Being sick today made it impossible to venture out for a more unique photo. Is the sight of Miss 1 digging in to her first mac and cheese [and ham] unique enough?
Monthly Archives: January 2013
x100.365 #6
If you follow me elsewhere (Instagram, Twitter, etc.) you might already know that I have a rare problem with my digestive system.
It’s called achalasia, and my least favourite symptom is the need to lie down after every few mouthfuls of food or drink. If I don’t, I’ll bring it up all up again. Not even water goes down smoothly. (It’s actually miraculous anything goes down at all.)
There’s an upside, though: I get forced to look at things from a different perspective.
My love of trees has only increased as a result.
(Favourite symptom: losing 20+ kilograms without even trying.)
Sick Day, by xkcd
Excluded:
- Moaning about being sick on your last day of leave.
- Posting xkcd comics to your blog.
x100.365 #5
I was shooting a wedding all day yesterday, but still managed to find and shoot this at 11:55pm.
Bonus points if you can tell me where it is.
x100.365 #4
Shot in the dying minutes of daylight, posted in the dying minutes of the day.
x100.365 #3
I couldn’t choose just one photo today, so you’re getting 3.
My project, my rules.
White Betty went swimming in some mud today. She loved it.
Chase Jarvis on the “Best Mirrorless of Them All”
Chase Jarvis on the “Best Mirrorless of Them All”
Great round-up from one of the modern legends of photography.
Of course the obvious but unstated conclusion is that Fujifilm’s offerings are the best.
(I wish this were a sponsored post, but I just love my X100 and X-Pro 1 is all.)
x100.365 #2
Mr 3’s legs are so rarely used for sitting, I celebrated with a photo.
On the elimination of leap seconds
On the elimination of leap seconds
You’re probably already familiar with the xkcd webcomic, but if you’re not following the author’s “What if?” blog, you really should be. It’s like MythBusters, but for hypotheticals way too grand to actually test. If you’re into science or maths, you’ll love it, but even if you’re not, you’ll still find it approachable, hilarious and fascinating.
Today’s post, for example, answers this question from a reader in Germany:
Every now and then we have to insert a leap second because the Earth’s rotation is slowing down. Could we speed up Earth’s rotation, so that we do not need Leap Seconds?
Clicky clicky!
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
According to Rotten Tomatoes:
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close has a story worth telling, but it deserves better than the treacly and pretentious treatment director Stephen Daldry gives it.
A quick reading of reviews by critics and certain reactions to the movie’s Oscar nomination for Best Picture tells the same story: September 11 is too sacred for a superbly crafted aftermath story to be much more than gratuitous Oscar fodder.
That’s if the critics are to be believed, anyway. I think they need to get over themselves and stop worshipping September 11 as if it can only feature in movies that meet their arbitrary standards, but maybe that’s just me.
The story of Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is beautiful, original and as you’d expect, heartbreaking, but not because September 11 features so prominently. At its core, it’s a story about the unusually strong bond between a father and son, the reconstruction of a family when that bond is broken, and the redemption of an estranged grandfather. Superb acting by the young lead (Thomas Horn) and supporting cast (Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Max von Sydow) make this a confronting, powerful and ultimately triumphant movie that didn’t once allow my mind to wander.
Production quality is very high. A number of head-spinning sequences that let us inside the fears, anxieties, hopes and frustrations that drive Oskar’s intense persona are particularly impressive, from photography to editing to soundtrack.
You should expect to feel emotionally drained after watching Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (hardly surprising with such a title), but I still highly recommend it as an inspiring fusion of fact, fiction, storytelling and art. I didn’t find it gratuitous or contrived at all. Purposefully awkward, if anything.
The critics were wrong about this one.