Homebrew Happiness

Oh, the yumminess of brewing your own beer. This photo is the *second bottle of organic Nut Brown Ale from our first batch of homebrew, which we opened last Saturday night.

It had a sweet carmel taste to it, and almost no bite - very smooth. It's almost too drinkable. Soon after I took this photo, the third and fourth bottles mysteriously disappeared from the fridge.

That would explain the Sunday morning headache I had.

I created this photo using the techniques and principles of food photography that I have learned over the last 6 months (on a $3000 system) which I was able to replicate using my 7 year old digital camera and cheap materials bought at craft and hardware stores. Huzzah! I guess all I needed was some liquid inspiration!

*What happened to the first bottle? I had only a few moments warning before the historic opening of the 'first bottle', which not enough time to get lights or any kind of backdrop up, and the room was very dim. So quite honestly, the photo sucked.

Estrella (aka Mudstrella) War 2008 photo links

Apparently it was quite wet and muddy at this years' Estrella War, which shall now be known as Mudstrella War.

I have now heard numerous horror stories about losing boots to a giant sucking mud hole that literally engulfed an encampment overnight, slipping and falling into an unclean port-a-potty, (which could not be cleaned as the suck-trucks couldn't get down the muddy paths to service them) and trying to lug a 20 pound breakable ceramic drum from camp to camp whilst avoiding the slimy spots, and the constant falling, slipping and sliding that made fencing near impossible.

I am glad I did not spend the money and time to go to Estrella War. My red tent is floorless, and let me tell you how much fun it would have been scraping mud off my carpets. Not.

But then another part of me is jealous of all the fun everyone had in spite of the leaky tents, mud-soaked hems and rusted armor. Aye, I would have liked to have browsed Merchants' Row, checked out the A&S competition and listened to some bawdy bards.

I shall have to content myself with the photos and videos that several of you are starting to post online. I shall gather videos in another post, as there are many photos to list:

Godfrey of Atenveldt has many Estrella photo galleries on Flickr, conveniently divided into categories for your perusal. The Grand Court Gallery alone has 150 photos, so set aside some free time. Here's a cameo appearance by the Outlands' Orange Duke, too. Looking awfully pissed. Probably at mud.

A set titled Estrella War 2008 by blindtraveller contains a nice mix of shots. Included is a photo of the nefarious mud in question, taken at such an angle that I suspect the photographer may have been slipping and falling at the time.

A bunch of battlefield images are what cjacobs53's Estrella War 2008 gallery contains - plus a rather chilly girl in a white chemise doing some fruit-bearing. No, I'm not linking that one, you'll have to find it yourself. He has also managed to snap a photo of the rare Loch Mess Monster, who looks about ready to eat a poor little rubber ducky. Swim for your life, ducky!!

More heavy fighting images have been compiled by wodeford in this Estrella XXIV 2008 set. Armor and persona of the far east seem prominent for you samurai spotters.

A couple of smaller sets by iaincaradoc include Estrella War XXIV (2008) and A Knight in Atenveldt. Great photography technique where 'short focal length' causes the background to blur makes some of his images really pop out at you.

These works are only what I've been able to find so far on Flickr. If you know of other Estrella photo galleries on other photo sharing sites, please send me a link and I'll include them here. Keep checking back on this post for updates!

***Updates Below!

Geillis inghean Poil ui Siridein from Citadel of the Southern Pass in the Outlands wishes to share her Estrella War 2008 gallery, which contains many Outlanders, the War Wagon and an obligatory mud shot. Not much mud on this swanky couple, though. She also has a video channel on YouTube with all SCA-realted videos. None of Estrella yet, though...

See lots of nice up close battle action! Beothuk has started adding his War shots into his Flickr page, which as of this writing, contains 37,874 images. Yeah, let that number sink in a bit. Chances are good if you've gone to Estrella War, you're in there. That's like one image for every paid member of the SCA. And is THAT the coolest helmet ever or what??

A few photos from Glory War X

If you cannot view the slide show above, just click to go to my Picasa gallery.

Virtual History Tours

For years I've pored over amazing photography of faraway lands, people and objects unimaginable to me. Each time I opened magazines like National Geographic, or flipped through Polaroids of someones family trip, there was another tiny little peek at a different world, which seemed to only create the desire for more.

I've already accepted that there are some places that I will just never get to travel. This is one of the reasons I love virtual reality. It's not the real thing, but it's better than nothing at all. But lately what has been really impressing me are these amazing 360 degree panoramic QTVR's (QuickTime Virtual Reality). I've put together a list of few of the coolest ones I could find. These make me want to strap on a pair of those geeky VR goggles and pretend I'm really there...

For our virtual tour you'll need Quicktime installed, a good graphics card and a fast internet connection for these to view correctly. First stop....Denmark!

Apparently, there are around 600 medieval churches in Denmark with visible paintings. There are untold numbers of undiscovered paintings, as many were whitewashed over due to controversial images. These three Danish Medieval Church Frescoes from Elmelund, Marie Magdalene and Sulsted have been restored to near original condition.

Moving on to Slovenia brings us to the Erasmus Knight's Tournament, held every year at Predjama Castle. There's quite an array of activities for the historian! "Everything has been designed according to documented models from the 16th century," quotes a foreign travel website. Yeah, except for those cabaret bellydancers. That's just plain funny to an SCA'er like me.

Maybe you've always wanted to stand in the ring of standing stones, with nary a soul to be seen. At Callanish, on the Isle of Lewis, you can do just that. I appreciate that the photographer has positioned himself so that he casts no shadow. You really get the feeling you are alone out there.

Last but not least, let's travel to Turkey for an amazing view of the inside of the Bayezid Mosque. The ceiling is stunning, and I suspect it would cause vertigo in real life. Don't forget to look down - the photo is so good you can see crumbs on the carpet!

Crown Tournament and Vintage SCA photos

Well, I don't know about you all, but I sure seemed to cram a whole bunch of stuff into this last weekend. Yes, I know I missed a good Crown. Oh, yes - and congratulations go to Duke Artan and Duchess Aziza, the new Outlands Crown Prince and Princess! This will be Duke Artan's 6th reign as King of the Outlands. When he steps down, will that make him the Duke Cubed? (Duke3)

Speaking of Crown Tournament, don't miss THL Robert Marchet's website, where there are glorious photos of the day, such as this 'moment of reflection' shown here. There are several wonderfully captured moments you'll want to see. I've taken the liberty of coming up with some catchy titles for a few of my favorites: 'just like whack-a-mole', 'nice dodge' and 'oooooh, that looks painful.'

But seriously. I only jest so much because I love them. They're really, really that good.

Another great photo gallery (and SCA historical reference) is Vintage SCA Photos! It's a Flickr photo page where you can upload pre-1986 SCA photos. And just look who is already in there...pre-Outlands, I'm guessing.

Flickr is a free service if you have any old incriminating photos of the Dark Ages you'd like to upload...

A plethora of Pennsic Pictures!

No, I didn't miraculously get to go to Pennsic for the last weekend. I wish. Being back in the motorcycle industry means it will be like pulling teeth to get time off in August. Sturgis and Pennsic just happen to fall across the same dates. Well, with all the overtime I've done lately, maybe I'll have no worries about Estrella War in 2007...

Anyway, being an SCA blogger of some repute, AND moderating a 3000+ member SCA group on MySpace, means I get many links sent to me, and I collect heaping spoonfuls of sweet sites to pass on to my readers.

This being the end of August, all those Pennsic photos are now making their way into online galleries all across the internet.

Here's a few I've found so far:

Liam St. Liams' Flickr Pennsic photos
You can't argue with 484 photos. Geez, did you have time to fight??

Eirik Andersen's Pennsic War 35
He's got three current galleries on his site of Pennsic 35, including Opening Ceremonies and combat. Also older galleries of past events. Cool!

Baron Agrippa's Pennsic 35 Photos
If you like snubbery, Roman stuff and banners, you'll enjoy his photos. There's also a few nice panoramics in the later pages.

THL Milica of Varna, (SCAtoday.net's Editor-In-Chief) Pennsic XXXV Photos
Her galleries are broken up into segments like "Midnight Madness" and "Walk around Pennsic". Also several galleries from past events.

I'm sure there are more photos out there. Got a gallery of images?

Email me a link at anachronista @ gmail.com (just take the spaces out of this address) and I'll post it here!

A few more Estrella Photos

More Estrella Photos for your enjoyment, courtesy of Kamelia Delavar....

Many, many people journey up the rocky hill to take a 'bird's eye view' shot of Estrella War every year. Usually you see all the colorful tents and banners, nestled in a bright pocket of lush green grass. If you look hard enough at the first photo here, you can see that everything is pretty much the same color of light brown. That is why I'm dubbing this the Ugliest Estrella War photo EVER.


Next is Kamelia and Don Talan, who look just smashing in the warm Atenveldt sun. For those of you keeping track, it has been almost 14 months since his leg was shattered into a bunch of sharp pointy bits. He was getting around Estrella War just fine with a cane and even made it up the trail with Kamelia to take that bird's eye view shot. Believe me, that hike is not easy! Huzzah for bone grafts!

If things go well, this summer may see him return to the fencing field.


The third photo is me! And I happen to think that this is one of the BEST SCA photos ever taken of me. Somehow I managed not to sunburn my belly that day. I was keeping the sun off with my new floppy hat. That brings my collection of SCA hats up to five now. You can never have too many hats.


Last, but certainly not least, is the mysterious Benza, keeping shady under her parasol. Man, I'd hate to be a single guy on the receiving end of that gaze. Sultry!

Estrella War Photos

Twelve dust-free Estrella War 2006 photos!

The Outlands Party

Protector of the Queen's Heart

Polish Period Garb

The night before battle

Outlanders

The Rock

WMD's

Live like a Darbukan

War Wagon Parking Only

Banners

An afternoon melody

Keeping warm

Winter Oasis Photos

Winter Oasis is one of my favorite events. I mean, how often can you spend all day learning about drumming, dancing and middle eastern culture and arts?

The weather was perfect and the food was amazing and plentiful. Many of us took home huge platters overflowing with pakoras, couscous, falafel and other nameless delicacies, as there was simply too much food. I'm still stuffed.

As always, the musicians and drummers of Darbuka played like rock stars. After the event was technically 'over' there was even more amazing music at the post revel (and this time we even had a real fire!)

One exceptional piece of news was the announcement (in the form of a rhyming toast) that Justin and Rafi'a are expecting a baby girl this summer! The Outlands will have to do without these two for a while, but we'll all still be here when they are ready to camp out again. And with those two as parents, she'll grow up learning music, art and fencing. Planting the seed for future Darbuka generations!

Anyway, I managed to take a few photos at Oasis. For your viewing pleasure...

Donovan's Drum Class
Teaching how NOT to 'wang'. Thank you.

Recognize any of these dancers?
You put your right foot in...

Sir James's Drum Class
A whole room full of echo-y goodness!

Sadiq and Justin
Frame drum duo - I swear Sadiq needs an action figure with 'spinning drum attack!'

The Tea Table
Make your own chai. How could life possibly get better than this?

Kids drum making class
Earplugs! Where are my earplugs?
Seriously, it's amazing what you can do with markers and a bunch of coffee cans...

Historic Italian Costumes

An addendum to the previous post about using travel photos for research...

Another fabulous website is The Stock Exchange, the leading free stock photo site on the internet. (which I will be utilizing soon once I get the photo sharing up and running for this blog...)

I just had to post again to include this folder full of Historic Italian Costumes that were apparently part of an exhibit in Hong Kong. Sweeeeet!

Using travel photos as research

Sometimes I pore over the websites with travel photos, just to get an idea of where I'll never be able to afford to go. Well, TrekEarth has metric buttloads of great images that travelers all over the world have uploaded for your viewing pleasure. I've used a few as inspiration for drawings, costumes and maps, and I'm selecting a few for you here that I found funny, useful or both.

I found this great photo of a young boy being dressed in a suit of plate armor during a festival. Looks like he's having the BEST DAY EVER. Jeez. I bet his parents couldn't wipe that smile off his face for weeks.

Here's a great single combat shot without all the rattan and duct tape us SCAers are used to. Rap shot!

Or, if belly dancing is your preference, check out the latest fashions in Egypt.

How about this fabulous skirt on this Rajasthani Dancer? Yes, please, I'll have one of those. See? The costuming ideas are already flowing...

How about architecture? Can I live here? PLEASE?? No? How about here? Though the heating bills would probably be tremendous...

Architectural details can make great designs for garb, woodworking and even tattoos. Here's a nice relief from the Alhambra. And another. Yeah, about those tattoos. Hmmm....

Looking for a portable blacksmithy? Man, what some people can put together! I'd probably yank too hard on the bellows-pull and blow a bunch of hot coals onto myself. Brave man, there.

How about some period tent research? A real black goathair Bedouin tent! A Yurt with a mighty fine door! Curious about how those nomads move thier yurts from place to place? These would come in handy at events.

Those of you who know me may have heard of my strange obsession with Camels. I've selected a few (and there are many) from TrekEarth that made me laugh.

Who needs a car, when you have a camel cart?

Tassel overload. My god. Can he even see where he's going?

Burp.

Ok, enough for now.

Worth 1000 has a swordfight image contest

Worth1000.com is a great place for photoshop junkies to get inspired, compete or even try and find work.

Every now and then they sponsor image manipulation contests that have a medieval or renaissance flavor. This is the first one I've seen where the source image was actually taken at an SCA tournament. Check out all the ways people have doctored up this great swordfight.

If you've got the time for browsing, check out Animal Renaissance 1, 2, 3, and 4, Childhood Renaissance 1 and 2, If Pirates Ruled, and wow, there's just too many different ones to list. Just check out the directory.