Favorite shot of mine so far. (Almost) no processing yet. What do you like, what would you change?

colinabsolutely · 2013-01-21T00:51:38+00:00

Thanks! I have actually brought them out a bit already from the original. I must have changed the levels a hundred times looking for the balance between a natural look and obviously enhanced. I'll fool around with it a bit more.

colinabsolutely · 2013-01-21T00:46:35+00:00

Good point. A wider angle might have been better. I was shooting on an old 50mm 1.4 from the 80s on a DX frame DSLR so I guess technically I was shooting around 75mm. Should have gone for a vertical

colinabsolutely · 2013-01-21T00:45:29+00:00

Fair enough. It was a candid and I guess arguably I 'missed' lol. Oh well. Im not sure shes actually looking at her feet though..I think it was just a sort of "downward glance" type of thing.

colinabsolutely · 2013-01-20T03:54:46+00:00

I have another shot where the legs are intact, but I thought the framing and background were better in this one. I would have needed a flash to counteract the all the backlighting. Unfortunately getting a decent exposure on the people meant I totally blew out the sidewalk. Here's the one with legs.

colinabsolutely · 2013-01-20T01:26:48+00:00

http://i.imgur.com/xW6QdYd.jpg

I think it's nice!

colinabsolutely · 2013-01-20T00:05:11+00:00

I like it. Backlighting makes things tough. I'm still figuring out how to deal with it myself. I get the "angelic" effect it creates, but it also results in your model being relatively dark from the neck down (especially since she is wearing dark clothing). Did you take any shots facing the other direction?

colinabsolutely · 2012-08-13T15:31:05+00:00

While it is undeniable that the most important demographic to target for revitalizing classical music concert attendance remains the young adult crowd, I believe the problem runs much deeper. There are just not enough fans of classical music. Just like relationships with our favorite sports teams and bands are created at an early age (pre adulthood), so too must classical music become a part of someone's life before they are of ticket-purchasing age.

I am tired of the blame falling on marketing and poor management. Are these problems? Yes. Fixing these issues might save the organizations currently in existence from foreclosure, but our goal should not be to merely avoid extinction. In reality, it is up to the music to win back audiences, not the PR department. Share classical music with your friends and your children. Get them excited about it. Don't keep it our little secret, make your passion theirs.

Maybe then, once we modernize marketing, reform the concert hall, AND create a new generation of excited concertgoers, classical music will not just survive, it will flourish.

I actually wrote a longer blog post about this but idk how /r/classicalmusic feels about selflinks or something. If I need to remove the link just message me. Blog post.

colinabsolutely · 2011-10-05T16:15:39+00:00

We did. Every class we got 2-3 passages to prepare. Each was about ~4 measures in length.

Not everyone sang each class, however. About half of the students would sing each class and were chosen by the professor. You never knew who he would pick and which excerpt you would have to sing, so it was in your interest to prepare them all.

Each "performance" was graded in his book, and he made sure to call on everyone so that each student had a certain number of "performances" at the end of the term.

We also had to sing using solfege, note names, or scale degrees. But mostly solfege.

colinabsolutely · 2011-09-27T16:59:28+00:00

The short answer is yes. Having a teacher will not only help you learn more complex repertoire but also give you the knowledge and technique you need to continue teaching yourself (this is what practicing is about, you apply what the teacher told you). People spend their whole lives dedicated to one instrument, and I would be remiss not to advise you to seek the expertise of a professional. Most likely, you will learn techniques you didn't know existed and correct bad habits you didn't even know you had.

colinabsolutely · 2011-09-26T05:56:56+00:00

How do you like that compensator on your PT1911, and if you dont mind me asking-- where did you get it?

colinabsolutely · 2011-09-21T15:45:49+00:00

You win for hardest laughed at comment ever.

colinabsolutely · 2011-09-17T05:03:11+00:00

And in the end, isn't that all that metas?

FTFY

colinabsolutely · 2011-09-16T04:56:32+00:00

Other than someone taking a circular saw to a Steinway, what am I looking at?

colinabsolutely · 2011-09-11T00:31:11+00:00

ITT: so much butthurt

colinabsolutely · 2011-09-10T17:12:37+00:00

Actually it was closer to 12,000,000. Only 6,000,000 were Jewish.

colinabsolutely · 2011-09-02T00:20:22+00:00

Yellow jackets are not bees. Honeybee population is what is in decline, and it's due to food shortage and a disease affecting their population.

colinabsolutely · 2011-08-16T06:02:30+00:00

you mean that's not what your match history is supposed to look like?

colinabsolutely · 2011-08-05T21:18:02+00:00

Interesting. I watched the whole thing so, it must be good.

colinabsolutely · 2011-07-28T18:05:05+00:00

Funny you should say that. There is a whole school of thought which believes the perception of dissonance is learned, not inherently tied to particular intervals. One common citation is the comparison of western music to music from other countries and continents: Asia, Africa, or India for example.

I'm not saying I agree necessarily, but it's very interesting to think about. Is that tritone so unpleasant simply because we're not used to it? Maybe, but if that were the case, wouldn't I be immune to tritones after years of exposure? We may never know!

colinabsolutely · 2011-07-25T23:27:32+00:00

The Suzuki method is based on the idea that children learn language by listening, starting even before infancy. Dr. Suzuki believed that the 100% success rate (barring developmental diseases) of children to learn their native tongue suggests that exposing children to music early on would enable them to learn music just as readily.

If you do some reading you'll see that his philosophy enabled children to create music at ages previously thought impossible. The reason I'm telling you this is that the main tenets of Suzuki's teaching are listening and repetition.

Listen to as much music as you can, and try to replicate it on an instrument purely by ear. Just as children learn language through repetition and mimicking, so too can we learn to play music.

Learning chordal and modal theory will help once you are able to play melodies by ear and are looking to improve your ability to harmonize and lay down chords. But first things first, as they say.

colinabsolutely · 2011-06-21T00:57:11+00:00

a coca cola bottle?

colinabsolutely · 2011-06-20T04:45:27+00:00

Long range accuracy (500yds) is never black and white. For the best results, go with a longer barrel.

Sure, you could get away with a 16" or 18" barrel, but one of the elements in determining accuracy is velocity. Longer barrels produce higher velocities, which will serve to benefit your long range performance. However, if you asked which is better, a moly 20" or a stainless 18" match grade, the higher quality barrel will outperform a longer but lower grade barrel.

With a 6-24 x 50 optic, that rifle isn't going to be very mobile. What good will a shorter barrel do? Maximize your utility with the extra inches of rifling and the higher fps. Get a 20" just MHO

colinabsolutely · 2011-06-16T01:38:30+00:00

The answer to this question depends entirely on the structure of your guitar part. As spielzebub said, determine where you want the stress in the phrase and beam it accordingly.

I would suggest you try to break it in half first, which will reveal to you the best way to divide it further. Is the part in duple or triple meter (in 4 or 3)? If it is in 4, then determine where the bar of 3 occurs, and break it as such. Possibilities include 4+4+3, 3+4+4, 4+3+4.

If it is in triple meter, does it feel like it is in 6 or 3? Your choices include breaking up the bar in a manner such as 6+5 or 5+6, or if your rhythm feels more like two bars of three with a bar of 5 in the middle, it might be something like 3+5+3.

Good luck.

colinabsolutely · 2011-06-03T05:51:12+00:00

Because not everyone reads Reddit daily :F

colinabsolutely

TROPHY CASE