Vicissitudes

I started uploading photos to www.paterek.us.  Take a look.  I removed most (Maybe all) of the photos on this site.  I might add more but most will be hosted on Paterek.us.

Popularity: 4% [?]

A picture is worth 1000 words, I also hear that a few words can paint a picture.  Either way  you want to look at it I found this six inch Polaroid digital photo frame with radio alarm clock at Buy.com.  I do not have one but these are one of those item where if I had a dozen I would put each to good use.  A few gifts, one at work a few at home.

Features:

• Ebony Frame 6-inch color LCD screen
• Aspect Ratio: 16:9 / 4:3
• Resolution: 520 x 288 pixels
• Brightness: 250 cd/m2
• Contrast Ratio: 300:1
• Alarm Clock Built-in AM/FM Radio Listen to MP3 files Audio input lets you play music from devices through digital photo frame Slide Show Mode Multiple Transitional Styles for Slide Show Built-in speakers Mini USB port
• Supported Memory Cards: Secure Digital MultiMedia Card Memory Stick Memory Stick Duo
• Top Panel Controls: Power Setup Exit Snooze Previous Play/Pause Forward Volume Up Volume Down
• Dimensions: 5.25 x 9.75 x 2.75-inches (H x W x D, approximate) Regulatory Approvals: cULus RoHS

Popularity: 91% [?]

You know how you are always say “I wish I had a camera!” or “Remember when?  I wish I had some photos to remember those times”. With this little key chain digital camera you will always be ready!  I sound like a late night infomercial salesman.  I have no idea about the quality of this little digital camera and I still want one.  Buy.com has them for $7.99 with free shipping!  You cannot choose what color they send you (White, Silver, Pink or Blue – It is okay guys to wear a pink digital camera, isn’t it?) and it only holds 20 photos at 288X352 on the fine setting or 81 at the low quality setting .  It may not be much but it will capture a 20-81 memories at a time and be fashionably worn on your jacket or with your keys.  Oh yeah!  This can also be a webcam.  Cool!  There is a limit of five per customer.

Popularity: 97% [?]

As a curiosity when I was young I picked up my father’s camera. Minolta something.  35mm fixed lens slr.  I had a really hard time understanding just how to take a decent photo.  I think I got a 110 kodak for one of my birthday’s and snapped away with that for a while.  Like most kids, I put it in a drawer and forgot about it for a long time.  A bit older and with the joys of High School issues on my back I again found my dad’s camera.  This time it was a Minolta 35mm with a replaceable lens!  But we only had the one 50mm anyway.  Learning by mistakes I started to waste film by the buckets.  I never did stop motion.  Moving forward to college I decided to take intro to photography with Leslie Krims.  I never struggled so much in any class in my life!  His demands of perfection were just enough to make me want to do more.  My technique improved over the next 4 years but my subject matter never really made it past your basic landscape.  He was kind knowing I was just one of those students he later wrote about on his web page.  Well at least I provided some of the mass inspiration for something.  It doesn’t bother me, some have it, some don’t – just depends on what angle you are looking from.

By luck, or mistake I stumbled on his web page today.  I couldn’t look too much (busy at work) but read most of it, which is just as interesting as his photography.  Give yourself some time and read what he has to say, then look at his photos.  I want my camera again..  My story isn’t near as interesting as his but it did lead me to cross paths with one of the greatest photographers anywhere.

Oh, if you are offended by nudes you may want to skip looking at the photos but take the time to read he pretty much sums it all up.
http://www.leskrims.com

Popularity: 3% [?]

I saw this a while back on PBS’s Wired Science. For the life of me I could not remember the name but finally I decided to do some good searching, and I found it! This software “takes a large collection of photos of a place or an object, analyzes them for similarities, and displays them in a reconstructed three-dimensional space”. It is like taking a photo on vacation, then getting every other photo (that’s been taken and uploaded) of that same location from every angle recreating a three-dimensional space.

Photosynth is based on the research of Noah Snavely, Steve Seitz and Richard Szeliski in a joint effort between the Universtiy of Washington and Microsoft. Currently it is only in a tech preview stages (basically alpha) but I really hope something comes of this, and I’m sure it will.

You can read about the research at: http://phototour.cs.washington.edu/
The Microsoft version of the above page: http://research.microsoft.com/IVM/PhotoTours/
Find more information and download at: http://labs.live.com/photosynth/

Can you imagine?  Take a vacation, snap off hundreds of photos, upload them, they mix with thousands or millions of other photos then reconstructed into an amazing “snapshot” frozen in time.  The places, people, the energy being shared around the world of our most beautiful places on Earth.

Popularity: 1% [?]