September 2008 Archives

When does a photo album become a book?

[From Inside on Flickr - Photo Sharing!]

This image from flickr by a commercial photographer working in the states has me thinking about what differentiates a photo album from a book? More specifically, a 'Photo Album' from a 'Monograph'. Is it just me or does the phrase 'Photo album' have connotations of a highly personalised history, family or otherwise, whereas a 'Monograph' has slightly more serious undertones, with a whiff of Academia?

• Photo corners?
• Distribution?
• Content?
• Production Costs?
• Production Values?

Time to make another I guess?

Just discovered that twitter has it's own search tool, and it could, perhpas be used to get a feel for what is going on around you?

Couldn't help myself could I

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

As I'm doing less and less in photoshop these days, I guess I missed the announcement of CS4

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Just another thing to learn, well my PD file will get a shot in the arm.

Anolgies are good

[From Photo Processing, A Cooking Analogy « Nancy Lehrer’s Weblog]

I like metaphors too

For those of you who know me, this is the one weekend of the year where, my music collection and DVD collection, [meagre as it is] all gets a hammering.

Try it sometime folks, see if you can go 3 or 4 days without TV Radio or newspapers, it's hard. But with applications like iTunes, it gets easier. The proliferation of content out there also means I will have no shortage of entertainment for the coming days, too.

Of course being the end of the month means, if I've been careful earlier in the month I can go crazy and download as much as I feel I'll need.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

All this has me reflecting on how I organise this stuff now and in the past, iTunes has had a major impact on it of course. But prior to the internet, how did I do it? How did you do it, or did you never go into media lock down for 3 or 4 days straight?

Organising my iTunes stuff, has gotten simpler as Apple improves the interface and functionality and my understanding of how iTunes worked has grown. Now with the genius bar in iTunes and my iLike side bar that interface has become very cluttered, but still given the amount of information I want to try and keep organised I reckon it, iTunes, does it in a pretty elegant and intuitive way.

*This year I'm hoping to beat my record and go until at least Monday or Tuesday without knowing who has won.

Flickr recently changed the way the front page works. Historically I would begin using the site from my own bookmarked page, then, using tabs, work my way around comments I'd made followed by comments left by others, then check the activity in the groups, I'm involved in.

All this is neatly encapsulated in one page now with nice drop down areas, using the ubiquitous triangles people are so used to seeing on computers these days. I can now do much more, using this interface, more easily and more frequently.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Perhaps a BAD thing for me? [I keep promising myself to spend less time in there.]

If I was to level one criticism at this otherwise smart move, it would the inability to change back to the old page, personally no biggy but I know others have been a bit miffed by this issue.

Aerial Photography using Balloons

[From Process]

Stay tuned

Way back in the mid 90's when the internet sprang into the public consciousness, many many folks predicted the death of books and magazines and as a consequence photography that drove these industries. Here we are 10 years alter and magazine shelves are brimming with more titles than ever, the computer publishing industry has exploded providing books on all manner of topics that people want to read and learn about. High resolution digital cameras are now only outnumbered by mobile devices that have a camera built-in. Sites like flickr have sprung into existence, along with publishing tools like blogger.

This morning this article turned up in my news-reader. an article interviewing the DOP for one of America's largest magazines, one I've NOT read in many years, Reader Digest.

I took great hope in this quote

There are those who forecast that the web will ultimately replace print. Not having a crystal ball, I think the mediums will both remain valid and offer different experiences for quite some time.

Indeed why does the question need to be so digital.

David Levinthal, revisited

[From JPG Magazine: Photos: "Spill" by Jason Barnhart]

Old story; new twist.

Or is it?

Friday, we had some rare rain. It's footy finals here, with all it's related insanity, traffic is usually at its worst on ANY given froidee.

What has this to do with Photography, I hear my dear reader/s ask? The long slow drive home allowed me to shoot over 100 frames on my VQ1005. The drive usually 45-60 minutes on a good day, took nearly 2 hours. [I'd left my mophone at home, so used it instead.]

It handled the colours well given the somewhat lowered contrast. Timing as always is tricky with these cameras, but managed to fluke a couple of good ones.

This shot of the taxi, turning the corner is one, I love trying to add these cars to images made in the CBD. The splash of yellow can lift the rest of the colours really well. Sadly given my new upload system to flickr, it maybe months begore any other see the light of day. Perhaps I'll add a couple to my iperntiy account?

This map gives a rough indication of the state of affairs, norally 3 to 5 minutes through this area.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Term break is here; so far I've a bit of analogue film to process and proof, that is going to be the focus of the break, I really want to be able to exploit the light this time of year, and a 2 week window may just be enough. Not that I'm working on anything new at the moment.

Don't you just love it when digital borks.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

It seems I've been with my Vistaquest for 12 months now!

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Silly season is upon us. Yes it's the end of the football season. This year there are posters all over town, banners, ads on TV, plus the usual mainstream guff in things like the newspapers. Maybe it's my imagination, but the in-ya-face component of the sport seems to be getting worse each year. This prompted me to think of an organisation from many years that used to even get a mention in the Herald Sun, the A.F.L, no not THAT A.F.L, the Anti Football League. Way back before I even picked up a camera, I knew of and admired this organisation. A quick 'google' this morning shows me that it has recently been revived. I am very pleased. I will be signing up straightaway.

I mean who can resist, with this sort of information..

Regardless of the criticism, badges were sold at an alarming rate and the inaugural Douglas Wilkie medal was awarded to then Prime Minister Harold Holt. By July 1967, less than two months after the AFL was conceived, it had more members than the Collingwood Football Club, the largest in the VFL

You should join too!

My inbox gets all sorts of photography related e-mails, every now and again a standout one showsup.

Photojojo sends such pearlers every now and then, this set Sky Play by, hb19 from flickr, is one such example. A great idea simply executed, hours of entertainment and fun.

Flash bulbs, flash cubes, and Magicubes (also called Xcubes) are now available for purchase on-line. These have not been manufactured for many years, and supplies are very limited.

This in my inbox this morning

Dear customer, this is a quick note to let you know that we have just added a limited supply of obsolete flash products to the Frugal Photographer web site.
These will be of particular interest to camera collectors, and to anyone else who enjoys displaying cameras and equipment from the mid-1950's through the 1980's.
And of course, they'll interest anyone who is still using one of the high-quality cameras from that period. From The Frugal Photographer.

...after a little research I answered my own question the image that prompted me was indeed taken/made in a regional city of America, which, is not dissimilar in size to the 3 major regional cities here in Victoria. Those cities being, Geelong, Ballarat & Bendigo. Of course one of the American cities that most closely resembles Melbourne in Population and size is Boston. And when I searched flickr, the results did in fact look similar to Melbourne.

On an unrelated note, I have some polaroids in a show at Photospace in Collingwood, that opens today, with the official opening this Saturday, I'm hoping to pop in for the official reception at some point, maybe I'll see you there?