This website will be my testament, for as long as it remains on line. Farewell, rare readers. It has been a privilege to know you.

For his not-so-rare readers, “Memorials to Church of the Little Flower, 1805 Pierce St., Hollywood, FL, 33020. Attention Fr. Tom.”

Best bit of advice – be confident in your climbing skills before you take the camera along

NIKON – SIMON CARTER – EXTREME PHOTOGRAPHY from Extreme Photo on Vimeo.

Link thanks to Photography Blogger

Why would someone write a blog about Title Sequences? In their own words:

Remember when your heart sank just a little when you realized the Pink Panther movie wasn’t a cartoon?

Then, only a few years later, seeing Edward Gorey’s eerily fantastic opening to “Mystery!” capped with Vincent Price’s name on a headstone had your head spinning at the thought of the kind of stories those etchings could tell…if only the show was based on those illustrations.

Well, we want to see more of that. So watch and remember and create. And if you’ve got something to contribute, send it along.

Thanks,
Ian + Alex

Editors, Art of the Title

My favorites: Aeon Flux, Catch Me if You Can, True Blood and (of course) Cowboy Bebop.

(Oh, and I still liked the Pink Panther movie, even if it wasn’t a cartoon. Any movie that has a car chase scene with gorillas is an instant classic

Jonathan Jarvis, the video artist/designer who created The Crisis of Credit Visualized, describes a new design process:

The New Mediators from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

Looks like the time travelers didn’t get back in time – in time: BBC: CERN LHC sees high energy success

Europe’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has produced record-breaking high-energy particle collisions.

Scientists working on the European machine have smashed beams of protons together at energies that are 3.5 times higher than previously achieved.

Tuesday’s milestone marks the beginning of work that could lead to the discovery of fundamental new physics.

There was cheering and applause in the LHC control room as the first collisions were confirmed.

LHC explained

Live Webcast

CERN tweets

]]> http://marypmadigan.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=1579 0 http://marypmadigan.com/blog/?p=1576 http://marypmadigan.com/blog/?p=1576#comments Mon, 29 Mar 2010 19:42:21 +0000 marypmadigan http://marypmadigan.com/blog/?p=1576

…Along the shoreline, shooting out toward the lineup of incoming waves, I find that focal lengths from 200mm to 500mm are effective. Since I live on the West coast, morning is when the light comes over my shoulder and frontlights most waves, which is a good thing since morning is when we are most likely to have no wind and smooth, glassy water. Positioning relative to the wave is important. I try to avoid a straight-on view of any wave and will move around constantly to look for the best angle given the direction, and size and shape of the waves on a particular day. Typically the more oblique the angle, the more pleasing the composition looking down the axis of the wave. But where to achieve this? It takes some looking around and getting familiar with the nooks and crannies of the coastline.

Rock jetties are great vantage points as they allow the photographer to move out from shore onto the water beyond the point where the wave breaks and yet maintain a low angle relative to the ocean surface. Piers allow for the down-the-barrel view as well, but working from the high angle looking down on the wave is sometimes difficult. Anywhere there is a sharp bend in the coast and waves that break close to shore provides a vantage for looking down the length of a wave without actually getting wet. At surf contests, where photographers remain in place most of the day, tripods are the choice. But for moving around the beach and on jetties and piers I prefer the mobility of a monopod.

To really capture the feel of a wave from the inside out, the intrepid photographer has no choice but to venture out into the surf. If you enjoy waves and the ocean, you will eventually go this route, so my recommendation is to do it now rather than wait. It is in the water that photography really gets fun. You can get your dose of exercise and shoot some saleable photos at the same time! Three pieces of equipment are paramount for surf photography: a fast motor drive, a wide lens, and a strong and lightweight waterproof housing. I use housings custom made by Del Mar Housing Projects in Del Mar, California . These are “glove fit” housings, meaning there is very little space between the molded plastic casing and the camera itself. I chose to have only a single control installed in the housing, which I use to adjust the aperture while shooting aperture-priority automatic on a Canon 1D Mark IIN. (Since each control involves an o-ring seal, the fewer controls that are built into the housing, the lower the risk of a flood.) Most of the time (95%), I use a 15mm fisheye lens in this housing. The front cover of the housing has a small polished acrylic dome accommodating the angle and curvature of the fisheye lens without vignetting. It is only when the surf gets really big and I need to move back from the impact zone that I will change over to a 70-200 f/2.8 lens, employing a special acrylic front port that has a lever-operated transmission with which I can zoom the lens. …

More…

A:

QUESTIONS ABOUT 2010 OLYMPICS



Now that Vancouver has won the chance to host the 2010 Winter Olympics these are some questions people the world over are asking!!!! Believe it or not these questions about Canada were posted on an International Tourism Website (frightening, isn’t it!)



Q: I have never seen it warm on Canadian TV, so how do the plants grow? (UK)

A. We import all plants fully grown and then just sit around and watch them die.



Q: Will I be able to see Polar Bears in the street? (USA)

A: Depends on how much you’ve been drinking.



Q: I want to walk from Vancouver to Toronto-can I follow the Railroad tracks? (Sweden)

A: Sure, it’s only Four thousand miles, take lots of water.



Q: Is it safe to run around in the bushes in Canada? (Sweden)

A: So it’s true what they say about Swedes.



Q: It is imperative that I find the names and addresses of places to contact for a stuffed Beaver. (Italy)

A: Let’s not touch this one.



Q: Are there any ATM’s (cash machines) in Canada? Can you send me a list of them in Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton and Halifax? (UK)

A: What did your last slave die of?



Q: Can you give me some information about hippo racing in Canada? (USA)

A: A-fri-ca is the big triangle shaped continent south of Europe. Ca-na-da is that big country to your North…oh forget it. Sure, the hippo racing is every Tuesday night in Calgary. Come naked.



Q: Which direction is North in Canada? (USA)

A: Face south and then turn 180 degrees. Contact us when you get here and we’ll send the rest of the directions.



Q: Can I bring cutlery into Canada? (UK)


A: Why? Just use your fingers like we do.



Q: Can you send me the Vienna Boys’ Choir schedule? (USA)

A: Aus-tri-a is that quaint little country bordering Ger-man-y, which is…oh forget it. Sure, the Vienna Boys Choir plays every Tuesday night in Vancouver and in Calgary, straight after the hippo races. Come naked.



Q: Do you have perfume in Canada? (Germany)

A: No, WE don’t stink.



Q: I have developed a new product that is the fountain of youth. Can you sell it in Canada? (USA)

A: Anywhere significant numbers of Americans gather.



Q: Can you tell me the regions in British Columbia where the female population is smaller than the male population? (Italy)

A: Yes, gay nightclubs.



Q: Do you celebrate Thanksgiving in Canada? (USA)

A: Only at Thanksgiving.

More…

My favorite episode, about the “soul-sucking stretch of the school calendar between President’s Day and Easter”

Enjoy!