/// A Digital Eye \\\

A farewell and a Welcoming

2005-01-18T14:17:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone,

it's been a year since I started my blogger site. It's been a great year. I've met new great people here and I've learnt lots of things. A new year has arrived and I've felt this way of presenting my work was not the best for me. So I've finally realized something that has been rounding my head for a lot of years.... to create my own domain and host my own pages in the right way.

Some days ago, and after some events happened to me I decided to take that road. I've bought my own domain and I've stablished my own photoblog.

This blog will continue to be valid for some time just for text entries while I learn and install greymatter, but the new photoblog is already online and working!!!!!.

I know it won't be the most original layout in the world but it will display my daily photographs in the clean, easy and plain way I want them to be shown.

Thanks for joining me in this trip and I hope you'll like to continue the journey this year in my new home. Thanks!!!

http://www.rafatorcida.net/photoblog

8th Avenue Jam

2005-01-12T14:40:00.000+01:00

A cold winter night in New York having a coffee in a Starbucks corner. Lots of cars passing by.

And not so beautiful buildings and shops.

Buying @ Chinatown

2005-01-11T13:35:00.000+01:00

My traditional day at Manhattan Chinatown gave me this photograph of the everyday life in this wonderful neighbourhood. Please, watch it at LARGE size to avoid resizing artifacts. Any comment will be welcomed!.

Absence

2005-01-10T17:14:00.000+01:00

This is my entry for my local photography group work this month. The theme is absence. And that's what this photograhs makes me feel... Hope you like it. Any comment will be welcomed!.

Coaster & Nature

2004-12-27T10:16:00.000+01:00

A nice sunset at Island of Adventure theme park combining what the nature brings us with the most advanced technology humans can create.

164

2004-11-30T18:42:00.000+01:00

A simple house entrance of Amsterdam.

About the appearance of Spanish EX-Prime Minister yesterday...

2004-11-30T13:18:00.000+01:00

Three questions are floating in my mind since yesterday appearance of our ex-prime minister Jose Maria Aznar on TV. He basically said the terrorists attacks were done in order to induce a change in government and some mass media in Spain deliberately lied about the governement hidden clues that pointed foreign terrorists instead of national ETA terrorist group (that was their original idea about the source of the attacks).

This questions are so crystal clear that no doubt could arise in anyone with common sense:

1/ Why the ex-prime minister don't recognize yet that the whole idea of the Iraq war was completely wrong and no massive destruction weapons were menacing the world???
2/ He, and the right party has said that terrorist attacks in Madrid were planned before Iraq "preventive" war. Then I don't understand why they say the terrorist attack in Madrid goal was to remove the right party from governement because their support of US in the Iraq war.
3/ If the spanish government shouldn't have supported the Iraq war, do we think that even in the case of a terrorist attack in Madrid before the elections the people of Spain would have felt the necessity of a change in our leaders?. Probably in that case people would have grouped and supported the governement.

And one final question.... this one pretty subjective but quite scary for me....

4/ how our ex-prime minister can sleep at night?. Just thinking all the innocent people he has supported to kill, and all the anger he has helped to developed against us (occident) in other parts of world should be more than enough for me to scare my dreams for the rest of my life.

Do they think we're stupid????????.

COME OOOON!!!!!!!!!!

Rafa!

Oxide

2004-11-26T23:00:00.000+01:00

What could be more characteristic of Amsterdam than their bycicles?. Trying to find an original point of view to steal an snap of this particular "feature" of Amsterdam.

A Great Evening

2004-11-24T13:04:00.000+01:00

This photo was taken while having a walk in my birthday evening. The trip to Amsterdam was my birthday gift and I was very happy walking through the channels. When I saw this amazing cityscape I had to take the photograph.

New York in my Kitchen

2004-11-16T22:41:00.000+01:00

Uploaded for the next thursday challenge web site weekly challenge about "everyday things"....

well,

this souvenir plate from new york is one of my first things in the morning. I love it because it reminds me of vacation time and gives me a nice kick to start the day.

Bent - Ariels

2004-11-05T13:15:00.000+01:00

This week I could finally listen to the new album by british musicians Bent. I had read some not very good reviews of it in Amazon.co.uk. I should say that I don't agree with those bad reviews.
I've been a fan of Bent since their first recording. First song I heard from Bent was Swollen (in a Hed Kandi compilation) and I was completeley blown out with the originality, weirdness and quality of the song. The whole album (called "Programmed to Love") was amazing and it was full of hits that were used in countless chillout compilations.

The trademark of the Bent sound was the use of samples from the most weird and chessy recording you could imagine (including Nana Mouskouri cheesy songs).

Second album (The Everlasting Blink) included some great pieces and continued exploring in the world of cool sampling. Not so original, but first quality music.

Now, for their third album they've evolved their sampling technique. This is a thoroughly studied album were the samples have been created specially for it. This gives the Bent sound a more organic mood. I think it's a great evolution. It still sounds Bent but better.
Another evolution is the layering of the sound. Some songs of the new album have so many layers that you'll be pretty astonished the first time you'll hear them. Layers and layers of great female vocal singing, with layers of synths, strings beautifully crafted, and their trademark "cool" sampling (I love those harps blinking through out the album).

The mood of the album is mostly very upbeat. A good sense of humour is usual in Bent and you'll find lots of them in the album (take for example Silent Life and Exercise Four tracks). A really nice way to start the day.

I really love the string arrangement of Silent Life and As you Fall. By the way, the sound quality is pretty good this time (probably because all samples and sounds were specially created for the album, although I've heard some samples from sounds of their other albums here too).
Anyway I consider this album one of the five best albums of 2004. We live in a world were crap music is the standard, and it's hard to find a record with this quality in ALL its tracks.
Get Ariels and you won't be dissapointed. Creative, beautifully crafted music for people with ears in their head and a soul in their heart.

BTW, My favourite track right now is "Sing Me". A demonstration that pop, commercial, and quality are not antagonists.

Yet another comment on US Elections (my comment)

2004-11-04T13:11:00.000+01:00

There are hundreds of comments about US Elections here and there in the web. This is mine,

Let met put some obvious (and demonstrated) facts:

1. Bush lied about the war in Iraq. No massive destruction weapons, no threat for anyone was there. That's A FACT!!!!.

2. It seems pretty clear people around Bush (and probably himself) are earning lots of money of these operations.

3. The internal situation of US is worse than ever (economically and socially speaking).

How, anyone could tolerate this situation?. Everyone here (in Europe, in Spain, in my office in Madrid) cannot understand how american people could tolerate this situation and how they have confirmed four years later the lies of this man. HOW?. Now, re-electing him as their president, they're telling the rest of the world that they agree with this unfair war, with the lies of the US government.

Look at what happened in Spain!!!!. Our governemnt involved us in a war that some months later demonstrated it was absolutely unfair and wrong. That unfair war brought us the biggest and saddest terrorist attack of all our history. How the people of Spain reacted about this?. We put the liar government out of order!.

I'm not an expert in politics, but I think I have common sense enough... not many spaniards were in favour of Bush before he was reelected yesterday (even most of the right wing people here was not in favour of Bush).

So, pleeeeease, american people who voted Bush, start using your neurones!!!!!.

Just my two cents!.

Travels...

2004-11-02T19:50:00.000+01:00

This is my first studied shot with my new Nikon Coolpix 2200 (yes, you read right, just 2Mp) and also my entry for "Still Life" Photo Friday contest. For my opinion and thoughts about the Coolpix 2200 read my upcoming blog entry.

Anachronistic flowers

2004-10-26T18:51:00.000+02:00

I found these real flowers while having a nice breakfast in Cologne. Beautiful colours creating a warm feeling to start the day. No digital retouch apart from resizing.

Phantasia Hotel

2004-10-21T10:51:00.000+02:00

One of the PhantASIA Hotel corridors. I modified colours applying some layers and effects to get a more eerie feeling. The rest, a typical perspective shot I usually love. We had a really fun time in this hotel just exploring all the corners. The hotel is full of asian details.

Storm over Phantasialand

2004-10-20T10:53:00.000+02:00

After midday the weather at Phantasialand got really worse. I found the use of the wide angle converter over the "Feng Ju Palace" ride building very interesting so I just took the shot. Colours in the original were already dull but I found that some tweaking over them would enhance even better the awful weather coming.

Germany'04

2004-10-19T13:43:00.000+02:00

Last weekend I went to Germany. We went to Phantasialand theme park and to Cologne. Nice theme park and nice city. But very bad weather. We spent lots of time in cafes and this is where I took this photograph. A beatiful cafe near Cologne cathedral, full of people... drinking beer and eating nice food... great way to spend weekend!.

Home Impressions #5

2004-10-08T01:00:00.000+02:00

Home Impressions #4

2004-10-07T01:06:00.000+02:00

Home Impressions #3

2004-10-06T11:36:00.000+02:00

Home Impressions #2

2004-10-06T11:35:00.000+02:00

Wrong ways...

2004-10-06T01:25:00.000+02:00

Have you ever felt your life goes in the wrong way?. You're taking a misty and blue road and you cannot clearly see where are you going. You feel not right. You're not even sure this is the right road for you... Sometimes I just don't feel happy. But the misty and blue road is so easy to follow... There are no stop signs, and nothing to be seen in the far distance... What makes us happy?...

What makes me happy?

As we all have heard lots of time, happiness doesn't exist as a whole. If we are fortunate we can see some glimpses of it come and go...

Will these glimpses help us when the road becomes so blue and misty?. Everything looks fine until you realize you're in the wrong way...

It's time to find the exit.

I would like to dedicate this photograph to all the people that feel lost from time to time and struggles to find their place in this stupid world.

Home Impressions #1

2004-10-04T18:03:00.000+02:00

Passed weekend looked boring to me so I decided to try something new. The project was to shoot a roll of film at home during saturday and then develop film myself. After having a hard time searching for the chemicals and learning how to fill the development tank the magic moment happened. For some moments I really understood all those photographer that deny digital photography and believe in the old ways. It's something very special!. In the following days I'll be presenting the results of my weekend work. This is Home Impressions #1.

BoxeS

2004-10-01T14:32:00.000+02:00

Just a couple of metal boxes with an enigmatic lines play.

The Village

2004-09-27T10:42:00.000+02:00

What a surprise!.

After watching the awful Signs movie I told myself I would never go to watch any other Shyamalan movies. It was a pity because I thought Shyamalan was very talented but movies went more and more bad since The Sixth Sense.

So, when The Village started in USA I read the bad critics from everyone and I supposed it was really a bad movie... just what I was thinking.... no surprises.

BUT!, the story looked so good I couldn't resist. This Friday the movie started in Spain (amazing translation for the movie title...., "El Bosque" (which means "The Forest")) and two days later, there I was.... prepared for a really poor movie...

...but this is the best crafted movie by Shyamalan. From the technical perspective, camera use, photography, music, everything is absolutely perfect. The slow motion of the movie is something I really appreciate in this times of mindless-fast-pace-stupid-movies... so for the first 15 minutes I was just amazed with the photography, music, and the almost fairytale mood of the movie.

Then it goes better and better, as everyone realizes the truth behind the village. I think the important part is not the typical signature final surprise of the movie (every Shyamalan movie has a final trick). In this case the real chilling comes much sooner the end of the movie.

To get the real beauty of this film you have to dig deep in the story. Lots of similar things are happening just in your world today so it's amazing how MNS "translated" the essence of contemporary problems (specially in the USA and their current politicians) to a fairy tale kind of story.

I also like the almost independent European style of the film... the way every scene has been shot.

The bad point is the advertising campaign in Spain.... in the trailer it seems you're going to see a really scary terror movie. Of course this was not the intention of the director, but the only rule of distributors is to earn more and more money, and everything is valid for them. That means lots of disappointed people at the end of the movie...

Happily (for me), the movie was not what I was expecting, it's much more beautiful!!!!!!!.

Well done Mr. Shyamalan. Keep this way, pleeeeease!!!!.

9/10.

foto-si Madrid dinner 23·09·2004

2004-09-24T20:42:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I went to my first dinner with the spanish photography group "foto-si". The group is based in a mailing list and their members post photographs usually in www.photo.net.

I had a really good time yesterday, and I'm happy I found these photo passionate people. I invite you to review the work of my three fellows yesterday:

Charo Diez
Marina Población
Alberto Conde

You'll be surprised!.

And sorry for the bad quality of the pictures. They were taken with a PalmOne Zire 72, filtered with Neat Image, and slightly corrected with Photoshop.

Charo, Alberto y Curra

Alberto y Curra, Curra y Alberto

Curra, Rafa y Charo

Storm over Wien

2004-09-22T22:35:00.000+02:00

An amazingly big storm was forming over Wien. The dark clouds and the old building remind me of that anticipation feeling... something inminent is just going to happen. To give more mood to the shot I changed my ISO setting to 400, to get all that "noise" in the air and get the grainy mood in a more natural way. Desaturation and duotone made with PS.

Time is the Enemy

2004-09-21T01:23:00.000+02:00

Taken in the Kunsthistorische Museum of Vienna. I took this photo after more than 26 hours of continued work. I was really tired and a little bit upset about some aspects of my life. I saw this big cafe inside the museum, so old, so empty... and recurring thoughts of how short life is, and how fast we should live it to squeeze as much hapiness as we could emerged in my mind. I was listening an amazingly poignant melody of Paul Mounsey, The Bridge.

Summer Ends....

2004-09-08T11:22:00.000+02:00

You know, after the big bunch of images I took during the summer it seems I've arrived to a new creative deadlock. No ideas for new photographs, no inspiration, no feel like going to take photographs.

It's not the first one and surely it won't be the last one. It usually happens after an intense period of photo taking. In the past these deadlocks made me upset, but now I've learnt to live with the feeling and just wait for "inspiration" to come back.

This time the deadlock it happened to come just when the summer is coming to an end in Spain. No more blue skies, weather becomes more cool... and inspiration goes away.

Funny enough, when I was coming home yesterday after work, and I was thinking about all these things I realized some amazing clouds starting to cover our ending summer sky. When I arrived home I quietly went for my digicam, went out home, looked for a nice spot and fired a couple of shots. Nothing stunning, but a record of a summer that will never come back, summer'04 is almost exhausted.

A portrait...

2004-09-02T23:57:00.000+02:00

I'm always lurking for a portrait opportunity... my couple was having some deep thoughts while relaxing in a cafe in Alton Towers... available light was just perfect... I set the metering to spot and just fire. No digital touch over light or colours, just sharpenss filter applied because of the resizing. At least a portrait I like :).

Hulk Coaster @ IoA

2004-09-01T18:54:00.000+02:00

Taken in my last birthday in the Islands of Adventure Theme Park. This is the incredible Hulk Coaster... seven thrilling inversions and an amazing catapulted launch.... grrrrreat!. Just cleaned in PS. Comments are welcomed! :). And please, don't move your arms and legs outside the train during the ride :).

Covent Garden Sunday

2004-08-26T11:02:00.000+02:00

Another cloudy day in London... we went to Convent Garden to "feel the crowd"... amazing place, full of life. Original was in colour, but it was so dull I decided to turn it to black and white. After turning I applied some duotone adjustments to get the mood.

Woodwalk

2004-08-20T02:31:00.000+02:00

Taken in the walk that connect the Alton Towers Hotel with the Alton Towers Theme Park. An amazingly beautiful and fun place where I had a wonderful couple of days. This exciting walk was the gateway to a day of thrills and funs including the great Air Flying Coaster.

Interview in photobird.com

2004-08-18T19:08:00.000+02:00

Co-Founder and CEO of Photobird.com Ed Krimen has kindly interviewed me. You can read the interview here. I would like to thank again him for this opportunity of arrange my ideas and share with fellow photographers and internet viewers.

Thanks again to the people that has read the interview and has come to my blog. Any comment about my photographs, or any idea you would like to share with us will be really appreciated.

Thanks all,
and happy shooting!.

PS. Give a try to photobird!. They have won 4 Tucows stars recently. It's a really interesting place to place your photographs, easy, clean, fast...

Deep Blue Sea

2004-08-10T22:18:00.000+02:00

The ocean always reminds us how small we are in front of the big miracles of nature. The sun sets, a day ends, but new days will come, full of possibilities, full of wonders. This is how I felt when I took this shot. I was making reality a dream...

This one is for Jose Luis, the one who made my dream came true...

Photographs rewarded

2004-08-01T01:53:00.000+02:00

Hi,

I'm happy to announce that some of my photographs have been awarded with some special mentions in the great usefilm.com website. Thanks to the usefilm.com editors for selecting my photographs. I'm thankful and honoured.

The bell has been mentioned as "Best in Project" in the Shadows Project.
St.John Sunset has been mentioned as "Best in Project" in the Moody Landscape Project.
Subway has been included in the "Editor's Choice" of the website.

Thanks again.

Bridge to Delos

2004-07-31T19:05:00.000+02:00

I saw this photograph the same moment I was walking around this amazing swimming pool even if I didn't have the camera with me in that moment. The pool was just side by side with the aegean sea, and, in front of use the ancient island of Delos...... I analized sun over the pool around a whole day and finally took the shot in the early morning, when I thought it was the best moment, with that shadows. It's great when you have some days to take a photograph :).

Athens Underground

2004-07-30T12:33:00.000+02:00

Athens has new underground system for the Olympics 2004. I thought that a shot of this would complete my vacation photographs. I manually duotonized it in PS to better achieve the grey and cold feeling these places always make me feel.

Far Above the Clouds

2004-07-28T00:36:00.000+02:00

Taken while starting the day in our Mykonos hotel. I used the flash to give light to my "clouds" while exposing for the bright blue sky. It seems it worked. Not digital post-processing other than the usual unsharp mask and a little bit added saturation to compensate camera's low saturation.

Dusk @ Fira

2004-07-27T00:43:00.000+02:00

Taken just after the sun went down while enjoying some white wine from Santorini Island (btw, really great white wines there!). Digital noise cleaned with NeatImage. Colours adjusted with PS.

Peace & Greece

2004-07-26T11:54:00.000+02:00

This door was placed on a wall outside a taberna in Mykonos. The sun was really up in the sky but some near building casted some interesting shadows over the wood. I liked the theming of the door, and its blue colour is a nice reminder of greece. No digital alterations of any kind.

The Bell

2004-07-23T09:54:00.000+02:00

I found interesting two ideas: to reflect in a typical church the colours of the island, blue, white and red... and also the idea of showing the subject, not by itself but by its shadow.

Mykonean Corner

2004-07-22T11:31:00.000+02:00

A quiet corner in the busy streets of Mykonos, where you could travel back in time. Originally taken in colour... it was so dull I preferred to move it to B+W and apply some effects to enhance the retro-look.

Kings of Convenience: Riot on Empty Street

2004-07-22T10:31:00.000+02:00

Some days ago, the new album by Kings of Convenience was released in Spain. I've not listened to their debut album, but this new album is just amazing. With a subtle instrumentation based on acoustic guitars, simple piano lines, cellos and violas and quiet drums the two components of this norwegian group display an array of emotions, moods, ambients and feelings far away of the mainstream music. It's refreshing, and also very deep. Their lyrics are just amazing.

The first single from the album is "Misread". Just as a sample there goes the lyrics:

If you want to be my friend, and you want to get us along
-please do not expect me to wrap it up and keep it there.
The observation I am doing, could easyly be understood as cynical demaenour,
but one of us misread - what do you know, it happened again
A friend is not a means you utilize to get somewhere,
somehow didn't notice, friendship is an end - what do you know, it happened again.
How come no one told me, all throught history
the loneliest people were the ones who always spoke their truth?.
The ones who made a difference withstanding indifference.
I guess is up to me now - should I take that risk, or just smile?
- what do you know, it happened again.

W1 vs. V1

2004-07-21T10:18:00.000+02:00

In the last days I've been following a thread in the Sony Forum of dpreview.com regarding a possible issue of the Sony Cybershot W1. As a result of the discussion a member of the forum stated that people who chose the W1 instead of the V1 where neophytes with no idea of photography.

I've been involved in photography for the last eight years so I don't consider myself a neophyte (nor a professional, of course).

So... I started thinking why choosing the W1 over the V1. I found several reasons, and I would like to share them with you. There they goes:

1. Processor speed.... I was tired of slow camera starts. I've missed lots of shots just because of the camera speed. I've never seen a camera as fast as the W12. That was really a REASON to choose between this and the V1.

2. Video Quality... I know the W1 is not a professional camera (as well as the V1 isn't too).... and the main use for my W1 is to take good captures of my vacations and special moments. In the last times we all have found a great way to present your shots is the use of a (S)VCD movie containing your shots along with nice music, titling, and so on.... being capable of adding some video shots to this, the final result is really enhanced.... so W1 video capabilities where really a plus to select the W1.

3. Within the years I've seen that when I want control over my shots I usually tend to think this way: "I need lots of DOF, or.... I don't want too much DOF -probably because I'm shooting portraits". That kind of control is possible with the W1. It's as simple as selecting one of the two possible apertures in the manual mode and then control the speed for your purposes. For a digicam work I don't really need the full range of apertures.

4. I won't discuss about the lense quality... surelly the vario-sonnar T* lens of the V1 is much better than the vario-tessar lens in the W1, but, if the main use will be 10x15 prints, and SVCD quality videos (where the maximum resolution is about 720x502 pixels)... the W1 is just a really good one. If I need a more professional result, I'll surely don't use a digicam like the W1 or the V1....

5. LCD Screen... oh my god... THAT's a reason. Now I'm taking problems looking at another digicams screen, or even my Nikon F80 viewfinder... the 2.5" LCD is just so great.....

6. Batteries.... oh man, it's so good to have NON proprietary batteries.... a couple of AA rechargeable batteries that will cost about 10€ and will last more than 150shots per load... that I can have three replacements in my bag for less than just one V1 battery...

6. Price. I live in Spain and there's still a difference of about 250-300€ between these two models.... well....

Balcony

2004-07-20T11:58:00.000+02:00

Mediterranean building in its essence... with some global symbols... the mix of tradition and globalization.

Agios Ioannis Sunsets...

2004-07-18T14:11:00.000+02:00

Can breathtaking views block your creativity instead of activating it?. I was so amazed with these sunsets that I could barely use my camera. Nothing that I saw in the LCD panel was near the beauty of the moment but I had to try to capture it. Did I got it?.

Santorini - The Caldera

2004-07-16T12:49:00.000+02:00

I'm back from my Greece vacations. 13 days of sun, good food... good life!. This shot was taken during my stay in Santorini Island... I think this island is truly unique and it deserves a trip on its own. Now, back to work :(

1st Place Winner :)

2004-07-14T17:05:00.001+02:00

The Nob Hill Dawn photograph has won the 1st place in the June Competition of the photographyblog.com website. I wish to thank Mark Goldstain, the man behind Photography Blog, for all the hard work he puts in his website. I'm very happy and this will make me work even harder in future. Thanks!!.

Nob Hill Dawn

2004-06-24T14:09:00.000+02:00

6:00am... San Francisco... I don't know why, but I wake up. My couple is still sleeping... I go to the window of our hotel, and I'm amazed with the view. I put some music with my headphones (if I remember well, it was Largo by Brad Meldhau), take tripod and camera, and shoot. While taking photographs he awakes (I'm not so quiet :P) and we both see hand by hand one of the most beautiful cityscapes I've seen in my whole life. The rest.... is another story.

On the Threshold to Liberty...

2004-06-21T13:42:00.000+02:00

In our personal search for liberty there are always walls we must jump... I just wanted to play with lines, DOF and my shadow. I pushed the color limits in PS. This is just a homage for the wonderful musician Mark Isham.

Polis - Online Exhibition

2004-06-21T12:26:00.000+02:00

I've prepared an online exhibition under the theme Polis, Our Cities. I did it for a submission in a Photography Magazine. I don't know if they will include my photographs or not, but I had a good time creating it. Click on the image to go to Exhibition Web Site. Thanks for your time, and, please, write your comments and opinions in this post.

The Other Side

2004-06-16T14:11:00.000+02:00

A try in the low key (or low light) format. Originally taken in a railway station in Vienna I found the elements in the photograph attracting so I shot. Then I added some multilayered colour effects, some new lighting conditions and digital vignetting (which I really love) to better match the effect.

Rain Drive

2004-06-15T18:15:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I had a bad day. I remembered this shot of some weeks ago, before good weather arrive Madrid. So, I find it a very visual expression of my yesterday mood.

MovieWorld Madrid Self Portrait

2004-06-14T08:53:00.000+02:00

This is one comes from Movie World Madrid Theme Park. The colour combination and the idea of a distorted mirrored reality (the one you perceive in the imaginary worlds of a theme park) combined to take this shot.

Recycling...

2004-06-11T14:43:00.000+02:00

Taken in the Forum 2004, this one comes from an exhibition explaining how we can recycle things, and the benefits for our world. Let's recycle!.

Sky #2

2004-06-07T19:42:00.000+02:00

A new shot taken last year with my DSC-U10 camera. In the last times I've found Neat Image very useful to clean up noise and JPEG artifacts and give my shots this wonderful look. Don't you think this photograph seems to be taken with a much more expensive camera?. I would like to test 2Mp DSC-U40 camera. It must be just great. If you have one of these, please share your comments with us :).

palmOne Zire 31 review

2004-06-07T01:11:00.000+02:00

Hi everyone,

last week I had a problem with my Sony TJ-35 PDA... I lost it. It was a good machine and I've been using PDAs for more than 5 years now so I cannot live without one. Last friday I went to FNAC shop to buy a new one. I didn't want a new Sony handheld because Sony is going to close their Clié Handhelds line in less than a year and I didn't want to spend again lots of money, so I thought what I basically do with my handheld:

1. Save my account, credit card and other confidential information using an encrypted wallet application.
2. Take some notes using the Memo Pad application.
3. Read some ebooks.
4. Some ocasional playing, only puzzle or slow paced games.
5. Some MP3 playing.
6. From time to time have my bills, accounts, etc... organized.
7. Read news using AvantGo.

With this in mind and my two big constraints (no more Sony handhelds and not pay lots of money for a new replacement) I finally decided to buy the new Palm Zire 31 in spite of some bad reviews I read in 1src.com and other web sites. Those reviews complained basically about the bad quality of the screen in the Zire 31. After playing with it the whole weekend I'm more than happy of my new acquisition. These are my reasons,

1. Quality/Price ratio... price is REALLY low, build quality of this unit is superb, it's really fast, small, only problem being the 160x160 pixels screen. Not comparable with a new Hi-Res 320x320 screen buuut, continue reading...
2. It uses standard mini-usb connector to synch data. Some people complain about this but I find it really good, because it's a standard connector. Universal Connector used by other Palm Units to connect to their accesories (like keyboards) is no longer needed because this unit supports SDIO cards (for Wi-Fi connections, for example) and keyboards can be used using the infrarred port. PalmOne sells a really wonderful infrared keyboard for only 70€. Now if I forget my cable at home, I can connect in the office using any standard miniusb cable. Great!.
3. Battery life is simply amazing... I charged it last friday... I've been playing with the unit all weekend and battery indicator is still almost full. (Even playing some MP3s and ATRAC3 files).
4. It comes with the latest PalmOS release... great!. Now I can use categories for my appointments (so I don't need to use DateMate application for my birthday reminders anymore), standard Photos application comes in ROM (no more spaced needed in SplashPhoto), as well as RealOne Player (sound quality with a pair of Sony headphones is just fantastic!), I can place alarms for my tasks, etc... lots of improvements over the PIM applications that came with the Sony unit.
5. I can still play Bejeweled with the same speed than before. The 160x160 screen doesn't affect my playing. Astraware games work wonderfully with this unit (at least puzzle games... action games suffer some ghosting because of the STN screen).
6. I can still read my ebooks, read avantgo or use Plucker with all my RSS feeds without any problem. Reading experience is basically the same I had with Sony unit.

So, my conclusion is:

for those of you that only make standard use of a PDA thinking on a change ... put on your list of possibilities this new unit by PalmOne... it's a really small, lightweight, well built, full of possibilites and it's price is very very affordable!!!.

Clouds Go By...

2004-06-03T14:43:00.000+02:00

Taken last summer and forgotten.... Yesterday I was reviewing some photographs of my photo backup CDs... and I found this one... Amazingly it was taken with just a Sony DSC-U10, the first ultracompact camera from Sony, just 1.3Mp -enough for a 10x15 print-, and with almost no manual control over the shot... well!, some tricks could be applied in order to get the camera work the way you wanted. I've always liked this model. Superb lense quality, reeeeally fast startup time and shutter lag, plenty of space with just a 64Mb Memory Stick, and long battery life with two AAA batteries. Last year I used it almost whole vacations because of its size and fast response. No zoom can be used (about 40mm lense in 35mm eq.) so you must force your imagination to find good compositions for every situtation. Comments are welcomed!.

New Photograph! : Up & Down

2004-05-31T17:50:00.000+02:00

I've added a new photograph :). After spending a work week in Vienna this is the photographic result. Not too much, but taking trains and metros was the only free time I had.

Another one bites the dust.... (aka. awful photofinish services)

2004-05-19T13:42:00.000+02:00

This weekend I went to the Forum Barcelona 2004. I was carrying my Nikon F80 with Superia 100 film... an easy one. On sunday morning I decided to leave two rolls of film in a Kodak Express Center for developing and printing. I thought that an official Kodak shop just dedicated to photofinishing services should be good enough for my snapshots... What a horrible mistake!!.

I've never seen a work so badly done. unbelievable.... All photographs with an awful magenta cast, all painfully washed out and overexposed..... So, my word of advice for all of you leaving or passing by Sitges (Barcelona)... DON'T leave your rolls to:

KODAK EXPRESS SITGES.
Dirección : C\ Mayor, 32

You will be very dissapointed with the results!!!!!.

Fair Trade in the Barcelona 2004 Forum

2004-05-19T13:39:00.000+02:00

Taken in the Forum Barcelona 2004, a meeting point for the, cultural diversity, sustainable development and conditions for peace (and much more). This one talks us about fair trade. How many coffee cups you have to drink for a Latin America coffee plant farmer to receive just the price you paid for ONE of them???????. "The excessive dependence of the majority of developing economies on the production of raw material, combined with low wages and almost inexistent labor laws, explain why the expanding international trade brought about by globalization has not generated the expected results in terms of human development".

Look changes

2004-05-11T23:21:00.000+02:00

Hi,

moved by a friend I decided to try one of the new blogger layouts... what do you think of the new look?. I also modified completely my Portfolio Web Site... Opinions are welcomed!.

2004-05-11T15:04:00.000+02:00

We can now use the Hello software from Picasa (www.hello.com) to upload photographs directly to our blogs... they will be saved in the blogger site directly. This is my first try, and also my latest release :),

Infinite Pathway

A word of advice for spanish people on El Corte Ingles photofinish services

2004-05-05T12:28:00.000+02:00

Hi everyone, this post is for spanish people only. The big national shopping malls "El Corte Ingles" has the usual photofinish service, where you can develop and print your film. El Corte Ingles has slightly higher prices than the rest of shops, and it's supposed that a better service will be found....

...unfortunetely that's not the case... Last Sunday I went to the El Corte Ingles center in Alcalá de Henares (near Madrid). I gave them two rolls of Kodak Ultra 400 35mm..... well, the prints I received where the worst I've ever seen. I was initially upset because they were my two first rolls using my new Nikon F80 (more on this on future posts). All skies were completely washed outs, colours pale and with a high blue cast, even some unsharp prints..... Unbelievable.... Price was, not exactly cheap.... 12€ per roll!!!.

I took the negatives and scanned them with my, not very good, Microtek 35mm film scanner..... I was more than surprised of the results.... of course there were blue skies in my shots... and very saturated colours... that right out of the scan....

...I supposed modern minilabs are capable of much more good results than the ones I saw with my prints... so I can only think of El Corte Ingles being completely negligent with their photofinish service.... Of course a lot of people would blame the camera, the film, the photographer........................

...so, My suggestion is.... please please please..... AVOID leaving your film rolls to El Corte Ingles.... If you cannot get rid of them, tell them just to develop your rolls and give it back just the negatives.... then use a film scanner or a scanning service to get photographs to be printed anywhere else.

And if someone from El Corte Ingles reads this.... please, take jour job more seriously.... you're playing with the memories of people... don't let them washed out!!!.

Two New Photographs and Biography Section

2004-04-06T00:32:00.000+02:00

Hi everyone, for today I've published two new photographs, and also I finally uploaded an updated "photographer" page for the portfolio web page (it seems like 24 hours after deleting the original page in the Terra web site, their bots clean the pages from the cache so the new page can be seen).

Anyway, we have two new photographs... an sky view from a Boeing 747 just after taking off Miami, and a sea view, with boat included. I hope you'll like them and I'll wait for your comments :).

Cheers!.

.

Portofolio changed.

2004-04-04T21:12:00.000+02:00

Hi everyone,

finally I changed the portfolio style to something new for 2004. I'm still having some problems with the awful Terra hosting service. It seems like they have a big cache of pages and even if I use an FTP client to update my pages it takes ages to reflect in the web site. Terra is crap!.

Anyway, I also published a new photograph.... an experimental portrait taken while trying some new clothes in my last vacations. Comments are welcomed, as usual.

Back Again

2004-03-22T01:41:00.000+01:00

It's been a long time since my last post. I've been really busy because of work duties. But I'm back!. So, changes are coming. I'm reworking my web portfolio and I almost finished a new digital portfolio to be distributed to anyone interested in my photographs... Lots of new photographs have been added to my portfolio since my last blog post so, don't forget to have a look :).

And, please, lots of PEACE for all... these are hard times and we need to calm and re-think where we're going... Madrid, I love you!.

Casual Music™ 5

2004-01-21T13:09:00.000+01:00

Last days I've been working hard, compiling the fifth installment of my own music compilation CD's... They started as a way to compile some different and eclectic songs and pieces for my couple when he had to travel far away for long times. But one day he put the first 'Casual' in his office, and all his partners seemed to like the compilation... So I started creating one new CD whenever I felt I needed a new one....

...and here we're now. Of course, these CD's are only for my own home (I'm not trying to sell them or break any legal rule).

Casual Music is, I think, the most intimate and quiet CD in the series.... probably because of the winter time and my current feelings. There's place for some electronic, jazz, pure new age, folk.... all I really like. I've tried a new normalizing technique based on RMS power of the songs and dynamic compression so there will be no volume difference between songs (compiled from very different CDs) but no audio information is lost.

The CD is soft mixed with Mixmeister and I added some winter atmospheric sounds as transition between some of the themes.....

I know is not fair if I say it, but I think this is the best in the series, in sound quality, mixing and selection. Here we go with the track listing:

1. Karen Matheson - Morning
2. State of Grace II (Paul Swarthz) - Turning to Peace
3. Henry Mancini - Megeve (from Charade OST)
4. Sarah McLachlan - Time
5. Annie Lennox - The Sadest song I've got
6. Anders Widmark - Holly Hannah (Instrumental)
7. Dido - Stoned
8. Dusted - If I had a child
9. Enigma - Out from the deep + The Cross of Changes
10. Regina Carter - Après Un Rêve (Gabriel Fauré)
11. Maggie Reilly - Gaia
12. Kate Rusby - Underneath the Stars
13. Vanessa Carlton - Rinse
14. Mastretta - El Ultimo Habitante de la Tierra
15. Michael Gettel - Loch Ness (The Kelpie)
16. Claire Pelletier - Marcelle et Chrysostome
17. Natasha St-Pier - Nos Rendez-Vous
18. Pat Metheny - And Time goes on
19. Oystein Sevag - Evening

Now, I'm waiting for a good photograph to create the cover of the CD :). If you really really really are dying for more information regarding the CD drop me an e-mail.

New Photograph + Song

2004-01-16T00:45:00.000+01:00

Hi there,

for today I have a new shot. It's about home things.... in particular it's about my mom's kitchen. She has an stylish thing in her kitchen and I wanted to get a shot that would fit with that mood. Here it goes:

You can click to go to see the photograph in a bigger size :).

Anyway, this week I'm completely crazy about a song from the latest album by Sarah McLachlan, Afterglow. Absolutely fabulous adult pop with gorgeous lyrics like this one...

"Time here all but means nothing just shadows that move 'cross the wall
they keep me company but they don't ask me they don't say nothing at all

I need just a little more silence, I need just a little more time

..."
(You have to listen to the song to know what happens then :).

An strange Sunday

2004-01-13T01:03:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was an strange sunday for me. I had to stay at home all day. Photography is my most beloved hobby but these days I'm having some dificulties to find interesting subjects or new things to explore. So I was thinking about my latest vacations near the sea... all the stuff to be done at home... my creativity crises... and that combined with a new photoshop book with lots of digital techniques had the following result:

You can click in the photograph to view it at a large size.

Well, it seems the photograph hasn't received "rave" reviews... almost all people told me that the camera I used to take the photograph was very bad... The problem is that the original was much more clear and without all this blue colour cast. I added all of that stuff (as well as some selective blurring) using Photoshop.

Anyway, I won't give up. I had a nice time playing with the photograph and dreaming about my vacations and I think that even if the results are strange and different I like them. It's better to have bad reviews than not having anything at all.

Stay tuned for my next release.

Photography Web Page

2004-01-09T00:17:00.000+01:00

Today I've been rearranging my photography web page. I usually post my photographs to usefilm.com, photo.net, and to my personal webpage. I also added the links to this page so you can follow my work if you're interested. All kind of comments and critics are welcome because I think that's the way to improve.

A New Blog has born

2004-01-07T22:09:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone there.... Finally I did it. A new year is starting right now, and it seems a good moment to share my thoughts with you. Stay tuned for some photographs and comments. And sorry if my English is not so good.... I'm Spanish!.

Now I've arranged the style of the blog as I like so posting and comments can start.

Welcome aboard!!