Monday, April 30, 2012

Sonic Abyss At Drogheda Arts Festival

wrapping
The Drogheda Arts Festival is coming up, from the 3-7 May 2012. I'll be playing next Saturday, 5 May, during The Sonic Abyss, three sessions of live sound experimentation, from 11am-4pm. Drop in and drop out of the Barbican Centre during the day. Admission is free.

The complete line-up includes Harry Moore, The Quiet Club (Mick O'Shea & Danny McCarthy), Ed Devane, John Daly, Softday (Sean Taylor & Mikael Fernström), David Stalling & Anthony Kelly, Jesse Ronneau, and Cormac Crawley.
Sunday, April 29, 2012

My Winning Secret 7" Sleeve Design

rock / sea / sky / rain
Now it can all be revealed... Many weeks ago I found out I was one of the winners in a contest that was held for the Secret 7" project. But I had to hold my tongue until now; hard to do when I was jumping up and down in excitement!

The project started with Kevin King from Universal Records, who decided to choose seven pop acts and have them each release a limited edition of 100 singles on 7" vinyl. Each cover would be unique, created by a chosen range of popular designers, and also by unknown artists in the general public. To facilitate this, the social network site Talenthouse was used to host a Creative Invite.
Friday, April 27, 2012

The IKEA Cardboard Camera


The design group Teenage Engineering, led by Jesper Kouthoofd, has produced a cardboard digital camera for Swedish retailer IKEA. The KNÄPPA is assembled from one piece of cardboard folded around a single circuit board and the two AAA batteries. Simply fasten the sides together with two plastic screws and you're done.

A single button acts as both a power on/off switch and shutter button. Likewise the LED indicates the camera status: off (extinguished), ready (green), exposing (flashing green), memory full (flashing red), or battery low (red). The viewfinder is nothing more than a cut-out area of the cardboard. Photos are transferred to your computer using the built-in USB stick. To delete photos from the camera, simply stick a paper clip into a little hole!
Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Comparing Olympus PEN lenses: 40mm versus 38mm

PEN F lenses

Fascinated as I am by the cute little Olympus PEN digital cameras, I thought it was time to obtain one of the original film bodies. Thanks to a contact in Denmark, one arrived just today. Along with the camera came a 38mm f/1.8 lens, the standard glass included with a camera kit back in the day. The first thing I did was admire the camera itself (more on that in another article) and the second thing I did was try out the new lens. Since I already own and love the 40mm version, I was very interested in comparing the two.

Pictured above are the two lenses, an original lens cap, and the adapter that allows use on the digital range of PEN cameras. Read on for lens details and some pixel comparisons.
Thursday, April 12, 2012

Stolen Mirror CD Production

the finished product

I've been in production mode the last week, creating a batch of limited edition CDs for my publishing company Stolen Mirror. This has been more work than usual, since I am releasing not one, but two new titles in the next little while. So I've been busy making three different packages. No, actually four, since I have a promo-only compilation in hand as well. Whew!

My old printer recently shuffled off this mortal coil, so the first step was to try to locate a replacement that would allow direct-to-disk inkjet printing. But there was not one to be found anywhere in Ireland! It seems this feature is being phased out. But it's the core of the look I am after, since it is so much nicer than the silkscreen process used on commercial disks.
Sunday, April 01, 2012

The Great Spring Fly Hunt

Fly Hunt 1: licky, licky, I see a fly

This is just a fun post of grab shots I made when Schweppes was in full insect hunting mode. I didn't get any of her in full flight, unfortunately. But to her credit, I must point out that she scored two for two on the house fly count. They don't really stand a chance!

Titles are in the mouse-over text.