In My Hiace

Capture now, focus later!

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 18:54:33 +0100

How many times have you taken a photo and then realised that it is out of focus. Or what you focused doesn’t capture the essence of the photo.... well I can say that at least.... many times! So with this new technology developed by a company called Lytro, you can always refocus the picture after with the help of software.

But doesn’t that take a little bit of fun about

Here you have couple of examples and try for yourself
http://www.lytro.com/picture_gallery

and here you have article of CNN about it.

New website version... 3.0!

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 16:12:51 +0100

Well, it is official.... after much reading, looking, digging, browsing and some help I manage to get the image that I wanted for my website. It is something simple (specially the code I use, only 1 html line, impressive hum?!) but very simple to navigate, fast to see (specially here in Angola where the inet is very, very slow!) and iPad ready (ahahaahahahahaahah everything now days is about iPad)...

Hope you enjoy as much as I enjoyed doing it.... to be honest I am really proud of my work!!

Here some snapshots, but check for your self at: www.kamenemtraca.com!

12th Cape Town International Jazz Festival

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 18:59:43 +0100

On 25th and 26th of March was the 12th Cape Town International Jazz Festival and I had the opportunity to attend. Working for the Chocolate Magazine, I was invited by the South African Tourism in Angola, represented by BACK.

The venue was the Cape Town International Convention Centre and it was divided into 5 stages. The stages were shared by big and wonderful artist like Youssou Ndour, Earth Wind & Fire, the new Emmy award winner Esperanza Spalding, Dave Koz, Angolan singer Sandra Cordeiro, Hugh Masekela & Larry Willis, Feya Faku, Jazzanova feat Paul Randolph, Monique Bingham, Naima McLean, Hubert Laws, Bebe Winans among many others... A lot of excitement in one place. Both days were fully booked and a lot of people were outside trying to last-minute haggle tickets from people. The weekend pass was about 75 USD and the daily pass was 55 USD. An interesting fact for me as an Angolan, was to learn that the ticket price for the Luanda International Jazz Festival in Angola is double the price, but only half the amount of artists coming.

Anyhow, in the mornings we had the chance to attend the press conferences, at the hotel Pepper Club. I had the opportunity to be less than 2 meters away from the artists that I had only heard and seen on cd (some of them in vinyl), or watched them on TV (VH1) and now there they were in front of me talking about their work, experiences, history and what they were expecting of the show. For many of them (the ones that were not from Africa) it was their first time in their motherland Africa. It was very interesting to learn that they all felt a very big connection with mother Africa. Esperanza Spalding had the most attention from the whole media. Everyone wanted to get a glimpse of the girl who had beaten the teen phenomenon Justin Beiber, Florence + The Machine and Drake for the Best New Emmy award. She was very happy, relaxed and with an amazing sense of humour.

After the press conferences it was time for the show. Seemed like everyone was there. The access was very easy and organised. But why should I say anything else. Here you have the photos...

Zombie

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 18:20:22 +0100

First the Vampire saga, and now the Zombie saga. Everywhere you look people are obsess with afterlife. Some with more glamour than others. Like Panda beautifully put it “Who wants to f@*# a zombie?” But let me tell you that there are some sexy zombies out there, isn’t that right Sari? All you need to do is search a little bit and you will find them!
There has always been a sexy earning to know more about the un-dead: Dracula, Wearwolves etc. but it´s kind of burst out of proportion since True Blood and Twilight Sagas. Reaching out to the younger audiences by the means of sex and social medias. Yes, there we have it. A trampoline for other platforms, and the one that I am now referring to is the Capcom Zombies Cafe for iPod touch, among others.
I tell you, my friends, I have been infected and: I am a Zombie!!! Somehow I reshuffled my life in order to “use zombies as free labour to build your café empire” as they put on their site. Here you can “prepare food, direct your zombies and manage supplies. If the competition gets too fierce you can always direct your zombie workers to attack a neighbouring café and steal their secret recipes”, and I tell you it is addictive. And so additive that I have already turned 3 “normal people” into zombies. Since I discovered this application, I found a new use for my countdown timer on my phone.
And above you have a picture of my favourite worker and the employer of the month!

Muhammad Yunus

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 16:19:20 +0100

Last year in April, one of the biggest events in Luanda was a conference regarding MicroCredit programmes in Angola. My dear friend Paula, who works for the PR company BACK, called me and told me who the main speaker for the event will be and I could not have been more thrilled!!! The main speaker was the one and only Nobel Prize Winner and Father of Micro Credit Mr. Muhammad Yunus!!!
As soon as I heard this I told Paula: "I need 5 min with him! Pretty please!! I really want to take his portrait!!!"
On the day before the conference, we met Mr. Yunus “behind the scenes” to hear his thoughts on this. As I was granted my wish, I was also hypnotised by his words on MicroCredit and the whole idea behind it: "we can all do it.."
As I was setting up my lights, he walked over to me and the very first thing he told me was:
“I really like your hair!”
Isn't that a great way to start a conversation! After touching my hair and making sure it was all real, we started our session. It was very easy to take good photos of Mr. Yunus; he has a very charismatic smile!
And this is why you could see in my on-line profiles the sentence:
“The Nobel Prize winner likes My Hair!”
It is not everyday that you meet someone with such importance that likes your hair! On top of that he is a Nobel Prize Winner!
Hope you enjoy the pictures!