epiic (SpookyElectric)

Quick notes

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:59:06 GMT

Busy week. I'm behind in reading posts. I hope to catch on reading up before PMX.
I'll be at Yaoicon this weekend. Finally wearing Nyx.
I'll be at PMX too. Anyone looking for photoshoots?
No AUSA, as much as I'd like to.
I will be visiting the east coast briefly in Dec though.

Ilford Delta 3200

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 08:28:55 GMT

B&W processing is expensive O.o! Too bad my developer tank & D-76 is on the other side of the country and probably long since expired.

Mikomicon

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 04:32:56 GMT

Mikomicon Cosplay & Concert Pictures are up. Only one month delayed.
Slideshow mode was broken for some browsers. That should be fixed now.

Too busy to write up much - go check out the gallery, there's some cool stuff in there.
Con Summary: Con was good, but hot. Wish I woke up earlier and could stay later to beat the heat. Still, got a lot of good photo time in, just had to deal with 90-some degree heat.
Also, CVS Fails: They cross processed a roll of E-6 35mm film as C-41, which for some Holga shots, worked nicely. But for my SLR ones that I wanted correct colors, I had to fiddle with curves to revert the effect - one such image.

Fanime... shortly after Yaoicon probably. Gotta work on cosplay.

Random Questions, re:Healthcare debate

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 21:45:53 GMT

In the healthcare debates, I here it often referenced how things cost much more in the US than other developed countries.
The debate is primarily about health insurance, right? And making a public option for that.

So, it is made to sound like insurance companies are a key part of why things are more expensive in the US. I can see where they would lead to being more expensive being an extra layer, and profit oriented. But it's always been my understanding (long before more recent discussions) that the reason US healthcare was so expensive was because: #1 law suits, and the extra money that needs to be collected to deal with them, #2 FDA regulations requiring more testing and such related expenses on drugs, treatments, etc. #3 supply & demand - not as many doctors, plenty of people in need.

Taking the profit layer out of insurance would have minimal impact on the cost compared to those other factors. Right?

Or what am I understanding incorrectly? (And if you reply, citing sources would be appreciated)

Also, a key related point is the idea is that profits and insurance don't mix. Conceptually that makes sense. But aren't there non-profit options already? As I understand, in some states BCBS is operated by non-profit companies, and they seem to be the largest provider out there. And how is a government option that much better that a non-profit option?

Sorry this is kinda lazy - asking rather than really researching. But I'm curious, and figure some of you may know.

Delayed AX Effect

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 23:18:40 GMT

Anime Expo 2009 Cosplay Photos

::sigh:: I really wanted to find a Hard Gay for her to smack around...

Next will probably be Mikomicon then Fanime.

I read about an outdoor movie night this Friday in Little Tokyo from super_no_1. I'm not so into Leiji Matsumoto, but may go an an excuse to grab dinner around there. Anyone want to grab something to eat together before hand?

Natsu no Owari

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 03:52:17 GMT

I've uploaded a small collection of photos from recent small summer events: Summer 2009

anime_chef's icecream / beach gathering:

A few weeks later, tsuzusushi invited me to take pictures of her, chiharu_octavia & krispy_kream in their Professor Layton costumes. Unfortunately, when we started shooting, I had already been up almost 18hrs. I also wasn't very familiar with the game.

There are better focused pictures of chiharu_octavia too, but I wanted to keep with the Holga theme. A video was made as well - I played the roll of the tripod.
Now that I've played the first game through, we'll have to try again when I'm awake.

Following weekend was _shiya_wind's birthday.

Latest outing (no pics yet) was yoshikochan's anime marathon party. It was a fun event (thanks for organizing it).

Next Event

I'll be at Mikomicon definitely on Saturday, probably on Friday (depending on how work goes) and probably not on Sunday. My primary goal for the con will be taking pictures. So feel free / encouraged to ask me to take pics.

More Pictures

I joined teddybeartensai's 365 photo blog: locketheart ♥ daily photos. (just mine) Basically the idea is to take a picture every day. I've been tempted to engage in such a project for awhile - I think it could be valuable, but it's pretty daunting. I expect there to be a lot of pictures of food.

Science!

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:19:21 GMT

envirion mentioned a recent trip to Franklin Institute, a science museum in PA. I used to love going there. And that has me randomly wanting to visit a science museum. Or really any large museum.
What cool museums are there in LA or OC? Any that you guys recommend? I know of LACMA - I have yet to go there but have been meaning to. And I assume Griffith Observatory has some sort of museum/tour/something associated with it.
Anyone want to go on a random museum trip? either the 13th, or maybe the last weekend this month? (or other date that fits the schedule of anyone interested?)

Unrelated, if anyone is curious the conclusion to my computer quest was buying a Sony TZ195N/XC. Older, but therefore in my price range, and still more capable than the higher end netbooks. A little bigger than I wanted, but small enough. And battery by my tests can be stretched to last 9.5hrs. But realistically is ~4.5-5.5. I was hoping for more, but not low enough to inspire me to buy the extended battery. Solid State Disk is pretty nice - some work related stuff goes faster on it that my desktop.

Nisei Week

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 01:34:31 GMT

The past few days were made almost entirely of win. Saturday I headed to the Nisei Week Festival in Little Tokyo. I couldn't make it last year due to Otakon related travels.

Shortly upon arriving, I met Jessica Zeta from UCLA is a cute yukata, that I regret photographing since I wasn't yet the the picture taking mood. Then encountered Tomo from UCLA. Then had taiyaki. (I need to make some of my own again soon.) Then met up w/ SoCal cosplay regulars: evalime, evanae, itsukayume, luffyxii, minhsoi, muzek, sephtastic, qcamera, super_no_1, ycysusan and a few others. ycysusan was training to be a creepy photographer.

We went to the JACCC gardens, took pics.

Parts of downtown LA are really a jungle, not just figuratively.

Went up to the roof gardens at the Kyoto hotel and didn't get kicked out. Encountered suguishi on the way. Discussed methods for stalking pop stars.

Got a call from tweetychick630 about meeting up for food at Orochon. I didn't have a real lunch, expecting to do more snacking. So though early for dinner I was pretty hungry. mmm... Orochon. I haven't eaten there in too long. Noodles were a little under cooked, but I don't think that really detracted from anything. Switch to hanging out w/ UCLA people. tweetychick630, her bf, Kevin, Neo Jessica, char350, Michelle, her bf, Abraham.

Overall, a slow day, but in a good way.

Sunday!

I didn't plan to go Sunday, but since tweetychick630 was going to be in the parade, I figured I would. Saturday I only had film cameras. (from which only one camera's film has been developed) Sunday I shot digital. Way more pictures. I went through them pretty quickly. Not much post besides ZOMG Saturation mode on a few. Gaudy. but I think it works with the festive nature, so :P.

Went there with Michelle & Abraham from UCLA. Encountered Neo Jessica, Gretchen, Tim, and dust_eden at the cosplay contest. There were skits. Some skits with dancing. Then more dancing.

After met up w/ char350 & others from UCLA. Ate Yakisoba. Went to Weller Count to get Ramune from Marukai. Got briefly kidnapped by fattastik, met the crew that was preparing to eat at Curry House: _shiya_wind, celes_aurora. x_angel_wings_x, hakuku, akusesu, super_no_1, and others. But that the time, I was supposed to be meeting wintressrain, and had just eaten, and the parade was going to start soon, so regrettably I couldn't stay longer.

Met w/ wintressrain & Laurence (infernodude?), sent a text trying to find dust_eden (oops, forgot no texts to him), re-joined UCLA group to watch the parade. Wow. It was a long parade - about 3 hrs. And tweetychick630 was in one of the last groups.

Bunch more pictures in my gallery. Including some guy dancing on a boat.

Afterwards, met up with dust_eden, naoekun, maguma_sama, Tim, and others for dinner at Chin-Ma-Ya under Orochon. Food was good - I'll have to eat there again some time.

After dinner, _shiya_wind and super_no_1 joined us.

Also on Sunday I saw blanklogo in passing, and saw clueless_case, but didn't have a chance to speak to her. Hopefully there's no one I forgot to mention. (or mentioned that wasn't there - that'd be really awkward)

Monday!

Six Flags Magic Mountain with wintressrain, Laurence (infernodude?) and Breezy. My first time at that one. I think last time I was at an amusement part was Great America by SCU when I went there.
Batman kinda messed me up. If I had lunch, I would have lost it waiting to get off. I think it wasn't just that, but going to a few of the more intense ones before that without time to recover due to no lines. I had to sit out one. Then we went on Ninja, which is really not bad at all, but it seems I hadn't quite recovered enough, so I passed on Superman.

I think we went on Viper, Goliath, Colossus, Scream (I think), Batman, Gold Rusher (twice), Revolution, Ninja, and Tatsu. Jetstream was the one water ride we went on.

Personally I think my favorite was Gold Rusher. A little wussy but whatever. :P
Tatsu was the most interesting, but as not fun overall.

As a random observation, the part of roller coast rides that kinda scares me is the initial climb up. And I noticed I duck instinctively any time there is something remotely overhead.

tweetychick630 in her Odori group, Kyo no Kai.

All pictures

The Seventeenth Angel

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:13:07 GMT

SpookyElectric's Comic Con International Cosplay Photos

As a reminder, there's a slide show option. Just four costumes - Tabris (Kaworu) (Chromosome XX ver) from Eva (so many shots...), Linali from D.Gray-man, and Sniper Wolf & Otacon from Metal Gear Solid.

Hello there, world

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 05:44:21 GMT

anime_chef's ice cream beach thing last weekend. Thai Tea ice cream! A sandcastle was built. With a graveyard. People I affiliate with are awesome. Photos are on film, so who knows when I'll post them.

Next weekend I'll be heading to Little Tokyo for Nisei week activities. I plan to be there most of Saturday. Sunday is iffy.

The following weekend, I'm tempted by The ALA Picnic. Anyone else going? (I'm guessing no, in favor of private shoots elsewhere?) I also may drop by Blizzcon in Anaheim to see some friends.

Then there's Anime Vegas. wintressrain wants me to go. I'm not too keen on Vegas. But it sounds like it'll be fairly cheap, and maybe I can give the town a second chance. But, I need to make sure I get a competent portable computer first.

Later in September, I'll be attending Mikomicon @ CSU Northridge. (Nice place for taking pictures.)

And I'm probably attending Yaoicon. And also PMX.

If any of you are interested, I'd really like to do more non-convention shooting.

Also, if you ever feel the need to repay me (you don't need to), I suggest food. geronkizan sent me some Banana bread he made that I'm snacking on right now. mmm. thanks.

Still working @ Fanime pics...

(I think qcamera directed the pose)

Convention for Otaku Generation

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 15:43:00 GMT

SpookyElectric's Otakon 2009 Cosplay Photos

Friday for me was mostly a day to cosplay, rather than take pictures. So, all I really have to show for it is:

General Klaud Nine / Cloud 9 from D.Gray-man worn by animalboything. The concept was: Cloud 9 just returning to find her students all deceased. Warm light from votive candles against cold light of the halls of the order.

Saturday is when I took nearly all the pictures. Starting by trying to make downtown Baltimore look more like a village:

The best pics I think I took at the con are from the Steampunk set:

I saw them while eating lunch, and asked them to call me back later once it got dark. They did. Yay. Unfortunately, my POS Cactus triggers were being extra fail, and only one actually worked. So I had to skim the people with the flash and rely on bounce off walls / columns / reflectors for a secondary light.

Then a panel on the benefits of facism:

And finally D.Gray-crack.
...and perhaps my favorite pictures for in-characterness:

Bak (D.Gray-man) is the founding member of the Dark Order's Creepy Photographer Brigade.

Next are ComicCon pics (few days? probably less than a week), then probably Fanime then AX.

Comic Con

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 11:52:41 GMT

So, there was this little event in San Diego last weekend. I went. Sort of:

- Arrived Saturday Night, later than I planned (~8:30pm vs 7pm), met wintressrain

- Lightrail/Trolley to room to drop stuff off. wintressrain wrapped up making her Tabris/Kaoru cosplay.
- At stillvisions panel at Otakon he mentioned bounce off colored walls is a problem. I don't really agree. Colored bounce can be fun. Flash bounced off red railcar in first pic. With white balance, the background/shadows can be the interestingly colored part. (2nd pic)
/
- Photoshoot of Tabris. Covered ~4miles of territory in the pictures.

- Wrapped up the shoot finally making use of the NERV projector slides I made for Otakon, with help from dust_eden holding it while I shot wintressrain. dust_eden wanted a pic with it too:

(If any of you are curious about how that works, see my post from last year's Code Geass shoot)
- Back to room. Circuit breaker tripped. Left dark room for ~3:30am dinner @ Denny's

- Sleep ~5:00a, Wakeup ~8:30a, shower / get into Cross
- Off to con, shoot some of wintressrain's Linali
- Discover tweetychick630 while going in to the con center.
- Back out for D.Gray shoot by Eric. Encountered some friends from SCU on the way. (Shiaw-lin, Loretta)
- In to Mariott to cool down. Try to collect people for lunch. No luck.
- wintressrain wants to leave. She left to hotel. Realized I have her keys, and had to head back too.
- Back to con, found themarchingoboe who I haven't seen since we met at PMX. Chatted, wandered exhibit hall. She had to catch a train.
- More wandering, bumped into tweetychick630 again (well, literally bumped into a friend of hers she was with), then met up with dust_eden, our other roommates, and others.
- Off to MSG shoot w/dust_eden. Both of us had some gear failures. Got a few shots before leaving to dinner.
- Dinner @ Yard House w/ dust_eden, tweetychick630, and two of her friends (Ryan, and R???). Encountered blanklogo there as well. The dinner there and hanging out with them was probably the highlight of the weekend. (Next best part was the Sat night shoot)
- Had to leave because Internet Explorer sucks and a security feature of ours caused IE8 users with certain plugins to not be able to use our site. Lack of competent laptop means I couldn't stay in SD and take care of it remotely. (grr... I think I'm going to have to buy one soon for my sanity)

Thanks to ktmonkeyj for not going, so I had a badge to use part of Sunday :)
I wish I could have seen more people, but at least I think the people I missed are all ones I see more frequently anyway.

Otakon & ComicCon pics in ~1wk. Fanime & AX Pics ~2-3wks?

NJ / Otakon

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 21:45:06 GMT

I'm in New Jersey. Will be till Thursday for Otakon.

My Fujitsu laptop died a few weeks ago, so I'm left with using my sister's older PowerBook G4. Gaah. 512M ram is barely enough for the way I do web browsing. So, I'll be getting even more out of date on reading LJs & blogs. And speed/memory are very inadequate for RAW photo processing. So, it seems I won't be doing anything with the thousands of photos I have to sort though until after Otakon. And probably won't be posting any until after SDCC. To hold you over, some eyecandy:

For Otakon, I don't have a scheduler per-se, but in general, my priorities are (in order):
1. Kanon Wakeshima Concert
2. Evangelion shoot(s) w/ Maria & Amelia
3. MELL Concert
4. Cross w/ Cloud 9
5. Any photos other people want

Neo Angelique

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:47:41 GMT

Hey...remember that con a few weeks ago in San Jose? I have more pictures!

whitelilacs as Angelique

yoshikochan as Rene

whitelilacs as Angelique, yoshikochan as Rene

nightroad as Roche, lunaneko as Hyuga

whitelilacs as Angelique, lunaneko as Hyuga

shintenshi as Jet, whitelilacs as Angelique

shintenshi as Jet

Random bonus, while working on whitelilacs/yoshikochan pics:

Next set to get through will be wintressrain as Lilith from Anima Mundi

This past Saturday was a pretty lousy day, where something that was supposed to be less than 2hrs, ended up taking essentially the entire day due to everything imaginable not working right and then some. Sunday however was an excellent day. tsuzusushi came by for a late breakfast. We hung out a bit after. She was looking for pictures, so I took some. (the one I thought cutest, and a few others to the left / on flickr) Then yoshikochan came over, we had lunch, worked on cosplay (mostly electric waves girl from Furuba for her, Nyx for me), had dinner. Made decent headway I think for the time I spent on it. Though I probably should have spent more time.

Since all the cool kids are doing it, here's a bit of my work-in-progress on Nyx from Neo Angelique for whitelilacs's group.

Zippers!

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 11:13:39 GMT

This is partially a note to myself, but several of you may find it useful as well.

Exploring the FD today, I found a really expansive zipper store. They sell other fasteners and trimmings too, but they are primarily zipper oriented. Personally, this is exciting, because I was missing a place to rival NYC's Active Trimming Co (website, seems to be timing out... my catalog from them says 250 W39th, but google search says 247 W38th... so I guess one of those if they're still in business).

The LA place is Zip-Up Zipper: 829 Wall St., LA CA 90014 / http://zipupzipper.com

So, you you're looking for zippers with say a more unique pull to match Range Murata's designs or something, that seems to be the place to go in LA.

Unrelated, Pika Pika Light Painting Experiments. (discovered by a recent post from digikoomi)

Make Me Money and Your Life Easier at the Same Time

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 13:06:32 GMT

Mitto.com: The best Safe, Secure, Buzzword, Synergy, Online, Web 2.0 Software as a Service for Password Management and Sharing and Ultimate Enlightenment
Mitto is my company, started as a spin-off of an internal project at my previous employer. We are now initiating a push to widen our user base beyond the initial testers. As such, I'd appreciate it if you took some time to check it out, and relay the message to anyone you know who may be interested. And if you want some random YouTube content to explore, watch Mitto commercials.

The Idea

At my previous company, we had passwords that needed to be shared among several people. And those passwords often needed to periodically change. So, I made a tool to collectively manage them. Passwords could be shared (via internal RSA public key cryptographic system, transparent to the users) and instantly updated for everyone when the time came to do so. The base version took about a weekend. It had to expand a lot from there, and mitto.com is a fresh-rewrite sharing only the base concept in common.

Then we started using it for pretty much everything - even for personal stuff. And it became apparent that many of us really use far more sites than we thought. (In my case, I think I have something like 130 sites setup)

Since it doesn't require installation, I can use it from any computer. And security measures like two-factor authentication help keep data secure even on untrusted machines.

One Ring to Rule Them All

One big concern people have is that now they have a bigger problem if their Mitto password is compromised.

Previously, I had about 9 passwords, but most of my websites (except banking & E-Mail) shared just two of those. Many sites do not use SSL, and I use public wifi often, and many sites have very poor password management, such as storing them in plain text or E-mailing them to you in plain text. So it's easy for a malicious party to have intercepted one of those, and with that potentially gain access to a more important service. So, compromising one of those re-used passwords, or my E-Mail account already was a large single vulnerability.

Now that problem does still exist, but with Mitto, I have two factor authentication, so even if my password to that is compromised, my account is still safe. And if any one of those sites is compromised, it's just that site, since passwords are now unique. So, overall, I'm much safer than with passwords re-used many places floating around wifi networks and E-Mail servers.

Not a Hoax

This would be a great scam. I assure you, it isn't. I believe disreputable practices will inevitably be undermined. Especially since I don't see myself as very lucky, hoping I don't get caught isn't something I could count on even if I did try to do something malicious.
However, skepticism is well founded. I store banking information in our service because I believe in eating my own dog food. But others would be understandably not so comfortable. But much of what you log into, such as online communities, are not that critical. So, I hope you'll at least consider using us for those sorts of sites.

Also, this is not a small operating running off a shared hosting provider. We operate a half rack full of equipment in our own locked half-cabinet in a datacenter. Servers run with their operating systems and software read-only, among many other security measures. (With more even layers of security in the works.) No critical data (i.e. your usernames, passwords, notes, etc) touches hard disks or travels outside a server (i.e. over Ethernet cables) unless it is encrypted.

In the works

Right now, you can't auto-login to some sites. I'm working on a new version of the bookmarklet that will allow you to login to pretty much anything, without having to go to our site first. Unfortunately, it's a bit tricky due to measures I'm taking to prevent XSS vulnerabilities in other sites from possibly being used to extract data from us. Unfortunately that will probably not be ready for about two months.

Also, I'm planning an API that would facilitate using Mitto for things other than websites. (Again, this is a much more challenging task than it sounds due to the tricky matter of being flexible enough to be widely useful, while ensuring sufficient security, while maintaining ease of use.)

In the distant future (i.e. not this year, maybe next), Mitto may also be usable to sign up for new sites.

What I do

The company is small, but not just me. Arsen, a friend from college, and co-worker at my prior job founded it with me. He is in charge of most business aspects, and manages the support system. I am the lead software architect, and do the majority of the implementation for app.mitto.com. Network engineering and system administration ends up being my domain as well. Most graphic design type tasks, are Matt Ash's work, such CSS/Logos/Icons, and well as most of the brochure website at mitto.com.

Feedback?

I'm interested in any thoughts, questions, etc., that you may have. And if you find anything confusing, or have idea for improvements, please let me know.
You may post here, or E-Mail, or use the "Feedback" option when you are logged into Mitto.

Oh... and if you want free stuff, like Netflix, Southerwest, or Amazon gift certificates, you may be interested in out one-day only promotional contest. Get others to sign up and list your E-Mail address when they do, and you can win stuff.

Regularly scheduled programming of photos, cosplay, and random outings will resume when I get some more photos processed. I promise I won't spam again any time soon. On the subject of cosplay, I was meaning to visit FD Friday or Sunday, but neither worked out, so my next plan is visiting FD this Friday (or *possibly* Thursday). Anyone interested in meeting up? Maybe for lunch around there?

Various

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 23:29:36 GMT

It seems pictures on my site had a weird pixel aspect ratio issue. So for some people, my pictures ended up looking stretched when opened in some software. The resize & label script has been revised with an extra step which solves that problem. (Not sure what caused it, but saving it as a different format & resaving as JPG fixes it) So, all future image should be fine, but if there are any already posted pictures that you had problems with, let me know, and I will re-save them for you.

No Neo Ange pics yet. Too busy. Enjoy tsuzusushi and her friends' Star Trek: TNG in the mean time.

Related to being busy, my company is looking for unpaid interns. Position is slightly technical - requires some basic understanding of HTML, but not much beyond that. Does require working in West LA, not telecommuting. If you think you might be interested, let me know, and I'll get you more info.

Also related to being busy, wintressrain is looking to coordinate some cosplay sewing parties before AX. First being this fri and/or sat (her post). Then possibly again around the 20th. Location would be in Corona. If you're interested, I guess post in her LJ, or let me know.

My desktop looks like this because I've been too lazy to change it, only stretched across too screens (also not feeling like taking a screen shot). My older desktop is more interesting.

Shiny

Sat, 30 May 2009 07:17:25 GMT

wintressrain was bugging me about Fanime pictures. Waiting for stuff to recompile, I did this to hold her over.

(Shininess is playing around in post, not optical filters. I don't think this is a good picture. But I wanted to try out that Star Trek look, and this had suitable in-frame light sources. Not sure it makes any sense here. But might be cool for something sci-fi-ish, if anyone is interested in that sort of look.)

Neo Angelique shoot up in a week maybe.

While waiting, you should practice Spiderman para-para.

Today at the UCLA Alchemy Club...

Sun, 17 May 2009 04:05:05 GMT

tweetychick630 completed a successful chimera.

Shana (Jessica) is now part moose.

SoCal Spring Picnic 2009

Fri, 15 May 2009 21:59:27 GMT

SoCal Cosplay Spring Pictures

Picnic was fun. Arrived with wintressrain and dramaelf. Spent most of the time with them, tsuzusushi, krispy_kream, chiharu_octavia, legally_scarlet, hyper_sam, daoutlaw, and Jared/Erudito. And not nearly enough time with everyone else. And I think some people I managed to completely miss. (Sorry)

I wore my Last Exile mechanic uniform. Mostly since I felt everything else I had worn too much. And with that one I could get a tiny bit more sleep by skipping shaving. I'm amazed how many people recognized it. I think more than when I wore it to cons (~2003-2004).

Being a little burnt out from work, I wasn't feeling too inspired photography wise. So very few pictures. (Despite having three cameras) The cat is dramaelf's.

Trip back was a bit of an unwanted adventure. Plan to take the train kinda failed due to getting the train in the wrong direction. Thankfully wintressrain saved me by giving me a ride back. (Since there were no more trains North from where I got stuck.)

Next up - UCLA cosplay picnic tomorrow, and then something in San Jose all too soon.

Play Time

Wed, 13 May 2009 03:36:53 GMT

That's International Pillow Fight Day, as captured by my most recent photography purchase, a Holga. I had it set on bulb mode for the whole first roll. :/

Yeah... no fancy new DSLR. Instead, a camera that is barely a step up from a disposable one. Some web wandering, lead to a page outlining some lo-fi camera fun. I got more interested in the idea after discussing Polaroids and such with my sister. (She got a Diana instead) As you guys have probably noticed, I like to try out new weird ideas with my photography. And I currently tend to spend too much time fussing with camera settings, and that forces me not to.

But that didn't stop me from taking a way-too-technical approach. After I finished the first roll, I as soon as I got home, I took it apart.

It has "Sunny" and "Cloudy" settings, but there is a smaller aperture limiter earlier in the optical path, so the switch does nothing. (You're stuck with "sunny" f/12-ish) I modified the camera to remove the earlier aperture disc, and added a bit of rosco foil with a hole in it at the new adjustable aperture.

Doing some tests, my new apertures are about f/6 and f/11. (~2 stop difference) I used the holga lens on my Nikon, taped open in bulb modem and fired a flash. Then tried to match the exposure with a normal lens. (the 18-55 Nikon kit lens)
The aperture really should be earlier in the optical path, so at "Sunny", there is very strong vignetting. (not visible here due to the very small size of the APS-C sized sensor compared 120 film) (Maybe this is why the base design has it in fixed in that position.)
There is also a significant soft focus/glow effect present at the wider aperture.

I did a similar test for shutter speed. Again, using the Holga lens on my Nikon. This time, continuous light, and Nikon on bulb, and using the Holga's shutter mechanism. I calculated it to be ~1/120 (at 75-ish degrees). It's not a precision device at all, so the official 1/100 speed is just an approximation. And temperature I'm pretty sure should affect the behavior.

Oh... and I painted the top silver, and added some scrap pleather to the body.

This was done weeks ago, but no post since I had no photos until today.

Photos from the first weekend of April - Little Tokyo Cherry Blossom Fest & Pillow Fight Day & Thai New Year are up on flickr. I tried taking a more lomographic approach. Which didn't yield much since that was mostly with the Holga, which was on bulb. (The one of tweetychick630 is posed.)

About three or four ago, there was an LA Strobist meet in Balboa park. Too many photographers, not enough models, and I wasn't feeling particularly inspired.

(others' photos from that event)

Kinda unrelated, but part of what lead me to get a new camera:
At some point in March, my SD200 died. It'd been dropped and generally abused so much, that I'm surprised it managed to last 3.5yrs)

I tried to take it apart & out it back together. Hoping that something was loose, and that would have knocked it back into place. No such luck.

I did underestimate the size of the Holga. Maybe less maginally bulky than my DSLR, but it's definitely not something I'll be carrying around everywhere.

Vaguely related to pictures...Fanime!
(is too soon)

Who is looking for picture of what when? (I'd like to concentrate my picture taking to Friday as much as I can. Maybe Monday morning.)

(pics / write-up on SoCal Picnic in a few days.)

Toys & Adventures

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 09:32:10 GMT

I bought a new camera today. I'll be visiting the Little Tokyo Cherry Blossom festival this Saturday to give it a spin. Hopefully encountering the rest of you who will be going there. I'm not sure when I'll be getting there, but probably not before noon. blueyeswhtdragn mentioned a pillow fight in Pershing square. May have to check that out too.
(Anyone visiting the Thai New Year event where x_angel_wings_x is performing on Sunday? *might* be up for that too if anyone else I know is going)

Unrelated, I'll be rooming w/ tsuzusushi at Fanime. But I still need to work out transportation to/from the con. Anyone driving up have some room in their vehicle?

3 rounds of Photographers vs Trees

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 04:24:50 GMT

Pictures from March Cosplay gatherings in SoCal
Note: I'd suggest slide show mode full screen, since that is set to now use larger images than you get just by clicking on the pictures.

I did a lot more post-processing work than usual for many of the pictures. Hopefully not taking to too far though. But not all of them - the catch pic of Tetsu at the bottom of this post is as-is. I'd be interested in any critique of the post work.

Most Post:
...and ravendarkwings thinks I asked her to go dangerous places. I'm kind of amazed ycysusan actually took up my request to go to this spot. But I'm glad, since we got some pretty cool pictures. (I had a couple bizarre locations used in these pictures - here, over a drain grate, in a bathroom...)
HDR tonemapping of two separate images for the sky, mixed with normal-ish version of the foreground content. Though the images didn't line up at all, so the blending of the two was manual. Also did some more conventionally processed images from that excursion.

Oh... but we were supposed to be shooting Sakura....

awww.... (lame pun on "Sakura" intended) XP
I discovered something interesting about by 135mm lens. (I haven't used it much.) Higher-contrast bokeh has brighter edges. (Something I think you can force with lenses that have defocus control.) Could cause problems, but here I like it. (wish the reflector were a little higher though....)

Abney Park @ Knitting Factory?

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 05:53:27 GMT

Abney Park is performing tomorrow (Thursday) night @ Knitting Factory @9pm. (or 8? I guess that's when the opening does their thing.) I just found out about this tonight. Anyone interested in going?

I heard about them from someone (one of you?) after they performed at The Edison sometime last year. They're a steampunk-themed band, which what I think is some cool music beyond the appealing gimmick-aspect. Example from YouTube.

Quick Question re:Sakura Watch / Hanami

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 05:54:06 GMT

Is anyone (cosplayers/photographers) planning on going to the park next Sunday (Mar 22)?
(If so, I'm pretty sure I won't go tomorrow, and will go next Sunday instead)