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I recently moved in to my old house on George Street, and so a short but leisure filled era has begun. It will also begin the much anticipated George Street Photo Project. With a massive empty heritage home, opportunity is abundant for photo sessions of all varieties. The first photo series took place in the late hours of the night this past week. What started out as a request to take a photo of Helen, Jess and Gemma, turned into a full blown photo shoot around the 183 year old house using props found strewn about the many rooms. Future photo sessions are obviously encouraged. Here’s a look back at the night that was…  Jess warming up for a fun filled photo shoot Earlier this summer, I made a trip to Ottawa to shoot the Ottawa Marathon and cheer on my Mom and Sister (running the half). By day it was sports, by night, the parliament grounds. The two images link to the galleries.
 Tamtams in the park With the impending arrival of Mr. Wollerman, a crew descended upon Montreal for a fine spring weekend. With Matt, Helen, and Anna arriving from Toronto, Joe and Dez hosting and myself up from Fredericton, anticipation was high. Rolling with such a solid crew made for solid weekend of clubs, culture, late night poker, a swim in the canal system (frisbee retrieval), and a rainy Tuesday evening Stevie Wonder concert. The above photo gallery (click on the photo) . Next reunion weekend, August 1st 2009, for Matt and Helen’s Fredericton reception! See you guys soon. Gards  Chicken Stu With a weekend in Montreal only days away, thoughts of music and partying danced in my head. It was time to make another playlist mix. I am a strong supporter of event based playlists which capture a time, place and feeling. Just had a listen to Jonnies back May 2007 and the memories came rushing back. This weekend marks another reunion with that very same Jonnie so another mix was in order. In keeping with the steadily growing popularity of nu disco and discopunk (aka indie dance, electropunk, blog disco, indie electro, electronica…) I made a mix that features a heavy dose of electro. This mix has a new twist over my old ones though… For each song, I tried to find two versions that were in keeping with the feel of the playlist and would show a few takes on some pretty nice tracks. The mix runs the gamut of indie rock to dancepunk with some house mixed in. If you are familiar with most of the artists, you’ll notice a heavy Aussie influence. One of the few exceptions to my back to backs was a couple of tracks which I kind of played back and forth over each other. One called “Do You Speak French?” a 70’s disco dazzler by Nite School and the other… “I Don’t Speak French” by The Vanish (2009). Despite the age gap, there is certainly a similarity, which lends some perspective to how the current genre is bringing back the disco sound. Ahhh the cyclical nature of music. The mix is just over an hour long, and runs an average of 123bpm. Would go well on a morning walk to work, drinks before going out, the solo drive to Fredericton I’m doing tomorrow. Most of the songs are current, but there are a few older ones too. It’s far from a technically perfect mix, but it gets the job done and I think it’s still a solid listen, if you’re into this kind of music that is… PLAYLIST I’m Good I’m Gone (Lykke Li cover) – Friendly Fires I’m Good I’m Gone (Fred Falke Remix) – Lykke Li Goblin City (Holy Ghost! Remix) – Panthers Want U - Lo-Fi-Fnk Want U (Thompson Edit) – Lo-Fi-Fnk Happy House (Prince Language Dub Mix) – The Juan MacLean Happy House – The Juan Maclean Hearts On Fire (Holy Ghost Instrumental) – Cut Copy Hearts On Fire (Joakim Remix) – Cut Copy Hearts On Fire – Cut Copy No Static (Club Version) – Bottin Golden Cage – The Whitest Boy Alive Golden Cage (Fred Falke Remix) – The Whitest Boy Alive Blind (Frankie Knuckles Remix) – Hercules & Love Affair Blind – Hercules and Love Affair Courage (Jack Tennis Edit) – The Whitest Boy Alive Courage – The Whitest Boy Alive One Day – The Juan MacLean One Day (James Curd Remix) – The Juan Maclean Heartbeat (Alan Braxe Remix) – Annie Heartbeat (Album Version) Annie Heartbeat (Phones Maximo Remix) Annie Walking On A Dream (Screendeath Remix) – Empire Of The Sun Walking on a Dream – Empire of the Sun Hide and Seek – Imogen Heap Hide and Seek (Spencer Collect) – Imogen Heap Look At Me (When I Rock Wichoo) (Kid Gloves Remix) – Black Kids Look At Me (When I Rock Wichoo) – Black Kids Monster Hospital – Metric Monster Hospital (Alex Metric Remix) – Metric So Haunted (Knightlife’s Sun-Soaked Reprise) – Cut Copy So Haunted – Cut Copy Cocaine – Julia Cocaine (The Knocks Remix) – Julia Paris (featuring Au Revoir Simone) (Aeroplane Remix) – Friendly Fires Paris – Friendly Fires Do You Speak French – Nite School I Don’t Speak French – The Vanish The Reeling (Calvin Harris Remix) – Passion Pit The Reeling – Passion Pit Kids (Pet Shop Boys Synthpop Mix) – MGMT Kids – MGMT Talk Like That (CFCF Remix) – The Presets Talk Like That (Miami Horror Remix) – The Presets We Are The People (Jimmy2sox Remix) – Empire Of The Sun We Are the People (Golden Filter Remix) – Empire Of The Sun Tiergarten (Supermayer Remix) – Rufus Wainwright DOWNLOAD - http://files.me.com/alexgardner/shvc33.mp3 (just copy and paste it)
NOTE: If you don’t like house or electronica, you probably won’t like this. If you do, I hope this makes for a good hour of solid jams. Gards
A digital slr kit is always evolving so it’s an ongoing investment in a sense. Your camera body may be replaced in as little as a year, or may last 10. Your lenses and other peripherals may be with you for decades. Buying a camera is a commitment. Once you’ve made your choice you are likely to stick with it for a long time. Even if one brand has a great deal on a certain model today, what will it have to offer in 5 years? And how serious do you think you’ll be as a photographer at that time? There’s plenty to consider. First off, get the cameras in your hands and test them out. See how they feel and operate. The features of each model will differ and most will have strengths and weaknesses. Just keep in mind, digital camera bodies are evolving quickly, and an upgrade is likely over time. Lenses are what deserve the most attention. A quality lens can stay in your bag for 30 years or more. Save up and choose your lenses with care. Most are expensive, but there are some cheaper options that deliver great results. One external factor to consider is, what kind of gear do your friends/peers have? If you live or travel with them, having compatible gear can be a great bonus or a life saver if something has gone wrong (like sharing lenses, or borrowing a battery when you don’t have a spare). On a side note, if you are making your first purchase, factor in the cost of a second battery, at least 2 memory cards (several smaller ones (2GB, 4BG) is much better than one giant sized memory card (8GB, 16GB), some form of camera bag and cleaning tools (often included or thrown in if you negotiate), and potentially a UV haze filter or some form of protection for your lens. It may reduce quality slightly (so remove it if it’s a must) but it will save your lens from ever being scratched or damaged. Tripods are an asset so get one if you can afford it, but concentrate your first purchase on the camera and getting the best lens (or two) you can afford to go with it. At the end of the day, there’s no wrong or bad choice. Find what works for you and go forward with confidence. You can compare cameras based on: resolution (megapixels); Frame Rate (how many pictures taken per second); AF (auto focus) speed and number of focus points; RAW mode (jpeg modifies the image and reduces quality); video capture capability; and image stabilization (some build it into the body, others into the lenses). Good luck and happy shopping, If you have questions, fire away!  Enter the Fantasy Football League to win this photo of a Lamborghini First up on the sports front is fantasy football. I’m looking to make a pay league and get 10-12 guys in on it. Will give precedent to the old fantasy leaguers of yesteryear, but also welcome some fresh (and attentive) blood. Was thinking ESPN for the league site, but am open to suggestions on where to host it. Anyone have experience? Obviously it is still a few months away but the summer goes quickly and I wanted to get this on peoples radar… Season starts September 10th so would hope to draft the last weekend in August perhaps. Lots of time for adjustment there. If you’re interested in signing up or have advice, you can post here or drop me a line via email.  dj Jason Bye - Club Air These days, there are no shortage of ways to find, listen, and download music. Recently I have adapted a new strategy on my quest to find those golden tunes. Mp3 blogs are gaining popularity and are popping up all the time. At some point, this site will likely become one too… They are geared more towards new releases and remixes, but there are plenty of old gems to be found as well. Here’s how you find the blogs with the artist/song you are looking for. Start at HypeM and go to the search bar. Search for a song or artist and hopefully you should get some results. To get to the actual post and downloadable song fastest do the following. Hold the command key down to open the links in new tabs. Don’t do it one at a time… (MAC USERS) – scroll down the page (just hit space bar) while holding command and clicking all the pages (with songs) you want. Click the link that says “read full post” and a tab will open up with the post and desired song. The other links just keep you circling around on the hypem site… From here, you can further search the new site you found, that seems to share your liking for said artist or song, or you can carry on to the next blog. This is a great way to find new tunes and source out some new and upcoming artists. Most blogs will provide links to the artist or a site to purchase from as well, so if you find something you like, show some support. An example (and plug for a band I am loving right now): Go to Hypem and search for The Whitest Boy Alive From the list of songs, download – courage, 1517, and Island. Their new album “Rules” is awesome and should be picked up, stat! These are a few of the sites that have been getting a working lately by yours truly If you’re into collecting complete albums, this won’t likely turn out so well for you, but if you are into singles and remixes, you’ll be laughing. It’s as easy as right click and save most of the time, some of the sites use rapidshare or other file hosting services but they’re still free, just takes a little longer. If you’re looking for some jazzy numbers, search for these songs: Balicky Bon and Make the Road While Walking If you just want to download torrents, look for the pitchfork 100 best tracks of 2008 A nice sampling of the year that was 2008. Mostly indie rock, but also some hip hop and electronica… To start off, I guess I will help out my fellow mac users. There are a number of programs I wanted to share with you, as I think they are great additions to the computer and are free to boot. This time around, some of the more basic apps, that I am guessing (hoping) some of you have these already, but if not, click the link and away you go.. Actually, I’m gonna show you something first. If you simply click on the links below, they will open in new windows which may be disruptive or undesired. Before clicking on the links, hold down the command key and they should load as a new tab instead. Set your preferences so that tabs load in the background (doesn’t jump to that page) while you stay on the same page. Now you can just hold down command and click on all of the links you want. Simple way to open a bunch of pages from a homepage, or even better, from a search results list. Once you are done with the page(or tab) hold command again and hit the W key. That will kill the tab or page your are on move to the next one. 1 – MPlayer – Play a great variety of video formats (including wmv and flv files) and renders t. It’s my default player for viewing 2 – google notifier – runs in the background and alerts you when you have new mail in your gmail inbox 3 – handbrake – Will take a proper DVD (and many other video formats) and allow you to make a ‘back up’ copy 4 – AppCleaner – Properly delete applications. Will delete all remnants unlike the drag and drop to trash which can leave little files behind 5 – dropbox – Provides free online storage and a drag and drop interface, means you can keep a back up or working copy of files regardless of what computer you are using. 6 – cyberduck – It’s the FTP application I used to upload all my website files. Simple interface and set up and a reliable way to transfer files online 7 – AntiRSI – A simple program that allows for customizable break times and intervals. Has a built in timer that is only active when the keyboard and mouse are not in use. Good reminder to take breaks and get away from the computer from time to time 8 – Transmission – A clean and simple torrent program that runs light and fast 9 – Unrarx – If you need to open rar files (common compression format) this is a good option 10 – Alarmclock – On my laptop, this has come in handy several times. Can set it to music or alarm and it has the requisite snooze option too. Guess that will do it for today. Hope these help, Gards |
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Buying your first digital slr (single lens reflex) camera can be a daunting experience. Competing brands vie for your money, and they offer a slew of choices and features. You are ultimately left with the choice of Canon, Nikon, or one of the very capable others: Olympus, Sony, Panasonic etc.
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