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site iconCédric AellenModify

a swiss front end engineer based in Lausanne with a love for electronic music and hiking.
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Alan Schaller liked one of my photos!

2026-04-28 03:05:00

Alan Schaller has a Patreon page where he shares his knowledge of the art of photography. If, like me, you love his work and street photography, I highly recommend subscribing to it.

Every month he runs a competition on this page based on a theme, which he judges himself.
The last one was on perspective and I was lucky enough to be among the 10 winners! That’s awesome!

A groupe of girls fangirling
Me when I discovered that Alan Schaller liked one of my photos

It is a huge honour, as this community has so many talented photographers.

And it motivates me to keep learning and improving. Bearing in mind that I got back into photography 4 months ago after a hiatus of about ten years.

The nominated photo

Low-angle view of three people's arms and hands reaching up toward the sky, throwing and catching Easter eggs. A child in a white t-shirt is visible on the left. Two eggs are mid-air at the center of the image. The background is a clear, uniform blue sky.

This photo was taken during a family gathering. We were throwing Easter eggs in our garden. One of my daughters, along with one of her cousins and their grandfather, were throwing eggs at each other. I placed myself in the middle, sitting on the ground, and the photo was taken looking upwards as they were throwing them. I was a bit worried about taking one on the head.

Alan’s comment

Perspective Competition Winners

Druuummm roll please… the winners of the perspective competition are (in no particular order):

Evan
@evangoldbergphoto

Andy Davies
@one_camera_one_lense

Martin Wong
@maw_camera_roll

John Barnes
@malvernphoto

Thomas Fritz

Alienlebarge

Saman Amin
@saman_m_a

Christian Cyfus
IG: @christiancyfus IRYS : Christian_Cyfus

Romain Léger

Jed Best

I was really impressed with the entries for this one, there were some real stunners - but the ones that really stood out were these winners, they all captured perspectives in different ways, looking down, looking through, looking up, finding some very unique frames in locations etc. I thought they each had their own uniqueness, and quite a few made me really look twice and try to work out what I was looking at, which is something fun to see in a competition on perspective in particular.

(I couldn’t find a full name or instagram for some of you, so please comment below if you’d like me to update them).

My next competition is going to be on light: hard light, soft light, backlight… front light for that matter. To enter, just head to the chat section and look out for “Light Competition”, and 10 winners will be selected to appear at the end of our next YouTube episode.

Well done again to the winners, and thanks to everyone for their submissions - you got involved!

Alan

The photos of the winners are featured in his latest video.

No more YouTube algorithm

2026-02-11 05:20:00

I have to admit, YouTube eats up a good chunk of my day.

When I watch one video, I get sucked in by the suggestions, and instead of just staying for a 15-minute video, I always find myself still glued to the screen 30 minutes later.

Let’s start a little experiment. Since I have no self-control, I need technology to help me out.

For the next few days, I’ve configured my apps to avoid being subjected to the YouTube algorithm.

To do this, I’m relying on three essential building blocks:

  1. Kagi, an ad-free search engine
  2. RedirectWeb, a browser extension that redirects URLs based on custom rules
  3. Skipcut, a website that blocks ads and suggestions

This setup allows me to do two things:

Watch Videos in Skipcut

Skipcut.com interface displaying a Polaroid Flip review video without ads or suggested content, showing a clean viewing experience

Skipcut is a website that removes all ads and suggestions. This will prevent me from clicking on the video that YouTube is suggesting on the same topic (or not).

To make this work, I apply the following rules:

In RedirectWeb

Whenever I want to access a video link, RedirectWeb redirects me to Skipcut:

  • Redirect from https://www\.youtube\.com/(.+)
  • Redirect to https://skipcut.com/$1

In Kagi

From Kagi’s video search results page, I want to be redirected to Skipcut when I click on a video. In Kagi’s advanced preferences, you can configure redirects. Just use the following: ^https://www.youtube.com|https://skipcut.com

Use Kagi’s video search instead of YouTube’s homepage

Kagi video search results page showing Polaroid Flip camera reviews with thumbnails and view counts, demonstrating an ad-free alternative to YouTube's homepage

Instead of going to the YouTube homepage, I want to land on the video search page of the Kagi search engine. This will require me to be more deliberate in choosing the videos I want to watch by conducting targeted searches.

To do this, I use the following rule:

  • Redirect from https://www\.youtube\.com/?$
  • Redirect to https://kagi.com/videos?q=

Jamuary 2026 #5: The loss

2026-01-19 05:50:00

Here’s a short piece recorded live, born from the frustration following Switzerland’s loss to Slovenia in the European Handball Championship.

The entire track is built around a small sample, heavily processed by the Ectocore module.

Jamuary 2026 #05

My defaults app end of 2025

2026-01-14 06:00:00

A little behind schedule this year. Following 2023 (and admitting I missed 2024), these are the apps I used throughout 2025.

Communication

Mail
HEY
Chat
iMessage
WhatsApp (because everybody uses it 🤮)
Discord
Mastodon server
omg.lol
Mastodon client
Ivory

Productivity

Tasks & Notes
Workflowy
Shopping list
Reminders app
Calendar
Fantastical
Contacts
Cardhop
Markdown editor
iA Writer

Reading & Media

RSS service
Miniflux (self hosted)
RSS client
Reeder on iOS and web client elsewhere.
Reading
Readwise Read
Podcasts
Castro
Music
Spotify
Navidrome (self hosted)

Photography

Photo library
iCloud
Photo editing
Darkroom
Camera app
Leica LUX

Development

Code editor
Nova
Terminal
Ghostty
AI code assistant
Claude Code

System Utilities

Launcher, Clipboard manager & AI assistant
Raycast
Automation
Keyboard Maestro
Screenshots
CleanShot X
Passwords
1Password
VPN
ExpressVPN
Dictation
MacWhisper

Internet

Web browser
Orion
Search
Kagi

Cloud Storage

Photos
iCloud
Files
kDrive

Daily Life

Map
Swisstopo
Apple Maps
Weather
MeteoSwiss App

Jamuary 2026 #4: House life

2026-01-14 05:25:00

Tonight, during our family dinner, I recorded sounds of pots, forks, plates, glasses, etc. on my iPhone. Then, using XLN Audio's Life, my favorite program on Mac, I mixed all of that to create breaks using the recorded sounds. All of this was then recorded in the Ectocore module, which further mixes and manipulates the sounds.

The result is a kind of deconstructed house with syncopated rhythms. Everything I love!

Jamuary 2026 #04

Jamuary 2026 #3: Extrem bassline

2026-01-10 03:05:00

Since Bohm is mainly in charge of the kicks, it was a good opportunity to use Ultra Kick to try and generate a bassline. And I think it turned out pretty well. It’s very dark and heavy, so I really like it.

Jamuary 2026 #03