NOIR

Check Me Out @ Tumblr

2009-02-22T13:51:00.000-08:00

I'm going to be taking my little blog to a place called Tumblr. The new url is hawlendrion.tumblr.com. See you there.

21st Century Breakdown

2009-02-21T23:14:00.000-08:00

Today I just found out that Green Day has finally released details on when their next album will be coming out. Come May I'll be listening to their new album entitled 21st Century Breakdown. I'm sure alot of people will be trying to compare it American Idiot, but I, for one, will not be. I love AI but I also know that each of their albums have their own distinct sound to it and I'm looking forward to it being different. I've read comments from "fans" saying that they've waited so long for new music by them but true fans like myself know they have already released a new album under their side band Foxboro Hottubs. I'm totally stoked for it and cannot wait. Green Day never disappoints. And by the way, I've been a fan since before Dookie so step off... (not sure if I can pull that phrase off.)

Watchmen Wallpapers

2009-02-19T22:30:00.000-08:00

As you can tell, I am very excited for the upcoming theatrical release of the Watchmen. Only two weeks away! I've created a few wallpaper backgrounds in Photoshop of Rorschach's mask, Doc Manhattan's hydrogen atom logo, and Nite Owl's crescent moon logo. Click the pictures for larger versions. Feel free to email me at ryan@noirgraphicdesign.com if you need a bigger size or uncompressed version since Blogger likes to limit the size of photos you can upload. On to other Watchmen news, I've read that the running time of the film is going to be just over 2 and half hours. That's good to hear since last I read, the studio wanted to cut it down closer to 2 hours. The first release of the director's cut DVD will be over 3 hours but that won't be until July. Once you think the waiting is over...it's not. 5 months and 2 weeks away. It will be worth it.

Watchmen Portrait Book

2009-02-14T00:51:00.000-08:00

I went to Barnes & Noble on Tuesday to check out the new Watchmen book and in addition to the art book, two other books came out as well. I bought two of them- the Film Companion and the Portrait Book. I just started reading the film companion and so far so good. I'll let you know more when I get through it all. The portrait book is just amazing. Still photographer Clay Enos who was responsible for taking ALL still photography on the set, which included promo shots and even imagery used in props (such as newspapers and framed photos), released a book of black and white portraits of cast, crew and a few props. No text or copy- just oversized photos. It's not so much an insight into the movie's plot or structure like the film companion is but rather just a great collection of photographs. Clay is the guy who took the iconic Minutemen photo I posted a little while back. The photos are great although I assumed there would be more photos of the main ensemble. Check out these photos I took...of the photo book.

Nite Owl Winter Costume

2009-02-08T22:17:00.000-08:00

I just found this image of Nite Owl in his winter costume when he and Rorschach head to Antarctica to confront Ozymandias. Friggin' sweeeeeeet. Less than a month away from the theatrical release on March 6th but coming up even sooner on Tuesday is the release of the book entitled Watchmen: The Art of the Film. I'll be swinging by Barnes & Noble to take a look see and decide if it's worth buying. I'm sure it will be.

Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock.

2009-02-08T21:41:00.000-08:00

Scissors cuts paper. Paper covers rock. Rock crushes lizard. Lizard poisons Spock. Spock smashes scissors. Scissors decapitates lizard. Lizard eats paper. Paper disproves Spock. Spock vaporizes rock. Rock crushes scissors.

T-600 Terminator Image Released

2009-02-07T13:37:00.000-08:00

A new photo has been released of the T-600 Terminator in the new Terminator: Salvation movie out this summer. The T-600 is the predecessor to the more familiar T-800 which Arnold has made so famous. The T-600 is more crude, bulky and is less believable as a human than the T-800. I believe a main plotline involves the discovery of the new T-800 models which poses a threat to the resistance since they would be almost impossible to detect. Below is the concept art of the T-600 and a screenshot from the movie of John Connor in the T-800 factory.

New Battlefield Game Announced

2009-02-06T23:57:00.000-08:00

Well DICE and EA just announced that the next game in the Battlefield series is going to be... wait for it... Battlefield 1943... Wow... So this is what I've been waiting for? Come on guys (and gals)! You're going backward for Science's sake. What's even worse is that it's going to be released on all platforms including the Xbox 360, PS3 and the PC which means, of course, that is going to be dumbed down to accommodate all systems. No 64 player online multiplayer matches-- it caps off at 24 players. Really? I'm really curious to see how they are going to market this game. What fresh, new features are going to blow everyone away? New weapons in WWII? Doubt it. According to the press release, the game is going to consist of three reworked maps from BF 1942 including (without surprise) Wake Island which has been remade for BF2 and BF2142 already. The press release didn't offer many details, but it seems to me that this isn't a full blown sequel and I hope it's not. And if it's not, then why even bother? If it is, then what a shitty follow up. The official website can be found here with a trailer that doesn't show any gameplay footage. I love, LOVE the BF series but this just isn't doing it for me... Not yet at least.

Minutemen Had a Different Meaning Back Then

2009-02-02T20:25:00.000-08:00

Over the past few months I have been collecting imagery online for the Watchmen movie. I came across this little beauty a while ago and it is quite exquisite. It's a group shot of the Minutemen circa 1940. Zach Snyder and his team has nailed it down to the smallest detail. I simply cannot wait for the movie to come out. Here are a few more pics that are worth looking at. Click for larger versions.

Artwork Origins: ReallyBoreen

2009-02-02T20:01:00.000-08:00

Recently the new X-Men Origins: Wolverine poster was announced and I'd have to say that it is merely eh... Don't get me wrong, it's pretty cool but it's been done before. It's the X-Men 3 poster with Wolverine in the background. There is potential for so many cool ideas. For instance, a top down view of Wolverine in the water tank is the most obvious idea. You can somehow incorporate liquid adamantium. A portrait shot of Wolverine with the surgery "tats" on his face. Hopefully they will come out with more posters especially with all the new characters in the film, most notably Gambit and Deadpool. I've read one person online refer to the poster as "iconic" and while I will give it that it is also typical and boring. Marvel's entire business is based on artwork and Wolverine is their baby. They should be all over this. Let's hope it's just a teaser poster with greatness on the way. Click on the pic for the hi res version.

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans: Movie Review

2009-02-01T22:31:00.000-08:00

When I first heard that they were making another Underworld movie without the leading lady, Mrs. Beckinsale, I was not so interested. After all, any sequels with different stars are usually indicators that it is destined for the straight to DVD graveyard and/or a huge disappointment. Then I found out that it was a prequel and that at least storywise it did not make sense to have her come back. When I heard that Rhona Mitra was taking the reigns, I was back on board. But all of this really means nothing in the end because the leading lady is not a lady at all. The character Lucian is the star here.

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans explains the story only told through flashbacks and storytelling in the first two movies. It puts a new perspective on who are the good guys and who are the bad guys and why the war started in the first place. Viktor, the vampire leader, enslaved the Lycans (wherewolves) to be their bodyguards while the sun was shining over their empire. He forced human slaves to be bitten by Lycans to turn them and use them as slaves and bodyguards. They were treated cruely, kept in cages and forced to wear reversed spiked collars that would puncture their throats if they should ever transform into their hairy alter egos. Lucian was in love with Viktor's daughter, Sonya, and after being forced to watch her die in front of him at the order of her father who thought that the blending of the species was an abomination, revolted and started a war that would last for centuries. I enjoyed the movie because it answered a lot of questions and flushed out the characters even more. Even though I got home around 1am, I was impelled to watch the first Underworld again for the whateverth time. It was like watching a completely different movie. Things made more sense and you were rooting for what was once the "bad guy." If you liked the first two movies, you'd enjoy this one. Time to watch Underworld 2...

Defiance: Movie Review

2009-02-01T13:04:00.000-08:00

The other night I movie hopped and saw two films back to back, Defiance starring Daniel Craig and Underworld: Rise of the Lycans starring Rhona Mitra. Two polar opposites but both quite enjoyable in their own ways.

Defiance is set during the opening hours of WWII when Germany invaded Russia. Daniel Craig and his brothers come home to discover that their family have been murdered and so retreat in to the nearby forest where they build a camp and live in hiding. Over the years, they take in persecuted Jews and build a community in the forest under his leadership. Food is scarce, the winter is harsh and their camp is discovered multiple times, forcing them to defend themselves and build a new camp elsewhere. It's not really an action film and not as heavy as say Schindler's List. I will have to say that the final "battle" scene in the film was intense. Usually WWII films don't end on a good note and the main characters are never safe from death so when a Nazi tank rolls up with infantry along it's side, you don't know how it could end. Daniel Craig's performance was his best yet. I've seen him in generic roles in Tombraider and The Invasion (which I saw for the first time last night) and starring roles in the rebooted Bond flicks (which are fantastic) but as an actor, I bet he is most proud of this one. Great acting. Great story. Pacing was a little slow but enjoyable nonetheless. I'll review Underworld soon.

Who Photoshops the Photoshoppers?

2009-01-31T23:06:00.000-08:00

Well it's been awhile since my last post and all of you (Dan) have been bugging me to update this thing more often, so I will try. A lot has happened in the past few months. I've played a few new games including Assassin's Creed, Far Cry 2, and Left 4 Dead and have watched numerous movies. For instance, last night I movie hopped and saw Defiance and Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. I've also switched jobs. Previously, I was working at an automotive company doing graphic design in the marketing department and now I'm working at an advertising agency doing design work for multiple clients. I've also upgraded to Adobe CS4. On the photography side, I've recently purchased a speedlight and new lens and have been having a blast playing with those. Perhaps I'll blog in more detail on these topics sometime soon.

In the meantime, today as I was keeping tabs on the most anticipated movie in my world these days, The Watchmen, it inspired me to do some Photoshop work on a photo I took of myself recently. So as an homage to the Watchmen, I introduce you to myself as Dr. Manhattan. The original photo can be found on my Flickr here.

President Barack Obama

2008-11-08T00:03:00.000-08:00

After 8 years, I am finally proud of my country. Thank you and congratulations, Mr. Obama.

Happy Halloween

2008-10-24T22:21:00.000-07:00

I'm a sucker for cool logos and pumpkins. It only makes sense that Obama is my guy this election with his awesomely designed website and kick ass logo. Oh yeah, and his policies. Remember to vote, regardless of who it's for!

Noir Stationary Set

2008-10-20T10:30:00.000-07:00

I posted my business card on the last post so this post adds the letterhead and envelope to the stationary set.

Noir Business Cards

2008-10-17T10:46:00.000-07:00

I just created new business cards for myself sporting the new name and logo for Noir and to advertise my new online portfolio. It's difficult to create a unique or memorable card without paying extravagant amounts of money for spot colors, UV coatings, die cutting and the like. Although I was fortunate enough to be turned on to a website called 4colorprint.com that produces a very unique silk business card. It's pretty much a matte, silk laminate over the card that has a very smooth feel to the touch. It's not a cheesy gloss laminate that you would see on cards thrown all over the floor outside some club advertising some horrible rock band or DJ playing some embarrassing college theme night. The card looks normal but when you hand it off to someone, the response you get is usually, "Oooh, that feels interesting." And for $49 for 500 2-sided cards, it's a steal. A subtle way to make an important impression.

4colorprint.com

The Decline of Western Televisation

2008-10-14T15:20:00.000-07:00

I'm the first to admit that I never would have thought I would be a weekly watcher of One Tree Hill but, hey, it kind of just happened. My girlfriend, Ana, bought the first season awhile ago and the next thing you know I'm Tivo-ing season 6. It's not the best show on TV but it's entertaining. I've invested so much time in it already that I can't just walk away. I'm going down with the ship. Although recently a new character emerged on the show who looked mighty familiar. Why yes, it's John Doe from one of my favorite bands, X! Apparently he's also an actor on top of a musical genius. So if John Doe, the LA punk icon of the 80's, is on the show I feel a little less ashamed watching the show. Crisis averted. Masculinity in tact, although pay no mind to John Doe's mesh shirt above. Here's a clip of X from the punk documentary The Decline of Western Civilization.

Fata1ity USB Headphones Review

2008-10-09T10:20:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I built a gaming system for my friend Chris because he fell head over heels for BF2142. So now that he's getting into PC gaming I now have (finally!) a teammate to play online with. So I bought the Fatality headphones/mic combo so we can discuss politics and gush online whilst we hoopeth thy ass. I've been playing the Battlefield series since BF1942 and it always been fun, obviously, but never as fun as teaming up with a friend. It changes the dynamics and strategy of the battlefield. You become more effective when you can just say to your team mate, "Hey! Come pick me up. I'm stranded," or awesome cliche lines like "I need backup! I'm surrounded. Watch your back, he's coming around the left side. Did you see him!? Where did he go?" Fun times for all.

On to the headphones. They're comfortable and they work--sort of. Ever since I installed the drivers and updated my X-fi sound card, which by the way the headphones are considered X-fi as well, my computer started acting like an asshole. BF froze with graphical glitches and it even locked up my entire system on a few occasions leading me to believe that something in my tower was overheating. After a lot of frustration, I nailed down the problem. Without the headphones plugged in, my X-fi soundcard enables me to set the audio quality in the game to Extreme High Quality Uber Awesome settings when running off the hardware (card). When the headphones are plugged in, the settings downgrade to medium running off software only. If you try to put the settings any higher the game and even your computer will freeze or shutdown. That seems pretty harsh for a set of headphones. The Uber setting is called "X-Fi" so why doesn't it work with "X-fi" headphones? Oh, and the mic doesn't work in game with BF's mic settings. It does work however with X-Fire, a third party app. But that is a BF/Vista problem. The only reason I'm not extremely pissed is because I can't really notice a drop in audio quality with the headphones on. In fact, I actually hear alot of sound effects I've never heard before. Audio quality is great, the mic works, and they are comfortable. Minus 1 star for pissing me off for 2 days straight though. It shouldn't require so much effort to plug in headphones.

We Were A Bunch Of Saps Back Then

2008-10-08T10:56:00.001-07:00

I was looking through some of my projects to decide which one I should post for today when I came across some photos and flyers from my old band days in high school. Above is a picture of us hooligans back in the day. That's me, Jess, Sean, Matthew and Brian. We went through 3 band names, a few lineup changes, put out 3 E.P.s, a live album, numerous demos, wrote dozens of songs, played probably 100 covers and was the best memory I had of high school. I think we could have gone somewhere with it. I moved to college, our drummer joined the Air Force, and we all pretty much got "real" jobs. We played punk rock and were heavily influenced by 70's and 80's bands such as Stiff Little Fingers, The Adolescents, The Ramones, The Clash, The Misfits and X. We didn't write aggressive punk rock, it was more musically inclined.

I love music and I love graphic design so as long as I'm doing one of those, I'm made in the shade. Once I figure a way to post some songs on the blog, I will. Below is a flyer I made back when I was 17 before I discovered Photoshop. We were going by The Saps back then.

Anywhere Ad

2008-10-07T11:43:00.000-07:00

I figured that I would start posting random pieces of work that I have done personally and professionally. This ad is the first in a series (that have yet to be created) that showcases the new visual branding of LKQ. What was once very corporate and safe in regards to color and design has changed with a splash of green, a new tagline and a bit of an edgier look.

I've also incorporated this new visual identity to the tradeshow booth that will be on display at the International Autobody Congress and Exposition (NACE) in Las Vegas. It's the biggest collision repair autoshow of the year. I'll be there for a few days just after election day taking pictures and will post images of how the booth turned out. Above is a floor plan but we'll see how it looks in real life.

You can see my official online portfolio at noirgraphicdesign.com

Abit AB9 Pro MotherF*****board

2008-10-06T22:05:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend I built a computer for my friend and future brother-in-law Chris, A.K.A. Ultimate Photon System (see post below), and man, what a pain in the ass and awesome joy it was! I built my tower and have upgraded it here and there over the past few years so this was my second complete build. I got him hooked on PC gaming via Battlefield 2142 so now I have a gaming buddy! So we shopped on Newegg.com for all the components and ordered them about a week and half ago for just over $700. It’s not a water cooled quad core triple SLI sonuvabitch but it gets the job done. The beauty of building it yourself is that you can always upgrade down the line, the reason I convinced him not to buy say a proprietary HP or Dell system. His specs are:

Cooler Master Case

Intel Core 2 Duo E7200

2gb GSkill RAM

500gb hard drive

550 watt PSU

Vista Home Premium 64-bit

NVIDIA 7800GT (a hand-me-down from yours truly. His first upgrade will be the GPU but it plays BF2142 smooth as silk so he’s happy for the time being)

ABIT Ab9 Pro Motherboard <----POS

The motherboard. This picky piece of shit caused so much frustration that we ordered new RAM thinking that it was the reason it wasn’t booting up. Investigation into the matter from the hundreds of other people who had issues with this board indicated that it needs certain RAM from certain vendors with a particular voltage and specific timings. The new RAM didn’t work so I thought it was the video card. I swapped it out with my 8800GTX and still no dice. I then discovered online that the E7200 was troublesome on this board too. So F that, it wasn’t worth anymore time or frustration. We ordered the a board from Gigabyte and boom bam it’s up and running. So watch out for HawlendRion and...em...JellyBean2142... to frag yo ass! See you online.

Tivo: The HawlendRion Chronicles

2008-09-29T20:49:00.000-07:00

Oh how I love Monday nights ever since the fall TV season started up recently. I get my triple dose of action via idiot box in the form of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Prison Break, Heroes and One Tree Hill. TV on DVD has certainly spoiled me but the new seasons are great so far. I think Wednesday, Friday and Saturday are the only nights Tivo isn't overloading. Tomorrow night is Fringe, an awesome sci-fi show from my favorite creator/producer JJ Abrams. Wednesday is a night to spend time with my loved ones, my computer... Thursday is The Office, Grey's Anatomy, and It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia and Sunday stars my favorite superhero- Dexter. All the while I'm still trying to find time to watch The X-Files. 30 Rock starts up soon enough, so let's throw that in there somewhere while we're at it. Lest we forget the classics that are always lighting up Tivo red, Seinfeld, King of Queens, The Colbert Report, Everybody Loves Raymond and probably a few others. I heart Tivo. I believe Tivo will eventually become Skynet. You heard it here first folks. Beware.

It's Always Hilarious In Philadelphia

2008-09-24T12:04:00.000-07:00

A new show I just got in to recently is It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia. Holy jeez, it's effin brilliant. It's like Seinfeld on crack after shooting up some Family Guy then smoking a bowl of Curb Your Enthusiasm. It's quite a party. The plot and subject matter of each episode is so far out there for a live action show it's hard to believe. For example, the gang finds a baby in the dumpster and instead of calling the cops they decide to profit from it by making it into a Gerber Baby only to find out that white babies are no longer selling, that in fact, Latin and black babies are the current trend. So they decide to take it to a tanning salon only to be turned away but in the end they try to paint the baby's skin with shoe polish before child services shows up. I think my heart almost stopped beating on a few episodes from laughing so hard. I bought the first 3 seasons on DVD and cranked those out in a few days. Season 4 just started last week on FX. I give it 3 thumbs up.

UPS Really Stands For Ultimate Photon System

2008-09-23T19:16:00.000-07:00

Today's Photoshop fun. As you can see, my friend Chris and I get a lot done at work. He makes the corrugated robot suit and I make him all powerful in Photoshop. Slow day at work equals awesome picture. I decided to post the "before" (slightly grunged up in Lightroom) and the "after."

Noir Graphic Design Studios Site Launched

2008-09-16T12:39:00.000-07:00

As of yesterday, my new online portfolio is now available to view online at http://www.noirgraphicdesign.com/. It contains samples of my work from various fields of design including print advertisements, logo design, packaging, and photography.

In college I learned web design but have long since forgotten most of it. Well that's not entirely true. I can design the hell out of a website but I cannot program it. I've forgotten about HTML and CSS style sheets which is the boring parts of the whole process which is why I've never truly dedicated myself to that aspect of design. It really turned me off to the whole thing. That is until...wait for it...I've discovered a badass photoshop plugin called Site Grinder 2. It allows designers like myself to be just that- a designer. Not a programmer. I can focus on building a website entirely in Photoshop. By simply naming layers with certain tags, Site Grinder builds your site with minimal to no knowlege of web design. It takes care of all the HTML coding and even implements CSS to your site without ever looking at code. It's a no brainer and a life saver. Check out the site and let me know what you think.

Noir Graphic Design Studios

2008-08-13T21:04:00.000-07:00

A recent project of mine. Feel free to contact me for your graphic design needs. Thanks!

Tutorial: Vintage Grunge Effect

2008-08-13T20:04:00.000-07:00

This is the first of hopefully many tutorials to come. This recipe of Lightroom adjustments is a cool way of making a photograph look a little more darker and edgy. I shot this photo recently and while it looks cool I think it can look a little cooler.

Programs used: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 and Adobe Photoshop CS3

The first step of editing any photograph is to crop it accordingly. Using the crop tool in Lightroom I've isolated the car slightly to the left in this horizontal fashion.

This series of tweaks are what it's all about. Crank up the Recovery, Fill, Blacks, Brightness, Contrast, and Vibrance all the way up and adjust slightly if necessary. To combat the crazy colors you'll end up seeing, turn the saturation almost all the way down. This will give it the faded, vintage look.

Next, I've adjusted the color temperature slightly to color correct the ground since it was looking rather blue.

Bring up the color sliders and make adjustments as necessary. In this instance I brought up the saturation in the greens to make the plants pop a little more since they got lost with the previous adjustments.

Now, to make the sky pop. Open the photo in Photoshop and create a new layer. Make sure black is selected as your foreground color and open the gradient tool and pick the black to transparency option. On the new layer, hold SHIFT and drag downward from the top of the photo to the middle. Select Overlay as the blending option in the layers palette.

For a final touch I'll be adding glints to the highlighted areas of the car. The key is to not over do it. Create a new a layer and select the brush tool. Under the brush palette options choose Assorted brushes and use brush number 48 which looks like an X. Increase the brush size by using the bracket keys and click once on the area needed. In this case I chose one on the rear view mirror and a few on the chrome bumper. Reduce the opacity of this layer down to 45%.

Boom Bam. You're done.

Dare To Be Like The iPhone

2008-08-05T20:27:00.001-07:00

I've recently upgraded my phone to the new LG Dare from Verizon. My contract has been up for a little while now but no phone really caught my eye. I knew I wanted one with a QWERTY (hey, that's fun to type. Try typing it like ending a piano recital) keyboard so I was checking out the Alias and the Glyde but it wasn't mindblowing enough for me to drop $100 when my current phone is just fine. Of course I want the iPhone. A friend of mine has one and it's pretty damn sweet but I am not going to switch carriers because everyone and my mother (literally) is on Verizon and the only thing I use my phone for is text messaging and maybe an hour of talk time per month. I'm also not very keen on paying over $100 a month on a damn cell phone bill. F that. The Dare is an obvious competitor for the iPhone for Verizon customers. It's not a smart phone. It's a "feature heavy" phone as I like to call it. All touch screen with with a 3.2 megapixel camera. 3.2 I say! The photo editing features are insane with options to change, brightness, contrast, sharpness with custom cropping. You can change the ISO settings, has a flash and it autofocuses like a point and shoot. It's quite amazing for a camera phone. Another useful tool that it has that I never thought I would have any use for is the drawing pad. I can draw with my finger and change the brush size and color as well as erase areas like a pencil. Fun for drawing obscene pictures and sending them to my friends and loved ones. Always makes me laugh. It's super sleek and small enough for men like myself to carry it around comfortably in my pocket. MicroSD card compatible for music, videos, and photos. The touch screen takes getting used to but I find that you must use the tip of your nail instead of the finger tip for best results. There is no need for me to tack on an additional 50% to my bill for data usage, but this phone also sports an HTML web browser. A perfect iPhone substitute until Apple drops it's contract with AT&T.

A touch of the screen will bring up a shortcut list of your most frequently used tools. Customizable of course.

QWERTY keypad for text messaging and any other text input. Turn the phone 90 degrees and the screen will orient itself as shown.

Photoshop World Conference & Expo

2008-08-03T11:54:00.000-07:00

Coming up September 4-6 is Photoshop World Conference & Expo in Las Vegas and I will be there! Hotel is booked and registration is paid for. I just need to buy my plane ticket. 3 days of Photoshop and design classes taught by industry greats such as Scott Kelby, Dave Cross, and Matt Kloskowski. In between classes there will be a tech expo with exhibitors such as Canon, Nikon, and Adobe where I can see all the latest gadgets and software. (image above taken from the Photoshop World website. Check it out)

In preparation for my trip I recently purchased a new camera/laptop backpack- the Kata DR-467. A friend of mine has the model below this one, the only difference being that the one I bought holds up to a 17" laptop. It looks bad ass and is ergonomically comfortable. When not carrying your camera, the dividers can be taken out and the entire bag can be used as a simple backpack. It also has a built in rain cover in case the worst happens. I should be getting it this week. It will make things easier in the airport and trekking through the expo keeping my laptop, camera and other digital devices with me in one bag instead of bringing a separate bag for my laptop and camera. Most bags I was checking out were well over $100 to get the laptop option but I got this baby for an even $66 from Amazon. B&H and Adorama lists it $79.95 but if you buy it from Amazon who goes through Adorama (don't ask me why it's cheaper) it's only $66 bucks. No tax. Free shipping. Boom bam.

The X-Files: I Want To Believe In This Movie

2008-08-03T11:31:00.000-07:00

Since I am captivated in the X-Files world at the moment, watching disc after disc of Mulder and Scully sexual tension and alien chasing, the new movie didn't entirely disappoint me but I can see how fans who have been away from the series the past 7 or 8 years could be. SPOILER ALERT: The story is a stand alone case involving a psychic pedophile Catholic preacher who is the only link to find a series of missing women, one of whom is an FBI agent. At this point in time, Mulder and Scully are no longer working for the FBI but are called in to assist finding the missing women because of their successful history with the X-Files and pyschic phenomenon. The movie is a long monster of the week episode but Mulder and Scully don't even have their FBI credentials or guns to get things done. The second story arch involves Mulder and Scully's personal relationship and whether they should call it off or not because Mulder's heart and time is still very much into exposing the truth and Scully is over the whole thing. I enjoyed the movie because it's just more X-Files to watch but I believe they could have and should have focused on the mythology storyline and given some closure and pay off to long time fans of the series.

Why So Serious? Because That's What It Takes.

2008-08-03T10:58:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since my last post but I've been eerily occupied watching the highly addictive X-Files. See previous post. So I must apologize to myself and my fiance (the only people who read this blog) for not giving us gripping journalistic endeavors to embark on. So let's see if I can catch us up shall we? I've heard something about some movie called The Dark Knight that has been doing reasonably well at the box office. I guess I should check that one out sometime... Obviously I am being a douchebag because I have seen it twice already with a third time on my schedule of things to do. I was there for the midnight screening with 500 other people playing board games and ordering pizza in the lobby waiting to be let in. The movie was unbelievable. I'm hesitant to call it a movie- The film was unbelievable. I don't even want to call it a comic book movie. It's really just a film making masterpiece. The storyline moved along like a freight train fleshing out these characters that make you believe in a world where a man dressed as a bat and a psycho dressed as a clown really exist. Heath's performance was spectacular as everyone already knows. I can't wait to watch it again, but next time it will be in IMAX. I'm sure I will be scared shitless to see Harvey Dent's grotesque face revealed on a 6 story screen.

The joker poster above now graces the wall of my room framed behind glass. It's quite creepy because it looks as though he is writing on the frame. Below are some shots from that studio shoot. I love seeing how graphic artists turn raw studio/photography into awesome works of art. I hope to be doing projects like this someday.

Currently Watching: The X-Files

2008-07-07T17:39:00.000-07:00

About a week or so ago I picked up The X-Files the complete series on DVD. As of now I am about to start disc 6 of season 1 to watch the last 4 episodes. I watched the series when it was on TV but I was something like 11 years old. It kicked ass back then because it had aliens, monsters, and guns but now that I'm older I can watch it and appreciate the complex stories and of course the aliens, monsters, and guns. I remember things here and there but for the most part it's like watching it for the first time all over again which is incredibly exciting. The box set came with all 9 seasons, the theatrical movie, a comic book, episode guide, collectible cards, and a full sized poster of the movie. Not too shabby. I got a pretty sweet deal at CostCo for only $120 as opposed to $180 regularly. Each season on its own is at least about $40 plus the movie which is probably $10 so I think I got my money's worth. I know for a fact I won't be done watching everything before the movie, The X-Files: I Want To Believe, comes out in theatres July 25th. Looks like I'll be living and breathing government conspiracies for the next few months.

Currently Playing: Crysis

2008-07-07T17:22:00.000-07:00

I just finished playing through Crysis for the 3rd time. It's no surprise that it is one of my favorite games, well, ever. I wouldn't say it's revolutionary only because it borrows all the best aspects about a FPS into one game and does it remarkably well. There are many games out there that use physics, action, stealth, story, exploration/freedom, but Crysis bundles it together in a neat little package. What is revolutionary is, of course, the graphics. There is no game that looks as good as this. Period. I'm running on an 8800GTX at about Medium settings at 1920x1200 getting about 50fps and even that looks incredible. With the settings cranked up to Very High it's like watching a slideshow but oh is it pretty. When I build a new tower in about a year or two I'll get to see it in it's full glory. It has a few bugs and a few annoyances but nothing that won't prevent me from playing it through a 4th or 5th time. The Core level in the alien ship is boring and I don't enjoy the linearity the game takes on after the aliens show up but it is fun and action packed nonetheless. Best. Game. Ever.

WANTED: More Comic Movies Like This

2008-06-27T20:56:00.000-07:00

I am not a professional movie reviewer. I don't sit in my seat and bring a pen and paper or try to take mental notes of significant scenes to remember later. I am an average movie lover (maybe not average) with way too many DVDs who loves the summer, not for the beach, but for movie season. Typical quick movie reviews from someone like you or me goes something like this when the credits start rolling: you look to the person next to you and say "So did you like it?" and the response is "It sucked" "It was alright" or "Bad ass." I go in to movies with expectations, like Wanted for example, I knew it was going to be a kick ass action movie with my old crush Angelina Jolie and that's about it. But I just love it when movies exceed my expectations. There were moments in the movie when I clapped a few times at the shear bad assery of it all before I realized I was one of those guys and then stopped. Finally, a rated R comic book movie that got it right. The kill scenes were graphic and bloody as they should be in an assasin movie. The movie was hilarious too. Yeah. What the hell, right? Totally unexpected and a great surprise. The story had a few twists and surprises that I can usually predict before they happen, but not in this one. So did I like it? Fucking bad ass.

Sigma 70-300mm for D60 Review

2008-06-23T22:39:00.001-07:00

I've had this lens for well over a week now and can confidently say that it was worth every penny. One of the main selling points of getting this lens was the cheap price tag. The other selling point was of course its telephoto capabilities. Of course I did the research online before purchasing to investigate the image quality and as a consensus, most people agreed it was pretty damn good. The way I figured it was that since I don't have an arsenal of other lenses to compare it to, I probably don't have that much to complain about. I mean unless it had a huge crack down the center or if the colors were way off, I was sure I would be satisfied. And I am.

Colors are great although the image quality is a little soft, but research into the matter seems to indicate this occurs at 300mm at 5.6. The sweet spot of this lens seems to be 250 or below at about 7.1. It's not bad enough to not recommend it.

The lens also has a macro mode that you can activate between 200 and 300mm. When switched on, the lens can focus on objects much closer but I find myself shooting instead in manual focus during macro situations. The autofocus just takes too long.

Since this is a 4-5.6 lens, I find myself having to bump the ISO up to about 400 to even 800 in daylight to get sharp images since I need to shoot at 1/320 or faster when not using a tripod. This is my major gripe, but hey for $250 I can live with it. Highly recommend it for a first lens or a telephoto on the cheap.

Trust Me, You Want To See Him When He's Angry

2008-06-14T22:15:00.000-07:00

The Hulk- I'm sorry The Incredible Hulk was just that. Incredible. The new movie is a reinvention of the character on the big screen. It has nothing to do with the Ang Lee version which starred Eric Bana. Edward Norton stars and co-wrote the movie about Dr. Bruce Banner who was hit by gamma radiation and who turns into The Hulk, a 9 foot menace with anger issues. It's not an origin story, in fact it takes place about 5 years after Bruce was contaminated. During the opening credits, flashbacks and newspaper clippings summed up the events that led to his metamorphosis. Bruce is on the run from an Army general who wants to dissect him in order to create super soldiers for the military. There are many tie ins to other Marvel spin offs and areas left open for a sequel if it does well enough at the box office. The super solider serum was mentioned as a project that has been buried for years. A nod to the fact that Captain America was the first successful super soldier created during WWII. Also, at the end of the film Tony Stark shows up to inquire to the general that "we are assembling a team." Of course he is talking about the Avenger initiative otherwise simply knows as The Avengers. Abomination was not killed and the professor who assisted Bruce was accidentally contaminated with the serum that created Abomination. The movie had a few cheesy lines and too many tie ins to the old TV show. It kind of took you away from the story and reminded you that you are watching a movie. The action sequences and fight scenes were spectacular and way over the top in the coolest way possible.

I've Discovered The Light

2008-06-07T16:54:00.000-07:00

Since I got my new camera I've been taking a crap load of pictures. At first I was using Adobe Bridge to organize and edit my RAW files but then remembered about Adobe Lightroom. I think I am in love. Lightroom is specifically made for the photographer, whether amateur or professional. The workflow is surprisingly simple from importing, tagging, organizing, and editing (or otherwise known in Lightroom terms as Developing). It treats files as InDesign does. All photos are linked to Lightroom and not actually moved or changed as you move and change them. All editing is non-destructible. Cropping, spot removal, straightening, color and exposure correction is not permanent even after you close the program. You can go back anytime and start from scratch or adjust your settings at a later time.

On top of this, Lightroom is capable of shooting tethered which means you can hook your camera up to you computer, take a picture, and it will automatically show up in Lightroom a few seconds later. As they import you can adjust settings to tag the photos and go into a certain folder. The photos are not stored on your camera but instead are stored directly to your hard drive. The software that comes with Canon cameras include software that makes this possible. Nikon owners like me need to buy a program called Camera Control Pro 2 ($160) or Bibble Pro ($130) which blows. I downloaded the trial version of Camera Control Pro 2 and it works like a charm. When the trial is up I am going to try this out which costs $0.

Great Scott!

2008-06-02T23:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, a fire broke out at the Universal Studios back lot and it burned down the Hill Valley court house square. Come on! It wouldn't be so bad if the DeLorean's fire trail lit a building on fire, but no, some D-Bag with a blowtorch on a movie set started the blaze. The very street that Marty McFly outran Biff on a skateboard and Griff on a hoverboard is now a pile of ashes. What a friggin' shame. Perhaps I should watch the trilogy (for the hundredth time) to honor thy memory. Rest in piece dear friend. Rest in piece...

A Hell Of A Poster

2008-05-31T19:39:00.000-07:00

I was at the movies last night and saw the new Hellboy II poster up in the lobby. It really caught my eye with its simplistic style. Most sci-fi hero type movies go for very exaggerated poses and wide angle perspective shots of the characters- which is fine. After all, comic art is precisely that but you gotta love the perspective of his profile at ground level. Hellboy is bullseye dead center, which is a amateur no no in photography and graphic design but when you know the rules, you know how and when to break them. The artist pulls it off nicely. The colors are bland and dark as it should be. This is Hellboy. A demon from hell here to save mankind. The contrast of Hellboy's red skin against the gray and golden sky really makes him pop. The title and text above and below him are centered and very old school in its layout. Again, to sum up it's very simple and I love it. It's definitely going up in my room when it goes on sale online. Hellboy II comes out July 11th.

Hulk vs. Abomination

2008-05-26T23:12:00.000-07:00

Can't wait for June 13th! Enjoy the clip.

Mutt Williams And The Comb of Destiny

2008-05-26T20:50:00.000-07:00

Tonight I finally got a chance to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom on the Crystal Skull. I purposefully didn't read any reviews prior to seeing it as to not spoil any plot lines or have anyone else's opinion poison my movie going brain. I did hear, however, that people either hated it or loved it. I loved it. SPOILER ALERT: I'm sure I'll read or hear people complain about the ending and how so far fetched or un-Indy-like it is. I would have to disagree. No one in the movie says the word aliens but come on they're friggin aliens. And so what? Is it really all that crazy? How about a beam of light that melts Nazi faces off, pulling hearts of chests or a Holy Grail that makes you age instantly. The intent of the Indy movies are not to get kids to care about history. It's about adventure, globe trotting and following clues to the fun ending that bitch slaps history books in the face. It takes place about 20 years after that last movie (the same length of time since the last movie came out) and all the characters are that much older. Indy doesn't pretend he's the same ripe young age he was in the previous films. There are plenty of old man jokes coming out of the mouth of Shia LaBeouf's character Mutt Williams. Nevertheless Indy still cracks a whip like he used to. It's not much of a spoiler here but Mutt Williams turns out to be Indy's son and it hints to a spin off or continuation of the franchise with Shia as the leading man. I think it can technically still be called Indiana Jones even without Harrison Ford for this reason: Indiana is not really Indiana's name. Henry Jones Jr. is his name and Mutt is not really Mutt's name. Mutt's real name is Henry Jones III. Mutt is a name he gave to himself and with that reasoning he can always change it to Indiana as a tribute to his father. Either way I would give it a chance and check it out. If you get a chance, see this one too.

Attack of the Tripods

2008-05-25T21:51:00.000-07:00

I bought a tripod the other day below are a few pictures I took recently.

f/5 @ 10 seconds

f/5.6 @ 1/5 second

A composite made in Photoshop

The Nikon DSexy

2008-05-22T19:46:00.000-07:00

My latest purchase... the Nikon D60. The successor to the D40x, the D60 adds a few new features such as vibration reduction (VR) and other minor upgrades. If I owned the D40x, I don't think the price tag would be worth the upgrade, but since I don't, I do! This baby is awesome. 10.2 megapixels. 18-55mm lens. 2.5" LCD. This is my first DSLR and from what I hear it's a perfect entry level camera. I've read through the 190 page manual about two times learning how to set all the various functions. Of course now I have to buy all the necessary accessories to go with it: UV filter, tripod, and camera bag. My buddy Mike recently bought the Rebel XTi and the camera bag he bought is just awesome so I chose to buy the same one but instead of gray trim I'm going with the camo.

Below are a few pictures I took experimenting with depth of field. Check them out.

Shia LaHilarious

2008-05-13T19:07:00.000-07:00

Fists of Fury!

Doi da doit doit doit doit doi!

The Office

2008-05-10T19:19:00.000-07:00

This past week I stayed home from work for about 4 days with the flu. It was horrible. Instead of enjoying my time away from the office environment, I subconsciously chose to re-watch episodes from The Office to get my daily fix of phones ringing, keyboards typing, and pranks a pulling. Well, everything except the awesome pranks. I wish I had an arch nemesis at work I can pull pranks on... Mike, if you're reading this keep an eye out...

I Am Iron Man

2008-05-02T23:23:00.000-07:00

So tonight I saw Iron Man for the second time in 24 hours. Yeah, it's that good. One of the best superhero movies I've ever seen. Robert Downey Jr. nailed the roll of Tony Stark, billionaire, playboy, inventor turned gold and titanium plated crime fighter. The origin story followed Stark to the Middle East who got kidnapped by a terrorist group and forced to build a missile. Stark with the help of a fellow prisoner instead secretly build an iron suit to escape captivity. Due to injuries sustained while being captured, Tony got shrapnel in his chest which is slowly making its way to his heart. To prevent this, he implanted an electro magnet to his chest which also serves as the suit's energy source. Back home in California, Tony builds an upgraded suit to use to destroy the weapons his company sold to terrorist groups around the globe. Obidiah Stane is Tony's business partner and the one responsible to selling weapons under the table to these groups. He steals Stark's ideas and has a suit made for himself and later becomes Iron Monger the chief villain in the film. The movie runs just over 2 hours which gives it plenty of time to build a great story with characters you like. There is plenty of humor and action that makes the time fly by and keeps you wanting more. The specials effects by ILM are incredible. As a bonus, there are a few tie ins to an Avengers spin off and/or a sequel with War Machine. Stay after the credits for a short scene with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) confronting Tony with a proposition to join what he calls the "Avenger Initiative." Where do I sign up?

Paramore

2008-04-11T20:46:00.000-07:00

The latest musical ensemble that has found its way to me is the band Paramore. I don't listen to the radio or watch MTV but apparently they are getting pretty big. That's a shame for me but awesome for them of course. I like having those bands no one has ever heard of like they're your own little pet, but oh well. Needless to say they have been playing non stop on a loop on my iPod for the past week. Catchy as all hell with a mix of tempos fronted by a singer with an amazing voice. They have 2 albums out, the latest with 3 singles already and a few music videos to boot. If you haven't listened to them check them out.

Review: Dan In Real Life

2008-04-08T20:58:00.000-07:00

Last night I watched Dan In Real Life starring Steve Carell. It's about a widower (Steve/Dan) trying to find love all while trying to raise 3 girls. It also stars Dane Cook as Dan's brother Mitch. So Dan drives home to his parent's house for the annual family get together and we soon realize that his entire family gets on his case to move on and find a new woman in his life. Of course Dan is rather shy and wants to focus on raising his daughters who subsequently hate his guts at the moment. One morning Dan goes to the local bookshop to get a paper and meets Marie. They of course hit it off right away and spend the morning together talking, laughing, and at one point even cry together. But as fate would have it, Dan realizes Marie has a boyfriend and she must leave. Dan convinces her to give him his number and they part ways. Dan comes home and shares the news with his family and then down the stairs walks Marie and stands by Mitch's side. Cue the awkward silence.... No one knows that Marie is the woman Dan met that morning and so ensues a series of flirting, close calls, and sneaking around. In in the end Marie leaves Mitch, Mitch punches Dan and Dan and Marie get married. The end.

Most romantic comedies are good for a one time sit down (with many exceptions) and Dan In Real Life would fall in that category. The only thing that sold this movie was Steve Carell, the king of sympathy and hilarity. If anyone else starred in this movie, I would have never watched it. Dane Cook, while a hilarious comic, just ain't a leading actor.

Worth buying? No.
Worth downloading? Yes, if you love Steve Carell.

Laptop

2008-04-07T21:52:00.001-07:00

Recently I treated myself to a new laptop. The ASUS G1S-B2. This thing is packing an Intel Core2Duo T7700 @ 2.4ghz with 3 gigs of ram and sporting an nVidia geforce 8600m GT video card for gaming. All that power is helping me type this post at the moment. I still use my custom built tower for newer games. It's a little weaker in the processing power but makes up for it with a monster video card - the 8800GTX. The 9800GTX just came out last week, but it's not above and beyond the 8800, so it's got a few years left in it I think. Crysis is the only game it can't max out, but then again no card can. I've been playing mostly Steam games such as Half Life 2 and Sin: Episodes since you don't need a disc to play. It runs off the hard drive. My second or maybe even 3rd run through of those games are just as fun as the first time. I'm starting to play through Episode 1 with developer commentary on and it's very interesting. Half Life is definitely one of my favorite game franchises. I would love to see a movie made but at the same time I don't think it would work. For one, Gordon Freeman never talks and with my luck some douche bag director like Uwe Boll would develop it.

Bad Religion

2008-04-07T21:29:00.000-07:00

Saturday night I saw Bad Religion at the House of Blues. Such a good show. I've only seen them one time before and they were one of many bands on the bill that night and I was on the grass about 2 miles away with a bunch of pot smoking assholes. Saturday night I was about 50 feet away...with a bunch of pot smoking assholes. Despite that I had an awesome night. They played a mix of songs going all the way back to their album Suffer. My favorite song off their current album is The New Dark Ages tied with Dearly Beloved. Pick it up if you get a chance. Gregg Graffin has got to be one of my favorite lyricists. Either he walks around with a dictionary or he is just that smart.

Scoopy The Clown

2008-04-07T21:22:00.000-07:00

So it was brought to my attention that the ice cream cone company that simultaneously made my childhood great and at the same time terrified me to my very core has come out with a limited edition Scoopy The Clown Doll. What the hell? Who would buy this thing? It's 12" tall and comes with coupons for 3 free sessions of therapy.