Originally Infected Mushroom cam from Israel as a duo, Duvdev and Ires, the produced and played DJ sets. As their production gained strength and they pushed the edge of their style and the genera itself and really flourished into the now 4 piece traveling band with their Amazing and Humble drummer Rogerio and true to the Axe Guitar Player Tommy. I’ve pretty much fast forwarded to the current from the beginning but you can find everything you need to know on their website.

So normally I get a chance to hang out with them (we’ve become friends) but I didn’t get to the show until about 15 min before they went live so I had to stay in the crowd. Not a complaint at all because if you have ever witnessed their show being in the crowd is crazy amazing. The vibe from the people and the interaction of the band makes them so prodigious it feeds the energy and the whole venue goes crazy. I wanted to make my way backstage but I stayed at the front of the stage and snapped over 800 photos. Lets just say it’s not easy to get into the middle of a hungry crowd to take some photos but amidst the sweaty cheering people I made my slow camera in the air side step to the front and took some shots that I hope they use one day. New MySpacers is what I told Tommy actually. Here are a few samples of the shots I took and if you would like to see more, check ‘em out on my flickr account!

You should click on the images to see them full! My favorite is the black and white. And the one of me, Tommy actually took my camera in the middle of their performance and took photos from the stage! Now if you guys want to find out more about the band check them out on their website, www.infected-mushroom.com. Here is the newest release from them in full music video form, “Smash the Opponent”.

Infected Mushroom Smashing the Opponent official video feat Jonathan Davis from KORN from Infected Mushroom on Vimeo.

Solar Eclipse

You can find out more about solar eclipses on NASA’s site, as well as a list of upcoming eclipses.

A few side notes I found at wiki: This solar eclipse was the longest total solar eclipse to occur in the 21st century, and will not be surpassed in duration until 13 June 2132. Totality lasted for up to 6 minutes and 39 seconds, with the maximum eclipse occurring in the ocean at 02:35:21 UTCabout 100 km south of the Bonin Islands, southeast of Japan. The uninhabited North Iwo Jima island was the landmass with totality time closest to maximum, while the closest inhabited point was Akusekijima, where the eclipse lasted 6 minutes and 26 seconds.^[13]

I use Aperture, (amazing piece of software!) to import and color correct all my photos. As of this weekend that is. The color tools are really powerful. Especially if you are shooting RAW. The ability to to adjust everything, I mean everything. Within the RAW Fine Tuning tools you adjust the “Boost” (exposure) “Hue Boost” (Color Saturation), Sharpening, Edges, Moire and Radius. Thats only if you are shooting RAW. Going past that you have you White Balance, Exposure, “Enhance”, Levels, Highlights & Shadows, and Color. Those are the categories and then all the adjustments within those really give you some incredible fine tuning. And to add to all of that you have various effects that you can add, such as Vignetting. Ill say this now, if you are someone who wants to really step up your level of photos in post, get this piece of software. Photoshop is great too, but much more processor intensive when you are trying to edit hundreds of photos at a time. Yeah, Hundreds!

So back to the photos… On a normal day, I take a ton of photos, import them and then just upload them to my Flickr account. Since these photos were for a first birthday, super special event, I wanted to give them a great gift of some really great looking photos so I decided to edit them. I must have spent well over 6 hours going through the roll of film, rating the photos, SO easy with Aperture, just press 0-5 over a photo that you are viewing. Once they were sorted it was time to edit!! I was actually really excited to get through them and really spend sometime making each chosen photo shine. I think that I used every single option that was available to me so that I could create vibrant photos for Riley’s first birthday.

After 5-8 hours, I didnt keep track, I finally posted all the photos online, on my flickr account, and I could not be more proud. I’m really happy that eye has progressed to be as detailed as it is and would actually love to show people what I do, if you are interested, in post to make the various photos shine. Let me first post a few that are edited and on my flickr account, and then I will upload the enhanced photos.

Hayden