Saturday, October 24, 2009

Essay










Digital media put the tools of production into the hands of the everyday computer user making it incredibly easy to produce content. These creative skills used to be something that people worked to develop. Now it appears that amateurs can produce content of a fair standard within a relatively short period of time. Where does this leave 'professionals' and highly-skilled artists? Choose one area of creativity and discuss some of the challenges facing practitioners vs amateurs in producing digital content.

A field of digital media where technology has created tools to produce quality content with ease is the photographic areas. In previous years only the most educated and skilled photographers could create such beautiful images because of their expertise in knowing just what setting on the camera suited the settings that they were capturing. They were in touch with their cameras and understood exactly what every change to any setting made. Since technology has advanced it has opened up photography to so many more people, it has allowed the amateur photographer to produce professional standard photographs by taking advantage of these advancements in technology.


Such advancements in technology are the new features on cameras, the auto setting being the most commonly known and used feature which almost everyone today has their camera set on permanently because the camera itself reads the conditions and uses the most appropriate setting to capture the best image every time. there are also other features like the different scenes that you can select from which are already preset to take the image exactly the way you wish. for instance the night portrait setting which most new cameras have in their scene menu, in this setting the camera itself is preset to use a medium aperture and a low shutter speed with a fill flash so that the background is captured with the low light settings and the subject is illuminated with a soft flash so that both the background and the foreground are captured in harmony everytime. there is also settings like the sport or motion setting where a photographer would be capturing a fast moving image so the camera under this setting would automatically raise the ISO to let in more light so the aperture the aperture and shutter speed could be raised to extend the depth of field to keep all the image in focus and capture the fast moving image without motion blur. with these new settings on cameras it has made the task of getting everything right when taking a photograph almost too easy for any amature when only a few years ago only those educated and skilled in the photographic arts could dream of capturing these images


There are many other advancements in technology that have also made it much easier for amature photographers to produce content of a professional standard. Originally the photographer would have to take the perfect shot taking into account all the elements that affect the image, where as now days the images captured are usually edited before being produced, and that once itself was an art too where photographers would spend years learning and perfecting their editing skills to produce flawless images, now the programs have advanced so much that even the editing process has become automated. long gone are the days when edditing the levels on the images took a while to complete so that they all lived within the photograph in harmony, now there are automated functions in editing programs like the one Adobe Photoshop has where you can click a variety of auto edit function like 'Auto Levels' and the program analyses the image and adjusts the levels to make it most pleasing to view. this Advancement in technology is a brilliant thing for amatures as it is much easier and quicker for them to produce near professional standard content but where does it leave those photographers who understand every little function that the camera and the programs have but have amatures nipping at their heels when it comes to quality of work. The advancements in technology have opened up the would of professional photography to the abundance of amatures as it is now so easy and fast to produce professional work by hitting a few simple auto functions on your camera and in the edditing process

how does this leave those photographers feeling, who spent their lives understanding every little detail of the camera just to get that perfect shot. the advancement in technology has reduced the distance between being an amature and a professional photographer. the grandeur that photographers used to have when they captured an amazing image is gone, because now that ability to capture amazing photographs is open to everyone it stops being grand ability and just becomes the average


Thursday, October 22, 2009

Ireport

killing the earth

this is my i report. i had some trouble uploading it cause my dodgy internet connection at home is forever cutting out so here i am at uni uploading it

I dug this message into the sand on the beach a few times... the first one got blown away between 2 am and 6 by those crazy wind storms a while back and the second time the tide came in, not impressed at all. The origional idea was to film peoples reactions in the morning while they walk along the beach. i liked how this turned out anyway. and once again the message had blown away by morning. but it was awsome while it lasted

Friday, October 9, 2009

Censorship bullshit

The Australian governments plan to censor the Internet violates our freedom to accessing information. I've never been to interested in politics what so ever but as soon as someone tries to censor what i can or cant do in this country is when I'll get interested in voicing my opinion. censorship has no place at all in a democracy as keeping information from a democratic population narrows and their restricts knowledge and there for restricts their view on the world. if the government is aloud to censor what we are aloud to access they will be able to hide things that they do not wish the population to see, which doesn't really allow for an open minded democratic nation but more a population that have their thoughts and views directed and maintained by the government

Thursday, October 8, 2009

my art creations




this is an image i created using 2 images from Salgado's eploration in the brazialian gold mines. i became interested in this after exploring brazil in google maps for a previous weeks blog. the first image i used is of the camping grounds which is mountain and mountains of people crammed on the slopes of the hills... and the second image is a close up portrait of a lady living within the poverty of these goldmines which feel more like dantes inferno leading down into the deeper circles of hell

i combined the two images to express what it must be like living under these hardships in the goldmines, the first one being a wide angle shot and the second that was overlayed was a close up shot of a womans face.

This is the first image of the camping grounds for the miners

This is the close up portrait of a woman living within this mine

freeware apps

this week we were asked to download some freeware apps test them out, write about them, and all the rest of it. i explored into music making applications and found a program called 'audacity 1.3.9 beta' which is basically a program where you can create sound tracks on different layers from either sound clips that you've recorded or sounds that you've created using the program. on my first attempts using the program i got extremely frustrated as i do when i cant get things to go my way when i want them too. i found that i had to do the tutorial that was included that i had previously skipped. after completing this tutorial the program was much simpler to use it was still a very time consuming process but i managed to create sounds that i was intending too.

after playing with this aplication creating a vast aray of weird and wonderfull noise i downloaded a program called mixmeister fusion which is a music mixing application that alows you to add a database of tracks but strangely only in mp3 format. once the tracks are in its data base you can add them to different layers edditing how and when they mix into another using a heap of effects and basically all the adjustments you would ever need to DJ using just your computer. once these songs have been arranged and recreated to mix into one and other seamlessly you can save or export the playlist. i ended up spending days using this program creating my own music mixes and cd's which came in use at my 21st over the weekend saved me some cash as i didnt have to hire a DJ just pluged my laptop into speakers and let my playlists of mixed music run thier course.

both of these applications were very usefull and i actually had alot of fun playing with them and learning just how to use them in saying this though there were a few other programs that i downloaded that were rather useless and i've already deleted from my computer but it does show that you can get some usefull applications of the internet

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

littlewoods loss of time

Sooo... i just realised that this blog was actually to be completed last week which i for some reason i thought was this week, as in somehow i've lost a week... a week which basically menas i'm a week behind everything...realising that its actually week 6 not week 5... so all those almost completed weekly tasks that i intended on finishing and publishing this week are actually for last week... fun fun fun... and whats worse is i dont even have some elaborate and fantastic story as to how i lost a week like spending a week on a drinking binge in south america, sipping cocktails on a beach...not even being kidnapped and waking up to find both kidneys and a half a lung missing by getting in a fake taxi in columbia or being in a coma for a week from an unfortunate ska-bonking accident...i've got nothing... nothin but being aparently unorganised... so now i will be pulling one of those long energy drink binges where i finish up and publish everything that was supposed to be done in my lost week......

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

week 6 task







Sports - Management - Genealogy - Education - News

These are the areas that my name found in the persona search.


My South American Adventure...

Departure 4th Feb 2010

adventure begins with an extended flight stopping in New Zealand followed 22 hour stop over in buenos ares then escaping to Rio, then adventuring to Salvador for Carnival


from salvador we go back through rio to argentina back to Buenos Ares
PERU




this is Machu Pichu and it will take us 6 days to hike with lamas to get there...
this will be another thing to tick off my bucket list..


THE ACTUAL PLACES CONFIRMED

this is the overview of our destinations... but the exact rout is not going to be exact... kinda just going to wing it and hope we dont get lost in the south american culture forever...
and considering its a colorful tropical country that enjoys a good time all the time... i'm probably going to intentionally get lost and never come back

When My Baby Smiles At Me I Go To RIO... DE JANEIRO

Tuesday, August 18, 2009



THE INFORMATION SCAVENGER HUNT

this weeks task is indeedy a scavenger hunt but were not aloud to use google or wiki and as everything is powered or run through google these days this is going to be a tad hard, we never realise just how much we use something untill we no longer can



The worlds largest pumpkin ?
Joe Jutras from North Scituate, Rhode Island, brought a 1689 pound pumpkin to the Topsfield Fair GPC weigh-off in Topsfield, Ma. on September 29, 2007. His new world record beat the previous world record by 187 pounds. Last year's world record holder was Ron Wallace with a 1502 pound pumpkin at the Rhode Island Weighoff on October 7, 2006.
this isnt the same pumpkin... but look at the damage a pumpkin can do at that size...








now i have to ask... why on earth would you do such a thing.... just imainge all the kids in 3rd world countries that could have had a bus bounds of pumpkin soup...

how is the best way to get in contact with lilly allen?
Twitter... that girl is forever on twitter

How long is a giraffes tongue ?


A giraffe's tongue is 18 to 20 inches (46 to 50 centimeters) long and blue-black. Some people think
the color is to keep the tongue from getting sunburned. Giraffes can moo, hiss, roar, and whistle.

How would you define the word 'glycomics'? In your own words, what does it really mean ? What does the term 'seagull manager' refer to?

glycomics is the study of sugar carbohyrates in the body, looking at vaccines and drugs for the body or something along those lines i'm not realy that clued on when it comes to science and a seagull manager is what i'd describe my C.E.O Bruce at work, its a person that flys in flutters around for no reason, craps on everyone and leaves. so generally someone that nobody is happy to see.

When was the original 'Hacker's Manifesto' written?

The original Hacker's Manifesto was written on January 8, 1986 by "The Mentor".

What was David Cronenberg's first feature film? Which of his films Had 'Blondie' in it?

its was called Sterio... but aparently he made short films but i dont think they really count s a 'feature film'


Why do phone numbers in Hollywood films start with '555'?

because of the fact that it was an unused group of numbers throughout the world and was a safe number to use with out the fear of that number being called and harassing an innocent person by using their number on a film

What is the cheapest form of travel from the Gold Coast to Sydney?


depends on when or how or who many your travelling with... flights at different times are anywhere from $49 which for a solo trip, it would probably be the fastest and cheapest.

What song was top of the Australian Pop Charts this week in 1965?

Shaking all over by Normie Rowe and the Playboys


Which Brisbane band includes Stephen Stockwell on keyboards and vocals?

The Black Assasins... a Punkish bank.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Language of screen






LANGUAGE OF FILM






ECU An Extreme Close up is exactly what it sounds like it is an extreme close up where only a part of the subject is focused on extremely close, or it is where an object is extremely small.







WS A Wide shot shot is basically a scene that includes all of the subject in the frame, if we were using a person for example it would include the persons whole body in the frame, or for example it is a scene where as much of the setting is included in the shot.







MS A Mid Shot is where the subject is focused on but not too close up, this shot is typically used in scenes where people are talking or expressing emotion, this mid shot gives a feeling to the viewer that they are actually there in the scene.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Convergence of technologies

Convergence of technologies



Today, we are surrounded by a multi-level convergent media world where all modes of communication and information are continually reforming to adapt to the enduring demands of technologies, “changing the way we create, consume, learn and interact with each other”(Jenkins, Henry (2006) Convergence Culture, New York University Press, New York.)

The world as we know it is continually changing merging and being redesigned to help in making our lives easier, For instance simply taking a camera and a phone and putting them both together in the one little machine so that it is more convenient for the everyone to use. there are a number of these technologies that have been merged together that we as a society take for granted and dont actually realised whats gone into creating them and where these ideas and technologies have been taken from

The i phone is a prime example of taking a bunch of technologies and cramming it into one little machine and creating something that does a vast amount of things and redefines the way we communicate. Some of the general features of this machine range from the basic features of a phone, like calling and creating text messages, to accessing the internet, mp3 and video players, satelite navigation and a vast array of applications. As advanced as this phone sounds it is a small part of the amazing things that are happening in the world of technology at the moment.





the i phone is one of those things where they've basically put all the little things that you would have in your laptop, on your phone, in your personal gaming consol, and the list goes on... and on and on it is a prime example of converging technnology especially communications. its was created by putting all the idea a buinsess man, a child, a mother and a rather intelligent parrot would ever need in a little box with a touch screen.

there are some amazing things happening in the world of technology at the moment and all you need to do is google or youtube new technology and you'll be lost for hours amazed by some of the new things people have created from putting two or more old ideas together

this next idea is a solar powered car, and it doesnt look like a space ship like the ones you see in those science contests


Think of the amazing effects this would have on our eviroment if we stopped using feul and started using solar.

cars are a great example of how they have taken other technology and recreated it to make driving safer Mercedes and BMW for instance have incorporated many different technologies in their new designs that have helped both the safety of thier drivers passengers and even pedestrians or other cars with such features as blind spot assist where the car detects when there is a car in a blindspot of drivers, or if you vere out of your lane the car lets you know, even adjusting headlights to make it better for approaching cars on the opposite sides of the road.



this next new technology is RAD... its a virtual bluetooth keyboard... you cant really explain it just watch the footage



Tuesday, July 28, 2009

This is my personal diary for the world to read...

I'm not exactly sure what is supposed to be written in these things or what i do or dont want you and the world to know about myself. My name is Matthew Littlewood and yes my last name is good for a laugh. I spent my morning sitting out on my longboard waiting for any kind of wave to form as the ocean is a duck pond at the moment not, a ripple in sight. It was a beautiful morning the absence of surf gave me the time to soak in all the little elements of this morning everyone walking by on the beach listening to their own tune on their headphones, the photographer on the beach capturing the sun turning the few clouds in the sky a certain shade of pink, the cool offshore wind creating that little rainbow over the back of the wave as the sun hit the off spray of the wave. Despite the absence of the surf the beach was a beautiful scene this morning, one that i will never forget...

i've gone from that scene to a completely different one where i am sitting in a room only lit by dim computer screens around me and the light that is seeping in through the blinds on the small square windows. all that i hear around me is the clicking of fingers tapping the keyboard and the silence of group of people concentrating

i think that the next blog i write may have to take place from a hammock down on the beach with a laptop with a beer and hot chips.