Original DVD's.....

Band of BrothersWhy buy them? I bought a couple of movies in the last couple of weeks. Including the 'Band of Brothers' DVD-box (probably the best TV-miniseries ever). Just to be reminded (again) that the original product (in general) is annoying as hell.

I started the DVD, and the first thing that I saw were some crappy trailers of crappy movies. The menu appeared only after I had FFWD'ed every single one of them.
After watching the first episode I wanted to quickly skip to the second.... No way of doing that besides stopping and starting the DVD from scratch. Which results in trailers etc. of the same (crappy) movies I have no interest in..... Every f*cking button, which might guide me to the menu, on my remote was unresponsive.

First thing on my list when I wake up tomorrow; rip the DVD's, remove every piece of DRM crap and enjoy the remaining episodes my way.
Honest people are hijacked by the MPAA (and associates) by forcing all this DRM crap upon those who buy legitimate DVD's. No wonder people are ripping and copying DRM protected content.

Every now-and-then you try to do the good thing, only to be reminded why you were ripping DVD's in the first place......

Back From 'The Canaries'

We went to the Canary Islands (Spain) last week. One whole week of sleep, sun, eat, and drink (all-inclusive). Today.... back to work. Damn, that's hard.

I didn't take that many pictures. Mostly some experimenting with slow shutterspeeds, and HDR (and the occasional sunset).

More photos on my flickr page.

Lucky shot

I spotted the airplane just in time. It's a KLM airplane heading south. The image is not manipulated (apart from the conversion to black&white).

More photos at my flickr page.

Point & Shoot

Ever since a certain split-up, I'm in need of a decent point&shoot camera. A nice small camera to fit in my pocket for every day snapshot use, but with pro-like features. Why?, because they won't allow you to attend a concert with a Nikon D300 and a 80-400mm lens.. (or any lens for that matter). And the camera on my Nokia N95 is not satisfactory at all.... But then again, it's a phone.

At the moment I'm kinda interested in the Canon Powershot G9, or the Panasonic Limux DMC-LX3 (which is not available yet. The first is.. well... kinda a legend at this moment, but the second is throwing high hopes for that segment. The new Nikon P6000 lacks Mac support and uses a closed RAW format at this time, so that's a no go (even though the integrated GPS in kinda neat).

Guess I have to wait for the first reviews of the Panasonic Lumic DMC-LX3. I hope it's available soon.

Reflecting Windmills

Taken @ Kinderdijk, the Netherlands

More photos at my flickr page

A Day at the Beach

We went to the beach @ Bergen aan Zee last Sunday. Weather was almost perfect. The wind and sandblasting sucked a bit. Especially for the kids. His enthusiasm lasted only for a couple of minutes.

On the beach (the wet sand) the sandblasting itself was gone... Until we had to head back home.

Fortunately, I didn't change lenses during this trip. If I would have, I'd probably had a body full of fine sand and salt. The circular polarizing filter I used did need a proper cleansing.
Wind, sand, and salt... not a good combination. The 'salt-damage' on the polarizer would have made a nice macro, if I would have thought of it :) . Thankfully, it's clean again.

More photos at my flickr page

Photoshop Actions FTW

Have been experimenting with photoshop actions the last couple of days. The latest action (a vintage look) I created (with some help / ideas I found on the Internet.

Combine this with the border/watermarking action and you get the following result.

Learning a bit every day.

Flickr Stats

I've been using for about two years now, and today I found the stats page (you need to log in to view your stats). No idea if this is new, but it sure gives a nice breakdown on your photo activity.

Sad Times

I usually don't put too much personal stuff on my blog. But every once in a while things happen. Things you have to do.... reluctantly.

As of yesterday, I'm no longer the (proud) owner of two of my cats. Both Isabella and Lilly went to a new owner. Four cats was just too much to take care of (all of them were 'left-overs' of a previous relationship).

I miss them already :sad: .

HDR Test

I got my wire remote (MC-30) for the Nikon D300 recently. Finally able to start shooting in the dark (on a tripod) without the fear of movement unsharpness.

More photos on my flickr page