Eirtakon: It's all just fun and games! He is NOT cosplaying by the way, he simply has a cat plushie on top of his head.

This year, for the first time, I attended Eirtakon, an anime and manga convention in Dublin, Ireland. It ran from Friday 11th of November until Sunday 13th of November. I had already bought my ticket months beforehand, receiving with it a free Eirtakon t-shirt. My crazy anime-filled weekend started on Friday. When I first arrived, Registration was not open yet, and I had no idea what to expect. I had never been to an anime convention, or any convention for that matter. Still, I had my timetable all prepared beforehand and I started by going in to the Random Surprise Screening and settled in front of the second half of the Macross movie, 'Do you Remember Love?'. I didn't stay for the end however, because I couldn't take the ridiculous love triangle anymore, so I walked around the Helix, familiarising myself for when the true convention started. I played a little in the games room, watched a few people play Modern Warfare 3, and tried my luck at the Fair-takon. I was very good at the bowling, a little bit bad at the Naruto Shuriken throwing, and quite good at the chopsticks skills table which required me transferring marbles from one bowl to another using only chopsticks (My record was 15). I also raced twice, coming in first place the first time and second place the second time. Quite ironic isn't it? I went home at eight, as there wasn't much else to do that hadn't already been done.

The design of my t-shirt

Saturday was a lot more hectic. I started by going to the Trader's Hall and swooned over every single cute thing in the entire hall. I swooned a lot. I also cracked and bought a t-shirt made by Genki Gear. I couldn't resist it! I had some time to kill before the first panel, so I went to the manga library and re-read my favorite chapters of Fruits Basket.
The first panel I went to was a Con Survival Guide. I was very pleased with myself when I saw that I was in the 'normal con-goer' category of different con-goers, and that I had respected all the do's and dont's right from the ballpark. I must be a natural rookie. After boosting my ego, I wandered around again until settling down in the theatre for the Cosplay Masqerade. I filmed it in its entirety, so please check it out if you haven't already. All of the costumes are great and unique.
I wandered around in the Trader's Hall again, this time spending more time around the Artist's Alley, but I had soon done a complete 360, so I dropped in to the Dragonball-Z Abridged Marathon and laughed my ass off along with the rest of the people in the room. I stayed on in the theatre for the Murder Mystery, but I found that the chairs/benches in the theatre aren't very comfortable, so I went for a walk around the entire convention, passing through the Trader's Hall, into the games room, and taking a look at the people who were playing at the Fair-takon which was now offering prizes, but was also charging for go's. I got tired of walking so I went in early to the Cosplay Blind Date, found a convient spot for filming and enjoying in general the event, and ate my lunch until the show started.

This costume was handmade completely out of cardboard and other household items. Amazing, right?!

For some reason, everything at Eirtakon was delayed, and so I had to wait an additional forty minutes before anything started. When it eventually did start, however, I had a great time, and couldn't help but think of Shrek when everyone was shouting for the chooser to pick Contestant Number 1/2/3. Most people had their hands up in the air indicating the number they were shouting.
Once over, I dropped in to the 'Special Event to be announced' and found that it was Anime Karaoke, and I stayed to listen to a few songs until taking another tour through the games room and going back to the Theatre to what had become my 'spot' for the Eirtafortunes. On the way in however, I met some people I had seen on Friday at the Fair-takon, and being on friendly terms, I sat with them in the third row. Sitting through the Eirtafortunes had been defeaning, so I settled in a quiet spot to eat a little. I dropped in to the Rockband tournament, and then went to the J-Monster Panel, which, surprisingly enough, started on time. It was half ten when I decided to go home. The panel was interesting, it was about Godzilla in general, but I had had a very long day, so I went home and dropped into bed immediately.

Sunday was yet another hectic day. There were so many things going on that I didn't get to see everything I wanted to. As with Saturday, I first started off in the Traders Hall, and I bought a bit more than a t-shirt... I bought a handmade mini top-hat from the Artists Alley, an amazingly cute and soft cat plushie, and a Kuroshitsuji pocket watch. I am both extremely proud of myself and very ashamed.

For some reason I completely freaked out when I saw No-Face from Spirited Away...

After my impulse buying, I dropped in to watch some screenings, I am not sure what I was watching but it was a live action. I didn't watch it until the end, instead, I went to see the Cosplay Skits. I wanted to go to the Maid Café straight afterwards, but with all the delay, the café wasn't open yet. Instead, I went to the see Liam O'Brien's panel, which was more of a Q&A for his fans. For those who may not know who Liam O'Brien is, he is a voice actor for English anime dubs. I had never heard of him before, which is understandable, since I only ever watch subbed. Even so, the panel was fun and interesting, and by its end, the Maid Café was open. I got a tea and felt a little torn about the service. The service was great, but it was very strange to have a stranger bow to you when giving you a cup of tea. It was also uplifting, and makes you feel superior. I'm not sure that's really a good thing though. I wanted to catch the end of the Japanese Ghost Stories panel, which was in an another building, but when I got there a staffer told me it had been cut short. So I walked all the way back to the main building and walked around a little, passing through the Trader's Hall again, before finally going back to the Maid Café for a last cup of tea. Since my next thing to do was the Photography Workshop and it was in the same place as the Café, I just stayed put for a while.

The Final Moment.

The photography workshop was more like people who like photography gathering together to talk about photography. There was a studio set up with lights and a white background though, and after talking with each other, we got on to taking studio worthy fashion pictures. Our models were ourselves. The workshop was run by the official Eirtakon photographer, Kieran Broderick. It ran on much longer than originally intended, so I didn't get to see the AMV competition entries I wanted to see, but I am not too bothered by my missing them. I did leave my fellow photographers to get my 'spot' in the theatre to see the Closing Ceremony, and the Taiko Drums performance that came with it though. The Taiko Drums were amazing: three women were creating these amazing rhythms, and with so much energy. They performed three 'pieces', and by the end, almost an hour later, they were dripping with sweat. After the Taiko drums came all the winners for various art and gaming competitions held over the weekend. The entire convention ended at half seven, and as soon as it ended, the officials from the Helix literally threw everyone out. Once everybody was out of the building, the doors were locked mere seconds after. However, people hovered outside for a while, and I have the pride of being the only one to have the final picture of most of the con-goers. The group picture started with someone taking their friends, and people who wanted to play a prank jumped into the shot, and once other people saw a big group, they all just gathered together and posed for my camera.
As a conclusion, I loved this convention and would recommend it to anyone who loves anime/manga/japan. To see all the photos I took of the weekend, click here. To see the videos, click here.

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Photofusing end product. Click picture to enlarge to appreciate my masterpiece, and actually see what's new and what's old.

After getting a new Canon 60D, my dad and I decided that our first project with it would be 'photofusion'. You may be unfamiliar with this word, and that is to be expected, since I just invented it.

Photofusion |ˈfōtō ˈfyoō zh ən|
-Noun, from verb to photofuse
-when two photos, exactly the same, from different times are photoshopped together to create a unique blend of new and old.

Since we are in Dublin, my dad found pictures of Dublin, taken in 1961. There were several pictures to choose from, and in the end, we took three in total (see number 13, 22, 28 in link). By three I mean we took pictures of three different areas. In reality, we got over one hundred shots. Some places were harder than others, specifically near Trinity, as trees were planted, and the huge plants block reference points, not to mention the difficulty of photoshopping a tree. I have only completely photofused one of them however, and it was by far the easiest one to do. The location is a bridge in O'Connell Street.

Original Photo, (notice the young tree)

Taking the same picture as one made exactly 50 years ago is actually quite hard. First, we set up the tripod where the camera had roughly the same view. Once settled, we had to constantly glance from the viewer to a printed picture we had brought along, moving the tripod around, changing the angle, elevation etc. One thing we realised was that the man who had taken the original pictures had simply put the camera up to his eye, and he was almost the same height as my father, perhaps slightly taller. While tweaking the camera's position until getting the same picture, we took about thirty pictures. Perhaps the hardest part of photofusion is choosing which one you will pick to fuse. I eventually chose this particular one because it had a nice recent bus I could use.
Photofusing a picture requires a little photoshop knowledge, but fear not, I will give instructions (Note: I am using Adobe Photoshop CS4 vr. 11.0, on Mac). First, open your two different pictures into photoshop. They should open into different tabs. Select the Marquee tool and on the recent picture, using Cmd. A, you will select the entire picture. Copy it and paste into the tab that has the old picture. You'll find that the recent one is much larger than the old one. Simply go up to Edit -> Transform -> Scale. Make sure you are on the recent picture layer and holding shift (very important!!) drag a corner in until the images are about the same size. Press enter to validate the transform.

My Picture, (see how the tree has grown in 50 years?)

Now, you need to perfectly align the pictures. Set the opacity to the recent to around 50%, and drag the image around, or re-do the previous step if it is too large or too little. Sometimes, you'll find that the image doesn't quite fit, even if the size is right. In this case, go back up to Edit -> Transform -> Distort. Without holding shift, carefully move the corners around until everything superimposes. Press enter to validate. Remember to put the recent picture back to full opacity. It is also best to double click on the background layer, which is in fact the old photo, and selecting ok, which will make it into an editable layer.
Using the Lasso tool, either polygonal or magnetic, trace around whatever you want to get rid of. To fine tune little details, finish your selection and then go into Quick Mask Mode, which should be a button underneath the two colours at the bottom of your tools. It resembles a circle inside a rectangle. By using this, you'll notice that your selection should turn red. Using the Eraser, you can remove red which will remove the selection from that area. Using the Pen, you can add more red which will expand the selection. When done, just re-click on the Quick Mask Mode button. Make sure you are on the right layer and press backspace which will remove what was in the selection, and thus show you what was right under it. To fine tune the image a bit more, go to Image -> Adjustments -> Levels. Make sure you are on the layer you want to colour correct. Don't forget to save as you go! When finished, just Save As, and show your creation to the world! How do you like mine?

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Finished Product, click to enlarge

This simple trick is very easy to do, you only need the correct tools. It was my first time trying any such thing, and the results are pretty good, if I do say so myself. So here's a quick but extensive tutorial on how to make your own. You will need a camera, a tripod, a laptop, photoshop, and an imaginative idea. Simply seeing a wall with some plugs through your magical computer isn't exciting. To start off, place your laptop in its right background, and set up the tripod in front of it. Look through the camera viewer and re-position the laptop according to how you want it to look. Then take your first photo, with the screen open. Then, making sure to not move the laptop itself or the camera, close the screen and take the exact same picture. Check on your camera to make sure the pictures align perfectly, and that they aren't blurry or anything. If you don't like them, just repeat the whole process. I took about twenty different pairs of pictures before choosing the second ones I had taken.
The next step is the editing. BE CAREFUL! If you only have one computer, and you must do the editing on the same laptop, be extra careful no to move either the background decoration, the laptop and the camera. One centimeter could mean the ruin of the trick. The lid has been closed and when opened again, so angles won't be the same. However, look through your camera once finished with editing and re-align your desktop picture with the background. Open your pictures into photoshop. Copy one of them entirely and paste it into the other. When viewing your layers, you should have two One will be marked as 'Background', but simply double click on it and press save to make it into a layer. View the laptop open picture and with the Magnetic Lasso Tool, carefully go around the edges of the computer screen. Make sure you leave the actual borders of the computer out of the selection. Once the perimeter is selected, go back to your layers and select the one with the laptop closed. As you see it, you should also see the selection you just made on top of it. Right click on the selection and choose 'Layer via Copy'. Once done, un-view all other layers apart from the one just created, and you'll notice that it is twisted, and not at all rectangular. Go into the Edit menu, and in Transform, choose Distort. The image will have a sort of frame around it, drag each corner of the frame to align with the corners of the white rectangle around the actual image. Go up to file and choose 'Save As', and save the layer (make sure all other layers do not have the little eye symbol) as jpg, png, whatever your preference. Put the saved picture as your desktop background, and just double check to make sure it aligns in your camera viewer. All that's left is taking a final picture and showing off your cool transparent screen to the world! Alternatively, you could repeat the process enough times to make it look like an infinite number of transparent laptops. This takes a lot more time however, and even more care must be taken to not move the camera nor the laptop.

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Aperture is how wide the shutter opens, to control how much light is allowed in. The wider it is the more light can pass through. The higher the number, the smaller the aperture is. Here are some examples of photos with different shutter speeds and what apertures go with the speeds.

This is an example of slow shutter speed (1/2, half a second). While the film was being exposed, the metronome was in constant motion, and the camera blurred the motion. The aperture is small, because less light is needed. The shutter is staying open longer and so the light flows through it for more time. It doesn't need to be wide open.

This is an example of fast shutter speed. The film was only exposed for 1 two hundredth of a second (1/200). The aperture had to be pretty wide, to let in a lot of light needed. Since the shutter was open only for a very short period of time, the aperture was wide.

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Aperture: 5.6

Exposure Time: 1 / 50

ISO: 100
Aperture: 7.1

Exposure Time: 1 / 100

ISO: 400

Aperture: 10

Exposure Time: 1 /125

ISO: 1600

As you can see, the picture gets brighter as the ISOs go higher. The aperture gets bigger, leaving more light to get in. The time the film is exposed goes down, because less light is needed. Since the aperture is very big, exposing the film too long would bring too much light, so the film is exposed less, giving us the right amount of light.

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Personnes : 8 ( ou 4 gourmands)

Ingrédients :

Pour le Quatre-quarts :

• 6 jaunes d'oeufs
• le même poids de farine que de jaunes
• le même poids de sucre que  de jaunes
• le même poids de beurre que de jaunes
• 6 blancs en neige

Pour la Sauce Caramel :

• 100g de sucre
• 100g de crème fleurette

Méthode :

Quatre-quarts :

1. Séparer les jaunes des blancs.
2. Blanchir les jaunes avec le beurre au fouet jusqu'à obtenir une consistance blanchâtre.
3. Rajouter le sucre et fouetter jusqu'à avoir une belle pâte blanche.
4. Rajouter la farine et remuer.
5. Dans un bol séparé, préparer les blancs en neige.
6. Rajouter les blancs à la pâte sans les casser.
7. Mettre le four à chauffer à 180° C.
8. Chemiser un moule a cake.
9. Mettre le Quatre-quarts dans le four et le laisser cuire 40 minutes.
10. Sortir le gâteau du four et le laisser refroidir.

Sauce Caramel :

1. Chauffer le sucre pour le faire fondre.
2. Mélanger bien pour tout bien caraméliser.
3. Enlever la casserole de la plaque et rajouter la crème fleurette. Attention : ceci va faire beaucoup d'éclaboussures de caramel bouillant.
4. Bien mélanger et verser dans un bol.
5. La sauce caramel est meilleure tiède mais peut se manger froide.

Bon appétit !

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