Macro Photography, This Time Bigger

Herr J's post on Macro Photography with Compact Cameras inspired me to give a try with a larger camera. So, while in New York last month, I picked up a Tokina 100mm f/2.8 Macro lens.

Getting the lens turned out to be a bit of an adventure....per my usual luck, I was only in the city for one weekend. After a 45 minute walk to B&H, I discovered they were closed for Purim (and always on Saturday). OK, I thought, this is a good excuse for a first visit to Adorama. And, Purim strikes again. Luckily, Herr J in his dual roles as personal electronics guru and source of all NYC knowledge, found that J&R had the lens and was open that weekend.

Fast forward a month, after getting home and trying to get back into the routine of having a job, I finally had a chance to try it out this morning in the little shopping passage across the street. Much fun for us, and amusement for the waiters at the Italian restaurant.

The verdict: I think I'm going to love this lens. Great on macro, beautiful bokeh, great colors....Not sure how it compares to the Nikon version, but all reports are that it's pretty similar quality...at half the price.

The Asam Passage area is lined with cafes and planters full of tulips, daffodils, hydrangeas, and tons of colorful spring flowers.  

Love these unusual daffodils! 

The ferns are just now coming out to join the tulips in the sun.

 

Another of the striped tulips - it was such a cool surprise to see all the pollen collecting in the bottom.

This one, along the Isar river.  

Though we didn't come across many cool insects to photograph on this outing, it was fun to stop and smell the roses - or at least to look at them in detail and notice so much that we usually miss when hurrying by.

My high hopes for the lens were definitely met on the macro side of things. But what I didn't expect was that it would be such a nice lens for "normal" use. And being a prime lens, it definitely makes me work a little bit more to compose the picture.

Here on the left, two girls relaxing in the afternoon where the city is renovating a part of the Isar River. What I love about this picture, is that is does NOT look at all like Munich - with the light stone and pale blue water, I would place it more a winter day in Spain or Turkey.

And on the right, the beautiful golden late afternoon light. I love this city in the spring!

Math/Science and the Mundane

The following item came up on my Google Reader recently and made me smile.  At work somewhere , somebody posted a message to keep the coffee machine working, and a clever (bored?) colleague posted a great follow-up:

If you're not chuckling, then check out this link that is a good starting point to learn about quantum mechanics and the uncertainty principle, superposition, and other ideas relevant to this joke.

Yes, for people like me such little things add spice to life, so I went looking for other tidbits like it.  On the web I found this photo - no idea where this elevator is located, but I like it: 

Somehow this led me to wall clocks.  Yes, wall clocks - but ones that communicate time in terms other than integers.

This one using a "byte" (meaning 8 binary bits, but it actually doesn't need to use the first four bits, so these always remain at 0):

 The next model replaces the numbers with simple equations or symbols.   Pretty easz to follow so far: 

Here's one that's getting a bit more complicated, throwing in some linear algebra.  Yes, these are all for sale somewhere - a Google search will show you more than you ever wanted ("geek clock", "nerd clock", etc.):

I've seen others using natural logirithms and extended notation, but maybe you want to go in a different direction? How about the periodic table of the elements (showing the element with the atomic weight of the number on the appropriate place of the clock face): 

Since we're in the digital age, this list would not be complete without an electronic clock showing the time, again in binary: 

Bonus points if you prefer to make your own like this guy, rather than purchase it!  (link on picture)

 

German Ads (Part 2)

We've blogged a little about German sense of humor, and German/Swiss creative advertisements, so it's time to see some more catchy ads.

These ads come from on online jobs site called JobsInTown.  The don't even try to be cute with the message, and just print it directly:  "Life's too short for the wrong job!".  A couple of interesting aspects:

• They put the tagline in English.  Probably because most people using online job sites are proficient in English (and more), and using English also sends different messages (forward/broader thinking, free spirited, etc.)
• They put an exclamation point at the end of the sentence.  Germans put exclamation points at the end of a LOT more sentences than English speakers do (also in German, not just when using English).  Even in the most boiler-plate emails at work, I will see exclamation points all over the place.  It fits to the conflict-oriented cluture here (speak loudly to get noticed).
• These ads really differentiated themselves by placement -- locations beyond the run-of-the-mill billboards. 

Here's the accountant in the bank machine: 

The washerwoman in the washing machine: 

Can I call her a "barista" in the coffee machine? 

And my favorite, the guy underneath the child's ride.

You can see the entire campaign here (a few more... the video game and jukebox are also fun.)  Hopefully it was successful for the company.

Munich Day Trip - Pertisau / Achensee (Austria)

At my prior company, we had an annual weekend retreat in Pertisau, Austria.  It's really a classic destination for Germans and Austrians:  in the gorgeous Alps, lots of "Sporthotels" to stay in (focus on healthy/organic food, have a good spa, mountain bikes to rent, etc.), petting zoos and park playgrounds for the kids... colleagues brought their families along each year and it was a real highlight.

Pertisau is a bit more than 90 minutes from Munich, with good traffic.  (That's another future post - parts of the autobahn have no speed limit, but good luck taking adantage with the crowds.)  Like many trips near Munich, Pertisau is located in the Tirol section of Austria.  Tirol has 2 primary mountain ranges:  the Karwendel and the Rofan (also called the Brandenbergs).  They're the quintessential peaks for hiking in summer and skiing in winter.  In the area around Achensee (Lake Achen) they have over 200km of cross country skiing trails and over 500km of well-marked hiking trails!  Plus, they maintain 12 live webcams to try and temp you into a day trip or holiday.

Here is Pertisau on Google Maps:

Below is the hotel where my old company put us up for the weekend.   Nice, right?  Green Alpine meadow, gray limestone cliffs, and blue skies.  The rooms (no photo) are typically utilitarian, with modest size, hard beds, a tiny television (they expect you're not there to watch the tube), and usually a small balcony.  Most guests get up early for vacationers - tables are pretty full for breakfast by 6:30!  If the sun is up, they want to be outside.

Obviously my visits there were in the Summer, which means hiking.  The path we took climbs from about 1100m to 1400m and takes 1.5 hours one way.  It's graded as "easy" so you see a lot of families with children.  Along the way, we saw a group a cows that looked like they came right from a tourist brochure.  My colleague went over to say hello.  Notice also the tiny flowers.  It is such a stereotype, but the Alpine meadows are picturesque.

As you get higher and round the corner to see the lake again, the view gets good.  The Achensee water is especially colorful (it's mainly glacial runoff), and the peaks in the back are very close.  The hotel is sitting the tiny valley below.  Many folks prefer to hit the beaches along the lake or even sail, but over a week you could do something different every day.



One thing I did not (and never have) done is paragliding, but I saw a lot of paragliders here and caught this guy on camera.  You also notice a small lookout over the lake with people resting, watching the paragliders.  This is definitely on my shortlist -- they say the updrafts here are strong enough but not too unpredictable or violent.

The destination, as usual, was a hut (and a little higher for a nice view).  The "menu" is typically Austrian:  cold cuts and bread, goulash soup, wurst and potato salad, and of course water/beer/juices.  There are a lot of huts on the trails, but we stopped at the Dalfaz Alm (see photo below).

For kids, one of the highlights is pigs that the hut keeps.  Here is my co-worker again, this time interacting with the pigs - who are eagerly sharing his banana.

Speaking of animals, the other things I love to see is people hiking with their dogs.  A couple brought along their pair of Huskies.  The summer heat can be tough on them, but at altitude (even only 1500m) it's more pleasant for these guys.

Well, that's a brief view of the opportunities that Pertisau / Achensee provides.  Check it out, or look at other options for an Austrian getaway in any season.

Color and Culture

Guys - if you've ever been dragged to the makeup counter with a lady, you understand the graphic below.  Besides the fact that women see color better than men (and some have super color vision too), we just don't "see" color differences so finely (physiologically or psychologically).  This was going around the Web and came across our Google Reader, and elicited chuckles and a few "so true" comments: 

What also came around a while ago was a chart made of the Crayola crayon colors over time.  (Another blogger used Photoshop to create alternative versions of the chart.)  Of course they've added more colors, but what's cool about this chart is that it shows how the colors were deconstructed, and when.  By the way, the chart's creator identified something akin to Moore's Law, that he called Crayola'a Law:  the number of Crayola colors doubles every 28 years.

Of course, people often experience colors today in electronic media rather than print.  This chart shows the most common color names (and their shades) as named be people in the amazing online color survey (more on this below).  

Basically, XKCD's website survey showed people a color and asked them to name it (survey is now closed, but you can still take it here - NOTE:  link is not working anymore... maybe he'll put it back online...).  The results were interesting, and also hilarious (great link).  I guess people went crazy after a while trying to give names to color after color, and started typing crazy comments for the different colors shown to them.  Here are the examples XKCD gave from some participants:

Finally, I thought this was especially interesting.  Beyond the differences between men and women, this shows the emotional connection that different cultures around the world have with the color spectrum.

Some things are commmon:

• Evil = black
• Truce and Purity = white
• Anger, Passion, and Desire = red

But others vary considerably:

• Balance (orange, black green)
• Good Luck (red, green)
• Happiness (red, white, green, yellow)
• Love (red, yellow, green)

What do you think?

German Exactness

What happens when the German desire for precision and structure gets pitted against their love for the automobile?  This is another "famous" photo that cyclically makes the rounds through the expat community (photo below).

German license plates indicate the city where the car is registered, and M is used for Munich (and, of course, BMW is the local favorite).  The driver of this car was a little off when parking, and the front right tire lies outside the painted line by perhaps a foot.

But law & order prevail, and he gets a parking ticket (white paper on the windshield)!  Perhaps it was a disgrunteled state employee, but in any case you get a real-life example of how things work over here.  

Optical Illusions

On a past trip to Nürnberg, I visited the "Tower of the Senses" (Turm der Sinne).  It's a great mix of science and fun -- focusing on perception or reality and fooling our senses (optical illusions).  It is located near the city center, right in one of the small towers along the old city wall surrounding Nürnberg.

One of the directors of the Tower is a professor at the University of Freiburg, and specializes in this subject area (his personal web site has been referenced by the New York Times).

The visit reminded me of the optical illusions I've come across in the past, and was inspired to look them up.

Relative Color

The gray bars below are the same color:

NOTE: To test this claim (and others below), copy the image to your computer, open the image in Paint, then cut and move the bars so they are next to each other.

This one is even crazier - the  squares labeled A and B are the same color:

The effect works with white too.  There is no triangle - the "white" is the same color as the rest of the background: 

 

Relative Size

You've probably seen this before - the yellow bars are the same length:  

Likewise, the center circles are the same size:

Again, these figures are the exact same size.  Copy, cut, and paste to verify: 

Relative Symmetry

The figure in the center is a perfect circle - the lines just make it look distorted:

 
This one is wild.  Below is not a spiral, but rather circles! 

Other Effects 

This is another common picture - there are no dots at the intersections, but your brain creates them:

Look at the image below and more your head (closer/further from the screen or tilt up and down), and the circles seem to rotate: 

In the last one, the images will appear to move without any special action on your part (your small natural eye movement is enough): 

I find these phenomena so interesting.  There are a lot more available here, with good descriptions as well:

http://www.scientificpsychic.com/graphics/