I am posting a picture I took today from a little GE 1200 point and shoot camera. About $89.00 from your local Walgreen's. With an accompanying memory card, add another 15 to 20 dollars.

I have had two of these now. The first I put into my pocket one day and, by sliding it into my pocket, I accidentally slid open the lens cover and scratched the surface of the lens. I noticed sometime after when I kept getting an odd blur in exactly the same place in pics I took.

I like these things (these GE cameras) because they have this cool panorama picture taking feature. There are smart phones now that do this as well, and in an easier fashion. With these GE cameras you have to shoot 3 pictures carefully, and then the camera internal software "stitches" the images together. I have learned a couple things from using these. Please find below one lesson learned.

Here is a panorama shot where the "stitching" ended up making the image have a kind of "cubist" look to it:

If you click on it, you will see how the image has arched segments that were attempted to be married together.

Here is nearly the same thing but without as much of the segmented archway affectation:

I figured out why this is so. It has to do with the horizontal line you shoot along when taking the original 3 images the resulting stitched composite is made from. In the image above I panned (moving from right to left or left to right horizontally as if taking a frying pan by the handle and moving it on top of a stove by keeping the center of the pan in the same place yet rotating the pan by the handle from left to right or vice versa) the camera on a tripod, and kept the center of focus along the horizontal line the top of the benches create. It isn't perfect, but by keeping closer to that horizontal line, one gets a better "stitched" image end product.

Thanks to Day and Night Coffee Shop in Mansfield, Pa for allowing me to shoot there, and to whomever did the works in frame.

It has been a while since I graduated from Empire State College and made an entry into this blog. This blog was started as a requirement of the Digital Art and Design course I took there.

I am writing today to make 2 observations about some interesting art ideas. The first is the new photographic method called light painting. Here are some examples of what can be done using a camera that you can adjust exposure time with. Example 1 Ball of Light. And example 2 is one of my own time lapse still shots at night commemorating Neil Armstrong and a Blue Moon. And this link will take you to a Google page of photography links you can follow to find out more of what can be done.

The next point of interest today is how still cameras are being used as motion video cameras. You might think this is odd because a still camera is a still camera. Not any more. The line between a motion video camera and a still camera that can take motion video has become grey. In this example a still camera is being set to take a series of long exposure stills that are then either imported into a video editing timeline or compiled inside the camera as a "motion" video.

The other option is to simply use the still camera video function and have it work as a video camera. This article on PCMAG states the method and reasoning better than I ever could.

-CRBaldwin

Links to my other blogs:

http://videofeedback.blogspot.com/

http://videofeedback1.blogspot.com/

http://videofeedback2.blogspot.com/

http://videofeedback3.blogspot.com/

http://videofeedback4.blogspot.com/

Old Art revealed by digital technology

This is an amazing TED talk about Da Vinci works that were analyzed using new digital technology. What is revealed is that the "new" layers of varnish painted since the original creation have changed the artworks. Enjoy:

http://www.ted.com/talks/maurizio_seracini_the_secret_lives_of_paintings.html

:30 second TV commercial

Final Project Proposal

To create a 30 second TV ad that represents a line of chocolate drop made by a company called Hershlee's.

Sketches:

Target group: Lovers of chocolate chip cookies.
Analysis: This is kind of a love hate thing for me as my studies in Visual Literacy and American Cinema have made me realize how much influence the modern image is having an impact on Society at large and how poorly imagery is being utilized towards what could be a positive end product. What could possibly be better than fresh oven baked chocolate chip cookies? I chose this for the simple reason that I have experience with TV production and incorporating both Photoshop and Illustrator has been a long time desire of mine to fulfill.

Format: This could be any of a number of final outputs, from AVI file type to MiniDV HiDEF tape, but for the purpose of this assignment will be relegated to an MP4 filetype for streaming playback via the web, hopefully off this blog.

Software utilization: Photoshop, Illustrator, AVID Liquid Pro 7, possibly Title Deko.

July 30th 2011 - 3pm on... music

music concert event poster
July 30th, 2011 Corning, NY
everyone is invited
it will most likely be a hot, humid day
dress appropriately and bring sunblock

The results:

Joe's Garage

BLAKE

The Magnetics

DAKOTA

Charlatan Entry

"Happy Meal" by CRBaldwin

An entry to the Charlatan design competition which is located here:

http://www.graphiccompetitions.com/jump.php?contest=the-charlatan-ink-art-prize-2011

The design competition theme for this year is derived from a work by Paul Guaguin with the same name,"Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?" This graphic provides answer to these questions by juxtaposing iconography of the past, present, and future along with conventions currently found in every day Life but which also existed in the past and probably will continue to do so into the Future. Primal blood thirst has always been with us, a kind of food we continuously feast upon, the question now though is, with robots about humans more and more everyday as time goes on, will humans have a reserved spot for consumption in posterity or will consumption be passed onto that which we humans create?



possible Charlatan competition entry 3

Where do we come from? Who are we? Where are we going?

original images courtesy:
boblum.com (kids running with asimo)
life.com (big asimo with arms raised)
ual.es (asimo wave)
life.com (asimo dancers)
acceleratingfuture.com (gun toting asimo left)
robotshop.com (gun toting asimo right)

possible Charlatan competition entry 2

MMM mmm good!

Original concept CRBaldwin

possible Charlatan competition entry 1

Computing into the distant Future

original image courtesy: funnypages.net

Tesla Greatest Hits Album cover re-do

I redesigned this album cover as I felt the original cover (located here: https://teslatheband.com/estore/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=142 )

while a capable piece of work didn't truly reflect the kind of energy and fun I expect out of the band.

I explored Adobe Illustrator using pen tool outlining to recreate Mr. Sun, as well as fills and gradients and the star tool. I then grabbed my digital camera and a small blue mixing bowl and went outside anf filled it with rocks and took a picture of it and imported it into PS. Then inside photoshop I entered the text, drop shadowed much and recreated the various elements on the original "raisin bran" cereal box that this image imitates as well as used layer blending, various fonts, outline glows, the lasso tool, magic wand and some other tools to create this finished unit. The original image is the cereal box design for Kellog's Raisin Bran.