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Gallery Source: http://imgur.com/a/pSOtt
"50 behind the scenes photos from RETURN OF THE JEDI"

It is often said that the Lord works in mysterious ways. His ability to have me create a video documenting the "Rockin' 4 God 2014" event is ample evidence supporting that old maxim.

I am no documentary filmmaker (by any stretch of the imagination) but I have been looking for ways to exercise my video making muscles and this opportunity just struck me as just too good to pass up. It was an opportunity to photograph a rock concert with an all access pass. A day long event featuring four bands, a clown act and a sermon thrown in for good measure. Just the sort of volunteer work that would appeal to this old-school hippie photog.

Going into it, I was not exactly sure how I would go about completing the project. My video camera is little more than a toy - 640 X 480 pixel resolution with a fixed focal length lens - but I resolved to view this as an artistic endeavor and give it my best shot - as it were. The name "Rockin' 4 God" suggested to me that the video should be "high energy" (whatever that means) so a tripod in the corner was out of the question. I was going to have to go at this with a hand held camera to get in on the action.

I think it is safe to say that I am certainly no DevinSupertramp - but what I couldn't do with a rig like his? Since a GlideCam exists only in my covetous mind I decided to visit my freelance hardware store (a.k.a. garage) and see what I could come up with in the way of constructing my own Stedi(ish)Cam device. The internet is chocked full of ideas on this subject but seeing that my garage was gimbal free, I opted to go for a weighted pendulum style device that many claim to be a step above a purely hand-held camera - and I will give them that. 

If you can scrounge-up 46-1/2 minutes you should check out
"Rockin' 4 God" The Video Project.

The actual job of recording the event presented many challenges but that is the name of the game and honestly what makes it so fun to do. I took along my Canon 5-MP rangefinder camera to - at least - get some quality stills and realized midway through the shoot that I would be combining stills and video clips for this video project. The little video camera uses SanDisk memory and I felt confident that the 4 Gigabyte chip would be ample for the day but took along two more 1 GB disks as a precaution - good thing too because for some odd reason the 4 GB disk refused to hold more than about 500 MB. It took every bit of those other 2 Gigs to get-r-done. When it became obvious that I should now use the video camera sparingly I started relying more and more on the still camera to document the event.

That was working fine until about two thirds of the way through the day when the Canon's battery went belly-up and I found myself regretting not tearing the house apart looking for the spare pack when I was gearing up for the day. Thankfully the video camera has the ability - as do most video cameras - to take still images. I finished the day bouncing back and forth between still and video modes adding one more layer of "what am I doing" to the task at hand.

Believe it or not I still try to make time to explore those many links to Belgian websites in the BlogDogIt article: Cyberspace-Archeology - "The Dig".  I am currently working my way through the "D" section and found myself on the website of Darkman: darklife.com, where I happened upon the following music video of Kawehi doing a mind-blowing cover of Nirvana's hit "Heart-Shaped Box."

Enjoy!

...but I would not let that stop you. She is all over social media and I for one plan to keep an eye on this techno-tunesmith. Maybe you will too. [smiley:;)]

Stereoscopic vision is one of those miracles of the human condition that is all too often taken for granted. If you are fortunate enough to have two functioning eyes then you posses the ability to view the world in three dimensions and thereby have the tools required for depth perception.

When you look at a single object with two eyes you are actually presenting your brain with two separate images that it must meld into one. The average difference in eyeball separation is only 2-1/2" to 3" but that is all it takes to discern depth in three dimensional space.

Not very long after the invention of photography it was realized that if two photographs were taken of a single object with the same separation as the human eyes, these two images could be used to relay a three dimensional view to an individual via the use of a device known as a stereo-graph or stereoscope. The stereoscope would accept precisely mounted images (or view cards) on one end and the user of the device would peer through a couple of magnifying lenses (one for each eye) and would be treated to a picture set that would trick the mind into melding and interpreting as if the viewer were standing at the original camera location. The result was so awe inspiring and entertaining that "Stereopticons" (as these viewers were sometimes called) became a sensation. As a result of their popularity a grand industry arose whereby anything worth photographing was photographed in stereo and marketed to the connoisseurs of this fascinating pastime.

To this day there continues a very active community of Stereoview enthusiast. An internet image search using the word "stereoview" will send you into an incredible World of 3D photography to an extent that borders on the unbelievable.

To those of us that have mastered the art of freeviewing stereo pairs the internet now offers the ability to see back in time and far away places. You too can enjoy this hidden treasure trove by learning the technique known as freeviewing, which is the ability to render stereo pairs in glorious 3D in your minds eye without the use of a stereo-graph device of any sort.

It is the purpose of this article to help impart the skill of freeviewing to the uninitiated in the hopes that you too will use this simple technique and enjoy this remarkable pastime - this window on the world of long ago - this time machine available at your fingertips.

So what's the secret?  [Continue]

The Telemarketer wins "Best Plot"
at   Fright Night film festival - 2014 Louisville Fandom Fest!

Communindie Films in association with Lunch Hour Films Presents:

The Telemarketer
Work sucks, even in the future.

In the not too distant future, telemarketing is going to get even harder for vacuum cleaner salesman, Martin Banks. Martin's boss introduces teleporting as the next great way to place their products in the customer's homes. But no amount of training could have prepared Martin for what he will find in this home. Proving that works sucks, even in the future. Synopsis by Cindy Maples [Source: IMDB]

Share and Enjoy!

Starring:
Joe Atkinson, Cindy Maples, Sean Roberts, Mark Dessauer, Rusty James and introducing Rachel Fisher

Directed By: Jon Higgins

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2871130

The creation of animated GIF images using scenes from trailers for each of the 8 Big Biting Pig Productions movies continues... Starting with their latest feature and moving backwards through the collection; this installment of 3 image files is from their 5th movie: "The Creepy Doll"

Quite a doll collection.

"The Creepy Doll" (2011) - Big Biting Pig Productions

Not long ago, I added a new feature to this website called "Astro Pic of the Day." This addition is visible right now in the left-most column of the home page and brings you the daily photo displayed on NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day page.

Thanks to some creative coding and the services of InfinitelyRemote.com I have been able to harvest NASA's daily image and present it here. I encourage you to click on those daily images to see them in their High-Rez splendor and read their descriptions for a very interesting look into the universe in which we live. In the words of the NASA source page:

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

Today's offering was a very interesting video feed that shows a real-time view of the Earth from the ISS (International Space Station.) Not wishing to lose such an awesome "Window on the World," I have chosen to share it here:

Live streaming video by Ustream

View the "Where is the International Space Station" Map

Add Astro Pic of the Day to your web page.