New Videomag: Testing Look & Feel
The new FWnetz videomag will be more quality rather than quantity. Here ist a test for the intro sequence for the sake of look & feel.
Test Look & Feel from Irakli West on Vimeo.
Vimeo seems to filter out higher freqs, the chopper track seems more washed out. Good to know :)
Music by Scott Waddell, on opsound: Beat Practice. The vid is also available for download as mp4 (about 4MB). Really appreciate your input. Freue mich auf Input, gerne auf Deusch :)
Masters do not equal technology
An old topic, but one I’m quite happy to hop onto again: it’s not about technology, it’s about creativity, intuition and other “personal” qualities. Obviously, Henri Cartier Bresson, Robert Capa an others did not rely on HD-able top range digital cameras. Perhaps the better so? Here’s a great blog post about the (un)importance of technology in photography.
The takeaway? Use all available light, set your camera to f8, and it’s OK for blacked-out areas in the photograph, of course depending on your composition. Since the ols masters were shooting in black and white, they already had some level of abstraction working for them. Which brings me to two ideas or decisions: first, set the camera to f8 and experiment a bit. Second, must reactivate my father’s Kiev rangefinder again and do some b/w shooting.
Here’s a first go with the 350 today. Not that I am a Capa or anything, just plain fun.
[Link via Kottke]
Copenhagen, Bavaria
Stumbled across this picture which I took in Copenhagen last summer: typical Bavarian beer tables lined up outside a wine bar (!) along Skt. Jörgens Sö. So now there’s no need anymore to head south to the Mediterannean beaches to have that “home” experience. It’s perfectly safe to go north too.
Fun in the snow
This is what happens when you leave the camera on M, as in manual mode. I like:
StartupCamp Cologne: Thanks, but no thanks
I’ve just received an invitation to StartupCamp Cologne, due to take place March 3. So far I’ve only taken part in one BarCamp in October 2007 in Munich (here are some impressions, here are more), but it’s certainly been one of the best experiences in my life, for a variety of reasons. It’s not easy for a self-employed father-of-three to take a weekend off, so I’ve missed out on all other BarCamps since then, which I am really sorry about. It’s definitely on this year’s to-do-list.
Which is perhaps why I was really pleased to find an invitation to said StartupCamp. Specialised Camps, such as WordCamp, sound like a great opportunity to meet like-minded people and exchange on a favourite topic.
To keep it short, StartupCamp is nothing short of an absolute disappointment. Basically, it feels like they’ve hijacked the whole camp idea to set up a typical venue where startups meets capital. As for the camp-typical democratic idea, well, this is what’s on offer:
Präsentation von VCs und Startups an Stehtischen. Interessante Start Ups präsentieren ihre Ideen und Konzepte. Für Gleichgesinnte, VCs und Business Angels
Hm. Great. I can present my startup at a some coffee table. How far is that from a BarCamp?
To sum it up: this whole thing feels like a PR exercise, nothing more. It’s nowhere near a BarCamp. It’s not like we can congregate and design the course of the event. Everything’s pre-defined.
I’d really, really LOVE to see a REAL StartupCamp happening which is NOT about funding, but about sharing experiences. I run a startup that is generating revenue NOT from advertising. The past year has been (and still is) very painful, but I feel like there’s plenty to share and I would really like to hear from others’ experiences. Surely companies sponsoring such a BarCamp would stand to benefit plenty more.
Finally, there’s one last reason why I won’t go to any present-yourself-and-get-some-capital parties: sadly (for others) I’m not looking at a potentially huge market with a short-term exit. On the other hand, profitability is just around the corner, and that’s good enough for me. It’s not like I wouldn’t appreciate capital influx, but how many VCs would share my enthusiasm for firefighting?
That’d be one empty coffee table at StartupCamp, so no thanks, and best of luck to all other participants.
PS: no “official” hashtag?
Update: June agrees.
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Welcome
Welcome to Irakli West's personal pages on the Web. I am Danish, live close to Munich in Germany, and run FWnetz, an online magazine and training resource for firefighters. In real life, I am Regional Manager Northern Europe for Paratech and currently training to become a specialist in Urban Search and Rescue as well as Heavy Rescue (it's fun, challenging and serves a good purpose)
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