For those of you who know me, this post won’t come as much a surprise, but for those of you who don’t, well… let’s just say I have a mild fondness for the electric guitar and one of my all-time favorite guitar heroes would have to be Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin.

Happy Birthday Jimmy!

So on this January 9th, 2010, I would like to wish Jimmy a very happy and special 66th birthday celebration. Having recently appeared in the film, ‘It Might Get Loud‘ (which I blogged about earlier, just click the link to the left) it has rekindled the interest and desire to have a tour which includes Jimmy. It doesn’t matter which form or shape it takes. It could be with or without Robert Plant and John Paul Jones, but at least some live music from Jimmy to satisfy the fans, including myself.

Of course, I could think of no better way to celebrate, than by posting some of the magnificient photographs of Ross Halfin. Without further adieux, here are some of my favorite images Ross has taken.

Enjoy!

Jimmy Page in Oakland, 1977

Jimmy Page from the early 1980s with telecaster guitar

Jimmy Page in 2009 posing with Les Paul guitar for a magazine cover

Jimmy Page in Los Angeles, June 2009 for premiere of the movie 'It Might Get Loud'

Be sure to check out Ross Halfin’s web site for more spectacular imagery!

Chris J. Politzki
Studio 119 Degrees Web Design & Development Studio

Where did Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page play?

On April 4th, 2009 Jeff Beck was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland Ohio. Supporting him was none other than the legendary Jimmy Page! There are rumours Jimmy will make a few select appearances with Jeff on his current US tour, but check out these great clips of the two legends up on stage again. The two original Yardbirds together again! Wow!

Videos of Jeff and Jimmy at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Performance.

Here they are performing ‘Beck’s Bolero‘ and an instrumental ‘Immigrant Song‘.

‘Train Kept A Rolling‘ Finale with Metallica, Jeff Beck, Ronnie Wood, Jimmy Page and Joe Perry and Flea.

Jimmy Page talks about Jeff Beck.

Interview with Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Images of Jeff and Jimmy in Cleveland, Ohio – April 2009.

The Finale line up.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - Cleveland, Ohio - 2009

Rehearsal shots of Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page by Ross Halfin.

See more images by Ross Halfin at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2009 in Cleveland, Ohio.

Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page Rehearse for their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Performance

Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page Rehearsing in Cleveland, Ohio

Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page Enjoying Themselves in Cleveland, Ohio

Chris J. Politzki
Studio 119 Degrees

Denver Holiday Lights 2008 #1

Originally uploaded by CJPolitzki

Loaded up some images from downtown Denver, Colorado from this past holiday season. See the city decorated with seasonal lighting!

View the Daniels and Fisher Tower, the 16th Street Mall and Union Station all decked out in their holiday glamour!

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing. These are our 2008 pumpkins from the garden. These images I’ve initially posted are from the backyard of our Westminster, Colorado home. Check the entire collection here: Fall Color Images 2008.

 

Chris J. Politzki

Studio 119 Degrees

Adobe Photoshop never ceases to amaze me. I’ve been working with it since version 3, which would have been somewhere around 1995 or 1996? So when I found this new automation in CS3, I was really psyched to be able to share this new feature I found. I used to take hours sometimes to do what Photoshop now does with a click of a button.

So what is this new feature?

Well, as an avid enthusiast of photography, I’m always exploring ways to further the art of creating an engaging image. Upon my explorations, I’ve dabbled in creating panoramas. Never resorting to purchasing either a wide-angle lens or a proper panoramic camera, I was left to discover cheaper methods to satisfy my explorative cravings in photography. I even briefly offered my panoramic photography services out to realtors before it was a common feature on realty web sites. These were Quicktime VR files, which were interactive (some examples of my quicktime vr examples). The creation of these files took an enormous amount of manual labor. The new automation ‘Photomerge’ within Adobe Photoshop CS3 is a godsend!

How do you make this new feature work?

This ‘Photomerge’ feature is found in the top menu under ‘File’=>’Automate’=>’Photomerge’. A window will popup which gives you the option to work with individual image files or a folder of images.

Adobe Photoshop CS3 Photomerge Dialog Box

Demonstration

I’ll demonstrate working from a folder of images. Select which layout you prefer on the left-hand side (I’ll show samples of all these layouts at the end of this post), select ‘Folder’ and then click on ‘Browse’. I always choose the ‘Blend images together’ checkbox as this helps in blending imperfect matches between image edges.

Adobe Photoshop CS3 Photomerge Choose Folder Dialog Box

Hit the ‘Choose’ button. This adds the selected images to the queue. Finally, hit ‘OK’ and see this magical feature perform it’s task.

Samples

Here’s the results below with different layouts used.

The ‘Auto‘ layout: (Full-size image)

The ‘Perspective‘ layout: (Full-size image)

The ‘Cylindrical‘ layout: (Full-size image)

The ‘Reposition Only‘ layout: (Full-size image)

The ‘Interactive Layout‘ allows you to manually move around the images. This can be useful when the automation isn’t quite perfect. All-in-all, a nifty little feature to have!

Chris J. Politzki

Studio 119 Degrees

So we’ve got a few days off here in America for Thanksgiving. I thought I’d write some on the old Blog that I’ve been neglecting. I think I’m going to keep another non-serious thread going here to lighten up the load on the work-related items.

So how shall I start? Hmmmm. You know, there’s a site I really enjoy checking out almost everyday when I log on. This is from a british photographer by the name of Ross Halfin and seeing as how he’s got some good writing on his site, I think I’ll start out talking about him.

Ross has a ‘Diary‘ section on his site which is really amusing and informative at the same time. His travel photography I really enjoy as a beak from all of the great rock and roll photography. He’s photographed nearly every great musical artist there is! You name it, The Who, David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, Pearl Jam and of course my favorite, Led Zeppelin… he’s photographed them all! Here’s an example of Jimmy Page at the recent Olympic Games in Beijing of 2008.

One of my favorite series of photographs from Ross contains this image here below of Jimmy at Shepperton Studios in 1993.

I really enjoy reading Ross’ writing in his Diary on his site. He writes about all kinds of things. Mostly commenting about others on his travels across the globe. His comments hold nothing back and he is oftentimes very critical of others, but that can be quite refreshing to hear what a person is really thinking rather than sugar-coating everything. Oftentimes, his comments are related to his travels.

A sample below:

My flight is full, absolutely rammed, only got a middle seat (okay, I’ll admit I’m flying business) but sitting inbetween an old man and a Chinese man who keeps knocking my arm trying to get more elbow room or whatever you call it. I wonder how long I’ll last without a row with him, – he’s now done it four times.

And yet another sample when he was currently in Kansas City when shooting a Metallica show:

Kansas. Yes, somewhere over the rainbow. The airport is about a hundred miles from downtown. Okay I’m exaggerating, but it was a long way. Around the arena are lots of Irish bars and places to eat meat, lots of meat. Most of the people walking around are the size of cows, it’s like herds of human cattle. Kazuyo says ‘It’s so boring here all they do is eat.’

I got out of a taxi at the venue. A large heifer comes over, ‘Hey are you Lars?’. Firstly, could you see Lars getting out of a cab in the street and saying at the stage door ‘Hello my good man. Is this The Kansas Sprint Arena and can I come in?’ I say no and he then looks at me as if he’s just seen the awakening of Christ and says ‘You really look like Lars are you sure?’ I’m sure and just to clear up any misconceptions, Lars looks like me – except I’m far more handsome…

Ross has some great photographs of some of the most famous and influential musicians ever, so check out his site and see how he allows us access into his perspective on a quite intriguing career as a photographer. Well worth return trips to the site to see what he’s up to, where he’s travelling to, and who he’s photographing or bumping into at hotels in Hollywood.

http://www.rosshalfin.com

Chris J. Politzki
Studio 119 Degrees

Just set-up my first Blog here… Within the next few days I’ll start posting items of interest.

Keep checking in!

Chris