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Tuesday, May 31, 2011

How much longer can photographic film hold on?

Yoda would prefer photographic film over digital., wdsiemerii

How much longer can photographic film hold on?
|Read the Article|
AP By BEN DOBBIN - Associated Press | AP – 6 hours ago

I was wondering the same thing yesterday. I was organizing my belongings and came across my Nikon SLR camera along with some film. I thought about loading it up, but it seemed like too much hassle when all I needed to do was flip the "on" switch of my Canon DSLR to start shooting.

I believe hardcore photographers will continue to use film, if not for preference, then for nostalgia. The hands-on process of developing film in a darkroom through the use of chemicals and filters is more labor, but it can be more rewarding. It's the difference between building a chair versus buying the chair pre-made. There is so much more pride in something you build with tools from scratch.

Developing photographic film is definitely a dying art. Even photo labs have to remind people, "We still develop rolls of film." The cost of equipment and developing can be overwhelming. I remember a lot of Photography majors in college taking up gigs at weddings just to pay the bills to do their inspired creative work "on the side."

Digital cameras have made everyone photographers. I don't necessarily mean this in a negative way. The digital revolution has made photography more mainstream and accessible. Many "amateur" photographers are adding great collections to the library of internet archives.

It's all about the ease of usability. A user can insert a SD Card to hold thousands of photos, choose automatic presets, upload the photos into Photoshop or Camera Raw for editing, archive them into digital libraries, or print them on high-quality photo paper straight from their home office printer. It's convenient and simplified.

I have gone the digital road. I have limited formal training; I'm really just a guy who likes to take photos. However, it still takes a lot of time and effort to work digitally. Some of the edits can be performed through actions, color corrections and batch automated processed to make it quicker, but a lot take more careful individual attention.

I remember all the problems I had with developing rolls of film--having difficulty winding the film onto a roll for development in the darkroom, the waiting time for cleansing, not mixing the chemicals correctly, not allowing enough time between chemicals, filters, problems with the initial shots being unfocused or overlapping on the roll, etc. etc. I lost my patience.

Photographic film has already lost its hold on me.

------------------------------

Side note: Along the same lines of photographic film... I like how before the start of the Red's games on radio, the announcer say, "If you're taking down today's starting line-up..." And throughout the games they inform you how to score it as if many people have a pencil and scorecard. I think it's great. It's reminiscent of an earlier generation. How much longer can baseball score keeping hold on?

Mt. Airy: City's largest park turns 100

City's largest park turns 100
Cincinnati Enquirer

A sign erected in 1920 announced the construction of the Mount Airy forest.

Restaurant Promotion

Spicy Chicken: I need a fire extinguisher.

Chick-Fil-A is known for their advertisements using cows holding signs that say "eat mor chikin."

On my recent visit to Chick-Fil-A, I saw a custom die-cut/assembled table display that was a little more impressive than the usual promos I've seen elsewhere. At one point I actually thought a little fire extinguisher was next to me. Good promotion for spicy chicken.

I also enjoy their ketchup packets shaped like little bottles of ketchup, even if I am not a fan of the product.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Friday, May 27, 2011

Key Promotion Mailer


I received a key in the mail for a chance to win a 2011 Chevrolet Equinox. I'll sell it to the first bidder. Bidding starts at $2,000.

The small print at the bottom: ODDS OF WINNING GRAND PRIZE, SECOND PRIZE AND THIRD PRIZE ARE 1:70,000; ODDS OF WINNING FIRST PRIZE (CARIBBEAN CRUISE FOR 2) IS 69,996:70,000.

Your are almost guaranteed of winning a cruise!

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Discussion: Is Vector a Form of Art?

Cropped illustration by Sean Kelly
Discussion: Is Vector a Form of Art?
LoungeKat on May 24th 2011

Original artworks can be highly sought after, but how does digital media fit into the equation? Because a Vector file can be infinitely reproduced, will this form of art ever be held in the same esteem as its traditional cousins? Join us in our community discussion: Is vector an art form?

|Read the Discussion|

For instant updates: "Like" Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. on Facebook

Death Cab For Cutie New Album First Listen

NPR: Death Cab For Cutie "Codes and Keys"

DCFC "Codes and Keys"


Gotta love NPR for streaming some of my favorite artists albums before they are released.

Kim Kardashian Engagement Ring?

Kim Kardashian's $2+ million engagement ring. This bloody rock on her finger cost more than I'll ever be worth. Worth it! Have you ever seen Blood Diamond? It was about this stone.

Kardashian's Engagement Ring, I don't see what the big deal is.

Childhood Cartoons

A facebook profile collage of some cartoon characters I watched when I was a kid.

A Blast from the Past, Cartoon Characters. Collage by wdsiemer ii

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Want a Business Card?

Maybe I shouldn't have printed so many of these things. A thousand fake business cards may have been overkill. I don't feel so cool anymore.

Please take one, or a thousand...

Smashing Magazine Photoshop Article

When creating Web and app interfaces, most designers slave over every single pixel, making sure it’s got exactly the right color, texture and position. If you’re not careful, though, some common functions like moving, rotating and pasting can undo your hard work, resulting in a blurry mess. But with some small changes to your workflow, you should be able to maintain the highest-quality artwork from the start to the end of the project.

Pixel Perfection When Rotating, Pasting And Nudging In Photoshop

Numbers: Sex

Things you'll learn by reading Discover Magazine (Science, Technology, and the Future):

8:1 Ratio of the length of a barnacle's penis to the rest of its body, making it proportionally the largest phallus in the animal kingdom. Among vertebrates the Argentine lake duck is the leader, with a penis that can exceed the length of the bird's 16-inch body.

Ugh, I just searched "Argentine lake duck" on google and the images are not pleasant.

Argentine Lake Duck censored

Photo Fun Club

Art in the Parks: Photo Fun Club
Photo Fun Club
The Photo Fun Club will be exhibiting with the Hamilton County Park District for the first time at Sharon Centre, May 9 through June 9 from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. daily. The 28 members of the club have a vast amount of experience and pride themselves with excellence in the field of photography.

The show can be viewed in the Wildlife Viewing Room and the auditorium. Members and adult guests are welcome. Their number one goal is to have fun, shoot pictures, share and enjoy photography.

Get Directions to Sharon Woods

Dinosaur at new Kings Island exhibit catches fire

The Apocalypse
Second Extinction of Dinosaurs

Artist Rendition of dinosaur on fire at Kings Island Amusement Park
WCPO News
Posted: 9:09 PM
Last Updated: 1 hour ago

MASON, Ohio - Warren County police say that a dinosaur at the new Kings Island exhibit "Dinosaurs Alive!" caught fire around 8:45 p.m.
No injuries have been reported. Fire crews are still on the scene.
It is not clear how the fire started at this time.
No other information has been released.
The new park was scheduled to open May 26.

Stay with 9 News and WCPO.com for updates on this story.

 "It is not clear how the fire started at this time." Uh, probably a meteor. duh?!?

Crumpled Graph Paper Texture

Crumpled Graph Paper Texture 
from the sketchpad

Crumpled Graph Paper Texture, sketchpad, wdsiemer ii

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Preacher says world will actually end in October

From his appearance, Harold Camping may be the only one on Earth who will actually be obliterated on or by Oct. 21.

Put Harold Camping's face on a stick and celebrate the end of the world Oct. 21
Just cut out his beady little eyes so you can see what he sees.

He kind of looks like an Madagascar aye-aye...

Image via National Geographic

The Death of Arcades

The Death of Arcades
by William D. SIEMER II

Finish Him! Ms. Pac-Man wins an ugly custody battle of the pac-kids and pellet support.

Do arcades still exist? Now that home entertainment technology has finally caught up to the electronics that once only existed inside an arcade machine, does anyone really need to leave their home to play the latest and greatest? Today's consoles have movement-capture technology, high-definition graphics, 3-D capabilities, and provide access to streaming movies, internet, music, photos, and more.

When I was young we had several arcades, or we could go to bowling alleys or malls. My friends and I would save our quarters and ride our bikes to the arcade to play Cruisin' USA, Killer Instinct, Street Fighter, or Mortal Kombat. We would try to learn the joystick and button combinations all the moves and Fatalities. It's a fun, nostalgic memory thinking back on it.

However, arcades are a dying art. Most of them are gone, and the bowling alleys and restaurants have quit updating their machines. You can still play some of the classics like Pac-Man and Galaga. I prefer pinball machines. There are a few places you can still enjoy an occasional game while drinking adult beverages. In the Cincinnati Tri-State area, we have Dave & Busters and Newport on the Levee's GameWorks to name a couple.

I have always had an arcade in my house in the Atari 2600. After all the technology comes and goes, it's the simplicity of classics like Asteroids, Joust, Frogger and Pitfall that continually stand the test of time.

Pac-Man: 1 quarter
Wii: 600 quarters
PS3/XBox 360: 1,196 quarters
iPad: 2,396 quarters
Typical Computer: 3,600 quarters

Of Montreal Music

Song of the Day 5/24/11
Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse by Of Montreal
Hear it here!

Facebook Friends

I guess only having 12 facebook friends doesn't exactly make me popular. It seems like a good number of friends in "real" life.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Dog Holding Sign

Designs We've Seen (a lot) Series
Dog Holding Sign

Animals holding signs, particularly inspired by Chick-fil-a.

Dog holding Chili Cookoff sign -wdsiemer


God, How Nice

Harold Camping
Camping's PR aide, Tom Evans, told the L.A. Times that the group is "disappointed" that 200 million true believers weren't lifted up to heaven on Saturday while everyone else suffered and eventually died as a series of earthquakes and famine destroyed the Earth. "You can imagine we're pretty disappointed, but the word of God is still true," Evans said

Saturday, May 21, 2011

My New Business Card

Success is indicated by the title on your business card

I created my own business card for a fake company with an imaginary title. It appears really professional. I just want to engage in conversation with people, and say "Here, take one of my cards." They'll throw it out anyways, but I'll feel important for two seconds.

Friday, May 20, 2011

News of Today

Tomorrows Rapture & "Macho Man" Randy Savage dead.

I've heard everybody's take on Facebook today, and it's all fairly much the same. Most of it had to do with zombies after rapture, slim jims, R.I.P. (I see R.I.P. and I automatically think eery Halloween grave markers, not Rest in Peace), and "ooh yeah!" I was never a fan of wrestling, but it saddens me whenever I hear of a life cut short.

American Idol Lyrics

American Idol "Perfect Harmony" website
Perfect Waste of Time

I was being a dork, and looked into some lyric contest American Idol was running called "Perfect Harmony" where you could help write the next song for Taio Cruz. I went to the American Idol website and clicked on the link. Here was me thinking you actually got to put some credible input into the song; but no, you get to write the very last lyrical rhyme of a horribly written song:

That's why I'm gonna fi-i-ight,
and stand up for my ri-i-ight
______________________________(Your lyric submission goes here)

I kept wanting to write "to paarttty!"

I'm sure thousands of people submitted identical entries because it's a basic rhyming structure. The lyrics being voted on now are as follows:

-Nothing's standing in my way tonight now
-Come and take my hand and let's unite now
-I keep my feet firmly on the ground now

The lyric I submitted was:
This song makes me wanta pop pills and die now

The prize? I think tickets to see American Idol Live, which I would just sell.

Previous Designs We've Seen (a lot) series

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Jeff Brantley Fried Chicken

Jeff Brantley post-game fried chicken
I love listening to The Cowboy, Jeff Brantley, talk about food on the radio. He could go on for hours talking about ice cream, smoked meats, and fried chicken.

Q: Who had the most 30 homerun season while playing with the Reds?

A: Frank Robinson

Disjointed

"Dismemberment" quick sketch, wdsiemerii
based on a Picasso sketch I saw in the newspaper



I am by far not out of ideas for Song of the Day or Designs We've Seen (a lot) Series. I just need a little break from posting them consistently this week, as I am busy designing and working on a new accumulated article/posting.

Today's a good day--designing, drinking tea, and listening to the Red's game (wish they were doing better, losing against the Pirates again.) In the meantime, I will still be posting spoofs (I've limited myself to no more than 10-15 minutes to create them, so the Photoshop work is lame, but you get the point), photos, ideas and articles. I have two new additions to the  Designs We've Seen (a lot) Series family (similar to the previously posted Souvenir Designs segment.)

Pretty Places

Take Me To The Pretty Places

I want to go so many places, but I have a limited amount of funds. Like I said the other day, as close as I'll come to visiting most of these places is through a page in Traveler magazine.

Two of the more notable places I've been outside the continental U.S. is France and Hawaii. France for its history, chateaus, culture and gardens. Monet's garden stood out to me as a very inspirational place. You can see his impressionist paintings in real-time. Hawaii was simply beautiful--rainforests, waterfalls, dormant volcanoes, and stunning beaches.

So, it saddens me when I see articles such as the following because I want to escape and be there. (Not writing about it with pictures on my computer screen.)

World's Prettiest Places
by U.S. News
The Palace of Versailles, France
Photo: jasonb42882/Flickr

Lonely Rogue Worlds Surprisingly Outnumber Planets with Suns

Artist's conception provided

This artist's conception provided by NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory-Caltech shows a newly discovered type of planet that wanders freely or follows very loose orbits. Astronomers have the mysterious denizens of the Milky Way are apparently as common as the stars. One expert called the discovery a huge surprise.… Read more »
(AP Photo/NASA JPL-Caltech)

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Music on a Cloud

Music on a Cloud

I may have been one of the last ones, but Blogger finally restored my blog postings that had been deleted. This gives me some peace of mind that my content will be backed up and safe in the future. However, in the meantime I still back up everything I do.

The new use of "the cloud" (information saved to a remote computer network as opposed to directly to one's computer hard drive) will be music players. Amazon is releasing the Cloud Player and Google, Music Beta.

|Check out this article about these new digital media players.|
For a Song, Online Giants Offer Music in a Cloud
By WALTER S. MOSSBERG

FOX NEWS Unfair & Biased

FOX NEWS Fair & Balanced

Fair & Balanced. Yeah right! How can they even use that tag line? Most of their correspondants are extremely negatively opinionated, biased, self-absorbed, bull-shitters.

Yeah, Fair & Balanced, wdsiemerii

Is the Rocky Alien Planet Gliese 581d Really Habitable?

I am a science nut. So stuff like this really interests me. I also enjoy a good artist's rendition. Artists always make the scene much more spectacular than it actually is.

Image released by European Southern Observatory

An image released by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) shows an artist's impression of the atmosphere around a super-Earth exoplanet, the name given to rocky exoplanets only a few times larger than our own. Gliese 581d, a rocky world orbiting a nearby star, has been confirmed as the first planet outside our solar system to meet key requirements for sustaining life, scientists say.

Arnold Schwarzenegger Child

Arnold Schwarzenegger Child Mash-Up

Instead of publishing a Designs We've Seen (a lot) Series today I've gone with something I'm sure a lot of people are doing right now...

The Sperminator's (as they are calling him) lovechild

John Kasich Hates Pink

 John Kasich on Ohio's Driver's License

"I just got my...license the other day, and everybody says can you change it from pink? And then I looked at it and I went 'Whoa.' So I think we're thinking about whether we can have a better color. I have the authority apparently to do it, so we'll see. We're thinking about it."

|Here's an article from WLWT Cincinnati|

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

National Geographic Photos

I am a huge fan of National Geographic and Traveler magazine. Each edition features amazing photographs and compelling articles. The articles I read in Traveler are as close as I'll get to a lot of places in this world.

Make sure to visit their Photography section. Great inspiration and desktop wallpapers.

The following is a photograph from National Geographic Paris Catacombs. Under Paris lies a secret artistic culture and huge cemetery of lost remains.

Deceptive Display
Behind the neat stacks of skulls, tibias, and femurs in the Paris catacombs lies a chaos of bones. In the 18th and 19th centuries the city dug up millions of skeletons from over-flowing cemeteries and poured them at night into old quarries.

The Crescent Moon Swoosh Logo

Designs We've Seen (a lot) Series 05/17/11
Most Original Logo (The Crescent Moon Swoosh)


Been very busy designing! This is a recycled design. It's kind of what got all this Designs We've Seen (a lot) Series started.

Phone Number Letters

A lot of companies with 1-800 numbers try to come up with catchy ways for their callers to remember their phone numbers, such as 1-800-SKTCHPD. But if you don't give me the numbers I can't call you because my cell phone doesn't work like that. The letters "K, T, H & P" don't even have related numbers on my numerical touchpad.

Historic Cincinnati 1848

I love historical photographs. Check out the restored daguerreotypes of Cincinnati from 1848 at the Enquirer/Public Library.



|View Slideshow|

Earth Song by Michael Jackson

Love this song by the late Michael Jackson. Very inspirational/emotional. It was recently given more exposure on American Idol.

Song of the Day 5/17/11
Earth Song by Michael Jackson
Hear it here!

3-D Street / Sidewalk Art

3-D Street Art by Edgar Mueller




|VIEW SLIDESHOW|








More Sidewalk Art from Artist Julian Beever











Feel Good Bear

Feel Good Bear, wdsiemerii

I loved the Care Bears when I was little. I really did, but this piece isn't about my sensitive cartoon watching tastes.

The Road Runner promotes Time Warner Cable High-Speed Internet. The Pink Panther sells attic insulation. So on, so on...

Now comes Feel Good Bear promoting clinics for medicinal marijuana. Care Bear Stare...