The mother got these badges from a trade show she was at and I'm not inspired to make some of my own; Probably starting with a Steam or Linux badge and then adding anime and games.
THAT is awesome. I'd love the files for them once they're made; otherwise, I'd probably Etsy ones for Steam, Bebop, or Black Lagoon. Hell, I'd make some of my own if that's cool.
The hard part is finding someone with a badge press.
It's pretty easy over here.
Even here, any college with any kind of social science program has a few hippies and commies with what seems like endless badge making supplies and presses.
Even here, any college with any kind of social science program has a few hippies and commies with what seems like endless badge making supplies and presses.
I wish I had my own. Dealing with hippies and commies is a pain in the ass.
Even here, any college with any kind of social science program has a few hippies and commies with what seems like endless badge making supplies and presses.
I wish I had my own. Dealing with hippies and commies is a pain in the ass.
I wanted to buy one, but the weight alone means a ridiculous shipping price, and I haven't found a store that sells the machines here, just the supplies.
I wanted to buy one, but the weight alone means a ridiculous shipping price, and I haven't found a store that sells the machines here, just the supplies.
I wanted to buy one, but the weight alone means a ridiculous shipping price, and I haven't found a store that sells the machines here, just the supplies.
That looks like its made of plastic. Not something you want to put under pressure.
I've used one. They're tough as hell. I'm trying to think of what type of plastic I could compare them to, but damn...Whatever it is, it works. A bit slow, but if you're making pins for yourself, that's no issue.
That looks like its made of plastic. Not something you want to put under pressure.
I've used one. They're tough as hell. I'm trying to think of what type of plastic I could compare them to, but damn...Whatever it is, it works. A bit slow, but if you're making pins for yourself, that's no issue.
Well, for $25 bucks, even if it breaks at the 50th button it would still be a good price.
Well, for $25 bucks, even if it breaks at the 50th button it would still be a good price.
The loose confederacy of Gay Rights activists at my high school used one each year to make hundreds of buttons for an unofficial Day of Silence. They work.
It's not about the gear, it's about knowing your subjects and how to take photos. But in the case of birds in flight, gear helps. Two things I like about my new zoom lens: super-fast autofocus and dual mode image stabilization.
From the Falklands, an Upland Goose:
Also in the Falklands, a Turkey Vulture.
The Turkey Vulture again.
This is not a dove. This is Snowy Petrel, a beautiful white sea bird which happens to have the southernmost breeding distribution in the world.
It's hard to judge the size of things in Antarctica. There is absolutely nothing man made with which to compare the ice covered mountains. No buildings or masts or pylons. Worse than that, there's not even any trees or bushes or grass. There's just rock and ice and snow and the sea. Nothing else. Mountains just loom over you, and you're not sure if they are huge and close, or even huger and far away.
Until you see another ship between you and a glacier. The dome of ice in the background probably rises about 2000 meters.
Zoom in a bit for a better view:
I took these two photos in the Gerlache Strait, the channel between the Antarctic Peninsular and Anver's Island.
I've not shared any photos from my last trip, either here or on my blog, but one photo I took in Papua New Guinea is the sosauce photo of the day, which always pleases me.
I'd just been inside, and the iso setting was way high, so this is actually quite grainy. Always check your camera settings!
The kids were indeed very cute. All of them loved having their photos taken, especially when I showed them the photos afterward on the screen of my camera. It was a real joy to take photographs of these children.
OMG. I didn't think that was done in construction. That is an amazing picture.
The Buhj Kalifa is finished, as in it is now as tall as it's going to be, and all the cranes are gone, but it still needs a lot of work to the grounds around the base. You can go up to the top too, but you have to book tickets in advance, and I didn't get my shit together to do so.
The Dubai Fountains next to it are amazing. They are like the Belagio fountains, but more of them and bigger and more powerful. I stayed to watch four different programs of the fountains.
I know I dominate this thread with my photography, but it is one of my favourite hobbies. Here's a blog post I wrote just now in response to another blog post:
Over on the sosauce.com blog they used one of my recent images to talk about how they display EXIF data with each photo. I really enjoy looking at this information when I see other photos, as it can be a great learning tool. This is picked up on by Alisha in the blog post, but it should come with a warning.
Alisha picks up these bits of information as important: * camera model * focal length * exposure time * ISO number * flash
Of course there was no flash, but the other info is only a bit more helpful. The camera model means that the focal length is wrong, as the 500D has crop sensor. Also, more importantly, I cropped the image significantly in Lightroom, so the focal length is probably equivalent to 70mm, not 24mm.
Want to see the original photo, with no post processing at all?
Not great! Well, there's a story behind this. The truck stopped in the desert, on top of a large dune, and all us tourist got out to take photos. I'd been using a longer lens, but popped back to the truck to swap in my 10mm-24mm wide angle. I wanted to take this photo, a cool hero-shot of the three Indians who lived and worked in Dubai:
The most important information about this image: * 10mm lens, though the crop factor in-camera and in Lightroom would mean it's more like 15mm or 16mm. * Camera set to aperture priority, how I shoot most often. * Aperture at f/9.0. This means I get a good depth of field, with most of the dune in focus. This is important, especially as I wasn't looking through the viewfinder when I took this, and instead was just holding the camera near the floor. This means that I'm not entirely sure if the autofocus is going to hit the people or maybe the floor next to them. * Oh yeah, single point autofocus too. * Something mentioned in the EXIF data on sosauce, but Alisha missed: Exposure Bias -2. This is crucially important, as I'm taking a photo directly into the sun. If I'd let the camera take care of the shutter speed without modifying it down two stops, the sun would be completely blown out, the people wouldn't be suitably silhouetted, and the sand wouldn't have the rich red colour.
In fact, using Lightroom to boost the exposure up 2 stops, this is the kind of image it would be without "exposure bias" set to -2:
Not a bad image, just not the image I was wanting. As it happened, the image that I got was exactly the image I wanted. Actually, now that I look at the EXIF data, I see that the shutter speed is 4000, which is the maximum speed the 500D can manage. That it hit the maximum speed is unsurprising, considering I took the photo directly into the sun.
What happened then? Without me seeing him get into our truck, the driver decided to show off, and drive up the dune directly towards us. I swung round at the noise and pointed my camera in the right direction.
My first thought was "Oh shit, my kit lens was sitting on the front passenger seat, with no protection, not in any bag." I remembered correctly, and found the lens a few minutes later in the foot well, sans lens cap.
My second thought, or instinct, was to zoom in. This wasn't all that helpful, as I still had my super wide angle lens on, but better than nothing.
My third thought was "The exposure compensation is still set to minus two. I'm going to have to fix this in post processing."
But I snapped two shots of the truck, one as it started its turn, knowing it would kick up loads of sand as it veered away. This one was the most dramatic of the two. Click:
The other photo I took is here, again with no post processing, at the closest approach of the truck:
This is much better photo in terms of in-camera framing, but the moment, the "gesture" as some photographers call it, just isn't quite as strong.
The good thing about having the exposure bias at -2 was it gave a far quick shutter speed than without. At 1/200 (what I guess it would be without) the wheels would be blurred, and the dust wouldn't look quite so sculptured. This was a lucky accident on my part. I could have got the same fast shutter if I'd known the truck was going to race up the dune, but the depth of field and the ISO would have suffered. With a lower ISO you get more noise, but then, due to post brightening this image, it turned out quite noisy anyway.
The upshot of this is that knowing technical information and every single setting on your camera is vital if you know the photo you want, and can spend ten seconds getting your camera set before you take the perfect shot on the first attempt.
But sometimes you don't have ten seconds. Not even two. Then you have to trust your instincts, and trust that you can fix it in post.
Today I took my new toy out to play Did I mention that it goes up to 50mph? Weighs ~2 pounds and packs roughly one horsepower, twice the ratio of the Bugatti Veyron Now for trying to ape the "Hero" shot Luke posted earlier :-) Had to watch out for the tiny rocks hitting me (and the wife, and the camera... oh yeah and the baby).
Damn, that looks like quite a toy. My dad and I used to build and play with RC cars; it was always a lot of fun. I kind of wish I had gotten into the hobby, but I don't need another money sink now.
Comments
At least not yet.
The mother got these badges from a trade show she was at and I'm not inspired to make some of my own; Probably starting with a Steam or Linux badge and then adding anime and games.
I want something that can make those tiny badges an inch in diameter. I love those buttons.
From the Falklands, an Upland Goose:
Also in the Falklands, a Turkey Vulture.
The Turkey Vulture again.
This is not a dove. This is Snowy Petrel, a beautiful white sea bird which happens to have the southernmost breeding distribution in the world.
These birds are not flying.
Until you see another ship between you and a glacier. The dome of ice in the background probably rises about 2000 meters.
Zoom in a bit for a better view:
I took these two photos in the Gerlache Strait, the channel between the Antarctic Peninsular and Anver's Island.
I'd just been inside, and the iso setting was way high, so this is actually quite grainy. Always check your camera settings!
I think they're pretty good.
See the full album (124 photos).
The Dubai Fountains next to it are amazing. They are like the Belagio fountains, but more of them and bigger and more powerful. I stayed to watch four different programs of the fountains.
Over on the sosauce.com blog they used one of my recent images to talk about how they display EXIF data with each photo. I really enjoy looking at this information when I see other photos, as it can be a great learning tool. This is picked up on by Alisha in the blog post, but it should come with a warning.
Alisha picks up these bits of information as important:
* camera model
* focal length
* exposure time
* ISO number
* flash
Of course there was no flash, but the other info is only a bit more helpful. The camera model means that the focal length is wrong, as the 500D has crop sensor. Also, more importantly, I cropped the image significantly in Lightroom, so the focal length is probably equivalent to 70mm, not 24mm.
Want to see the original photo, with no post processing at all?
Not great! Well, there's a story behind this. The truck stopped in the desert, on top of a large dune, and all us tourist got out to take photos. I'd been using a longer lens, but popped back to the truck to swap in my 10mm-24mm wide angle. I wanted to take this photo, a cool hero-shot of the three Indians who lived and worked in Dubai:
The most important information about this image:
* 10mm lens, though the crop factor in-camera and in Lightroom would mean it's more like 15mm or 16mm.
* Camera set to aperture priority, how I shoot most often.
* Aperture at f/9.0. This means I get a good depth of field, with most of the dune in focus. This is important, especially as I wasn't looking through the viewfinder when I took this, and instead was just holding the camera near the floor. This means that I'm not entirely sure if the autofocus is going to hit the people or maybe the floor next to them.
* Oh yeah, single point autofocus too.
* Something mentioned in the EXIF data on sosauce, but Alisha missed: Exposure Bias -2. This is crucially important, as I'm taking a photo directly into the sun. If I'd let the camera take care of the shutter speed without modifying it down two stops, the sun would be completely blown out, the people wouldn't be suitably silhouetted, and the sand wouldn't have the rich red colour.
In fact, using Lightroom to boost the exposure up 2 stops, this is the kind of image it would be without "exposure bias" set to -2:
Not a bad image, just not the image I was wanting. As it happened, the image that I got was exactly the image I wanted. Actually, now that I look at the EXIF data, I see that the shutter speed is 4000, which is the maximum speed the 500D can manage. That it hit the maximum speed is unsurprising, considering I took the photo directly into the sun.
What happened then? Without me seeing him get into our truck, the driver decided to show off, and drive up the dune directly towards us. I swung round at the noise and pointed my camera in the right direction.
My first thought was "Oh shit, my kit lens was sitting on the front passenger seat, with no protection, not in any bag." I remembered correctly, and found the lens a few minutes later in the foot well, sans lens cap.
My second thought, or instinct, was to zoom in. This wasn't all that helpful, as I still had my super wide angle lens on, but better than nothing.
My third thought was "The exposure compensation is still set to minus two. I'm going to have to fix this in post processing."
But I snapped two shots of the truck, one as it started its turn, knowing it would kick up loads of sand as it veered away. This one was the most dramatic of the two. Click:
The other photo I took is here, again with no post processing, at the closest approach of the truck:
This is much better photo in terms of in-camera framing, but the moment, the "gesture" as some photographers call it, just isn't quite as strong.
The good thing about having the exposure bias at -2 was it gave a far quick shutter speed than without. At 1/200 (what I guess it would be without) the wheels would be blurred, and the dust wouldn't look quite so sculptured. This was a lucky accident on my part. I could have got the same fast shutter if I'd known the truck was going to race up the dune, but the depth of field and the ISO would have suffered. With a lower ISO you get more noise, but then, due to post brightening this image, it turned out quite noisy anyway.
The upshot of this is that knowing technical information and every single setting on your camera is vital if you know the photo you want, and can spend ten seconds getting your camera set before you take the perfect shot on the first attempt.
But sometimes you don't have ten seconds. Not even two. Then you have to trust your instincts, and trust that you can fix it in post.
Did I mention that it goes up to 50mph? Weighs ~2 pounds and packs roughly one horsepower, twice the ratio of the Bugatti Veyron
Now for trying to ape the "Hero" shot Luke posted earlier :-)
Had to watch out for the tiny rocks hitting me (and the wife, and the camera... oh yeah and the baby).
This llama wanted to put his head in my sunroof.