Sunday, May 31, 2009

Biking in Denver

This rocks! Denver is so well set up for biking. I rented a cruiser bike and making my way south from confluence park along cherry creek. Finally cooled off a bit too! Was 25C now prob closer to 20C.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Outside of Denver

Trees as far as the eye can see!! More when i get back to sf.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

MSNBC: Blockbuster year for Special Effects

Siiiiiiiiiick video from MSNBC about ILM's work this summer!

Awesome week

Could this get any more awesome?
  • Green Day CD rocks
  • Helped Matt move last weekend, so now my good buddy is a closer neighbour
  • Flight of the Conchords show in Berkeley rocked
  • New DMB album released on Pandora... I've listened to 5 of the tracks and I am in pure musical love
  • Going to the Rockies on the weekend
  • Saw Pixar's "Up" for a 2nd time and I love it love it love it love it
  • My BIRTHDAY is on Thursday!!
  • Opening presents from Mom, Dad and Norm on Thursday morning
  • Going for some southern BBQ Beef Brisket on Thursday
  • Gonna give myself another birthday present by listening to the rest of the DMB album on Thursday!
  • Gonna get my new camera bag
  • I love my job
  • This Dave Matthews song I am listening to right now is such a powerful anthem for life ("It's Why I Am... still here dancing with the GrooGrux King")
  • This weekend I'm going on an adventure to Colorado
  • Excited to get onto GTD soon and get my stuff more organized
  • I'm gonna be a project lead for a new project on Monday!!
  • Lausch might come visit soon
  • Finlayson lives here in the Bay which rocks
  • Had some amazing Gnocchi Pomodoro pasta tonight
  • Stuff frickin' rocks
  • DMB Concert streaming on Hulu on Monday
  • DMB album officially launches on Tuesday and I'm gonna listen to it all day and all night...

Monday, May 25, 2009

Big Whiskey on Pandora

HOLY CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BIG friggin WHISKEY free the whole daaaaaammmmn ALBUM ON PANDORA NOW?!?!?!?!?
AHHRHRHRHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHH!H@*&@^#@^#*^@!(*#@@##@##@$#@$#

http://www.pandora.com/davematthewsband

Pandora Radio I love you. My birthday is on Thursday... I'm gonna WAIT... this is an exercise in major will power... gotta listen to the whole album on Thursday as a B-Day Present to myself... ;)

I just listened to the first 5 tracks and I'm over the friggin moon... this is ABSUUUUUUURD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunday, May 24, 2009

The winner?

It was near-impossible to get the 400+ photos down to 31 that I liked, and then down to just 1 to submit to class. I had it down to these 2, and had a lot of trouble picking between then because they are very different.

In the end I decided to send the first one - the skin tone seemed very sharp against the extreme-black background, and I liked the rim lighting and the lights in his eyes.

The one I didn't send (the 2nd one) is less of a close up, but had some interesting elements: the clock in the background, the hands on the table... it tells more of a story. This one I sent is more of a "pure" portrait, I suppose. I like the settings I had for the first one better, too.

This is the "winner"

This was the runner-up.

Camera class lighting lab

Tons of photos from a lighting lab we did at camera class.

I've sorted 400+ photos down to 31... now gotta pick the winner...

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

I'm quoted on Slashfilm!

Woo!!!

My absolute favourite blog ever, Slashfilm, just added a comment I sent in a few nights ago about the Pixar "Up" Balloon House (and what appear to be the Pixar Hopping Lamps) making an appearance on the Season Finale of The Simpsons last Sunday night.

Check out the article here:
Pixar’s Up Makes Cameo Appearance on The Simpsons

"/Film reader Mike Jutan wrote in to inform me that The Simpsons featured a reference to Pixar’s upcoming film Up."

AWESOME! I feel so famous!

Seriously though, best blog EVER. It's really really sharp, excellent writing and always has some really exciting super hot film industry news. Keep up the amazing work Peter et al!

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Canon Rebel T1i vs. Canon 5D

Just spent some time with my new Rebel T1i and Matt asked how it compared to the 5D I was borrowing, here are some details.

The Rebel is AWESOME!!! Just got a small chance so far to try it out but it's working well so far. I really like the idea of LiveView, it's quite nice actually. I can see it being useful in certain circumstances. The new 900,000 pixel high-res screen may be nicer than my iPod!

The ISO range is much better than the 5D cause of Digic 4 and the improvements in software... the 5D is like 4 or 5 years old and it shows in terms of the ISO and noise-reduction, definitely. Also my camera must be about 1/4 of the weight of that 5D beast. People say they like a more "camera-y" camera, but a "solid body" = lots of weight. The Rebel is much easier to carry around on my neck all day.

I love the IS lens. I took a photo at 1/10 and 4.0 and it looks crisp as lettuce. Movie mode seems awesome so far, though you can't use auto focus cause it's loud as heck and you hear it on the video very clearly. Seems very nice, but manual focus is probably a better choice. 1080p at 20fps is a bit weird, and also HUGE on my monitor, so I will likely stick with 720p at 30fps.

Burst mode rocks, I took like 30 photos at Large/Superfine and it just tore through them, it's got like 3.4fps and that is hot. It's weird that you have to thumb-button/scroll rather than jog-dial to change aperture in manual mode, but I am sure I can get used to that.

ILM R&D in the news!

Two great articles referencing our department's work on Star Trek. Awesome!

New Rebel T1i photos, Hangin', Pizza

Some photos with my new camera!

Unpacking the camera

Me at the Ferry Building

Haha this one is funny

Bill's new hair colour

The "Up" Blimp!!

Fishing at the Ferry Building

Fishing at the Ferry Building

Boat, Bird and Bridge

Boat

Fishing at the Ferry Building

Ferry Building

Me at the Ferry Building

Bird

Bird landing

Bird landing 2

Bird landing 3

Bird landing 4

Haha, me looking crazy at dinner

William

Matt and Matt 1

Matt and Matt 2

Matt

Will and Megan 1

Matt and Matt 3

Will and Megan 2