Aquila pronounced AK-weh-lah, uh-KWILL-uh or even a-kee-laa, means eagle in Latin. Just like the eagle, this blog is my “bird’s eye view” on situations or topics that I happen to come across in my life.
// April 30th, 2009 // No Comments » // Photos
Much has been said about the masterful use of social media by the Obama campaign. Now you can track President Barak Obama’s daily life in pictures on The Official White House Photostream.
Most if not all the photos are by Pete Souza, Chief Official White House Photographer and Director of the White House photo office. This man is brilliant.
One day when I’m grown up, I’d also like to be a photojournalist.
// April 30th, 2009 // No Comments » // Photos
Jason Hawkes is probably one of the masters of aerial photography. His catalogue spans over 100,000 landscapes and over 35 aerial photographic books.
Lately he took to the sky in a helicopter, hanging out the doorway and capturing some stunning landscapes around the world. Most of these landscapes have been affected by humans, with some interesting patterns emerging. Go check out the collection of 26 pictures.
// April 13th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // iPhone
My iPhone recently had to go back to Vodacom for an issue with the vibrate button. The thing broke off after only 2 months out the box. Something that’s completely unacceptable. Unfortunately the only thing to do was to book it in at Vodaworld, figuring it will be resolved fairly quickly.
In the initial three days I received a few messages informing me of the progress of the job, until it had to be sent back to the supplier. Around two-and-a-half weeks of silence ensued before I was finally notified that it was ready for collection. As expected (and welcomed), they exchanged the phone with a new unit.
One thing I must commend Apple on is how well the restore function works. Surprisingly enough it restored every setting, archived sms and application back to the last known state. Pretty amazing, considering I’ve never been able to do so with my Windows Mobile phones.
Funny thing about restoring your phone is that you notice how much nonsense you had on there in the first place. I took the opportunity to do some housekeeping and removed some unwanted / unused applications.
Below is a list of some of the more oft used (and mostly free) applications still on my phone.
Unfortunately some of the better apps in the iTunes App Store are still not available to South Africans, so we’ll have to make do for now. But here’s the question, are there other apps out there that I should have on my phone? What do you have on yours?
// March 24th, 2009 // No Comments » // Interesting, Photos
Okay, first things first: using coffee to develop film is not something Ansel Adams would do. But it works, it gives your film a distinctive look, and it has a certain MacGuyver-ish flair. Think of it like using a plastic camera- it’s more about having fun than getting technically flawless results.
With most film types, the results will be more contrasty and grainy than regular developer. If you do this with color film (negatives or transparencies), you’ll end up with black-and-white negatives.
The steps seem quite easy and you could have your own coffee infused developed film in 12 minutes. If Tom Overton’s caffenol experiments and the Caffenol Flickr pool are anything to go by, the I’d like to try this for myself. Will keep you posted when I find all the material.
And if it doesn’t work out? Well there’s always coffee and donuts.
While we’re on the topic of photography. Do you want some vintage goodness for your iPhone? Then check out the Shorpy Vintange iPhone wallpaper gallery. All free for your downloading pleasure.
// January 2nd, 2009 // 1 Comment » // News, Photos
On 5 January 2009, JPG Magazine will be no more. In an email sent to site users it was announced that the publication and website will shut down for good. JPG weren’t able to raise the money needed to keep the business model afloat in these extraordinary economic times.
Unfortunately even the site will be taken down, which means you have only have until the 5th of January 2009 to download PDF’s of back issues, outtakes, and photo challenge selections.
The news came as a bit of a shock for me and I must admit that I’m quite sad. I submitted a few photographs to JPG Magazine in the hope of getting published. Although this never happened, the site has proven an invaluable source of inspiration for me.
So, with a sadness I bid JPG Magazine adieu.
Update: It appears that the JPG community pulled together and voila, JPG magazine is back! Yup on 27 February 2009, they announced that the magazine has a new owner and will not be shutting down. Yay!
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