TL/DR; use daylight, a white surface as reflector, and a sheet of cardboard for a background. This is a rant. But it is also a tutorial. A rantorial if you wish. Let me say upfront that if you are serious about product photography, this is not for you. Spend a little more money (say 50 … Read More

LinkedIn has introduced an endorsement system which lets you ‘endorse’ the skills of your connections. A few quick notes about this: I haven’t checked whether these are skills you entered yourself; that seems to be the case though. I have endorsed wide, easy skills, such as mastering your native tongue. I have endorsed specialized skills … Read More

Photography, simply the technical side of it, is still a bit of a struggle to me. There are too many settings to keep track of. For instance, aperture (the size of the lens opening), shutter speed and sensor sensitivity determine exposure; exposure, sensor resolution, lens resolution, focus, camera movement and subject movement determine sharpness; and … Read More

John Scalzi writes: “I put each letter of the alphabet into my web browser and posted the link it autocompleted to”. He then proceeds to write small blurbs for each entry. The following are mine. ad.nl/ad/nl/1001/Sportwereld/: the newspaper’s sports section. buienradar.nl: a satellite image that shows where in the Netherlands it currently doesn’t rain. Handy … Read More

During the summer months pretty cars and fast food are brought together once a month on a parking lot just outside of Amsterdam under the name King Cruise. See also: King Cruise August.

A tactic that the political right has employed since Adolf Hitler is that of Der Grosse Lüge, the Big Lie. The idea is that you say something so preposterously untrue that people would refuse to believe you made it up. (Interestingly the first uses were self-referential, in that the Nazis falsely accused others of employing … Read More

Angus Croll wrote a couple of Javascript programs that calculate a fibonacci series, each program in the style of a famous literary author. Cool stuff.

Spoiler alert! There will be a bad word in this posting, and it will appear right after this sentence. Crap Cycling & Walking in Waltham Forest is back. This is one of my favourite blogs on the web, because of the bloody-mindedness of its sole blogger, Freewheeler. The blog is about the quality and quantity … Read More

My posting frequency has dropped here, and especially the frequency with which I post photos in the Lightsmithing category. This has a lot to do with the evil behemoth called Facebook. Although Facebook is not for the long form, it does bring in a lot more comments, and it especially brings in something called ‘likes’, … Read More

A couple of months ago I started dieting with the help of the Fat Secret Calorie Counter, and for me this tool has proved to be very valuable. Basically it lets you keep track of three things: the number of calories you take in, the number of calories you burn, and your weight. Intake is … Read More