edgar almeida - photography, graphic design, photo restoration, illustration, 3d, webdesign (Aveiro and Coimbra)

Oliveira Longboards

admin — Sun, 13 May 2012 13:22:44 +0000

Just found a project from my area that I didn’t had a clue that existed!
Meet Oliveira Longboards… This is the proof that Portugal has great products, projects and designs!
Now i have an urge to ride a board again (geez that was a long time ago) and to spend some money in one cool longboard like these.
My sincere congratulations to Oliveira Longboards and wishes of a successful project.

Here are some photos of their products.
In case you are wondering, here’s Oliveira Longboards facebook and website.

Another Way To Create A Custom Bokeh

admin — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 00:03:41 +0000

You probably already heard about custom bokeh and already came across with a couple tutorials.
It isn’t something hard to do, and can add a fun effect to your photos.
You just need a lens with big aperture capacite, for example the Canon 50mm 1.8 (love that lens) and some paper.
The usual tutorials will lead you to something looking like this:

But my girlfriend (also a photography entusiast) had a better idea.
She had the great idea of using my Cokin filter holder kit (something you can get really cheap online, for example on ebay) and use that for the custom bokeh.
The kit should look like this (have in mind that my kit has a wide variety of lens diameter rings, some kits come with only one):

Get some paper (i prefer black to avoid light reflection) and the drawings that you have in mind, draw it on the paper and cut it.
A drawing around 15mm, for example, will give you a F stop around F3.2, you can do something a little bigger, but not too much or else the bokeh will get cutted. Our first try was with a 25mm drawing… Don’t try 25mm, that doesn’t work. lol!
If you have something to help you with the drawing it’s even better. My girlfriend has a Slice Elite, so we tried that… If you have some kind of paper puncher that can help too.

After cutting your paper cards, get you Cokin holder on the lens.

And insert the paper on the slot closer to the lens.

Done? Great! Now change your camera settings to your biggest aperture (F1.8 is great) and shot away!
Here is an example of some lights without (on the left) and with (on the right) the paper card installed on the camera!

Celebrities With Cameras

admin — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 22:18:26 +0000

Lots of people love photography, either as photographers, models or by simply watching photos. So, as you can imagine, that “lots of people” includes some celebrities! Here are some photos of celebrities with cameras.

source: Celebrity Camera Club

2nd Recesky DIY TLR Film Developed

admin — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 19:24:01 +0000

Nothing much to say, just sharing some of the photos that came out from my second roll of film (out dated) from the Recesky.

Banksy vs Robbo War

admin — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 23:51:29 +0000

Back in 1985, the graffiti artist Robbo painted one of London’s earliest pieces in a tunnel in Camden. That graffiti survived until 2009, being one of the few surviving Robbo’s works, when the now famous Banksy covered it with one work of his own.
Robbo, retired since the 90′s, came back as King Robbo and the a Street Art “war” was born.
Graffiti folklore about an encounter in the late 90′s between King Robbo and Banksy emerges. The details are hazy but apparently when Banksy was introduced to Robbo, he claimed he had never heard of him and had no idea who he was. Legend has it that Robbo delivered a stern backhand to a then unknown Banksy, proclaiming: “You may have never heard of me but you’ll never forget me” – in Twisted Sifter.

As mentioned before, Robbo painted the following piece back in 1985.

With the years passing by, in 2006 we can see Robbo’s work heavily abused, and worned out.

In December 2009, Banksy “attacks” and creates this piece with a worker wallpapering Robbo’s work.

Robbo, outraged, comes back from retirement and strikes back on December 25th.

Already in 2010, Banksy replies.

Robbo, a little more subtle and elegant in my opinion, changes the artwork back the way it was.

Later on, an anonymous third-party enters the fray and blacks out everything.

Robbo, doesn’t let the “battle” die and strikes again in July 2010.

The wall goes back to black.

In January 2011, Banksy returns with an odd goldfish piece that nobody knows what to think what to think of.

With his carrer again in the spotlight, on April 2, 2011 (5 days before his exhibition at the Signal Gallery, Shoreditch: ‘Team Robbo – The Sell Out Tour’), Robbo suddenly sustains a life-threatening head injury.

On November 2011, Banksy throws up an ode to King Robbo’s original. A single, flammable spray can displayed as a vigil.

On December 24th, “Team Robbo” restored the mural to its original form, with some slight changes.

If you wish, and have some free time on your hands, there’s also an interesting documentary to watch.

Watch this video on YouTube.

Pantone Tarts

admin — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 10:32:49 +0000

French food designer Emilie De Griottes has come up with dessert tarts that resemble Pantone color swatches. Griottes uses everyday foods such as berries, bananas and candies for the respective colors, and marks each tart with the Pantone color represented.

Source: Plenty of Colour

Ant Tales by Andrei Pavlov

admin — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 21:23:48 +0000

Russian photographer Andrei Pavlov uses real ants to create an amazing photographic series called “Ant Tales“.
Some people say that the ants are dead, but after some research I found out that the ants are alive. Andrei spent a lot of time studying ants, and he learned that they all follow a very specific path when they’re working and that is quite easy to draw the ants attention. So all he has to do is find them, put the props right on their trail, set up some flash backgrouns and light reflectors, and just stand on the sidelines photographing the ants.
I tried to find more info about the author, but there isn’t much info around.
I found an interview, but it’s in russian! Google Translate helped but some parts of the translation are confusing. If you wish here’s Andrei Pavlov’s Interview.

First Recesky DIY TLR Film Developed

admin — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 20:48:09 +0000

After getting my Recesky DIY Twin Lens Reflex ready, I inserted a roll of film so I could test it and learn how things work.
Since it was a test film I kind of clicked away and in a day I spent the entire film.
When the film ended I noticed my first mistake.
After taking the photo you have to turn the knob to pull the film for the next frame (exposure). The film counter has two arrows, and I usually did a full turn after taking a photo (going 360º and ending up on the same arrow). Ends up that a full turn is equivalent to two frames (exposures) and you only need to do half turn.
That means that, in my case, half of the frames were wasted…
That problem aside, here is a selection of the photos developed.
The second roll of film is already in the camera waiting to be exposed.

Recesky DIY Twin Lens Reflex

admin — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 23:40:57 +0000

A few weeks ago I ordered a Recesky DIY Twin Lens Reflex.
Long story short, the kit was missing a piece, i got a refund and ordered another kit.
On the second try, the kit was complete. The Recesky is a fun DIY toy/lomo camera, not hard to assemble and looks really good.
Focusing looks a little hard to get used to since the image on the viewfinder isn’t perfectly clear. I only tried indoors (low light conditions don’t help), but I also noticed some people complaining about the same issue on the web. But hey, this is lomography… doesn’t need to be perfect!
Here are some photos of my Recesky and a video i found on youtube that shows more of the assembly.

Watch this video on YouTube.

Going out

admin — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 23:18:00 +0000

A few days ago i had a little time for myself, so i went out for some sun, caches and photos.
There’s nothing much to say, a lot of people everywhere also enjoying their free time.
Here are some of my favorite shots from that day.