24 June 09 - 13:51Photos Orfest

I've heard that people couldn't find the photos I took at the Orfest festival.

You can find them here.

View full-screen

Edmond - Photography - Say something... / No trackbacks - § ¶

11 June 09 - 00:12Photoshop workshops

Most of you know that I really, really like Photoshop. No, I really like it. Not only for enhancing my studio shots, but also just for fun.

About a year ago someone came up to me asking for a few Photohop tips. "Sure come on over, and I'll show you". 

One thing led to another and yesterday I've gave my second Photoshop workshop to a small class of eager learners. Isn't that something?

It's awarding in numerous ways; apparently I have teaching skills, people go home satisfied with the feeling they have learnt something, and I learn more Photoshop secrets along the way.

4 more sessions to go. So, if you like to sign up for the second series of workshops? Drop me a line and I'll put you on the list for the next class.

Edmond - PhotoShop - Say something... / No trackbacks - § ¶

10 June 09 - 23:59The new house trained pet

Time for some updates!

Since I won't be taking massive vacations this year anyway, I've been to China and France already after all, I've decided to spend some of the freed up money on a new server. A Mac Mini, that is. The last few days I've been busy reinstalling Mac OS X numerous times because of the plentiful cluster-fucks I inflicted upon the poor thing.

Ain't it the sweetest thing with a footprint slightly larger than a cd-case? 

This is what it is supposed to be doing:

• Mail : check!
• Web : X
• Printing : check!
• Scanning : check!
• Video (HD) : check!
• Music : check!
• TV channels : check!
• Podcasts : check!

Edmond - Tech - two comments / No trackbacks - § ¶

02 June 09 - 01:23In Between

Visited my parents last week. This is the view (sort of) from their back yard:

Click for Full...

Edmond - Photography - Say something... / No trackbacks - § ¶

22 May 09 - 02:01Music and the power of it :)

The original of one of my favourite At The Gates tracks:

And the Bluegrass version:

Edmond - Music - Say something... / No trackbacks - § ¶

25 April 09 - 20:0437

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me. :)

Yep, that time of year again. Everyone who feels the need to get a beer or something, feel free.

Edmond - Boeken - one comment / No trackbacks - § ¶

19 April 09 - 04:48Best of 2009

I made some really good stuff in China, but this has to be the best lucky human shot of 2009. Humans, and their euhm, stuff. 

Oh man, I love this shit... :=)

Edmond - Photography - Say something... / No trackbacks - § ¶

18 April 09 - 14:495D mark II is exit (for now)

Yesterday my neighbor, who is a professional photographer, rang the doorbell. He had rented a Canon EOS 5D mark II for a particular shoot. He very kindly offered the unit to me for a couple of hours to play with.

It is truly a great camera with a unique feature-set, but what I was afraid of proved to be true. At 25MB per photo, the files are too big... My dual-core iMac just isn't fast enough to render the files within acceptable times. It is possible to throttle down quality by using smaller RAW settings, but that would not make any sense to me. Same goes for the full HD video. The camera shoots video in H.264 format at 30fps. This codec produces very clunky output which means you'll have to convert the files first to a somewhat smoother format. With keeping both original and converted files on disk, this boils down to 1GB of disk space per minute(!) of video, not to mention the time it takes to convert it all. Hello 8-core MacPro!

I'm not up to this just yet. Bye bye, mark II...

Edmond - Photography - one comment / No trackbacks - § ¶

29 March 09 - 15:41China, looking back

It's been over a week since my return from China. Although it was only a two week stay (a little less), it felt like I've been away for months. The first few days in Holland weren't too pleasant. The thought of having to face the daily routine of Dutch life wasn't very appealing at all. Of course, it was very nice to see my girlfriend and everyone else again, but I really felt like getting the next flight back. :) I miss the people, the food, the life. Funny, how a strange country can grow on you in less than 14 days. Bizarre...

Anyway, it was a great experience and a wonderful memory to keep. I'm certain I'll go back some time. Thank you, René, for inviting me along. To all my friends in China who read this; thank you for a great time and all the beautiful places you have shown me and for the fantastic foods. Special thanks to Leon and his mother for the hospitality, generosity and taking care of us (Enjoy more!) so well!

I'm still not finished with post-processing all the photos, but a gallery can be found here. *click*

By the way, anyone interested in buying my second Canon EOS 5D camera body?

Edmond - Photography - four comments / No trackbacks - § ¶

15 March 09 - 11:32Chinese Fireworks

Yesterday we've visited a giant mountain temple. I've always been a fan of ancient human-made constructions, but that has always been limited to stuff I've seen in Europe. This is one impressive structure, you might say...

Next to burning insence and wishing good luck and prosperity for close ones, it is custom to set off fireworks to scare off evil spirits. 

The sound of the fire-crackers is really ear-numbing and it took a few hours before the *squeeeeeeeeek* in my ears wore off. :)  Lots of shops surrounding the temple sell tons of fireworks in different shapes and sizes. I guess this would make Dutch fireworks-lovers gaze in disbelief as this is a normal, day-to-day passtime.

A video of the spectacle can be found here.

Edmond - Photography - Say something... / No trackbacks - § ¶