Four?

I'm a gemini you know?

Photographic Musings

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spring has sprung.

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

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

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

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

Poor Interface Design

Gripe!

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

Spring Begins?

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

s2art & Technorati?

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

Flickrites Inaugural Melbourne meeting 2005

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

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

Online Play and Toys

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

Canon G5, 350d versus nikon Coolpix 5400?

Camera test and reports coming soon.

I am testing a Canon G5 this weekend ready for a class next week. Recently I used a Canon 350d for a series of tests, and I own a Nikon Coolpix 5400, so I'm planning on a write up on all 3 cameras from a users perspective. Stay tuned.

Recently found some online news regarding the new breed of Epson Printers on the market. I also recently attended an intense weekend workshop on colour management, that indicates to me the end of the wet darkroom is nigh, what are the ramifications and what does this mean for Photography educators? Stay tuned for this article also.

Insignificant Microbe?

Finally. Finally, spent some time tweaking my blog template to get it more the way I want it to look, only taken 12 months, a solid dose of insomnia helps too? Both of my readers will notice only the smallest of changes and then only if they scroll down the page on the right and look? There is aslo a new addition to the other links there. My TTLB Ecosystem addition. According to their home page, you can have their database scan your blog and see where you fit in the scheme of things, i.e. the blogosphere. No surprises here, (as I write), I'm not much at all, just an insignificant microbe, ah well, maybe that's a good thing?

Perhaps if I could write as well and as frequently as Vitriolica, or Jess, then maybe I'd end up a “ Higher Being” like, Instapundit. And if indeed I could write this well and often what would my photography be like? Would I still be able to teach workshops in Photoshop? One things for sure, I'll never be a Despot in Training!

[A small edit and after thought, if I may, the truthlaidbear seems to list primarily neo-conservative and conservative sites as the top ranking sites. Surely this is not the case. There must be some other left leaning blogs out there getting the traffic, or a more even representation of them. Or are we seeing a cultural backlash to left leaning thinking, and the blogo-sphere is a reflection of that?]

Ages ago I got a little recognition for one of my shots on Flickr by Flickrzen a site that highlights the cream of the crop from flickr itself. A quote from Susan Sontag, prompted by my visit to Flickrzen.

"Naive or commercial or merely utilitarian photography is no different in kind from photography as practiced by the most gifted professionals: there are pictures taken by anonymous amateurs which are just as interesting, as complex formally, as representative of photography's characteristic powers as a Stieglitz or a Walker Evans."

Transport!

Friday night at Transport Bar, Fed Square, colour colour every where.

The colours here are simply as the camera recorded them. My camera was set on daylight colour balance at the time, some levels adjustment and burning in using photoshop have occurred after converting the file to a better colour model using Lobster, the colour management plug-in for Photoshop

Digital RAW files?

Recently went out and about testing a new camera purchased by one of my more regular employers.After shooting away frantically, and enjoying the whole process, I got home and much to my surprise, the raw files I had shot could not be opened by my copy of Adobe Photoshop CS™.
"What the hell" I said
Is this another upgrade scam from software giant Adobe™? A dig around the Adode™ site seemed to indicate the only way to open these files was to use the latest version of their RAW of converter. Not to worry I knew of a demo piece of software, made by Phase One that opens many files and does a much better job than Adobe Photoshop CS™ anyway. As it was a 30 day demo version, I thought I'll include this in the next years computer budget, (assuming I'm still working there). A bit more digging around on the web and I discover that low and behold, Adobe™ has released a FREE tool that is designed to open any and all RAW format presented to it. Indeed it works and works more than adequately for most people's needs. So if you can not afford to purchase the Phase one Software or justify it's price then you can use the new DNG software made by Adobe™

Here's an image made with the Canon 350d and opened using the DNG RAW file converter, then tweaked slightly in Photoshop to enhance sharpness and contrast

Here's some more info on RAW files, as part my regular research for my Part time photography teaching work at PIC photographic imaging college.

Waiting

Winter has some advantages, this sunset occurred last night as I was waiting for my wife to pick me up from work. It was pretty spectacular to watch, sadly both my camera batteries died before I could get much more than a handful of shots off, this is the most dramatic, I cropped out the city skyline in a couple of the other shots but I liked the impact of this one the most.

Photograph, manipulated using Photoshop and the excellent Photoshop colour correction tool Lobster

Podcasts?

It seems it's not enough to blog away madly or even photo-blog, but now podcasts are all the go? Hmm personally I'm not an Aural person? So podcasts aren't on the horizen yet, we'll see, I might give podcasting a go, seeing as my felow flickrite macaddict has given podcasts a go. Time oh time where is it going?

Oil Peak?

It's the end of the world as we know it.

Luxury

Had the luxury recently of spending an afternoon out and about shooting. The light while not consistent, was sporadically beautiful, this shot I hope shows what I mean

I have another version of it in my flickr stream, composed differently, with a different intention in mind

As always, tweaked in Photoshop, and this time using Lobster too.

A Quote

A quote from Dianne Arbus:-

"There's a quality of legend about freaks. Like a person in a fairytale who stops you and demands that you answer a riddle. Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats."

Taken from The Age and used here without permission

Concrete as Canvas

Two shots today!

Both taken minutes apart, of the same piece of concrete, who'd have thought that concrete could be made to look so beautiful, as always tweaked using photoshop, and the colour tool for photoshop Lobster. Taken using my little Nikon Coolpix 5400, shot in raw mode, these could well end up as prints in an upcoming show I'm planning on having.

<

Our 2004 Holiday Snaps

Both of my readers, if they haven't already fallen asleep, should remember that this time last year Nik and I went for a quick 6 week jaunt around the world. Well, at last I've managed to get all the good holiday snaps on line. They can be seen at flickr.com, as part of my photo-stream.

Choose from either,

• Basic
• Slideshow

I also took some time out to make images yesterday using my own Nikon Coolpix 5400 and the School's Canon 350d. If I can get my act together I'll write a comparison article between the two cameras. they have some features and tools that make the difference between the two interesting. Ultimately, neither is superior to the other, I just some ease of use and practicality type beefs about them both. Cream of the crop will get posted over at flickr, over the coming days.

Willaim Street

Photoshop Workshops Winter 2004

Finished my last photoshop workshop for the winter, here's an image made some time ago and tweaked using Lobster and Photoshop