I see no… photos
Tuesday, March 25, 2008 ~ 10 Comments
Flicking through Flickr … ahhhh I get it now …
Anyway.
I was … ummm … browsing Flickr last night and it struck me that I’m just not generally of a mind to take photos. I’m still very much a “go and take photos” type of photographer, rather than a “quick, take a snapshot” type of photographer. Now I’ll admit that, in the grand scheme of things, this isn’t really that big a deal but, as we all know, it’s the minor things that tend to piss us off and this, currently, is one of mine.
Before I continue I’ll point out that, as I type, my camera sits in the bag at my feet. It’s been there for the past couple of weeks (in the bag, not at my feet).
The lack of photos is not for the want of subjects either, for a start the building I work in has an art deco frontage and a modern glass, copper and metal extension, and even then I do seem to have a fairly good eye for composition (ohhh modesty, wherefore art thou?) even if my technical know-how still needs to be improved. No, I’m definitely not short of subjects.
So, I have the camera, I have the subjects. What on earth could possibly be stopping me taking more photos? Ahhh yes, of course. The idiot holding the camera of course!
Despite the fact I see many things, on a daily basis, that I think would make interesting snapshots (a shaft of light burning through the air, a discarded bike by the side of the road, the blossoming smoke rising from an industrial chimney) my camera remains unsheathed. I really, really need to get over this. But how?
I guess I just need to get over myself, get over the sense of… what? awkwardness? Not sure but I need to get my mindset sorted. Right. OK. Yes!!
In fact I’m going to take the first step right now.
There.
My camera is now on my desk.
Hey, baby steps and all that..
Ollie
Thursday, January 3, 2008 ~ 9 Comments
Other photos will, of course, follow. Including one of him asleep next to me on the couch.
Freezing Fog
Saturday, December 22, 2007 ~ 2 Comments
It’s all gone now, but the previous three days saw us drive to and from work in freezing fog. During that time, the country road that we take got whiter and whiter. So, on Friday afternoon as I was home earlier than I expected, I nipped back out with my camera.
Where do we go from here?
Friday, December 14, 2007 ~ 6 Comments
MP3, USB, JPEG, some factors of our technological life are now “standard”. If I get a new gadget and it doesn’t have a USB connection or USB power cable then.. well actually, I probably wouldn’t buy it if it didn’t so that’s a bit of a moot point.
I’ve mentioned before that I’m slowly ripping all my CDs to MP3 (the CDs are now out of the living room and piled 20 high, 3 deep on my desk, which is progress of sorts) and it wasn’t a decision I took all that lightly. Admittedly the bulk of my new music is already in that format and as MP3 is supported widely then it should be OK in the future. Right?
JPEG appears to be safe as well. Every digital camera uses it and it does what it does well enough for the masses.
Ohh and yes, before anyone points out, I KNOW that there are better formats for storing music and photos but ultimately the loss of quality between a 256kbs MP3 and any of the lossless formats is beyond anything I can really detect, and the same goes for JPEG vs RAW images for MY purposes.
Those issues aside I do worry a little about losing these things to the vagaries of time, an issue to which the Kindle from Amazon - an electronic book reader - adds another dimension. One which, for some reason, has me very concerned about where this is all heading.
For some reason, whilst I’m not happy about the prospect, I am resigned to the fact that I may lose copies of photos and tracks. I am reasonably diligent when backing up, but if the worst happens, and I lose both my main hard drive AND my backup drive, then yeah, I’m stuffed. I have considered burning the really valuable stuff onto DVD but that’s way down the “I really should but I just can’t be chuffing bothered” path (a path strewn with many other best intentions and forgotten endeavours).
I’m not entirely sure there is an answer for this. Yes I could return to buying CDs rather than MP3 tracks, but at the rate I consume music the issue of physical space trumps any notion of always having a physical copy. And I can’t do that with photos anyway so I’m still at the whim of various hard drives.
I guess I could invest in a backup for my backup but even then it’s just another thing in the chain that could and, eventually will, fail.
What does all this mean? Well, I’m not entirely sure. Advances in technology means that the vast majority of hard drives can be considered trustworthy and unlikely to fail within a few years of usage (I’ve got two from my old PC which still work quite happily, which reminds me to get an enclosure or something for them).
However, technical issues aside, I’m also wondering if we have become a society where nothing really has value. Everything is replaceable, and we are encouraged to bin the old and buy new. If I did lose all my MP3s then I COULD replace them (at cost). So what’s the big deal? I’d only replace the ones I really missed so it might be a good way to start over and avoid all the dross.
Alas the same can’t be said of photos. Losing them loses the associated memories and emotions, the thoughts and feelings experience can’t be lost but they do dim over time, not forgotten but filed away in the distant recess of my mind. Viewing old photos brings them rushing back into the light, dusted down and ready to relived.
If I lost that there is no price that would can be paid, no way back.
Bloody hell, that’s a scary thought. Guess what I’ll be doing tonight!!
Pink water
Friday, October 5, 2007 ~ 8 Comments
One of many photos taken that evening, a glorious sunset.
Looks pretty good as a desktop wallpaper too, no?
Click, delete, click, delete
Monday, May 7, 2007 ~ 8 Comments
Photography can be a bit of a black art, but then anyone who has picked up any camera that is more than a point-and-shoot will know that. Aperture this, exposure that, bracketing, f numbers, focal distances and on and on and on with the terminology.
Of course that’s the same with any technology, I know, so I guess what I’m really saying is that I’ve yet to experience that lightbulb moment, that mental switch where everything goes from being “Maybe if I … ” to “I know this’ll look better if …”.
I guess this is what makes a hobby, a hobby. Specialist knowledge. Right?
As I’m constantly trying to improve my knowledge, and hone my, ahem, art, I generally spend some time analysing the photos I have taken, trying to figure out how they could be improved. I’m not a huge fan of heavy post-processing, so pretty much what you see is what you get.
One thing I’ve always been fairly happy with is my ability to frame things, to pick out an interesting angle or viewpoint. But even that has been failing me recently.
For example, our wander around Glasgow Botanic Gardens offered plenty of opportunity for ‘interesting’ photos. The main greenhouse in particular, cries out for attention and, of the many photos I took only two really stand out, this one and this one.
But just viewing them tells me that there are other photo opportunities that I missed.
Now, I know that this will always be the case, and that that is nothing new but it’s still a little annoying. With all the mumbo-jumbo that surrounds photography, and my increasing frustration at the slow rate at which I’m picking it up (I’m usually a fast learner), the fact that the one ’skill’ I thought I had seems to be deserting me too… well it’s a little annoying. But I’ve said that already.
One of the two photos contains the ‘missed opportunity’. Can you spot which one? And can you spot what the ‘missed opportunity’ was?
Just curious. In case it’s, you know, just me.
