Digital Parsimony

No better way to beat a cold!

I still tend to think that I suck at taking pictures. The reason I got into photography is because my dad and I invested in a fancy camera. The pictures I shot were so bad we thought the camera was defective. We compared it to our point-and-shoot side by side. All my stuff was blurry and out-of-focus. Then I discovered what the little M meant on the dial on top of my still-smelling-fresh Olympus DSLR. I quickly realized that in order to get a better shot than the point-and-shoot camera, I had to do some tweaking. Read the rest of this article »

I stumbled upon an essay discussing a book I found very moving, Library of Dust. In it are a large collection of photographs of what seem like beautifully decaying canisters from the Oregon state psychiatric institution, now a place for violent criminals. Read the rest of this article »

I always thought that ghost towns were just small villages abandoned by people. As in, not too interesting. It turns out that there are tons of these towns and some have very fascinating stories. Below is Gunkanjima, Japan, known as the forbidden island. It was once one of the most densely populated areas in Japan, but ever since oil took over coal as the top source of energy, the whole island was totally shut down.

The Forbidden Island

In 1959, population had swelled, and boasted a density of 835 people per hectare for the whole island (1,391 per hectare for the residential district) – one of the highest population densities ever recorded worldwide. As petroleum replaced coal in Japan in the 1960’s, coal mines began shutting down all over the country, and Hashima’s mines were no exception. In 1974 Mitsubishi officially announced the closing of the mine, and today it is empty and bare, with travel currently prohibited. The island was the location for the 2003 film ‘Battle Royale II’ and inspired the final level of popular Asian videogame “Killer7″.

[10 Most Amazing Ghost Towns]

This is a comparison of the same picture taken with and without a Hoya 58mm PL-CIR polarized filter on the my Olympus Evolt E-510 DSLR. It costs $20 and changes a picture that looks like dirt to something that’s ready to be put in a magazine. I applied no post-processing at all to these two photos… This polarizer is worth every penny.

I finally had some time to post up the pictures from the tips-up event that Brittney’s dad arranged to support our troops. I had a great time at the event and was surprised how long it took to edit the pictures. Some turned out good, some not so good, I posted about one out of three I took. Not bad, here’s a good one that I liked. The troops seemed like they were having a good time and definitely enjoyed all the free gifts they got that day. The event was light-hearted and fun, and a good way to thank the guys for their bravery and courageousness.

The rest are on my flickr gallery.

Check out this link, it shows pictures of the Google HQ. For a company that prides itself for innovation and technology, this really is the place to work. Personally, if I had a similar environment to work in, my creativity would shoot through the roof. There’s enough inspirational material around to even satisfy me… Good for them, it seems like it’s paying off, and I hope more corporate offices get the hint. If you want your employees to be productive, creative, and love working at your company, hire the same interior designer the guys at Google did.

Finally, I uploaded the photos from last week’s party at Nomi. It was a blast and everyone had a great time. Hopefully, there will be plenty more parties like this one in the future. I get to practice my photography skills (which in this photo-set are definitely lacking) and enjoy some great music, not to mention the free drinks…I love free drinks.

Here’s the slideshow:

So I picked up my first real suit today, for my friend Alex’s wedding. Check me out yo!

Yeah, I know, it’s pretty slick. It took a few stores and some crazy sales guys to get this thing picked out. Not only that, but this encouraged me to go out and buy a set of much-needed dress shoes. Well, above is a picture of the whole-shot. If you’re really interested, it’s a Joseph Abboud modern, fitted suit, complete with no-pleat pants and Johnston & Murphy Faulkner Moc Toe shoes.

Alright, so the shirt and tie combo is rather questionable, but I walked into Express and had to buy this shirt. Every time I have walked into the store, I’ve seen this shirt just staring at me, and every time I couldn’t justify buying it. Thanks to Olga, Olya, and Rodion, I used my birthday gift-card to buy a belt and uber-expensive shirt.

Anyway, so that’s me in a monkey suit, I know Popa wanted to see it. What do you think?

Spotted a cool picture of police having nothing better to do than write a man a ticket for just sitting down. But from the aspect of photography, this guy definitely got himself in the right place at the right time.