This guy shoots some interesting stuff around his native town in Canada. This particular series looks like it could be interesting.
Click here to see the timelapse video of all 1928 images. (10mb quicktime movie)
3.11.04
A research issue?
A new issue of Boxes and Arrows is out. In this issue is Use of Narrative in Interactive Design by Nancy Broden, Marisa Gallagher, and Jonathan Woyte.
Interseting read yet somehow not really all that practical? the article as often happens whilst surfing turned up a couple of other names, Marshal McLuhan, Brenda Laurel and Mark Meadows. The first name I am well aware of (of course), the other two will require a little more digging. Sadly at the moment Amazon's servers are down, unheard of really? Also some of the other links at the bottom of this article were broken as well?
2.11.04
Cup day 2004
Today is a public holiday in Melbounre. It has been an excuse to paaartee. As indeed we have here at my house. Here is a self portrait to prove it.
1.11.04
The mighty search engine fends off accusations of big business bias.
Is the ground shifting under Google's feet? Will folks abandon the darling of the net? All I can say is I'm happier now that Yahoo puts me above Carl Volks (now deceased) 2 day workshops, Google doesn't? Try doing a search for "photoshop workshops in Google or Yahoo and you'll see what I mean!
31.10.04
What to do on a weekend?
Weather has turned into a real pearler. Daylight saving has started here in Australia - in the states with common sense anyway. So will be able to get more done outside tonight after dinner if I'm so inclined. It's almost beer o'clock now though so I'm not holding my breath. Looking forward to the BBQ on Tuesday, big race for many, just an excuse to fire up the bbq, and down a few brewskis for me!
Been hammering away at the 3d software most of the day, it's getting there very very slowly.
30.10.04
The difficulties of learning new software...
Man this software drives me nuts, LightWave that is, I have never seen such an out of touch application in all my life, the interface is hard to read, the tools are difficult to find, there is little logic applied to how the application functions. It has important menus tucked away at the bottom of the screen, it has no Menu bar, no help system on and on the list goes, if this software wants to become the king of 3d apps, boy it's got a lot of improving to do.
Having said all that it's obviously a powerful piece of software to use and is more than capable of fulfilling the pro's needs for this kind of work.
29.10.04
NIkon Coolpix challenge image?
Well unless I manage to make a better image this weekend I will be using this image for the next Coolpix challenge.
Coming soon - 'Street Photographs'
Nice little article over here justifying this blog and many others.
God help me if I ever end up getting the volume of traffic some of the sites that get mentioned here?
On a more photographic note, in town last night I had my sites set on a particular shot on a particular corner of the CBD. Been there twice so far and still not happy wit the results, however the second visit produced another idea and I'm pretty happy with this second idea.I will pop it online later today, as I am going to try and beat the damn traffic this morning and leave real early. I'm also thinking of setting up a page or two that demonstrates the process of getting the shot I felt would suit the brief, as I have been to the location twice and produced about 12 or so images already so far. Each image has it's own relative merits and negative points, again stay tuned.
28.10.04
Coolpix Challenge image?
Hit the CBD tonight on the way home from work, got some good shots in preparation for the Nikon Coolpix challenge, stay tuned for the results.
First Go
Well here's my first go from the shoot for the competition I mentioned earlier this morning, not that happy perhaps too early for the "crowds" and it's surprising how few people wear any colour in their clothing?
Where, when or how to make and image
Have some time up my sleeve and have decided to head off to make some images. The question is - where, and, how will I get where ever it is that I decide to go? Possible options, the corner of Swanston and Latrobe, Prahran, or even Fitzroy?
The other issue is, the weather?Will I need a raincoat, not to mention that Nik who is interstate with her work has the iPod? (This limits the number of shots I can take to about 13, (I have a 128 meg card) or I can lug my notebook around or, walk to and from the car if I can find a cheap easy park?)
Stay tuned for the results, some of which I plan on entering in this little online competion.
27.10.04
iPod Photo released!
Well it's no secret, new iPod released hmmm I want one!
Currently I use my 20 gb iPod whilst out and about, as a storage device in conjunction with a belkin card reader, makes those 22 meg raw files insignificant really
26.10.04
Daylight Saving is upon us!
As November draws to an end, I am getting excited about the prospect of the arrival of day light saving. This means several things, more opportunity to make images in that awesome light that happens around sunset, more warm days for BBQ's and more of a chance to get my thongs on. These thongs were packed in a box that we sent home ahead of us from our recent trip around the world. I got a real surprise when I opened the box to find them nestled in amongst all the books we had packed. Now if the weather keeps going the way it has been I'll be back in them full-time (outsidework).
It's also graduation season this means, late nights and gab fests, art art and more art. Some years it's fun, others it's a drag - this year, I'm still deciding?
25.10.04
Why not edit in Photoshop?
Given up on the 3d software for today, not an easy package to learn.
Here is what appears to be a fabulous photography link especially if you are Interested in Digital Photography
Had a bit of a rant this morning on dpreview.com about using tools like Photoshop to enhance images.
22.10.04
From the archives
Even though I'm at home crook, I can still post, here are some images from the archives.
Reasons to travel #1
Hard to resist the travel-bug with news like this
Opening shortly at Tate Modern in London (Oct 28 to Jan 23, 2005), is a major show of Swiss-born photographer Robert Frank, who will be 80 on 9 November 2004. It features over 150 of his photographs... [From About Photography]
Is film dead?
Perhaps one of the more surprising recent announcements is a new Zeiss Ikon M-mount rangefinder system, reviving a well-known old name last seen on cameras in the early 1970s. From... [About Photography]
21.10.04
Surrealism - Photography - Digital?
Frederick Sommer, an inspiration.
Not sure why but have been poking around on the web with this great artist, who sadly passed away in 1999. Many articles acknowledge his ability but all agree that he did not get the recognition he deserved. Ok I admit it I have been thinking about surrealism and photography a bit lately and Frederick Sommer is one of several photographers associated with the Surrealism movement. The question remains though, what would these folks have done with computers and digital cameras?
Books and Computers!
Have just downloaded this neat little app called "Books". fantastic, as I'm a little bit of a book collector, this allows me to keep a record of what I own along with all it's publishing info (if it has an ISBN). I recommend it to anyone who has lots of books as I do, the auto-completion feature alone is worth it.And while it has nothing to do with Photoshop or Photography really I think it's worth mentioning.
The reason I am using it this morning is because, our box of books and ephemera from the first half of the trip arrived here yesterday, so I dutifully started adding all the NEW books to this data base app. I then discovered that there is a newer version, (updated just days ago), so I downloaded it installed added my backed-up files and away I go. Now the app has more features, yet to be explored, something that I WILL be doing though, is saving the file and exporting it as html and uploading it to my website. stay tuned both of you for the link - if you really want to see the books I own that is! it's a MAC app so here's a picture of of it for you all to see. I'm sure there is a PC equivalent.
20.10.04
Photoshop Workshops and Nikon Raw Files?
Sitting at home twiddling my thumbs, waiting for the arrival of the parcel/box of books from the first half of the trip around the world. Made an image sitting on the couch. Love the wide angle lens on my Nikon Coolpix 5400. Now I especially love the fact that Adobe have released a raw plug-in for this camera, and I have, thanks to the folks over on the Nikon forum at dpreview.com, go it working in Photoshop. Which allows me supreme control over the resulting Photoshop conversion, something I guess I'll add to future versions of my Photoshop workshop series.
17.10.04
Australian snapshots?
During August 2004 while the eyes and ears of the nation were firmly fixed on the Olympic Games, 150 ABC Local Radio listeners ventured into their communities armed with disposable cameras. Their brief? To capture the diversity of sporting, leisure and day to day activities in their region. The result? 3000 photographs illustrating an insiders view of Australian life beyond our big cities.
Top 4 Tom Waits Albums?
My 4 all time favourite Tom Waits albums?
Glad you asked.
And in no particular order.
- Swordfishtombones
- Bone Machine
- Mule Variations
- Real Gone
Sundays?
It's Sunday!
I'm fully recovered!
In the backyard!
Online!
Drinkin' beer!
Listenin' to Tom Waits!
It's sunny and warm as only Melbourne can be at this time of year!
Does it get any better?
15.10.04
Ray Man photography show at the NGV
So here I am sitting at home.
Broadband is set up and now is wireless! And both of us are connected.
Despite feeling ill I managed to drag myself into town today to see the Man Ray photography show at the NGV, which is finishing this weekend. Let me begin by saying how impressed I was! The work is surprisingly interesting. Lots of small intriguing prints(perhaps contact prints), often with marks on them that appear to be ideas for cropping etc. The diversity of the work was excellent as well, I expected lots of solarisation but his work extends well beyond that. Some wonderful portraits, great fashion photography, and some really kooky dadaist images/ideas.
The marks he made, Man Ray, really impressed me. They added to the images in a way that I'm having trouble articulating, and it is of course something that could be easily done using a digital app, such as Photoshop or some other image editing program. The size was just perfect too. I'm sure that they were contact prints. Must buy the catalog, one day.
Something that is running through my mind at the moment is surrealism and digital photography, how would have these guys (the surrealists) handled it all, what kind of images would have they made, or would they have thought it all too easy to just cut and paste and juxtapose using a computer? What was their position on technology and culture? Maybe I'll find out one day, maybe I'll get an oppurtunity to work it all out, who knows but in the meantime, I'm gunna have fun thinking about it I'm sure!
14.10.04
Fuck the Liberals - and Labour too!
This one turned up in my inbox tonight. Bit un-needed really given that the Liberals are going to fuck up anyway!
Am absolutely stoked about the new Tom Waits album, pure Tom Waits ALL the way!
Tom Waits' album purchased - at last
At last yipee, yahoo, I've got the new album by Tom Waits - Real Gone. What can I say it's up there with my other favourite Tom Waits Albums.
Also purchased, Nick Cave and the bad seeds new one, Abbatoir Blues / The Lyres of Orpheus, and Sigur Ros' Music Split sides. Got some listening ahead of me!
13.10.04
CD capacity to reach 1 Terabyte!
According to this article e-mailed to me on a reputable list storage mediums equivalent in size to a contemporary CD will eventually hold a Terabytes worth of data, which for me as a digital photographer is important. My current image collection while not huge is large enough to concern me, and of course will continue to grow. Current number of digital camera files in storage, 12,000 + and growing. While 12,000 2 meg files isn't a huge problem I'm currently using RAW format on my Nikon Coolpix 5400 which results in a 22 meg file, and I'm already at about the 700 to 800 image mark! (I've owned the camera since about July 2004.)
12.10.04
Shared Post election reflections
look I'm no writer and I'm still a seething ball of fury after this weeks election results, that appear to be guided by people's hip pockets, no surprises there!
John over at Dog or higher has rather succintly summed up a whole heap of stuff about the current state of play here in Australian Politics, check it out!!He even talks about how the so called free trade agreement impacts on technology here in Oz!
11.10.04
Post Election Depression?
Post Election depression creeps in! However this little snippet helps me keep perspective.
" Number of bald US presidnts since TV age began: Zero
Bald British Prime ministers Zero
Bald Australian Prime Ministers One!"
Source? John S Croucher, Professor of Statistics, Macquarie "University
Does this say something about us as a nation? Are we capable of seeing through the veneer of television, or has our current, and barely hirsuite PM manipulated things the way he really wants through the media? Part of me feels this is the end, other parts realise that life will generally go on for most of us. It's the bottom end fringe dwellers who are going to suffer the most. The marginilised few who slip through the net. these thousands, will feel the pinch the most. I also fear for our Medicare system and wonder about the national Telco, Telstra. Of course again as a big city dweller with a reasonably consistent and reliable income these things are actually choices for me, what about those who have no choice but to use Telstra, or find a bulk billing doctor in their region? And how will they fare in 5 or 10 years time when Little Johnny is long gone from the scene, and some other party hasn't the balls or vision to try and fix things.
Political commentator/writer I'm not. I've been fortunate over the years, I have managed to hang in there, despite a couple of close brushed with homelessnes, and unemployment. I strongly feel that the fabric of this country is slowly unralvelling, no-one in political power makes decisions based on any moral ideals just what they think that most of the populace want. And sadly history judges these people but history may not be enough for those already staring at a range of diminishing choices.
10.10.04
8.10.04
Blast destroys camera
Blast destroys camera. Smart media card survives. This one has been around for a while now, so I'd thought I'd share it with you both.
7.10.04
Post Holiday reflections
My two recent loaves weren't too bad(both fruit loaves), I was surprised the first one worked at all as I completely got the measurements wrong!
Yet to purchase Tom Wait's new Album.
Have an upcoming exhibtion, the 20th Anniversary show from where I work. We're also publishing a comemorative book to celebrate this auspicious occasion. I'm hoping a copy of which will end up in the State Library of Victoria.
Some quotes from a book I discovered lying around at home
Good teaching is more of giving the right questions than a giving of the right answers.
Josef Albers
4.10.04
Bread baking
Back into bread baking, one of my ambitions to get a loaf that is fluffy, light, that rises high, and with a nice crust. This is my second attempt since restarting, I used to do it often a year or so ago, now with our new stove I am inspired to get back into it.
This one is good, bit heavy on the crust, but light enough for my liking. Could be a bit sweeter maybe, and not sure how to get a real dark crust yet anyway here's a snap of the bread just before I started eating it.
3.10.04
Google results?
Googled s2arts and came up with this site (allconsuming.net) linking to mine, bizzare really?
Richard Avedon dies at 81
Well known photographer Richard Avedon has died. He died after suffering a brain haemorrhage while on assignment for the New Yorker magazine in San Antonio, Texas.
More on the BBC website
The article mentions his brutally honest black and white portraits. These were a source of inspiration for me for many years, his book the American West was truly fascinating, and I have contemplated for several years now making portraits with a 5 x 4 camera just like his!
2.10.04
Picture Australia, resource?
Researching online this morning and I stumbled across this site, Picture Australia, may well be useful in a variety of ways. Might even add it to my sidebar?
"Looking for images of Australiana? PictureAustralia® is the place to start! Search for people, places and events in the collections of libraries, museums, galleries, archives, universities and other cultural agencies, in Australia and abroad - all at the same time. View the originals on the member agency web sites and order quality prints at your leisure."
1.10.04
Who were the Ant Farm?
Funny how you stumble across information on the web, whilst browsing the ICP site, I cam across this info for some early video art,from a group calling themselves Ant Farm.
"...Projects by these media collectives ranged from documentaries and agitprop to novel street theater and performance art. Guerrilla video never fully achieved its utopian goals of returning broadcast power to the people or fostering the free flow of information and images, but the same iconoclastic spirit of skeptical political expression thrives today in new media, independent video, cable television, weblogs, and net art."...
Maybe I can use this in my classes next year, who knows?
30.9.04
Photographers Web Resource
Are you a student of image making using cameras? Do you enjoy taking photos and want to take better ones? Do you enjoy visual histories? Then check Kodak's George Eastman house web site out. It's a resource that as an artist, educator and photographer that will prove invaluable for many years to come, here's why. And I quote from the front page.
The photography collection includes more than 400,000 photographs and negatives dating from the invention of photography to the present day. The collection embraces numerous landmark processes, objects of great rarity, and monuments of art history that trace the evolution of the medium as a technology, as a means of scientific and historical documentation, and as one of the most potent and accessible means of personal expression of the modern era. More than 14,000 photographers are represented in the collection, including virtually all the major figures in the history of the medium. The collection includes original vintage works produced by nearly every process and printing medium employed.
Now if I could just find some one, anyone to pay me to study this collection full-time, I'd be a happy man. Are either of you offering?
For what its worth, I have made some small changes to my website, added some links, to my links page and modified my 126 gallery pageand tweaked the bbq page.
29.9.04
The days of the monolithic local television station Web site are numbered
Ah music to my ears, anyone out there in TV land listening? No I didn't think so.
The days of the monolithic local television station Web site are numbered. They're all built on the portal model, with a home page and links to material deeper within the site. That model is being rewritten by people who don't want to be forced to go here just to get to there. RSS and search are enabling people to have it their way, and who knows what's to come downstream?
You may well ask how I know this comment/idea is true? Glad you did, here's an example of why, last night my wife and I *both* had our laptops open and searching browsing the web at the same time. The TV? well it was on but we hardly paid any attention to it.
Will anyone in TV land notice? Probably not, do I care nope! All I ask for is the death of TV as we know it, and pronto thanks!
Digital versus analog photography?
This morning has seen a flurry of activity, thanks to about.com and it's photography writer Peter Marshall, as well as my fab little news reader, NetNewsWire, I have found a ton of interesting things relating to photography, but I want to draw both my reader's attention to this article about digital photography, found on digitaljournalist.org. It touches on some issues that I alluded to in my own article on the digital v analog argument.
To my way of thinking this argument is simply not a valid one, analog is good and has its uses digital is good and has it's uses, both have their own cons as well as a raft of pros. While I see my own creative analog output slowed dramatically over the last 5 or so years, I still qam not in the forseeable future going to abandon it. Particularly in the area of *fine* black and white prints.
New Raw Camera Format?
Adobe Systems Incorporated has today announced The Digital Negative (DNG), which they describe as "a new, publicly available archival format for the raw files generated by digital cameras.]"
Eddie Adams dies
Best known for his image of a Viet Cong prisoner being executed by General Nguyen Ngoc Loan in Saigon in 1968, Eddie Adams had a long and distinguished career as a photojournalist.
28.9.04
Photographic Imaging College site edit.
About to start updating my work's site, put together when I was beginning to learn more about CSS. Now with a whole new template, that for future updates will require minimal coding just a tweak of the stylesheet itself....I hope!
27.9.04
Second week of the holidays
First day of second week of the holidays. Things are shaping up to be an active one. Planning at this point to make images today, as well as, make some bread, mix developer for my students tommorrow, try and find some books on the new software package I am trying to learn, read some more of the interesting book I'm reading.
Recently while reading over on dog or higher I learnt about possible future developments of the web and it's associated technologies. Google featured heavily in this article John speculated that they were in the process of producing a new browser, which he felt would be more than a browser, a kind of Über browser perhaps? One that enables all the current technologies to accessed through one interface, that has full support for ALL CSS from 1 through to 3, and many other things beside.
Is this a good thing? I'm not sure, there are some folks out there who are absolutely paranoid about the power that Google has. I can kind of see there point, I mean they have vast amounts of data in there databanks, as they trawl the world for links and text.They have no accountability to anyone, yet if you are involved in the process of website creation ignoring Google can be a dangerous thing?
Do we need another Micro$oft to hamper our online endeavours, because that's what the guy seems to be saying on his website? For me the jury is out on this one and I guess I need to talk to more folks.
26.9.04
Slices of time?
Here's a small sequence of images made recently. Slices of time, one of photography's strengths or weaknesses? You be the judge?
24.9.04
Hurricanes chart Election results
God is watching over the Americans and here is the proof, a map outlining the paths of several hurricanes in the region.
Now all we need is for one to strike John Howard down!
23.9.04
Server Woes?
Wanted to add some new images this morning but seems like there are server probs this morning, well maybe tomorrow then!
22.9.04
21.9.04
September Holidays day two
Well am really and truly on holidays now, finished my regular VU class, and have week off. So no classes no preparation just learning how weird it is to be a student again. I hope I don't give my teacher too much greif, I know in the past that having taught other teachers it has been a little bit of a pain. Still it's kinda cool answering rhetorical questions in a class room situation personally I hate it when students in my classes sit there unresponsive when trying to get the to participate in some sort of discussion.
Something else I'll be doing especially if this weather keeps up is making more images, this one is from the weekend but I hope you can feel the light and clouds the way I did. I love this view from our backyard! Today's class made me wish that I could take my students outside to work, sadly this is not the fate of classes involving multimedia and computers. The students were responsive to the idea though! However if this weather keeps up I'll be hard pressed to stay focused on my own studies.
Needless to say the list I wrote yesterday hasn't moved very far, prepared my lesson ok, and ressurected our old wok, still plenty of time to get cracking on the rest; famous last words though I guess. Still I'll be mighty friggin' impressed if this weather keeps up!
20.9.04
September Holidays; day one...
The weather forcast for today is excellent, 23 degrees Celcius, just what the doctor ordered, pity I have a shitload of things to catch up on?
As I am on holidays, here is a list of things I'd hope to do over the break
- Prepare lesson for tommorrow
- Mow the lawns
- Ressurect our old Wok
- Take lots of photos, (applies any time really)
- Practice the new software app I am trying to learn
- Read more of my new book, 'Technology and Culture'
- Hang out with my good friend Joff, (mental note, find cheap easy things for him and his family to do whilst in Melbourne)
Oh boy priorites eh, gota get onto them?
This morning, popped back and read some of my first entries on this blog! Oi what an experience. It seems all those months back I was confident on getting my 'Nokia' Gallery up and running well it still hasn't happened, I have the soft ware just have been brave enough to run Virtual PC to get it all happening?
Which leads me to yet another thought, Oi my mind wanders easily!
How would this, reading old/archived thoughts, impact on people's perception of themselves, particularly the young 'uns who are busy typing away out there? I mean a lot of contemporary art is about identity/memory, either individually or collectively, think about it, you write a blog entry on day X you revisit that blog entry 10 years later, or some one else finds it 10 years later. how weird it would be to realise how much you have changed, or how little you've changed?
This is all too much for this early in the morning!
Should I do a writing course of some sort? See off I wander again!
19.9.04
New art gallery added
Made an update today to my website, added another gallery, to my eclectic gallery, '... as a log book stand to a journey', crikey 3 posts in one day, I must be on holidays!
Nikon Gallery draws tons of hits?
As a footnote something is happening at stunik dot com, the Nikon gallery is driving shit-loads of traffic to my site. Why? No idea? Still it's good to know that folks are at least coming to visit.
The nineteenth of September two thouand and four
Today is the day....... of my wife's birthday. Happy birthday you gorgeous lovely woman. Enjoy your new iBook.
On a completey different note, here is a nice abstract image made recently, simple, formal, almost zen-like. I have taken several other images recently that are similarliy zen-like, oh well a new series here, maybe I'll put it up on the other section of my site insead of the Nikon Gallery section?
For both my regular visitors, you should aware of the part of my site called '...as a log book stands to a journey'. This is a place where I have been trying to use the web as a on-line narrative publishing system. Where I take the images I make that 'feel' connected to me and each other and turn them into a low level interactive image sequence. Well up until recently, I was using a Kodak DC260 to shoot the images for this part of the site, recently there hasn't been that many updates, even with my new digital camera. Now, as I am growing more comfortable with the new camera I am able to start producing satisfactory images with it, images that lend themselves well to my somewhat intuitive/subconcious/surreal approach.
This is what I like about the WWW, and photography/art, it openly encourages that kind of approach. I can work fluidily, shoot many, many images and just as quickly have them online for many to see, and it seems they have been coming of late, so perhaps this is the germ of a bigger idea about to develop (no pun intended) and take on some more serious research?
I remember back in my Undergraduate days, I saw Video as a highly responsive and politically charged medium capable of producing powerful imagery. Of course broadcasting this imagery was somewhat limited to Art house cinemas and galleries, but the web, the web is to my mind a highly democratised environment that this may be an even more suitable place to make this kind of imagery accessible to all. these days I feel I am more suited to somewhat less politically charged ideas but none the less the idea that access to these images is made in an open and democratic way is what appeals to me.
18.9.04
Software and GUIs?
Just started a class in in a new software package called Lightwave 3 d. I am suitably flabbergasted at the fact that the software defies logic. There are no menu items at the top of the screen. Some key information the name of which I don't know, it is my first class after all, is at the bottom of the work space, the list goes on and on. At one stage, I spent 20 minutes poking around trying to do something in the wrong app. It was a simarlarly named app and looked identical, but was NOT the same application, go figure, I suspect the the world of 3d apps is one that has simply managed to ignore all common sense when it comes to GUI interfaces?
17.9.04
Time, how much do we really need?
My wife's birthday is approaching quickly, so is Christmas, the end of the term is today and, I am participating in an exhibition in a months time. The house needs lots of work done on it, from simple lawn moving to major renovation inside the house and shed.
This begs the question what is it that *I* do to relax? ( I am often racked with guilt as I watch TV or nap on the couch)
Well one way is by making images with my numerous cameras, make prints from said images, or post them to the web, depending of course on which camera I use to make them. I also read or watch movies, either on DVD or at the real cinema. You'd think that that would be more than enough?
Now I'm thinking of doing a writing course part time, Oi what sort of fool am I?
Now this week I I read on the web about a grass roots movement that is taking back family's time, but encouraging people to cut back on extra curricular activities, apparently a real problem in the US? and of course I can't remember the place where I read this and nothing in my history list in Safari is showing anything vaguely familiar? Ah well!
On another note I made some images of a sculpture on the weekend on the beach on the great ocean road, and they had a distinct feel about them that is reflected in a sculpture by a well known English Sculptor, and what should turn up in my inbox this morning but a link to the Met in New York where this same artist is exhibiting, spooky?
Art mimicking life or life mimicking art?
16.9.04
New book on Technology
On the flip-side to yesterdays early post, I am reading a book on Technology and Culture. 'Human built World', by Thomas P Hughes is the book, published by the University of Chicago Press. 2004 ISBN 022635936
It is early days yet, I skimmed the book whilst browsing in the book store in San Fran where I bought it and was suitably impressed by it's content, and so far have not been let down. It of course starts off trying to define technology and I am understand the authors dilemma about how to do this but really like his delving into Technology of the past, and the idea that the word only came into common use in the last 50 or so years. Of course there is one technology that I have been heavily involved in for the last 16, that rates a mention already, and another technology that I have been involved in for over 6 years that I suspect will feature heavily as well. Yes Photography and computers respectively
More as I get further into the book, quite easy considering that the term break is upon us.
15.9.04
Photos from Otways uploaded.
Just uploaded a new Nikon gallery to my website, and picked up a missing page at the same time. So pop on over and check them out.
The newest gallery is a handful of images that I chose from the weekend away in the Otways. The other gallery is a series of images I shot from a moving car. While I realise this could be potentially dangerous habit, it produces some interesting results, enjoy them.
To Photograph or Not photograph?
Some photographic musing from one of my favourite photography books. The nature of photographs, by Stephen Shore, pub John Hopkins press, page 56
"Pictures exist on a mental level that maybe coincident with the depictive level - what the picture is showing - but does not mirror it The mental level elaborates, refines and embellishes our perceptions of the depictive level. The mental level of a photograph provides a framework for the mental image we construct of (and for) the picture.
While the mental level is separate from the depictive level, it is honed by formal decisions on that level: choice of vantage point (where exactly to take the picture from), frame (what exactly to include), time (when exactly to release the shutter), and focus, (what exactly to emphasize with plane of focus). Focus is the bridge between the mental and depictive levels: focus of the eye, focus of attention, focus of the mind. "
Yes wonderful words that all students and practitoners of photography could learn from. As I personally hover between continuing my fine art photographic print making and a more computer based/interactive approach to my creative output, these words are a reminder of the power of photographic images. Their ability to convince persuade and influence thoughts and feelings.
Sobering indeed
14.9.04
Nikon 5400 photos, from recent school trip
Recently on a trip away to the West coast of Victoria in a region known as the Otways, I shot this image. The weather was abysmal, it even snowed twice while we there. However I'm pretty impressed with the results taken with my digital camera.
I have been going to this area for over 20 years now. One waterfall in particular Stephensons Falls has been a favourite place of mine to visit. This waterfall has changed immensely since I first visited it in the late 80's I suspect I might even have enough images for a small show of images of it. Will need to poke around my archives to be sure.
What this means is that yet another little gallery will be a added to my growing Nikon photography gallery.
Recently got a mention on John Allsop's blog dog or higher, he has written a piece on the upcoming Web Essentials 04 conference. And yours truly gets a mention, hey hey, fame at last! Thanks John, love the CSS WYSIWYG software keep up the good work.
New photos coming soon...
Been away for a few days on the victorian coast. Managed to get some great shots. when I get the chance I wil post a couple here and upload most to my gallery.
Stay tuned
9.9.04
New Tom Waits Album, due October 5
Just found out today that my all time favourite musical artist is going to release a new album in the next couple of weeks. Man oh man can't wait for that. Tom Waits is the artist in question, and the track I heard this morning on was classic Waits, rough crackling guitar, with those vocals that defy description!
I have been hanging out a bit for a new album as sadly I felt his last 2 album releases didn't quite cut the mustard even the art work was a poor copy of the previous ripper album Mule Variations.
My 3 favourite albums of his would be
- Swordfishtrombones
- Bone Machine
- Mule Variations
- Hear Attack and Vine
Some links to other Tom Waits sites
- Official Page?
- The music and prose of the artist Tom Waits
- A blogger blog for Tom Waits, hey hey!
- His Internet Movie Database entry
So stay posted for news on the new release of this upcoming album!
8.9.04
Moving Photos
Started to shoot out the window of the car, which I admit can be risky but is also very hit and miss in terms of resulting image.
This one is, in my opinion, worth it, perhaps a new Nikon Gallery will come out of all this?
Joys of Digital photography
Wow! The magic of digital cameras recently scored a quick dirty job of putting together a CD cover. Thanks to my little digital camera I quickly shot a series of images around the appropriate location and off home I went to post process and start mocking up ideas.
An hour and half later I had scrapped my first idea and moved along to the next, which with some modification became the third. No film no waiting for processing, no re-shoots because of exposure errors.
Ah the joys of digital.
4.9.04
Flash and Blur Techniques
One of my favourite techniques is "flash and blur". It is where the ambient light is low, and produces camera shake say about 1/4 of a second, and is combined with flash to give interesting ghostlike effects, see image above. My new Nikon Coolpix 5400 produces this effect effortlessly and easily in automatic mode as well as manual, so this is indeed an improvement on my old Kodak DC 260.
3.9.04
Gary Winogrand Quote!
Whilst on our recent trip, and sorry to harp on about it, I purchased a book of Images made by Gary Winogrand, 'Winogrand 1964'. On the front page of the book is a snippet from his Guggenheim grant application, and I quote,(without permission)
I look at the pictures I have done up to now, and they make me feel that who we are and how we feel and what is to become of us just doesn't matter. Our aspirations and successes have been cheap and petty. I read the newspapers, the columinsts, some books, I look at some magazines (our press). They all deal in illusions and fantasies. I can only conclude that we have lost ourselves, and that the bomb may finish the job permanently, and it just doesn't matter, we have not loved life. I cannot accept my conclusions, and so must continue this photographic investigation further and deeper. This is my project.
Wow! Gary Winogrand died in 1984, what would have thought of the current state of the world, and digital? What would have he thought about digital cameras and their their impact on his style and approach, I know when I work with my Nikon Coolpix 5400, digital camera I probably shoot more as an experiment to 'see what the world looks like photographed' than to actually make good images, what then to do with these images is the eternal question? This is where the web steps in, I can now exhibit 24/7/365, for a very modest fee, (for my server space, traffic is low enough to not worry about excess downloads).
1.9.04
Another Nikon Gallery
Just added another gallery to my website with images made with my Nikon Coolpix 5400.
31.8.04
Spring has sprung
Indeed spring is here!
These images made this afternoon in the late afternoon light in my backyard.
Sadly the trip to Mildura on the weekend didn't yield as many images as I would have liked. A couple were interesting, but by no means my best work.
Spent some time in Kyneton what a pretty little town, worth a revisit in a different frame of mind, I suspect.
27.8.04
End of another week
It's Friday, we're off for a birthday party this weekend so I expect I'll have tons more photos soon to add to my new Nikon Gallery, like this one, perhaps. One of the things that annoys me about having a great new toy like this Nikon 5400 is that at the moment because winter is still with us and I often work late there isn't enough light to shoot. Played around with the closeup feature on this camera and again am suitably impressed, might add some images to my gallery next week. Got the iPod geared up for the big 6 hour drive this weekend, over 3 thousand songs on it now, apparently over 8 days worth of music. Have pretty much picked the eyes out of our CD collection and will now just add any new CDs we buy from here on in. Some interesting news this week, one of my peers, Nigel Clements, who runs,Photography short courses, has won an award in a local photography competition, onya Nige, well done. Been hanging around the dpreview.com forums lately,be interesting to see what transpires over there?
25.8.04
How to take good photos?
23.8.04
New image made with new digital camera
Just wanted to share with you all, a recent image made whilst out on location with the second year students. It's amazing what you see when you look. Which also drives home the saying the fortune favours the prepared. And one of my favourite aspects of image making with a camera is it's ability to usurp the truth, or is that reality. A well handled camera can distort what is presented in front in a way that defies description and this seems to me where my image making wants head. Just like Gary Winnogrand, I like to photograph things to see how they look photographed. Also the light at the moment is now turning into that awesome spring light that I love so much in Melbourne, combine this with great sunsets and lengthening dusk all makes for great image making. All I need now is more time to actually do it! On another note the images now sit on the page the way I want them to. Took a bit of stylesheet tinkering but I got it in the end.
19.8.04
Winter Light?
Spent the last two arvos working on location with the students, with a subject called Industrial Photography. Took them to a place that I have been visiting on and off for around 15 years or so. This time i used a digital camera and found the whole experience quite inspiring, partly because the light was just awesome as it often is this time of year, and partly because its nearly the end of the week I guess? Also walked home from the local Auto electrician as my car needs work done. Decided to listen to my iPod and make some images on the way. Again given the light a great move and I got a couple of good shots. This makes over 500 already! The experience got me wondering about a couple of things.
1. How does one organise one's self in terms of the earphone cables and neckstrap of the camera inn this situation? The two seem destined to get tangled up. Wearing a coat and hat didn't help either?
2. As I ran out of disk space on the way I had to switch to my second much smaller card. Which in a way influenced my image making decisions. I may now need to consider carry the iPod media reader as well as all the other digital gear I am already carrying!
3. Why does my Nikon Coolpix 5400's battery only manage to last for about 60-70 photos?
4. I shot more horizontal than I have for a long time?
16.8.04
Been tinkering
I made some small changes to the stylesheet of this page, now it's almost 100% valid CSS, and I'm hoping to fix images and how they line up in the document generally This image was shot out the window of a taxi in New York, in a part of town that not many tourists would normally go I guess, to me it sums up the whole feel of a big city like New York
Nikon Gallery added to stunik.com
It's all done pop on over and check it out. Here's that link again for the Nikon Cooplpix 5400 Photo gallery
14.8.04
New Gallery soon to be added to stunik.com
When we were in New York, I bought a new digital camera, a Nikon Coolpix 5400. I bought it for several reasons. My current digital camera was getting long in the tooth slow, to operate and was not matching today's standards as far as image quality was concerned. Still I managed to shoot over 12,000 images with it enough for several years of exhibitions or publication. And it served me well as I was able to produce fairly predictably the kinds of images I wanted with it *most* of the time. Even so it was time to move on as I had had this camera for 5 or 6 years.
I chose this new camera for several reasons. It had a "true" wide angle lens, roughly 28mm in 35mm terms, it produced a 5 meg file, enough for small inkjet prints around 8 x 10 inches, it was small and it was easy to hold which in turn made it easier to operate. Already I am up to over 300 images with it (as you would expect I guess since it was bought during the last 2 weeks of our holiday). Overall I am very pleased with this camera and even though I haven't printed anything out yet I get the feeling it will a very good camera. The lens alone is outstanding as one would expect from Nikon.
I do however have a couple of niggly "issues" with it.
- If I work at the maximum file size the processing of the images is slowed, 'dramatically'
- When I want to manually set exposure I must use the LCD screen on the rear of the camera
- The camera doesn't come with a lens hood or the ability to screw one onto the lens
- A smaller wrist strap would have been nice
- A flash nipple for studio use would have been nice too
- The battery indicator is inaccurate, it starts showing half full this means it's getting low, then with little or no movement the battery is dead, luckily I bought a second battery but this could prove damaging in certain situations
- I have managed to corrupt a couple of files already, not sure how I suspect it's from switching settings or modes while the camera is processing the files, need further investigation
12.8.04
A Photographic epiphany?
Caught Public transport to work this morning. Listened to my iPod as I always do in this situation. Produced a bit of an epiphany If there was just somehow of getting the same feelings across in my still images as I get when listening to certain pieces of music I would be a happy man! Someone has suggested movies, hmmm!
11.8.04
Other folks with cameras
Whilst recently editing down our snaps from our whirlwind tour of the world, I remembered an incident where we were with some relatives in the UK and one of our party took a picture of the rest of the party. I remember watching as he seemed very uncomfortable holding the camera, which he didn't do the best of ways, and he rushed the whole process as well. This has gotten me thinking about how people who use photography in a more casual way might feel about these pieces of hardware?
Personally I have been using various cameras of different formats for nearly 20 years, and I can no longer remember what it feels like to hold this kind of hardware in your hands and have it intimidate me. Cameras are, small delicate yet powerful instrument capable of great truths and powerful lies, sometimes simple to operate other times completely perplexing. This power must occasionally frighten or intimidate people.
Why?
It is after all nothing more than a small machine awaiting your instructions, if handled well it can produce objects of great beauty, capture memories precious to the beholder, or record damming evidence that proves once and for all the existence of something.
Perhaps this is what frightens people?
I myself am often disappointed when making "snaps" on holidays, but am confident enough to make extra versions of images in case I'm not happy with the first attempt (even more so now with digital cameras) so why don't other folks do this? Is there a generation of people out there, used to film and it's related costs worried about the fact that maybe this picture won't work? Well sadly the more they worry the more likely the picture won't work!
As usual I seem to have more questions than answers here, I feel a new Photography FAQ coming on here, we'll see.
Time is of the essence here!
9.8.04
Long slow haul
Am slowly editing all the digi images, a couple of interesting shots and when it boils down to it I reckon a small portfolio of maybe 12 to 20 images will result, wish I could say the same about the analog ones i think i'll be lucky to get 4 or 5 out of 14 rolls??
5.8.04
All film processed
Just processed all 13 of fourteen rolls from our recent whirl wind tour, all the European film has some sort of fogging! My guess is that it got zapped regularly as we moved around and maybe the flight from Frankfurt to New York it took a real hammering. All the US shots are ok?
1.8.04
So many photos
Still thinking about how I am going to organise the snaps from the trip, over a Gig of images of varying sizes and taken with 3 different cameras, (which all produce different file names) iPhoto doesn't do to bad a job of organizing them by date, but if I have a mixture of images from several cameras on the same day it gets a bit tricky, need to do a serious edit and get an interesting set of images together so as not to bore folks too much.
When I set out I had something particular in mind for the end use of my Kodak dc 260 images, all low rez and for the web only, as we were going to have storage problems whilst away, even with the iPod. The trouble was I couldn't get the iPod to read the 128mg card, so they had to stay put the entire trip, but even that plan went awry. I decided to capitalise on the cheap prices in the states and purchase another new small camera. This camera uses another file naming convention and now I have 3 sets of images at different sizes and with different ideas in mind for their final use. I still need to think how I am going to get the images online for the relos O/S, and perhaps writing up the whole trip itself, something I had hoped to do here on this blog, but Internet access was either expensive or hard to find (often both) that that idea fell in a heap real quick.
30.7.04
Poor service websites
Have had a quick poke around the internet, and found this site that rates airlines by official complaints, guess who cam in second worst, yep United Airlines, also found a consumer site that enables folks to write their own stories. Wish I had found these earlier. Also found a complete site devoted to United Airlines complaints, it seems that the figures on the infoplease.com site are wildly underestimated, judging by the number of angry responses on this site
Airlines and service?
We flew with 3 separate Airlines on our recent journey, Singapore, Lufthansa, and United Airlines (from the US).
In hindsight I will *NEVER* fly with United again if I can avoid it! The other two airlines provided stunning service.
From the levels of service we received with United it's easy to tell that they are feeling the pinch from the market, in that, they for example would give free drinks on their International flights, but only if you asked for one, Lufthansa and Singapore on the other hand constantly roamed the aisles with soft drinks all night, the flight attendants too, didn't seem all that concerned with people's well being, again Lufthansa service levels excelled here. United's ticket mechanisms is atrocious as well. We had to ask 3 times to be seated next to each other, once we were even told *we* were at fault by not asking for seat allocations when we paid.
Still it will be many years before I can write a list of pros and cons on 3 international airlines.
29.7.04
A few facts on our trip
Here's some facts and tidbits about our recent trip.
We travelled through 9 airports and they are:-
- Singapore
- Frankfurt (3 times)
- Heathrow (twice)
- JFK in New York
- Chicago
- San Francisco
- Los Angeles
- Melbourne (Tullamarine twice)
- Our Photography in digital form comes to over a Gigabyte.
- Analogue film shot 14 rolls or 120
- One hundred Euros in Europe, often ample
- One hundred Pounds a day in the U.K. again ample only because we stayed with friends and relatives
- One hundred Dollars a day, in the US, just adequate, remember to add tax and and tips!
- Robert Capa retrospective, Prague
- Cartier Bresson, retrospective, Berlin
- Bill Brandt retrospective, at the Victoria and Albert in London
- A contemporary show at Photographers Gallery London
- A sample of the collection of the archives from the V and A
- A Graduate Show in London
- Contemporary Chinese Photography show at the I.C.P in New York
- A Gary Winnogrand show at Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco
- As well as Ralp Eugene Meatyard Nicholas Nixon,and Richard Misrach, from storage at Fraenkel Gallery
- A contemporary curated show at the SF Camera exhibition space
- And collection of my favourite photographers, from the archives at the CCP in Arizona
- Frederick Sommer
- Lee Freidlander
- Joe deal
- Edward Weston
- Gary Winnogrand
28.7.04
Finally....
Well we finally made it. After a long 13 plus hour flight. Things here at home still seem a little strange, but it was fun buying some basic stuff from a shop yesterday and not having to anything to worry about, like, language or prices or tax or tipping.
Our final couple of days were spent in Tucson Arizona. It was hot, and the landscape was stunning, and the real reason we went there, the CCP was everything I had hoped. I saw some stunning prints by Frederick Sommers, and several other of my favourite photographers.
21.7.04
Buddy can you spare some change?
I'm in San Fran now, there are heaps of beggars on every corner and it's saddening to not be able help in some way, it's ironic too, USA is one of the most affluent countries in world and still they can't effectively deal with issues like homelessness?
On a brighter note the trip has been awesome never a dull moment with one high following the next, have gone on a book buying frenzy that i'll be paying for, for many years, still it's worth it.
Ok gotta go it's all running on time here!
17.7.04
Famous faces
At last I find myself in a position to use the Internet non-stop uninterrupted for a flat fee for the first time in the whole trip so far. I am doing this from television monitor in the hotel room we are staying in in New York. The Waldorf Astoria no less! In whose elevator tonight I saw Sean Penn. Who by the way was doing a lousy job of remaining low key. Other famous faces I have seen on this trip include French actor from Amelie, who had an affair with the woman behind the bar,we were in Montmartre at the time, and as always he had that fleeting look in his eyes that suggested he wanted to be left alone, so I left him alone.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)