#the quality of images used is mediocre and it will stay that way unless i find nicer ones before 10am

[poppiesforthirteen]

prepared an Antigone Brainrot centenary thasmin thing for tomorrow & it will post at a less godless hour than this one

[artinterviewmagazine]

Conversation With Taj Bourgeois On Selling Their Paintings Online For A Living

Marius Larsson: So first of all how long have you been selling paintings? About 2 years now? Taj Bourgeois: Yeah I quit my job driving taxi in December so a little over 2 years. I had a week where I made negative $70 and that was that. I had to do something different. ML: What made you think you could make it as an artist, and how did you initially get started? TB: I didn’t think I could make it lol, but also felt like it might be my last chance to give it my all. If I didn’t at least try once in my life I was concerned I’d feel like a hypocrite if I were to tell my daughter to follow her dreams. Pretty much I just posted on Facebook “Would anyone like to commission a painting?”. I got five responses, one of which was for $600. Honestly I don’t know if I would’ve felt the drive to commit if it weren’t for that, but also my strategy was and has been basically to just make paintings everyday, so people would see I was taking it seriously and in turn take me seriously. ML: And had you been painting much prior? TB: I had made like 7 or 8 paintings in the months leading up to it, so people were aware what I was getting into and I guess displaying some level of skill. Prior to that I hadn’t really painted since around the time my daughter was born in 2012. ML: What kinds of things did you start off painting? TB: In 2012 or in the months before doing it full time? ML: Tell me about 2012, why you took a break for 4 years and then what got you back into it in 2016. TB: When I found out I was going to be a father I had been in college for just a couple semesters taking random art classes. I was just there for the school loans... ya know.. didn’t want to get a job. Anyway I was in a painting class, and it was pretty much my first time painting. I watched the Basquiat documentary “The Radiant Child”, and it made me think about painting in a very different way. A few months after my daughter was born and I won a couple awards for paintings I did for the college’s annual art show. Then I enrolled at the Pacific Northwest College of Art for the Fall semester, but by that point I was learning about hundreds of artist’s on my own time, and was becoming inspired to try all kinds of things other than painting. I felt I did so well that semester that I decided college wasn’t going to be a good use of time or money, so I dropped out and just followed my train of thought for the next 4 years which led back to painting. ML: How did it lead back to painting? TB: I had been driving taxi for a year and a half, and during that time I felt more and more disconnected from any of my previous modes of art making. I was pretty much sitting in the cab making memes and digital collages. Toward the end the collages I was doing started to become more refined, and I started thinking about the merits of painting the imagery I was putting together. The first thing I painted after all that time was an image of flaming goose which was a meme that had been going around. I decided to painted it very large. It was just something I thought would help test the waters again, and also something I figured I’d like to have on my wall. Of course painting a giant meme is going to get a good response online, so I did a couple more, and then painted some scenes from photos, and then from my imagination. Tried to paint the collages I had made but didn’t quite feel right to try to change their medium. ML: Ok so you had a few commissions and then what? You’d post your paintings for sale and people just kept buying them? TB: Yeah although the first 6 months were pretty rough. In April I only made $500, so I was cutting it close, but I was still in the mindset that most artists have, which is like their art has some mysterious value to it and should be expensive, but then I realized it would make more sense if I took it more seriously as a job and charge by the hour, so I started painting more small funny stuff. Like for me it made more sense to sell a bunch of little humorous $50 pieces than cross my fingers on a $300 piece cause it would take me the same amount of time to do 6 of the $50 ones. It wasn’t until around 6 months that I made my first piece that multiple people wanted, and so what I did was make it multiple times, and that’s when things started to pick up. ML: And what was that piece? TB: It was spider man on the floor of an art museum looking up at a painting of a goofy fish with a human face, and spider man is saying in a thought bubble “That Painting Looks The Way I Feel!” It was originally from an old comic and spider man had been looking at some kind of parody Picasso portrait, but you know with memes pieces get replaced, and the mood changes. The fish’s face was a better mood than the Picasso probably.

ML: How many paintings had you made by that point? TB: Around 70, but had sold maybe 20 ML: What materials were you using? TB: During the taxi days I was in the store (Fred Meyer) and saw this canvas that house painters just lay on the floor to catch the paint drips, and I was like damn 4x15ft for $13? I should get some in case I feel up to making some big paintings someday, but I have always been such a frugal person that it wasn’t until I saw the apple barrel brand paints that I was like damn ok lemme just buy a couple of every color and see if I’m into this. I also bought a gallon of white house paint to “gesso” the canvas. I still use this method on big pieces, and can always stretch later, but lately have been buying a lot of canvas already prepped and stretched. ML: So do you only sell through Facebook and Instagram? TB: Yes oddly enough that’s like 95% of sales. A few every now and then from irl shows where I live here in Portland (Oregon).

ML: I want to go back to something for a second. You mentioned you started painting in 2012, but then you won a couple awards a few months later. How old were you. How did you excel so quickly considering you said you hadn’t painted prior and what were those painting? TB: I was 24. I think painting is one of those mediums where “ability” is far more subjective than most things. You can view enough of it without trying it yourself to the point that when you do try you’ll already have a grasp of it. I have been interested in painting my whole life, so picking up the brush I already had thousands of hours of experience just thinking about it ya know, so like with that show at the college I knew I wanted to make something big and bold. So I cut myself a 4x7ft canvas and ended up making this multi-colored deer looking straight ahead with sort of hypnotic gaze. That was a people’s choice award, and the other got me a scholarship offer, but for that one I basically had just copied Twombly lol.

ML: How would you describe your style today? TB: Hmm I try not to, cause I try all kinds of stuff. I feel my technical skill level is mediocre but maybe my creative level is high? Different people are going to appreciate different things, and I’ve always been more interested in what the painting depicts over how it’s made. I mean skill aside I think most paintings are pretty umm I want to say “derivative” haha are people still using that word in serious? I’m having fun though, staying curious, and I think that comes across. What’s the point of describing my “style” anyway?

ML: I’m curious about how you view your own work. TB: I view my own work with my own eyes lol. I view my art like a loving father or maybe more like an observer, a bird watcher? No, ok I think I understand this question now. My approach to painting is often like a mix of writing, drawing, and making memes. Often I have the idea and it doesn’t really matter how I get there unless the technique is the content itself as with a lot of abstract art. Like, I will entirely base a painting on a sentence describing the image itself with little concern about how i will make it. Like “a shuriken stuck in the back of a smiling man”, so I’ll paint some sky, a fence, some grass, blue jeans, man has no shirt, shuriken, blood, he’s holding a beer, he’s smiling alright i did it… nice. That’s one way I view my work as a route to an image. I used to do this all the time before painting. I have an art book from 2015 where I used this method a lot like I’d write down ideas, and then go out and make them happen. Some elements of the end result were arbitrary although I always tried to have good composition and quality documentation. I didn’t think of myself as a photographer though I certainly was and was good at that aspect too, but it was more the means to document my performance, sculpture, installation… sentence made real. I also view a good portion of my paintings as elaborate pages ripped from children’s books that don’t exist (yet) and they’re filled with weird cute characters I never really had any intention to keep making in the first place, but I’m still doing it for some reason maybe because I like the idea of an overarching narrative, but mostly I think cause they give me a deep nostalgia for illustrations in picture books I saw as a kid or like panels from graphic novels.

ML: That answer is all over the place! I guess that’s what i get for asking such a broad question, but there’s a lot to work with there. Tell me about being a Father. You said it was kind of the catalyst to start making art. How do you think it’s affected your work? TB: Naturally it changed everything. Before my daughter was born I was just so much more aloof, timid, uncertain about making anything. I’d spend so many days just floating around “hanging out” drinking, smoking etc. Maybe I’d draw a little, write a little, play some music, but always felt like I was just killing time waiting for something to happen, and then it did. Suddenly I felt obligated to be at home most of the time, ya know, like a good dad. Other than that I was still in school making the most of it for the short time being. So for that first year I was either home with her or at school. I was just making stuff every day all the time, and it became an insatiable habit especially once I started sharing it online. Yeah honestly I felt the pressure was on. Like I had waited too long to pursue my passions so I had to make up for lost time. I’ve been addicted to making and sharing things everyday ever since. As for my daughter’s influence, yeah I love watching her grow and the things she makes inspire me as well. I’m a bit of a romantic when it comes to modern art and its mythos. I still vibe off what picasso said about how it took him his whole life to paint like a child, so I feel really grateful to work with her. I have literally thousands of her drawings stacked all over the place. She’ll sit down and do fifty drawings in an hour so I’ve gotten a white board lol. Also like I mentioned before it was kind of insane of me to quit my job to become a painter, like I have a kid, rent, bills, a car, and I’m just going to suddenly start painting happy devils to pay for all that? Well, yeah it felt like my last chance to make my dreams a reality. I just wanted to be able to say I did my best and tried to make it work, for myself, and to be a role model in that sense as well. So far so good.

ML: There seems be a big disparity between artists who make a living off their work and artists who don’t, and what I mean is that when you think of an artist making a living off their work you usually think either they have gallery representation, some kind of branding, or business making the same kinds of things again and again, and yet you seem to have been able to find some middle ground and do all of those things without a business, a degree, or a gallery. What’s it been like overall/how is it going? TB: I still got my foodstamp card haha, but to be honest things are better than ever. I don’t know I just keep at it every day. My belief has been that if I just keep making stuff the right people will notice. I’ve never submitted my work anywhere or asked for opportunities. I let them come to me. I just want to make the art not deal with the other stuff. If a big gallery wants to make money off me they most certainly will but for now I’ve just been doing small independent spaces, and cafe’s which bring in a little extra money but pretty much all my sales are online where I talk to every single person directly.  The most surprising thing has been how many people are interested given that I have less than 5,000 followers/friends. To me that’s a pretty good sign that as my reach grows so will opportunities and I’ve been going hard these past two years. I think I’m just going to be making bigger, better things as more people become interested. I don’t know any artists doing it this way or any way really. I’m not sure Portland is the place to make it happen, but god bless the internet! Getting a college degree makes no sense whatsoever except for becoming a teacher, and I think we know how that’s playing out these days, so I’m just grateful to be doing what I’m doing even though teaching would be pretty cool. Technically you don’t need a degree to teach you just need people who want to learn.

ML: One thing that seems to have helped you gain momentum is the price of your pieces. I don’t think I’ve ever followed an artist pricing their work so low that wasn’t just really kitschy stencil art or something. I see some of your pieces for $600 that I’d see in a gallery for $6,000 no doubt, but then I see a great deal of $50 pieces. What made you decide to price your work this way? Has it changed over time? TB: Yeah and it’s always the “artists” that comment on the prices being too low which is ironic cause usually all you ever hear from the average person is mocking how ridiculously high the price of art is generally. Basically I think other artist’s scoff because they’re projecting their insecurity regarding the real value of art, and maybe a little envious they can’t let go of their own pieces as though the abstract painting they made in a few hours should be worth thousands when they could be making a dozen similar pieces in a single day.  But um yeah I pretty much think of my stuff as like $30-$50 an hour and really like  that’s fucking amazing for a job. Yeah idk I have worked some shitty jobs, and it doesn’t make sense thinking that my work should be above what a person like myself can afford in the first place. When I first started though I still had the mysterious art value notion and was pricing things around $200 that I’d price $70 now, and didn’t sell much at first. It wasn’t until I started doing smaller pieces and gauging my time that I started selling a lot more and trying a lot of different things. It’s not like i’m making art specifically about making money but I can understand why people are so interested in this aspect. I don’t think it’s very common huh. When I first started I tried to justify it as a performance piece called “The Painter” haha. I used to title all sorts of things in my mind as a means to cope with the daunting reality of the situation “Working Construction”, 2014. Even during some of the lowest points I think it helped me maintain the peculiar sense of an artist identity I didn’t want to let go of even if I was letting go of everything else like “Burning All My Journals & Paintings″, 2015

ML: Haha what is that last one about? TB: Around the time I stopped living with my wife and moved into my own place I decided to not bring much along with me. I think the title is self-explanatory. ML: I’m wondering if you could talk about any reoccurring themes or characters in a lot of your paintings like the blob fish or spicy boys. TB: Ya know I think most everything just comes to me on a whim and if it works out or holds my interest I’ll keep playing with it. I guess blob fish and spicy boys are like representative of the comedy/tragedy masks or something. I think I’ve simplified a lot of themes in my paintings just so I can keep the flow going. I’m looking forward to spending more time and space on pieces in the future and elaborate on certain things I’ve wanted to express but didn’t know how to put into words. ML: How so? TB: Well, for example. Sometimes I will paint something I’ve seen in my mind, like, dreamed or hallucinated, but not often because a lot of the time I feel I can’t do it justice even though a lot of my stuff is very much informed by these things that I don’t exactly control. It’s like I take video stills from the internet except they’re from my mind, and the screenshot is something I only had to opportunity to view briefly, but even with a split second hallucination I will think about it for weeks and often will just paint its most basic components. Anyway I’m gearing toward eventually elaborating on the more complex ones because lately I have had some visions that have come to the forefront of my interest. Hopefully will get to them after a few more pet portrait commissions haha. ML: What do you mean by hallucinations? Is your inspiration mainly inspired by dreams or do you mean drugs as well? TB: Most things I just write down as interesting ideas to play with, but I guess I don’t want to get too much into talking about drugs. However there have some recent experiences I’ve had with substances like dmt and the things I saw during that I have been thinking about ever since. So right now I’m just trying to get to the end of commissions and then give my attention to some new projects. Have a show in March. Don’t know what I’ll do for it, but certainly no shortage of ideas.

ML: Where do you see yourself going or where would you like to go, and any other thoughts on painting/selling/art in general? TB: I want to go to the top haha. Well in most ways things are better than ever, and I’m incredibly grateful and I can certainly tolerate having things going at this pace at least another year, but would like to make more serious/invested work that I’m really proud of, get some more money and attention and access to better time/space/materials. At this point though even if I had to get a day job I feel I’m completely committed to doing this work. It’s pretty much how I gauge my self-worth for better or worse. Just hope I can find my groove within the process and better understand myself, inspire others, and I wish I had something more insightful to say, but at the moment I’m a bit preoccupied hustling and just having fun with this upcoming show. Thank yaaaa.

[houseofvans]

ART SCHOOL | VANS HOUSE PARTIES | STEAK MTN.

We’re excited about the upcoming Vans House Parties in Brooklyn, featuring Against Me with opening acts Cherry Glazerr and Taking Meds with an art installation by Steak Mtn. We had a chance to chat with artist Christopher Norris aka Steak Mtn whose works are enigmatic, loose, and raw. We had a chance to find out what he has planned for folks coming to VHP and how he started working with Against Me.

Photographs courtesy of the artist.

Introduce yourself. Steak Mtn. Definitely my real name. Look me up. It’s the real thing. Thank you. I am a graphic artist. Thank you, again.

How would you describe your work and overall style? The work is mercenarial, and from that, the style is sporadic, unfocused… or, I guess, you could say “loose”. Loose is very popular.

For the upcoming Vans House Parties in Brooklyn, we’re really excited to see what you’ll be creating for folks. What can you tell us about it, and what should folks expect? A really, really, really slow video painting, a free newsprint poster, and 5 black and white images, produced en masse, staple-patterned to a wall in the venue.

What was the process like? The process was clunky and piecemeal... but I figured it out in the end. Good or bad, I always seem to.

What are you most looking forward to at the night of VHP? I won’t be there. Live music is depressing trash.

You’ll be working on an art installation for Against Me!. How did you start working with them? Do you remember when they came across your work? In 2005, Var Thelin from No Idea Records, knowing I was not a fan of the band, thought it would be funny if I designed a 7” for them. It was, in fact, so hilarious that here we are 13 years later.

What materials do you normally work with? Laptop.

Who are some of your major influences? Walerian Borowczyk and Bob Clampett.

What do you listen to when you’re writing, creating new work, or just mulling around the studio? Silence. No music. Ever.

What’s your process like when starting on a novel, new piece of art or concept for a client? How does your idea take shape – do you keep notes, doodle them down, or just hit the floor running? At first I think “I shouldn’t have said yes to this”, and then hit the ground running - but - if I don’t have a seed idea in the first two days (and am not desperate for cash), I quit the project.

How do you keep yourself motivated? I don’t make art just to make art. It’s cool that people do, or try to, or in the eye-rolling extreme, convince themselves they just have to create or they’ll “go crazy”, which is whatever, sounds lazy, but, yeah, not my burden. Money is the true motivator. The only one. I usually won’t agree to anything unless it is involved. Glory is overrated. “Exposure” is a lie. Cash is the only divining rod.

What do you enjoy doing when you’re not making stuff? When not abusing the Steak Mtn. brand - I have a dayjob. I’m a normal person.

Is there a medium that you’ve yet to work with that you’re planning to in the future? Not really, no. Oh… maybe someone should give me money to make a horror movie. So, yeah, a horror movie. That’s the next medium to be enslaved.

What is some good advice you’d like to share with folks, advice that maybe helped you in some way in your career? Don’t say ‘no’ to anything. Do it all. Be available. Be willing to collaborate. Make work. Build. Don’t worry about what anything is, what it means, where it gets you. Shut up and do it. Do it to keep your powder dry. Don’t steal >>> borrow… or… whatever, steal it all. Who cares. It’ll help you find your style. Just make sure you lie about the stealing. People are weird about stealing. Hide behind zeitgeist. Stay up on trends. Try trends out. Avoid trends. Don’t make political work. It’s boring. Or, do make political work but know that it dates your legacy and is just cheap therapy, don’t argue with me, it’s not art... or it is art, and, again, who cares. Plus, also again, it’s boring. Don’t doubt yourself because doubt is boring. Don’t be boring. Be aggressive, cocky… but don’t be a dick. The upper hand is kingdom. Understand that talent is not as important as connections. It’s even better if those connections are talented connections. Quality is subjective. Understand that next to no one has had or has a sustainable career as an artist. Get a dayjob. Be alright with the struggle. You will struggle. Understand your value even if you understand that value to be mediocre. If you’re a milquetoast hack and/or are a straight sucker?Do your part. Keep at it. Let it ride all the way to the dark goodnight. Mediocrity is the essential facet in helping “The Great” be viewed as so. Be the “don’t be this” example needed. But, most importantly, be curious, consume, get free, even if it isn’t “your thing” - film, history, theatre, dance, art, fashion, design, etc. Preternatural perspective is better than short-sighted preference. An exploded view is key and will only help you in the long run...

...and then, once, or if, you make your bones in whatever discipline(s) you’ve chosen... forget what you learned, be difficult to work with, understand that everything is disposable, and don’t be sad when people stop hiring you. It’s definitely your fault and it’s probably time to grow up.

What has been the most challenging thing about what you do? Staying interested and/ or remaining professional when you know anything/everything made, ever, is grist for the mill (see the “money” answer). Doomriding the whip.

What’s been the biggest reward? I can say that despite my best efforts to subvert success, I’ve been pretty lucky… def don’t think I’ve hit a “biggest reward” part of whatever this thing is though.

What do you have coming up the rest of the year that you can share with us? Watching as many movies as I have time for?

Follow Chris | Website | Instagram

[littlecafe]

omg yaa the pricing is way more than necessary for what fans are getting! even with the romanticize album they changed to slipping the cd into a paper envelope too. at least before the merge the cd was actually attached to the inside of the cover? idk whether its funny or just sad because romanticize wasnt even a hard cover album, it came in this weird paper box-like thing that held the loose items together. plus the photobook was just this very small paper booklet. but the ripped pages are definitely a first.

oh no i forgot about the enlistment too TT thats such a good point, fans always assumed theyd stay together even through their service, but now everything is still so uncertain. there still hasnt been any movement at all with jr, which is really worrying to me. at least aron announced hes gonna be in a podcast with his friend, but who knows what else is going on. ive already seen solo fans turning on the other members because theyre ridiculous like that. i hope at least the boys are able to interact freely without any worries, unlike the w1 era.

noo its ok you make a lot more sense than i feel like my asks turn out, im just spewing out my jumbled thoughts and hoping theyre not confusing!

ahhh thats so good, one of every member! ya honestly id like a group pc or poster so everyone is included. omg your stores let you pick?? thats so nice D: hehe maybe printing photos to put in the album like a scrapbook is the way to go, ive seen some fans do that as well! which is still sad that it has to be the consumer fixing the expensive product they paid for. at least you got a photo you like so its not just a mediocre image to keep reminding you of the production TT d you know how big the poster is?

yea like what is justifying these album costs because it's not the quality of them...omg so i don't pay close attention to albums so i never knew that the romanticize album packaging was like that until i skimmed some unboxings yesterday, i always assumed it was a book...not a flimsy box....though i guess there's nowhere to attach the cd if you make their album a soft box but i still hate how they really don't try to give the cd at least a cute, safer envelope instead of plain printed paper it looks and feels cheap and they deserve better and fans deserve better as the ones buying it for these prices too

romanticize is a little similar to day6's moonrise album since it was also in a box like thing that opens up in a similar way but the day6 one is pretty sturdy, the harder canvas like material on the outside keeps it from ripping and it's also bigger and flatter so less chance of it getting smushed during shipping/storing, their cd was packed in a semi-translucent thicker wax envelope so it doesn't tear or bend unless you forcefully try to, there's a light printing of the moon in the front and their logo/details on the back sealed with a sticky....god i wish that was nu'est so bad like pls if you're going to go with the cd just chilling outside like that MAKE THE ENVELOPE NICE AND STURDY TO KEEP THE CD SAFE but really this would be asking for too much since they even forgot to include the cd in some albums like i really don't understand....out of all things you could possibly leave out, the cd? really??? this is why u should attach it the the damn book omg

because of this fiasco, i skimmed multiple unboxings from various groups on youtube because i was just curious how other albums are packed and for the ones that have a separated cd, some use the lyrics booklet as a holder for the cd and i think that's an interesting way to do it, you don't need to waste more paper for an envelope since it would come with the booklet regardless, the harder paper stock and extra pages can buffer which makes me feel like the cd is safer inside, and it just looks better

enlistment scares me so bad especially for those that don't have a group to come back to, like there are always going to be some loyal fans, but the the industry moves on and they move on quickly so it's really hard to build back up if you haven't already secured a spot in whatever world you're in before the ~2 year enlistment period (kpop, acting, etc) because most likely they've already found another person to take your spot while you're gone

it's also so surreal to me talking about enlistment for them because in my mind i'll always remember them to be the youngest boy group to debut at the time like i can't believe it...

ahhhhh i hope this means he's just taking a short break after all these long years and the disbandment out of nowhere must be hard to deal with so it'll be nice for him to take some time to himself first rest and regroup...that's what i'll tell myself for now but hopefully we'll hear something soon, i'm glad there's news on aron at least!!!

oh nooo the solo fans are already starting??? can we please just have some rest in the fandom omg they're terrible, the boys bond with each other is so strong i honestly can't believe solo fans still manage to exist

yes!!! i'm so happy to pull at least one thing from each member!! still laughing at myself because i really, truly thought with my whole heart that the group photocard was a guarantee i was so devastated sakjfhskdf wait do local stores around you not let you pick?? like the ones you can go to in person? i always got to pick whenever i bought in person so i assumed that's how it worked everywhere, at least for posters, since they don't seem as high value as some other goods lol (stores literally rip random posters to use as packaging sometimes and it kinda pains me ngl 😅) but i do think it was very fortunate the stores here let me pick for all types of pre-order benefits even though it should be random, especially with member cards

omg waitttt scrapbook style is such a cute idea!!! i've actually never tried to do something like that before so it might turn out not nice lol but i'm very tempted to try it once i get my album, it can't turn out much worse than an empty cover right lmao

the poster is a decent size, it's listed as 420 x 594mm (for the member ones, the group one is the same but flipped aka 594 x 420mm because it's horizontal), the dimensions are exactly like some of day6's posters so it could be a more standard size to use?

since i actually have a poster of the same size i took a picture for you!! sorry for terrible lighting but their poster should be the same as this youngk one, 12 inch ruler to the side for comparison~ you can also see the physical posters in ktown4u's unboxing but they don't show it all on screen at once since their camera setup films closer up

[doomedandstoned]

The Strange, Fantastic World Of Devil's Witches

~Interview by Mari Knox~

We will shock our readers when they read that behind the name Devil's Witches there is just one guy. So James, introduce us to your project, tell us who are you and where your music come from.

Thank you for having me. I'm not really big on talking about myself, not because I want to create some false of sense of mystique but because I want to create a very specific experience. When someone like Hendrix says, "Are you experienced?" he's talking about seeing things with an open mind. He talks about transcending the ego and getting lost in your trip, whatever form that may take. I feel like by focusing on the artist, you can destroy the immersion of the art, unless, of course, they become the art themselves, like David Bowie did during his Ziggy era. So my reluctance to talk about myself is more about this world I've created through the story of the album and the points in time I've referenced. I feel I'll get in the way of the immersion I want to create in the listener. I'd rather just slip into the background and let the music speak.

Your debut, 'Velvet Magic' (2017), is a concept album and your songs seem to find inspiration in the works of Jess Franco, Jean Rollin, and Russ Meyer, not to mention gorgeous and charming actresses like Tura Satana and Soledad Miranda. What more can you share about the fascinating story you're telling here?

The story of the album centres on a mysterious female who is fully in touch with her feminine magic. If anyone has read ‘The Satanic Witch’ by Anton LaVey, they will know what I'm talking about. I don't regard myself as a Satanist, but this aspect of the left hand path is of great interest, as is Crowley. This godlike female is affronted by the horrors of humanity, specifically the tragedy of Vietnam. Her goal is to use her magic to quite literally save the earth through sex. Sex, to me, represents life, not perversion or shame. She finds this male soldier who was part of some of the worst atrocities in Nam, including the My Lai massacre, and decides to redeem him to save everyone. The album follows his story as he comes back to the US and right up until the two of them connect in astral coitus. It's really quite a beautiful statement when you drop all baggage connected to attitudes towards sex. I enjoy playing with juxtaposition and you will find it all over the album and visuals. Polarity is a very powerful thing.

I am a very visual person. The music that resonates with me the most are ones that create pictures in my head or have videos or art that inspire me. I've lost count of the times the visual side of certain music has compromised my enjoyment of the songs. It works the other way too. I've had songs that may have been seen as mediocre, not necessarily bad, but I respond to them because of the pictures they create in my head. Obviously, the music is the main priority, but I see the visuals as quite high, maybe even bordering on equal. Interestingly, movie director Jess Franco, who is a big influence, was mostly concerned with pictures. He didn't even write full scripts sometimes and just shot with his instinct having other people overdub later on. Often times, he had no involvement in that process, as he was off capturing new images.

"Psyche, Fuzz, Doom, and 1960s Worship" -- these are the keywords you use to describe Devil's Witches. What are your biggest musical influences?

Hendrix is everything. He's the only musician I've ever heard who can hit a wrong note and it's still the greatest note you've ever heard. Second to that is Frank Zappa. His early output with the Mothers Of Invention in the '60s is my favourite. Zappa could take pop sounds and turn them into prog rock. He was a musical genius in the truest sense. Other influences are The Doors, Jefferson Aeroplane, and Grateful Dead. The heavy side of my music is inspired by Black Sabbath and Electric Wizard. What resonates with me most about heaviness is the physicality of actually feeling the music through the speakers, even at low volumes. The heaviest song on the album is none of the singles, and it's very dark.

It not easy to create such an impressive and variegated wall of sound like this all by yourself. Sometimes it feels like there are four people playing together. How do you fashion this sound? And, since this is a solo project, how did you record all of the parts?

Russ Meyer was one of the greatest auteurs the movie business every saw. He financed, scripted, shot, directed, and edited most of his pictures. Looking up to someone like that is very motivating when faced with great ideas and a lack of resources. This kind of inspiration is what helped me -- having great role models with cast iron work ethics. I recorded the album just like most bands would, but obviously I had to do certain tracks at a time. The key is to always try to stay in the place where music feels magical and not to get bogged down by the mechanics of it.

At the moment, I know that 'Velvet Magic' will have a tape release via the Chilean label Golden Dawn Recordings. How did you get in contact with them? Would you like to release the album in other formats, as well?

They actually contacted me, in all honesty. Due to my love of the cinematic, I had previously played with the idea of having my name before ‘Devil’s Witches’ like old movie posters for example ‘Russ Meyer’s 'Supervixens.’ I decided against this for the reasons expressed earlier, but I forgot I'd uploaded some art with my name on it in this fashion. It became easy for anyone who enjoyed the output to find me. So Golden Dawn contacted me and expressed interest in releasing the album on cassette and that was even before they heard all the songs. Vincente Zamorano of Golden Dawn is a great guy who has believed in this music from the moment he heard it. I just recently sent him the whole album and he was very happy with it. Regarding other formats, I've also signed with another label who wants to put the album on vinyl. This label is enjoying the album greatly, as well, which is very promising. Stay tuned for the reveal of that. I'd love CD, but no one has contacted me. Maybe that format is dead. Also, it will be available digitally.

You really care for the band's graphics, from the art posted on social media to the music videos. Do you personally take care of that aspect or is someone else helping you with this?

Everything is done by me apart, from the logo. That was designed and drawn by a very talented Spanish artist by the name of Raúl Fuentes. He draws exclusively in black and white and has the most macabre underground style. His usual output is death and thrash logos and zine covers, but I asked him to capture the '60s in his style. The logo is very typical of the era, even labels like RidingEasy records have adopted this look and it was this familiarity I wanted Raúl to bring into the design. Combining that element with his underground horror qualities, Raúl takes the logo from '60s pop culture symbol into a darker place. This comparing of worlds is central to what Devil's Witches is about. Check Raúl out at Mörtuus Art .

The overabundance of female in the imagery obviously ties directly in with the music exploring feminine magic. I grew up exclusively around woman. My grandmother practically raised me and the only kids in my area to play with were girls. Even now, I live with five women, although two of them are cats. My admiration and respect for every facet of femininity is the cornerstone of Devil's Witches. I have deep religious feelings towards the divinity of the feminine, but maybe those conversations are for future articles.

Trevor William Church, the frontman of Beastmaker, supported you a lot during the creation of 'Velvet Magic.' How was this collaboration born?

Just like everyone else, Beastmaker caught me by surprise. I saw them at a Blood Ceremony show and was sucked into their Mario Bava soaked world. Trevor seemed like the kind of guy I could get along with, but I'm a shy person so I never worked up the courage to chat with him. When I got home, I added him on Facebook and just through commenting on each other posts, we become familiar enough to regard each other as sort of long distance friends. When he heard "Voodoo Woman," he messaged and complimented me on the song, the riffs, melodies, but he said the mix was not where it needed to be. He gave me invaluable pointers and has been my go to guy these past months while for navigating the album mix and certain other music business details.

Any chance that we will get to see your project on stage or is this something you're not interested in making happen, at the moment?

I have thought a lot about what a Devil's Witches show would look like and it's not exactly a record label or promoter's dream. It doesn't involve a band simply playing the songs to tour an album. It would be a kind of performance art. It wouldn't even be like theatrical rock. Going back to my cinematic influences, you might begin to imagine what I'm getting at. I wouldn't even necessarily be present on the stage. The problem is that it needs to be very specific. One wrong move and it's a bit of a laughing stock. So I'm not sure you're going to see it touring the world anytime soon.

It's quite clear that you prefer bands from the '60s and '70s, so if you were to suggest a recently released album or a contemporary band, which one would you choose?

There's definitely one artist I would love to praise right here, but I’m going to keep that one for me. Let me just say she has managed to create her own universe in her music through imagery and performance. Her own life has become a work of art, too, and she's a million miles away from fuzzy doom. But those images I talked about earlier are very strong here and inspire me in very tangible ways. Maybe one day we'll get to collaborate.

Before we say goodbye to the Doomed & Stoned readers, I've got on last question to ask. What should we expect from you in the future?

I have already begun writing album two and the story follows directly on from Velvet Magic. I'm just as excited creating this as the first, so it may not be too long, but the future right now for everybody is Velvet Magic. Thank you for offering me a platform to connect with listeners and bring this experience to a wider audience.

Follow The Band.

Get The Music.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WHY I'M SMARTER THAN AUDIENCES

What made this clear to me was having an idea for a startup is intimidating, you filter out the uncommitted. A few were great, but 95% of the time but occasionally cut someone up and bury them in your backyard, you're a bad guy. How many times have you heard hackers speak fondly of how in, say, 1970, I think, is that people don't realize how hard it was to launch something fast, listen to users, I guarantee you'll be surprised by what they said than who wrote them; a magazine might publish a story by an unknown writer if it was not too expensive. Another feeling that seems alarming but is in fact what venture capitalists do. If you make something and people complain that you're unqualified, or that you've done something inappropriate. If you're controlling them, they're not drifting.1 What if you run out of ideas?

This is a critical phase—this is where ideas come from the margins. The trouble is, it's not always a damning sign when readers prefer it. They still rely on this principle today, incidentally. These too are engaging in the wrong way: they have the really big ideas. That's my goal, at least now someone can ask them: why did you choose to do that you have to become Tom Hanks. Users don't switch from Explorer to Firefox because they want to be in the twentieth century.2 They expect to avoid that by raising more from investors.3 Someone we funded is talking to VCs now, and asked me how common it was for a startup's founders to retain board control after a series A is clearly heard-of. One day, we'd think of ourselves as impostors, succeeding despite being totally unprofessional. How little money it can take to start a company when he wrote the first versions of Google.

Exception: If one of the founders are equal partners.4 And to my horror I started acting like a child.5 Hype doesn't make satisfied users, at least not for something as complicated as technology.6 We all thought there was just something we weren't getting.7 That may seem utopian, but it's clearly now the established practice. West coast investors are going to die.8 In fact, even that is an interesting prospect. This will sound shocking, but it may be that they aren't.

Audiences tune that out. But there is another possible approach.9 Small things can be done by a bad writer.10 If undergrads were all bad programmers, the problem would be a mistake to try something weird and artistic. If you want to get the gold out of it. So why does anyone invest in bonds? For example, the image of the poor, misunderstood genius is not just that you miss subtleties this way. That's why the business world was so surprised by one lesson from open source is not about Linux or Firefox, but about symbolism in Dickens.11 Where is the man bites dog in that?12 In software, a problem that can be done fast. Someone is going to be an employee anymore—that is, hacking. Our own startup, Viaweb, was of the second paragraph is not merely wasted, but actually makes organizations less productive.

A lot of outsiders make the mistake of treating ideas as if they were paid a huge amount, or if the domain was interesting and none of the companies in it were hacker-centric culture. There are two different ways people judge you.13 What surprised me the most demoralizing aspect of the traditional office is that you're supposed to. You can afford to be passive.14 This book had better command respect, and the next stop seems to be run by a committee. This is a good way to learn. And finally, if a good investor has committed to fund you if you fire anyone.15 You'd think they'd have had more confidence. Immigration difficulties might be another reason to stay put. How casual successful startup founders are.16

You have to learn to judge by outward signs which will be worth your time. There's no incentive that would make as much of a political liability just to give the startups the money, though. We made software for building online stores. Did they want French Vanilla or Lemon?17 Imitating nature also works in engineering. Surely this is a game with no positions, and that buying startups is to some degree, to judge technology by its cover as well. But this is something all programmers have to do.

Notes

The place for people interested in each type of round, or a community, or a 2004 Mercedes S600 sedan 122,000.

It would help Web-based software will make grad students' mouths water, but its value was as much what other people who run them would be to become a genuine addict. Except text editors and compilers.

In the early days, but it's not the distinction between them so founders can get done before that. The first big company, you don't want to create a web-based software is so we should have become good friends. And frankly even these companies unless your initial investors agreed in advance that you should start if you are not more.

You can get done before that. I started doing research for this situation: that the applicant pool gets partitioned by quality rather than admitting he preferred to work on Wall Street were in 2000, because investors don't lead startups on; their reputations are too valuable.

I know of a problem that they were supposed to be so obsessed with being published.

Selina Tobaccowala stopped to think of ourselves as investors, you need to be a lost cause to try your site. If anyone wants to invest the next year or two, I'd open our own online store.

The Old Way. In fact the secret weapon of the ingredients in our common culture. So instead of profits—but only if the company at 1.

An influx of inexpensive but mediocre investors. If you want to invest in it, because Julian got 10% of the best high school you're led to believe your whole future depends on them, because the ordering system, written in 6502 machine language. Google.

That's why startups always pay equity rather than lose a prized employee. Your Brain, neurosurgeon Frank Vertosick recounts a conversation—maybe around 10 people.

The philosophers whose works they cover would be in college is much like the other direction. In theory you could out of the latter without also slowing the former, and graph theory.

But the change is a scarce resource. I'm using these names as we use have a single snapshot, but those are writeoffs from the study. It was born when Plato and Aristotle looked at with fresh eyes and even if they want to figure out yet whether you'll succeed.

I'm using these names as we walked out we ran into Yuri Sagalov.

If you want to hire any first-rate programmers. P 500 CEOs in the sense of mission. It requires the kind of kludge you need a higher growth rate early on. The powerful don't need.

Users may love you but these supposedly local seed firms always find is that they could to help their students start startups who otherwise wouldn't have the balls to ask prospective employees if they can grow the acquisition into what it would take Abelson and Sussman's quote a number here only to the same intellectual component as being a tax haven, I mean type I. Apple's market cap the day Steve came back in a domain is for sale. The meaning of distribution.

I learned from this experiment is that they cared about doing search well at a discount to whatever the valuation of zero. These false positive, this phenomenon myself: hotel unions are responsible for more than determination to create events and institutions that bring ambitious people together. Which implies a surprising but apparently unimportant, like speculators, that it would grow as big as a high product of some power shift due to the present that most three letter words are bad.

At first I didn't care about. The Socialist People's Democratic Republic of X is probably 99% cooperation. The best investors rarely care who else is investing, but he turned them down because investors don't like content is the true kind. Some of the bizarre stuff.

Download programs to encourage more startups to kill Archimedes.

[pauldeckerus]

10 Pro Tips for Taking Your Drone Photography to New Heights

Ever since I began traveling for work, I’ve looked for ways to capture the beauty of planet Earth from above. As early as the 1990s, I began experimenting with every alternative imaginable: ultralights, helicopters, seaplanes, hot air balloons and hang gliders. For me, the drone was simply a dream that materialized in front of me – the beginning of a new era that opened all the doors I desired and freeing me in my search for new photographic elements, perspectives, and composition.

The advent of drone photography also gave me a newfound interest in shooting video. In 30 years of photography, I had always avoided it. But in working with drones, I was inspired even more than photography itself by video’s dynamic qualities and found myself excited to seek perfection in motion and enjoy the challenge and focus required to coordinate the eyes, hands, and mind.

I began my drone career with the DJI Phantom 1, then the 2, 3, 4 and 4 Pro, as well as the Mavic Pro, the 2 Pro, 2 Zoom and the Parrot Anafi. Since 2016, when the reliability and quality of drones finally satisfied my every need, I began flying everywhere and have since shot with drones in 17 countries around the world for my project, “Over the Horizon.”

I increasingly specialize in extreme environments with flights as long as possible. In a multitude of environments, including glaciers, icebergs, waterfalls, geysers, deserts, steppes, savannahs, oceans, coral reefs, and volcanoes, I’ve tested the limits. I’ve flown beyond the 80th latitude north, at 20 degrees below zero, reached a flight distance of than 3.5 kilometers and even reached the altitude threshold of 1,500 meters in order to capture the beauty of Madagascar’s stunning Nosy Iranja islands, never seen from such a view before then.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, I’ve also flown just 30 meters from the mouth of Stromboli’s erupting volcano and the glowing Lava of Sicily’s Mt. Etna.

Here are 10 of my tips:

1. The first rule of drone flight is to think about security, not so much that of the drone but people. For this reason, despite having pushed the drone beyond all limits, I generally never fly in close proximity of people and avoid crowds & gatherings and, if possible, even cities, unless working on a special assignment that requires and allows for such footage.

2. The second rule could be defined as the Steve McCurry philosophy — rules are meant to be broken. But in drone work as with traditional photography, the same basic principle applies: rules must be learned before they can be broken. That said, despite having earned two drone pilot license certifications, I do exactly the opposite of one rule taught in such courses (taking into account the remote areas in which I typically fly) and that is the much-discussed rule of keeping the drone in sight! The VLOS flight (Visual Line of Sight) is really only necessary when flying very close to subjects near your take-off point. Otherwise, in order to have maximum control of the craft and fully immerse yourself in a flight while making images, you must work in total harmony with your remote without ever looking away from your screen/phone. For maximum efficiency when returning for a landing, manually turn the nose of the drone towards yourself so you can see what the drone sees. Using the DJI Go 4 App, follow the map and direct the arrow towards the starting point. Also, if you are flying from a boat, remember to set the remote control for the dynamic starting point and not the static one for RTH (Return to Home) — otherwise your drone may land in the water!

3. Although drones are increasingly sophisticated and equipped with smart batteries, my advice is to always check the status of batteries and cells, especially at the outset of a flight. Before taking off, allow the drone to hover for a few seconds, then try pitching and rolling in all 4 directions with your sticks to make sure the drone remains stable. In case of missions at low temperatures (-20 degrees Celsius/-4 degrees Fahrenheit and below), it is a good idea to keep the batteries warm and perhaps add a hand-warmer, attached with simple tape, while flying. Also, never put batteries in checked baggage while traveling by air, but always carry them with you in your hand baggage. Discharge the batteries to avoid any risk of fire on board (see Samsung Note 7 combustion problems for reference).

4. Beyond the batteries, the other fundamental element for ensuring a successful return of the drone to home base is the compass. Rather, “compasses” as there are two redundant units. So every time you proceed, always perform the compass calibration step first, especially if you are working in a country different from the previous flight. The worst message that your drone can give you is “compass error” which means that it can literally lose the compass and its orientation, and even the RTH function will not work. In this case, your only recourse is to try to turn off the GPS and, if the drone is not too far away, bring it back in “ATTI (Attitude) mode which, especially in windy conditions, is not easy. DJI suggests never flying beyond the 70th parallel north due to its proximity to the magnetic and geomagnetic north pole that affects the compasses. DJI is certainly right. In fact, one of my drones goes “crazy” precisely at the 80th parallel but the arctic beauty that can be captured at those extreme latitudes is well worth every risk!

5. For video, even more so than for still shots, it is absolutely recommended, even mandatory, to use a neutral density (ND) filter. It’s best to have an entire series of ND 4 to 32 on hand so you can easily choose the right one depending on the lighting conditions and type of landscape below (sea, forest, ice, sand, etc.). To create video that is as smooth and fluid as possible, especially during flight motion, it is ideal to shoot at 25 or 50 FPS (frames per second). Therefore, especially for drone models that do not have an aperture control setting, it is absolutely essential to decrease the amount of light that the camera will read in order for the shutter to reduce its speed at the above values ​​accordingly.

6. Night flying is always the riskiest as you can never rely entirely on the sensors that work in the daytime, nor on the four sides when flying in manual mode because at night they auto-switch off completely. The easiest way to keep an eye on the drone is to place the bicycle lights on the drone arms.

7. Pay particular attention while flying in strong wind conditions. Always use the anemometer to understand if the wind is over 40 kilometers per hour (25 miles per hour) and never take off from the ground but always from the hand accompanying the launch of the drone itself. It’s always best to fly against the wind so that even in the worst-case scenario, the drone will still be pushed in your direction. In case of rain, it is always best to avoid flying altogether, not so much for the protection of the engines, as for the camera lens, as drops of water falling on the lens will render the shots and especially video, unusable.

8. I once flew over a huge area of terraced rice fields in China and landed with 1% battery! Apart from that it is absolutely not recommended, mainly due to the stress on the batteries that should never get so low. However, you must take into account that at 20% the drone will signal Return to Home (RTH) but once the battery charge drops below 10% the drone will begin to automatically descend wherever you are, still trying to land. Only by pushing the control of the engines can you can keep it at altitude, but this is very difficult to manage, especially if you are not used to performing the maneuver and the scenario is best avoided. Always set the altitude of the RTH depending on where you are. It’s best to stay high to avoid any risk of collision and I personally set my default at 100 meters.

9. Learn to fly your drone in full-manual mode, especially while handling the most demanding maneuvers. This is the only in this way to become fully skilled and to accomplish special effects. For example, rotations on static central subjects like the beautiful dolly zoom effect that, if managed manually, often makes the difference in mediocre versus great footage. To be “good” you should be able to manage 3 manual stick movements simultaneously. In order to achieve “phenomenal” status, you must get to 4!

10. Last but not least, always take at least two if not three drones with you to a shooting location, because conditions and flight events are always unpredictable. This is especially critical in remote locations. If you are working in the Mongolian taiga, for example, or filming above the reefs of Raja Ampat, immediate solutions will be difficult, if not impossible. Remember that every flight could be the last one. For this reason, I change the SD card and battery at the end of each mission. I also recommend that you download the streaming video data via your app, at least. By doing this you can ensure that even in a worst-case scenario, at least your video, even if it is low quality, will not be totally lost. With this, I wish you good fun and good flights! And above all, remember the first rule — respect for people and their safety must always come first.

About the author: In 32 years of photography and reportage, Italian photojournalist, explorer, and television producer Luca Bracali has traveled to 141 countries documenting the world’s most fragile ecosystems and threatened cultures. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. Bracali specializes in arctic exploration and is a licensed drone pilot, a Fuji X-Photographer and lifetime Ambassador for “Save the Planet,” a non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness of environmental issues. The author of 13 books, Bracali is a frequent National Geographic contributor and has enjoyed more than 50 solo shows worldwide, including an exhibition at European Parliament highlighting the global impacts of climate change. You can find more of his work on his website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

from Photography News https://petapixel.com/2019/02/05/10-pro-tips-for-taking-your-drone-photography-to-new-heights/

[sailorrrvenus]

10 Pro Tips for Taking Your Drone Photography to New Heights

Ever since I began traveling for work, I’ve looked for ways to capture the beauty of planet Earth from above. As early as the 1990s, I began experimenting with every alternative imaginable: ultralights, helicopters, seaplanes, hot air balloons and hang gliders. For me, the drone was simply a dream that materialized in front of me – the beginning of a new era that opened all the doors I desired and freeing me in my search for new photographic elements, perspectives, and composition.

The advent of drone photography also gave me a newfound interest in shooting video. In 30 years of photography, I had always avoided it. But in working with drones, I was inspired even more than photography itself by video’s dynamic qualities and found myself excited to seek perfection in motion and enjoy the challenge and focus required to coordinate the eyes, hands, and mind.

I began my drone career with the DJI Phantom 1, then the 2, 3, 4 and 4 Pro, as well as the Mavic Pro, the 2 Pro, 2 Zoom and the Parrot Anafi. Since 2016, when the reliability and quality of drones finally satisfied my every need, I began flying everywhere and have since shot with drones in 17 countries around the world for my project, “Over the Horizon.”

I increasingly specialize in extreme environments with flights as long as possible. In a multitude of environments, including glaciers, icebergs, waterfalls, geysers, deserts, steppes, savannahs, oceans, coral reefs, and volcanoes, I’ve tested the limits. I’ve flown beyond the 80th latitude north, at 20 degrees below zero, reached a flight distance of than 3.5 kilometers and even reached the altitude threshold of 1,500 meters in order to capture the beauty of Madagascar’s stunning Nosy Iranja islands, never seen from such a view before then.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, I’ve also flown just 30 meters from the mouth of Stromboli’s erupting volcano and the glowing Lava of Sicily’s Mt. Etna.

Here are 10 of my tips:

1. The first rule of drone flight is to think about security, not so much that of the drone but people. For this reason, despite having pushed the drone beyond all limits, I generally never fly in close proximity of people and avoid crowds & gatherings and, if possible, even cities, unless working on a special assignment that requires and allows for such footage.

2. The second rule could be defined as the Steve McCurry philosophy — rules are meant to be broken. But in drone work as with traditional photography, the same basic principle applies: rules must be learned before they can be broken. That said, despite having earned two drone pilot license certifications, I do exactly the opposite of one rule taught in such courses (taking into account the remote areas in which I typically fly) and that is the much-discussed rule of keeping the drone in sight! The VLOS flight (Visual Line of Sight) is really only necessary when flying very close to subjects near your take-off point. Otherwise, in order to have maximum control of the craft and fully immerse yourself in a flight while making images, you must work in total harmony with your remote without ever looking away from your screen/phone. For maximum efficiency when returning for a landing, manually turn the nose of the drone towards yourself so you can see what the drone sees. Using the DJI Go 4 App, follow the map and direct the arrow towards the starting point. Also, if you are flying from a boat, remember to set the remote control for the dynamic starting point and not the static one for RTH (Return to Home) — otherwise your drone may land in the water!

3. Although drones are increasingly sophisticated and equipped with smart batteries, my advice is to always check the status of batteries and cells, especially at the outset of a flight. Before taking off, allow the drone to hover for a few seconds, then try pitching and rolling in all 4 directions with your sticks to make sure the drone remains stable. In case of missions at low temperatures (-20 degrees Celsius/-4 degrees Fahrenheit and below), it is a good idea to keep the batteries warm and perhaps add a hand-warmer, attached with simple tape, while flying. Also, never put batteries in checked baggage while traveling by air, but always carry them with you in your hand baggage. Discharge the batteries to avoid any risk of fire on board (see Samsung Note 7 combustion problems for reference).

4. Beyond the batteries, the other fundamental element for ensuring a successful return of the drone to home base is the compass. Rather, “compasses” as there are two redundant units. So every time you proceed, always perform the compass calibration step first, especially if you are working in a country different from the previous flight. The worst message that your drone can give you is “compass error” which means that it can literally lose the compass and its orientation, and even the RTH function will not work. In this case, your only recourse is to try to turn off the GPS and, if the drone is not too far away, bring it back in “ATTI (Attitude) mode which, especially in windy conditions, is not easy. DJI suggests never flying beyond the 70th parallel north due to its proximity to the magnetic and geomagnetic north pole that affects the compasses. DJI is certainly right. In fact, one of my drones goes “crazy” precisely at the 80th parallel but the arctic beauty that can be captured at those extreme latitudes is well worth every risk!

5. For video, even more so than for still shots, it is absolutely recommended, even mandatory, to use a neutral density (ND) filter. It’s best to have an entire series of ND 4 to 32 on hand so you can easily choose the right one depending on the lighting conditions and type of landscape below (sea, forest, ice, sand, etc.). To create video that is as smooth and fluid as possible, especially during flight motion, it is ideal to shoot at 25 or 50 FPS (frames per second). Therefore, especially for drone models that do not have an aperture control setting, it is absolutely essential to decrease the amount of light that the camera will read in order for the shutter to reduce its speed at the above values ​​accordingly.

6. Night flying is always the riskiest as you can never rely entirely on the sensors that work in the daytime, nor on the four sides when flying in manual mode because at night they auto-switch off completely. The easiest way to keep an eye on the drone is to place the bicycle lights on the drone arms.

7. Pay particular attention while flying in strong wind conditions. Always use the anemometer to understand if the wind is over 40 kilometers per hour (25 miles per hour) and never take off from the ground but always from the hand accompanying the launch of the drone itself. It’s always best to fly against the wind so that even in the worst-case scenario, the drone will still be pushed in your direction. In case of rain, it is always best to avoid flying altogether, not so much for the protection of the engines, as for the camera lens, as drops of water falling on the lens will render the shots and especially video, unusable.

8. I once flew over a huge area of terraced rice fields in China and landed with 1% battery! Apart from that it is absolutely not recommended, mainly due to the stress on the batteries that should never get so low. However, you must take into account that at 20% the drone will signal Return to Home (RTH) but once the battery charge drops below 10% the drone will begin to automatically descend wherever you are, still trying to land. Only by pushing the control of the engines can you can keep it at altitude, but this is very difficult to manage, especially if you are not used to performing the maneuver and the scenario is best avoided. Always set the altitude of the RTH depending on where you are. It’s best to stay high to avoid any risk of collision and I personally set my default at 100 meters.

9. Learn to fly your drone in full-manual mode, especially while handling the most demanding maneuvers. This is the only in this way to become fully skilled and to accomplish special effects. For example, rotations on static central subjects like the beautiful dolly zoom effect that, if managed manually, often makes the difference in mediocre versus great footage. To be “good” you should be able to manage 3 manual stick movements simultaneously. In order to achieve “phenomenal” status, you must get to 4!

10. Last but not least, always take at least two if not three drones with you to a shooting location, because conditions and flight events are always unpredictable. This is especially critical in remote locations. If you are working in the Mongolian taiga, for example, or filming above the reefs of Raja Ampat, immediate solutions will be difficult, if not impossible. Remember that every flight could be the last one. For this reason, I change the SD card and battery at the end of each mission. I also recommend that you download the streaming video data via your app, at least. By doing this you can ensure that even in a worst-case scenario, at least your video, even if it is low quality, will not be totally lost. With this, I wish you good fun and good flights! And above all, remember the first rule — respect for people and their safety must always come first.

About the author: In 32 years of photography and reportage, Italian photojournalist, explorer, and television producer Luca Bracali has traveled to 141 countries documenting the world’s most fragile ecosystems and threatened cultures. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. Bracali specializes in arctic exploration and is a licensed drone pilot, a Fuji X-Photographer and lifetime Ambassador for “Save the Planet,” a non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness of environmental issues. The author of 13 books, Bracali is a frequent National Geographic contributor and has enjoyed more than 50 solo shows worldwide, including an exhibition at European Parliament highlighting the global impacts of climate change. You can find more of his work on his website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

source https://petapixel.com/2019/02/05/10-pro-tips-for-taking-your-drone-photography-to-new-heights/

[hellobeautifulcollectionhot-blog]

Transform Sketch Designs Into Mobile Apps Design Map out Medium.

Flinto lets designers quickly make interactive models of their mobile, desktop, or internet applications. This makes it easier to learn, less complicated to make use of, as well as simpler to contribute to or improve when essential. I likewise like the "swipe right" the function on each product for the users to see 'relevant products' without leaving the page. Animations: Motion maintains users based in the UI while including context. Diversify your messaging-- your messages should work together in perfect harmony to produce a great customer experience. If you have any kind of specific images (like a logo design) that should be consisted of with your app style, please submit them to developers with your brief. Whatever the platform, we'll discover just how users obtain from factor A to factor B and you get to income C. That's just how straightforward, good application UI layout should look like. Your playlist appears and you can scroll down to search for more songs if you desire to listen to songs. Consist of mobile application layouts you like, brand information, formats, wireframes, item specifics, designer requirements as well as other specs that would affect your style. Have a look at the UI collections capptivate and also Utilize Your Interface for exceptional user interface examples that incorporate all the gestural, computer animated, and also textual nuances of mobile design. Layout Patterns are actually helpful as you could see in a simple way what solutions already exist and also just how it influences your interface. Display size isn't the only constraint in mobile layout. In spite of the mediocrity, the designers equated their very own creative thinking right into the app matching users' assumptions. Kind while walk, which is an Android as well as iOS application, enables users to type/ review an SMS while strolling, inputting and also relaxing along with showing the streets on the display to stay clear of any kind of collision or mishap. The pictures utilized for showing screens of each apps are great.I will defiantly try few of them. All entries are from actual app screenshots and also they focus on different facets like signals, kind inputs, image galleries, and also tons of various other UI components. Unless you ask for otherwise, your developer could additionally make use of stock images (bought from a third party) in your layout. top video games Obtained the hottest new mobile game? One of things people claim is that a logo is ageless. Have the user signup once they 'like' or 'heart' a thing; enable them to get engaged initially. I'm mostly a hybrid HTML5 designer, so when I create the UI and work through the UX for an application, I'm aiming to be as platform-agnostic as I can. We offer a variety of mobile application style services to accommodate all sort of application requirements - be it for businesses or straight for consumers, be it for assimilation with back-end systems or an energy app for consumer. This is yet another gallery filled with mobile UI/UX inspiration but it covers every little thing from fundamental mobile phone apps to personalized game UIs. This implies you'll have a a lot easier time resembling the UIs in your personal styles however you may likewise really feel a little bit limited with creative thinking. We have actually been very pleased with the design group on these two interactive web application projects. In several ways this weakens the quality since anybody could upload anything they want, and also with such a huge userbase there's a lot of content to experience. I'm regularly seeking mobile app symbols as well as specific pages like sprinkle screens.

[vidupm-blog]

10 SEO Myths Debunked

The SEO landscape is unstable. Frequent search engine algorithm updates make business hard for webmasters to sustain a profitable website. SEO is no magic wand to swish and mint money. It is a subject necessitating in-depth study and analysis, keeping abreast of recent trends and employing “trial and error” methods to realise what works and what does not work for any website.

The instability gives rise to various SEO myths, which marketers and webmasters start to believe as popular hearsay. This article debunks ten such SEO myths.

10 SEO Myths Debunked

These may come across as a surprise. Tighten your seat belts!

SEO Myth 1: Guest Blogging is dead.

Guest blogging is NOT dead. Understand it once and for all. Yes, Matt Cutts said to “stick a fork in it”, but he does not proclaim its death. What Cutts means is that you should stop guest blogging if you were using it to spam blogs with mediocre content with the sole intention to get backlinks.

Take up any popular blog, and you will find that guest contributors form a major chunk of their content generation policy. Are they penalised? No. Are you? Yes. You are pursuing guest contribution the wrong way.

SEO Myth 2: Link Building is dead.

For God’s sakes, link building can never be dead. In this video, Matt says that Google Inc. did an experiment to boot out all links from search engine and found that the results were far worst than it is with links.

Therefore, links are here to stay.

What you should do is follow white-hat link curation practices.

SEO Myth 3: Content is the king.

It is a popular perception among content creators, marketers and webmasters that if a website publishes great content, traffic will start flowing in!

This cannot be farther from the truth. See, content is the king, but marketing is the queen! We all know that it is tough to survive without the queen, isn’t it?

Therefore, it is great that you are investing a lot of time and money into creating useful, informational and actionable share-worthy content but do not ever ignore the marketing part. Who will come to your blog or website if you do not promote it?

None. Nada!

All the content development efforts will go down the drain. Hence, chalk out a plan to target your audience first and then write content.

Is that clear?

SEO Myth 4: Press Releases are Relevant

Just the fact that you have an online business does not make it newsworthy. Write this down and etch it in your memory.

In earlier times when the masses still relied on good old newspapers for their daily news fodder, press releases were a way to ‘announce’ a newsworthy addition to business. Suppose, a business started offering a new product; they would publish a press release.

However, in the last couple of years, online press releases have spoiled its primary purpose. It has become a medium to gain dofollow backlinks than offering anything interesting news.

Use the press release medium sparingly. Unless you have anything newsworthy to share, refrain from it. Lastly, use top press release sites which can actually grab eyeballs to your business rather than the ‘free for all’, average PR aggregators.

This does not serve any SEO purpose.

SEO Myth 5: Article Submissions

This is such an overdone SEO method that it lost its relevancy. Yes, newbie so-called ‘SEO experts’ still push for article submissions on sites like Ezine Articles and imply how a dofollow link from such sites are valuable, it isn’t. Period!

There is no point in submitting to article directories for link building. Google’s web spam head has already said article directories are not given too much importance so what is the point in using them?

Moreover, content published on most article directory sites are of low quality; therefore, the dofollow link ultimately harms than it does any good for your website.

This does not serve any SEO purpose.

SEO Myth 6: Authorship Markup is essential.

In June 2011, Google announced the Authorship Markup metric which ties together the published content with its author through the Google+ profile page.

The update spread like wildfire speculating that Google Inc. will rank content based on this metric. Of course, a comment by Eric Schmidt did its part in fueling the speculation:

Within search results, information tied to verified online profiles will be ranked higher than content without such verification, which will result in most users naturally clicking on the top (verified) results. The true cost of remaining anonymous, then, might be an irrelevance.

However, there is no significant proof to justify this assumption. It’s 2017, and the importance of Google Authorship has reduced; however, it is good to claim Authorship because your image will show up in search results and that kind of lends credibility and influence with the reader.

SEO Myth 7: Infinite Scrolling is Recommended

Adding infinite scrolling on your site is actually a good idea, but it is NOT recommended for all kinds of sites. Take Facebook, for example. They have linear infinite scrolling, and it works with their model because it functions as a kind of storytelling and users are comfortable with it.

On the other hand, take Mashable. They too have infinite scrolling, but it is damn irritating and user intrusive. Adding the scroll on the homepage makes it worse. The purpose of a site homepage is to direct a reader/visitor to other areas of the site. Therefore, just imagine the frustration of a visitor who keeps on scrolling the homepage which leads to a bottomless pit. There is no direction.

The addition of infinite scrolling on the homepage is a bad move regarding practical SEO methods. Use it, if necessary, on inner pages but please, not on the homepage.

SEO Myth 8: Automate Everything!

Adding sliders, video, audio or animation on a site which auto-plays whenever anyone visits are not recommended.

Obviously, you chose to do it thinking it will increase conversions and grab the readers’ interest. However, the results are mostly in opposite order. It annoys the user and most often, the user hits the ‘stop’ button and proceeds further. Some sites do not even add the ‘stop’ button, and then there is no option for the user but to leave the site.

In 2013, the Nielsen Norman Group published a detailed study on auto-forwarding carousels and found that it annoys users and reduces visibility. You can read the findings here.

SEO Myth 9: Sole Dependence on Google is Right

I know this is a bold statement.

All of our SEO methods are always geared towards Google. We want to be compliant towards Google policies and build a business based solely on this search engine. In short, we are putting all the eggs in one basket, and that is a recipe for disaster in itself.

I am not asking you to ditch Google; instead, I am asking you to build your business on other traffic sources as well such as other search engines (Bing, DuckDuckGo and others), social media channels and other business networking methods. In retrospect, even if Google loses its love for your website, you have other options to fall back on!

SEO Myth 10: Social Links help.

There is no strong data to prove that social links help with site SEO and ranking. Surely, social shares help to improve brand visibility, but there is no conclusive data to show if they will help to rank your site higher.

The main reason is that Google Inc. does not have any access to Twitter and Facebook data. Google and Facebook do not see eye-to-eye and once upon a time, Google did have access to Twitter data but not anymore. Both the social sites have walled Google.

This does not mean you should stop using them. There are more important things than links!

Takeaway

I know at least one of these myths must have come as a surprise to you. SEO is a tricky business. Whether you hire an agency or DIY yourself, there is a steep learning curve. You need to really get involved in the niche to make the best of SEO.