Our rating scale relates to the pumpkin beer as a whole. We rated the beer itself on a 1-10 scale and then added or subtracted based on the overall “pumpkin-ness” of the beer.

(Imperial) Pumking – Southern Tier Brewing (7/10)
Crisp IPA with a strong pumpkin aroma and initial taste. Light color, standard head. “Bewitched and brewed with pagan spirit”.

Fruit Crate Pumpkin Ale - Hermitage Brewing (4/10)
Brown ale lacking pumpkin flavor or spice. A nice change from the typical pumpkin lager, but disappointing overall.

View 2011 results. More to follow soon.

Pumpkin Ales 2012 is a post from: Max Elman

Lomo LC-A / Sold

The LOMO LC-A (Lomo Kompakt Automat) is a fixed lens, 35 mm film, leaf shutter, zone focus, compact camera introduced in 1984. The design is based on the Cosina CX-2.

Fun and solidly built russian 35mm camera. Example photos. Bought from Lomography for $250 in 2006.

Diana+ / Sold

The Diana camera is a plastic-bodied box camera utilizing 120 rollfilm. Most versions take 16 photographs per roll in a non-standard format of 4.2cm square using a simple plastic meniscus lens, although some are capable of 12 6 x 6cm exposures. Originally marketed as an inexpensive novelty gift item, the Diana was later used by professional photographers to take soft focus, impressionistic photographs somewhat reminiscent of the Pictorialist Period of artistic photography, but using contemporary themes and concepts.[1] Ten years after the Diana disappeared from the market, another inexpensive box camera of similar concept, the Holga, would also become the camera of choice of some professional photographers.

Great 120 format camera. Here are a few example images I’ve shot.  Bought for $50 in 2007 from Lomography

Lensless Camera Company Pinhole 4×5 Wood Camera (75mm Wide-Angle Focal Length)

From the Lensless Camera Mfg. Co. No need to load these cameras in the darkroom: simply use cut film holders or Polaroid backs like those used with lensed cameras. If you prefer, do it the traditional way, load the film in the darkroom using the back that comes with the camera. The standard camera is made from 1/2 in. 9-ply Baltic Birch plywood, walnut stained with a polyurethane finish, with vertical and horizontal tripod mounts. Using 4 in. x 5 in. format 400 ISO film or #52 Polaroid, exposure time in bright noon-day sun is about 4 seconds.

Sheet film and polaroid backs are awesome and a great way to learn about longer exposures. Here are a few examples of images shot with this guy. Bought for $75 from Freestyle in 2006

Polaroid 545 4×5″ back

The Polaroid Land Film Holder #545 is a film holder for 4×5″ large format view cameras. It can be used like a common film holder, clamped between matte screen frame and camera, but it is much heavier. That’s because it’s used with Polaroid’s special 4×5 enveloped instant film sheets. The film holder doesn’t take the common Polaroid film packs. It’s just usable with single sheets of that special enveloped instant film which was available until ca. 2005 . Ca. 12 different variants of that film were made, with film speeds from ASA 50 to ASA 3000 for black and white positives on paper, and in a smaller speed range for color positives on paper, and one version for making black and white negative and positive at once (the negative needing an extra fixing bath).

Works with the pinhole camera above. Paid $60 in 2006

Manfrotto 732YB Camera Backpack

Versatile camera backpack designed to hold a tripod, SLR body, a lens or two, and a  15″ laptop. The camera pouch is removable and the bag converts to a shoulder/sling bag.

Sells on Amazon (with a tripod) for $145.

Film Camera Selloff is a post from: Max Elman

Exporting the 65mb iTunes Library XML file seemed like a reasonable start, but the file was too large to actually do anything with. Excel crashed. Numbers crashed. Even Google Docs didn’t know what to do with it.

Trying to split the file didn’t work well either, as even TextMate could barely handle the file. Sure, I could have done some command line kung-fu, but it was late and I’d never dealt much with XML files before. So I turned to Google.

After a dozen failed searches, I came across a Java applet from a few years back called Super Analyzer. It charts library growth as well as a multitude of other fun things. Here’s a few examples of what it turned up from my library:

Yep, I have a lot of music

;

The most common words in song titles read like a strange love poem.
I particularly like that the top words are “love your song time“. OK, I can do that.

Mostly modern music

In the middle of the day

And it’s high quality. V0 FTW

Full report with more graphs here.

Want to see your own stats? Download Super Analyzer from nosleep.org

Super Duper Itunes Analysis is a post from: Max Elman

Download PDF (55MB)

The Call of Cthulhu For Beginning Readers is a post from: Max Elman

A few of the pumpkin beers that Kristan and I tasted this year. Yum!

It’s been a tough month. After going through a few various Oktoberfest six-packs, we moved on Pumpkin Ales. For science! And the betterment of pumpkin-lovers worldwide.

Our rating scale relates to the pumpkin beer as a whole. We rated the beer itself on a 1-10 scale and then added or subtracted based on the overall “pumpkin-ness” of the beer.

Pumpkin Ale - Wasatch Brewery (7/10)
Smooth, not spicy, a bit of a pie-like creaminess

Pumpkinhead Ale - Shipyard (6/10)
Our winner last year, a great balance of spice and smoothness

Hipp-O-Lantern - River Horse Brewing Co. (6/10)
Not spicy, not much pumpkin flavor

Spicy Pumpkin Ale – Indian Wells Brewing Company (6/10)
Just the right amount of spice to make it interesting, yet still very drinkable.

UFO Pumpkin - Harpoon Brewery (6/10)
Slight spiciness, good pumpkin taste, very drinkable

Punk’n Ale - Uinta Brewing Company (5/10)
Smells of cinnamon & nutmeg, not pumpkin, light body

Pumpkin Wheat - Shock Top (4/10)
Good light beer, but barely any pumpkin taste whatsoever

Harvest Moon Pumpkin Ale – Blue Moon (3/10)
Like Sam Adams, tastes like a Fall blend but nothing like pumpkins

La Parcela - Jolly Pumpkin Brewing (3/10)
Very sour, no pumpkin taste, great head

Smashed Pumpkin (Pugsley’s Signature Series) - Shipyard (3/10)
Very strong at 9% ABV, medium pumpkin taste, very thin

Harvest Pumpkin Ale - Samuel Adams Brewery (2/10)
Tastes suspiciously like their Oktoberfest blend- is this pumpkin ale?

Pumpkin Ale – Buffalo Bill’s Brewery (2/10)
Slight pumpkin taste, terrible and undrinkable beer

Punkin Ale – Dogfish Head Craft Brewery (2/10)
Too bitter to enjoy. Not a great taste.

Oak Jacked Imperial Pumpkin Ale - Uinta Brewing (0/10)
Too strong (10.31% ABV), yet light and tasteless

View 2012 results

The Great Pumpkin Ale Tasting is a post from: Max Elman

We then packed up and drove over to Sutro Tower and shot a few more:

It was a great afternoon filled with a bizarre mixture of technology. The pinhole camera was made out of wood, the Polaroid back is 20 years old, the film is at least 8 years old, and my iPhone and lenses are brand new. Overall, I think it was a pretty fantastic mixture. Now I’m off to find more discontinued sheet film. Stay tuned for more!

View more photos from today on Google+

Mixed Technology is a post from: Max Elman

These 200 photos tell a fun story of my year so far:  Visiting Sundance; buying a new motorcycle; spending lots of time with my family; taking trips to Vegas, Cancun, Europe; and some experiments with light-writing at night.

Thanks for looking, and comments are appreciated on Flickr.

View the full set on Flickr

200 days of 2011 is a post from: Max Elman

Yep. I can actually hover.

Here’s the final result. Click through to comment on Flickr.

Garden Photoshoot is a post from: Max Elman

View the full set on Flickr

75 days of 2011 is a post from: Max Elman