Tethered shooting on mac

I had been looking for a tethered shooting solution for my mac and my nikon D90. Nikon offers Camera Control Pro but it does not come bundled with the camera and has to be purchased separately. I’ve tried the demo version on windows but since I no longer use windows, i had started looking for a software, preferably a FOSS, that would directly transfer my photos from the camera to my laptop for instant onscreen picture review. I finally found Sofortbild today and its free to use! 😀

This is a fantastic piece of software written for mac computers by Stefan Hafeneger, using the Nikon SDK. Stefan used his D90 to develop the software and this means it should work perfectly with mine 😉 Great opportunities ahead since I was planning to gather some experience in studio photography. So far, I’ve explored landscapes but there are still many genres I am yet to get acquainted with like artistic nude, wedding photography, portraiture, parts modelling and still life as well as techniques such as HDR, long exposures and macro photography. A few recent samples of my work are published on my Flickr page (side bar).

Just a little note to fellow mac users and DSLR camera owners. Without going into the technical poop, I’ve recently experienced an issue when editing my photos where the colours  were not displaying correctly in non-mac environments. When viewed on a pc, the photos looked ‘desaturated’ or as if a layer of gray had been applied to them. This problem can be solved on Adobe Photoshop by the following independent or combined set of actions:

• Select sRGB as the colour profile on the camera
• On Photoshop, View>>Proof Setup>>Monitor RGB for OS neutral colour management
• Edit>>Colour Settings>>Working Space>>sRGB
• Edit>>Convert to Profile>>sRGB (the one that worked for me)

However, I still note that the colours look brighter, with more contrast on a mac screen than on a pc. Mac OS X Leopard still uses Gamma 1.8 but OS X Snow Leopard will adopt Gamma 2.2, the gamma standard used on PCs and television screens. This setting can be altered by entering System Preferences>>Displays>>Colour>>Calibrate. I’m being fussy about these details as I spend much time to edit and perfect my photos and it’s a massive turn-off when the end results are not being seen the way they should.

if only they could all get a mac 😉

Hommaz a Kaya

Mo ti ena 15 ans kan to fine perdi lavie. Mo pa ti conne toi, ni to lamizik. Ca zour la, banla ti dire moi ena bagarre lor simin, acoz enn prisonnier fine mort dan prison. Mo pa ti compren kifer dimoune ti p revolter, kifer zot ti p met desorde.  Banla ti dire moi ban creoles p dessane lor lari, p brile la roue, p craz partout. Ca ti fer moi bien encolere. Mo pa ti p compren kifer acoz 1 dimoune ti mort dan prison, autant lezot ti p souffert. Ena ban kine perdi lavi. Acoz demagozie ban politiciens, acoz cover-up radio ek television, mo pa ti conne la vérité, … mo pa ti coner kisanla Kaya.  Enfin, ca enn episode bien noir pou nous pays. Mais tigit tigit, mo lizier fine ouvert.

Zordi, apres boucou letemps, mo ti envi rende toi enn hommaz pou to lamizik, pou paroles ki tone ecrire dan to ban santer, pou ca zom ki to ti eter.. Tou zom ena so defaut, tou zom fer errer, mais pa pou ca ki ou fer disang couler, ou prend lavie dimoune. Ca crime la li pa nek enn crime envers enn fami ou envers enn communauté, li enn crime envers lepep moris. Couma zot ine cav touye enn dimoune ki ti p sante l’amour, la paix ek l’inité. Kan mo penser ki acoz n zoint mass ki tone perdi lavie, ca fer moi riyer mais mo triste en mem temps. Si zot ti coner comien dimoune fime zot ti mass, so avocat, so doctere, so grand palto. Mo pa p vine defane consommation gandia, mo p ziss dire ki bizin arete ca gros l’hypocrisie ki ena autour li. Zordi mo pa dans mo pays ek kan mo ecoute to ban santer, ca fer moi mari fier ki mone né dans moris, ki mo coz langaze creol ek ki mo ena ca kiltir mo pays la. Mone né malbar ek kan mo ti zen, ti ena ban pression parsi parla ki ti empesse moi decouvert ban artistes couma toi. Mo triste ki mo pa fine vraimen conne toi avant ki mone kit lekol mais mone decouvert ki lamizik pa guete to relizion, to l’oririzine ek to coulere lapo. Kan mo tende enn sega ou enn seggae, ca fer lekor vibrer. ca li dan nou disang ca, morisien..

Mo fini la mem. Hommaz a toi.

Ek pou ban rare dimounes ki lire ca blog la, mo ti envi partaz Kaya so Zistwar Revoltant r zot.

Hourglass Gamer

I’ve quit gaming since long now,… very long. The latest RPG I’ve played must have been Heroes of Might & Magic II and that, gamers will agree, was during the era of dinosaurs in gaming history. PC Games have evolved a lot since then with breath-taking graphics and ever realistic sceneries, but at the cost of more RAM memory, HDisk capacity and powerful graphics adaptor. No real gamer will own less than a 8800GT 512MB (supp direct x 10 w/ pixel shader 4.0 :p) as graphic adaptor and a Core 2 Duo processor. I’d say a Core 2 Duo is barely enough for serious gaming but yeah, the $$ factor! And with the PC i got, it was a shame not to be gaming.

I’ve resumed (or rather what I consider to be a decent attempt at..) gaming a week ago. I’ve entered WoW arena thanks to some colleagues at work. They are quite a few WoW players in my project and that’s cool to share this thing in common. I remember I had wanted to join the online WoW gaming crew since back then when it was a big hype but i guess my workload wouldn’t allow me to. WoW’s cool, nice graphics, controls are easily mastered, is an online quest-based RPG,.. and you pay to play, which surprisingly could add to the feel-good factor when playing. And yeah, they even had a brief scene on it in how i met your mother 😉

Thing is though, I get bored with most games quite fast,.. I mean it takes a lot to keep me from being saturated. Usually, a few hours and am done. The best experience had been with Counter Strike. Yeah, it’s a crappy game I’ll give you that but it was real fun to play among friends. We’d bunk class (that was routine) and setup our network with 4 players min, co-players sitting next to each other, all equipped with earphones so that you could hear the footsteps of the opponent nearing. These were good times! I can’t play against machines anymore, I find that boring and stupid. I’ve also tried SimCity 4 Deluxe recently. Well it was nice at first but then, again, I got bored after a few hours. Well, maybe am more into killing people than building cities I guess.. 😀

Richard Wright (1943-2008)

PF

Richard Wright is no more. Wright was one of the founding members of the mythical band, Pink Floyd, which kept a whole generation at breath with their unique unrestrained psychedelic music. This is sad, this is history dying, for Pink Floyd was no mere band. They were (are, I should say, for such bands are eternal..) no less than the Beatles or Elvis, in their own right. Richard was the pianist or the keyboard magician of the band. The rich and textured tunes he grew off his keys brought a very distinct trait to Pink Floyd’s music. He also made vocal sounds for many tracks.

I don’t have much to say. I just wanted to pay tribute to the man. Am a fan, a huge fan of Pink Floyd and Wright’s departure leaves an emptiness behind.

..wish you were here.. .

Metallica’s back!

This is huge! And brings me back to blogosphere after long.. Metallica is back its new album, Death Magnetic, freshly released yesterday. Well, am not sure am still a heavy metal adept anymore but this feels great. Metallica used to rock my life back in the schooldays and back then, you were either punk electro with coloured hair, reggae weed-pots or the dark metal fellows with long hair and this nasty look that wouldn’t stick off their asses. Well I didnt have long hair but :p… In the last years of college, their music had become an electrifying and adrenaline boosting elixir, always pumped at top volume, constantly roaring against my eardrums. 

Metallica has come a long way since Kill ‘Em All released in 1983 and were considered one of the finest metal bands during the ’90s.  When Newsted left in 2003, it felt like the end of an era, like it would not be the same anymore. This felt even more true with the release of St Anger, which was a decent heavy metal album but felt so unMetallica. In 2000, they filed a lawsuit against the godfather of modern p2p programs and literally killed Napster by asphyxia. That sucked..

But whatever be I’m so fuckin’ glad they’re back (..yeah, wouldn’t be a proper tribute to the band without the F-word) and I can’t wait to get a copy of the album! 😀

Woohoo (o_0)’

Hi blog, been a while, i know..

Time is scarce these days. Everything’s so hectic when you got a job. Sucks up all the best of your time and leaves you with crumbs you can hardly do anything with. But anyway, this routine is likely to set itself for a long lap now, so better make the best of crumbs!

Random News. Netherlands won v\s France yesterday! Fan of Netherlands since 96, I’d really like them to reach up to the finals v\s Portugal. — Obama wins the Democrat seat in the race for U.S Presidency! Huge feel-good factor. I feel that this guy could do good for the world. He just has what it takes to be the one! — Exams and project presentation over, research paper (co-written with R. Doomun & J. Doma) approved for publication. Awaiting results: creepy feeling when i think about it.. — Now working at Accenture. Data Ops Team, working on Siebel Informatica. Nice experience so far with lots of opportunities, despite the high stress-coefficent. — Got myself a 22″ LCD monitor. I see things in BIG now. — Time and Space. Newton made a mess of his theory. Mine’s far simpler. As time goes by, I need more space. I therefore got myself a 500 Gig HD. PC now holds more than a Terabyte of pure treasures! — TV Series: How I met your mother Season 3! 😀 !! — Zucchero in concert at SVCC. Nouss pou raconter :p

FLAC

I’m converting to FLAC! Free. Lossless.

 

“Imagine” – G.J-C

20:30. Friday 18th. Conservatoire Francois Mitterand. The lights dim out…

Few notes from a piano, drums fill in, followed by the bass.. Ernest Wiehe playing the sax and Philipe Thomas on trumpet. The crowd is subjugated. 20:45 enters Gina Jean-Charles. The little young lady shyly walks on stage and greets the crowd. A roar of applause, she blushes…

C’est une chanson qui nous ressemble.
Toi, tu m’aimais et je t’aimais
Et nous vivions tous deux ensemble,
Toi qui m’aimais, moi qui t’aimais.
Mais la vie sépare ceux qui s’aiment,
Tout doucement, sans faire de bruit
Et la mer efface sur le sable
Les pas des amants désunis.
“Les feuilles mortes” ..

it was a great night of Jazz. Blessed with a magnificent hoarse and jazzy voice, Gina has a bright future ahead. Her simplicity and contained shyness make her even more charming. If Eric Triton has raised creole Blues to summits, Gina and Ernest’s quintet add unequaled warmth and colour to the mauritian Jazz painting. Close your eyes and hear her sing “cry me a river” and you’d think no less of her than a singer of the likes of Ella Fitzgerald.

Bravo!

No hablo español

 

Back, after long… and it might be even longer till the next post. The past few weeks have been intense. New activities, new opportunities, new horizons. Final year project is on the way, tough, but we’ll manage. And courses are on, at full swing. Srikant and I represented the company at the Microsoft – Université Partenaires 08 and we’re currently reviewing the beta version of Windows 2008 Server. Macbook now runs OS X (native) and Windows XP, 2008 Server and Red Hat 9 through virtualisation. I’ve discovered new mac software gadgets: Shadowbook and Smackbook! Shadowbook uses the in-built light sensor in the MB Pro to switch between desktops and workspaces. Smackbook does same but works the SMS – Sudden Motion Sensor. So a lil tap on the side of the screen swaps your desktop around in a cool way 😉

My days are overloaded but i manage to find time for some badminton, clubbing and movies.. and a few extras that aren’t to be mentioned out loud. A break from the flow of zeros and ones in my head, helps to survive these days. Of the movies I’ve seen recently, i must recommend a few. None extraordinary, but just let yourself be surprised by the art, without the restricting expectations. The most recent ones, in no particular order:

• Monster (Charlize Theron brings female acting to yet another height! Won Academy Award)
• Memoirs of a Geisha (i was late on this one. nice movie, but in its kind, In the Mood for Love by Wong Kar Wai leads the way)
• Across the Universe (fuck, this is a mind blowing movie!!)
• Breaking and Entering

Pff, what am i making a list for anyway? There’re sooo many yet to be discovered! bliss.. 😀

Obama!

Barack Obama wins Iowa! Fantastic, I thought to myself! Could this be like good omen, some way to announce a good forthcoming year ahead? I choose to believe so. Obama wins Iowa, a state with mostly a white population, and has had the power to move even those not very much politically involved. Obama inspires change, viable change. He wins ahead of Edwards and Clinton with 38% of votes. This is much more than a non-white entering the race for presidency. This looks like a man with vision and principles raising a wave of change from a fundamentalist regime in a conservative country. I have a good feeling about this, Obama could do good for the world. Let’s wait and see..