Stormy Schiphol - first attempt at a stitched panorama

via flickr.com

The sky was rather dramatic today, so on the way home I went up to the roof terrace of Schiphol Airport to shoot some shots for a stitched panorama.
Because the sky seemed so stormy I made sure to increase the vertical coverage on the sides, and when I ran all the shots through Photoshop its magical algorithms produced the effect I'd hoped for: the world seems to undulate, like waves on a stormy sea.
The blocky building in the middle is fully straight, though unfortunately there were some stitching errors in the windows on the left side that I just couldn't find a way to fix. Still, I'm quite pleased with it for a first effort!

Wacom Inkling: this looks like an artist's dream come true.

via wacom.com

Ikea names for Colson.

Full-length video of my Voice Acting Workshop at #EF17

At EF 2011 in Magdeburg, the third of three panels I held was on the topic of Voice Acting.

We started off with a quick presentation on vocal technique, mic technique, posture and performance, then invited some volunteers to try their hand at performing a short script written for the occasion.

I had the pleasure of being accompanied by Shay, whom I'd invited as Special Guest. He was still reeling from the rather successful premiere of Bitter Lake the previous night, which I'm sure contributed to the fact that the panel was standing room only.

At the end of the panel, Shay and I took some rather excellent questions from the audience and to finish it off, did our own run-through of the script.

Thanks to all who came!

...and carry on.

While we wait for the pawpet show to start, the audience is kept entertained with bloons.

There is no A in "bloon."

You know, this looks like a classy place!

Bon apetit.

Had a lovely cuppa with friends in Amsterdam Central.

The sentinels of Amsterdam.

We like to ride our bicycles. #Amsterdam #bikecurious

Summertime.

Waiting for life.

That's not how you spell 'asparagus'.

Great big Constellation Class cruise ship departs the Passenger Terminal at Amsterdam. Gulls!

IMG_0201.MOV Watch on Posterous

Front row seating.

It's too early for this shit.

Waiting.

Smoker's lounge.

Rip-on, rip-off: savvy entrepreneur sells expensive iPad cases made out of Bernie Madoff's motherfucking CLOTHES.

Mason's Off-White Khaki Pants view

Murphy & Nye Sailmakers Pants Orange view

via frederickjames.com

You just can't make this shit up.

http://www.frederickjames.com/collections/the-bernie-madoff

Alto Sample Text Hilarity

Via a rant against the font Gill Sans I found myself pointed in the direction of an alternative, Alto. Its website automatically generates blocks of text to evaluate the font in practical use, which I suppose should be better than the familiar Lorem Ipsum nonsense.

 

Here's what you might see if you hit refresh on the Alto page:

 

It is our mission to chew the gay rights as part of a larger strategy to dramatically embrace our grey haired second hand cars in order to the intensive perfect joke professionally hug the weeping progress.
Absolutely wrong Jerry Springer adepts innovate cutting-edge hairdryers so that hopefully we may expertly innovate a viking.

 

Or:

 

It is our goal to maximize the weeping aquatic ballet to permit us to vigorously maximize a moron and make intensive beavers professionally turn upside-down cutting-edge grey haired seaguls.
Liquid super waldorf salads turn upside-down the extensible apple pie as the first step in our scheme to successfully smash a typeface.

 

Or maybe:

 

Our mission is to expertly enhance itching mind blowing priests so that we may successfully chew our grey haired hitchers and have the hitchers enhance the weeping hand luggage.
The outdated mobile home aggregate a grey haired Big Brother as part of a larger strategy to vigorously flip our super straycats.

 

I can't stop hitting refresh.

 

https://ourtype.com/#/try/alto/

 

- Alex

Snapshots at the airport.

Just some quick observations at Schiphol Airport, the hub of my daily commuting grind.

Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Brian May and Queen Elisabeth II

via awesomepeoplehangingouttogether.tumblr.com

Her Maj had just entered her twenties when these young whippersnappers were born. I wonder if she appreciated their contribution to the English music scene at the height of their power, being that she was approaching middle age by then.

One of people in this photo is also an astrophicist, having completed their PHD as a sexagenarian. Can you guess which one?

awesome people hanging out together: Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore.

via awesomepeoplehangingouttogether.tumblr.com

'Awesome people hanging out together' is one of my favorite blogs, and this is why.

http://awesomepeoplehangingouttogether.tumblr.com/

Lady knows how to accessorize. #morningcommute

Asian gent has got his shit together today. #morningcommute

Don't you wish you could go to work feeling that awesome about yourself?

Black lab doggie feels really, really special getting scritchies on the train.

IMG_0177.MOV Watch on Posterous

I love how he showed off and looked around to check whether we all saw how special he was :)

Pride Amsterdam: a dad hoists up his daughter to wave at a boat full of lesbian social workers.

I love my city, guys!

Why yes sir, on the way home from Pride Amsterdam I did indeed get a little bit completely soaked.

Dutch fries and mayonnaise. I love Amsterdam :)

Lucky shot from a moving train.

Look at that sky.

They happiest train station I ever did see. I do declare.

Sure, park it wherever you like.

"I see some obvious scaling issues."

A damn fine ad for a damn fine app, made by an Enigmatic Stranger whose identity will not be disclosed, certainly not BY ME.

A lot of people have mentioned that we need a video to help explain the idea. What’s the point in having a great app if no one really knows what it does?

So… to that end, we’re now releasing the first of several videos. We plan to have a few videos showing off the different concepts, so that it’s more than just words and pretty pictures.

Photosmith for iPad.

via photosmithapp.com

Pretty cool ad, wouldn't you say?

Whoever made that must be very smart and attractive. You should probably buy him a drink sometime.

Also a damn useful app for the iPad-toting photographer. Just sayin'.