Thanks to the ways of del.icio.us, I found a page where Christopher Phin explains how to recreate on Photoshop an effect you get by using very expensive tilt-shift lenses, like the ones this guy uses. So I decided to give it a try, and here is the outcome:

This one came out pretty well, the sky seems flat enough so it doesn't look to real, and the eye being so low makes a good excuse for such a narrow dof.

This one is my favorite. It's tilted down enough to have a believable pov and the clean road and even spaced cars, along with the strong grass makes it all look very artificial.

This last one is a bit risky. Also from eye level, but on a common street. The dof works great here, and so does the strong light. Love the out of focus trees, very model-like, and the pavement.

Remember the hoodfellows from last year? Well, searching through my folders I found some experiments with stop motion and time lapse shooting from when I was trying stuff for Hoodfellows. I put all them quickly with Movie Maker and reencode it with VirtualDub because WMM only exports in .WMV or DV Pal. The added music is Liza by Django Reinhardt.

My little great cousin Rocío, when she puts her serious face but can't avoid smiling a bit.

Done for Illustration Friday's topic: Tea.

All we are feeding ourselves is what is inside our heads. In the best cases you'll have somebody who loves you to put nice thoughts on it and tint your drink of sweet taste. Sometimes you'll find yourself alone. In that case, you'll need to produce thoughts of hope by your own. Good luck. It's a vicious circle, and it's hard to break by oneself.

I've been doing some animations for my new website design and this one is a random piece of things that I'm not using. :) Yes, it has a hat. Why not?

Juan is tired. He thinks the city is too weird for him.

Oh yes the time has come for another experiment with the JB1 zippo-like james bond cam. This time I wanted to try some underwater shooting, so my first idea was to wrap it on that micreowave film, put that inside a washed condom, make a knot, and to the swimming pool! I took some photos that are quite abstract (the condom had air inside, so it lost quite detail)

Then I thought of going the Jaques Costeau way, and used a little jelly glass container upside down with some paper for filling and a cork and tape (to keep the camera away from the leaking end). Here's the 2nd camera's armor against water:

And finally, what you all are waiting for, the video! (you may want to turn down your volume because the noise is quite annoying)

The first half shot inside a condom and with the pool's filter on, the last half shoot inside a glass jar upside down with the pool's filter switched off.

Today is my sister Belén's birthday. So I decided (a bit under pressure) to make her a nice little painting. One made specially for her. So that's her little self, always wanting something more. You can see it bigger at dA.

Recently by the gorgeous chance of random RSS readings, found a post on LifeHacker about Colibri, which is a useful and minimal application launcher for windows. I'm not saying they invented anything new, in fact the post says it's much like a Quicksilver application for/from the Mac OS. I couldn't care less, I don't have a mac. But if we can learn something from the precious mac interfaces and ease-of-use, be welcomed.

Anyway, the app remains on your systray, and when you hit Ctrl+Space brings up a minimal slick rectangle and you start to type letters from the name of the application you want to run and then hit enter. It's dinamic and fast, and seems there are plans for adding several interesting features. Check the website for better info and free download.

My pretty Yami just started a new blog, and for her first post I decided to make her a surprise illustration:

The post is about the music that always cheer up you when you're feeling down, that song that never fails. Please check it and add yours to the comments if you feel like!

A hueco, a hollow, a gap, or a hole.

We all feel that sooner or later. It's maybe a mixture of that feeling of an illness, something that you can pass better or worse; which you can help your body a bit or you can make it even more difficult for it, but the illness doesn't depend of you. It will be there, or not. Not all illnesses are medical, however. It's the same principle. Love is like that. You can't make it. It happens to you. You can only hope it happens to you and to the object of your love, at the same time, during the same period, and in the same place. Otherwise you will only suffer. You can't make love appear. As with illnesses, you can help, or you can make it worse; but it will find its way through, sooner or later. And when it does not, or in the spaces in between succesful love or succesful health, you'll feel your hole. You know you can fill it up, but it is not at your hand. Call it fate. Call it luck. Doesn't depend of you, after all. You can only increase the odds, of please your gods, whatever you like most. Things can fill that emptyness. But it won't last long. Somebody can fill it too, and it's much longer and sweeter. Maybe even longer than your life.

The hole is there. Probably you don't feel it. But you will. Maybe sometimes you will only catch a glimpse of it, like standing near a cliff. I wish you to have it just for a bit, just to realize how wonderful every other day you don't see it really is. Good luck.

You can see a bigger version with comments at deviantART.

And old attempt at Artrage or Painter, I can't remember. Tigit on a chair. My wish was to make it look like one of those typical paint practise works. I'm posting this Submission for Illustration Friday's topic, this week: chair.

The case of the strange guy who won but couldn't stop thinking about his broken nose. The wine from the cup doesn't taste sweet. The sweat on his back dries but doesn't smell. Some years in the future, one woman on the street will ask him: Hey aren't you the guy who won even with a broken nose? and he will smile. That night his nose won't hurt.