by Carl Frederik Waage Beck on september 27, 2010
I don’t get out much these days, as I usually stay at home to take care of the kids.
Having finished a few paintings in the “War is Coming Home” series, something got me thinking about the lives of the Talibans or talibs if you will.
What are they like, and what’s the deal, you know – really… Some light research ensued and, tadaah!
So here goes – The top 10 list of things you probably didn’t know about Taliban:
10: The Taliban consists mainly of Mujahideen and as it were, former allies of the West.
9: Many Talibs actually do smoke, regardless of what Mullah Omar says,
8: The majority of the Taliban movement is made up of Pashtun tribemembers practicing the moral code “Pashtun Wali” which has hospitality as one of it’s cornerstones.
7: The Taliban established an Ombudsman in 2009.
6: While not in combat, the Taliban enjoy a good game of rock-throwing.
5: The Taliban numbered roughly 45.000 in 2001, 11.000 in 2008 and 36.000 in 2010.
4: Ahmad Shah Massoud (Leader of the opposing United Front/Northern Alliance) stated in 2001 that without help from Pakistan, the Taliban would not be able to sustain their military campaign for a year – Since 2001 Pakistan has received 11,5 bln. USD in military aid from the United States.
3: On october 4 2001, Pakistan refused an offer from the Taliban to have Osama Bin Laden handed over for trial on the grounds that Pakistan could not guarantee his safety.
2: Few Talibs have ever read the Koran, but rather learn it by heart verbally.
1: Since 2004 the Taliban has been known as the “Islamic Insurgency”.
I find myself just a tad better informed now, hope you do too.
The painting below “Forever after Silent” is the third in the series “War is Coming Home”. If you’re from anywhere around Copenhagen you might recognize the backdrop.
Enjoy!
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by Carl Frederik Waage Beck on august 25, 2010
I have been a fan of Trey Ratcliffs for some time now. Trey is one of the pioneers of HDR photography, and he has been instrumental in making this sort of photography popular and known by the masses.
For a while HDR has been regarded as a sort of artificial or unrealistic school of photography.
It was frowned upon by the photography establishment and until now not seen as a legitimate form in its own right. Many such photographers thought that the extreme dynamic range possible with HDR made the photographs “unrealistic” and not true to reality.
Until HDR emerged, everyone was used to the fact that a taking a photo meant committing to a certain exposure. Anyone who has tried photographing outside from whithin a building knows that the final photo either shows a proper lighting of the interior OR the exterior. That is, either the interior darker details are visible and the outside is a white blur OR the outside bright details, clouds etc are visible and the interior details of the room are a dark blur.
Traditional photography means you have to chose. But in real life we don’t have to chose. The eyes adjust to the proper sensitivity according to where we focus. The combined experience is that we can see BOTH the details in the clouds outside AND the darker details of the interior room. HDR works the same way – you get the best of both worlds, and a photo that is closer to the experience that you actually had when you were there.
Trey is a nice guy with a mission to promote HDR photography. He runs a blog at stuckincustoms.com that has tens of thousands of visitors every day, but decided to help other HDR photographers spread their work and generate traffic to their sites. So he created HDRspotting.com which works as a traffic generation engine. It’s a community by invitation where members can upload and share their work.
I have posted numerous HDR photos to HDRspotting.com, and as a result thousands of people have now seen my photos of the fairy tale castles and landscapes that are so common in Scandinavia it’s almost hard to spot them. Here’s an example of what I mean: the lake pavillion in central Copenhagen. Visible from a unique angle this winter because of the prolonged frost that made walking on the lakes possible.
Enjoy!
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by Carl Frederik Waage Beck on august 11, 2010
I went exploring in Kings Gardens the other day, and found a nice view of the castle Rosenborg built by King Christan IV in 1606-1607.
Today it houses the crown jewels and the nearby barracks of the royal life guard.
Go see for yourself!
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by Carl Frederik Waage Beck on august 7, 2010
Yesterday afternoon i was out strolling with the kids in the pram and happened to pass by the gardens of the danish university of agriculture. A cafe has been set up in an old derelict greenhouse. I decided to have a local pilsner in the shade while the kids slept. Of course they woke up before I was finished standing in line. Classic.
As i leaned to lift the cover from the pram my beer spilled unto my pants. I had managed to drink one sip. Again classic. Todays HDR is from another more successful day in the palm house of the botanical gardens. Enjoy!
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by Carl Frederik Waage Beck on juni 25, 2010
Todays soundtrack during work in the Studio:
Simple Minds
Talking Heads
YES
The Cult
Alice Cooper
I guess I’m still living in the 80s…
Enjoy!
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Founder of the "Copenhagen Stuckists", Carl Beck has since 2005 emerged as a controversial community activist artist working under the pseudonym "Paintshooter"
As a former FX-trader in the global currency markets, Carl Beck has now turned his attention to the individual in a globalized world. The work of Carl Beck has hung in group and solo shows in Denmark and France. 
