Showing off my skills… =)

I got this little problem, a guy is writing a book and wanted my grandfather with all his siblings on a photo, there are only one good photo with all the siblings and that one was shot by my grandfather (which for that reason is not in the image)… So I got to be creative… =)

This is the original photo my grandfather took, old and faded but with all the siblings.

This is the photo I used to cut out my grandfather and put him among his siblings

And this is the final image with a fair amount of photoshopping...

How to make a HDR (High Dynamic Rage) out of a single GIF

Hello..

Today we’ll learn how to make a HDR (High Dynamic Range Rage) image out of a single GIF. The first thing you need to do is to go out into the nature and shoot your GIF image, now most cameras doesn’t save to this format so for this example we’ll use RAW instead and convert it later… Be sure to bracket a lot when doing the actual shooting so that you have a lot of images to choose from when you get home… In my example I bracketed 9 exposures with 1 EV spacing.

For this example I choose this exposure… +1 EV… Simply because I like it the most and I’m the photographer guy…. the artist.

Then open your image in Photoshop, or whatever program you prefer, it doesn’t really matter.

You’ll get to this wicked looking program with lots of knobs and buttons that no normal human can possibly understand… Just ignore them all and open the image… After all we’re artists, not computer programmers…

This took unusually long on my computer… Just chill out for a while, get a coffee of something, it will open eventually…

In order to save our image as a GIF file we need to convert it to indexed color, ie. no more then max 256 colors…

Save it as a “Compuserve GIF”, quit photoshop and open it in PhotomatRix

PhotomatRix is being stupid, can’t read GIF files… But it seems like it haven’t got a problem with Jpeg files… so we’ll need to convert…

Re-open the image in Photoshop and change the mode to RGB Color. Don’t worry, you destroyed all the colors when converting it to indexed color, and you will not get them back, this is just because you need to have RGB Color mode in order to save as Jpeg.

Check the image that it still looks like a GIF… This one is fine, save it as the middle (0 EV) exposure (as a Jpeg)

Then go to Image > Adjustments > Levels

Set the midpont at various places and save as different exposures… I used 0.1, 0.5, 1, 2 and 5

When you’re done saving your pics open them in PhotomatRix, you will need to fool the program that you have some idea of EV spacing… I told it I spaced 2 EV in between the exposures.

Since all the images in the stack are from the same GIF file you don’t really need anything on this next page… they are perfectly aligned and no ghosting…

Amazing… =)

Ths is the “real” HDR image, but in order to get something the monitor can show us we need to tonemap it back to a LDR

The default setting, you probably wanna drag the sliders around for a bit to get the look you want.

One single GIF HDR sees the light of day… =)

Tonights walk

1:40    Leaving for a long walk
1:46    Very dark, I can’t see where I’m putting my feet
1:52    Amazing how many stars there are, just saw one falling too
1:55    Two trucks just passed me
2:08    Strange smell at the roundabout
2:11    A black volvo slowed down while passing me, I thought about waving
2:14    Toilet break, I didn’t dare to go more then a few meters in to the woods, they saw a bear here a few days ago
2:16    Met a truck with 15 lights in the front, followed by a white car
2:17    Truck from a side road, had to hurry to get out of the way
2:24    There’s a slice of watermelon on the road, took a photo
2:34    Dark road again, blinking roadwork sign ahead, they always make holes in the roads in the summer…
2:37    Some animal in the dark bushes to the left of me, a bit scary
2:43    Changed to the next hour-long track in my free audiobook “electricity”
3:02    Met a car, starting to get the feeling I was alone out here
3:06    A hedgehog crossed the road about a meter in front of me
3:18    Met a post-car
3:23    No police-cars at the station, just an observation =)
3:30    A taxi drove past me. It’s getting foggy
3:37    Hare on the road, it ran into the bushes
3:42    Stated the last track of the book
3:53    Getting a bit tired and my back aches just a little
4:07    Met a car, it’s been a while
4:09    Smells great from the bakery I’m passing right now
4:11    A post-car making it’s rounds
4:27    Met a car and another passed me… It’s getting brighter, can’t see much stars now
4:33    A horrible smell rises from the sever pump station
4:38    Came home and the book ended on the doorstep, that’s timing
4:41    16.57 km… Back at the computer. Watching live NASA TV, the launch of the space shuttle discovery STS-128

Watermelon

Trekking in Äkäslompolo

It’s been almost a month since we (me, my mother and my aunt) went trekking to Ylläs and the mountains around there… (19-22 July 2009) I’ve been meaning to write something about it for ages but I’m too busy doing nothing nowadays… well anyway, here goes…

Day 1 (From here to there…)

Got up quite early, it’s about 600 kilometers from Jakobstad to Äkäslompolo, but before everything was packed in the car it was quite late… The drive was rather uneventful, lots of cars that was driving too slowly, especially trailers… I think people that are driving too slow is more dangerous in traffic then people that are driving too fast… We stopped for food in a place called Zeppelin, somewhere near Oulu, there we also drank coffee and went shopping a little… That happens when traveling with two ladies… =)
When we finally got to Shaumaja we unpacked had some coffee and went walking down to the lake Käsänkijärvi, the girls decided to go back to the house but I wanted to stretch my legs a little and walked around the lake in the bright evening… It was a beautiful scenery. I saw a reindeer with a calf that was trying to drink it’s mothers milk while the mother deer walked, looked pretty funny. Later on the other side of the lake I also heard some bird that I haven’t heard before, sounded quite spooky, a bit like a very short crow sound almost like barking, and it was very loud… I got out on the wrong side of the lake and had to walk on the roads back to the house… Thank gods for the GPS…

Day 2 (Lainiotunturi – Kotamaja)

This day was hot, and it probably didn’t help much to walk in the middle of the day… The girls went to climb on Pirunkuru while I decided to go for a longer walk… I wanted to see the canyon on mount Lainiotunturi called lumikuru (snow canyon), so I walked about 10 km toward kotamaja and then just turned of the track and headed straight for the fell. It was quite though to climb the side of the fell was nothing but rocks and it was scorching sunlight anyway I got up and sat down on the highest peak and drank half of the water I had with me and all of my coffee… I got a bit worried that I didn’t have enough liquid with me but the view was awesome, absolutely worth it… I sat for almost an hour on this top and just enjoyed the silence, it was very silent…

View from Lainiotunturi

I wanted to find the canyon lumikuru, that was after all the reason that I went climbing on this rather remote pile of rocks, but I had the misconception that it was on the north side of the mountain and the north side was very steep, I tried to go very close to the edge to see if I could locate anything that looks like the canyon but gave up after a while since I rather survive then get a photo… So I walked down from the peak toward the less steep side, found a tree that looked like a cactus, it was kind of fitting it felt a bit like walking in the desert. Then I walked the rest of the descend in the real lumikuru (I didn’t know that then) and headed towards where the trail should be, I walked and walked and started wondering if I already passed it without noticing, the trail was not on the GPS map, but I had a track where I walked and a point where I went off it and headed up the mountain side.. I decided to keep walking and eventually I found the trail and turned towards kotamaja.

A real Finnish cactus

Lumikuru

At kotamaja I found a well with fresh good water *bliss* I drank a lot and filled both the water bottle and the coffee thermos with cold water and headed back towards Shaumaja. When I left Kotamaja I met a guy that looked like Michael Jackson, I was planing on walking over the lower fell called Kukastunturi but I took the wrong trail and ended up walking under the fell instead… It was a quite easy walk but not much to see but forest… When I got almost all the way back I heard water streaming over rocks I stopped and looked if there was a photo waiting for me, there were two tree stumps, I got this weird feeling like one of them was looking at me and the next second it turned and disappeared into the undergrowth… I was left like… What i the world was that?! Then I started thinking that it was about the right size for a bear cub aprox. 30 cm high, the next thought was if there is a baby bear there has to be a mother bear somewhere. That got me walking again… I was making noise with my keys and looked around me more then usual… When I got back I talk to my brother and he said that it may have been a wolverine.. I guess it may… hard to say for sure, but something was in the bushes…

Äkässaivo

We ate some pasta thing and went to a mill and to Äkässaivo, a lake where they dumped (killed) old people that was a burden to the society, back in the old times… There were way too much mosquitoes to really enjoy it and I get somewhat stressed when I’m walking with people, I like to do it all in my own pace and stop and take pictures of what I like and such… But it was a fine nature and all of that…

Day 3 (Pirunkuru, Käsänki, Kellostapuli)

Started off early, another hot day… This time I took two water bottles, since I was gonna climb two mountains, and of course the coffee thermos since I was about to drink coffee on the tops… I walked away with my rather heavy camera bag to the pirunkuru canyon, pirunkuru means something like devils canyon, and there’s a reason for the name, which you’d notice when you are about half way up… I stopped and half sat down and pretended to take some photos while the sweat ran like… like someone who just climbed the devils canyon with the bright summer sun in the back… Ironically when I sat and was half dead an elderly couple came walking in a good pace past me, that felt unreal… Anyway I kept climbing and soon enough I got to the top of the mountain Käsänki, that mountain actually have two tops, one to the left looks higher and that is also where most of the piles of rock that people for some reason always seem to build on tops of mountains are but the one to the right are just a little bit higher according to the GPS so that’s where I went to intake the blood of the almighty coffee God… It was windy on the top and I was a bit wet so I didn’t sit as long as I did on Lainio tunturi the day before, instead I went to the western top and walked around for a bit, took some photos and headed back down pirunkuru, walking down these piles of rocks are actually worse then going up, when you are going up you are climbing but when you are going down you are breaking… When I got down met a family from germany (I think) that wondered how far it’s to the top? I said that It’s about as far as you can see… Then he asked how the terrain was up there… I just smiled a wicked grin and pointed at the rocks covering everything around here… “Good luck” =)

Top of mount Käsänki

The journey continued around the eastern end of the lake and up on a 5 km long trail that was constantly uphill through forest, a forest that was full of horse flies, the kind of evil insects that bite you just because they can it seems… Not in self defense like wasps, and not to get blood like mosquitoes… I like most animals but those are just a pain in the… When the trail got too steep on the other side of the mountain there was stairs… I don’t really know what to think of that, partly it was a welcome ease but then again you are suppose to be in the wilderness, right? Or well, kind of anyway… I walked on the stairs and it was a fast and simple way to travel up a fell side when I got near the top I went of the trail again and headed towards the kellostapuli peak… I walked near the northern edge or the mountain and the top was really steep but I put the camera and everything loose in the bag and though that oh what the heck, let’s climb… The first half of the climb was pretty easy but the last 30-40 meters was a bit steeper and rocks started to slide under my feet… That was rather unpleasant since there was nothing to grab hold of at all and, in the worst case, about 100 meters of steep fell side without anything but rocks to slide down on… It turned out alright and I got to the top and had my second cup of coffee, it was awesome… I ate a sandwish and took out a mars bar that I managed to forget on the top… Hope some animal or something liked it, and didn’t get sick of it…

Pirunkuru seen from Kellostapuli

The climb down was about as the other climbs down I’ve done on this trip, horrible, just praying to the gods that they save the landslide to some evil person that deserves it. =) Breaks on full power… Saw a pretty nice tree on the way down but I didn’t fall and hurt myself… Came back on the trail and headed down down down… Followed a fell creek that was pretty darn beautiful and took a lot of photos… The trail here was made of a treetrunk sawed in half and was wide as the autobahn… It was a pretty nature and very easy to walk on… When I got down and met the trail that goes around the lake I somewhat misunderstood the signs and started walking in the wrong direction so I walked around the lake Käsänkijärvi again before getting back to the house, Getting to know this trail pretty well now… When I was on the north side of the lake it started raining… I had carried rainwear with me all the time so I packed the camera in the bag and took out the raincoat… Then it stopped raining… So very typical, though it started again later so… well… I bet that if I wouldn’t have been prepared it would not have stopped and I would have got soaked… =)

A most peculiar tree

Fellcreek

Day 4 (Seitakivi)

This last day I had a little sore legs and thought I would take the car north to a holy place I found on a map, where the people use to have their rituals to their Gods in the old days, it was a rock that was called Seitakivi (“magic rock” loosely translated) I went a little later then the girls that was gonna climb kellosstapuli that day… I had to go buy more bread and I did that before going to the rock… I figured I have lots of time, and I had…the terrain was quite different up here, there were no fells visible, just forest and swamps… When I got to the rock it was just a standing stone, about a meter high and a sign that said seitakivi… That was a bit of an anticlimax but I took some photos of it and the place was on a natural plateau above the river… Oh well I had a little sore legs and didn’t feel like walking much longer anyway… I went to pick up my company at the ski resort at ylläs, and we went to make food, pack, clean and leave..

Before we went on this trip I wanted to get the house Shaumaja in the GPS so that I would not have to look for it but there was virtually nothing on the net mentioning Shaumaja, so I took photos of the house before we left for home and put the address and coordinates on the flickr picture, so now when people are searching for Shaumaja they at least find it… how kind of me… =)

Seitakivi

Shaumaja. Ollintie 3, Äkäslompolo (N67°36.531' - E024°11.765')

We was about to pick up my cousin that was coming from a long trek in Padjelanta, Sweden, but we wet too early from Äkäslompolo and we didn’t think about the time zone difference and the wait in Haparanda in Sweden turned quite long… My legs ached a bit now and I wasn’t too keen on walking around in Ikea and places like that but what can you do… We wanted coffee but almost everything was closed or just about to close when we arrived… Finally we found coffee on a fuel station *bliss*… My cousin arrived as planned with the bus and we drove the long way home, just stopped for some coffee and snack on the road… Well that’s it basically… It was a good trip, not too much injuries and my feet was ok… Nice weather, a bit on the warmer side but I don’t know what would be ideal… Kind of sucks when it’s raining all the time like last year…

Keeping it real =)

Blog-fading…

I realised when I just posted my last post that it’s been a quarter of a year between posts, even more maybe (March to July) that is just not right. I got to blog more often because… well because I have a blog… I don’t know… Blogging is something you are suppose to do, right?

Anyway, what has been going on so far this summer? Short answer: Nothing at all. I’ve been photographing quite a lot and walked quite a lot. I’m still a free man, got no work that I need to go to, which also makes me a poor man. Decided that when I get some rainy days I’ll make a gallery on my web-site and start to try to sell images. It should be possible to sell as fine arts. I also almost started a company in April-May I was on a course in starting your own company and has sorted out mostly everything, made Names, business plans, logos and so on… If the United Snakes of America wouldn’t have destroyed the world economy I probably would have had a photography business now… Everything is on standby though, I can start when the economy gets better, maybe to the fall…

It’s a strange summer we have this year, first it’s cold, with frost in June, then a few weeks of very hot weather, and last night (5-6 July) it was 1.0°c. It would be cool if it raised the temperature a bit now, it’s summer after all… they talk about global warming, how about some local warming…

I’m sitting here on the bed with the laptop on my lap, I guess that’s where laptops are suppose to be, listening to the new Moby album and sipping a a cup of coffee that are getting cold. The Moby album is very good, heard it a few times now and I’m slightly in love with it. I think I’ll go for a long walk tonight, maybe a 20’ish kilometre track… I’ve got new walking shoes a week ago or so, but they are pressing a bit on my upper heal on the right foot, which worries me a bit, I don’t want to ruin my feet now when we are soon to go to the northern Finland on some trekking… I walked 13 km yesterday and the foot didn’t feel very well…

Maybe since I don’t have anything to say, I should stop wasting your time. If there really are anyone reading this. If there are someone reading this why are you reading? Is it for the same reason that I am writing, because you got to blog… It’s quite therapeutic to write randomly like this… You should try it some day… =)

Oh well ow my half empty cup of coffee is defiantly ruined and I can put Moby in the Mp3 player and head out in the night… I promise to write more often!

Firefox 3.0.11 Outdated

“This page uses frames that aren’t supported by your web browser. Visit Microsofts web site and download a modern webbrowser!”
I’m using Mozilla Firefox 3.0.11 (that should be the latest stable version) and who the “#%€/ is using frames anymore… =)

Ok, some geek on IRC *smiles* told me there are 3.5 out… I would expect that doesn’t change things thou…

Dog problems…

Woke up too early again because the neighbors dogs was barking like mad… I swear I’m gonna kill those demonic hounds one day… They bark all the time… from sunrise to sunset…
I think I read somewhere that in Greece they get rid of wild dogs by putting crushed glass in minced meat…

Our lovely jornalism strikes again…

This is today’s web quiz on our local newspapers website:

“Behövs det olika undervisning för kvinnor och män i bilskolan?
( ) Ja, ( ) Nej, ( ) Bara för kvinnor.”

And now let’s translate that to English:

“Do we need a different education for men and women in the driving school?
( ) Yes, ( ) No, ( ) Only for the women.”

I realise my translation didn’t do that good… It’s different between men and women, not different as in a new one…

Friday the 13′th

So it’s friday the 13’th again… Here’s a few tips on how to survive the monsters and killers and other things that wish to hack you to pieces.

1. Don’t run upstairs when the killer is chasing you, what are you planning to do when you are on the roof? Rather run on flatland… the psycho killers are always walking so you should be able to outrun it…

1b. The cellar is not a good idea either… for the same reason.

2. Don’t shower, when you are in the shower the psycho killer will come… just look at a zillion horror movies and you’ll understand… If you smell like a badger and absolutely got to shower, lock the door…

3. Don’t walk alone on dark roads, that is like telling the werewolves and other unpleasant things here I am come and kill me…

4. Don’t go to parties, even though it’s less risky to be in a crowd, a crowd of drunk teenagers use to get brutally murdered one by one until only one remains, and chances are that’s not you…

I think the best you can do is to be with one good friend that you are pretty sure is not a werewolf or a vampire and stay indoors and play monopoly or something equally boring until it’s one minute past 12, Saturday the 14’th… if you made it that far you’re safe until Friday the 13’th of November…. that’s when they come back… and you have to start all over again…

Noise

Yesterday night I was playing with Apophysis (a flame fractal editor) until it started to get a bit brighter outside, rather stupid maybe but I had no reason to get up early anyway so who cares…
Anyway when I thought I’d get some sleep the neighbours dogs started up their barking. For at least two hours they barked constantly. I played music quite loudly to get rid of the sound and that works, the problem is just that it’s not very easy to sleep to loud music either… I fell asleep eventually and when I woke up many hours later the dogs was still barking…
I’m a vegetarian and a pacifist but i swear, if I had a rifle those barking fucks would go to dog heaven…
It’s not the noise that bothers me, it’s the monotone receptiveness.. I can stand city noise and people and music, that is not a problem… actually absolute silence is almost louder then most noise, but those dogs…
I don’t know what to do about them, call the police or go talk to the neighbours, I’m too chicken for that… I don’t know them… The guy is quite loud with snowmobiles and ATV’s… It’s one of those houses that keep changing inhabitants… I think there are 4 or 5 families that have live in that house while I lived here…
Hmm… Got to get more coffee… By the way, Pirate Bay is up and running again! Fredrik Neij, one of the guys that are running the service, restarted the servers from the courtroom where there is a trial against them right now… I love the symbolism in that… =)