Thursday 9 December 2010
Wednesday 22 September 2010
Bokeh Tricks in Scott Pilgrim
via lunarbovine.com
Clever! The cinematographers in Scott Pilgrim have been playing with the bokeh to assist the story telling. Amazing spot. I'll definitely be peeking at the blur in movies from now on...
Tuesday 21 September 2010
Edward Pond interview
via youtube.com
A great interview with photographer Edward Pond about his recent trip to India to document the street food and eaters. Love this guy's style.
Wednesday 1 September 2010
Twitter / Flickr: POTD: a rainbow of plums h ...
POTD: a rainbow of plums http://flic.kr/p/8v9pXh
via twitter.com
My shot of a 'rainbow of plums' was picked as Flickr's 'Picture of The Day' on Sept 1st, 2010 - so chuffed. All the plums are now delicious chutney...
Tuesday 24 August 2010
teeny tiny polaroids
via petapixel.com
too cute. Also, how long has it been since I posted on here? Yowza. Life definitely gets in the way...
Wednesday 30 June 2010
The Motherload: a most useful list of links, sites, blogs and other tools for calculating what to charge
What to Charge", Releases, Licensing and Other Resources - Updated Regularly
via flickr.com
Good golly - this is the most useful page I've ever stumbled across on Flickr. Links for what to charge, how to charge, real life quotes, licensing FAQ and more. Cements my love of the community aspect of this photo-sharing site.
Landscape Photography in Videogames – Gizmodo
via gizmodo.com
I suppose once you know the basics of landscape photography, there's no limit to where they can be applied in order to capture images. The photographer Robert Overweg is shooting striking landscapes within computer games. Nice idea.
Wednesday 12 May 2010
"A Life In The Day" - Canon 5D MK II video by John Mayer
via vimeo.com
Beautiful, clever and inspirational way to provide a peek into a person's life.
Tuesday 23 March 2010
The birth of Instant Photography (or, how humans react to technology)
In this video on the birth of instant photography, there’s a short piece of archive footage from the 1950s that shows partygoers gathering round the back of the first Polaroid Land camera to see the picture develop, and they have the same expressions that we use nowadays while gaggling around a digital camera’s LCD screen. Touching little echo which makes instant photography all the more endearing. http://videos.howstuffworks.com/discovery/29594-invention-the-first-polaroid-camera-video.htm
Monday 22 March 2010
New films from the Impossible Project for SX-70
Hoorah hoorah, new films for the Polaroid SX-70 instant camera. Love the story behind this company and can't wait to get my hands on the new monochrome films, which are apparently on sale later this week – bet they sell out in hours!
Friday 19 March 2010
Beautiful. "Raiding Eternity" by Joel Johnson
She hands me a manila envelope, tipping it to spill old slides and prints into my hands. "Have you scanned these in?" I ask. "I don't know how," she says. "Then they don't exist," I reply. It's bedroom-level profundity, but I surprise myself by believing it more than a little bit.
I pick up a photo of her father. He's spread out on a bed with his shirt off, his infant daughter sleeping in a bundle on the floor beside him. The little tab in the corner of the print says "1982".
"My mom never liked having that picture of him in the album," she says. "She thought he looked too sexy." I tilt the picture in my hands just a bit until I can see the scratches on the matte surface. There are hundreds of little indentions, tracks from fingernails showing the many times the photo has been held.
When we scan this picture in those scuffs will disappear. The rest of the world will see only the young, bearded man smiling in some sepia living room. They'll increment the file's viewcount by one, leaving their own perfect hash mark. It won't be the same as the photo I'm holding in my hands, shifting in the light to read its physical metadata, but it won't be inferior, either.
via gizmodo.com
A very thought-provoking piece of sad-but-beautiful writing about digital memories by Joel Johnson for Gizmodo. Worth reading in full.
Hey, Put Down Your Goddamn Camera"
Just because you can document and share nearly every moment of your life doesn't mean you should. Stop worrying so much about stealing away with an image or a clip that perfectly crystallizes the night, like a trophy to collect, another document to catalog, and just experience it. Enjoy it. There's not a camera on the planet that can capture the way a concert makes you feel. Take one picture. Mark the occasion. Then put your goddamn camera down.
via gizmodo.com
YES! This. I went to a Black Kids gig in Manchester early last year, and apart from being the oldest person in the room (not kidding) I also felt very out of place for not having a mobile or compact in my hand, filming the entire gig. What do they all do with all these videos?
I saw a factoid today that the amount of data captured/created by humans in 2009 surpasses the amount of data captured/created by humans in all years up to 2009, and I can well believe it.
Thursday 18 March 2010
Thinking about creativity – PechaKucha 20x20
01. What is PechaKucha 20x20 ?
PechaKucha 20x20 is a simple presentation format where you show 20 images, each for 20 seconds. The images forward automatically and you talk along to the images.
via pecha-kucha.org
I'm spending a few moments between subbing the magazines' pages by exploring the interesting world of being a "digital creative". After several clicks from page to site to page, I eventually washed up on the PechaKucha website. This celebrates a form of presentation (named after the Japanese term for the sound of conversation - "chit-chat") where each individual shows twenty images, each for twenty seconds. It keeps a limit on the time-frame (stopping creative types waffling) and also helps to focus watchers on what's being said.
This would be a great way to demonstrate photography projects, either with other photographers or even just part of a group of artistic people who all have projects or hobbies to share with each other. Nice idea.
Tuesday 16 March 2010
Orangette: food photography using film
I was originally into this blog about a year ago, then restumbled across a group of old bookmarks in my browser and rediscovered it. In her FAQ she says she's shooting everything on film after falling back in love with the format (sounds familiar!) and some of these, though they look a little Poladroidy to my admittedly untrained eye, are simply stunning.
But the cost, the cost! Yeouch. As much as I would adore to shoot all my food work on Polaroid, thanks to the cost of a pack I would have to remortgage the cottage to do so. Fingers crossed that the Impossible Project brings out something cheap for my SX-70 in a few months' time..
Beautiful writing and blog though, worth poking around in.
Monday 15 March 2010
Polaroid scarves (via little doodles)
You know when you get hit sideways by a screaming train of WANT? That just happened to me. Polaroid silk scarves by Philippe Roucou, made from "found" Polaroid prints. Be still, my heart.
Friday 12 March 2010
Finches rocking out
via youtube.com
Céleste Boursier-Mougenot's installation at Barbican Centre, London.
Pete Dungey's Pothole Gardens
via petedungey.com
Quite relieved to see it's not just me that's obsessed with potholes, but at least Pete is doing something with the anger. Very clever idea (and some other nice projects on his website)
Tuesday 9 March 2010
Cameras made from film
via papercams.com
So, with these cameras made from photographic paper, the camera IS the photograph?
My brain hurts. This is just fantastic.
Monday 8 March 2010
Why I need to learn to light (via Ask MetaFilter)
However, you will learn how to light in a dark room, which will be the single most important skill in your repertoire. If you can make it look like natural light, you will be extremely successful. Nothing personal to all the natural lighters out there, but when a big project is on the line, one rainy day and you're fu*****. Who cares if you're good with your DSLR.
Wow, that says it pretty succinctly. This is part of a larger piece from AskMeFi on how to become a magazine photographer, which is chock-full of useful information and tips (most of which are those sort of tips that are "obvious if you think about it, but you probably won't think about them because they're pretty scary and involve a lot of work")
I definitely need to learn to light my food work more effectively. At the moment I'm very reliant on decent daylight, as this post points out, and tend to shut up shop as soon as the light fades – but this suits the style of imagery that I'm making at the moment. I don't have deadlines or scary photo editors breathing down my neck. However, in the dark British winter this does mean that the hours where I can take pictures are severely reduced in number. And I don't ever want to find myself in the position where I have to turn down a job because I don't have enough daylight to supply the images that the client's after!
Something to think about.
Tuesday 2 March 2010
Bells Bicycles
As soon as I can scrape together the cash, I am going to buy myself a bike from this gorgeously styled and terribly knowledgable little bicycle shop in Hastings' Old Town. Actually did a double take when walking past the shop window at the weekend, and lingered outside for about two microseconds before dashing inside for a lovely chat with the (bike mender? bicyclette?) hugely friendly lady running the shop. Great art inside as well, and some fab bike photographs. Love it!
Thursday 25 February 2010
Kroo Bay Fashion
via youtube.com
I'm currently researching a piece on the photojournalists/videographers who are documenting Kroo Bay in Sierra Leone. Their body of work is astounding, including 360° images with videos, interviews, stills slideshows and sound captures to help convey a sense of place. Some of the videos are also on YouTube, including this short piece on the fashion of Kroo Bay. The way the people from Kroo Bay walk and pose their clothes, as if on a catwalk in London or Paris, is just brilliant and is an exceptional piece of documentary work.
There's a huge amount of other images and "webisodes" to explore on the Save The Children site. Fascinating and well worth watching, even if as a lesson in photo/video documentary.
Wednesday 24 February 2010
On "viral" marketing
when people tell friends about a brand, they’re not trying to help the brand; they’re trying to help their friends.
An excellent post about rethinking the use of the term "viral". I've been wondering the connotations of using a word usually associated with illness, disease and negative things for promoting businesses or services. Surely we all want our products to be associated with good/healthy things - and don't we spend a large chunk of our days killing viruses?
Am going to have lunch and a bit of a think about this.
Monday 22 February 2010
Holly’s house stamps, at design*sponge
Brilliant idea. I want one of these made for the cottage so, so much! How cute and handy, especially around Christmas...
Thursday 18 February 2010
I LEGO N.Y.
Scenes and items from New York, modelled in Lego by Christoph Niemann. Absolutely the best thing I've seen for a very long time, and making me very away-from-homesick for the city!
Wednesday 17 February 2010
The flipside: or "Why I don’t need an expensive camera" by Photocritic
Truth be told, there isn’t that much difference between a 7-year-old Canon digital SLR camera like the 300D and a brand spanking new 550D. Sure, the latter has higher resolution and better toys, but most people simply don’t need the extra resolution. What you need is a shutter that works, a mirror that will move out of the way in time, and a sensor without too many dead pixels. From there on out, it’s all about the quality of your glass (i.e. your lenses), the quality of your light (i.e. sunlight / flash / natural light / diffusers / softboxes / light filters / etc) and… You.
via photocritic.org
Great piece that's making me think about backing down from my plan to purchase a pretty high-end camera. Maybe I should get a entry level one and some seriously nice glass instead. Hum, more to think about.
Monday 15 February 2010
Monday 8 February 2010
Around the World by Zeppelin
via bbc.co.uk
Possibly the most inspirational and fascinating documentary I've seen in ever such a long time. I had no idea that a Zeppelin went round the world - and the archive footage is just delicious. Plus, there was a young British female reporter on board the airship called Lady Grace Drummond-Hay, documenting her adventures for the American media. I love a good adventurer, especially when they're women battling against societal expectations.
If you're a fan of retro archive footage from all over the world, this is one to watch. You've got eight days...
A useful site for film photographers raised on digital: Negative Slide
Like this site a lot. Only just found it so am planning on poking through to see what goodies come up...
Monday 1 February 2010
"Wow, that meal was delicious: you must have a great oven"
For various reasons, today I've been thinking about the camera kit that I have at home. This morning I stumbled across a random website (that I now can't find! This is the first time this has EVER happened to me with the Internet - normally I'm straight back there) that had one of those photography sayings that says "It's not the camera, but the photographer who's using it that counts."
Normally, I'd be nodding sagely and agreeing with them - but there was something about the metaphor they used that rang bells in my mind. The little vignette that the blogger painted was of someone serving up a great meal to their friends, and one of the guests saying "Hey, that's delicious: you must have a really expensive/great oven!". The blogger then likened this to someone seeing a beautiful photograph and saying to the photographer: "Wow, that's stunning - your camera must be really expensive..."
I can see their point. I have countless mouldy cameras that I defend with the exact same idea - that it's not the quality of the image, but the content, ideas and inspiration of the photographer that matters the most. I've seen incredible images taken with crappy camera phones, and rubbish ones shot with Hasselblads – but for the first time, I'm not sure that this maxim completely works.
Let's go back into the cooking metaphor. If you're only armed with a saucepan, a knife and some average-quality ingredients, then you're going to have to really know your spices and timings to produce an edible meal. Obviously even if you're not Michelin-starred, you could probably churn out some tasty comfort food: something to fill your belly on a cold night or shovel into your mouth before work to keep you going. Food as fuel, but not food as exciting, life-reaffirming art.
So if you want your guests to be wowed, to fall to the floor and cry: "oh my God, I didn't know food could taste this good!" then you're going to need top-quality ingredients and some high-end kitchen equipment to boot. Why do you think chefs spend so much money and time on their knives? They're tools that they use every single day, and only the best blade will make their job - expressing their creativity through food - easier. Try producing molecular gastronomy with only a wooden spoon and your best intentions. Obviously, it won't work - and that's not your fault (although really, you probably should have realised before you invited your friends over...) – you just don't have the right equipment.
Equally though, if you pay out for kit but have no idea what you're doing with it, it's very likely that you'll end up phoning for pizza. You need to know how to use those gadgets and gizmos to best effect - you need to know how flavours combine and sing, how to gently and tenderly slow-roast a piece of meat to bring out its best, and how to balance courses so your guests end up satied, delighting in the clever interplay between tastes and pleasantly full rather than overblown and stuffed.
Back in the world of photography, my metaphor stands – if you're a gifted photographer that understands the interplay of light, colour, tone and shadow, then yes - pick up any camera, no matter how crappy, and you'll create imagery that people will enjoy - but it's top-quality glass, sensors, films or camera bodies that you need in order to express your creativity most effectively and create imagery that's jaw-droppingly, awe-inspiringly world class. So unsurprisingly, most of the time you'll find that the camera the professional's using was expensive - and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Friday 29 January 2010
More iPad thoughts: Alex Payne — On the iPad
The thing that bothers me most about the iPad is this: if I had an iPad rather than a real computer as a kid, I’d never be a programmer today. I’d never have had the ability to run whatever stupid, potentially harmful, hugely educational programs I could download or write. I wouldn’t have been able to fire up ResEdit and edit out the Mac startup sound so I could tinker on the computer at all hours without waking my parents. The iPad may be a boon to traditional eduction, insofar as it allows for multimedia textbooks and such, but in its current form, it’s a detriment to the sort of hacker culture that has propelled the digital economy.
via al3x.net
Thursday 28 January 2010
why I quite like Apple's iPad
Here’s why. Apple’s not actually selling a computer. Or a flash drive or multitouch. They needed to make those things for their product, but that’s not what the product is. The product is, simply put, a magical screen that can do anything you ever want it to, no matter what that is.
via rinich.com
An excellent piece of writing that sums up the iPad's appeal (and explains its no doubt imminent success as a device). Compelling stuff...
Friday 22 January 2010
Scanning for Sprockets
An excellent guide to scanning in 35mm negatives and keeping sprocket holes. I always wondered about how people did that. Looks like I need to get myself a scanner...
Blackbird, Fly
Oh, I love this. I think this one might be next on my "to-buy" list, especially because it's 35mm and not dastardly 120!
Nearly bought one in Las Vegas but glad something stayed my hand at the last minute, they seem to be much cheaper in the UK. Lovely-looking thing...
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