Michael McKelvaney

A photographer and developer based in Bristol, UK.


Back from the East

February 4th, 2012

Have spent a little over a week in the UAE I have my feet firmly on the ground back in Bristol. I thought I would post a small snippet of what I got up to out there. Along with a few shots from my trip.

I was mainly out there for work travelling from Abu Dhabi to Fujairah and then to Habshan, Shweihan and finally Dubai. Quite a lot of miles were clocked up!
I took a couple of days out in Dubai to shoot some time lapse and take a look around the place, which I’ve not had chance to do before.

I visited the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building – that thing really is huge! It dominated the skyline, but looks very majestic at the same time. I also took a trip up to the viewing platform on level 124, called ‘At The Top’ – which it isn’t, there’s 209 (163 of which are habitable). Never the less, it’s impressive.
Here is a shot from the viewing deck : From the Burj Khalifa

I also managed to shoot some time lapse from the viewing deck. I’m currently editing the footage, but here is a shot that shows the setup : Achievement Unlocked: Shoot time lapse from the world's tallest building

The Dubai Fountains that surround the Burj Khalifa are just as impressive as the building itself. It’s no surprise that they also are the largest in the world. Why would they build anything less than that!?

I was also lucky enough to be able to stay with a friend out in Dubai, who lives in the Dubai Marina. I shot some time lapse from his balcony too, here’s a setup of that one : Next time lapse shot rigged up

It’s not my first trip to Dubai, and it certainly won’t be the last. I really enjoy going out there, as bonkers as it is!

I’m working through the footage that I shot in Dubai, I will post it as soon as it’s ready :)


DOS games, on your Mac

January 16th, 2012

Boxer.app is an open source DOS emulator allowing you to play your old DOS games right inside Mac OS X. What a treat!
More info — http://boxerapp.com/


Beautiful sunset over Bristol yesterday, taken with Instagram at Hinton near Bath

January 14th, 2012


January 6th, 2012

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Adobe is quitting flash development on mobile platforms

November 10th, 2011

This seems like a good thing. Another big backer for the open web.

There is one thing in this press release that sounds a little alarm bell  - “We will also allow our source code licensees to continue working on and release their own implementations.”
This sounds like Flash on mobile devices will still be available if manufacturers are willing to port it, does that mean it will start to become fragmented and different devices with have different levels of functionality?

Read the official Adobe word here – http://blogs.adobe.com/conversations/2011/11/flash-focus.html