this is pretty amazing

I don't know if you will appreciate this, but since I'm into graphics and photography, this is pretty amazing. The term they are using is called "seam carving". I just heard about this via my email subscription to photojojo.com. I just watched the above tutorial because I simply couldn't believe what I was reading. I still remain skeptical even after watching the tutorial, but even if it only works some of the time, it's really amazing.
I'm not a fan of uploading photos to just any ol' website, so I'm not endorsing Rsizr (yet). Simply just pointing out the technology.
SideNote: As always, this is on a PC only so far. I so look forward to the day when all applications will run on all operating systems.

Tech Tags: photojojo rsizr seam+carving photography graphics art technology

A little bit of excitement tonight...

Well, it was a long day at work. I was tired, and it was hot out. I was wondering what I would cook myself for dinner when I got home from work. I went into the kitchen and the chicken wrapper in the trash had started to smell foul from my previous nights dinner. I grabbed the garbage and headed out of my apartment to throw it in the dumpster. I got about 30 steps out of my apartment (dumpster is about 60 steps) when I heard a guy yell something. I looked up, and there was a police officer standing in the middle of the street, telling me to "Go back into your house!" In that split second, I looked over the police officer's shoulder and I see a line-up of about 10 S.W.A.T. guys all lined up with machine guns, shields, helmets, face masks, handguns, and a hand held battering ram. I immediately turned around and headed back into my apartment (at which time I realized about 15 state, local and unmarked police cars all around, with dogs barking too). What the heck!? I immediately went over to my balcony and tried to see what I could see. A few minutes went buy with nothing happening, at which point I saw a woman with her 2 year old go walking by on the sidewalk. Gee... I guess it's ok to go outside now. So I grabbed my garbage, and took it to the dumpster. I walked back to my front door and proceeded to watch the events. Then it hit me... I should grab my camera! Then it hit me again... I've read a lot of "horror stories" on the interwebs about how police officers don't like their photo being taken. I know... legally I'm well within my rights, but I also know that this was not just a normal traffic stop. This was a SWAT team armed to the teeth. After a while I saw a young woman in handcuffs, and then all the SWAT guys were heading out to the van and taking off all of their equipment (including their facemasks). So I figured everything was pretty much under control at this point. I went inside and grabbed my camera. I stood there for a little while with my camera behind my back wondering what to do. Then I spotted an officer walking near me putting his bullet proof vest away in the trunk. I approached him and said "Sir, I'm an amateur photographer, am I allowed to take some photos?"
At first he ignored me (or didn't hear me). I repeated my request. Then he looked a little annoyed, and said "as long as you don't cross this line, you can" (the line was the police car parked in the middle of the road). Cool! I got permission!
So I snapped a few photos. Then it hit me... I didn't get the officer's name. What if another officer (or swat guy) sees me and tells me to stop taking photos!? What was I going to say? "But, he said I could"... "Who did?!"... "The other officer"... Which one!? .... Um.... Yeah, that's what I thought, now get on the ground! (these were the thoughts running through my mind.)
So, at this point, I went back to my apartment door, and held the camera at my side, and tried taking photos in a much less conspicuos way. Once, I knew I had at least one good photo, I said, "Ok, that's enough, I'm pushing my luck here." I put my camera away in my apartment.
Sure enough, about 5 minutes later one of my neighbors (that I don't know) was outside with his video camera (maybe he saw me with my camera?). Just then, sure enough... two of the SWAT guys walk over and asked him to stop filming. The guy just said "ok" and that was that.
I knew it!
So that's my little bit of excitement tonight.
I have to admit... I was scared of getting caught taking photos! I knew (well, I sorta knew, I'm not a lawyer) that legally I was allowed to take photos, yet I had heard so many stories of photographers getting harrassed, or worse arrested (usually the charges were dropped, but they were probably in the "system").
So, enjoy the photo that I posted above. It's the only one I'm going to post. I did a little bit of photoshop work to protect the identity of the swat guys. I'm not sure what the purpose is of the facemasks, only for them to take them off later in front of people? So in the chances that the officers don't wish to be identified I blurred the photos around their face to respect their privacy.
I still don't know what happened, other than two people were taken away - a man and a woman about in their 20's, and their car was towed away too.

close-up dandelion

A Foto for Friday - TGIF

photos

Is it presumptuous of me to say that these latest macro photos that I took remind me of the famous artist Georgia O'Keeffe? Check out my other shots similar to this on my flickr page.

photo today

A photo that I took of a goldfinch

Book Stack on Flickr

One of the things I enjoy about Flickr are the many "groups" that pop up relating to photography. It makes grabbing your camera and taking part of an assignment fun. I posted my photo above from a new group called "Reading Stack" in that it's just fun to see what other people are reading. The idea is simply to take a photo of what ever is in your reading stack right now. No emphasis on photo rulez, just a photo to convey information. Then like most people, I added a series of notes to give a one sentence review or comment on the books on my nightstand. If you like books like I do, and have a tendency to head towards someone's bookshelf when visiting their house or apartment, then this flickr group might also be interesting to you.

Here's the link to the group page (not sure if you have to be a member of flickr, so if it doesn't work, that's why).
And I've uploaded a bunch of my photos from my trip to California so be sure to check those out too. I got some good ones :)

Tech Tags: photography reading+stack flickr books california

Photography

So the above picture is a lesson for me (and possibly you)... Over the last few days now I've been carrying my camera with me everywhere. It's a pain. It's not a big camera, but with the carrying case (to prevent it from getting dirty or scratched) it's bulky enough to fill my coat pocket (and with warm weather approaching, I need to figure out if I want to wear another item on my belt). BUT... If it were not for my decision to do this, I would have never gotten the above photo. I was pulling up to the curb just as this guy was putting his helmet on to take off. I scrambled the camera out of the case, turned it on, and got out of my truck. I raised the camera to him, pointed in "sign language" and asked if it was ok... the guy gave me a huge smile and gave me the "thumbs up" sign language. So I snapped this shot. I WISH I got a close up of his face, he was an "elderly" (anybody with predominant white hair (beard, mustache, or hair) is elderly) black man and just had that look like he was a nice guy who you feel like you've always known. Then as he drove away, I snapped another (turned out blurry because I was rushing). So now I'm going to feel compelled to carry my camera with me now everywhere for fear of missing another shot. And who says artists don't suffer. Ever since I was a kid, I saw a guy riding a trike, and thought it was the coolest thing ever.

PS> Happy PI day... 3.14

Tech Tags: photography motorcycle trike camera art cool+dude