Curtiz

Bacon is good for me !

Another roller-coaster week it has been here on Stuck In Plastic.

A roller-coaster of great posts, great feedback, great emotions, and some other awesomeness around the corners.

We grew this week a fantastic 200 new friends on facebook. Thank You.

We grew to an average of plus 200 reads a day here on Stuck In Plastic in the last few weeks. Thank You.

We launched a fantastic book exchange program for your Xmas tree and you guys and gals are selecting you epic twelve. Thank You.

We outed ourselves and a few more in being Stuck In Plastic Photographers, and you all got very engaged. Thank You.

We looked back at our own Stuart and what responsibilities come with being Stuck In Plastic.

And some more ...

A roller-coaster week of great epicness, awesomeness and a little bit of bacon along the lines.

A week of exploring our boundaries and getting ready for the Xmas season.

Another week of being with You, exploring with You, sharing with You ...

Thank You !



You can still sign up for our epic twelve book exchange here.

What topic would you like to see addressed before Xmas ?
What do you feel is missing here on Stuck In Plastic ?
What do you really like and want to see and hear more of ?

And the winner is ...

 

During the awesome madness of indypendence day on IG,  we got word from the awesome folks over at LEGO and Warner Bros that the Awesome After Party™ made it to the finals and was selected as the number one also know as the winner of The LEGO Movie Scandinavian Master Builder Challenge.  

To quote Gitte Bloch Eskildsen, senior brand manager, LEGO group: "The Awesome After Party is one of the most impressive and creative LEGO houses I have ever seen built by a LEGO fan and fully captures the essence and fun of THE LEGO Movie™ and what LEGO is all about, namely imagination, fun and creativity ..."

And fans we are here at stuckinplastic of all things LEGO ! 

Now we could not have won this challenge without all of you and your fantastic support in making all of this happen.  To celebrate the awesomeness of all of this we have decided to not just give one, two or three signed prints away of the Awesome After Party™ but five exclusive signed prints.

Handpicked by an innocent child from a planet far far away, here are the five lucky winners:

Ella N. Big thanks for tricking her daddy in going all in on FB to get the vote out, a signed print is on its way. 

Goedele D. from Belgium for outing herself on FB.

Lyn M. Thanks for doing all the great stuff both on the interweb and IG.

And last but not least Anna G. from D. in W. for being such a great support and also outing herself on FB. 

Number five will be handpicked out of all the fantastic IG comments you guys and gals have been giving us !

Time to get ready for the next crazy adventure™

Me2

PS. We will upload the images on Flickr as well.
PPS. How many times was the word awesome mentioned here on stuckinplastic in the last 5 posts ?

You Are Awesome !

Thank you all for your awesomeness !

This is our 100th post here on the stuckinplastic blog and we thought we share some stats of awesomeness with you all !

Our very first post was posted only 4 months ago and attracted a good 17 page views and no G+ recommendation.

In average individual posts today get an average of 54 page views and our most viewed individual posting got a good 136 individual page views and 19 G+ recommendations.

We accumulated a great grand total of  11K page views.

The top countries visiting us are US, Sweden, Israel, UK, Australia, Russia, Finland, Singapore and Belgium. 

33% of you awesome people are using windows and another 33% use a Mac and 21% actually likes to visit us from the comfort of their iPhone.

We accumulated a good 115 comments here, but get much more traction on G+ (do visit our G+ community if you have not yet done)

And last but not least (and I know some of you will not believe this, including myself), Shelly and Me2 posted each approximate 50 posts each.

Thank you all for awesome support the last 4 months.

Looking forward to another quarter of awesomeness together with you !

Shelly & Me2

 

Crash Test Dummies ...

While Crash™is telling great stories and enjoying ice creams in Oslo on the Awesome After Party and really likes you to vote for us on facebook we experienced another not so nice crash this week.

We were having a great time in The Studio™planning and prepping for our next big adventure (more on that later next week - but rest assured the plans do not include dinosaur train stations) when the whole studio turned dark. 

Or at least the viewfinder turned dark.


It did not matter what lens we put on, the viewfinder became more and more dark, and we could not even focus correctly anymore.

Something was seriously wrong and even the display threw an odd error message.

We felt like a painter who's brushes just turned into stone or a writer without a pen.

What did just happen ?

We only had a full clean and check up a little while ago and so with shivering legs we went to the mothership to get the verdict on the damage and the ETA of the repair.

Especially this last one was a big concern as we were planning a first set of shoots next week, before the start of the next big adventure in three weeks time.

The young trooper behind the desk took our body into the dungeons for a thorough check, and after a while a more senior trooper returned with the verdict.

A tiny little screw got lost on my lens and this ultimately damaged the aperture mechanism, turning the viewfinder dark as the aperture ring was bent.

My favorite 105 got a replacement screw, but the body needed to stay for repair.

The senior trooper advised to check occasionally for this little stop screw and even take a little screw driver along (yes sir, rest assured I will check this bugger once in a while).

So, if you are shooting DSLR and change your glass on a regular basis do check for the little stop screw on your lenses as it is a critical component and you don't want to be caught out like us.

I had no clue about that little screw and the damage it could do.
I am sure most of you are not checking for it either.
Here is a quick post on flickr showing the missing screw on a lens (not my lens, I just googled for missing stop screw) 

At the same time the young trooper returned with a replacement body so we could continue our planned shoot while awaiting the final repair.

Awesome service.  

Thank you, Nikon !

Me2

PS. If you are planning to go on a longer trip (photo safari, holiday, art project...) it is always good to take a second body along (your iPhone is the backup of the backup) and check your gear a week ahead of the departure date so you can work out any last minute hiccups you may encounter ...

Remember, the gear of a photographer is an essential piece of kit to produce awesome art or cool pictures and you dont want to be caught out when you traveled far and beyond.  

Here is my small pre-flight checklist for photo shoots abroad.

Check your gear at least a week ahead.
This really means taking some pictures with all your lenses and look for dust spots.
If dust spots, go get a cleaning of your sensor at a certified photo shop.
Make sure you have a second body with you (which you also tested).
Make sure your batteries are fully loaded, and you have a travel adapter along.
Make sure you have the possibility to backup your memory cards on a hard-disk and online.
Make sure you have sufficient memory cards along so you can at least survive two days.

Who you gonna call ?

Tomorrow the Me2 Crew will be crashing the awesome after party in the Central Station of Stockholm (and guess who we called to drive us to the the party ?)

If you want to meet Me2, the Me2 Crew and some other infamous celebrities you are more than welcome to join us in Stockholm Central Station where LEGO and Warner Bros are celebrating the release of the best movie ever on Bluebeard and other related devices as of 10 AM CET.

We have some secret gifts for those of you who make it to Central Station and get a picture posted on Instagram tagged with the awesome #TLMscandininavia5 tag and Me2 included.

But no despair for those of you who cannot make it to Stockholm, Oslo or Copenhagen in the coming days as the folks at LEGO and WB have created an awesome Facebook App for all of you to let you vote remote (and even make you win a personalized print).

Here are the 5 easy steps (and you even get a fantastic sneak preview of the build):

1. Hit the link here: Facebook App
2. When asked to first like the WB homepage, just hit like.
3. Then vote for the awesome after party by selecting #TLMscandininavia5 and giving it your Facebook vote. So the fifth picture it is :-)
4. Tell your friends, kids and grandparents alike to do the same.
5. Say done here in the comments (or on IG) and you enter into the draw.
 
You see how easy that was ?

See you soon !
Me2 & Crew

In Flight

This month is one of those crazy ones where everything is awesome, yet running from one place to the other does mix up some routines ...

First, I failed to connect to the internet of things the last two days when on the road (using trains not planes) so when I finally hit The Studio™ last night to get some clean stuff for the next trip kicking in tomorrow I felt too tired to do a quick post. My respect goes to all those 365 days heroes that manage to produce a steady quality and grow in their personal journey day after day.
I managed to get my first glitch on day XVII instead of CCCLXV.

That said, it was a glitch and I will not give up and continue ...

Second, Shelly is doing a great job with asking all the right questions and pulling some legs.

What are we doing this weekend, why are we taking pictures of ourselves and our fellow plastic friends and foes, and happily touches upon the printing topic (the first prints have arrived with Wibeke and Lynn) which actually touches upon a lot of deep philosophical topics.

Right now I am just on a roller coaster of mash ups, hangouts and formal board room meetings with friends and foes alike around the Universe™  (and I got another special invite which I will come back later on) with my favorite body still in repair (so limited pictures) so I don't really have the time to sit back and reflect and just have to enjoy the ride.

Now, while traveling on intergalactic trains with limited internet connections, I am trying to pick up on a different topic me and Shelly have been discussing.

The one of mastering the art.

Stay tuned, and discover if it was Scott, Trey or Lynda who finally beamed me up ...

Me2

Footnotes to self:
Day XXI in my personal challenge (I skipped a threesome).
As always, stay tuned and leave your view in the comments below or on your social platform of choice ...