If you listen to TWIP, you’ll know about Fredrick Van & Scott Bourne’s on-going Adobe’s Lightroom vs Apple’s Aperture debate. Scott swears by Aperture and at Lightroom & Fred’s sweet on LR2.

It’s quite childish really, considering Scott just abandoned Canon for the Nikon D3. hmph! Plus, who starts arguments over technogeeky topics? No one that I know personally, as in not being that person directly. Huh? Exactly. I’ve discombobulated you have I?

When I was down in SF visiting the TWIP team, I was put in the hot seat and forced to pick a side. But, the truth was, I had never used either Aperture or Lightroom. And so a challenge began between Scott & Fred to see which of these two powerful photo editing and management tools would win my little n00b heart.

I’m installing LR2 this very moment and am really pumped about the new features Adobe is offering in this latest update. For more info, check out Fred’s LR2 post. I’m also excited about starting to shoot more in RAW. I think it is the only way of getting the quality, sharpness, and perfect lighting I want in my photos.

My only concern with Lightroom is how it will work with iPhoto as we all know iPhoto and Adobe aren’t the greatest of pals and the interface doesn’t look as clean and apple-icious as Aperture. But, beyond that, I have no leanings towards either, so I am coming into this challenge completely unbiased. Though Fred is pulling out all the stops with his traffic-stopping smile!

If you want to check out Adobe Lightroom 2, you can download a 30 day trial here.

Have your say on the Aperture vs Lightroom debate. What do you use? And why?

… usual hi-jinks ensue. Those Brits sure know how to make some sweet rides. Nemesis was definitely the big daddy, with Oblivion close behind. I’m glad I ate my huge portion of Fish and Chips after riding the big guns. Though my stomach was no so stoked about the combination of mushy peas and the hardcore Nutty Squirrel ride.

Oh & check out my Alton Towers Flickr photo set.

PS. I used almost every iLife iMovie packaged tune in the making of this vid. I hope I used alll your favs. Hoorah for Roller Derby!

PPS. Still dusting and tweaking a few things on ze blog at the moment. Pasquale helped me switched hosts to Media Temple (mt), did a clean install of WP, and de-widgetize my sidebar. Holla at me if you notice any 404s, missing links, etc.. And I apologize if your comment was deleted. I lost a few in the transfer. Let’s hug it out

You must know by now, that I am a wee bit of an Apple fan girl. Obviously. It’s tough to question my loyalty to Apple. Well except the fact that I still have that late 90s Compac desktop sitting in my living room. I just can’t get rid of him, he’s like my personal WALL•E.

Nevertheless, my loyalty for Apple is unquestioned. I may not be die hard enough to say, camp out for days in front of an Apple store to pick up the first released iProduct, but I’ll properly follow the guys that are and feel a quiet self-reflective disappointment that I’m too lazy or apathetic to camp out for days in front of an Apple store. I try to make up for this by posting zany Mac-related videos.

With that being said, I’m going to say something controversial… mostly so be forewarned:

I wish Apple would fix the problems with their current iProducts BEFORE hyping, advertising, then releasing the next gen iProducts.

Especially with computers. Sure Steve, go nuts with the iPods, but your loyal, creative, freelancers and students really need consistent, bug-free machines to work all the time in order to pay rent and hand in artsy school stuff.

I don’t know about how your Macs are running, but mine are far from smooth sailing. Don’t get me started about Leopard. The worst appears to be over, but OSX continues to reek havoc on audio firewire interfaces. It’s not that Mac aren’t lovely and oh so aesthetically perfect I make cooing noises when I stroke the brushed metal, but experiencing regular kernel panics, the spinning pinwheel of death, force quitting, overheating, fan noise, and major battery fail are not memories that are adding to my love of Mr. J’s Empire of hype.

Speaking of hype, ahem, the 3G iPhone, which was just released last week, receiving such massive hype that no one actually ended up getting one. Huh? I don’t get it. Me neither. What is the world coming to when iJustine can’t get a freaking iPhone?!? And already the Apple rumour mills are churning with the pulpy goodness of new sleek and sexy MacBook Touch.

Now as someone who recently got a MacBook Air, is still paying off a Mac Pro, and is still emotionally attached to last year’s MacBook, when I hear about a next generation release or major upgrade to a better, faster, more awesome and streamlined machine than the one I just bought last week, I don’t feel anything related to happy. In fact I feel a little ill, then hysterical, then I get on the line with Apple, and then I wait, and wait, and crrrrrrrrry when my call gets disconnected.

Too much Apple. Too often. Too much exposure and hype and advertising and mainstream blah! Remember when Macs were so underground that you had to fight tooth and nail to get even an once of respect? Like that time you were thrown out of computer camp for refusing to use a PC. Oh you weren’t thrown out of computer camp? That was just me? Ok fine, but It was important for me, at the age of 12, to really lay down the law. Oh and remember when you were the only one with sweet graphics in your 4th grade essay on tornados cuz you had Paint? Yeah, those were the days. Now, anyone from Beyonce to (puke) Spencer from the Hills (don’t ask me how I know that) can use and abuse a MacBook Pro. But, it’s all good right? More money for Apple, more live John Mayer keynote performances, better products for us… Yes? Or more like a n-n-n-No!

What do you think? Has Apple’s mainstream hype and lack of product accessibility (ahem… iPhone) got you feelin’ less than perky? Or are you jacked into your feed reader jumping with glee when your Apple RSS gets all kinds of new, sweet iProducts & Software?

What do you think of Apple hype?

Rocking Twitter Bird Illustration by Pasquale D’Silva

Vectorama is a regular design/illustration competition on MostlyLisa.com. Last time, the Steelie’s Canadian Beaver took the top prize.

This month’s theme is Twitter Love!

Recently we’ve seen a lot of talk of new twitter mutinies in favor of more stable or enhanced mo-blogging platforms like Friend Feed. Though I use other platforms, nothing beats Twitter for me. In honor of the FailWhale, I’d love all the vector savvy design peeps out there to vector up a sweet Twitter bird. Maybe we can turn some fail in to Win…Whale. Wait, that didn’t make sense.

Oh and answer this question: With the new twitter clones popping up, are you going to stay with twitter or change to something new?

For the rules, read on:

(more…)

So yeah… No iPhone for me as all of Europe is sold out! Most stores only carried 2 of 16GB and 18 of the 8GBs! So by the time I arrived in London at 3pm they were long gone. I’m going out today to take a spy round the O2 store in Bury St. Edmunds, where I’m staying. Must fondle one before the day’s out.

While I was down in San Francisco a few weeks ago, I swung by Pixel Corps and casually hosted MacBreak with iJustine.

We talked about the new ultra cool Flip Mino, hung out with Alex Lindsay and the awesome crew at Pixel Corps, including Joe who is not on twitter, and then nearly got kicked out of an Apple Store. Besides that, the “rat” problem, and the epic Kelly Clarkson lip dub-a-thon, it was a totally normal Friday for me.

To check out the MacBreak 159: Flip Video Podcast:
Subscribe via iTunes
View the video directly here.

Here’s my Flip Mino in action (with a wee bit of bokeh and a sweet WP sticker Andy gave me).

PS. Even my MacBook Air got a little taste of limelight. It did so well considering the pressure.

(On top of Moscone Centre, San Francisco)

This was my first Holga lomo picture to actually come out. I took it the day after the madness that was WWDC 2008. My first roll, I accidentally exposed to light while taking it out of the camera. My second roll, I shot mostly at night in San Francisco (which looked so so cool) but I forgot to set the camera to “bulb” and all the shots were underexposed. Gah!

Film is intense. After having the immediacy of digital shots, waiting for film developing drives me bananas, but you can’t deny the coolness of the medium format. The graininess, the subtle vignetting, the saturation of colour, the sweet 70s feel it gives photos. I’m really excited about exploring the lomo now!

Check out lomography.com or the flickr Lomo group for inspiration. And if you are experimenting with lomography link me up to your flickr photos.

I love my digital SLR, and I don’t see myself ever using film as my main format, but there is something almost too perfect and unnatural about digital images, especially those that have been photoshopped. You lose all the unexpected surprises in the process of using film cameras that can produce seriously beautiful shots. After seeing my lomo shots, I realize that it is still important for photographers to experiment with film and develop a style that is independent of digital automation.

What do you think? Is there still a place for film in today’s digital photography age?

I was the special guest on an uber cerebral podcast last night called the Friday Night Party Line. I promise that I most definitely said something to embarrass myself. We talked about Esperanto, kids, video editing, environmental issues, polar bears, GPS, and what we would spend $5000 if we had to spend it.

What I would spend $5000 on if I was in some alternate universe where money grew on trees and responsibilities floated away on hot air balloons and the world wasn’t in peril (so I’m excluding things like rent, food, bills, saving the environment & polar bears et al.):

1. Shure SCL5 Sound Isolating Earphones ($400)
2. Canon 100mm Macro lens ($600)
3. Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 IS ($1500)
4. Heaps of Marks & Spencer biscuits ($200)
5. Plane ticket to Australia ($2000) + Dingo repellant ($19.95)
6. iPhone ($300 + $??? + 3 year contract + ∞)

Ok I went a bit over. Spending fake money is super easy.

What would buy with $5000?

Every weekend this summer, I am going to try and rent a new lens to expand my portfolio and inspire myself to take more dynamic shots. This week I rented for the Canon 70-200 f/2.8 IS zoom lens. What a beautiful piece of glass. Super slick for the entire range, great dof, and simply money at the top end of the zoom. This lens can do a lot and is awesome for capturing sports/action shots, wildlife, candid people picks, and portraits.

Inspired by Scott Bourne’s wildlife photography, I spent hours trekking about in search of wildlife. I did come across a seal, a beaver, and a skunk, but those animals were much to sneaky to get a decent shot of them from a distance. I think I need to invest in some serious gumboots and really get in the muck. The only creatures I could get up close and personal with were some silly seagulls, who for pretty pesky birds were super fun to watch.

Also, I snapped some shots of some little Polish Dancer girls who were waiting to perform at the Kitsilano Showboat.

And then this dude just bike past looking so summertime funky, I just had to take a shot.

I completely fell in love with this lens, I fondly nicknamed this super huge lens, “The Beast”. My arms and back are seriously aching today from lugging him around for 3 days of “magic hours” in a row. I spent so much time waiting for magic hour, I half expected to run into Michael Bay, his sleek power mane glowing in the warm soft light, yelling profanities at his hapless crew. “More debris you a–holes!”

I’ll be uploading my other sweet shots to my 700-200 flickr photoset tomorrow.

Thanks for all your suggestions and keep ‘em comin! I think next week I’ll either go for the 10-22mm f/3.5 or a fixed wide angle. I’d like to do some Vancouver cityscapes.

And I encourage you to rent new lens next weekend with me!

I felt like my blog was getting a leedle to intense and serious, so I thought I’d bust out a sweet silly vid of Justine and I frolicking from or MacBreak taping at Pixel Corps to the SF Apple Store just around the corner.

As you can tell from the video, Justine and I totally don’t get along. She even yelled at me for eating her left-over Starbucks’ chicken pesto salad and wouldn’t lend me any floss when I got green junk stuck in my teeth for most of the day.

Check out some flickr’d snaps of my time at Pixel Corps’ HQ.

Also, head on over to Mr. Adobe Frederick Van’s blog for a sweet interview with me about my photography and some photos he shot of during an impromptu TWiP photo shoot. Scott Bourne also took a neat B&W shot of me.

PS. If you are a TWiP follower or photographer send out a shout and a flickr link so I can check out your awesome photographs.

PPS. Any ideas for my next meet-up with Justine? Accent off? Dingo chase? Flip Stack?