Image manipulation with Match Color

Here's another example of experimenting with Photoshop's Match Color technique to apply color palettes from source images to your photographs.

Full tutorial here.

Here's the original image:

More shutterbuggery...

This week I was interviewed by Julia K of Beyond Robson for her weekly local photographers feature. Needless to say, I was pretty honored to be part of such a great series.

Anyone who knows me probably realizes how much I'm into photography at the moment, and it's always nice to be recognized by others who share my interests. So again, thanks very much to Julia and everyone at Beyond Robson.

You can see the full article here.

Hot Buzzz

Another one of my photos, 'Buzzz', has been featured on this weeks Beyond Robson photo feature page. Thanks guys!

You can see the feature here.

Finally!

I finally got around to paying for a Flickr Pro account. For $24.95 a year you get unlimited storage, uploads, bandwidth, and sets and permanent archiving of all images.

Considering all the photos I've taken since the beginning of the year, I thought that was a pretty good deal. Finally ALL of my images are displayed on my Flickr page instead of the latest 200. Plus I get to organize them into easy-to-browse sets. Yay!

Check out my new improved Flickr page here.

Three Woody's in one day...

One of the things I love about the apartment building I live in is that people are always leaving used books in the lobby for others to read. A couple of days ago, somebody left behind this great boxed collection of three of Woody Allen's books from the 60's and 70's. Just last week I picked up Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time (I passed on the collection of lesbian erotica).

Even if I don't get around to reading them, I can just leave them lying around the apartment and people will think I'm intellectual or something.

Full circle

I've never really considered myself a spiritual person, but I do believe that there is some sort of pattern to the apparent chaos of life, some sense that eventually everything comes full circle.

Circles are a recurring motif in director Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain; there are Mayan symbols, tunnels, wedding rings, globes floating in space, closeups of eyes. Characters frequently gaze directly into the camera, the circles of their eyes framing a chaotic thread of color and light.

The story weaves together three parallel stories from the past, present and future. Hugh Jackman plays all three central characters; a conquistador, a scientist and a space traveler, each, in their own way, seeking to discover the secret of eternal life. The Fountain is not a traditional science-fiction film, but uses the genre (much like 2001: A Space Odyssey or Solaris) as a backdrop to a meditation on human existance. Amidst the spectacular photography, backdrops and beautifully organic special effects, it is the heartbreaking performances of Jackman and Rachel Weisz as his eternal love, that really ground the film and bring it that much needed touch of humanity.

The film's ending is, like 2001, open to interpretation. I'm not sure if I completely understood it, but I was satisfied by it. There is a feeling of rebirth, renewal and an acceptance of destiny. Moments can be shared by many lives over many years, much like a needle and thread piercing hundred of pages from the same book. By sharing these moments, we can never be alone.

#9 Dream

One of the great things about Flickr is discovering the great wealth of talented photographers and artists that Vancouver has to offer. Juliainc of Beyond Robson recently did a feature on #9 dream, a photographer who takes Polaroids to a whole new level. In this day of digital cameras and Photoshop, it's refreshing to see a more 'lo-fi' approach. #9 dream has a great eye for what makes a moment special and his Polaroids have a texture and quality thats dreamlike and timeless.

Check out Julia's feature here.

For more of #9 Dream's photos, check out his Flickr page here.

Note: Juliainc's photography is well worth checking out too. Some wonderful portraits and city scenes. Check out her Flickr page here.

Icky Thumping

After a day of hail, showers, thunderstorms, cringing and nailbiting, the weather finally came through for The White Stripes on Sunday night. Not a drop of rain during their entire set - thank God!

It was obvious from the get go that we were in for a White Stripes show; a bright red stage, stripy microphone and roadies dressed like cartoon hitmen in black suits and red ties. I was in the eternal beer line up when they finally hit the stage (I mean, really.. one hour for two Strongbows??!!) but, my God, what a glorious sound those two make! Cute little Meg flailing away like a muppet behind the drum kit, and Jack prowling around a demented rooster. It just goes to show that you don't need smoke and ice, costume changes, flying pigs, children's choirs and Moroccan drummers to put on a great show.

I loved their cover of 'Jolene' (thanks Kieran for pointing out that it was originally a Dolly Parton song) - beautifully raw and haunting. And of course 'Seven Nation Army' was amazing to hear live. It's definitely one of the best rock songs to come out over the past few years. That guitar solo feels like it's been around since the beginning of time - and I mean that in a good way.

It's my first time at the Deer Lake Park venue. It's a really great place to see a show, but they really need to figure out how many people to work the beer stands. Half an hour to line up for beer tickets (maximum four) and then another half an hour to line up for the beer (maximum two). I persevered, if only because it didn't seem right to see the show completely sober. That would just be wrong.

My only regret is that I didn't pick up the concert T-shirt featuring a monkey playing a red guitar. Sigh.

Alive and Kicking...

(Yep, I'm still here!)

Oh my God, has it really been two weeks since I've been on here? Just a quick note to say that yes, I am still alive. Work has been crazy busy over the past couple of weeks, hence my lack of blogging. I will be sure to blog some more in the next week. I've got lots of reviews and photos and stuff worth posting.

Off to The White Stripes at Deer Lake Park tomorrow. Woo-hoo!

Here's their awesome new single (with an awesome title too), Icky Thump:

Match Color in Photoshop

To be honest, when I first heard about the 'Match Color' function in Photoshop, I never really considered the creative possibilities. Simply put, 'Match Color' takes the color values from one image and applies them to another. I recently came across an interesting Photoshop tutorial that uses famous paintings to create color palettes for your photography. By keeping a small archive of favorite paintings (or photography) on your hard drive, you can use them as a valuable resource to add some extra drama or dynamics to your existing photographs.

You can view the full tutorial in detail here.


Here's a couple of quick examples of this technique on one of my photographs:



(Original Image)



Here's the first example, using the color values from a Gustav Klimt painting:



(Color Source Image)



(Resulting Image)


And here's another example using an illustration by Arthur Rackham:



(Color Source Image)



(Resulting Image)

A new logo low

The new logo for the London 2012 Olympics was recently revealed. I appreciate that the design firm may wanted to do something avant-garde and edgy, but wow - THIS? It looks like an 80's compilation album cover. My favorite reaction is from somebody who said 'It looks like Lisa Simpson performing an unnatural act'.

Apparently, the animated version may be pulled from British TV for fear of inducing epileptic fits. The static version definitely induces nausea as far as I'm concerned.

As if designers didn't have a hard enough time getting people to understand what they're paid for.

You can view the London 2012 site here. Have paramedics standing by.

We have a winner!

I just found out that my photo In Transit (pictured above) won the latest Beyond Robson photo contest. Pretty nice eh?

First prize is a $100 gift certificate to The Wolf and Hound, an Irish restaurant on Broadway. I look forward to having some bangers and mash and a couple of pints of Guinness to go along with my warm fuzzy feeling.

You can see the Beyond Robson contest results here.

We Like You, We Like You, We Like You

On Friday night I went to see The Dandy Warhols. I love their albums, but for whatever reason, had never had gotten around to seeing them live before.

First of all I loved frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor's T-shirt (album cover for Sonic Temple by The Cult). So that, in itself, was pretty cool. Sound was a little iffy at first though, and it didn't really help that the idiot behind me kept yelling "SOUND!!" for the first few songs. Other than that, a really good show. I wish that they had showed just a 'little' more enthusiasm and energy - maybe they were just tired or stoned. High point for me was 'Godless'. What a great song.

By the way, is it me, or are these guys kind of like this generation's Lemonheads? Maybe the songs aren't all that similar, but they do share the same kind of slacker-stoner vibe.



A great album cover - an even better T-shirt.

Indy Flick

Raiders 2.0 Crew in 1988



Raiders 2.0 Crew today

I recently found this great story about a group of friends who, back in 1982, decided to remake Raiders of the Lost Ark shot-for-shot with a rented video camera. It cost them $5000 and took them nearly 7 years. The film finally debuted in 1989 and was pretty much forgotten until it resurfaced in 2003 at a alternative film-fest. Since then, they've met Spielberg and have become heroes to movie geeks all over the world.

You can read the whole story here.

Shooting has already begun on the fourth Indiana Jones movie (with a 65 year-old Harrison Ford). I still remember how exciting it was to see the original Raiders back in 1981. My dad took me to see it when my sister and Mum were on vacation in England. He wanted to treat me to a movie, but I wanted to see Superman II instead. Why would I want to see an archeologist fighting nazis, when I could see Superman fighting General Zod? The following week was his choice: Raiders of the Lost Ark. And yeah, Dad was right.

May the road rise with you

(Click image to view larger)

Here's a collage I created this weekend in Photoshop. I used a combination of photographs that I've taken this year.

Here's the originals:

Are Friends Electric?

Apparently, at the recent Jarvis concert at The Commodore, he performed Gary Numan's 'Are Friends Electric?' for the encore. I was sorry to have missed the show, if only for hearing his version of that song.

Gary Numan has long been a favorite of mine and 'Are Friends Electric?' is one of my top songs of all time. As far as I'm concerned, Numan was way ahead of his time and extremely underrated. But that's just me.

Here's Gary and the Tubeway Army performing the song on the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1979. Surprisingly good quality too.

The Queen

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown" - Henry IV, Part II

I finally got around to seeing The Queen this weekend, a film that definitely lives up to the hype that surrounds it.

The film could have been simply another stilted, drawn-out biopic, but instead, director Stephen Frears chose to focus on Queen Elizabeth's life in the weeks following the death of Princess Diana. As a result, it made the film a tightly focussed study of the essence of who the Queen is. Credit must also be given for the editing, particularly with the scenes intercut with news footage of the late Princess. It's still tragic to see clips of her in her final interviews. In many ways, she seemed like a ghost of herself before she died.

Helen Mirren's performance is restrained yet impressive. She portrays the Queen as a woman trapped in a dusty time capsule with her family; strong willed, stoic and determined to maintain her dignity at the expense of her emotions. In one scene where Elizabeth encounters a stag on her estate, she finally allows her grief to take over. Mirren is incredible in this scene, going quickly from tears to joy, before finally rearranging her features once more into her public mask.

The royal family is portrayed mostly as "freeloading, emotionally retarded inbreds" (in the words of the film's Sheila Blair), with corgis scampering underfoot. I wouldn't be surprised if some day, a member of the monarchy snuffs it by tripping over a corgi. Prince Philip, in particular, spends much of the film doddering around the estate hunting stags and discussing the temperature of the tea. The portrayals seem somewhat heavy-handed, but, sadly, probably close to the truth.

The relationship between Elizabeth and Tony Blair provides the most dramatic dynamic in the film. His handling of the 'Diana situation' made him extremely popular, but, as the Queen warns him, the time will come when the public will turn against him. It's strange to view this film ten years later on the eve of his resignation. It now seems that his time in office will be best remembered for the handling of the 'Iraq situation'.



Tony Blair's response to Diana's death in August, 1997.

Faithless - Bombs

I'm surprised that I had not heard of this video before now - 'Bombs' by Faithless. It features some very powerful juxtapositions that bring the horrors of war closer to home. A very simple concept, but very well done.

Granville Island

Yesterday, I enjoyed my first 'official' vacation day of the year. I'm taking a few long weekends here and there, with about a week and a half off at the end of August.

I ended up going to Granville Island Market for the afternoon, and ended up taking a whole heap of photos. So lucky to live in a place where I can hop on a ferry and visit the island so easily. I spent some time checking out the Emily Carr Undergraduate Exhibition, looked in some stores, had a bagel, sat in the sun, but for the most part, looked for photograph opportunities.

You can see more photos here.

Mando Diao

Considering I'd never really heard them before, I was pretty impressed by Mando Diao at their show at the Plaza last Saturday night. I was actually there to see Pop Levi (the opening act) again, but was glad to get a chance to see Mando Diao too. For a bunch of Swedish guys, they sure know how to channel some good gritty Britty rock. I thought I was in for some Strokes type stuff, but their jangly melodies and harmonizing were much more 60s, more The Animals or even The Beatles. The two main guys even shared the mike like John and Paul used to.

Pop Levi was great again - but I'm still looking forward to seeing him perform a full scale set at a decent venue. He seemed to be a lot more relaxed and 'out there' than when I saw him last. And just like last time, he stretched out the opening number 'Sugar Assault Me Now' to ridiculously epic proportions. He really knows how to wind up a crowd.

By the way, I'm not sure who was responsible, but playing Sigur Ros over footage of a young Michael J. Fox in the film Class of 1984 isn't the best way to pump up a crowd between sets. The film was good trashy fun, but come on - Sigur Ros?

Yellow Dogs and Black Swans

I like Martin Amis (London Fields is one of my favorites) but, to be honest, have always found reading his books to be a bit of a chore.

I have come to expect a challenging and mostly unpleasant read from Amis, but his latest, Yellow Dog, really crossed the line for me. Reading it, I got a constant sense of him, as an author, sneering 'I dare you to spend time with these characters, and figure out what the hell is going on." There's a rogues gallery of sinister, depraved characters ranging from tabloid journalists, pornographers, hit men, and vengeful ex-wives, in a hopelessly convoluted third rate gangster plot. Imagine watching Snatch or Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels on shuffle. There's a few borderline sympathetic characters too, but Amis seems to have nothing but contempt for them. Maybe I'm becoming a bit of a softy in my old age, but it's nice to have a little bit of compassion and humanity sometimes.

That said, you can't deny that Amis has an incredible way with words. He has a great eye for the simplest things. For example:

"Xan was too old for fashion, for cuts and styles; but his trousers, now, were alternately flared and drainpiped by the wind."

That's the kind of thing I look for when I read Amis. But why does he have to be so pretentious and nasty?

In the meantime, I'm about halfway through Black Swan Green by David Mitchell, which is the perfect antidote to Yellow Dog. I originally bought for my Dad for Christmas, who lent it to my sister, who in turn lent it to me.

Mitchell is an incredible author - I've read #9 Dream and Cloud Atlas and loved them both. Cloud Atlas in particular, was a great read, weaving together six seemingly unrelated stories (and writing styles) into one novel. It sounds pretentious, but Mitchell managed to pull it off effortlessly, while at the same time, making you care deeply about the characters.

Black Swan Green is a much more straightforward story told from the point-of-view of a thirteen year old boy growing up in England in 1982. I was fourteen in 1982, so, in many ways, I guess I can really relate to this story. I loved the references to playing Millenium Falcon on a swivelling chair and listening to Roxy Music LPs. Mitchell really captures the essence of what its like to be boy at that awkward age - that sudden awareness of what's going on around you and the helplessness of knowing that you can't always control it. Mitchell is great at giving the reader clues about what is going on in the boys surroundings (his parent's marriage in particular), even if the boy himself is oblivious. You find yourself really caring about this character - really wanting him to make the right decisions and to be a good kid.

Bollywood Thriller

Words fail me. For all my multicultural friends out there:

Happy accidents

Don't you love it when you take a blurry photo, and it actually turns out pretty cool? I took this earlier this evening on my way home from work.

And yeah, I think it turned out pretty cool. So there.

Facebook

Yesterday morning, I joined the strangely addictive 'Facebook' website. If you're already on Facebook, feel free to check out my profile here. Add me to your friends list too, it's easy to feel inadequate when you don't have something like 743 friends.

If you're not already on Facebook, it's basically a social networking site, kind of like a cross between Friendster and MySpace. You can sign up at www.facebook.com.

Portobello West

I finally got around to browsing around the Portobello West Fashion and Art Market today. It's held at the Rocky Mountaineer Station (near the Home Depot off Terminal Avenue) on the last Sunday of every month 12-7pm.

The market features a great selection of merchandise by various local artists, designers, jewellers, photographers, potters, and other creative types all under one roof. It leans mostly towards women's fashions, but I still found it well worth checking out.

I picked up a couple of things (pictured above): a 60s-ish print fabric panel ($20) and a pretty cool T-shirt (only $10!). In addition, I found myself pretty inspired by the amount of creativity in this city - lots of talented people. I'll definitely visit again.

More info about Portobello West here.

By the way, House of Blues had a booth there too. I also ended up picking up a ticket to the Mando Diao/Pop Levi/The Films concert at The Plaza this Saturday. Should be good!

Evil

Another one of my photos has been featured on the Beyond Robson site. I noticed this creative bit of vandalism some time ago, and finally got around to capturing it. It's actually a closeup of the 'VII' on the King Edward VII memorial fountain outside the Vancouver Art Gallery.

The Beyond Robson photo feature can be seen here.

Excuse me while I pat myself on the back.

A little nephew/uncle bonding time

After a really miserable rainy week, we were finally rewarded with a sunny weekend. I had a great few hours yesterday babysitting my nephew Jack. Got in some good quality nephew/uncle bonding time and actually got a picture of him not making a silly face.

Double the pleasure and double the fun

I went to see Grindhouse this past weekend, which was a bloody great way to spend 3 hours for a movie-geek like me. The film is a double feature of two exploitation style movies (completed with distorted film-damage effects and fake trailers) directed by two other bona-fide movie-geeks, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino. The whole experience was pretty much as it should be - sleazy, gory, trashy and fun. The directors obviously had a blast with the premise and much of it translated to the big screen. If anything, the film confirmed two things to me - Robert Rodriguez is a great action film director and Quentin Tarantino is a great director, period.



Rodriquez' Planet Terror was the first film - a pretty straightforward genre piece about zombies invading a small town. Despite some far superior splattery effects, the film definitely felt like an old fashioned 80s zombie movie. Even the cheesy synthesizer soundtrack felt like something out of Dawn of the Dead or one of John Carpenter's horror flicks. Lots of gross-out scenes too - definitely not for the faint of heart.

Rose McGowan gave a terrifically campy and sweet performance as Cherry Darling, a go-go dancer who loses a leg to a zombie attack. The film also features lots of familiar faces to fans of the genre (anyone else remember Michael Biehn from Aliens and Terminator?) plus an unbilled Bruce Willis as a tough army general.



Tarantino's Death Proof was the second film. Kurt Russell plays a sadistic ex-stuntman serial killer who uses a Cheva Nova as his weapon of choice. It was nice to see Russell playing a badass again; lately many of his performances have been feel-good roles like befuddled fathers or inspirational coaches. I suppose that's what living in Vancouver and being married to Goldie Hawn does to you. With his leathery scarred face and greasy shelf of hair he was perfect for the role and clearly had a lot of fun doing it. There's a great moment where, just before climbing into the driver's seat to pursue some fresh victims, he stops, looks straight at the camera and gives a killer smile.

Tarantino's love for long scenes of dialogue got a little frustrating at times. At some points you felt like saying 'Just get on with it!' Ultimately though, the character-driven scenes worked in the movies favor, setting you up for the action sequences. By the time the shit finally hits the fan, the movie goes full-throttle. The final scenes (and especially exhilarating final frame) were probably the most exciting I've seen for quite some time. Tarantino definitely knows how to wind up an audience.

Special credit must also be given to the directors of the fake movie trailers in the intermission. Rob Zombie tackled a trailer for 'Werewolf Women of the SS' (starring Nicolas Cage as Fu Manchu!). Eli(Hostel) Roth directed a trailer for 'Thanksgiving', a depraved throwback to the slasher films of the 80s where every killer seemed to base his murder spree around a particular holiday or toolbox implement. The funniest though, was probably Edgar (Shawn of the Dead) Wright's trailer for 'Don't'. "If you're thinking of going into that castle... Don't! If you're thinking of going down those stairs... Don't! If you're..." Well you get the idea.

Seems like everyone involved in the film were movie-geeks like me. Thanks guys.

Hail to the Chiefs

I went to see The Kaiser Chiefs last night at The Commodore and had a really great evening. The first band on were The Little Ones, who were pretty tight, pleasant and poppy, but I kind of forgot them after the evening was done. Second band was The Walkmen, who can best be described as having 'flashes of brilliance' - some songs I thought to myself "Hey these guys are really good!" others I thought "Hey these guys really suck!". Maybe they'd sound better on CD - kind of a Strokes meets Velvet Underground meets Bob Dylan (circa late 60s, early 70s) kind of sound.

The evening pretty much belonged to The Kaiser Chiefs though. They have a very cool sound, much like some of the British bands who fell just outside the realm of punk in the late 70s (eg: XTC, Boomtown Rats, Stranglers) plus a little of the cheekiness of early Blur. I don't know what it is about Britain, but nobody can do boozy singalong anthems like Brit bands. I've had the chorus to "Oh My God" stuck in my head ever since.

Just one black mark against them though; on the back of the concert shirt, Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal were listed under their US Tour Dates. We're North American dammit, NOT American.

Public art

I know it's always been there, but it's only recently that I've started to fully appreciate the amount of great street art there is in Vancouver. I came across this piece by 'cameraman' on Union Street while wandering around on my lunch break.

Incredible news

It was recently announced that two-time Academy Award nominee Edward Norton is going to play the next Incredible Hulk. Seriously.

MiniVan

Here's a quick attempt at experimenting with a faux miniature model effect that I recently discovered. It involves using Photoshop and a combination of layer masks, curves and lens blur to create a strong depth of field effect. Didn't turn out too badly, but I think the degree of blur could use some work. I'd be interested to play around with some other other images.

Here's the original photo that I used, taken from the roof of the channel m building:



Here's where I found the tutorial for this technique.

Forms in paper

Icosahedron II

Richard Sweeney makes incredible sculptures out of sheets of paper. Some are created through a process of cutting, scoring and folding - others by slicing and interlocking a variety of sheets.

You can see more of these incredible forms at his Flickr page here.

A small world after all

Ever feel small and insignificant? Here's a blog from London artist Slinkachu featuring his 'Little People - A Tiny Street Art Project'. He customizes miniature models from a variety of sources such as model sets and architectural dioramas, and arranges them into mini tableaux of everyday life. They're placed discreetly at various locations around London and left behind to fend for themselves.

My favorites include the Gallery set (seen above), plus Office Politics (a businessman beating another with his briefcase outside an office building) and Coke (a guy snorting coke with a massive five pound note in the bathroom).

You can check them out here at www.little-people.blogspot.com.

Wild at heart

Director David Lynch shares his thoughts on product placement in movies. Come on David, tell us what you really think...

A bright idea

I love this lamp. Nice innit? You can find more details here.

Found on newstoday.

Children of Men

No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.
-Isaac Asimov, scientist and writer (1920-1992)

A few nights ago I saw Children of Men, a very bleak, but powerful 'what-if' film directed by Alfonso Cuarón. It begins in the year 2027, a time when the world is facing a fertility crisis and the world's youngest person has just been assassinated at the age of 18. The wonderfully melancholy Clive Owen plays a former activist who finds himself entrusted to escort a young woman to a mysterious organization known only as the Human Project.

It would be unfair of me to give away much more of the plot than that. What I did love about this film is that you feel like you're thrown into the story with Owen's character and are with him every step of the way. You feel his sense of apathy and numbness at the beginning of the film and you share his sense of confusion and deperation as the story continues. A large part of this is due to how the film is shot; Owen inhabits nearly every frame of the film. There are a couple of masterful documentary type shots that really pull you into the action without being overly showy or slick. One spectacular one-take shot, follows him for nearly ten minutes as he lurches and stumbles through a chaotic battlefield. At one point, as somebody is shot, even the camera lens is spattered with blood.

I also liked how they depicted the London of tomorrow. It depicts this particular future as if technology had peaked at around 2010 and had slowly begun to decline along with mankind. There are a few hints of changes (different car designs, slimmer computers and animated billboards) but the surroundings are painted in shabby blues and browns. There's also an incredible attention to detail - just check out the London 2012 Olympics fleece in the picture above. The imagery borrows a lot from the depressing footage we see of terrorism and warfare everyday, but brings them closer to home. London is filled with detainee prisons similar to the pictures we have seen of Abu Ghraib, and the streets evoke images of cities like Beruit or Iraq.

The bleakness, however, is softened by an underlying tenderness and feeling of hope. I noticed that there were a few points in the movie that reflected the idealism of the sixties and early seventies. Michael Caine shows up as a pot-smoking former activist, and in a flashback photo of his character, he looks remarkly like John Lennon. The soundtrack makes great use of songs such as The Stones 'Ruby Tuesday', Deep Purple's 'Hush' and in one particulary appropriate scene, King Crimson's epic 'Court of the Crimson King'. Other references include a surprise cameo by the Pink Floyd pig from the 'Animals' album cover and memories of a long dead child named Dylan.

As a piece of grafitti says in one scene, 'The future's a thing of the past'.