Interrogation Photo (Making of)

I've been fortunate enough to work with some amazing photographers on some of my photo manipulations. Photographer Chris Razoyk is no exception. His amazing attention to detail and well trained eye make my

job that much more fun.

Interrogation Photo (Making of) from David Van Allen on Vimeo.

Music: Killbot – sound surgery

  The trick to getting this photo just right was the tone of the overhead light. Chris and I spent some time figuring out how it should look and feel in conjunction with the subject matter. After all we are trying to tell a pretty compelling story so it had to be just right. Chris and I also wanted the blue tone in the background to stay prevalent in order to give the photo a good sense of depth. Overall I feel the piece is a great success. I used Photoshop CS6 My trusty Wacom and Red Giant plugins for the lights.

Check out Chris's blog for more details on the shoot and an amazing video about it.

Chris also had a great article written up about his process in ISO1200 Photography Magazine's Blog

10 Ton Meteor hits Russia

and this is a "small" one so imagine what a "big" one would do... but we have more important things to do than build some sort of asteroid defense system right? I mean those cell phones and tech gadgets aren't going to build themselves.

10 Ton Meteor hits Russia

Link Via Geekologie (one of the most awesome sites ever!)

Over at the A.V. club there is a wonderful article about one of my favorite childhood cartoons. Duck Tales, a frequently overlooked but brief Renaissance for quality in a world where cheap and fast was and is the norm.

DuckTales invented a new animated wonderland—that quickly disappeared

Below is a link to the wiki if you are interested.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DuckTales

I read an really amusing reddit post today with none other than the great William Shatner doing the shortest AMA of all time. HE has the best lines and I quote:

It seems like it always comes down to this question: "Would you rather fight 100 duck-sized horses or 1 horse-sized duck?"
My answer: I'm a lover, not a fighter. 
                                                 -WilliamShatner

Monday Animation Awesomeness!

Paper War

This is a really awesome take on a time tested mixed animation style a-la- Slow Bob In The Lower Dimensions or Don Hertzfeldt's - Rejected Cartoons but 
director Zhe Zhang takes it a bit further.This fun animation coupled with a great story and
timing makes for some absolute viewing pleasure.
Enjoy!

Paper War from GKCFF on Vimeo.

Van Allen

I  had a very strange run in when having my drivers license renewed a while ago. It was an extremely frustrating experience. I was unable to have Van Allen be two words. Apparently in a German/Dutch founded state in a German/Dutch founded city, they do not recognize German/Dutch surnames or any two word last names for that matter. Now for the rest of my life I have to explain this every time I have anything official done that requires my drivers licence as a form of identification. Unfortunately now whenever I fill out a form with my last name I risk having to go through explaining my legal name is not exactly the same as it appears on the card. I hear "but sir, that is not what's on your licence". It has lead to more than one SNAFU at many an office or place where two forms of identification are required. In light of this i'd like to say something....

 Attention world:  Van is not my middle name. There are people in this world of German and Dutch heritage, not to mention about a dozen others. These people have a Van or Von, De, La, or Le as a prefix to their surname just to name a few.  This is, in fact, their full last name. To not use this or assume it is their middle name is not only a little insulting, but it also a little insensitive. It happens way too often to me and I know it's not a big deal but it can lead to problems. On more than one occasion it's really made doing very simple things like form verification almost impossible. Most of the time I laugh about it and happily correct the mistake. The problem is, when one pauses to think of the mostly very well educated world we live in, it can be pretty darn insulting when a clerk blankly stares at you or what's worse, gets agitated or snippy. It's common to have two word last names in many cultures throughout the world. So this is me saying, hey people it's just to words, it's not a big deal or hard to figure out, so please cut us a break. That is all.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_(Dutch)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von

Quote of the week.

"I’m fearless in my heart. they will
Always see that in my eyes. I am the passion; I am the warfare. I will never
Stop...always constant, accurate, and intense."

From: