Event - The holiday season

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We wish you a very Apocalyptic 2021!

We wish you a very Apocalyptic 2021

Before you whimper and whine because you couldn't party on New Year’s Eve or celebrate it with friends & family: think of all the elderly, the poor, the sick, the homeless and the disabled people who spend EVERY NYE all alone. Think of all those people who work every time while you celebrate.
For you it was 1 year of abstinence, for them a lifetime.
Maybe next year you’ll invite a poor, disabled or elderly family member or friend to your NYE party. And in that case 202021 has taught us all something.
Namaste

Christmas in Tongeren

Love at first spark

Merry Christmas

We wish you a Merry Yule

Greetings from Winter-ish Haspengouw

Tongeren in winter

Populaire posts van deze blog

Event - Geek Village Wintertales (2025)

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"Don't believe anything you see. Don't believe anything you hear. Don't believe anything you believe. There was no 360° videobooth on Geek Village: it is all AI!" Can you believe somebody actually took the time to send me that message?  Hilarious.. and it was faster deleted than they typed it . On 20 +21 December it's  the 3rd Geek Village fair in 13 months and the 1st one not in Thor Central Genk.  And YES, a spin on #theRED360 of Deep Red Noise vzw will be FREE/GRATIS/GRATUIT again. So come visit our tiny corner of the Trixxo Arena in Hasselt, and if the booth has enough room, I'll might even make some cosplay portraits again. If you can & want to donate 1€ for your 360°-spin, that money will be used to help local stray cats. Last edition's donations helped with food, a castration, treating a hurt paw and finding a kitten a safe home.. and bonus: one stray entered my bedroom on a tuesday and simply decided to become a house cat. The fol...
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Sony tech - Using A-mount lenses on E-mount cameras

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This article is about using (vintage) Minolta/Sigma/Sony/Tamron/.. A-mount lenses on contemporary Sony E-mount cameras. Since the Sony LA-EA5 adapter has been released I have been answering dozens of the same questions about compatibility issues from both retailers and end-users. Some questions & personal experiences with the different adapters were special, so I have tested some combinations and made a small list of my findings. Yes, at first -back in 2021- I wanted to make this into a Youtube video.. alas I don't like looking at myself so I stopped editing it. And then in 2023 I glued some of those old clips together into: https://youtu.be/-VLe6eBQpME 1. Sample images are in this Flickr folder ( always making more sample images) 2. Gear Used : 2.1. Adapters : LA-EA3, LA-EA4, LA-EA5 2.2. E-mount cameras cat1: A1, A7SIII, A7IV, A7RV, FX30, ZV-E1 2.3. E-mount cameras cat2: A9II, A7III, A7RIV, A7C, A6600, A6400, ZV-E10 ( also goes for A7RIII, A9, A6100 ) 2.4. E-...
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Event - Museumnacht Alden Biesen (2026)

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Open de kasteelpoorten vanaf het invallen van de winternacht. Zorg voor bakken vol Limburgse sneeuw. Geef de witte tuin een magische gloed met kleurrijke lichtjes. Laat muzikanten de tocht doorheen het kasteelmuseum begeleiden. Organiseer workshops in het ondergrondse labyrint onder de waterburcht. Zet de excentrieke  post-expressionistisch ( soms ook als PopArt aanziene)   kunstenaar Roger Raveel in het middelpunt en richt de kasteelkamers in naar zijn kleurrijk voorbeeld. Et voila: de 1e Museumnacht in Landcommanderij Alden Biesen is een feit.  Soms is het ook nuttig om een fotograaf achter de hand te hebben om enkele sfeerbeelden te maken.. en om koppig de pijlen in het kelderlabyrint niet te volgen, omdat ie denkt een andere uitgang te weten die dichter bij zijn materiaalopslag uitkomt. Gelukkig heeft een fotograaf soms gelijk.. maar het levert wel een spannende, duistere speurtocht op. Vooraleer door te scrollen naar de fotogalerij, eerst enkele nuttige links: ▷...
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Event - Geek Village Summerfest & Elftopia (2025)

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Starting a review with some words of praise seems right. Thank you Elftopia for installing huge umbrellas at the food area so people could eat without getting scorched by the sun ( and guess what; if it rains, those same umbrellas also protect cosplays and cameras ).  Thank you Elftopia for lowering the price of water during the ongoing heatwave.  Thank you Elftopia for making sure there was plenty to see, and to do, other than posing/shooting for photographers/cosplayers, or having a chat with friends, followers & acquintances.  Thank you Elftopia for an efficient, and well-controlled parking system.  Thank you Elftopia for not selling every shot of mead at 7€.  Thank you Elftopia for making the potato field behind the pink chapel finally accessable to diabled persons, and no longer a hazard for ankles. Thank you Elftopia for listening to the complaints of the visitors over the years and making adjustments where possible.  In a perfect world, I would h...
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Collab - Melanie Martinez' Portals

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There seems to be a misunderstanding about the concept of a Signature Style . Many artists & creatives have one. Yet unlinke what people think, a truly free creative mind doesn't limit itself to making only things that fit within the limits of this signature style. No, that's something social media influencers do.  Viewers will know something has been made by a certain artist when they recognize a certain signature style, but any artist can make thousands of works that have a different footprint and be just as happy with these works. Breaking your own rules and colouring outside of the lines of the square are forms of creative escape.. of rebirth. Some artists even go so far as breaking with their signature style and building themselves up again from the ground. David Bowie is a prime example. He re-invented himself over and over like a creative chameleon. . Last month another artist also shedded their skin. My attention got caught by a strong branding campaign of ...
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Collab - Spaghetti westerns

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Spaghetti westerns , a subgenre of western films, are distinguished from older, classic westerns by their production location, cast, and stylistic choices   They were largely produced in Europe, particularly Italy, during the 1960s and 1970s, often featuring Italian directors and casts, with a mix of American and other actors.These films are known for their low budgets, gritty realism, morally ambiguous characters ( often antiheroes ), and a more cynical, violent tone compared to the idealized American westerns featuring clean-cut, heroic cowboys. The genre's creator is generally attributed to Sergio Leone , an Italian director who pioneered the style with  Per un pugno di dollari.   @deeprednoise_vzw In juli deden we een hele leuke #spaghettiwestern #cosplay shoot met Hitomixhime en BeerBugBarnie. De foto’s door RedCathedral vind je hier: https://tinyurl.com/SLvs2ndAB Hier is de 1e van een hele reeks korte video’s en BTS clips om wat ruchtbaarhei...
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Collab - Cosplay & LGBTQIA+ awareness video's in de Japanse Tuin

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Waar de meesten enkele jaren geleden nog dachten dat de LGBTQIA+ gemeenschap eindelijk de rechten hadden gekregen waar alle mensen recht op hebben, Prides hun protest-aspect niet langer nodig zouden hebben en op termijn konden vervellen tot een feest waar straight en minder straight mekaar kunnen ontmoeten, is de situatie ondertussen erg veranderd. Dit weekend, op zaterdag 28 juni 2025, trokken bijna 200.000 LGBTQIA+-personen, hun Allies en iedereen die geeft om democratische burgerrechten door de straten van Boedapest ondanks een verbod van de hoogste politieke leider, ondanks de strenge straffen die hen te wachten stonden. Overal ter wereld draaien autocratische leiders de rechten van hun burgers terug en de LGBTQIA+-groep lijdt hier enorm onder. In plaats van er enkel verdrietig om te zijn en zich erbij neer te leggen, is de gemeenschap strijdvaardig om niet enkel haar rechten, maar de rechten van alle burgers te verdedigen. Het verleden leert ons dat fascistische en autocratisc...
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Sony tech - How to check where your focus point was during replay? (A7IV Focus Frame Display)

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All modern cameras show you during shooting perfectly where you are focusing. But I don't remember this of every picture during/after an event or at the end of a shoot. And sometimes you have to be sure the focus was on the right object/person/animal before going to the next view, or shot or part of the event. We've all made pictures of which during replay we wondered where the hell the focus point had been. In landscape pictures it happens sometimes. When photographing groups of people you might have to check them all to see who's eyes you had locked on.   In the Sony A7IV, A1 and A7SIII ( and all full frame Alpha cameras coming after these ) there is a solution called: In English: Focus Frame Display ("Foc Frame Disp Sel." to be more precise) In Dutch: Schrpst.kad.wrgv In French:  Aff cadre m.au pt  Sony engineers & translators really enjoy inventing strange abbreviations. In this video you see how to activate this option in the Sony A7IV:  And if you...
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Event - CRISIS (2025)

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De titel CRISIS an Sich zou best wel eens kunnen slaan op de geopolitieke crisis , sociale crisis , of klimaatcrisis die de ondergang van een globaal imperium en de val van een socio-economisch systeem aankondigen. Als je bovendien door de foto's van het evenement bladert, stuit je vast ook op postapocalyptische situaties, helse creaturen en oorlogstaferelen.   It's the end of the world, and I feel fine , zong R.E.M. ooit, maar alvorens nu al je bezittingen te verbranden en te wachten op het einde zoals sommige gelovigen in de dagen voor de jaarlijkse " rapture ", misschien toch even duiden dat  CRISIS  een miniature wargames beurs is. De belangrijkste tabletop wargaming beurs in België om precies te zijn. Tabletop wargaming en TTRPG's; met miniaturen op een speelveld even een veldslag uitvechten, of een fantastisch avontuur beleven. Namen zoals Warhammer als wargame en Dungeons & Dragons als tabletop roleplaying game (=TTRPG) doen ongetwijfeld een ...
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Sony tech - Using APS-C mode on Full Frame cameras

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 " Why? " You will probably ask while shaking your head. " Why would you do such a thing? " 1. WHAT? Let us start with the " What? " In Sony full frame mirrorless cameras you can always switch between using the camera full frame or in APS-C-mode. This changes your field of view into a " zoomed feel ". What really happens is that in this APS-C mode the processor uses only a part of the sensor. This part is the same size as an APS-C sensor as found in the A6000-series. For photo you always sacrifice megapixels in this "cropped" mode. For video this APS-C mode is called Super 35 mode and has several advantages. But this article is mostly about photography. In video you might want to read this article and consider that for example the full frame A7IV automatically snaps into Super35-mode when you switch it to 4k 50p/60p. In that latter case.. why not put your trust in a lighter, wider ( and often cheaper ) APS-C lens? Subtitles ar...
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