… usual hi-jinks ensue. Those Brits sure know how to make some sweet rides. Nemesis was definitely the big daddy, with Oblivion close behind. I’m glad I ate my huge portion of Fish and Chips after riding the big guns. Though my stomach was no so stoked about the combination of mushy peas and the hardcore Nutty Squirrel ride.

Oh & check out my Alton Towers Flickr photo set.

PS. I used almost every iLife iMovie packaged tune in the making of this vid. I hope I used alll your favs. Hoorah for Roller Derby!

PPS. Still dusting and tweaking a few things on ze blog at the moment. Pasquale helped me switched hosts to Media Temple (mt), did a clean install of WP, and de-widgetize my sidebar. Holla at me if you notice any 404s, missing links, etc.. And I apologize if your comment was deleted. I lost a few in the transfer. Let’s hug it out

You must know by now, that I am a wee bit of an Apple fan girl. Obviously. It’s tough to question my loyalty to Apple. Well except the fact that I still have that late 90s Compac desktop sitting in my living room. I just can’t get rid of him, he’s like my personal WALL•E.

Nevertheless, my loyalty for Apple is unquestioned. I may not be die hard enough to say, camp out for days in front of an Apple store to pick up the first released iProduct, but I’ll properly follow the guys that are and feel a quiet self-reflective disappointment that I’m too lazy or apathetic to camp out for days in front of an Apple store. I try to make up for this by posting zany Mac-related videos.

With that being said, I’m going to say something controversial… mostly so be forewarned:

I wish Apple would fix the problems with their current iProducts BEFORE hyping, advertising, then releasing the next gen iProducts.

Especially with computers. Sure Steve, go nuts with the iPods, but your loyal, creative, freelancers and students really need consistent, bug-free machines to work all the time in order to pay rent and hand in artsy school stuff.

I don’t know about how your Macs are running, but mine are far from smooth sailing. Don’t get me started about Leopard. The worst appears to be over, but OSX continues to reek havoc on audio firewire interfaces. It’s not that Mac aren’t lovely and oh so aesthetically perfect I make cooing noises when I stroke the brushed metal, but experiencing regular kernel panics, the spinning pinwheel of death, force quitting, overheating, fan noise, and major battery fail are not memories that are adding to my love of Mr. J’s Empire of hype.

Speaking of hype, ahem, the 3G iPhone, which was just released last week, receiving such massive hype that no one actually ended up getting one. Huh? I don’t get it. Me neither. What is the world coming to when iJustine can’t get a freaking iPhone?!? And already the Apple rumour mills are churning with the pulpy goodness of new sleek and sexy MacBook Touch.

Now as someone who recently got a MacBook Air, is still paying off a Mac Pro, and is still emotionally attached to last year’s MacBook, when I hear about a next generation release or major upgrade to a better, faster, more awesome and streamlined machine than the one I just bought last week, I don’t feel anything related to happy. In fact I feel a little ill, then hysterical, then I get on the line with Apple, and then I wait, and wait, and crrrrrrrrry when my call gets disconnected.

Too much Apple. Too often. Too much exposure and hype and advertising and mainstream blah! Remember when Macs were so underground that you had to fight tooth and nail to get even an once of respect? Like that time you were thrown out of computer camp for refusing to use a PC. Oh you weren’t thrown out of computer camp? That was just me? Ok fine, but It was important for me, at the age of 12, to really lay down the law. Oh and remember when you were the only one with sweet graphics in your 4th grade essay on tornados cuz you had Paint? Yeah, those were the days. Now, anyone from Beyonce to (puke) Spencer from the Hills (don’t ask me how I know that) can use and abuse a MacBook Pro. But, it’s all good right? More money for Apple, more live John Mayer keynote performances, better products for us… Yes? Or more like a n-n-n-No!

What do you think? Has Apple’s mainstream hype and lack of product accessibility (ahem… iPhone) got you feelin’ less than perky? Or are you jacked into your feed reader jumping with glee when your Apple RSS gets all kinds of new, sweet iProducts & Software?

What do you think of Apple hype?

Rocking Twitter Bird Illustration by Pasquale D’Silva

Vectorama is a regular design/illustration competition on MostlyLisa.com. Last time, the Steelie’s Canadian Beaver took the top prize.

This month’s theme is Twitter Love!

Recently we’ve seen a lot of talk of new twitter mutinies in favor of more stable or enhanced mo-blogging platforms like Friend Feed. Though I use other platforms, nothing beats Twitter for me. In honor of the FailWhale, I’d love all the vector savvy design peeps out there to vector up a sweet Twitter bird. Maybe we can turn some fail in to Win…Whale. Wait, that didn’t make sense.

Oh and answer this question: With the new twitter clones popping up, are you going to stay with twitter or change to something new?

For the rules, read on:

Read the rest of this entry »

Just arrived back home to beautiful sunny Vancouver. I rarely blog about the weather, but maaaaaan it was cold, rainy, cloudy and nothing like summer in England. You get sun for 5 mins, just start to relax, then boom! ominous cloud and rain! I’m writing an angry note to the Queen!

So I still not in possession of an iPhone. I seriously can’t believe that I could not find a 16GB in England. They were all sold out everywhere and there were massive wait lists just to get on a list to get an iPhone. You gotta respekt apple for the incredible hype power they have.

I’ll probably wake up tomorrow, walk out of my house, and find they are selling iPhones at the corner store. Oh cruel fate!

PS. I promise a non iPhone related post asap. Just gotta get through the multitude of photos and videos and biscuits i bought.

PPS. I got totally pulled over AND interrogated for 1 hour at customs in Vancouver because they didn’t believe that:

1. I was a photographer;
2. I’d stayed so few days in the UK without some ulterior motive like, say, drug running;
3. I traveled so much in the UK (London - Cambridge - Bury St. Edmunds - Leeds - Derbyshire (Alton Towers!!!) and back;
4. The MacBook Air was so small;
5. Someone could spend $50 on biscuits (I reckon they’ve never been in Marks & Spencer);
6. I had not laced said biscuits with Narcotics.

Note to self: Next time lie about the biscuits.

So yeah… No iPhone for me as all of Europe is sold out! Most stores only carried 2 of 16GB and 18 of the 8GBs! So by the time I arrived in London at 3pm they were long gone. I’m going out today to take a spy round the O2 store in Bury St. Edmunds, where I’m staying. Must fondle one before the day’s out.

(yes! i finally found one to fondle. so thin and light).

So i’m just about to board my flight to London in jolly ol’ England (I’ll be there for a week), and i thought i’d throw up a post asking that question that everyone is asking today:

Are you gonna buy the new iPhone?

I’m on the fence right now.

If you buy one (especially first timers), flickr a photo and link it in the comments. It will make me jealous, but i’ll try to be happy for you.

PS. I may get one, I may not. We’ll see tomorrow… if I make it through Platform 9 3/4…

i fell in love with this seal at the Granville Island Market. He was very talkative. It made me happy.

PS. i haven’t mastered ventriloquism yet.
PPS. iPhone. i know. gah. i know.

Photographer: Ryland Haggis, Redpilot Media. (I helped too)

Here’s a funny thing… So my multimedia company, Redpilot was hired to do a cover shoot of a physically exhausted runner for the cover of the British Journal of Sports Medicine. We had 2 days to shoot it , and missed the opportunity to grab some shots of tired runners at a big marathon by a few hours on the first day, and it was pouring rain the next day, so the shoot got pushed until late Sunday night.

*Cue panic.* Who are we gonna shoot? How are we gonna get this shot? Do you know any models? Or runners. Pause. Reflect. Oh right you’re a model. Aren’t you? And didn’t you run? You must have run at some point! Let’s just shoot you.

Gah. So at 11pm on Sunday night, I’m running up and down the staircase in my apartment whilst spraying water all over my face and body to get the desired sweaty, red-faced exhausted look. I have no make up on and I’m dead tired and somewhat unimpressed and that’s the picture that ends up on the cover of a major magazine. Yes that one. No not the one where I’m all fabulous. The one were I have a crazy illustrated brain and boney teeth and weird organs and stuff popping out. That’s the one they’ll remember you for.

PS. Don’t even talk to me about the legacy of the BC Transit Bus Guide Girl.

PPS. I have a HUGE & famous brain. I’ll out think all of yous! Seriously, quiz me on anything! I dare you!

PPPS. If you crack a Skeletor joke, I’ll shank you!

While I was down in San Francisco a few weeks ago, I swung by Pixel Corps and casually hosted MacBreak with iJustine.

We talked about the new ultra cool Flip Mino, hung out with Alex Lindsay and the awesome crew at Pixel Corps, including Joe who is not on twitter, and then nearly got kicked out of an Apple Store. Besides that, the “rat” problem, and the epic Kelly Clarkson lip dub-a-thon, it was a totally normal Friday for me.

To check out the MacBreak 159: Flip Video Podcast:
Subscribe via iTunes
View the video directly here.

Here’s my Flip Mino in action (with a wee bit of bokeh and a sweet WP sticker Andy gave me).

PS. Even my MacBook Air got a little taste of limelight. It did so well considering the pressure.

(On top of Moscone Centre, San Francisco)

This was my first Holga lomo picture to actually come out. I took it the day after the madness that was WWDC 2008. My first roll, I accidentally exposed to light while taking it out of the camera. My second roll, I shot mostly at night in San Francisco (which looked so so cool) but I forgot to set the camera to “bulb” and all the shots were underexposed. Gah!

Film is intense. After having the immediacy of digital shots, waiting for film developing drives me bananas, but you can’t deny the coolness of the medium format. The graininess, the subtle vignetting, the saturation of colour, the sweet 70s feel it gives photos. I’m really excited about exploring the lomo now!

Check out lomography.com or the flickr Lomo group for inspiration. And if you are experimenting with lomography link me up to your flickr photos.

I love my digital SLR, and I don’t see myself ever using film as my main format, but there is something almost too perfect and unnatural about digital images, especially those that have been photoshopped. You lose all the unexpected surprises in the process of using film cameras that can produce seriously beautiful shots. After seeing my lomo shots, I realize that it is still important for photographers to experiment with film and develop a style that is independent of digital automation.

What do you think? Is there still a place for film in today’s digital photography age?