Sneak Peek

Our studio was planning on having another photo review session today, but we ran out of time and pushed the show n' tell to Friday. As a result, I have a collection of 17 photos that are ready to go on display. So here's a sneak peek of what I'll be presenting on Friday:


Day 17: While wandering around Nantes on Saturday morning I came across the brand new -- but not quite finished -- City Council Building. Talk about sticking out like a sore thumb. The only connection this modern-laser-cut-aluminum-panel-clad building had with it's classic-stone-and-plaster-with-slate-roof neighbors was a token classic-stone-arch at the entry. I'd like to know the design concept behind this creation and how it takes into account the local context. On the other hand, the way the sun rips across those panels is pretty cool...


Day 15: The two photos on the top were taken two weeks and almost 400km apart. Yet when superimposed they match up almost perfectly, with absolutely no cropping or offsetting or any other kind of adjustment. And they don't just fit together in terms of geometric composition. Both of these buildings -- the 104 art gallery in Paris on the left, and a student housing development for the Ecole d'Architecture in Nantes on the right -- are renovations of abandoned structures, and both renovations completely obliterate and sanitize the previous uses of those structures. I could also get into the similarity of the interior/exterior conditions and relationships, but I'd rather get on to writing captions for the other photos.


Day 16: We visited the warehouse workshop of La Machine, an association of artists/craftsmen/technicians who do some fantastic work in the realm of scenic design and construction. This particular image is a superimposition of two photos: one is a wooden model of an elephant creation, the other is a model of the structural skeleton of that same elephant. When I took the photos I was not thinking about overlaying one on top of the other, so the fact that the scale came out about equal is complete luck!


Day 16: Outside Le Lieu Unique. Nothing of architectural significance here; I was simply playing with focus and blur again. In lots of architectural photographs a long exposure is used so that the building is in crisp focus while the people inhabiting it blur out due to their movement. This makes sense, as the subject in those photographs is the building, not the people. So in this photo the car, being the subject, is kept in focus while the back- and foreground are blurred through the motion of the camera. Getting this shot involved some trial and error while I tried to rotate the camera at the same speed that the car was passing...


Day 16: Party at Le Lieu Unique. This is Nantes' community center, the rough equivalent of a YMCA. I don't know about you, but I've never seen this kind of a party outside our YMCA. As a photograph, I like the way the blue color of the Lieu Unique sign stands out against the yellow wash thrown on everything else from the lamp post.


Day 16: Still partying at Le Lieu Unique. A more standard building-in-focus/people-blurred photo. I like imagining what the people were doing to cause the different amounts of blur -- like what's going on with the very ghosted individual that cuts across the middle of the bottom third of the frame?


day 16: The party inside Le Lieu Unique. The lighting was terrible, and I didn't want to pull out the tripod, so it's kinda blurry and definitely grainy/noisy. But I love the way everyone is facing the bright white area on the right and holding one arm in the air like they're all reaching for the same point on the ceiling. Getting a bunch of strangers to reveal common characteristics by getting them to act in unison is always fun.


Day 16: This is what everyone in the previous photo was facing: a crazy-ass charades game. What I enjoy in this photo is the interplay between then drawings and the live people. When I glance casually at the image, it looks like the drawing in the middle is an actual person crouched down to draw. And it looks like the drawing on the right is dripping on the person in black. Meanwhile, the reflection of light makes it look like the man in white on the left has one black lens in his glasses and one white. This was a crazy party, indeed.


Day 16: The dance party portion of the night at Le Lieu Unique. Remember, this is the community center for the city of Nantes. The age range on the dance floor, which is next to the bar, at this exact time was from 5yrs old to 60yrs old. Seriously, one guy had his 5-yr old daughter on his shoulders, and there were senior citizens walking through (though they didn't stick around very long). This photo would have been more fun if the clock didn't read 11:38pm... I'm not much of a dance party person, so I left a little after midnight.


Day 17: At the Aureole 14 sight in St Nazaire (an old WWII German u-boat base converted into a concert venue/community use center). I was having fun with reflections here. The sunny day, plus the dim interior space, plus the shape of the structure made for a nice picture-in-picture effect when I caught this reflection in the window of the restaurant housed within on of the dock bays.


Day 17: One of our instructors, Steven Christensen, takes a picture of the ceiling at Aureole 14. I'll admit that this photo is heavily processed. It was converted to black and white in such a way as to mostly wash out whatever was in the white area, then the levels were adjusted to further enhance the brightness of the white. I just wish Steven had been standing one step to the right.


Day 17: Still at Aureole 14. I liked the way the dock bay opening framed the top and sides of the lighted area, and the reflection and ripples in the water completed the frame, allowing the bottom to dissolve gradually.


Day 17: Evening at Aureole 14. I wish I had been using a lower ISO setting/wider aperture setting. This also could have been framed better: the pink square near the middle is too high and too far to the left. And there's that funny black puddle in the middle/left of the frame. Even so, I like that the lights on top look like straight lines, while their respective light pools on the floor are a diagonal/triangular pattern.


Day 17: More evening at Aureole 14. This was playing with a long exposure (6 seconds) and deliberately moving the camera while the shutter was open. Not all that great, but kinda fun.


Day 18: On the roof of Aureole 14. As this was a repair facility for German U-boats during WWII, it is an extremely heavily fortified structure. The roof 4 layers of concrete ceiling, and this photo was taken in the space between the top two layers. It was creepy enough being in there, and inverting the image to a negative makes it even creepier.


The original of the image above.


Day 18: The panoramic, 360-degree view from the roof of Aureole 14. The top image is one that I put together, with no manipulation of the individual photos. The middle image is the one that PhotoShop put together (I used the automatic photomerge function). And the bottom image is the same PhotoShop assembly, just cut and re-spliced so that the center of the photo is looking north instead of south.


And, just like the last post, here are all the shots that didn't make the cut to get into the final presentation:


Same as the shot that did make the cut, but the colors have been adjusted here.


Same shot as before, only this time every color except blue has been desaturated.



I couldn't decide which of these two photos I liked better, so they both lost...


Some of the icons found in and around Lieu Unique. Kinda reminds me of the student center at IIT.





Four different ways to crop the same shot. one was cropped to center the green area in the middle while preserving the original aspect ratio of the photo, another prioritized centering of the green above all else, another tried to balance the brown color areas on the left and right, and another included people down at the bottom of the frame. Decide for yourself which you like best.


One of La Machine's machines. I'm amused by the way both the actual construction and the photo of the construction (which is under construction in the photo) have the same expression. I'm doubly amused by the way the lamp at the end of the arm coming off the real construction becomes the eye of the construction in the photo.


More experiments with photographing reflections. Also, that's not me in the reflection taking a photo. That's another shot of Steven Christensen. He takes a lot of photos...


Lying on the floor, looking straight up at little hanging lights (the same seen in photos 13 and 14 of those that made the cut).

Sneak Peek

Our studio was planning on having another photo review session today, but we ran out of time and pushed the show n' tell to Friday. As a result, I have a collection of 17 photos that are ready to go on display. So here's a sneak peek of what I'll be presenting on Friday:


Day 17: While wandering around Nantes on Saturday morning I came across the brand new -- but not quite finished -- City Council Building. Talk about sticking out like a sore thumb. The only connection this modern-laser-cut-aluminum-panel-clad building had with it's classic-stone-and-plaster-with-slate-roof neighbors was a token classic-stone-arch at the entry. I'd like to know the design concept behind this creation and how it takes into account the local context. On the other hand, the way the sun rips across those panels is pretty cool...


Day 15: The two photos on the top were taken two weeks and almost 400km apart. Yet when superimposed they match up almost perfectly, with absolutely no cropping or offsetting or any other kind of adjustment. And they don't just fit together in terms of geometric composition. Both of these buildings -- the 104 art gallery in Paris on the left, and a student housing development for the Ecole d'Architecture in Nantes on the right -- are renovations of abandoned structures, and both renovations completely obliterate and sanitize the previous uses of those structures. I could also get into the similarity of the interior/exterior conditions and relationships, but I'd rather get on to writing captions for the other photos.


Day 16: We visited the warehouse workshop of La Machine, an association of artists/craftsmen/technicians who do some fantastic work in the realm of scenic design and construction. This particular image is a superimposition of two photos: one is a wooden model of an elephant creation, the other is a model of the structural skeleton of that same elephant. When I took the photos I was not thinking about overlaying one on top of the other, so the fact that the scale came out about equal is complete luck!


Day 16: Outside Le Lieu Unique. Nothing of architectural significance here; I was simply playing with focus and blur again. In lots of architectural photographs a long exposure is used so that the building is in crisp focus while the people inhabiting it blur out due to their movement. This makes sense, as the subject in those photographs is the building, not the people. So in this photo the car, being the subject, is kept in focus while the back- and foreground are blurred through the motion of the camera. Getting this shot involved some trial and error while I tried to rotate the camera at the same speed that the car was passing...


Day 16: Party at Le Lieu Unique. This is Nantes' community center, the rough equivalent of a YMCA. I don't know about you, but I've never seen this kind of a party outside our YMCA. As a photograph, I like the way the blue color of the Lieu Unique sign stands out against the yellow wash thrown on everything else from the lamp post.


Day 16: Still partying at Le Lieu Unique. A more standard building-in-focus/people-blurred photo. I like imagining what the people were doing to cause the different amounts of blur -- like what's going on with the very ghosted individual that cuts across the middle of the bottom third of the frame?


day 16: The party inside Le Lieu Unique. The lighting was terrible, and I didn't want to pull out the tripod, so it's kinda blurry and definitely grainy/noisy. But I love the way everyone is facing the bright white area on the right and holding one arm in the air like they're all reaching for the same point on the ceiling. Getting a bunch of strangers to reveal common characteristics by getting them to act in unison is always fun.


Day 16: This is what everyone in the previous photo was facing: a crazy-ass charades game. What I enjoy in this photo is the interplay between then drawings and the live people. When I glance casually at the image, it looks like the drawing in the middle is an actual person crouched down to draw. And it looks like the drawing on the right is dripping on the person in black. Meanwhile, the reflection of light makes it look like the man in white on the left has one black lens in his glasses and one white. This was a crazy party, indeed.


Day 16: The dance party portion of the night at Le Lieu Unique. Remember, this is the community center for the city of Nantes. The age range on the dance floor, which is next to the bar, at this exact time was from 5yrs old to 60yrs old. Seriously, one guy had his 5-yr old daughter on his shoulders, and there were senior citizens walking through (though they didn't stick around very long). This photo would have been more fun if the clock didn't read 11:38pm... I'm not much of a dance party person, so I left a little after midnight.


Day 17: At the Aureole 14 sight in St Nazaire (an old WWII German u-boat base converted into a concert venue/community use center). I was having fun with reflections here. The sunny day, plus the dim interior space, plus the shape of the structure made for a nice picture-in-picture effect when I caught this reflection in the window of the restaurant housed within on of the dock bays.


Day 17: One of our instructors, Steven Christensen, takes a picture of the ceiling at Aureole 14. I'll admit that this photo is heavily processed. It was converted to black and white in such a way as to mostly wash out whatever was in the white area, then the levels were adjusted to further enhance the brightness of the white. I just wish Steven had been standing one step to the right.


Day 17: Still at Aureole 14. I liked the way the dock bay opening framed the top and sides of the lighted area, and the reflection and ripples in the water completed the frame, allowing the bottom to dissolve gradually.


Day 17: Evening at Aureole 14. I wish I had been using a lower ISO setting/wider aperture setting. This also could have been framed better: the pink square near the middle is too high and too far to the left. And there's that funny black puddle in the middle/left of the frame. Even so, I like that the lights on top look like straight lines, while their respective light pools on the floor are a diagonal/triangular pattern.


Day 17: More evening at Aureole 14. This was playing with a long exposure (6 seconds) and deliberately moving the camera while the shutter was open. Not all that great, but kinda fun.


Day 18: On the roof of Aureole 14. As this was a repair facility for German U-boats during WWII, it is an extremely heavily fortified structure. The roof 4 layers of concrete ceiling, and this photo was taken in the space between the top two layers. It was creepy enough being in there, and inverting the image to a negative makes it even creepier.


The original of the image above.


Day 18: The panoramic, 360-degree view from the roof of Aureole 14. The top image is one that I put together, with no manipulation of the individual photos. The middle image is the one that PhotoShop put together (I used the automatic photomerge function). And the bottom image is the same PhotoShop assembly, just cut and re-spliced so that the center of the photo is looking north instead of south.


And, just like the last post, here are all the shots that didn't make the cut to get into the final presentation:


Same as the shot that did make the cut, but the colors have been adjusted here.


Same shot as before, only this time every color except blue has been desaturated.



I couldn't decide which of these two photos I liked better, so they both lost...


Some of the icons found in and around Lieu Unique. Kinda reminds me of the student center at IIT.





Four different ways to crop the same shot. one was cropped to center the green area in the middle while preserving the original aspect ratio of the photo, another prioritized centering of the green above all else, another tried to balance the brown color areas on the left and right, and another included people down at the bottom of the frame. Decide for yourself which you like best.


One of La Machine's machines. I'm amused by the way both the actual construction and the photo of the construction (which is under construction in the photo) have the same expression. I'm doubly amused by the way the lamp at the end of the arm coming off the real construction becomes the eye of the construction in the photo.


More experiments with photographing reflections. Also, that's not me in the reflection taking a photo. That's another shot of Steven Christensen. He takes a lot of photos...


Lying on the floor, looking straight up at little hanging lights (the same seen in photos 13 and 14 of those that made the cut).

Interactive Pad, all-in-one controller web

When sitting infront desktop or laptop for a long time everyday might see tiresome and don't be excited and often, we might have no fun. Which in fact the device that use in linking up it might see not excitedly is like Wii or Xbox, because, it has only mouse for click and click but, concept designing this device might make us enjoys certainly

Interactive Pad is concept designing device for all-in-one controller that can use control Facebook, Youtube, iTunes and webcam get easily. Music, video, camera and games can be configured and downloaded via the easy hotkeys. Basically for those who are into the web world just for entertainment purposes. Sit down, relax and let the fun-times begin.

Designer: Marcial Ahsayane

If you liked this product design, you would also be interested in:
www.yankodesign.com

Giveaway! "Black Blade Blues" by J. A. Pitts

Thanks to Tor Books, I have a copy of "Black Blade Blues" to offer for giveaway featured on my giveaway page. Be sure to CHECK IT OUT.

Peugeot Capsul, Hydrogen Engines Vehicle

An entry at Peugeot design competition, the "Capsul" is a public vehicle for personal use. Powered by two small hydrogen engines located in the wheels, the Peugeot Capsul provides clean and safe commutation in urban environments. Users can hire the vehicle for personal use to roam in and around the city. Made in recycled or recyclable parts, including glass, aluminum and green plastic, the sustainable vehicle comes integrated with solar nanotubes to harness solar energy as an additional power source. The two-seater smartly personalizes the public transportation to provide eco-friendly commutation on city roads.

Designer: David Portela

If you liked this vehicle, you would also be interested in:
www.thedesignblog.org

Are Reviewer-Bloggers Spoiled Brats?

Ah the blissful autonomy of blogging. It's the best isn't it? I've enjoyed owning my little corner of the blogoshpere and have had very little to complain about. The blog went up on a whim when, as a stay-at-home mom of seven years, I was looking for some way to connect to the outside world. Not being the type to do a slice-of-life or mommy blog, I tried to think of something I enjoyed doing and started writing about that. Three years later, I'm still here.

The blog has chugged along. Blossoming a little, though still modest by most standards. A day when I get more than a few comments on a post is a good one. I figure it's a give-and-take kind of thing. The results I get are in direct proportion to the time and effort I'm able to put out. I try to stick to a theme, and mostly succeed. Commentary and reviews are my shtick and though the word "news" is on my header, well, that requires the ability to keep up on current events to an extent that escapes me most of the time. But once the name appeared on the back of a book in a review, my ego wouldn't let me change it.

That pesky ego. It gets in the way sometimes doesn't it?

Once my blog became somewhat established I found myself in a strange place. I'm not a big blog, but I've been around long enough to get on quite a few mailing lists. I get emails and inquiries on daily basis asking me, me, if I'd like to read a book and give my thoughts on it. Well, don't I feel like a big shot? And after awhile I got used to giving my opinion on books and movies-- and whatever else I decided to comment on. Which is fun. I can't lie. But I guess I wanted something more because I reached out to a local publication that was starting up and looking for reviewers. Well hey, I do that. Why don't I sign up?

You see, it was my vanity rearing it's head again. I use my screen name on my blog. But I could use my real name in print. Sweeeet. I haven't seen my name in print in almost fifteen years. I used to write for a local paper doing reviews and features-- fun stuff but kind of rinky-dink. Then I was lucky enough to get a job in television doing interviews and occasionally writing small on-air segments (I even worked in Hollywood!). But the days of feeling like a big-shot had passed and having my name in print again was a minor thrill. Too bad that didn't last long.

I've mentioned before that I have been doing reviews for one of those local book reviews that are typically distributed at your local library. Many of you may know the one I'm talking about-- I recognize more than a few of the names that have been appearing next to mine. But I also hear that bloggers are a particularly finicky breed of reviewers.

Yesterday was an illuminating day for me. It was the monthly deadline for the publication and I had a few reviews to upload. I'm one of those people who tend to be out-of-site, out-of-mind when it comes to my work-- mostly. I get the in-print publication sent to me and I tend to throw it on the shelf without looking at it. I used to check it out more often. But once I saw my reviews in print without being mucked-up, I took it for granted that once I submitted something, it would retain its integrity. And that was the case for over a year. Then, they switched editors.

For some reason I did scan a review of mine a couple of months ago and noticed some strange tweaks had been done to my work. Minor stuff really. In fact, it kind of seemed as if the editor was moving periods around or adding semi-colons just so they could assure themselves that they were doing their job. Once she added the word "besides" to a review for no apparent reason--which stumped me a little. Generally harmless, but it made me uncomfortable.

I'm the first to admit, I could benefit from having an editor. Blogging is a solitary thing. I'm lucky enough to have several contributors, many of whom still actually post content for me! I'm so grateful that I take a hands-off approach. Besides, if I'm not signing a paycheck, I don't feel I have the right to have an in-your-face attitude when it comes people who are taking time out of their day to write something for my little blog. I'm also lucky enough to have contributors who write their own content on a regular basis-- so they know how to string a sentence together. But we're just people posting on a blog. We make mistakes, overlook misspelling and typos. I fret over run-on sentences and chop sentences into fragments in an effort to streamline content. But that's the way it is when you're on your own and trying to post on a regular basis (I used to shoot for every day, now I'm happy if I put something up five days a week). I know that every single blogger reading this can relate. It's tough thinking of something to write every day and if you don't have time to re-work your writing, that sometimes means you don't get it quite the way you want. I know when I've nailed a post-- you know the feeling when you're able to transfer your feelings to the page. And I know when I can't put my thoughts into writing.

Which is why in-print reviewing was strangely important to me. I had the time, if not the space (200 words) to make sure the words were crafted exactly the way I wanted them to be. It meant something. So having someone cavalierly change my words is not something I can live with. It only took one word, one for me to realize that maybe blogging has spoiled me for other things.

But then again, the editor who felt the need to insert random punctuation into my reviews might just be an idiot. I'll let you be the judge.

So I'm uploading one review and notice another that I had posted last month-- "Storm Prey" by John Sandford. You may know the title, I have a giveaway up for it right now. It's not the genre I usually feature here, but I have a weakness for detective novels. Anyway, I scan the review and notice that the editor decided to add two little words to the second paragraph. Nothing really, but when you're dealing with something that's 200 words or less, every word counts. Apparently, the editor didn't like the way I suggested that Sandford will have readers coming back "time and again" and decided to say that the book would have readers "engaged and enchanted."

Uh. What?

Did I read that right? "Enchanted?" Wait, wait, wait. Rewind. Let me read that again. Yep, she really added the word "enchanted." Did she not read the review? Did she not notice that it was a book that included murder as part of the plot? "Enchanted?" Who the heck describes a detective novel as "enchanting?" You'll be completely enchanted by this book featuring kidnapping and murder! Blech.

Okay, okay. Maybe I'm over reacting.

But I still fume. "Enchanted." I can't stand it. My name is now inexorably linked to that darned review and it bugs me. My feelings are totally out of proportion, but I would never use that word in this context. I'm embarrassed to have my name on that review.

So I decide in that moment I need to go back to just being a blogger. I am the master of my online domain and no one can put words in my mouth. Yeah. I like it that way. So I email the owner of the review and let them know why I'm leaving. No big deal, though I feel like I'm being a bit of a spoiled artiste with a petty objection. But it's my name. It might not mean much to them. But it means something to me.

I get an email back asking to see the text of the original review-- which is responsible of them. And, surprisingly, I get some vindication in that they agree the word substitution was inappropriate and changed the tone of the review.

But they still didn't take my decision to leave the relationship with good grace. After telling me that I was right they went on to tell me that they had a particularly hard time hanging on to blogger-reviewers. That we are particularly resistant to being edited.

Come again? I'm right....but I'm a pain in the neck for pointing that out?

Apparently we're just too in-de-pen-dent for our own good and if we want to write for print publications, we need to suck it up a little. I wrote them back--politely of course-- saying that I'm familiar with the process, having working in print before. But also accepted that my temperament as a blogger might make it a poor fit for me going forward; and I left it at that.

I suppose I should thank them for making it so easy to leave. Then again... I'm not dwelling on this as much as it seems. It's a minor thing. But, given that this blog is mostly frequented by other bloggers, I thought it would be an interesting anecdote to pass on. I have no doubt that most people reading this are going to be able to relate to my feelings. Many of us want to do more than we're currently doing-- unless you're John Scalzi maybe (I couldn't resist throwing that in). A lot of us want to be read beyond the blog and I doubt most of us would mind reasonable editing--especially if it enhances our work. But no one wants to feel like some second-rate hack is being given carte blanche to make you look like a fool.

These are my words dammit. They matter to me.

I don't think I'm being spoiled for hanging on to that. Do you?

Post Script:
From the comments on this post, it seems I may have given the impression that it only took one minor incident for me to throw up my hands and say "I quit!" Well, it wasn't quite that bad. I have been doing the reviews for about a year and a half, without pay and I supply most of the books I review (which I personally get from the publisher). I thought that was a pretty good deal for publication. I was very low-maintenance. Never turned in my reviews late, always kept them within the word limit and generally tried to do a good job. I never had any communication from the publisher/editor about my reviews that indicated my work was sloppy. The original editing that had been done felt very unobtrusive and I didn't mind it at all. It's only been in the last three or four months that I've become concerned because I felt the editing took away from the quality of the work I was turning in. It also seemed that, overall, the quality of the publication was sliding. The reviews have become a lot more casual in tone (with the authors now being allowed to use the "I feel" format--something I never did for this job).

Long story short-- there wasn't an upside to me anymore. No pay, no books that I couldn't get on my own, and editing that made me uncomfortable with the quality of work my name was being attached to. I feel good about ending the relationship. I can now spend more quality time developing this blog and looking for other side-projects that will do more for me in the long run.

~SQT