Collins Complete Photography Course by John Garrett and Graeme Harris

This was the first of three photography books I decided to read as introduction into the theme, its techniques and creative possibilities. The one best thing I can say about this Photography Course is that reading it has really got me into trying my new Sony Cyber-shot DSC HX100V. If the title with the word "complete" might be an overstatement, in fact it does include most or all of the subjects one would expect to find in a technical photography book.

It starts by a quick review of the history of photography and then moves to a chapter on equipment with enough information for a newcomer to understand what kind of camera one should buy and what else is needed to produce the wanted results, from torch to tripods and even a swiss army knife. After this, the book has sections on exposure, aperture, shutter and lenses, interesting for both SLR or compact camera and film or digital users. Next, the authors introduce the reader to the planning and production of a photo and creative possibilities in sections such as composition, light, colour, filters and black and white. All of these sections include small projects to encourage the reader to try as he learns and small explanations on how the image achieved can go wrong. Finally, the last two chapters are on image enhancement (mostly, but not only, based on Photoshop) and management, organizing and printing images. I was glad to find that the book offers further reading advice and other strong points to it are the good quality images as examples to almost every concept and technique described, the reference of artists considered experts on them and the inclusion of a glossary and an index, sometimes forgotten but always useful in this kind of book.

All in all, this is a really good read for photography beginners such as myself and, though one might need more information on some topics or could be happy with less time spent reading about others, as what each reader knows and is interested in a priori is different, I believe most would be satisfied with the organization and clear explanations given in Collins Complete Photography Course.

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Este foi o primeiro de três livros de fotografia que decidi ler em jeito de introdução ao tema, à técnica e às suas possibilidades criativas. A melhor coisa que posso dizer sobre este "Curso de Fotografia" é que me encorajou a experimentar a minha nova câmara, uma Sony Cyber-shot DSC HX100V. Se é verdade que o título incluir a palavra "completo" é um exagero, de facto ele  aborda todos os assuntos que seria de esperar num livro técnico de fotografia.

Começa por uma pequena resenha histórica da fotografia seguida de um capítulo sobre equipamento suficientemente informativo para o leitor perceber que tipo de câmara e que outras ferramentas o leitor necessita para alcançar os resultados que deseja, desde lanternas e tripés até um canivete suiço. Depois o livro inclui secções sobre exposição, abertura, velocidade do obturador e objectivas, interessantes tanto para utilizadores de máquinas compactas como de SLRs sejam elas de filme sejam digitais. De seguida, os autores introduzem o leitor à preparação e produção da imagem e oportunidades para dar azo à criatividade, em capítulos sobre composição, luz, cor, filtros e fotografia a preto e branco. Todos as secções incluem sugestões de pequenos projectos para estimular o leitor a experimentar o que vai aprendendo e explicações plausíveis para o que neles possa correr mal. Os últimos dois capítulos são sobre manipulação (em geral baseado no Photoshop mas não limitado a isso) e organização e impressão das imagens. Foi bom encontrar conselhos sobre mais leituras sobre o tema e dois outros pontos positivos são as imagens de boa qualidade a ilustrar cada conceito e técnica descritos, a referência de artistas considerados peritos nas mesmas e a inclusão de glossário e índice remissivo, por vezes esquecidos mas sempre úteis neste tipo de livro.

Globalmente, esta é uma boa leitura para principiantes tal como eu e embora se pudesse precisar de mais informação nalguns temas e ficar satisfeito com menos tempo perdido com outros - dado que o que cada leitor sabe a priori é diferente - julgo que a maioria ficaria satisfeito com a organização e explicações simples e claras oferecidas pelo Collins Complete Photography Course.

Desconheço uma versão traduzida para português, mas o inglês utilizado não exige um conhecimento especialmente avançado da língua.

One Month to Live by Rick Remender

I ordered this book from Amazon.co.uk together with the first Heroic Age Avengers' compilations because I was interested in what the story promised. It's not the first time one hears about a random person getting superpowers in a comic and following someone who was just given a determined amount of time to live on account of a medical condition is not at all an original concept but I was open and willing to look for a new interpretation of this. And that was precisely what I didn't find.

Dennis Sykes - the main character - reacted mostly as one would expect him to, the plot was well developed, made sense and was coherent in spite of the many contributors but the most interesting events were his meetings with Spider-man and other Marvel celebrities just for the fun of it and even the end was generally predictable.

I admit that no single criteria should be used alone when commenting on any book but in this case I considered the originality of paramount importance. On the other hand, I must emphasize that the story was well written, specially when by Rick Remender, and the illustrations were good, particularly the ones drawn by Andrea Mutti, Koi Turnbull, Shawn Moll - issues 1 and 2 - and the all of the issues' covers by Michael del Mundo.

Overall it's not a bad comic book but it wasn't really exciting and by no means nearly as thought provoking as I expected.

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Encomendei este livro na Amazon.co.uk junto com as compilações dos primeiros números dos Avengers na Heroic Age porque fiquei interessado no que a história prometia. Não é a primeira vez que se vê banda-desenhada sobre uma pessoa qualquer adquirir super poderes e a história de alguém que descobre ter uma determinada quantidade de tempo para viver por sofrer de uma doença fatal não de todo um conceito original, mas eu estava aberto a novas interpretações, algo que não encontrei neste livro.
A personagem principal - Dennis Sykes - reage essencialmente tal como seria de esperar, com um argumento bem desenvolvido e coerente apesar da contribuição de vários autores mas cujos momentos mais interessantes foram os encontros com o Spider-man e outras celebridades da Marvel, quanto mais não seja pela piada e até mesmo o final foi, em geral, previsível.
Admito que não devo basear um comentário sobre uma obra num só critério, mas neste caso considerava a originalidade de singular importância. Por outro lado, é de referir que a história está bem escrita, particularmente quando da autoria de Rick Remender e as ilustrações são boas, especialmente as de Andrea Mutti, Koi Turnbull, Shawn Moll - 1º e 2º números - e as capas por Michael del Mundo.
Em geral é uma leitura razoável mas pouco emocionante e ao contrário do que esperava, de acordo com o tema, não me instigou a reflectir sobre o assunto ou a pensa-lo de novas formas.

Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes by Edith Hamilton

I've been interested in Mythology since I was a kid, but I never got to read the original texts or any books about it. I did spend some sleepless nights devouring the information at Wikipedia, first on Egyptian, then Greek and Roman and finally even on Norse myth. Knowing this a friend lent me Edith Hamilton's book and I read it as soon as I could, coincidentally, at the same time I read the first half of Neil Gaiman's American Gods, a very original modern take on myth.

Mythology:  Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes proposes to give the reader a walk through the most important myths drawing as possible directly from the texts and original authors that brought their knowledge to later civilizations. Examples as Homer, Virgil, Ovid and Euripides are surely known to most people that are interested this theme. I was a bit disappointed to find out that it was mostly about Greek and Roman mythology, I'd have enjoyed reading more about others but this by no means kept me from enjoying it. The author covers a lot of what is known, ranging from creation myth to specific stories of gods and human heroes, including of course the epics as the Quest of the Golden Fleece, the Iliad, the Odyssey and the Aeneid but is by no means limited to those. In fact, some of my favourites were short ones about lesser gods or humans' not at all epic as for example Biton and Cleobis'. The way Edith Hamilton decided to transmit these stories is also quite interesting. At the start of each chapter she talks about the poets who first wrote those specific tales, which were the ones she decided to use as source and why, whether it was because they were the most complete or because she likes their style best. As she writes, she adapts most of the original texts, adds some quotes, comments, interprets and gives context to the tales. Although the beginning feels slow and at times confusing, as one continues it enthrals the reader and becomes easier and pleasurable. The last part of the book is the small introduction to Norse Mythology, with some stories and the identification of the main characters, while at the same time comparing it to the Greek and to humanity itself, showing it as a more sombre myth, frustrating and simultaneously somewhat conformed to the hardness of life and inescapable death.

More than only getting to know the classic mythologies, this book allows one to peek into the minds of the Greek and Roman people, notice the evolution of the stories and feel the belief fading as they are told by more recent authors. One thing that came to mind often is how human centred they are, how the gods end up behaving pretty much as humans do, being petty, loving, hating, envying, powerful and immortal as they are. The Norse gods seem to me more inspiring, probably because, not being omnipotent - themselves just living until Ragnarok, when they are sure to be defeated and die - they are more similar to humans and would probably help people fight through their lives, face the problems to which they found no solution, giving them purpose, even if it's not fighting for a blissful eternity as nowadays more prominent religions came up with. I must say though that I still have much to read and find out about the Mythology of the Norsemen.

Overall, Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes is good as a first look into the theme, interesting enough for those that already know some of the stories but want a closer look and an organized source and is probably even good to keep as a myth encyclopaedia to peek into it once in a while.

A new direction

I've been thinking hard about this blog, it's purpose and utility for me and for any who follow or just randomly pass by. I'm sure I want to keep a blog, there's a lot of stuff out there I like to share and/or talk about. On the other hand, I have little time to concentrate in order to provide well thought and written posts frequently enough. Of late, I have been considering other themes to talk about, like politics, not only international but also Portuguese internal issues and for that matter, I'll probably start writing in Portuguese. 

Alas, from all the mumbo-jumbo that's been going on in my mind, an idea has stepped out as the only option to keep the blog alive and that's what I'll try working on. There is no better way to show where I want to go with all this than to share Dan Pink's TED talk, on the "surprising science of motivation".

I need my blog to be a space where I let my internal motivation fly, see where it goes and feel free to go back or move on just because I want to or need to, because I can. Maybe that will help me keep working on the blog as long as possible.

From this post forward, this blog will have posts in English, others in Portuguese and might even have some with translations, and I won't be doing regular reviews of all the books I read any more but mostly simple comments with the main ideas I get from some of them, so that I have time to share other stuff and talk about what comes to mind as interesting enough as time goes by. Another thing you'd notice is that I dropped the ranking when reviewing films or books all together, I don't feel the numbers are fair to them and they usually don't really add much to what I want to say. I'm about to buy a camera so expect to see some of my attempts to do anything interesting with it as I learn. It does seem a bit pretentious but I believe this will make Omnilogikos more accessible for those it might be of interest, each post for itself, and those who can only understand one of the languages can always ignore the other posts completely.
I changed the blog's appearance and don't feel like going back and correcting all the consequent formatting errors so bear with me on that if you are going to check previous posts. Still not sure if I'm going to keep the actual template and colour theme.


And now, to try all this and see what happens.

Zimoun - Sound Sculptures and Installations

If at all possible, watch this in absolute silence apart from the video's own sound and enjoy an odd sense of tranquillity. I am in awe.

Thanks to Sofia Romualdo for showing it to me.
Obrigado!