Opening Night Shots!

Last night was the opening, of the show Web to Wall at 69 Smith St. Thankfully somebody managed to document the evening in a way that reflects it all.

Thanks to Colin for doing the whole job.

Utterly Urbane cont'd

I've always liked this one in ways that have been dificult to define, the complexity of the composition and the light all add up to a rather successful image even if I do say so myself.

The series continues

More Metal

More from the ever-growing 'Utterly Urbane' series.

For what it is worth, these steps have been gone for some time, they used to be part of the old Spencer St. Station complex. Now that it is being re-built I wonder if something similar will re-appear?

Shot on my old DC260 made by Kodak. Now dead/stolen, and processed in Photoshop.

Aluminium

I'm glad I stopped to make this picture.

I've never seen it, this composition, since. It's from a scrapyard near my house I pass often.

"... something...."

Traditionally, landscape and documentary photography relies on techniques such as deep Depth of Field, and dramatic light. Sometimes though for me if the image just cries out to be made, you do the best you can under the circumstances. This is a perfect example, and if anything these perceived shortcomings are, what makes this image successful to me. The shallow D.O.F, the soft light all add a sense of mystery, a kind of quiet casual glance that seems to indicate, something, something delicate and aloof.

This image describes something a place a moment, but the actual place and moment is not clear. Sure it's a galvanised iron fence in a lane-way in Richmond, but what else does it describe? A state of mind, a fleeting gestural response to a place?

Is this then a documentary photograph, if not what is it?

Handheld at 1/125 at f2.8. A lane-way somewhere in Richmond, Melbourne Australia

Winter Light Continued

Robert Adams, one of my favourite photographers, early in his career published a book,called, 'Summer Nights'. Lately I've been enjoying the morning light and given it's winter here in Melbourne Australia, I think I will attempt something similar. Funnily enough called 'Winter Mornings'.

My new camera, is now all calibrated and ready to go. So producing the soft and hopefully luminous prints I am used to making should not be a problem.

On a technical note, my film/developer combination is T-Max 400, rated at 160 ISO, developed in D25, with my 'N' development time being, 13 ″ 40 ′ at 24 ° C. This particular shot was shot at f22 for 1/4 of a second early in May before Midday facing south east in a nearby industrial suburb. As of this writing I haven't been able to even do a darkroom proof of it, as I've been a bit busy with a group show I have been helping set-up. D25 can be found in Steve Anchell's book, the Darkroom Cookbook, but basically is Metol, Sodium Sulphite and Potassium Metabisulphite. I'm told that it is very similar to Microdol-X and is supposedly a good fine grain developer. It even smells like Microdol-X when i mix it up.

One of my aims with this kind of work is to, make the harshest suburban environments look like something else. Something while not necessarily pleasant at least a little less inhospitable, after all we as human beings make these places and use them. I am also interested in the formal capabilities of the the camera and how they transform our world, into something either hyper-real or surreal.

Also Today Marcus and Scott are being interviewed on 3RRR for the exhibition Web to Wall. Could someone please tape it for me as I am at work and may not get a chance to hear it?

Winter Light

Despite it being winter, the light has it's moments and my new Hasselblad really excels at capturing that.

Recently submitted a proposal to the CCP for a show in 2007. The title of the body of work I am planning on showing is "Grids Switches and Gates", this is another contender for the show.

Polaroid Positives

It's been a while since I've done this, but I occasionally like to show off other folks work from flickr. 

Here's Mae-Fleur's work using polaroids and scanning in the resulting negative. Pop on over leave a comment tell her I sent you. Please bear in mind this image of Mae's has had full copyright assigned to it so respect that please.

More Flickr Grey Archives

Life is a million shades of grey III.

Lot's Of Views!

Well it took a while but here it is, 80,000 views. I guess a watched pot never boils!

Flickr Archives, more grey

Life is a million shades of grey II.

Flickr Archives

Life is a million shades of grey.

NY Times Technology Writer Gets Blog!

David Pogue has a Blog!

David Pogue, is a technology writer for the NY TImes, has written several Books on Computer Hardware and software, and seems to me to be a cool level headed guy.

From Wikipedia

David Pogue is a New York Times technology columnist, Emmy-winning tech correspondent for "CBS News Sunday Morning," tech guest for NPR's "Morning Edition," and author of several books on Macintosh-related topics including Macs for Dummies and Macworld Macintosh Secrets, later Macworld Mac and Power Mac Secrets, an enormous book on the Macintosh, circa 1993.
He has written a number of books in the "...For Dummies" series, and launched his own series of computer books called the "Missing Manual" series in 2000.
Pogue also wrote a 1993 techno-thriller, Hard Drive.

Folio; Re-discovered II

More re-discovered folio shots.

For a planned show in 2007, and the upcoming, Web to Wall Exhibition taken in the late 80's early 90's

This is a *work print* which means, they will look very different by the time they hit the wall in 2006 - in subtle photographic ways of course.

Folio; Re-discovered

Nth.Melb. 1
2006
Toned Silver Gelatin print 190mm x 190mm

For a planned show in 2007, and the upcoming, Web to Wall Exhibition taken in the late 80's early 90's

This is a *work print* which means, they will look very different by the time they hit the wall in 2006 - in subtle photographic ways of course.

Hasselblad Research

Hasselblad is a Swedish manufacturer of high-quality still photography cameras based in Gothenburg, Sweden. The company was established in 1841 as a trading company. In the 1890s, Hasselblad began distributing photographic products from Eastman. The photography branch grew, and during the second world war Victor Hasselblad was commissioned to develop an aerial camera for the Royal Swedish Air Force. After the war, camera production changed into civilian cameras. Introduced in 1948, the Hasselblad 1600F was a medium format SLR that became the camera of choice for many professional photographers.

Perhaps the most famous use of the Hasselblad camera was during the Apollo Program missions when man first set foot on the moon. All photographs taken during these missions used specially modified Hasselblad cameras.

Hasselblad cameras are still widely used by professional and serious amateur photographers. One reason is the superior image quality of 6x6cm size rollfilm over smaller film and digital sensor formats, along with a reputation for long service life.

In August 2004 Hasselblad merged with the Danish company Imacon A/S. Imacon is a manufacturer of digital photography equipment, e.g. digital camera backs.¹

A pictorial History of Hasselblads, a unique system consists of a body, lens removable film magazine and interchangable viewfinders. Each lens incorporates its own leaf shutter. The design has been copied by several other medium format camera manufacturers. Although recent models incorporate electronics, the bulk of the cameras are totally mechanical incorporating intricate interlocks. The use of interchangable film backs allow a photographer to change film types in mid roll.

One of the highlights in Hasselblad history was its role in the US space program. The moon camera used by Neil Armstrong was a Hasselblad 500EL/70 (special model 500 with a motor drive and a 70 mm film back). Due to weight restrictions only the film (backs) returned to earth with the astronauts. There are 12 Hasselblads available free, for the next person who visits the moon.

The 500 C/M was in production from 1970 until 1989. A Hasselblad camera or accessory can be dated by a 2 letter code in the serial number. V H P I C T U R E S represents the codes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0. Therefore a two letter code UC in a serial number indicates the year 1975.²

An extensive look at the 500 series Hasselblad.

A brief look at the differences between 35mm and 120 format cameras.

A Hasselblad Lens Guide, and how to un-jam or unlock a Hasselblad Lens & Body.

Melbourne Flickrnaut's Infamy

Well it's official, yesterday's Green Guide in the age has an article, by Terry Lane that talks about Flickr and even mentions the Flickr Melbourne Group. Now it seems that Terry Lane also writes online, and the blog entry is on a site called dpexpert.com.au. So yes indeed we are infamous now.

Photoshop Workshops

Hate to brag but, look has who the two top spots on google for the phrase "photoshop workshops".... today.

Heiroglyphics

Really enjoying film at the moment.

Flickr #1 Web App?

Flickr reaches new heights and levels of public consciousness.

Stunning Photography

Check out this guys work awesome!

Urban Landscapes March 2006

Returned to film recently, and if there is one thing I learned from my dalliance with digital, is, the process of image making doesn't need to operate at cyber-speeds.

This image from a series of images for the web to wall show with 19 other flickr photographers, as well as a continuation of my proposed 2007 show idea.

Walls?

A recent wander in a lane-way of East Melbourne produced these. More over on flickr—of course!

Upcoming Group Exhibition

Well it's official, the invite is printed, the space is organised and paid for, now all we need to do, is to actually hang the work in the space — oh and organise food for the hungry hoardes that will rock up on the day.

Writing and Photography

I am currently working on my application for my planned 2007 show. The first draft is written, and I have asked two people to read and comment on it. Despite the seemingly difficult task of writing about your own work, and the difficulties I had actually opening the the document, it was a useful exercise. I have managed to clarify some of my own concerns in my head about what it is I'm doing, as well as how and why.

I also seem to have dropped the digital ball completely of late. Being back at work and working full time doesn't help but some realisations about the nature of working digitally have effected my approach, if not changed it. I am now looking much more critically at my own work.

For either of my readers, this blog is now 2 YAH!

Is Sarcasm the Lowest Form of Wit?

Unless you were living under a rock here in Melbourne you'd know we recently had a large sporting event, fortunately with a planned 2007 show and a group show in May, plus my extra teaching at VU, I didn't get to see or hear much of it all. Kaz Cooke on the other hand had the good sense to write a bitingly funny diatribe about it all, onya Kaz!

Contact - After 2 Years!

Processes, are a bit like riding a bike, somethings you just never forget. Now of course begins the long process of looking at each image and deciding if i made the right choice before pressing the shutter and then there is still the whole how do I print them to look their best issue.

This first proof sheet is of an area I've long been attracted to. One that I drive past 4 to 6 times a week. Friday the 24th of March just seemed like the right time to go there, so I did, and I'm glad I did. Plenty of chaos and texture, manmade, and natural fighting it out, so to speak. The next proof was from one of those little exploratrory drives that I used to do so often but these days rarely take, I had originally intended to shoot something else but the light wasn't the way I wanted it so I kept driving. I found some excellent locations that will expand my proposed 2007 show, and will revist around dusk to see what I can get as there was some great views of the city from a couple of the spots. The place is so desolate and yet to close to the city I'm really looking forward to shooting more there.

Grass Roots

So yesterday I mentioned the nets ability to foster grass roots activism, well today I was sent a request to sign a petition to save one of our two non-commercial broadcasters. Burrowing around in the news feed for their blog I find that a campaign started to alter the course of a bill going through Parliament worked. And by worked I mean the responses form the Minister's contacted plus the result of the bill means that this grassroots organisation had some impact on the direction of the bill

What is Photography?

Here's a great entry on the flickr blog, about photography it's power and meaning and more importantly the way the web is being used at a grass roots level to by-pass traditional media.

Technorati Tags:-flickr, photography, media, grass-roots, politics

Pillow Fight Club

Pillow fight anyone?

120 x 5

So here's the results of a busy weekend of shooting. Processing will happen over the next few days, and who knows maybe in a months time I'll have scanned a couple and uploaded them. Thus allowing an emotional distance from them when they were taken, which in turn allows me to judge their real merits.

Please excuse the horrible colour cast, my little digi-cam has only so much control.

One place, two shots

Flickr is one of those places where you are constantly surprised by who you encounter. I have recently re-connected with Kent Johnson. A wonderful photographer and lively personality to boot. His website is an interesting read. He rather succinctly talks about the process involved in his creative process which was in part the inspiration to these shots, a mere two kilometres or so from my house. Of course if you look hard enough you will see some Robert Adams, some Frank Gohlke and maybe even some Lewis Baltz.

Thanks Kent for the shot in the arm looking forward to our first real life encounter.

As for my creative process, it seems I am more intuitive and time based, I have a vague idea what and where I want to shoot, go look for it, and maybe even revisit several times, process it put it away and come back to it over a period of time and re-analyse it, perhaps take the idea and images further or even go off on another tangent all together. Or maybe just scrap that idea and go somewhere else.

Haiku of yellow?

Been hitting the books of late, so not much image making going on.

Pre-Exhibiton Research

"the best landscape images, whatever their medium and whatever other emotions they evoke … propose the possibility of an intimate connection with a world to which we have access only through our eyes, a promise containing it's own denial"
Frank Gohkle
pg 696/698 1000 Photo Icons George Eastman House, pub Taschen

The start....

of the end?

I am changing the course of my image making practise. This change has come about after a series of small but none-the less revealing incidents involving the web, materials [sliver gelatin] and processes, my own.

The final catalyst occurred a day or so ago I went to my local photo supply store, to stock up on paper. I am in the process of printing some work prints for a planned show in 2007, and had run out of my favourite paper, Forté."No worries" I thought, Vanbars will have some, so down to north Melbourne I go, wandering in I say hi to Richard and head down the back to buy said paper. While Vanbars had plenty of paper in stock generally, they had nowhere near the variety that they used to have when I last had an exhibition.

This catalyst, is the last in a chain of incidents that have been bubbling away now for several months, a discussion on flickr about the appearance of digital photographs, was one such incident. This discussion made me realise that it was probably a futile cause to try to get people who don't want to see what they don't want to see. Namely that there are differences in the look and feel of Digital Photographs over Analogue photographs. Another incident I have already talked about here.

So this slowly snowballing effect, got me thinking, how can I make something that is truly unique? The process of putting together an exhibition, has my creative juices really flowing at the moment and I'm quite enjoying the act of returning to my darkroom. This reminded me of my final days at University where I started mucking around with a film developer agent called Pyrogallol. A mythical developing agent that was as renowned for its long tonal scale as it was for it's difficulty to control, not to mention the O H & S issues! I then poked around in my note books from around 1991 and dug up 3 or four technical book that either talked about it in length or mentioned it. I now have several recipes and, am ready to begin the long process that will be mastering this developer and it's intricacies.

Perhaps this blog will track that progress, sadly the only way to really appreciate the prints will be to see them in the flesh, something that the internet is incapable of; unless you live in Melbourne?

Image & Text

A project I've always wanted to contribute to. PostSecret

Nan Goldin's having a show in New York, after a 3 year hiatus

Most viewed shopping trolley shot

This shot from my Shopping Trolley series, using a mobile has had 514 views so far. Kinda weird really

"Dry Brightness"

Seems there's some folks questioning the "art" of Digital Photography. I agree with the arguments presented and for anyone to understand those arguments and use the ideas to their advantage using digital tools will be then able to call themselves an artist to my mind.

Monitor Calibration

Over on flickr I recently uploaded a 21 step grey scale test swatch. My intention was to use it as a guide for my own current upload project. It has gathered considerably more views. Than I expected with several comments to boot, what a strange place flickr is.

Connections?

Prose, Photography and Passion.

Lonely Radio has it all.

What is TV?

They say TV is the bits between the ads, this very funny commercial proves it!

Here's the google.video link for it too

30 Boxes

Is 30 boxes the latest meme or will it fizzle so much other stuff has over the last decade or so of internet life?

Personally I've never been one to live by any kind of calender/organiser, but iCal changed all that and maybe this next Web 2.0 technology will change that even further?

News and Flickr

Flickr in the news.

Images of emptiness

Here's one of the reasons I like flickr so much

Originally uploaded by John Brownlow.

Snippets

Been getting back into NetNewsWire recently.

Nice idea behind this site helps those who are interested in honing their Design skills.

Want to succeed on flickr? Thomas Hawk has some tips?

Robber Barons

John Allsopp's got the dope on the the current attempt to "stifle the internet", I just love that title, Robber Barons, speaks volumes!

Found Thought

Sometimes I write down the strangest things?

Take this for example?

What happens when Surrealism meets High Modernism in the digital era?

Sink or Swim?

Some local politics.

Our local council have been dragging their heels for several years over the state of the local swimming pool. A local action group is trying to drum up support for the reconstruction of the the pool. Even though I'm not much of a swimmer, I certainly think any large suburb should have a decent pool that is easily accessible for anyone who chooses to use it.

There is a rally and picnic this weekend.

THREE FEET DEEP IS NOT ENOUGH
Date: Sunday 26th February 2006
Time: 11.30am
Location: Service Street, Sunshine (Outside the Pool)

Quicksilver, Exhibitions & Excuses

I'm using Quicksilver these days, and I'm just starting to really appreciate it's strengths and I want to explore it further. What is quicksilver I hear you ask? Well merlinmann a guy over at flickr has very succinctly described it's use in relation to the f11 shortcut that reveals the desktop, and I quote,

F11 a) only _exposes_ the Desktop, b) requires additional clicks to actually find and open anything, and c) ONLY works for the Desktop. This trigger gives you one click access to the contents of any folder no matter how deep in your Mac's or Network's hierarchy. Then you just start typing and you're done.
Remember: almost everything in Quicksilver can be done without even looking at the screen; it's pure muscle memory, and that's a pretty effective memory.

He also provides a link to more info over at 43folders.

I'm sure both my readers will have noticed the lack of images here of late, well, I went nuts over the summer holidays as usual, and now that I'm back at work and working full-time have hardly pulled my camera out. I have a locked-in group, exhibition coming up in May/June this year and after "discovering" a body of work in my archives am planning another in 2007. So what I'm saying is some images should be forthcoming soon, it's just that they will most likely be from the archives.

Photography Resources

Sometimes people ask me,
"What's a good photography book to buy?"

Currently I can't recommend this one highly enough.

Exploring Colour Photography A Complete Guide. By Robert Hirsch, Pub by Laurence King Publishing London, ISBN 1856694208.

An interesting booklet I've just been lent is Advanced Digital Photography, by Margaret Brown, pub Media Publishing. This a meaty little technical booklet but useful none the less.

More on this later.

All Flickr'd out 'n Mobuzz TV!

Flickr reaches 100,000,000 photos

In my search for true independent media I've discovered MoBuzz TV which describes itself as:-

"...we strive to keep you informed and entertained no matter where you are. MobuzzTV does not simply re-adapt conventional TV programming and place it on a mobile channel. Our creative process starts with the mobile phone as a TV device, not with a conventional stationary television

checkit... enjoy!

Myspace

Technorati Tags:- vlog, Mobuzz

Egosurf?

How to waste time at 4:00 AM E.D.S.T thats GMT +11. Egosurf that's how!

Technorati tags:- Egosurf

The best gifts arrive when you least expect them.

I suppose it's no surprise to both my readers that I am participating in a group exhibition this year with 18 other photographers, that I all met online. So on Saturday morning I toyed with the idea of printing some older work shot around Melbourne in the 90's. In particular some areas near the Victoria Markets that no longer exist [the subtext of the show is Melbourne and how we 'interpret' Melbourne]. So I grab the folders containing this work from the late 80's to the early 90's and start flicking though my proofs, looking for a particular shot. After a couple of run throughs and expanding my search I gave up with that idea and found a couple of shots that I'd always liked, but never printed, then lo and behold I realise that both had some strong and similar connections, off I went in search of more of the same. After an hour or so I had over 25 shots that in essence were capable of being an exhibition in their own right. What a marvellous surprise! I then spent the afternoon making work prints on the images. In the process three of them have already bitten the dust, mainly for technical reasons, but it still looks like I've enough for a small show somewhere around town sometime next year. [Next year will be my 20th year of serious photographic study.]

What strikes me the most about this is that these images were never made with this particualr 'idea' in mind. I simply photographed places and areas that I liked then, and still do, then 10 or 12 years later ‘saw’ the connections.

I guess Frederick Sommer was right?

“…art is images you carry. You cannot carry nature with you, but you carry images of nature. When you go out to make a picture you find you are moved by something which is in agreement with an image you already held within yourself”

On a more obtuse note check this site out, it looks at ideas and asks some pretty tough questions.

Friday Night Shenanigans

So it's froidee noight, just gone, I'm kickin' back at home with my fave tunes blasting out of the stereo and I mean blasting, and I decided to do a little research on the music I was listening to. Well fuck me, not only did I find a relatively recent article on T.I.S.M, by the esteemed journal The Age, but they the band, also have a listing on wikipedia, so here's the Age article with all the swear words put back in for the idiots that can't work it out for themselves and used without permission too!

The phantom menace

By Michael Dwyer
July 2, 2004

It's not surprising critics hate TISM. We're human. We fear what we don't know. We scorn what we can't categorise and control. Moreover, to borrow the blunt vernacular favoured by Australia's favourite techno-rock anarchists, nobody likes a smart-arse.

TISM's rare media encounters are infamous. One reporter had to forward questions in advance, then lie in a pitch-dark flotation tank while Humphrey B. Flaubert and Ron Hitler-Barassi piped in their answers. Another guy donned complete scuba gear for the privilege of interviewing the pair in a Fitzroy Street pizzeria.

So it's a long walk up the corridor of the band's smashing new corporate home in Collingwood. Behind the end door, Flaubert and Hitler-Barassi are doing last checks on The White Albun, TISM's audacious new three-disc CD-DVD package. As the handle turns, I'm preparing to be dakked and toothpasted at the very least.

"The thing about unmasking," a surprisingly affable Flaubert volunteers early in our meeting, "is that no one cares." Contrary to rumours about renowned musicians, even public officials, under the masks, they're "actually not famous", he insists. "We're just boring guys."

The six-pack of VB and bowl of Minties on the table support this suggestion. But the fact that he and Hitler-Barassi are decked out in custom-made tasselled silver spacesuits, with matching balaclavas and lower sleeves flaring into bulbous beanbags, makes a mockery of his modesty.

It's an extremely impressive and disconcerting sight. It always is, when TISM perform. For about 20 years, these uber-cynical rock'n'roll ratbags have concealed their identities in a range of impractical ensembles, while maintaining a fearsomely committed fan base and eluding litigation with some of the most scathing satire this country has heard.

More on this remarkable trinity - the anonymity, the brutal satire, the scary fanaticism - later.

Right now, though, I'm compelled to come clean on the subject of their music. I can't stand it, I tell them. I've always been thrilled by their iconoclastic daring and wide-screen performance-art vision, but I can only manage their shows and records in small doses.

It's weird. I would never give any other artist I dislike such a frank personal assessment, especially this early in an interview. But I feel like I can cut to the chase with impunity here. Flaubert seems to know what I mean too well.

"It's not what journalists say about TISM that's galling," says the more soft-spoken half of the band's core duo. "It's what they don't say about every single body else that shits me. They somehow feel we're fair game; it's like a sport to pick our many peccadilloes.

"But tell me," he inquires, leaning on rustling vinyl and polystyrene elbows. "When you go and interview the boys from Jet, are you sitting there and going, 'Well, they're nice guys, they're not that smart, I can't really get out the rapier wit here, so I'll just peddle the usual record company line?'."

Before I can answer, Hitler-Barassi launches into one of his trademark belligerent rants.

"'They drove a fucking* forklift truck,' " he scoffs, quoting a common media-bite about Jet's gritty working-class roots. "Of course they did - their dad owned the fuckin'* factory! You can drive a forklift truck any time you like! 'Dad! Dad! I wanna go on the forklift,' " he whines.

"I'm happy for people to say our music is bad," Flaubert continues, "but I turn the pages of these magazines every day waiting to read these other bands slagged off, and they never are. Now, why is that?" he asks.

"Yeah, answer that, Mister Rock Journalist,"

Hitler-Barassi spits, crossing beanbag arms with results more comical than threatening.

Um, well, sir, I think it's tied to a perceived degree of emotional authenticity. If you're playing what Bono calls "three chords and the truth", preferably with your eyebrows cocked just so, you're somehow considered to be contributing something of value to an emotion-oriented art form. As satirists, on the other hand, TISM operate on an intellectual level, so they tend to attract cerebral analysis.

But I only know what I object to personally, which is the abrasive texture of their music. I don't like relentless programmed beats at the best of times. Especially when there's so much shouting involved.

The evil silver spacemen regard each other through skew-whiff eyeholes. "Goodness," Hitler-Barassi mutters. "That's a very good point."

Love, hate or ignore them, TISM are utterly unlike other bands. Although clearly a functioning part of the rock'n'roll business - The White Albun is at least their seventh, not counting copious EPs, bonus discs and rarities, and their shows invariably sell out - there are three fundamental things that disqualify them from pop culture as we now know it.

First, it seems, they genuinely crave neither celebrity nor money. The elusive identities, the expensive cossies, the infrequent shows, the triple-disc box-sets, the refusal to play by normal rules of product promotion, the mysterious yet "completely normal" day jobs they have no intention of quitting - it's no easy route to the high life.

"That is rather peculiar, isn't it?" Flaubert begins. "Although perhaps you give us too much credit there. There is evidence that we've been trying to fellate corporate c--k for years, but we obviously just don't have the technique."

Hitler-Barassi: "I think it's worth mentioning that other bands that sell out when no one's buying, they stop. One of our virtues is that we haven't stopped. I've actually begun to like that about us. We are the carcinoma on the ball-bag of Australian rock."

Secondly, TISM treat their fans with undisguised contempt. From footy yobs to homeboys to Britney enthusiasts to alleged intellectuals, no subculture emerges unscathed from their withering take on modern obsession. "Some of our fans," Flaubert once observed, "definitely strike me as idiots of the worst kind."

There are some on The White Albun's live DVD: beefy geezers up the front earnestly bellowing "Amway, Amway, Amway", like they're simultaneously saving every rainforest, whale and incarcerated refugee in the country, whereas they're actually illustrating the idiot consumerist herd mentality the band pillories.

"Lay off our fans," Hitler-Barassi says. "F--- 'em! There's a lot of big, brutal c---s up the front. That's fine. It's better than some nerdy, intellectual pencil-necks. Those blokes like what you don't like: the shouting, the relentlessness. I think there's a shouting, relentless part in a lot of people's brains, and I'm up for that.

"I think it's too easy to go, 'Oh, it's crap because it's shouting and relentless and they've got the Canterbury Bulldogs doing a spit-roast up the front every time they play'. But that's no more or less legitimate, and I don't think it's any less or more intellectual than if you're going to the grooviest, latest thing from England. That's got the same characteristics of group-think and conformity."

Which leads to TISM's third unique attribute. They attack their peers, by name, constantly. Once a cornerstone of a healthy music press, this practice has become an unspoken no-no in the sanitised modern pop world, where an honest remark can come back to bite an opinionated musician faster than you can say "internet chat group"

.

"Powderfinger," Flaubert offers with minimal provocation, "are an exceptionally talented group of intellectuals who make music for people who don't like music." Don't get Hitler-Barassi started on electronic poseurs Tricky and the Prodigy, whose "live" shows he claims to know to be "a scam, a front, a facade". The Dissociatives' record is "completely stupid and obtuse", he reckons, and Jet's lyrics "might as well not be there".

"The alternative to a battle of points of view," he observes, "is relentless PR. There's both an overt and subliminal stream of positive comment about these artists constantly pumped out by record companies and other media. If no one's gonna say, 'I reckon that's all tossing rubbish, I reckon he's a wanker', then we've got a world where consumption becomes compulsory and we must all completely accept that Delta Goodrem is a genius.

"The truth is, the reason she's no good is she writes her own songs," he adds. "She's a lovely woman and I really hope the Hodgkinson's (sic) abates, but her songs are crap."

TISM's White Albun is another sprawling litany of such bravely offensive observations. It takes stock of their 18-year recording career with such classic tunes as Defecate On My Face, (He'll Never Be An) Ol' Man River, If You're Not Famous At 14 You're Finished, All Homeboys Are Dickheads and I Might Be A Cunt* But I'm Not A Fucking* Cunt.*

There's an intriguing documentary that follows them, in silver spacesuits, back to their suburban Melburnian roots. There's also an entire new album, including I Rooted a Girl Who Rooted a Guy Who Rooted a Girl Who Rooted a Guy Who Rooted a Girl Who Rooted Shane Crawford. Other smashing titles - one of TISM's undeniable strengths - are Everyone Has Had More Sex Than Me, Tonight Harry's Practice Visits the Home of Charlie "Bird" Parker and the ingenious pre-emptive disclaimer TISM Are Shit.

It's all good fun, and only one bit falls foul of their defamation consultant's bleeper: apparently a reference to a popular musical ensemble allegedly sharing a sexually transmitted disease. But there's one point on the first DVD, a concert film "by Antonionioni" shot at the Hi-Fi Bar last September, where TISM's incisive satirical wit might just go too far.

"Only one point?" Hitler-Barassi snorts. "What, the point where you go, 'Select Menu, Start'?"

No, the bit in his relentless and shouty poem about the inanity of pop culture in which he says, "My prayers have been answered, Delta Goodrem's got cancer". Ouch, gentlemen, ouch.

"What I feel is most effective and valuable about what we do," he responds, "is when we say stuff that everyone else is thinking and no one is saying. The whole idea of an artifice, as this band is, allows one to go too far, to make jokes about cancer - the sort of jokes," he emphasises, "that everyone makes to their mates down the pub."

But people make racist and otherwise hateful jokes down the pub. Do they deserve amplified expression by rock'n'roll bands?

"You have to draw your own line," Hitler-Barassi says. "TISM would never make a joke that supports a racist point of view, because racists can go get fucked.*

"But Delta Goodrem has got a whole industry pumping out positive, saccharin, brain-dead, satirisable garbage about her. When you say something about Delta Goodrem and cancer, you're not really talking about Delta Goodrem, you're talking about the mindless tosser who writes about 'Her Brave Battle' in (a tabloid newspaper)."By the same token, Hitler-Barassi says, "I'm on the drug that killed River Phoenix", the line that famously enraged Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, "wasn't about River Phoenix at all. That song was about fame, and the people listed in it weren't even real celebrities."

But did he get the opportunity to explain that to Flea?

"I had him on the ground and I was just about to break his nose with my forehead and I said, 'You do know, Flea, that satire is a legitimate art form stretching back to ancient Greek drama?' And he said, 'Oh, that's OK then, Ron'. He's a good guy, Flea. He's a mate of ours," he adds unconvincingly.

"We love (pop culture) and we hate it," Flaubert summarises. "We are the guy at the party who finds the floorboard that makes the CD player skip. We're not anti-art and we're not anti-football, we're a part of that whole culture. What we are is anti-reverence. We're anti-small-mindedness.

"There's a whole industry pumping out propaganda and PR. We are the merest contrary squeak in a cacophony of non-satirical, non-abrasive, completely polite palaver.

"Sometimes people say we're tall-poppy-syndrome characters. I see it more simply as a typically Australian irreverence. We constantly come in contact with the emperor's new clothes in this rock scene we move in, and our reaction is like the Aussie guy who says to his mate: 'Nice jacket. Does it come in men's?'"

Hitler-Barassi: "It gets more pungent with TISM when we're satirising stupidity in the currently accepted groovy avant-garde area. The supposed avant-garde (enthusiast) is exactly like the kid out in Narre Warren listening to his Eminem CD. These people have no more or less originality; they'll move on to the next thing as quickly, they'll accept the next record company hype as quickly.

"The hype is what disturbs us the most. Which is why the lack of reverence is almost a badge of honour for us. That stays. The reverence for the latest thing is always gone in 18 months' time, and someone needs to stand up and say, 'That's crap'."

Like I said, it's not surprising critics hate TISM. They automatically call everything we profess to know and appreciate crap, regardless of any sense of its value, and they appear to be having more fun than us doing it. No wonder we call them charlatans and non-musicians and killjoy intellectuals hiding behind their cowardly masks.

"Who isn't wearing a mask?" is Hitler-Barassi's stock answer to that. "Who was the last person you interviewed who didn't have a mask on? All public personae are as masked as we are."

It's true enough. And very few of them, after two decades of active service, can still draw tens of thousands of punters around Australia by pointedly lambasting every single thing that defines their culture, and then sell them another triple-disc package of the same "shit" on the way out. It's a trick plenty of groovier bands may do well to learn.

"Head to head, Jet, Vines, bring 'em on," Hitler-Barassi says. "There's young men pretending to be in rock bands, and then there's bands that can change the atmosphere in a room. We might be old and we might be shouting, but we can generate that X factor in a room that means there's a real performance going on.

"You've got to burn away everything else," he says. "You've got to burn away success, burn away fame, burn away your public persona. We've burnt it away over 18 years now. Any idea of us being the latest thing, or in any way groovy or avant-garde, those factors are gone, and they were gone years ago.

"There's only one factor left that makes us work. And that factor, I think, we've burned away, with the crucible of time, into something that's actually genuine."

And that is?

He blinks at Flaubert through crooked holes. The whisper and squeak of polystyrene balls and vinyl is deafening as they shrug their silver shoulders. The enigma continues.

*replaced swear words

Aussie Podcasters where are you?

My favourite podcast so far. still looking for more, Aussie ones seem thin on the ground?

Small Selection of Favourites

Some of my favourite photographs on flickr

Another Mac Browser

Just when you thought it safe to go open up your favourite browser, here's another entry into the market, sadly its' a time limited shareware app, but at $14.00 Aus, it's a steal. One of the features I'd like to see added is the ability to "organise" your bookmarks a bit better, still it's not that much of an issue, as I use delicious now to store all my bookmarks. The jury is still out on History, Bookmarks and Downloads windows, logically it makes sense to have them set up as small floating and slightly translucent windows, but "visually" they get in the way a bit, maybe a different colour would help?

Thanks to Darrel.

Technorati Tags:-Macintosh, Browsers

What Makes a Photograph 'Fine Art'

After a discussion with a fellow flickrite some weeks ago, I've been thinking on and off about what makes a photograph 'fine art'. And it has not been an easy task. So far, my thoughts are gravitating towards the idea that if it has the following three things it's well on it's way, in NO order of importance.

• It [the photograph] operates at a Cerebral level
• It [the photograph] operates on an Emotional level
• It [the photograph] operates on a Spiritual level

As an object some level of 'presence' helps too, be it size or subtle nuances or perhaps totally in your face in some way.

If these traits can be combined to subtly form a cohesive set of the above ideas then it's well on it's way as well.

A thorough understanding and ability to manipulate the process to suit your intentions, whatever they are, is in my opinion an integral and equally important part of 'fine art photography'. Appreciating and understanding the history of ideas surrounding photography helps to place yourself within the broader context of the medium. This in turn helps you stand out from the crowd and be seen to have something different to offer. After all there a millions of photographs being produced in the western world at an outstanding rate now with digital technologies something needs to somehow give an image a universal yet unique appeal to make it "special".

Hiding your light under your own Bushel is not a good idea if you want to be found, so a healthy dose of marketing and promotion helps for you to be found as well.

Video capable of good doing?

Video-podcasting and iPods used for good?

Non-Destructive Pixel Editing In Photoshop

Decided to test my little flatbed scanner yesterday. After recently tidying up my desk at I uncovered a proof that had for some reason been set aside and not made it's way into the place where I put work I'm considering.

As always I had to tweak the image as I would in the darkroom, one of my favourite ways to do this without destroying pixel data in photoshop is to use a 'soft light' burn and dodge mask this allows a lot of control and as I said no pixels are destroyed in the process. It could also be used as a starting point for a finished print in the wet darkroom, if I was so inclined.

Here's the image, a larger version is available on flickr just click the image.

Basically it's an empty layer filled with 50% grey. Then after changing the "blending mode" of the layer you use either the burn or dodge tools to dodge and burn or, you use the paintbrush with black and white paint, at really low opacities like 10% and lower to darken and lighten selected areas of the image. The secret is build-up up the areas you want to lighten or darken.

As for the scanner, well it's a Canon CanoScan FB630U. Given to me by a relative, thanks Deb. It performed really well actually. I scanned a whole pile of emphemera that I collect for other projects and it did a good job from the look of things on screen [I don't have a printer at home] the only criticism I have is it didn't cope to well with the higher resolutions scans, over 10 megabytes or so, and these were several attempts at scanning the proof above. Still for more graphic projects and small web scans it's pretty good.

Drawing and Photography

This article piques my interest and the writer's blog has some wonderful imagery on it.

Digi-photos 20.01.06

The sunset over Melbourne last night was awesome.

Technorati Tags:-Lobster, Photoshop, digi-photos

Melbourne is Still in a Drought

Since discovering the BOM weather radar, I've rarely seen red clouds which says a lot about the state of water supply in Melbourne. Yesterday somewhere in Melbourne, it was raining pretty heavily. Water they say will be the new oil, will there be wars over it?

CCD Inventors awarded Draper prize

Are these guys to blame for my obsession?

Technorati Tags:-CCD, inventors

Paranoid Policemen prevent Photographers Photographing - or try too!

So the mainstream are now recognising the "issues" with photographing in public, or are they?

Insecurity

Heart wrenching story about security over cameras, gone mad!

Some days....

Recent visit to the Docklands precinct, resulted in these images.

I am Koonan; the converstion killer!

A funny thing happened while shooting on the weekend

Tree re-dux

Tree re-dux

A re-shoot?.

Shot with the Canon 350d, the original on the Nikon coolpix 5400, not a very good comparison really as I used a tripod on this shot and the lighting conditions were completely different. I also shot this in RAW format and processed it in Graphic Converter, which I'm still learning or trying to learn, compared to the original which was shot as a jpg. The lack of barrel distortion alone is enough for me to like the second shot better than the first, but there are plenty of issues with sharpness and lens aberrations that have me worried about the 12,000 plus images made so far with the Nikon, so much so I'm now shooting in RAW unless I am after a quick response/turnaround on the street or travelling for example.

iPod's impact...

...clearly stated.

Sony Chief Executive Officer Howard Stringer said in an interview broadcast Sunday that his company has made huge mistakes in the online music and player business and that Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been a thorn in the Japanese electronics makers side.
In an interview for CBS' 60 Minutes, Mr. Stringer said "there is no question that the (Apple) iPod was a wake-up call for Sony. And the answer is that Steve Jobs was smarter at software than we are."

A little late yes, but; Insert smug sounds here.

Technorati Tags:-iPod, Sony

Tree

Docklands Park - Panorama

One of the better urban panoramas I've seen on flickr

Docklands Park - Panorama,
originally uploaded by Chaddles.

More mad memes?

New Flickr Feature

A new feature on flickr. When viewing a photostream you now have the option to browse the stream itself or move through the thumbnails on the top of the screen, sweet indeed.

Of course the real reason I like flickr so much can be seen below the thumbnails. Sets. there is only one set showing for this image because that is where I have placed it. Some images fit multiple ideas others simply fit one, but it's the idea that images have multiple AND connected ideas behind them is what excites me the most… oh and the idea of a 24/7/365 gallery.

Technorati Tags:-flickr, slideshow

Google Earth now available for the MAC, yaaaaah!

In a row

These 4 are my most recent uploads to flickr.

Technorati Tags:-digital-photos, flickr

Languish

Parts of Melbourne Disappear on a daily basis.

Somewhere near Chinatown in 2004. I've learnt lots about tweaking images since then too?

Lightroom Software Review

An in-depth review of the new software by Adobe, Lightroom.

Technorati Tags:- Lightroom

Postscipt to the Death of Photoshop?

Well you can't half tell that things have quietened down in this house. Three posts in one day!

So the Behemoth organisation that is Adobe has released a free workflow tool that allegedly competes with Apple's Aperture[more news here]. I've been wondering where Photoshop could go from here, basically as a photographer I use and need probably about 10% of the whole app.

Because of this my heavy duty app of choice is an application called Live Picture, I'm also experimenting with Graphic converter as well. Graphic Converter is super cheap and still does more than I need. Live Picture is elegant doesn't destroy pixels as it works, handles large files with ease on a minimum of ram, edits internally in 16 bits, the list is too long to mention here. While Photoshop has become some sort of de-facto industry standard it isn't the best tool for the job, it certainly isn't the cheapest and I know of at least one person who has discovered that it manipulates colour in a way that is contrary to our way of seeing, [as a consequence they built a tool to work around it].

Anyway while this new tool may be cheap i.e. free, it'll need to do a lot of other things well to sway me. To be honest I have half suspected this for the last version or two of Photoshop, these version upgrades were to say the least uninspiring and I'm not really using much in 8 that didn't exist in 5.5.

Some are speculating some sort of war between Apple and Adobe, to my mind I've always felt Adobe's business model too predatory for my liking, so I still intend on going with Apple's tool anyway.

Technorati Tags:-Aperture, Photoshop, Lightroom.

The Death of Photoshop?

Currently tinkering with Graphic Converter one of the cheap Macintosh alternatives to Adobe Photoshop. One of the awesome things it allows and handles at least two decimal point accuracy across the board.

Technorati Tags:-Photoshop, GraphicConverter

Nature V's Nurture

Taken prior to Christmas 2005, Wright St.Sunshine.

Technorati Tags:-Grey, digitalphoto, concrete

Kodak Changes its Logo

In a break with the past, Eastman Kodak Co. is introducing a new corporate logo designed to help the company forge a new image as a cutting-edge, 21st century innovator.

Kodak's new corporate symbol retains the company's distinctive red and yellow colors, but does away with the boxes that have contained the word "Kodak" for the past 70 years.

The logo change was introduced today during a sweeping speech by Kodak Chairman and Chief Executive Antonio Perez at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. In his speech, Perez called on the industry to work together to make digital imaging and digital photography easier and more useful in the context of daily life.

The new mark, based on a customized typeface, is designed to give the company a contemporary look but be flexible enough to apply in new ways and new venues across Kodak's varied businesses --everything from tiny handheld digital cameras to computer software to the letters on Kodak buildings around the world.

The logo is one part of Kodak's larger effort to redefine its brand-name identity, through advertising, public relations, supplier and partner relationships and other in areas.

"We want to break out of the box, in a lot of ways," says Betty Noonan, director of brand management and marketing services at Kodak.

The announcement caps a busy week for Rochester's best-known company. Kodak late Thursday announced an important technology-sharing-and-marketing alliance with Motorola Inc. aimed at making imaging more widespread in electronic devices. Earlier, it unveiled what is believed to be the first digital camera with two lenses, and new software that combines Internet telephone calls with photo sharing.

From, The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle News

Technorati Tags:-Kodak, Logo

Meme on Flickr

Meme's come and go, but this on one flickr has some interesting merits. These are my top 20 images that are other folks favourites, thus proving they have impeccable taste like myself :)

How come common sense isn't so common?

Not that I'm likely to listen to a CD by a band like cold play, but I guess I will NEVAH be buying this one?