Voodoo Art?

X-mas function produces Art?

Normally chicken entrails are used here but I thought these arrangements of bones may send out some messages or clues to the eaters personalities?

Flickr Groups

Flickr has groups.

Groups are thematic collections of photos by often disparate people.

My favourite is Creepy Christmas where I have made two contributions.

Viewed 42 times so far!

My most popular digital photograph so far on flickr? No photoshop manipulations at all, it's all in camera

So you think HR departments are run by humans? Check this out. It's from an e-mail I received from a freind who got it from a HR firm for a job app recently.

"Thank you for your application for the above position. This letter is to inform you that you have successfully progressed to the Second Stage in the recruitment process for Careers At XXXX. You have been placed in an actively managed database that is reviewed on an ongoing basis and as roles become available. The Program is structured so that there is no "Official Intake", rather it is a continuous, ongoing employment process. "

So sweat away to your hearts content on that next job application. Just don't lose any sleep on it's appearance, as I doubt anyone looks at it anyway till it's down to the last 10 or 20 perhaps? I always been furious, that these things demand word documents, and could never really understand why? Now I know. It seems that the file is sucked in by a computer and the data in it is extracted and added/compiled into a database. This database then cross references you and and the job at hand. If all is honky dory you move along in the process.

So I guess that the answer to getting an interview is, to put the right kind of words into the CV application. Forget about how it looks. Of course this means nowt if your going for a job at a small business. Generally the boss there hires and fires in person.

Documentary on Islamic Terrorism

Want another perspective on Islamic terrorism, sick of Fox Media's stranglehold on the information coming out of this whole conflict? Try the Australian Broadcasting Commision's site 4 Corners then.

Sadly even our cable connection chokes on this, so if you can put up with it do so.

4WD death machines?

It's the nut behind the steering wheel really. For all those 4WD drivers out there in Suburbia, a message.

Drop shadow text effects using CSS

For the handful of you who use a real browser like Safari, you might notice that I have added a little drop shadow effect to the text in the header of each page of my website, this effect is only viewable in Safari as it's a CSS 3 spec. Thanks to the new forum from WestCiv for this heads up. WestCiv make a neat liitle app that writes CSS in a WYSIWYG environment, it sped up my learning of CSS dramatically.

Brunch in the Western suburbs of Melbourne

Internet Publishing reaches new high?

Or should that be a new low?

We hit our favourite coffee shop this morning for brunch, then had a bit of a browse around the shops, join us on that brief tour. Now here I sit at home an hour so later, and the images are online and organised.

Some look like they may need a little tweaking in photoshop but otherwise I'm happy

Learn how to be a Virtual Tour Photographer

Just found this on Virtual Tour photography, and have of course downloaded the pdf file. Seems pretty funny.Chris Bachelder's Lessons In Virtual Tour Photography, is the name of the book, the site seems to be a book review kind of thing.

The opening paragraph of the sales blurb reads...

The wealthy photographer Ansel Adams once wrote, "A good photograph is knowing where to stand." How simple, how true—and how difficult! Even though Adams's heart failed him well before the whirling magic of virtual-tour technology was introduced to our world, his mysterious words ring true. In the high-tech, "fast-paced," paperless freelance international real-estate-photography industry of today, those eight words still cut. Because a good virtual tour—just like a good photograph of a boulder, or a pinecone—is knowing where to stand. And in Lessons in Virtual Tour Photography, available now, for the first time, as an e-book, you will learn where to stand, and how to know where. But that's not all you will learn! Picture this: You, conversant in the three types of display apartments........

Huh........what IS the date?

In typical "I have no idea what the date is state", I wrote this entry? It seems I'm out by a week nothing unusual there!

Storms in Melbourne

Melbourne had a typical summer storm this afternoon, the sun came out as it often does in these situations after it had all blown over. This is one big bonus for me, the light in these situations simply is awesome. Between the station that I caught my train from, to home I took nearly 100 digital photos. Admittedly almost half were of the flowers on our front porch. But that was when the light was just getting freaking awesome! So looks like I'll post not only to flickr but also add a new page to my Nikon gallery. Still thinking about tweaking them in Photoshop though, especially after reading about the Infrared effect earlier today.

Infrared Photography Links

Some interesting Infrared photography links.

• good galleries here
• Tons of info

Some interesting tips on using photoshop and the LAB colour space to change the appearance of images amongst other things. Might give it a try myself

Wishlist for christmas.

I want one!

Holiday period at flickr?

I feel that I have detected a pattern over at flickr. Last weekend there seemed to be a flurry of images uploaded, by my contacts at least. So we'll see what happens this weekend, the following weekend of course is Christmas, so, will there be even more images like this one or this one or will the site go quiet for a while? One things for sure, us folks down here in the southern hemisphere will be posting madly BEFORE our northern cousins. If folks do post on the day, does this make them loners or the sad types? Given the immediacy of this medium I don't think so, there is of course the global nature of it (the medium) as well.

Well bugger it I'm gunna post on the day, both on flickr and here.

Peace AND Respect.

Robots Making Art?

Robots making Art? What tha?

Just started using a cool new app for organising snippets of info called voodoopad give it a whirl you'll like it.

The democratisation of Photography part one?

For anyone who cares, there are over 25,000 camera-phone photos on flickr at the moment. Things are now starting to make sense from a democratic* point of view, but what about the important messages, how do they get through? Not that I am denying anyone else's right to snap with one of these cameras but what if you are trying to get an idea or message across? Maybe it's time to re-read Marshall Mcluhan's 'Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man' ?

*When I say democratic point of view I actually mean the 'consumption' of photography and it's perceived uses in relation to the WWW.

More thoughts another day?

Camels at Rockefeller Center

Well, Jason, and you don't know me by the way, it could only happen in New York eh!

Camels at Rockefeller Center,originally uploaded by jkottke.

Maps, Journeys, Location, Self

Ideas come at the funniest of times?

I'm up early, 5:30 am to be exact. Laying in bed this morning, I had an idea in that half awake half asleep state of mind. It's scribbled down in my journal... now... of course.

It will be interesting to see how it, the idea, develops when I refer back to this and the ensuing entries involving it's development and constructiuon.

The first questions now are:-

• Navigation/Interface
• Sound?
• Interactivity?
• Should I use text?

Some other initial thoughts, how does one "draw a visitor/user in"? Will the journey itself be enough of an experience? Do I attempt to make a single finished piece?

So many questions, just like at the beginning!

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”
Marcel Proust

For the benefit of both my readers, this idea/project will take the form of an interactive screen based art piece. Which is a whole new direction for me.

A rethink on digital and analogue workflows?

In my earlier post on comparisons between work flows in analogue and digital I realise now I made one HUGE assumption. That people work in a similar way I do. This is a gross miscalculation on my part. Often folks have ideas and then execute them or some people work totally on intuition. So my observations about the impact of digital on photography is not as broad and as sweeping as I would have first hoped? Just writing this stuff down helps clarify it in my head for me, though.

Even great painters like photography!

Albert Tucker, ART and Photography.

The companion exhibition of photographs.