It has been a busy few days. I was at Federation Square today shooting for MS Australia’s Kiss Goodbye to MS Campaign which was awesome – Got to meet and have a chat to comedian Tim Ferguson, 2011 Australian of the Year Simon McKeon and DJ/Model/TV Personality Georgia Sinclair! Donated my time for the cause and it was a great day (and a long one… was there from 730am to 3pm snapping away!)

Big thanks to Elfreda @ Scarlet Media for the hookup!

Saturday was spent down at Sandown Raceway for the WRX Club Trackday. Lots of awesome cars and got to speak with a few of the owners. Handed out some cards as well so, if you are reading this and have one of my cards – Make sure to go read this Sandown update for photos from the day and purchasing information!

I had bought an Ikea MICKE Desk awhile back because it was pretty simple, had some good drawer space and more importantly, hidden cable management!

The only downside to this desk was its depth. Unless you used a laptop or something on it, there really wasn’t much space at all.

In order to overcome this, the thinking cap came on and with some inspiration spurred on by this workspace and the whole Ikea Hackers movement. I decided to see what I could do to improve the desk, rather than go out and buy something totally different. (I did look, but didn’t see anything that fit my needs and that was affordable – so might as well make something!)

My idea started off as to use an extra shelf. Raised, so I could place the monitors on it and gain much needed desk space underneath back. I had a LACK wallshelf hanging around so I played around with that first, to get an idea of what would work.

Using some old Manfrotto boxes and the LACK, this is what it looked like:

So all I needed, was some brackets to raise the shelf up..and the shelf it self. Ended up settling on the CAPITA brackets and the EKBY AMUND shelf.

Here was the final result, at a cost of under $65 AUD. Pretty good for more functionality, looks decent as well!

If you’re interested and want to see the progress shots on how it was all put together, check out the flicKR set here.

Interested in peoples thoughts on this! Let me know what you think.

Queens Birthday weekend! Went down to Lounge on Swanston St in Melbourne tonight to check out Slice, specifically aerobiotic‘s set and take some photos again. Same sorta deal as last time, but different venue and ..more challenging lighting.

This time I used some flashes to create my own light where neccessary, with some cool results – taking advantage of the smoke machine’s mist. I’d would have liked to stay for Clint and Stu’s Input Output project set, but at 3am..Wasn’t happening that night!

For most of these shots, unfortunately I don’t write down the strobist info for any of them, and i’m amazed people actually remember the details. All I know is that for most I was switching between 1/8 and 1/16 @35mm ..any more than that and it would just overpower the smoke. The 18-200, nifty50,10-20 and 10-17 FE were used for these.

So why did I choose to use remote flashes in a bar/club environment? Well coming from last time, I decided I wanted something a little different..The rays of light the flashes created through the smoke machine was something I didn’t even think of at the time.. until I checked the back of the camera.. Guess you accidently learn something new everyday. It was good not having to rely on the random colourful light as well, and seeing how they could be worked into the images.

Please have a look at the rest of the set here! Don’t forget to hit that like button below if you deem this likable!

If you are interested in having some photos taken of your set at whichever venue (in Melbourne) – Feel free to shoot me an email – aaronactive at gmail.com – Won’t cost you anything, besides getting me + 1 free entry to said venue, and you get a copy of photos from the night for private use..Anything else we can always talk.

I picked up a Asus VE246H 24″ LCD Monitor today and was interested in seeing what the whole “Input Lag” thing was about…now, I decided to post this just FYI – I didn’t do any indepth reading on the topic, I just figured well..you connect a CRT, plug in a LCD – and snap a photo…so if theres something not done to standard..too bad!

My current setup is an Xbox 360 connected to a Denon amp via HDMI, and then from the Denon out to my Panasonic TH-42PX8A Plasma via HDMI.

Photos were taken on a Canon 40D, 50mm 1.8 @ 1/1600 on H burst mode. (6.5fps)

All test compared to a Dell 17″ CRT monitor (its numbers on the left).

Only milliseconds displayed from the stopwatch at Flatpanels.dk

Asus VE246H input lag test results (Standard mode, via DVI)
033 – 033
183 – 183
350 – 350
483 – 500 *17ms
666 – 666

2nd run (Standard mode, via HDMI)
217 – 217
384 – 384
517 – 517
684 – 684
834 – 851 *17ms
001 – 001

Panasonic TH-42PX8A input lag test results (Denon Amp HDMI Passthrough)

250 – 266 * 16ms

517 – 534 * 17ms
034 – 051 * 17ms
217 – 217
351 – 367 * 16ms
517 – 534 * 17ms
667 – 684 * 17ms
834 – 851 * 17ms
984 – 001 * 17ms
166 – 166

Dell E207WFPc input lag test results (DVI)
283 – 283
133 – 150 * 17ms
300 – 283 *17ms
450 – 450
600 – 600

Can post photos somewhere if people really want to see the results for themselves. Makes me wonder how out of 3 different devices they are all always 16-17ms out (when they are) – Could the camera’s people are using to take photos be a factor?

At some tourney’s I have played on LCDs and have definitely felt a slight difference..IE move just doesn’t come out…and same thing happened when I connected up the LCD for a little. I guess input lag does have a slight slight difference, but its all what you’re used to. There’s an obvious between the plasma setup I play on and the directly connected LCD screens @ tourneys, etc. Will see how I adjust to LCD in the next few weeks.

I posted this up on the FB page (See right..Like it) and decided it deserved another mention here.

Pete, one of my mates used to be into Trials a bit and pointed the video out to me below last year sometime and it blew me away.. I’m not into the sport much, but I do love watching any sort of extreme/action sports..and even if you don’t  – I suggest you check these videos out just to check out Danny’s skills..and what you probably never thought was possible on a bike..

Now, he’s been sponsored by Red Bull and has a film called “Way Back Home” – This thing was released on YouTube 2 days ago and has already hit 160K views.. Amazing production, awesome scenery and locations… You have to watch this video! In 1080p if you can!