10 great albums from 2011

Getting this out there a little late, I know. But I’ve been really busy trying to be a dad and also trying to be an engineer. I wish I had listened to more albums of 2011. I’ve been trying to catch up now in January, so if I were to wait with doing this list its likely it would change. But but, that’s neither here nor there. On with the list! (Oh, and I haven’t bothered rating them. They’re all great.)

Iron & Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean

You shouldn’t be surprised since it’s my favorite artist and this latest album was awesome. I would've included the live album unless I counted it a little unfair since some of the songs are the same.

Veronica Maggio - Satan i Gatan

I feel like I should say I’m embarrassed to put this commercially successful pop-princess among my top 10. But I am not. I think it’s a stellar album with a nice mix of happy and sad, both feeling equally real and relatable. Lovely voice. Nice production by Christian Waltz.

Bon Iver - Bon Iver

I will say it’s not as shockingly amazing as the debut, but its fantastic.

Bright Eyes - The People's Key

It’s all in the first guitar riff. Love the Bright Eyes.

Jonathan Coulton - Artificial Heart

The wonderfully hilarious and nerdy JoCo is doing it for real this time. I [artificial heart] this one!

Florence and the Machine – Ceremonials

Massive, grand, stunning.

Dan Mangan - Oh Fortune

A new discovery for me, singer/songwriter Dan Mangan is a welcome addition to my stable of guitar playing males.

Bombay Bicycle Club - A Different Kind of Fix

BBC change it up and although it sounds very different from Flaws, its another really satisfying release.

Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes

Swedish sensation. Saw her live as well in 2011 and love-love-loved it.

Radiohead - The King of Limbs

Well, honestly I havent listened to this as much as I would have wanted but I’m pretty sure it is one of my 10 favorites.

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If you want the whole list as a Spotify playlist it’s HERE

So, had I been a more active listener in 2011 I think PJ Harvey and Tori Amos would have been included….

Now it’s time for daddy to clean-sleep-getup-gotowork

//Peace

More Bokeh Shaping…

Did a little bit more: You can see that the cutout was larger than the 1.8 aperture this time so the whole star doesn’t fit… Meanwhile, this is what I’m listening to mostly:
"It's not a real heart"

Bokeh shaping is fun!

Tried this thing I’ve recently come in contact with; shaping the out-of-focus light dots that show up when taking photographs. Simple enough as a first test, I just cut round pieces of black paper that fit onto the plastic lens shader on my nikkor 35mm 1.8. At the center I cut shapes, just by hand for this first test. See the results below. Some lessons learned are: the shape of the cutout is really what you get so If you want a “pretty” heart, better have a nice stencil and a sharp cutter. Mine look like shite.

Street light

Christmas lights

A Sorta Margerita

First attempt at drink photograpy. Simple setup with drink set on a makeshift table with a sheet background to avoid the corner. Lighting with a softbox from above. Lessons learned:

- The Depth of Focus is a little shallow with 1.8 aperture.

- Lighting is tricky. Had to block the internal flash even though it was set only to trigger the external one.

- The sheet in the background was a little crumpled which really becomes a distraction if it is lit. Instead I had to keep it completely black. 

Ideas for the future:

- Coloured backgrounds

- How can I achieve back-lighting?

Comments or suggestions are of course welcome. 

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And this is just dessert from yesterday when we had a belayed NYE celebration since the 31st got messed up by fever and rivers of snot.