and those lenses never fare well.

Ofcourse, you could ask; what about your 18-70mm DX lens? Well, shooting with the 60mm Micro-Nikkor has spoiled me a bit, with it's superb sharpness and it's f/2.8 light sensitivity.

So, we divide this focal range. I was thinking 24-70mm, 70-200mm. And there we have it. Two lenses I still need. Ofcourse, I do not want anything less than Nikkor, as I am a quality junky, so we'll have to look at their range of lenses. Also, I'd like to have mostly f/2.8 or better lenses.

What I've picked are the following;



- 28-70mm f/2.8 ED-IF AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 3
9 bladed diaphragm, so it's bokeh is sure to be good. 2 ED lenses. Internal Focusing. Shortest focusing distance is 70cm, not particularly good, but good enough.




- 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor
Vibrance Reduction, Silent Wave Motor, 5 ED glass elements, closest focusing distance is 1.5 meters, also 9 bladed diaphragm.


Now, I know the 28-70mm isn't really popular these days because of the 'lesser' focal length on a DSLR (42-105mm), but good optics are good optics. Besides, I'm not really into the really short focal lengths yet. When I am I'd probably buy the following lens, to complement my line up;



- 17-35mm f/2.8D IF-ED AF-S Zoom-Nikkor
Silent Wave Motor, 2 ED glass elements, 28 centimeters closest focusing distance, again a 9 bladed diaphragm.


By then, I have a rather good focal range of lenses; 17-200mm. All f/2.8, all 9 bladed diaphragm, all 77mm filters, all superior optics. Besides that, I'll have a 60mm Macro lens.

Oh, and there is one other lens I also want to have, and that's the 50mm f/1.8. I'd like to have it for those really really dark shots with little available light (hint: f/1.8). And it's really really cheap for the amount of optics it delivers :D.



- 50mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor
7 Bladed diaphragm, 45 centimeters closest focusing distance.


So that's it. Those are the lenses I still want to have.

I'll go and get that morgage now.

Bye,

Coen

Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Media Attention

Britney shaves her head. Britney attempts suicide. Britney goes to rehab.

Sounds to me like desperate attempts to get some media coverage. Doesn't matter everyone now thinks she's completely gone mad, totally nuts. She's in the newspaper again!

Personally, I couldn't care less about her. Ofcourse, the newspaper has a 'media-celebrity' section, and one could expect to read things like 'Robbie Williams goes into detox' kind of stuff once and a while. However, lately it's been all Britney. One article on Britney...okay. Two articles about Britney...hmmm. But every other day is a bit pressing it.

Also, I don't understand what her problem is. She's rich, she's famous. So she tries to kill herself.

Oh, did you read the way she tried to it? By taking in to many pills.
That fact alone says to me; she wasn't serious about it. People who really want to die, either cut their wrists, or jump in front of a train. They leave a nice little suicide note, make sure no one is around to call 911, and then perform their suicide.
You don't have to be a shrink to understand that Britney's 'attempt' was just a cry for some attention.

Well, she got her attention. From all around the globe. She's got her media coverage. Everyone talks about Britney again, mostly about her shaved head. She joins the club of celebrities who are in rehab.

She just forgets that by doing what she has done the last couple of weeks she made herself look incredibly stupid, and no one can take her serious again.

Stupid, pathetic little girl.

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Wrangler Button and Trouble at the Railways


Wrangler Button
Originally uploaded by
Praetorianator.
So. This was one of those days.
One of those days in which everything doesn't quite seem to work, or go well.

I went to school today, followed exactly two classes. Well, not really followed, as they were boring as hell, so it was more like reading the newspaper for the length of two classes :D.
So I really didn't pick up any of it. I just couldn't get myself to focus. Oh well, it happens.

After those two *horrible* hours, I went on for another four of them, doing so-called 'machine parts'-exersizes. These are really study-specific exersizes, which involve looking up alot of formulas, going through heaps of tables, using alot of formulas, and reading alot of theory. This needs to be done on your own or with your 'study-group'. In any case, alot of time spent, little work done.
Today, Erik and me actually were quite serious, and worked quite hard. We worked for about four hours straight, and to let you know how much work is involved with one exersize; we finished three (!) exersizes (in four hours!).

After all that painstackingly hard work, we went home fatigued, hoping to catch diner at home. Ofcourse Erik, who lives quite near our university, arrived home about 30 minutes after we left school.
I, on the other hand, arrived home about 220 minutes after we left school! That much? Yes, that much. (BTW, this is Holland, so that IS quite much).
Now, ofcourse, I live in the neighbourhood of Amsterdam, and my university is in the neighbourhood of The Hague. Travelling from Amsterdam to The Hague takes about 90 minutes.
So what happened?

The train before us, just as we were about to pass Amsterdam Sloterdijk on the way back, had a packet on board which could possibly contain a bomb. So we stood there, in our train, for half an hour. Ofcourse, people were getting mad. I really never understood why people get all mad at the railway service? It's not like they can help the fact somebody left a packet on one of their trains. They also can't help the fact that the police has to arrive first, assess the situation and remove the packet before any train can start moving again at that particular station.

Anyway, we went back to Schiphol, were I got out of the train, and took one that takes another route to Amsterdam Central. All in all it cost me 130 extra minutes of travelling. And as it was around dinner time, I was getting quite hungry too :D Really annoying, the human need for food.

I have to say though, I do not like the fact many people commuting in the Netherlands are so small minded to not be able to see beyond their own little problems. No one considers the fact that maybe it's quite difficult to run a railway service, especially with possible bombs on trains. Instead, they just whine and whine at the first sign of trouble.

But enough about my pitty little problems (wouldn't want to contradict myself by whining a whole post about my problems, now would I), more pictures!

This time I have this picture I took a while ago of the button of one of my pants. While not executed perfectly, I do like the premise. I think I'll do it over one day. I think, when executed better, it'll be a picture worthy of Wrangler's Promotion Departement :D.

What's wrong with this photograph? Well, the 'Wrangler' on the button isn't quite sharp. Instead, it's focus lies on the 'Authentic' part of the button. Also, the jeans material itself is too dark. While this could've been easily corrected in Photoshop, I'd like to make my pictures as perfect as possible withouth the aid of Photoshop.
This does not mean however that I do not like to use Photoshop. It is a very versatile and useful tool in the creative process, but that's a whole other story. I'll devote a post on that later on.

Cheers,

Coen

Sunday, March 4, 2007

Orange Shell


Orange Shell
Originally uploaded by Praetorianator.
Can somebody explain the appeal of this picture over any of my other pictures? Somehow this one is more popular than others.

I know my first few photo's weren't exactly 'ground-breaking' stuff [/sarcasm], and my later photo's still aren't, but I'd like to think I've improved a bit.

However, sometimes the best photo's are made 'in the heat of the moment'.

This picture was taken just after I finished eating my orange, and I noticed I had some really regular orange shell left overs. Maybe some of you always have really regular orange shell leftovers, but with me it usually turns messy.
It usually involves madly chopping and pounding away at the orange, because the damn thing (after I made several surgical incisions in the shell) just breaks apart. Pieces of actual orange 'stick' to the shell, so orange juice squirts out, right into your eye. After which you declare war on the fruit, and try to turn it into orange soup, with the help of a blender. So after I got my final revenge on the orange, I get another one and try again.

Aaaanyway. These shells came out relatively untouched, which was in and by itself quite a feat, and I was so ecstatic by it, I decided to photograph it. Luckely for me, right at that moment, there was an intense beam of sunlight directed into my room. I'm telling you, it was God's work, those untouched shells. This was evidenced by the intense sunlight that suddenly was.
So I planted the shells on a white surface and shot my photograph.

Personally, I think it came out 'nice'. Nothing in particular though, and especially compared with some pictures which can be found on Flickr, I am almost ashamed I didn't take more time to make it a better shot.

Preperation or not. It is still a relatively popular shot, and even received a 9 out of 10!

Well, that's all there is about this photograph.

I do still have something to say about a possible lightbox I am going to construct. A lightbox will especially come in handy to make shots as the one above better, more professional. I'd like to construct something much like the one featured on DIYphotography.net, only better.
I was thinking about conditions it needs to meet. The conditions I could think of were the following;

- It has to have an interchangable backdrop (blue,white,red etc)
- It can be taken apart, as to take as little space as possible
- It has to be sturdy. Probably constructed of wood or metal.
- It has to be about 50x50x50cm in dimensions.

I think I can come up with a solution to satisfy those demands. I've looked around on the internet for other people who constructed a light box. While I liked some ideas, I want to adapt it to my own situation, and to what I want, so I'll propbably design something myself.

Now I am finished.

Greetz!

Friday, March 2, 2007

Chrono


Chrono
Originally uploaded by Praetorianator.
This was really the first photograph I took with my new 60mm Micro-Nikkor I wrote about in my previous post.
It is a picture of my brothers Festina watch. I like the overall colour it has, and I also noticed that the macro-lens shows just about everything.
Also, the Depth-Of-Field of my macro-lens is amazing! Depending on your f-number, it can be very small, really just a DOF of 1mm or less, to about a few centimeters to very large.

Since in the macrofunction, the lens' Autofocus function does not work properly, it ghosts alot, you have to focus manually. Now, this wouldn't pose a problem if it weren't for the incredible sharpness this lens produces. Even if you are just a tiny tiny bit off with focusing it's going to show on the photo. Very difficult. It can be your enemy, but it also can be your greatest friend.
I have discovered that, combined with a very small DOF, you can really pick a subject out of everything inside the frame. Really useful.

Oh, did I already mention the Bokeh the lens produced is superb? Well, it is. Really silky. Even moreso compared with my 18-70mm lens.

Cheers!

My new 60mm Micro-Nikkor


I have just bought a new lens for my Nikon D80, so I now have two lenses;

- 18-70mm DX Nikkor (kit-lens which came with my D80)
- 60mm Micro-Nikkor

I bought it for a hefty sum of 450 euro's, but I can tell you; it was well worth it!

It is a Micro-Nikkor, which is Nikons way of saying it is a Macro lens. It has a focal distance of 60mm, and on my Nikon D80 (DSLR) counting in the magnification factor of 1,5x that would become equal to a 90mm on a 35mm body.
So by nature, this lens is perfect for portraits. I haven't tried that yet though.

What I have tried already is it's 1:1 reproduction capabilities (macro function). And I must say, macro photography is every bit as much fun as everyone says it is!
It just opens up a whole new world of possible things to photograph.

And so, after I had just bought it, I went berserk, photographing just about everything. But soon I realised that, although photographing everything small is quite fun, you can't just walk up to something and take a picture. Macro photography needs just as much preperation as any other photograph, or maybe even more. This is evident in much of my early pictures on Flickr. Looking back at them, I should've paid more attention to composition, background and the technical part of photography.

So now I have learned that essential lesson, it is my intention to take my photography of small things a little slower next time :D. Not the hasty "Ow this is cool! *click*....ow, but look at this! *click*..and that! *click*". That method does not produce the best photographs.

One of the things I think I need to make my macro-photography more succesfull is a so-called 'light-box'. Think of it as a box of 50x50x50cm, covered in white paper or cloth on the inside, and a white paper backdrop on the inner back of the box. Then putting some light bulbs over the box and voila; you have yourself a completely white enviroment.

I think I will construct one later on.

Anyway, I am really happy with my new 60mm Micro-Nikkor lens, and hopefully continu to use it for a long long time.

Cheers,

Coen

This blog

Hi all.


This will be my blog for the pictures I make and post at Flickr.
Also, I will be using this blog for general stuff I like and/or think about.
I do hope I'm interesting enough to read, and if not that, at least enjoy my photographs and head over to Flickr.

Greets!

Coen van Aken