The Weekly Swarm: 12/1 - 12/7
PSA: If you have a gas heater/furnace in your apartment, be careful operating it. I spent the majority of the past two weeks suffering from acute carbon monoxide poisoning, and it was not a good look. Make sure you have your heaters inspected by your landlord or gas utility man, have your carbon monoxide detectors up to date, and show general care when using them. I lucked out, but who knows what may happen in the future without the proper care?
Now that that's off my chest, we had a pretty solid week at Ruby Hornet with some features from a few new faces. We'll have many new writers coming out of the woodwork over the next couple of weeks, and we'll give them a proper introduction then. For now, revisit last week's content, including our video from Vic Mensa's show at the Metro, Travis's editorial on why Rick and Morty is the best show on TV, Xander's thoughts on England censoring women in British porn, the all-star cast announcement for DC's Suicide Squad, Rachel's editorial on photographer Jimmy Nelson's book, Before They Pass Away, and more below!
[RH Video] Vic Mensa at the Metro (11/28/2014)
Rick and Morty: Best Show on TV?
Female Ejaculation Censored From British Porn
Five Things to Know in Music This Week (12/1 - 12/5)
Will Smith, Jared Leto Among Stars Cast in DC's Suicide Squad Adaptation
Bond 24 Officially Titled SPECTRE, Cast Unveiled
[Weekly Netflix Fix] James Bond Highlights New Netflix Additions
[Review] Red Knot
GoPro Might Produce Their Own Camera Drones in 2015
Before They Pass Away: One Photographer's Personal Ethnography
GoPro Might Produce Their Own Camera Drones in 2015
GoPro cameras and drones go hand-in-hand. With GoPro's easy-to-use interface and rise as the action sports athlete's go-to camera and the increasing availability of drones, the pairing is kind of a no-brainer. If a report from the Wall Street Journal is to be believed, GoPro is taking the next step in the natural pairing by producing their own GoPro-equipped drones late next year. GoPro intends to create line of multi-rotor helicopters with their own cameras pre-installed within the drone next year for an estimated $500 to $1000 price tag.
GoPro already has pre-existing relationships with various drone companies, already providing their cameras to such companies in bundle packages or deals. By taking matters into their own hands, they certainly can cut the middle man out, but at the expense of the very same companies they've supported.
The decision could further be marred with the FAA's intentions on requiring pilot's licenses to man drones for commercial use. However, if the regulation of commercial drone use isn't as bad as it may appear and GoPro is able to undercut the competition's prices, the GoPro-brand drones could be a very viable option for both the company and consumers alike.
[via PetaPixel]
The Weekly Swarm: 11/24 - 11/30
How was everybody's holiday weekend? Mine was adventurous, to say the least... definitely not a period of time I want to revisit anytime soon. Today marks the first of December, and the last month of 2014. It's been a great ride this year, hasn't it? I think the best is yet to come, but I am a bit biased. For now, let's re-live last week's content below.
[RH Photos] Jeezy at Stubb's (11/20/2014)
How Awkward Can a Feminist Get?
[RH Photos] Run the Jewels at Metro (11/22/2014)
FAA Proposes Major Restrictions on Commercial Drone Usage
[Trailer] Jurassic World
[Weekly Netflix Fix] Early Thanksgiving Update
Jurassic World Almost Featured Human/Dinosaur Hybrids
[Teaser Trailer] Star Wars: The Force Awakens
[RH Photos] Jeezy at Stubb's (11/20/2014)
[RH Photos] Run the Jewels at Metro (11/22/2014)
FAA Proposes Major Restrictions on Commercial Drone Usage
FAA Proposes Major Restrictions on Commercial Drone Usage
If you haven't watched any episodes from this season of South Park, I highly recommend doing so. South Park has always been a bastion of consistently entertaining satire, but the quality has elevated even more this season with well-thought out social commentary on topics such as the gender binary, existentialism, and privacy. It's this last theme that brings the rest of this article full circle. As South Park is wont to do, they poked fun at UAVs (re: unmanned aerial vehicles or drones) in relation to privacy, voyeurism, and self-policing. Beyond the humor and entertainment of the episode, it did pose a question over whether or not personal drone use is as safe for those being captured by video without their consent.
Recently, the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) suggested their proposal to regulate drone usage with limitations and restrictions. Namely, they want to require valid pilot's licenses for commercial drone users, or those who intend on making a profit from the footage their drones capture. Other regulations include only allowing drone usage during the day, stay under 400 feet in altitude, and ensuring drones are always in sight of their users for all drones weighing 55 pounds or less.
The FAA plans on making an official proposal by the end of the year, but is keen on input and suggestions to help formulate an ideal decision that would make sense for both consumers and their agency. Again, it should be noted that the regulations would apply to commercial use of drones only, but where is the line drawn between commercial and private use? How will that be tracked and regulated? I'm sure answers to these questions and many others will be clarified over the ensuing months when the proposal is made public.
[via Engadget]
[RH Photos] Jeezy at Stubb's (11/20/2014)
Photos by Tami Weis. Review by Diego Montes.
Back when Jeezy was still Young Jeezy, I remember hearing his song with Akon for the first time and thinking, "I'm not feelin' this shit at all. I bet it's gonna be a huge hit." I had no idea how popular he'd get in strip clubs, or that all these years later, the dude would still be around to tell haters like me to fuck off in person. That's exactly what happened Thursday night at Stubbs.
"Ten years. That's a decade my nigga," was more or less the theme of the night, and by the ninth or tenth time he said so, I realized you do have to hand it to him on two points. First, ten years is a decade, he was adamant about that. Second, he has had real staying power, at least enough that it made sense to drop the Young from his name, a move that most Young rappers don't rap long enough to make.
Of course, every rapper claims to be the best, and Jeezy is no different. He's not the best, but he is pretty good at what he does and seems to know what his fans want. Even with threats of rain at an outdoor venue, Jeezy was able to draw a decent-sized crowd with a wide range of people, and those that did show were giving a lot of energy. I only saw one guy make it rain, which was a little disappointing, but since I wasn't about to step up myself I figured I couldn't complain. Jeezy certainly didn't seem disappointed, repeatedly commenting on the crowd's hype and genuinely giving love to all parts of Texas.
There were a lot of people having fun, so it was easy to join in, and that seems to be what Jeezy wanted his shows to be about. He even closed the show with a motivational speech about keeping good people around you or some shit. Honestly, I tend to have an opposite reaction to motivation, so I mostly tuned that out, but I liked that he did that because it's good for some people.
Whatever else you may think of him, don't ever say Jeezy doesn't care.
The Weekly Swarm: 11/17 - 11/23
Happy early Thanksgiving, friends and family. Given the holiday week, we might be a bit more sporadic than usual with our updates over the next few days. However, we'll hit the ground running come December to make up for it! For now, revisit last week's content below, which included Virgil's personal photos from this year's Fun Fun Fun Fest, an op/ed on the media's role in Charles Manson's upcoming marriage, a look at a vigilante photographer documenting Chicago crime scenes on social media, trailers for some upcoming films and documentaries, and more below!
[Through My Lens] Fun Weekend
Problems That Fix Themselves' Release Show Recap (11/15/2014)
Did We Help Charles Manson Find Love?
Chicago Man's Crime Scene Photos Document City's Violence
[Trailer] Drug Lord: The Legend of Shorty
First Images of The Peanuts Movie
[Trailer] The Peanuts Movie
[Trailer] Amira & Sam
[Weekly Netflix Fix] The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Sony Drops Aaron Sorkin's Steve Jobs Film, Universal Might Pick It Up
[Trailer] The Sheik
16th Century-Imagined Superheroes by Photographer Sacha Goldberger
[Through My Lens] Fun Weekend
Chicago Man's Crime Scene Photos Document City's Violence
[Through My Lens] Fun Weekend
In this edition of Through My Lens, I take on a Fun Weekend during Fun Fun Fun Fest 2014 in Austin, TX.
After years of shooting concerts and festivals with two DSLRs, three lenses, multiple batteries, and other accessories, I was looking forward to trying out a mirrorless system. I've been researching different mirrorless systems (Panasonic and Fuji, among others) for about a year now, but have yet to make the jump. After watching a video of photographer Jason Lanier talking about his 10 reasons why he left his Nikon system for a Sony mirrorless system and boasting about how great these smaller cameras were, I wanted to try it out for myself.
For Fun Fun Fun Fest, I rented a Sony a6000 from Borrow Lenses with a 16mm f/2.8 and a 10-18mm f/4 wide angle lens. For insurance's sake, I took my Canon 7D with a Sigma 24-70mm 2.8 lens to the Fest. I pretty much kept the a6000 around my neck the whole weekend. I only really brought my 7D out when shooting artists live, but even then, the a6000 was great to shoot with. After shooting with the Sony a6000 all weekend, I can safely say I love this little camera. It gave me the freedom I was looking for to shoot street photography that my mobile doesn't give me. The WiFi technology made it seamless to take a shot, send it to my phone, edit, and post on social media.
Below are a bunch of photos I shot from the whole weekend, mostly from the Sony a6000 and a few with my Canon 7D.
16th Century-Imagined Superheroes by Photographer Sacha Goldberger
Photos by Sacha Goldberger
In the last few decades, we've seen superheroes be transformed and remade continually, but until now, we've never quite seen them like this. Photographer Sacha Goldberger has created a series of 16th Century-looking superheroes at a special art exhibition in Paris titled "Super Flemish". Through a compilation of make up artistry, design, and lighting, each character is photographed to look like an Elizabethan-era painted portrait, and it's as realistic as you can get.
To name a few, the portraits include characters from DC, Marvel, and Star Wars, and it took an entire crew to portray each one. Outside of the hair and makeup artists, casting directors were even hired to book models that closely resembled the Hollywood actors that played each superhero in recent films. The detail-oriented project proved to be a success, and they are all creatively entertaining.
Take a look at the following portraits, and find more of Goldberger's full portfolio here and on his Facebook page.
[Via ComicBook.com]
