Rockcake (Day 90) #photoaday

No1 made Rockcakes at school today. This is to be encouraged. And they looked and tasted as good as this one looks.. A fitting number 90.

Black and white Buzz (Day 89)

I think this was taken about 6 months ago - maybe more - but only come into my possession and seen yesterday.  Taken on ilford Delta 3200 - hence the grain.

Photos of the day (Day 88) #photoaday #bw #ilford

I've been excitedly awaiting for the delivery of this pack of prints which took a year of making.  If you read my other blog post here:  

http://www.mattnorman.co.uk/index.cfm?blogid=39&Type=FullArticle

you'll realise that I'm missing opening a set of prints of when I've forgotten what they were about.    So a year ago I bought a 36 exposure black and white film and took a couple of shots every month.  And today here they are..  You may see some more on my flickr in the next few days.

 

I'm rather impressed with the quality of these prints and the box they came in - a bit over expensive but the excitement of the opening was well worth it...

Octopoid (Day 87) #photoaday

Spiral Galaxy (Day 86)

Or my tail light

Bread (Day 85) #photoaday

Well it was supposed to be a type of flat bread but is more like ryvita

Crux Prime (Day 84)

Heres the advert for Crux Prime that taunts me when lego universe loads this week. 

WHAT. A. TEASE.  

Lego have really added an extra layer to this game now and I cant wait: But I'll have to till the 11th...

Watch the trailer if you haven't already:

Review of Lego Ninjago 3D Battle Arena

So I finally succumbed and bought the kids this arena to use with their ninjago.  I admit that I was drawn to it to get a version of Sensei Wu at low cost.  Before they have had the Beyblade stadium - which is built the same way from what I assume is vacuum formed plastic, and it got in the way and got trodden on and broken - so I wasnt too keen on getting a something else to ruin.

This one though is better in a couple of ways 

Firstly its not as tall - which makes the whole thing feel smaller.  It also means it should slip easily out of the way under a sofa.

Its got a lenticular style 3D picture - which looks straight out of lego universe on its main playing area - which is flat - and not concave like Beyblades. 

It also seems to have more supports under the playing area which makes it seem more sturdy.

The ninjago bases spin like billyo on the baseboard and there are also neat little alcoves within the stadium to store your spinner, cards and the minifig as well as their weapons.

In all not bad value for under a tenner GBP especially when you factor in the better build quality and the Sensei Wo fig.  Only slight sad thing was it looked like you got more weapons - namely nunchucks in the set - and there are no cards for sensei - but apart from that the kids seem happy with this set.

Making a Canon 450D / Digital Rebel Xsi auto bracket

Here is how I set up my Canon 450D to auto-bracket (for HDR) - That is setting the camera to take three different shots of the same thing at slightly different exposures.

Video

1. First put the camera into AV or TV mode - I use AV for most things, but you may wish to set it to TV and lock the time to around 100th of a second to reduce the chance of camera shake.

2. Move to the first set of menus using the direction pad and select Quality.  Now change the quality setting to RAW or L Jpeg and RAW. (The latter takes up more space on the card)

3. Now move to the second menu, and select the option for AEB.  Move the direction pad left or right to set the difference between the exposures.  I usually set it to 1 - 0 - 1 as in the video - but you can set it up in between stops if you wish.  Press select to confirm.  (NOTE:  when you switch the camera off it looses the AEB setting - this has caught me out several times)

4. Finally I find it best to set the shutter mode to the continuous shooting mode.  If you don’t do this then you have to press the shutter release three times in a row - easy to forget and introduces shake and potentially different images.  Just remember to hold the shutter down for three shots- the camera pauses slightly before it takes the next one, so release it after three.

Enjoy.  And you will get better results with a tripod - although most of my shots are hand held:

Birds Eye (Day 83) #photoaday

A naughty birds eye view taken where the management say we shouldn't.

But hey whats wrong with this? My eyes see it as well - and we are allowed to look.

Hunger (Day 82)

 

Receivers. (Day 81)

Look at the cool new shiny. I like the green glow the best.

Something shiny has arrived (Day 80)

 

Hamlet (Day 79)

 

Home made (day 78)

Working at home today. Had productive morning so far but just had to stop for a hot beverage

They're Back (Day 77)

My phone is now back - almost to normal - that is its all working again now - but I can now install pretty much everything I need on my phone without memory worries.

Thanks to:

Unlockr.com
leedroid
Clockworkmod recovery
xda forums
Paul
titanium backup
and Rom Manager

Thanks guys

(photo taken with photobooth on my mac - but its mirrored for some reason.)

Rooted out (Day 76)

Finally plucked up courage to root my HTC desire as I’m sick of only having 128mg of application space even though I have 8 gigs worth of external storage in the phone. Scary - but the first parts done now.

v20k (day 75)

Cant believe I've had this many views on a video thats been up there for less than a month.

Also day 74 was stuck in my phone - even though I sent it yesterday - I've just released it - so I haven't really uploaded two pictures today.

Oh no not again (day 74)

 

It feels like all I do now each weekend I'd shopping... Not even for me...

How to make a lego minifig display case

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsHHWaa9oJA?wmode=transparent]

So here is a step by step description of how to make a display case using an ikea picture frame and lego for shelves.

These instructions allow you to display a single series of collectable minifigures in one ikea RIBBA frame.

UPDATE:

Jeremy emailed me and has made this for his series 4 collection (JEALOUS!)

But he kindly sent a picking list over for almost the same style of build, so I'm going to include it here in case anyone is looking to get these from Bricklink:

Ingredient List for 1 Frame

Ikea “Ribba” Frame – 23 cm x 23 cm
2x3 Display Plate (from Lego Minifigure Series 1-4) - Qty 18

1x1 Plate – Qty 3
1x1 Tile – Qty 6
1x16 Technic brick – Qty 4
1x10 Technic brick – Qty 4

Technic Pins – About 40 (Amt is up to you. More=Sturdier)

1x16 brick – Qty 2
1x8 brick – Qty 2
1x3 brick - Qty 2
1x1 brick – Qty 4 (Used to fill the gaps in the Technic rows)
 
Bottom Shells

2x16 plate – Qty 1
2x10 plate – Qty 1
1x12 plate – Qty 1
1x10 plate – Qty 1
1x4 plate - Qty 1
1x3 plate – Qty 1 (Turned “sideways to fill in all 3 gaps in bottom shelf)

Columns
1x2 Brick – Qty 30
1x1 Round Brick – Qty 30
2x2 Inverted 45 Slope – Qty 6
2x1 Inverted 45 Slope – Qty 6
-------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks Jeremy

TeeFury T-shirt number 2 (Day 73)

My first teefury.com shirt was an unexpected gift.  This is the first one I have bought myself.  It just arrived this morning and I had to try it on.  This was called 'the doctor is here'

Mine is an evil minestrone (Day 72) #photoaday

Just a standard Minestrone, with the addition of a lot of Cayenne.  I like soup that makes me sweat.

Square Circles (Day 71) #photoaday

These crop circles broke out on our ceiling over the weekend.  I find the pattern, although disturbing, slightly comforting at the same time

Shift (Day 70) # photoaday

Bored and sitting in the car. Can you not tell?

Shes my... (Day 69) #photoaday

Can't think of any other comment that warrants stating...

Moo Cow (Day 68) #photoaday

IMAG0584

How do you like your eggs in the morning? (Day 67)

Cosmopolitan Doctor 23 totally baffles Dalek (Day 66) #photoaday #lego #tardis

MMMMmmmushrooms (Day 65) #photoaday

But the ones that were not mouldy were yummy.

Art Exhibition (Day 64)

My art on my walls.  

Lego Collectible Minifig Display System (Day 63)

I've finally completed my design for minifig display.  Each ikea frame has a lego shelving system installed and can contain all of a collectable minifig series (16 figures) plus most of the included accessories.  Its designed on the fact that this ikea frame allows the minifig base plate to fit in its width easily.  The rest is just lego...

These will hang on a wall and I can easily create more when needed.  The series one frame also includes a minifig pack behind the actual figures - but I'm going off this idea as it detracts from them. 

The Cellar (Day 62)

Taken yesterday and with my slr - but I dont care.  Its been 'developed' today so its my photo of the day for a change. Loving all the colours of the bottles and wine inside them.  Some of this wine is older than me.

True Grit (Day 61)

Hurrah!  A night shot that's passible.

Ancient John (Day 60)

I love the cellar in my mum and dads house. And I found these down there this evening.