Analog Film Photography

In the world of photography these days all the rage is digital, more megapixels, more memory.  This article is not about how digital is bad just that we forget how good film could be.  Even the highest end 30,000 dollar digital camera is only trying replicate film.  It does not mater how many megapixels a camera has because technically a 35mm frame has no pixels or infinite pixels(depending how you look at it) because it is analog. A movie is projected from a 35mm frame to a 100 screen with little to no loss.  And most professional commercial photographers still use film because of the quality.

I started to buy the latest and greatest digital photography equipment about 10 years ago.  And all that equipment are starting to become out of date.  So instead of starting to buy new equipment I took a look back at all the film and analog equipment that i had.  And the fact is that all the good film camera equipment i had were still just as good and relevant today.  And combining the artistic values of analog film camera and the ease work flow with modern scanners and computers i have found a very creative and satisfying way to look at photography.

I think art is problem solving, and a good artist is constantly trying to make decisions of what they want and solve the problem of achieving there vision.  Whether it be painting, sculpting or photography the whole process is problem solving.  I think when something I am doing becomes easy and cookie cutter in style it get board with it and don't feel the artistic value of it.


Here is a link to some of my Analog film photography.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ornellas

So me and a few of my friends are starting to put on some Analog Photography Art Exhibition to get the word out there that photography is back and in effect. You can check out our show here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ornellas/sets/72157624792132174/

Here is a good how to vid of developing film. The first time you do it will seem daunting but after you do it a few times it you can do it in the dark.


So get out there and start shooting

I am an Internet Pirate

I am a Internet pirate.  I can and will download any thing and everything that exist in digital form.  Am I a criminal?  Maybe. Will i stop? No.

So we all know the big argument over Internet file sharing. I’m just gonna give you my perspective on the whole situation.  I want to point out that i do not think that everything should be free or people should not be paid for there intellectual property. Only that the old economic model has gone way to New Media.

First lets talk about the Music industry.  for about the last 100 years  music industry basically worked like this.  The record company would pay millions of dollars for equipment and studios to make and record the music.  Then they would have to pay millions more to actually produce the media(cd,tape,record, etc.) then pay for publicity.  And if an artist sold big then they all made a lot of money.  But now with the advances in technology and the drop in price of consumer electronics an artist can afford to produce and record their own music with out old expensive equipment. Also with the Internet revolution and the move toward online purchasing, there is no need to pay for publication and you can advertise at a fraction of the price.  All this cuts out the middle man completely.  And the middle man is the record company.  So it is hard for these large corporation that ran a monopoly for so long to realize that the industry has passed them by.  And I understand why they are fighting so hard to save the industry.  Imagine if they told you that not only are you fired from your job at that company but that your type of job does not even exist anymore.  And this has happened a thousand times before and will happen again.  I’m sure there are people that would love to sell railroad tracks, but guess what, we don't need that anymore.

Also the choices made by the Music Industry, specifically how they chose to distribute their product on CD’s, is what lead to their down fall.  Until recently copying music seemed to be completely OK with the Music Industry.  They sold use blank tapes, tape recorders, every radio and tape deck had a record button.  You could record right off the radio.  So it is not the Copying of the music they are mad at it is the ease of doing it that is the problem.  When the music industry decided to use CD’s to distribute music they took the cheapest easiest way.  The Music industry did not develop there own media and went to an open source media format that was created by the Computer industry for data storage.  Thus a CD cannot be protected can be read from any computer and copied instantly.  In comparison to another industry that had to make the same decision, The Video Game companies.  They had the same problem, they had to chose between putting the games on DVD’s which is open source like  CD or investing in there own type of proprietary media.  You cannot put a XBOX game in a computer and copy it.  It is not  DVD, it is there own proprietary disc.

A computer is just a device that can rapidly calculate and replicate data.  Thus making it available for the masses.  The comparison I like to make abou the use of technology is about car companies. The reason cars are so expensive is because most people do not have the knowledge and the skills to make there own car from scratch.  If a custom car builder gets metal and makes a car that looks exactly like Lamborghini and does dot sell them for a profit it is totally legal and Lamborghini has no legal rights to do anything.

What will happen when we have the technology to have our own little robotic arm and program it to do what ever we want.  Not far off from the computers we have today.  I could just tell it to build me a car, and make it look exactly like Lamborghini.  If i only made them for my self and did not sell them is that illegal?

For any business to be successful you must provide a product or service that others cannot to do for themselves.  We now have the technology of 3d printing in any media(metal,plastic) so legality of reproducing anything will be the future issues.

So that is the technical reasons why I’m a Internet Pirate.  Next time i will tell you the ethical reason I’m a Internet Pirate.

Streaming Online News

Over the last year or so i have been trying to watch all my news and entertainment over the internet. I stream news, netflix, hulu, and peer to peer downloading.  There are many devices ike Apple TV, Roku box, xbox, playstation, and many more can now stream from the internet right to your TV.  Your cable box is probably the most least technically advance device in the modern household.  The cable companies have the monopoly and no competition so they have no need it keep making new devices.

Here are some great online streaming news channels

Al Jazeera English     LiveStation.com

   CNN Live      BBC World News

LiveStation.com is a great site that has a lot of the major news broadcast from around the world.  With all the things happening in the middle east and asia watching Al Jazeera is a lot better that CNN, and not only because they are focusing on local things.  It is hard to explain why but i feel that the US media like CNN and FOX are all about ratings. I feel that the focus is on the host of the show and not the news.  Whether it is Pierce Morgan, Anderson Cooper or Larry King i think that the focus is on them and not the news.  The show becomes them telling us the news.

You can even stream Hawaii News Now. witch is good.  But i have to say that they had horrible Tsunami coverage this last weekend.  During the Tsunami warning the local news had no good footage of anything. For 4 hours we watched only 2 camera shots, A night vision traffic cam in Waikiki and the back of some house in Diamond with a flood light.  And that was absolutely it!!!! are you shitting me? We live on an island surrounded by water and they could not get one camera guy down to any beach or even on a roof in Waikiki?  What about the Harbors or Haleiwa. Al Jazeera had better coverage of what was happening in Hawaii and they were showing what was happing in Japan at the same time.

My point is that the old system run by the cable companies is coming to an end and unless they keep up with the outside world they will be overtaken by companies like google and apple that can offer the same products and services practically for free.