York UNI Undergraduate Magazine 2011

I was quite pleased when three of my photographs that I took at the famous York FUSION event were selected to be published in this year's undergraduate magazine! The Magazine turned out very nice and looks quite inviting. York UNI is a nice place to be, not only on paper ;-). In case you are interested in getting a PDF or printed version of the magazine, you can download/request from the University's Undergraduate Studies website.

Of course, you can also take a look at the original photos and many others on my Flickr page:

Photo by Martin Trefzer, FUSION March 2009.

You can also go directly to the large versions on Flickr:
Here are the links to the large versions:
www.flickr.com/photos/ratamatatta/3392027451/in/set-72157...
www.flickr.com/photos/ratamatatta/3392839520/in/set-72157...
www.flickr.com/photos/ratamatatta/3392031241/in/set-72157...

In case you want to learn more about the FUSION event where the photos have been taken, you can have a look at their website. The event takes place around March/April time every year.

The FUSION of Super and Mario

Who doesn't remember when the Mario Bros. first came out in arcade low-res 2D graphics in 1983? Wait a sec ... probably quite a few people now ;-) ...

It's all about the plumbers Mario and Luigi who have to fight of abdominal creatures crawling out of New York's sewers. The game was well received and has evolved considerably over time. The sequel called Super Mario Bros. came out in 1985 as a two player game for Nintendo gaming consoles. It remained one of the best selling video games of all time until it was outsold by Wii Sports, a sports game (and another Nintendo marketing masterpiece) for this increasing number of people who want peace of mind without actually doing sports.

Anyways, may I now present you the next generation of the game: Super Fusion Mario Bros.

Photo by MAT on Flickr, March 2011.

The boys did an awesome dance show at FUSION of York 2011, a charity fashion & dance performance that takes place every year around March time. I quite like the event as it is always an excellent excuse for taking pictures as you can see here.

For the keen folks, here are some more sources of information about the bros.

Mario Bros. at Nintendo.

Mario Bros. on Wikipedia.

Super Mario Bros. on Wikipedia.

Super Fusion Mario Bros. at York.

Bollywood meets National Railway Museum

When wandering around in York on one of the sunny weekends we tend to have lately, I watched a promo performance of Indian dancers on the market square.

Photo by Martin A. Trefzer, March 2009.

They were pretty good and when I talked to them I learned that they are a dancing ensemble from Birmingham and that there will be an Indian culture festival at the National Railway Museum in York, UK (4-17th April 2009). Being interested in music and dance, particularly in taking pictures of such performances, I was glad to hear about the festival.

So I will definitely pay the NRM a visit and try to get some colourful shots of Bollywood coming to the National Railway Museum!

Check out my older post about a belly dance performance at a festival in York.

If that wouldn't happen, that would suck!

Good news everyone! Last week we had brilliant sunshine in York (UK!). A good excuse to wander around and wonder what would happen if the trees would remain leafless despite sunshine and green grass ... forever. Well that's quite a downer thought, the result of a desperate soul tormented by dampness, darkness and fog ...

Luckily my friend the tree put an end to those sinister thoughts and prevented me from signing up to the dark side of the Force by showing me this:

Photo by Martin Trefzer, 2009.

Awesome colours, isn't it? So my weekend was saved and my mind was freed to think other important thoughts: how can I get a coffee, fast, and without having to go somewhere inside?!?

Darwin the Philosopher

Right before Christmas last Year I was asked by the York Philosophy Society whether they can use one of my photos from Flickr for an article in the Spring issue of their philosophical online magazine Dialectic Online. I gave permission and here it is: the article Darwin the Philosopher in issue no 4 (Spring 2009).

Photo by Martin A. Trefzer, Autumn 2008

Originally, I only knew that the topic of this issue would be Life & Death. It is thus a quite funny coincident that the topic of the article, for which my photo has been used, is about Darwin and natural evolution, since in the research area I am working in these principles are applied to the design of novel, unconventional (basically weird) technical systems.

I know it sounds a bit like Terminator to the above 25s and a bit like Transformers to those below. So far, nobody achieved anything even close to scary though, so don't worry ... yet! In this respect it is interesting to read an article about the principles of Natural Evolution, when approached from a philosophical rather than engineering perspective.

For everyone who has ever wondered how the hell (and for what price) a cell turned into a cat at some point, the article in Dialectic is worth a read. If you want to know more evolution background I suggest to start reading about Charles Darwin and Evolution in the Encyclopedia Galactica.

York PhotoSoc - Competition Next

Following up from the post yesterday, here's my second favourite from the York PhotoSoc competition 2009.


Photo by Kerry Grainger 2009.

It is not very surprising (at least to me, as I am interested in doing more dance shootings like this one myself) that I like this photo: it's a great silhouette in natural lighting conditions, dynamic, about dance, and a cool outfit is involved!

Particularly the fact that the dancer's face and hand are lit, whilst everything else remains a nice silhouette adds this extra bit to this shot for me. Only thing is that there could be slighly more sky on the right hand side, but I suppose it takes quite a few shots anyways to capture the whole model in mid-air!

Check Kerry's Flickr page out, as there are more interesting shots like this one!

York PhotoSoc - Competition

This spring the Photographic Society of York University held a competition amongst its members. The competition was open topic and any kind of post-processing was allowed. A few days ago, the winners were announced on the society's website. Yeah! I made it to the top ten with a photo of Castle Howard on a foggy day!

However, I have got two other favourites among those top ten. The first one is this amazing shot of Jason Piper.

Photo by Jason Piper

I think it's well spotted and well done! The fact that the 'stuck' bus has got the number 13 gives it an extra bit of (unintentional?) mystique, and everybody who read the books that must not be named probably thinks Harry Potter.

P.S.: I'll post my second favourite tomorrow.