Where was THAT shot taken?

On a more positive note, check this article out? Maybe one day someone will investigate where and when I made an image?

Also here's a couple of shots taken on Friday, both are posted on FLickr, but I wanted to tweak them a little more, using as always Photoshop and Lobster. Taken in specific place for a specific reason, based on a small discussion that murmured away for a few days over in the Melbourne pool of flickr.

Am currently experimenting with the higher film sensitivity settings on my camera, pretty pleased with the results so far.

Using this setting is no mean feat for me, I have been using fine grain film and film developer combinations for many years, and have callouses on my hands from lugging around my tripod. So it is kind of refreshing to not get too hung up on the idea of super smooth grain images and just follow my intuition. I've even created a set for it over at flickr.

Who is watching who?

Recently my best friend, returned from London. He was there when the bombings occurred a few weeks back.

As any tourist would do, he carried a backpack with him.

He has dark skin, he tans easily as he lives in the warmer part of our country, and dark curly hair.

What state of mind would I be in if the London authorities adopted a racial profiling approach to security while he was there?

It was bad enough when I heard that bombs had gone off?

My friend DRP over on flick has a thought provoking piece on the whole issue, go read it I made a comment down the bottom.

Four?

I'm a gemini you know?

Photographic Musings

Had the usual tough day at the regular Tuesday gig. Got home at a reasonable hour and started musing, about photography, digital and the internet,[ have one group show in the very very early stages of planning, that has come about because of the internet]. So I'm having to collect my own thoughts about what I'm doing and why I do it. This what I've gotten together so far.

An interest in the changing nature of Photography, and how Photography changes nature, or at least our perceptions of it, has been a major motivating factor in my creative output for almost twenty years now.

It was Frederick Sommer who said,
“...some speak of a return to nature, I wonder where they could have been?”
Indeed where have they been, and what have they got to show for the experience? Images are produced with an ease and grace never before imagined. Who will see these and share them?

What about collective memories and experiences of the places we live inhabit and occupy, how can an individual or a collective of people get together and represent this in a cohesive and creative way, is it even at all possible, is it even worth worrying about? Has digital made it the process of image collection, even more democratic, [not just in the political sense] ?

Is digital an adjunct in the process of image collection as a collective experience, and is it also able to re-awaken a sense of wonder about one’s environment?

Does seeing groups of images, made by separate people occupying the same city, exhibited in the most public of all places the internet change a collective or individual’s understanding of that city?

Part of the process of musing has had me drag out an almost 15 year old exhibition statement from my undergraduate show in 1991. It blows me away now when I read it, that I could have the insight to think of these things then. Here it is, slightly edited for grammar and perception.

“ The Lost City.
Who hasn’t been compelled to peer down dark alleyways,what do they expect to find, why isn’t the cacophony of the city enough to keep people on the main street?
Perhaps it is a search driven by desire or fear, how much then; of a struggle it must be for some, not to take that first tentative step into that arduous journey, destination unknown.”

Spring has sprung.

You know that the weather is on the up and up when the trees start to show some blossom.

And you have to marvel at the tenacity of nature itself.

These shots also serve as a reminder that images are to be made anywhere and everywhere, all it takes often, is the right light, and the right frame of mind, the rest will present itself.

Currently part of a group of Melbourne based serious amateur photographers who have met through flickr and are keen to get some recognition of their work either via an in-the-flesh exhibition, or some sort of organised cyber-show. I must confess that my involvement with flickr along with the purchase of my Nikon Coolpix 5400 camera has re-invigorated my passion for image making. While time is still a major constraint in regards to making the actual images themselves, processing them and presenting them can be done in the comfort of my own home, at my leisure, or whilst watching Television. Flickr allows me to organise them, and create collections of ideas and series that can be continually in flux if I so chose. Many many people look at them and some even leave comments. So creatively I feel as though I'm moving along quite nicely, and am starting to think about how to present images on a screen rather than on a wall.

Poor Interface Design

Gripe!

Poking around the intranet of one of my major employer's today, and found this gem of an interface! The old underline the word coz it's important trick, never mind that on a website this means something else these days! And no it doesn't work as link, don't get me started on the non-existent links that I stumbled on and the continually opening windows everywhere! Sigh maybe in 10 years time this will have disappeared completely?

Spring Begins?

Spring is around the corner. Got inspired this arvo by the rapidly flourishing Melbourne pool over at flickr. Produced these two shots. Sadly my batteries ran out!

s2art & Technorati?

Some weird stuff is going on out in cyber space with my "handle" s2art Technorati lists several entries by Scoottie and one by Swissmiss. Hmmm?

Flickrites Inaugural Melbourne meeting 2005

What a glorious day weather wise for the inaugural meet up of Melbourne Flickrites. Photos galore will no doubt be uploaded. check my flickr sets section to see what eventuates?

As far as I can tell,scootie seems to have been the only one to blog the whole affair.

Online Play and Toys

Flickr has a group of people who make lots' of little toys that hook into the databases there, somethings called API's, this new one is great, it's called delivr and sends a postcard from your own stream or that of the entire database of 1,000,000 members to anyone you care to send one to. On the world of the internet this is nothing new, however, what makes this special is you can source your own images or others and make some weird and whacky popstcards.