Sleep A While

 Whats this? A new desktop? Why yes, yes it is. I love these little wooden cutouts. Such peaceful little things. Now you can enjoy them too. I may have another verison of these as a desktop in the future but this is ok for now. Nothing special but that is kind of the point.

This image here can be used just as your desktop, not as your advertisement, not as your icon, not much of anything else other than your computers wallpaper. Please respect the rights and enjoy! Click the image to download.

Is it crowded in here?

About a week ago (sorry, I’ve been losing track of my days recently) I had the chance to see Bon Iver perform live and finally pick up an actual copy of his album which was released the day after the show so technically I was among the first to purchase it which I like to think is pretty nice. On a side note, of all of the people crammed into the venue that seemed to already know all of these songs that were technically only released in an edition of 200 copies so I hear, I only noticed a small handful of people buy the album after the show. It got me thinking about the way music works these days with internet sharing and whatnot. I wondered to myself weather or not these people were going to buy digital versions of the album or maybe they did not really like it or or or. I was just surprised I suppose that more people did not buy a copy…

Anyways, I can now sit down in the dark of the night and put on my fresh vinyl copy of the album. Seeing this show kind of reminded me that sometimes I think that I prefer to just hear music on an album rather than see it live. I do love to see musicians perform and support them by going to shows whenever possible but when it is music like this that it so intimate and quiet I find that I prefer listening at home in the peace of my own home. I heard the songs he performed countless times at night lying in bed with my eyes closed or in my own time and listening to music this way connects you with it on such a personal level and when you go see them performed live there are all of these people crowded around you drinking and talking and pressed up against you and you have to fight your way to see the stage well and hope that you found a good sounding spot in the club and it separates you from the music to a certain extent you know? I did get used to the people and did manage to get lost in the music at times and there was one song where he pulled of a sing along that added to the feel of the song and made the people around me feel less like intruders within this music I knew so well and more like part of the experience.

I think it depends a lot on the type of music as well, with electronic music I love there to be a ton of people there or with rock music or anything with more of an upbeat vibe to it but when it comes to quiet acoustic songs that I usually listen to in the comfort of my own company the audience can sometimes get in the way. I think it is part of the reason I love my job so much as a live sound engineer because I get my own personal space at the show which is more often than not one of the best seats in the house and I get complete control over the sound so I have that personal connection with the artist and the music. Its a bit overwhelming at times to be honest and when the circumstances are just right I feel somehow emotionally involved in my work and chills may run down my spine.

That reminds me of one of my favorite days as an engineer when I was the guest engineer at a live, in studio, radio station performance by Damien Jurado. It was pretty much just me in the control room with the mixer and him sitting in the room adjacent with his guitar. It was like my own personal concert of songs that I loved.

Working back to my main topic here, Bon Iver, I highly suggest you check out his album ‘For Emma, Forever Ago.’ It really is a great record and was one of my favorite discoveries of music last year. Ironically enough (is ironic the right word here?) the person who introduced me to it was a girl named Emmanuelle. Yap.

Below you can see my view of the show which was pretty bad really, as the place filled up I kind of got pushed further and further into the corner and the audio at this club has always been pretty bad and was made worse by the fact that all of the high frequency in the sound system was totally missing my position leaving me with a booming mess of low/mid sound… but they are photos all the same. Nothing to write home about but enough to remember the evening. Enjoy!

Lenses for Sale (sold)

Canon 50mm f/1.2L

Canon 24mm f/1.4L

I have decided to sell my two canon L lenses and consolidate them into one lens. I have been shooting with these for around 6 months or so and they are still in excellent condition. Pretty much the same as the day I bought them. Both of the lenses have the original box and lens bag that they came with. Help me find them a happy home! :)

I LOVE both of these lenses and have been nothing but happy with them, the only reason Ive decided to sell them is to go back to using one lens for now. My asking price for both of them (well, not both of them, but for each one) is 1000 USD+ whatever shipping costs

I would just stick them on ebay but I really don’t want to do that…

If you have any questions about them mail me john(at)twistedsun.net

Bigger versions of these photos are on flickr. 50mm & 24mm

And so it fell

For a very brief moment this city was covered in snow. Over the course of a couple of hours the sky dropped a couple of inches of fluffy white snow on the ground which was a surprise considering it had been so warm in the days previous to that night. I had a feeling that by mid day the following afternoon all of the snow would be long gone (and it was) so I took the tripod out to the backyard and went desktop hunting.

What I found was an interesting collection of puffy snow cliffs that had formed around tiny baby trees and sticks coming up out of the ground so I got the tripod as close to the ground as it would let me and started messing around. Most of them are pretty neat I thought so I picked out a few and here they are for your wallpapering needs.

The last of the images below is kind of interesting I thought because of the back lighting and the fact that during the longish exposure I rotated the focus to cover all of the little snow mountains which made for some strange glowing shapes. No photo manipulation trickery there. Just me trying to make something interesting of the same old boring photos of snow I was taking. I do love a good snow though…

To download a desktop simply click on the image you would like to use and a zip file with the full size image will be on its way. As always, these images are to be used as your personal desktop images ONLY and may not be used for any commercial application. When in doubt just send me a quick mail and Id be happy to talk more about it. There is a terms of use file awaiting you after the download . Enjoy!

stumbling through

I think the thing I like about the sink image here is the shape of the aperture coming through on the highlights. I really feel as though I am getting the hang of using the rangefinder, now I just need to put it to better use. Or maybe I already am and I just don’t realize it yet.

Film

I think that the reason that I don’t make the film photos that I take into desktops is simply because I am not satisfied with the quality of the scans I get with my scanner. Scanning a small photograph and blowing it up to desktop size I notice to much loss in the image and I am just to picky about the quality of the photos I add as desktops these days to post them in this way. Maybe one day I will end up with a nice film scanner but until then, hopefully you can appreciate them like this. Whenever I scan these I never do any sort of post editing on them, all of the film shots I post are straight from the cameras eye. Not sure why I mentioned that..

On a side note, I post more photos on flickr than I do here as you can see in the sidebar item to your right labeled flickr.

On another side note, ever since I got the Canonet film camera I find I dont take nearly as many photos with the 5d as I did. I need to break it out one of these days and shoot some new desktops. I think I have a place to go for some new images though so hopefully soon… :)

On the Hi-Fi

Lately my music has been all over the place. The gentle, minimal music still holds the top spot in what I have been listening to but I have broken away from that with a couple of exceptions. I think I will hi-light a few albums that have been keeping my ears busy in the last week or so, some old some new…

I will start off with an older album that is one of my very favorites and over time is one that I come back to time and time again when I need something like a lullaby. The album is called Heart and Crime by Julie Doiron. Her music on this release and many others by her is like a whisper, she has a deep calming breathy voice that always manages to calm me down when I get worked up about something. She sings of things I’m not much in the mood to talk about but ends up being a perfect match to the subtle music. Highly recommended. link

Next I think I will talk about the new Autechre release, Quaristice. For those of you who may not know, this duo is kind of the default experimental IDM masters and I have a funny feeling that fans would like just about anything they release. I have been listening to them as long as I have been listening to electronic music and with this new release I find I am having more trouble than usual getting into it. As usual they are taking an interesting new approach to what they release and more than ever I feel that they are letting things hang a little looser with this album. I feel like I made this music 5 years ago which is such a pompous thing to say but its true. I love this artist and the music they create but the simplicity of it can not be denied. I am tired of other musicians making music that sounds anything at all like it be immediately compared to them. Wow, I must be in a grumpy mood or something. At ay rate, it is a great album. I still like the first song on it the most which is a really simple ambient song. Head over to bleep to hear it and make up your own mind. link

Back to the singer songwriter genera I’ve been listening to a good bit of Damien Jurado as of late. Mostly his album Where Shall You Take Me which I really love. Its another one I have had around for quite some time now but one I often come back to. He always seems to like to tell stories with his songs which I like. Its nice to listen to music and be told a story all at the same time. I had the opportunity to mix the audio for him at a little radio station on air sort of a thing a few months ago which was great. Anyways, Im not sure what else to say about him at the moment, these are more suggestions than anything. Link

For those of you who enjoyed my last suggestion of the super minimal Daisuke Miyatani album Id like to suggest you check out a compilation album called schole compilation vol.1. Which contains a song by Daisuke as well as a bunch of other equally amazing music that will leave you with no choice but to meditate while you listen. Music that is just enough to fill your ears and mind with feeling but not so much that you feel distracted by it. Really wonderful compilation and is highly recommended. Link

Also, I somehow became hooked on the LCD Soundsystem song, All My Friend’s and I have no idea why other than the fact that it makes me feel both claustrophobic and energetic and completely depressed all at the same time which is an impressive feat. I think its a song that needs to be listened to really loudly…Thats all for this edition. Thanks for reading, and please, for your own sake, close your eyes and listen.

Cinque Terre

This will be the last pack of images from my trip to Europe outside of a couple more single desktops I may add sometime. Nine of them this time around and all from an amazing string of villages in Italy called the Cinque Terre. Really pretty incredible spot and easily the loneliest stop on my trip simply because it was so beautiful and to be there alone was overwhelming really.

At any rate, to get the desktops click the image above which will link you to the zip full of images. PLEASE respect the terms of use included in the file and  remember these are not here for you to grab and make prints of or use in any commercial work. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions but otherwise, enjoy!