Reliving My Love for Photography

Lately I have been trying to revive my interest in photography. I used to love photography back in high school, my dad taught me how to use his old film SLR cam back then. I used to take a lot of pictures with different subjects. When my dad bought his first digital camera, I also stopped my hobby on taking pictures with the SLR camera.

My fascination in photography halted since I didn't have any means to buy and develop my films back then. What made me enjoy photography back then was the SLR camera. There are just a lot of difference between a point and shoot and a SLR. Asides from the obvious difference in the outcome of the pictures, there is just a different feeling in handling and taking pictures using a SLR camera.

When Zenia bought her Holga camera she asked me to accompany her in a photo excursion with our office mate. While we toured around the rural areas I watched my office mates taking shots with their DSLRs. They took pictures of different subjects and scenery with their DSLR, while I took some pictures with my cell camera. After our photo excursions I uploaded my shots in my computer and noticed my shots were not as good as the ones my friends took with their DSLR.


I was frustrated with the results since I might not be going back to that place for a very long time. I then recalled that my dad still had his old SLR cameras. I borrowed it from him and tested it out and found out it was still working perfectly. Although these were old film SLR camera the quality of the shots were good. Even though I had to spend on film and developing it, this would still be much cheaper than buying a DSLR camera.

Eventually I will buy myself a DSLR camera this december. As for now I will exploit my dads SLR cameras and learn the ropes before investing in a DSLR. I still have to prove to myself that this in not just a phase and that I would find time for this hobby and continue with this it for a long time.

Here are a couple of the shots I took with my film SLR.

Swithing to Open Source Programs

Lately a lot of offices here in the Philippines have switched to open source programs to save on the cost of buying original programs. I did my research on some alternative open source software to their commercial counter part and found out that there are a lot of pretty good and efficient open source counterparts.

Here are some of the list of programs that I am currently using and their commercial counter parts.

Open Source: Blender
Commercial Counterpart: 3D Max

Open Source: DoubleCad
Commercial Counterpart: Autocad

Open Source: Gimpshop, Gimp
Commercial Counterpart: Adobe Photoshop

Open Source: Open Office
Commercial Counterpart: Microsoft Office

Open Source: Gantt Project, Open Project
Commercial Counterpart: MS Project

Open Source: Google Sketchup
Commercial Counterpart: 3D Max

There are a lot more open source programs available and I'm still trying out some of them. I'll post some updates after I finish testing them.

Check: www.osalt.com for more information on open source programs.

Greatest Music Artists of the 20th Century

My interest in art has exposed me in a lot of different forms of art. As a young boy I went to school were art and music was part of our curriculum, which was a big influence in my passion for art and music.

Although I was fond of sketching and painting, music on the other hand wasn't my strong points. I had a hard time learning how to play the violin or being part of the school choir. Even though I loved listening to music, I just did not have any talent and patience to play any instrument.

As I became older my interest in music also grew. My choices of music was very diverse and I never really concentrated on a particular genre. I learned to appreciate music artists by their music and not their genre.

Lately I began to appreciate more some music which had stand the test of time. The artists who made these songs were truly exceptional for excelling in the art of music. These are the artist who would last for generations to come.

Here is my list of the 10 Greatest Music Artist which has influenced the music industry. I didn't arrange them accordingly because I think each one of the are great in their own way and every one of them has achieved incredible status in their own time and genre.

• John Winston Lennon October 9, 1940 – December 8,1980 was an English rock musician, singer, and songwriter who gained worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles. Lennon along with Paul McCartney formed one of the most influential and successful songwriting partnerships and "wrote some of the most popular music in rock and roll history". Lennon revealed a rebellious nature and biting wit in his music, on film, in books, and at press conferences and interviews. He was controversial through his work as a peace activist and artist. Read More

• Robert "Bob" Nesta Marley February 6, 1945 – May 11, 1981 was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician. He was the lead singer, songwriter and guitarist for the ska, rocksteady and reggae bands: The Wailers (1964 – 1974) and Bob Marley & the Wailers (1974 – 1981). Marley remains the most widely known and revered performer of reggae music, and is credited for helping spread Jamaican music to the worldwide audience. Read More
• Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara) (5 September 1946 – 24 November 1991) was a British singer-songwriter, pianist, guitarist and co-founder of the rock band Queen (inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001). As a performer, he was known for his vocal prowess and flamboyant performances. As a songwriter, he composed many international hits, including "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Killer Queen", "Somebody to Love", "Don't Stop Me Now", "We Are the Champions" and "Crazy Little Thing Called Love". Read More

• Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra (December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became a successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, being the idol of the "bobby soxers". His professional career had stalled by the 1950s, but it was reborn in 1954 after he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Read More
  

• James Marshall Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. After initial success in Europe, he achieved fame in the United States following his 1967 performance at the Monterey Pop Festival. Later, Hendrix headlined the iconic 1969 Woodstock Festival and the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival. Read More
  

• Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977; middle name sometimes written Aron)a was an American singer, actor, and musician. A cultural icon, he is commonly known simply as "Elvis", and is also sometimes referred to as "The King of Rock 'n' Roll" or "The King".

  In 1954, Presley began his career as one of the first performers of rockabilly, an uptempo fusion of country and rhythm and blues with a strong back beat. His novel versions of existing songs, mixing "black" and "white" sounds, made him popular—and controversial as did his uninhibited stage and television performances. He recorded songs in the rock and roll genre, with tracks like "Hound Dog" and "Jailhouse Rock" later embodying the style. Presley had a versatile voice and had unusually wide success encompassing other genres, including gospel, blues, ballads and pop. To date, he has been inducted into four music halls of fame. Read More

• Michael Joseph Jackson (born August 29, 1958) is an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. The seventh child of the Jackson family, he debuted on the professional music scene at the age of 11 as a member of The Jackson 5 and began a solo career in 1971 while still a member of the group. Referred to as the "King of Pop" in subsequent years, five of his solo studio albums have become some of the world's best-selling records: Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982), Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991) and HIStory (1995). Read More
  

• Madonna (born Madonna Louise Ciccone on August 16, 1958) is an American recording artist, dancer, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan and raised in Rochester Hills, Michigan, Madonna moved to New York City in 1977, for a career in modern dance. After performing as member of the pop musical groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her self-titled debut album in 1983, and then produced three consecutive number-one studio albums on the Billboard 200 in the 1980s and four more since year 2000. Read More
  

• The Bee Gees were a singing trio of brothers — Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. They were born on the Isle of Man to English parents, lived in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, England, United Kingdom and during their childhood years moved to Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, where they began their musical careers. Their worldwide success came when they returned to the United Kingdom and signed with producer Robert Stigwood. Read More

• The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in 1962 in London when multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones and pianist Ian Stewart were joined by vocalist Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards. Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early lineup. Stewart, deemed unsuitable as a teen idol, was removed from the official lineup in 1963 but continued to work with the band as road manager and keyboardist until his death in 1985. Read More

  
  
  
  

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org

Google Sketchup Tutorials

A couple of years ago, my office mate introduced me to a 3D software developed by google. I was surprised by its versatility but was dismayed about the fact it didn't support some lighting plug ins back then.

I practiced on some of the online tutorials back then and found the program to be very user friendly. It only takes a couple of days for someone who has no background on 3d modeling to learn this program.

I never realized the true potential of the program until I saw most of my former classmates using the program in their renderings. As a matter of fact in my list of programs to learn, sketchup was at the bottom of it.

Lately I started using sketchup again. Its been a while since I last used the program and I needed to practice on it again. I'm relearning the things I've learned back then and discovering some new things along the way.

If your someone who is interested in learning 3D modeling and have no patience to go to school and study I suggest you learn this program and do some online tutorials to help you along the way. Its easy to use and a great tool to help you in your designs.

Here are a couple of links to some tutorials in sketchup:

• http://download.sketchup.com/
• http://sketchup.google.com/
• http://www.sketchucation.com/
• http://www.architectionary.com/
  

Home in a Cave

In the past pre historic man used caves as shelter. They were dependent on these natural shelters before they knew how to build their own shelter. Nowadays we no longer live in caves, we build cozy houses with all the basic amenities needed to make life better.
One family on the other hand decided to make a cave as their home. Unlike the prehistoric cave used by our ancestors, they made some improvements to the cave. If you take a look at it the house is quite big and it has a very spacious interior.

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/cave_home

Landscaping with a twist

I've been working on sample renderings on landscaping projects in the past few weeks. Our online marketing at LazyAnimation has been asking me to make some sample renderings cause he has some potential clients who are asking us if we are capable of achieving landscape renderings. So I started looking for some pictures on some gardens and landscape on the net. I didn't have any idea what type of landscape I would model so I made a random search for landscape pictures.

I saw a lot of beautiful Japanese gardens which really caught my attention. Below is my attempt to produce a rendering of an existing Japanese garden. It still need a lot of improvement especially the texturing of the plants


I continued browsing for some photos on some aerial photos of parks on google and I saw this thumbnail picture of a surreal landscape. I opened the link and found a couple of interesting landscape pictures.


When I enlarged the pictures I was surprised to find out that the trees were actually broccoli. The artist made some great shots of the food that it made the broccoli look like large trees. After browsing through the photos I could finally imagine how an ant world looks like.


for more foodscape photos visit http://www.amazingincredible.com/

Inspiration for Designers Block

It's been a while since I've posted in this blog. I've been busy with some projects lately and I just came back from a very long Christmas vacation. Right after I got back from my vacation, I was faced with a lot of deadlines at the office and some projects. I had to work twice as hard just to meet the deadlines in the office, but what bothered me most was the deadline for the design of one of our residential projects.

We only had a week left and my brother and I still haven't finalize our design proposal. What made things worst was I had a hard time coming up with a design maybe because I still had a hangover from my long vacation. No matter how hard I try to come up with a design I couldn't even come up with a concept.

So I looked for inspirations in the net, thankfully I bumped into this website which featured a lot of incredible designs which made my mind start to work again. This was probably one of the best website I saw as a good source for architectural designs. It features a lot of Architects and designers and showcases their design in their website. The site is actually a magazines website and what I really liked about their site is that it is very easy to browse it. Trendir is the brand of the magazine and it has a lot of valuable sources for design trends. Another website I frequently visit is Architectural Record website.

Thanks to these two websites I was able to come up with a design concept to present to the client. All I need to worry right now is to refine my design and think of the details for the design.