lensblog

For all my intentions of aspiring to be one of the digerati or at the very least an active netizen, I don’t seem to be doing all that well with regards to standing up on my little lensbox soapbox and ramming my opinions down people’s collective throats the way some seem intent on doing.

I don’t have anything news-worthy or shocking to write about. I don’t subscribe to extremist views or expound on the virtues of fellow netizens I hope to garner some small measure of favour with. Perhaps it is a character flaw. I am a pacifist at the end of the day, tending more towards neutrality than any measurable polarities.

As I have often said in the past and maintain now and into the future, I am simply ME. No pretences. No hiding behind online personas. Take me as I am or leave me be. I make mistakes like everyone else, including you, even if you don’t want to admit it.

It’s as simple or as complicated as that, depending on your point of view and I am at peace with your choice, no matter what it may end up being.

Moving on…

As is common in the history of my online existence, I have been through one of my many quiet phases; lost in concentration, usually over one thing or another. Sometimes it is work (or at the very least, due to the nature of my vocation, the mental fatigue that follows a day in the office). Sometimes it’s a game – both the XBOX 360 and World of Warcraft draw me away from this plane of existence on a semi-regular basis. Sometimes I just have nothing to add while I traverse the ‘inner universe’ we’ve created online – I would far rather absorb information in silent contemplation than spew forth misinformation while jumping up and down and drawing attention to myself.

Silence, more often than not, is golden. Barring that, duct tape is silver, a handy adhesive I often wish I could liberally apply to the hands and mouths, digital or physical, of those I encounter online.

I refer, of course, the the oft-spotted, much-reviled online troll. Frequently found in it’s preferred feeding/hunting grounds, the bulletin boards, forums and comment sections of just about every public site that allows user feedback and interaction.

I had a fair amount of spare time while working late shifts the last few months and I spent some time lurking in one of the local bulletin boards, MyBroadband.

If I had to paint a picture of “MyBB”, I think I could quite easily get away with Mos Eisley, the spaceport town on the planet Tatooine in the fictional Star Wars universe.

Obi-Wan, in his wisdom, described it as follows: “You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy”.

In the interest of fairness, I suppose not all of MyBB fits that description. Just most of it. The worst part, though, has to be the dreaded PD section, “Philosophical debates”.

Do not enter here without either a strong constitution, thick skin or having your wits about you.

Here, you will face derision and mockery at every turn. Your faith, no matter what it is, will be questioned and torn apart, to be scrutinized by those with little regard for hurt feelings or one’s beliefs and passions. You can try and argue. You can supply evidence. You can write impassioned words and essays that would make holy men proud. But you will not succeed… the hunting pack will gather and surround you and eventually descend upon you in an ugly barrage of posts and retorts that speaks volumes about the cynicism in Man’s soul that has found fertile ground in which to grow and spread in the online metaverse.

Now and again you might find a glimmer of light, a lone wolf that seems to be fending off the pack, only to find that in order to survive the onslaught, this individual has almost become like them in his uncaring brutality and zeal. The wan light flickers and fades…

Coming up for air from that dark place, you might think to wonder into the Gaming sections, only to find similar situations, often written and perpetuated by the same individuals. Glancing over at the Technical forums, you are assaulted by the whining of those more intent on spreading their own miserable opinions that helping work towards a solution. New threads start only to be found by these sad souls who soon drown any hope of extracting useful information from the thread with their complaints, opinions and rants.

And yet I cannot seem to stay away…

Like watching a train wreck in slow motion, I find myself fascinated while simultaneously despairing for what could have been an amazing community of shared knowledge supplied  by some obviously great minds.

Will we ever have an online Utopia?

If the online metaverse is a mirror of our physical reality, I somehow doubt it.

I leave you, for now, with the following (apt) image…

To those of us masquerading as something more than we really are out there in the wired world… consider the above image and ask yourself “Who am I really trying to fool?”

Be truthful. Be yourself.

Who knows, you might be surprised at the response…

I’d forgotten what it was like to walk around all day with a camera, looking for something to shoot… It’s taking some getting used to again, but I’m quickly finding that my eye latches onto things a lot quicker than it has the last while. Now I just need to get my camera reflexes up to speed to match it.

Admittedly, Johannesburg as a city doesn’t always provide the safest space for creative wanderings… especially dangling a camera around one’s neck like a tourist. But I’m learning to seize opportunities where and when I can.

For now, I’ll be posting mostly skylines and some candids but I’m going to try and take some more street-life shots soon. And hopefully, once the studio is ready, I’ll be able to do some portrait work, product shots and maybe even something larger than that… My partner in crime tells me we should be able to do car shoots indoors once we’re done.

Sadly, this all has to take place in the few hours I have to myself away from my day job as a IT security engineer. And with the 2010 World Cup just around the corner, it’s likely I’ll be working shifts at our local telecoms’ network operations centre for the duration of the event.

It’s been a while, hasn’t it?

Last few years have been a bit hectic for me, career-wise… it hasn’t left much time for much else other than work, sleep and whatever I can fit in in-between.

At least I have a new camera now. It’s not the greatest, but it’s digital and it has decent capabilities… Canon Powershot SX10IS for those that are wondering. I’ve donated my old Canon EOS500N to a friend of mine’s mother that wants to get into photography. A little service and some TLC and it should prove a good starting platform considering it has 28-80mm and 55-200mm lenses.

Nothing really new and exciting to share just yet. Work is keeping me busy and I haven’t had much time for personal creative experiments other than some standard sunsets and lunar exposures…

But, I’ll have access to a studio soon. Lighting kits, backdrops, infinity curve, Canon 50D, the works… So watch this space.

Cheers for now.

Well, I finally got to see it last night at Montecasino… Tickets were a bit dear but, in retrospect, well worth it.

I’m not going to spoil the story for those that haven’t seen it yet, but I will elaborate on some of the elements of the movie that I really enjoyed.

Firstly, let me get the science fiction aspect out of the way. I’ve seen a lot of complaints in reviews regarding the science in the movie and it saddens me that the general concept of Hollywood science fiction has been limited to extreme sci-fi such as blasters or lasers, robots and outlandish alien spacecraft. And as for aliens… not every alien needs to be Giger-esque.

Science fiction to me has always been the vision a writer has, casting their mind’s eye forth to what they feel could be a possible and sometimes plausible future. Looking back at some of the grandmasters of sci-fi in the last century, even they admitted that if they knew then what they knew now, their stories would be very different. (I’m almost positive this was said by Arthur C Clarke…)

Science has moved in leaps and bounds in the last few years, but not so much so that we can abandon all logic when it comes to constructing a possible future scenario. Sure, some folks seem to think that given the gap in time between present and depicted future that we’d have come up with something better… Personally, I’m of the opinion that we, as a race, tend to grasp at a concept then spend the next century making it better. One needs only look at our present modes of transport. At it’s core, the mechanics are not that far removed from the original. We’ve simply made them faster, stronger, hopefully safer, more intelligent. Sure there have been some outlandish alternatives and hybrids that have been proposed over the years, but they tend to die out after a while due to various reasons such as funding, price, odd energy requirements, overall feasability or mainstream acceptance.

So, taking that into account, let’s look at some of the human science in the movie:

a) Amplified Mobility Platform or AMP Suit – yep, the big walkers that act as extensions of the pilot’s body. It’s not a stretch of the imagination to think that this might be possible considering the current exo-skeletons in research and production at present. That and I think it’s a nice tip of the proverbial hat to the power loader exo-skeleton from Aliens…

b) The Scorpion Gunship – I’ve always had a fascination with VTOL flight and VTOL/conventional flight hybrids. Helicopters are great but their design feels a little dated. The Scorpion is, to me at least, a refreshing update that borrows aspects of the aggresive Apache and Hind choppers and throws in a little UNSC Hornet VTOL gunship from Halo 3.

c) Similarly, the Samson has taken it’s cues from the old faithful multipurpose Bell UH-1 “Huey” and Sikorsky UH-60 Blackhawk, a design that has been echoed in Command & Conquer’s Orca bomber/fighter, Halo’s AV-14 Hornet, Fallout’s Vertibirds and Starcraft 2′s Banshee.

d) The Dragon, in my mind, is a large VTOL version of my old favourites, the versatile “death from above” C-130 Gunship. Large enough to be a troop transport or carry vehicles and other payloads or outfitted as an aerial artillery platform.

One of the big “Wow!” factors for me was the holographics. Yes, it’s been overdone so many times, but I still marvel at them. Especially if they make sense. So often, in science fiction movies, the user interface they’re tapping away at makes no sense.

Ok, enough drooling over the hardware… Onto the software!

I’m a big fan of the Adobe product suite. I’ve been Photoshopping since 1996 and it’s still my preferred image editing platform. The other programs in the suite are a bit foreign to me, but having seen their usage in this film as well as in other projects, I’m astounded at the results.

The other (and major factor in the movie) was the motion capture, specifically the facial expressions and fluidity of movements in the Na’vi. We saw what was possible with Gollum in Lord of the Rings. This… this was just better than anything I could imagine.

Finally, the mixing of CG and ‘normal’ camera work. I pride myself on being fairly critical of CG artistry, having spent many many hours, days, weeks on my own admittedly simple projects, and browsing through others’ online projects for inspiration. After a while you can spot elements that seem out of place, superimposed or added in after the fact. With Avatar, in this initial viewing at least, I could not tell the difference between real and CG. Maybe in a second or third viewing where I can ignore the action sequences and concentrate on the overall graphics… but even then, I don’t think I’ll be disappointed.

I’ll say this… this movie is not for everyone. Some, will avoid it purely because of the hype. Some, will scoff at the movie, calling it “Dances with Smurfs” or something along those lines because they feel that the story has been overdone. Others will not be able to watch it because they cannot sit through 2 and a half hours of 3D without getting a headache or eyestrain.

However, for those that do go see it and enjoy it, it’s fast becoming “that” movie that they talk about, marvel over or go to see numerous times.

If Pandora was real and the Avatar program existed, I’d sign up today! Until then, I’ll eagerly await the DVD or Blu-ray release so I can relive the adventure!