As Street view goes live in Australia I was sent this from Alan in The USA.
It looks like the young bloke was on the way home from school as the Google van went past.
Google Earth gets an update and now has Sun effects.
Our 3D model now can appear as it would look at sunrise.
Download our 3D Google Earth model here
I have found a place to put Pics of Luie on his skateboard so that all his mate can see…
Flickr for Big Trousers page is up for this purpose. Keep an eye on it if you a fan of the things 9 year old boys are up to.
The great Photoshop killer Pixelmator was released on Tuesday this week and it packs a punch.
As a 20mb download for $59 US, you can experience how Photoshop should have been made or how it may look in the future. As the worlds first GPU image processor it applies filters almost instantaneously in an interface that looks like something from the future. It is almost identical in layout to Photoshop with a few interesting surprises.
Listen to us discuss pixelmator at PhotoGeek and download the trial now. Available only for Mac OS X.
Released a week or so ago, USTREAM provides a method of streaming live video and audio to a worldwide audience.
According to Cris Pirillo, this is indeed a revolution as it allows bloggers and video bloggers to go live with text chat to their audience. I suppose with Skype you could have live interview and talk back too.
At PhotoGeek.tv we intend to make use of this technology and provide a live video stream while we record audio for the podcast each Tuesday or Wednesday.
Check out the live video page on PhotoGeek left running every now and then from the Big Trousers office.
This is a little job for Ringo, an artist from The StKilda Esplanade market.
Ringo wanted to know if we could reproduce from an original oil painting, a color accurate reproduction to canvas using the wide format Epson printer. The 4800 pro uses 100 year archive pigment ink and also is amazing at this sort of reproduction.
Shot with the Canon 5D and imaging on the Mac calibrated using the Huey display calibrator the first print was nearly indistinguishable from the original.
We look forward to the long print runs Ringo….
I received an email from a happy client today. Steve lives in Palm Springs and saw my landscape images online after spotting my website.
After some discussion he ordered a print and had it delivered with the intention of getting a custom frame.
Good to see it framed and up on the wall.
Thanks for the email Steve, it’s nice to know the work is appreciated.
Phil,
It has been a long time since I bought this picture from you and you had asked me to send you a photo when I finally got it hung. Well here it is! My camera isn’t that good but I wanted to send it to you anyway. It hangs across from my dining table in a place were all visitors see it. It has been admired by several friends and they all think I spent thousands on it! I spent almost $400us on the frame which is gold with hints of red and looks absolutely amazing and brings out the colors of the picture. I truly love the picture and all your work.
Thanks and best regards from Palm Springs,
Steve L.
Having read about the details regarding Apple Final Cut Studio 2 and looking at some of the video online I have to say it was a surprise that this suite has moved so quickly to embrace new controls and new formats.
The impressive videos including the Cohen brothers talk about “Color” shows the new color matching tools that looks to me to combine well with FCP and Motion to give total freedom in a color sense to any filmmaker.
Most surprising was the format for 4K, REDCODE by new camera manufacturer Red. Described in a piece online, Red provides a digital format for film makers that is definitely not video, much higher res than HD and much more flexible than high end film. The future is in this format and has been adopted as the standard for the future. Even though I have yet to see a “Red” camera working, the tools to edit are now in Final Cut Pro.
I just wanted to see if my little Ava would fit on the page here. Not quite.
If you are not sure what that all means then you are possibly not alone.
Virb is the site having just come out of beta that looks to be the new social network site of the age. It is well built and beautiful to look at, unlike MySpace which is as ugly as hell. 
This is an example of their advanced image optimisation at work, they do a great job at creating thumbnails and medium sized images from your originals.
This is a page I have been working on.
Virb also allows you to upload video, audio, iTunes® playlists, etc. You can even create and write your own blog. It looks to be everything you need in one place. I don’t think it will be long before someone offers a few Billion dollars for this site.
Gretag Macbeth have been leaders in the field of monitor calibrators for some time, so it was interesting to see their latest affordable calibration tool in action.
The Gretag Macbeth huey is an entry level device for those who need to be color accurate for photography, video, web design or graphic design. At $240 it is a fantastic investment even if you only have one screen. Some industry experts say your screen can vary over time and needs calibrating every month at least.
I have to say on both the 23 inch Apple LCD and the 17 inch iMac screen the change was immense. I will be monitoring results as prints go to the Epson for accuracy and artwork that goes to press. At least for now the various screens in the office now look identical, something that is essential in a collaborative environment. Drop into the office with your laptop or Mac to have it calibrated, we will demo the unit for free as we are sure you will want to purchase one if you need color accuracy. Prices for more expensive models are also available.
From the Getag Macbeth site.
There’s a reason your blues aren’t always true. Same goes for your reds, greens and every color in-between. What you’re seeing onscreen isn’t necessarily accurate - it all depends on your monitor. huey is an entry level, easy-to-use monitor color correction tool that automatically adjusts the color of your monitor so what you’re seeing is true. huey can even make further adjustments to your monitor to compensate for changes in room lighting. Everything becomes more accurate and predictable: digital photos just as you remember the scene, game graphics that give you the intense edge you’re after, movies with brilliant life-like color and a Web-browsing experience that delivers colors that you can trust.
Ideal for digital photo enthusiasts, freelance designers, gamers and serious Web shoppers, huey is easy to use on any CRT, LCD and laptop monitor for the best possible color.
UPDATE:
In testing the accuracy I ran through the process of preparing a Canon 5D RAW camera file for print on the Epson 4800 Pro. First it was opened in “Aperture” on the iMac edited for color and density, then exported to my Mac as 16 bit per channel TIFF. When edited in Photoshop it was printed selecting the supplied output profile for the ink/paper combination used, allowing Photoshop to color manage output.
I have to say that this represents the closest I have been to monitor accurate color in a print. Now that I know how close it can be I will have more faith in the screen representation prior to print.
I went on a little river cruise down the Maribyrnong last night. Thanks to the guys at Maribyrnong River Cruises who looked after the navigation through the Port of Melbourne. Tough job holding still at 30th sec in the dark but the Canon 5D is a dream to shoot with.
Next time we may try going nearer to the docks, a special permit is required apparently.
Above is Webb dock.
Newport power station.
Bolte Bridge.
Get over to HMC and check out the work of a mate of mine, Helen from Limelight.
As part of the Art in Public Places run by Hobson’s Bay City Council, Helen has created more of her retro pin-ups to be exhibited.
They’re going to be displayed during the Williamstown festival at the Iceberg bar, Nelson Place. There are about 40 artists doing the same thing but exhibiting in different locations around the area.
Good luck Helen.
Trish has had her portrait done in the studio at Big Trousers in a bit of a rush to cope with media inquiries regarding her new role as President of The Greater Western Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Trish and her partner Paul run “The Tint Shop” in West Melbourne and was elected president recently replacing Janice Simpson, who led GWCCI since 2003.
We hope to see Trish in the local papers.
Acording to Appleinsider an Apple sub-notebook may be coming soon.
A tiny sub-notebook on its way from Apple Inc. is expected to re-establish the Mac maker as a leader in the field of compact computing while drawing parallels to the legendary PowerBook 2400 along the way.
This is interesting news as is fills the gap for many pro users of application like “Aperture”. What a device to have on location if you like to travel light or need to travel light such as on remote location jobs. It seems that the engineers have found it difficult to stick an optical drive into the device. I say “fine” who needs an optical drive in a device that would be reconnected to the local network when the job is done?
So the final is complete of the 3D view of the Big Trousers office in Footscray. We hope to get this file uploaded to Google Earth but it may be a little too intricate.
In the meantime to see the 3D image make sure you have the latest version of Google Earth and download our locater file.
P.S If you have a previous version of our locater file remember to delete it first.
A big thanks to David of RMS who did the 3D research, rendering and debugging. His account of “Sketch Up” verses “Autocad” would make for interesting reading here.
Here is the model in SketchUp.
Download the file for Sketch Up from Google 3D warehouse
