Gravity is Part Theory

Well it took some time to decide what to do with this series. This photo was not to be part of the set, yet when the idea of a sketch board and equations came to mind; i thought it to be perfect. It could provide a base for the rest of the photos to lean on. The rest of the series are quite far fetched, and they did need some kind of introduction. Now done.

It took three days to edit. The first day i adjusted the tones and separated the highlights from the shadows, adjusting them separately.

The second day i removed noise and jagged borders (from the day before). This was tiring.

The last day i created the charcoal and ink/marker drawings; adjusted them on a paper, and simulated the same perspective then took photos of them. i added the sketches/drawings using multiple layers of “multiply” and “darken” opacity.

Birds were added similarly and the crop was adjusted both to the advice of my friend Elle.

When i look at the photo, i’m glad its finished yet it also pains me to think of the 3 other photos i will have to edit afterwards. hahaa

:)

and the original

Hope you enjoyed this behind the scenes sneak peak :D

the social networking Barack and Hilary around the net

Photo by dmolin

is Barack Obama a Mac and Hilary Clinton a PC? That’s what Noam Cohen at New York Times thinks – lets take a closer look.

eons

on eons (i don’t even know what this is haha) Clinton’s favorite activities are listed as bellow:

Speed walking, reading, doing crossword puzzles.

author’s comment: EX-citing!

Then Barack also has a eons, which his favorite activities are listed as:

Basketball,  writing,  loafing w/ kids

author’s comment: whah! those could almost be my favorite activities add swimming and photography.

Obama 1 - Hilary 0

now lets move on to twitter; twitter is a very current list of your daily activities between you and your friends.

twitter

The first thing you notice when you compare Obama’s twitter and Hilary’s is that Hilary doesn’t have any friends (?) while Obama has a f*cking load of friends (27,973 people and as i refreshed the page 2 more people were added). Now don’t get me wrong, people have added Clinton to their list (3,576 people now) - yet she hasn’t added them back

author’s comment: now i just hope that isn’t the general attitude in her campaign and i’m pretty sure someone who works for her is behind this and not her – yet as i do remember, she doesn’t allow comments on her flickr photos either. hmmm, life is tough. Interesting enough Obama has added more people than they have added him, i like that.

Obama 2 - Hilary 0

MySpace

The ever popular myspace should be a very good place to compare the online social status of these two candidates :]

Not much difference here in style - yet Hilary’s friends seem to have changed their icons to supporting banners yet Obama’s have not. Obama also has 360,777 friends and as expected Hilary has less with only 199,070. Hilary has been given 19,693 comments compared to Obama’s superior 58,927. He also sports the ever popular supporting YouTube video made by will.i.am and artists such as Scarlett Johansson and John Legend… Both candidates have a supporting video from a veteran.

Obama 3 - Hilary 0

author’s comment: Amazing, if only election was online, the president would already be obvious.

Facebook

Facebook has been over dominated by silly applications that often override the user’s decisions :\

anyways back to our little analysis. Hilary has again exchanged her icon for a T-Shirt design invitation banner (which don’t tell yet is against facebook’s terms of service - but who cares, they are lame anyway). Obama has his “OUR MOMENT IS NOW” quote under his image, compared to his “Yes We Can” quote that was featured on myspace. He has collected 805,905 supporters while Hilary has only a surprisingly low 153,477!

Obama likes: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder,
Johann Sebastian Bach (cello suites), and The Fugees

Hilary Likes: Carly Simon, Aretha Franklin, The Rolling Stones, U2

Both kinda old in their music - but oh well at least they are honest.. Obama still has the majority of supporters here.

Obama 4 - Hilary 0

any questions?

in the weird and strange news today

Obama’s pastor, Jeremiah Wright in another ill timed attempt to awaken the  supposedly hypnotized minds of the brainwashed American Citizens claims that the government invented the AIDS virus to destroy "people of color", which may be actually…  true! Though i wonder if Mr. Wright is considering what he is costing Obama.

R.E.M. the amazing band from the 80’s releases yet another album called "Accelerate"! YAY

And the YouTube star "magibon" gets another 1 million+ views on a video by simply waving, blinking and giving out peace signs .

wow.

The Secret Lives of Benches

So what happens when you strap a disposable camera to a bench and add a kind note inviting people to take photos with it?

this! >

abless

abless is a young female artist from Sweden; and i know nothing more of her than that. Her work is genuinely professional, unique, well formed and fashionably processed.

Visit her flickr gallery here.

easiest and safest way to "Jailbreak" that iPhone / iPod

 

if you’re reading this, it’s probably because you want to install all those cool applications you’ve heard that these two toys support.

aw, i’ve done this, it was very easy! and it makes my iPod 1200% more usable.

1. Ok charge up your iPhone / iPod - get those batteries full and happy :)
2. Update your phone / iPod to the latest firmware (which is 1.1.4 now). Using the stand alone solution - it’s recommended. How?
3. Go to ZiPhones’s Blog, on the right panel there will be a rainbow colored label, under “TESTED” it names the latest supported firmware version by this jailbreak software. If the firmware you upgraded to in step 2 is the one listed there, go to the next step - if the number is less than your firmware version, wait until the jailbreak software is released. It wont be long.
4. Download ZiPhone software for FREE from the same page. Click on the “Click here to Download ZiPhone (Main)”. Note: You may have to enable browser referrers *if you have disabled them*. if you don’t know what i am talking about - ignore what i said.
5. Set your iPhone / iPod’s Auto-Lock to “Never”.
   Settings > General > Auto-Lock
6. connect your iPhone / iPod to your computer, sync with iTunes and then close iTunes!
7. install and then run the ZiPhone software
8. click on the appropriate “jailbreak” button, don’t mess with the other buttons unless you know what you are doing.
9. Done!
10. but this is only the start to all the cool fun your gonna have. read my next post (yet to be written) on how to install cool applications! :)

iPod touch / iPhones and water

Out of curiosity i did a quick google on what would happen if lets say my iPod touch took a plunge haha; it seems the warranty doesn’t cover it always - and they have a way of finding out. A little sticker inside your headphone-jack which will turn dark or purple when in contact with water. That will void your warranty.

well i hope this doesn’t happen to you, but just as common sense;

1. it happens, don’t have a cow.
2. like with any electronic device you remove the power to it (cord, batteries, or turn it off immediately). don’t hesitate to override the normal shut down procedure.
3. let it dry; hair blow it dry if you have to
4. do not turn it on, well unless you’re rich and prefer buying a new one
5. put it in a bowel of rice (that will soak up all the water with its natural super moister sucking powers!) in the same position it was when it fell in water, this way you can be sure the water will leave the same way it entered
6. now depending on how humid the weather is and how long a towel usually dries in your parts of the world wait twice as long and then power it on again
7. if your electronic device has problems afterwards, turn it off and consult support and use the warranty if you can
8. good luck

email - Photography, People and

Those photos you saw on [edited] were mostly from Urumiyeh, where my grandparents live. My grandfather was expelled many times during his work as head of the judicial administration, lastly being to Urumiyeh. He worked in Tehran.

The people there are really photo friendly; always happy to smile or pose (usually trying to act as serious as possible - which never fails to give me a smile) when they see a camera.
I really love going there.

I have had mixed results with people in different cities.

In Mashhad, a “sacred” city. It’s so peaceful and people don’t even notice you taking photos, they act natural like it’s all a big movie scene. Couldn’t be better.

Usually people in Tehran have no problem with it, yet before they let you take the photo they look at you with that one-raised-eyebrow look (as to be examining your truthfulness) and ask you one or two questions about if you work for the media or not (they don’t really like the media) and what you will be using the photo for.
My ready answer is “I love photography and i take photos for myself.”

Usually when there is a child to be photographed, after getting the parent (or guardian’s) permission the next Bigger and Harder challenge is to convince the child that camera wont hurt them haha!
That’s usually when i get my “No” answers - which aren’t many.
And i don’t insist much. i really want to keep it fun.
Before saying goodbye, i take out a piece of paper out of my camera bag and write down my website address, name and sometimes phone number for them. i think giving it to them in my own handwriting makes them feel more comfortable, i know it would make me feel better, as to receiving a printed card.

i remembered that i hadn’t yet taken any photos from my own city; it seems when you’re near something, you forget that it exist so. Two days ago i went to our local market for photography. i hadn’t taken photos from strangers before in Rasht, so i had no idea what to expect.

Amazing, when ever i pointed the camera a person would yell (usually a friend of the person i was photographing) “He’s Taking Your Photograph!”. As to excite the person.
Done, the scene i wanted to capture was already lost.
haha.. never had this before happened. People, how different they can be; amuses me.

I once took a photo of a French lady’s children without permission, they were about 20 meters away and getting permission would mean that i would miss the “photo moment”. To my surprise she started yelling at me, we were at one of the late Shah’s palaces at the time (now a national exhibit). She yelled “NoOOOO” in an accent that told me she was European. I rested the camera and walked towards her. She was on the other side of the long pool. I greeted her and showed her the photograph, she was already calmed to see me closer. She nodded and i wished her a nice stay. Everything back to normal :)

This was that photograph.

– from an email

Lothian

My favorite photographer for the week. Please visit his flickr gallery.

“Living in the Netherlands
two children , Thomas & Eva
I am a musician (clarinet) for a living and love photography , especially my children .”

He has some genuinely creative and uniquely amusing perspectives in his photographs. They always have beautiful presence and tones plus great clarity.

Explosions In The Sky

My favorite band for this week,

their music is rich, powerful and moving..

Listen to their song “A Song For Our Fathers” here. Or download more free songs from their albums here.. Highly recommended !