musings from the photographic memepool [the shallow end]

Pull up a chair sit back and relax as I waffle on some more on this new blog.

My Nikon is back from the shop. Whilst it was there they found a secondary problem that I thought was due to 3rd party hardware.
The original USB cable that came with the camera lasted all of 12 months and 1 day. The cheap 3rd party one I bought to replace it didn't last long either. Well now it seems it wasn't the cable after all so maybe i'll download camera to computer more often now? We'll see?

I'm back here's the test shot that Camera Clinic took to check my camera after repairing it.

Look closely at the large file on flickr.
You will see the chromatic abberations, particularly on the top left side of the shot.
Even when shot as a raw I would expet not much more than a 12 x 16 print from this camera.

So a while back on my old blog, I asked a question. I received several reponses, and thank you.

The question itself was actually taken from an essay by Henry Holmes Smith, who was an advocate of photographic education, with an emphasis on teaching people to read photographs.

Anyway, I think in all fairness I will expand on the question, and also ask another.

First the new question.

If there are two types of photographers in the world, one whose work could be described as a mirror, the other a window, which are you?

Secondly the original question was taken from an idea in the original essay, titled "The photograph and it's readers, 1953." In it He lists 4 constants that could be used as guides for reading a photograph. Number 3 of these constants reads and I quote,

"The immense respect with which the great photographers regard the natural, the real, and the exact."^†

So has your answer changed?

And if so why?

^†Henry Holmes Smith Collected Writings 1935 - 1985. Pub Center for Creative Photography University of Arizona 1986 ISBN 0938262084

A new set has emerged from the depths of my archives, again thanks to the application, iView Media Pro.

Several are sitting on the back burner awaiting processing, and at this stage I would argue that I haven't dug that deep really. I have 4 or so years of archives from one camera, plus the ever expanding current catalogues for my recently resurrected Nikon Coolpix 5400.

You know in some ways flickr is to blame, I trawl though the photos of the people I have listed as contacts, I trawl through several of the groups I submit to and they all jog my memory of places and times where I have photographed in the past of similar ideas, memories and experiences, and it's now slowly starting to dawn on me how and why photography has become such a powerful social glue, such a powerful social and cultural activity.

Stay tuned, it's hump day here and time to sit reflect and write may yet be a day or two away.

Here's the rough scan from the roll of colour neg 120 sent to me by Jakes World, from the USA.

Still processing the final scans, 4 in total, will upload in the next few days. This is part of the Tale of 2 Cities pool/project. A great idea where chance meets intention, one photographer somewhere in the world shoots a roll of film, it is then sent on to another photographer somewhere else in the world, who rewinds the film, if it is 120, and runs it through a camera in their own city. Resulting in a roll of film that has been double exposed, with 2 sets of images worlds apart. Creating some surreal and wierd results. I am suitbaly impressed by the registration of the two shoots. The alignment of the shots is impressive given that we both used holga cameras. The randomness is intriguing it would be interesting to try and print a couple of them up to see the results.

SAN FRANCISCO - Photographer Joe Rosenthal, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his immortal image of six World War II servicemen raising an American flag over battle-scarred Iwo Jima, died Sunday. He was 94.

Rosenthal died of natural causes at an assisted living facility in the San Francisco suburb of Novato, said his daughter, Anne Rosenthal.

More

Returned to the lanes in the North Carlton area recently, a gold mine of material, texture shapes and forms.

Met a chap who was adamant that the problem with image size and CCD's was the software not the the acutal CCD's themselves. He claimed it was possible to make a program convert a square to anything you wanted, ergo, square pixels become round. I think he didn't understand how CCD's work.

More from a recent wander down the lanes of north Carlton

More shots from the North Carlton Laneway over the weekend

The first day of spring sees, me about to start another project. Probably not a good idea given the light a the moment, and the increased likelyhood of the weather getting even better, oh and not to mention the slowly lengthening days.

At the September Flickr meet, I whipped out my 5 x 4 camera and some old Polaroid film I'd had lying around since 1996. Quite pleased with the results, bit disappointed that I managed to somehow break the Polaroid back. Still I think this is my favourite as it has the surfaces and edges of a true Polaroid. And the looks and interactions of the folks involved is priceless.

For the record, we have from left to right, Melbourne's 3 most notorious flickrnauts:- Scootie, Los Cardinarlos, and Kerryn. Thanks to you guys and thanks to the other flickrnauts who volunteered to have their portraits taken by me, it was a truly special moment, look at my sets in my flickr stream and see how many are 'portraits, you'll see why. [fwiw, 100 portraits oout of nearly 3000 photos?]

Despite all this I wanna do it again. Any more volunteers?

The first of many.

A new set, from the Hasselblad, and North Carlton's lanes.

So Schmaps an online travel directory service has used some of my images for their travel guide of Melbourne.

I have mixed feelings about this, but I put my images online with a licence that permitted it, so I guess I'll have to wear it?

For either of you who care, I've linked to the the images they used on their download-able guide below, I'm on a Mac as you both know and the download-able guide won't be ready for some time so I can't link to them in any way on the Schmap site, or even see how they look embedded in the publication.

Interior of the Hotel Lindrum, Williamstown overlooking the CBD, Museum of Victoria, Williamstown football oval, from the air, My front porch of all places!

A continuing series, of glimpses of my Polaroid project as it gets uploaded.

I am over halfway now in the scanning and processing, thankfully Photoshop™ has a nice set of features allowing a level of automation that alleviates the drudgery of resizing and converting file formats.

I've not a lot to say at the moment, here's another Polaroid image from the roid rage project

"All art constantly aspires towards the condition of music".
Walter Pater

This quote has long fascinated me, don't get me wrong though, I am no musician by any stretch of the imagination, one day I'll learn a musical instrument I guess? But it, the quote, often makes me wonder about my own photography and music, not to mention photography generally.

Everyone can 'listen' to a song, but how many really 'hear' it. Many people can play musical instruments, sing, but how many can write a song, a good one I mean. One that captures people's imaginations, the public consciousness, sticks in history as a memorable moment time or place?

The same applies I feel to photography, even more so now that digital has become so pervasive.

What makes a song or piece of music special?

What makes a photograph special then? How does one create an image that resonates at as many levels as possible, is there even a formula? Does it all matter in the end? Is there a connection between the two music and photography?

Does this image make any sound/s?

Currently showing at the MGA, is The Inaugural William & Winifred Bowness Photography Prize. I recently visited with this show with a group of photography students from work, a fine cross section of the current state of photographic art in Australia at the moment.

For once I was caught out and didn't have either a pen OR a notebook with me, thankfully I managed to scrounge up a piece of paper and a pen from a student, thanks Kirstie. I scratched a few thoughts down on the piece of paper, and if you were thinking of visiting this photography exhibition perhaps my observations maybe of some interest to both of you?

Firstly the notes or more to the point the 'words' I scribbled down in no particular order.

• Unanswered Questions
• Size
• Type C [no non silver, bar one]
• Metallic Paper
• POMO death of magic
• CRAFT
• Art History References

Unanswered questions:-
all the images had a plaque, describing the artist's intentions, some using as much as two A4 sheets other using barely a line. Many though pose questions that they either refused to answer or were unable to answer leaving me wondering if the work was an investigation or a rhetorical question.

Size:-
85% of the work was huge, the rest large, bar one piece, a beautiful set of polaroids taken using a special macro/medical camera. Why does contemporary art need to be so fucking large?

Metallic paper:-
There several images that were printed on this paper, most of which worked well, again though I don't understand this choice, after all it is hard and smooth and cold, not attributes I would want accredited to my work.

POMO death of magic:-
Postmodernism has to my mind been a too intellectual for it's own good, much of today's art has all sorts of ideas attached to it, once you get the idea what is left?

Craft:-
call me old fashioned but whilst craft should be invisible, bad craft should be as invisible.

Art History:-
Several pieces had art history references, so if you had no knowledge of art history then, you would not understand the pieces at all see my last point about POMO and magic.

'The Passions of Light' by Emmanuel Santos

Also on at the MGA, generated a whole list of names of Angels, which piqued my interest, the images themselves however were by and large somewhat twee, which surprised me because Mr Santos has a long history in the Melbourne Photography scene, as a Photo-Journalist documentary photographer.

Still a great survey of contemporary photographic art in Australia at the moment and real swimming pool of ideas and approaches.

Recently a fellow Melbourne Flickrnaut regaled a story about a person they had photographed on the street outside Flinders St station, it wasn't a pleasant situation, and she handled it well I feel. Now the incident has made the mainstream press, in article by Terry Lane which then got picked up by the SMH.

All up; a heap of buzz has been generated by it, so to quote Oscar Wilde,

"...there's only one thing worse than being talked about
and that's not being talked about"

Flickr never ceases to amaze me in it's depth and surprising spontaneity of imagery.

Florencita, posted this image recently of what I can only assume is a fair ground in Paris, from her Paris series.

The simplicity of this image, as well as the poignancy of it has me searching for adjectives. To see this and make an image of something that seems relatively innocuous is a gift that is to be nurtured and cherished. The photograph reeks of poetry; life; death; and has several classical connotations as well as being firmly planted in it's own contemporary place and time.

Initially we see a white statue of what appears to be a male holding their face in some sort of remorseful pose, white clouds frame the sculpture, a blue sky helps emphasise the framing, in the lower half of the image, there is some buildings or functional architecture, the use and function of which is unclear, within this small building is a window, the window appears to open into another space within the environment itself a somewhat anonymous and empty one, but one that would it seems have some use for human activity. There appears to be kitchen like utensils in there, yet again no human presence other than the utensils exist.

The symbolism of this image and the underlying apparent tensions are what make this image for me, the huge white sculpture turning away from a harsh lonely and empty world, even if it is turning into the light, somehow suggest to me a poignant reflection of the current human condition.

I have a LONG association with Kodak. I have been using Kodak Films for nearly 20 years, in particular their black and white emulsions. This morning I was chasing some information about exposure. What a surprise I got when I hit the site, kodak.com, no immediately apparent link for professional photographers, what the hell is going on?

So here's the link for the pro-photographers buried under a menu at the top of the screen.

Compare this to the Australian site below.

Does this mean that Kodak U.S. no longer has an interest in Professional photographers, or have they simply lowered their level of marketing at them? I have to confess I haven't hit the U.S. Website for some time, so maybe this is not a new thing? Given that most pro's would perhaps semi-regularly check the site maybe it's something they are more than aware of already. But as far as I'm concerned, the Australian site still seems to be intent on making pro-photographers more welcome or at least give them an easy entry point to the site in general.

More from the roid rage project.

Tis Fin.

Now enjoy it in all it's surround sound splendour

Recently was asked to shoot a commercial job for a friend for the poster he is designing for the BDYFF [Blue Dandenongs Film Youth Film Festival]. It was fun and lightning paced.

This is a rarity for me, as my output is generally more contemplative and ambiguous.

The above shot, one of my favourites, worked out perfectly, a little puff of breeze blew the stuntman's cape just the right amount to make the composition perfect.

Knowing Trav, the finished poster and al round advertising for the Film Festival will no doubt be funny interesting and engaging.

I learnt a little about working in these situations and may even take on more work in the future with this kind of stuff. One of the distinct advantages to digital no doubt.

...again over on the urban-nature blog

Barb from flickr invited me over to jpgmag.com, a site about getting published and making money. Well as far as I can tell form the brief time spent there this morning. Sadly though I have no images to upload as they ask for high rez versions, so maybe in a day or two I'll upload a couple. The site doesn't seem to encourage social interaction, so I'm asking if either of my readers are in there? Given that the Web 2.0 is all about the user/s?

Chris, another, friend from flickr, who has the somewhat unusual distinction of knowing me before flickr, before the world wide web in fact, sends me this uri for hard to get Polaroid films.

Use if for shots like this:-

I am officially on holidays, we have just returned from Apollo Bay for 4 days, we had both been looking forward to this for some time as it's "feels" like it's been 'one of those terms'—for me anyways. Our stay was at Beacon Point, in the Mariners Cottage. Beacon Point is set on a hill overlooking the Southern Ocean with views of Apollo Bay, nestled in native bush-land.

I wondered if there would be any web access, thus proving that I am once and for all truly addicted to flickr - oh dear!

There was none.

Day One 20.09.06

Spent the morning cleaning the house and packing ready to go, I tried to squeeze in some last minute flickr action, all I managed to do was upload a handful of images, recent images. The drive up was pleasant, we did however need to stop and buy a set of leads with a 3 ^1/2 inch jack on one end, so we could run the iPod through the DVD player whilst at the house, glad we did, but mad I managed to forget.

Upon arrival the accommodation is as exactly I had expected, and I was very pleased by that. When we were researching our options on the internet it is easy to get sucked in by the eye candy used to sell these resorts. Even with both our experienced photographer's eyes in looking at images in any medium there is always a niggling doubt in my mind as to what we are seeing. All unfounded as it turned out that the unit on the inside is as spectacular as it looks on the web, and the views are to die for.

With the unit inspected and the tunes drifting out of the stereo attached to the DVD player we relaxed and flipped though our magazines, I also found what I think will be a suitable location for a series of images to be taken over the 4 days and set up a tripod ready to shoot. Over the next two days every two hours or so I jump up and make an image. Day turned to night and we watched Bleak House on DVD, a recent gift for Nik, before an early night.

Day Two 21.09.06

Breakfast is included in our deal, haven't had croissants since our 2004 trip to Paris. So breakfast was a no-brainer. Some tough decisions though were needed to be made today. Do we stay put and relax read and eat, or do we head out and wander along a local beach or have a coffee in Apollo Bay proper?

Staying put won out, the weather isn't quite warm enough to sit outside, but it is by no means terrible either and with the awesome views out the huge double sliding glass doors it feels like we are outside anyways.

An uneventful day really, reading napping, a bbq lunch, and a short stroll around the resort, all mount up to more relaxing. One or two mobile phones calls were the highlights of the morning, [hi Mitch] after which both phones were both promptly turned off.

I brought a pile of books and magazines to read, so far the magazines were the only ones to see the light of day. We had a splurge at Magnation before we left, I spent $65.00 on magazines! This got me four in total, although one did have an extra magazine inside it.

A literary reviewer I am not, but I will say I am enjoying my copy Frankie, issue #13, the best article I felt was the one that dealt with Australian Television. Is the mainstream realising that today's 20 somethings [and many others] are bored with the one-way diatribe that is TV? Websites like Youtube and Google video are far more engaging and once you work out how to find the content great fun. It also has a small photo essay, “ Saturdays Around The World” that is not bad but, I reckon they could do better especially if they used flickr as a resource for finding images. The idea itself worked, it's just that the images seemed a little insipid.

The next magazine to be devoured was iCreate, a very expensive magazine from the UK. It describes itself as the creative magazine for Mac users. It has news tutorials and a bonus CD attached. As with all these kinds of magazines, the tutorials can be a little hit and miss, but the mag is well laid out and and the tips were enough to get me thinking about some ideas I'd been tinkering with in Indesign, they actually had a tutorial on pages, the drag and drop template driven equivalent page layout tool by Apple, which I might add is quite powerful. The magazine also openly promotes it's forums, something I will investigate myself no doubt—soon.

'T' The Journal of T-Shirt Culture Issue #1 is magazine number 3 I perused, so far looking like thinly veiled advertising but the eye candy is great and I'm always on the lookout for good T-Shirts. The last Magazine remains unopened by today. But when I get around to it I'm sure Pol-Oxygen won't be a let down, this had a bonus little magazine, O₂+, describes itself as 208 Pages of Inspiring Designs, which I read as blatant advertising—in hindsight.

The day ended with a quaint Disney movie, on Austar, an hour or two of solitaire and finally a session of more Bleak House

Day Three 22.09.06

Nothing beats a home cooked hot breakfast, eggs on toast, hash-browns, sausages, bacon tomato and baby spinach, fruit-juice, tea or coffee.

Again time for that tough decision, oh wait is that rain…?

Most days we had some nice visitors too. A family of Magpies, some Parrots or Lorikeets, and some large difficult to identify black birds, ornithologist I ain't either.

After the rain stopped, we decided to head into town itself, for lunch, fish and chips of course. Not much loitering there though as neither of us are into chintzy tacky souvenirs, and while the beach itself is nice I find the rockier parts of the coast more interesting to wander along. On the return home being the sticky beaks we are we made a neat discovery of a partially demolished house site. This meant that I actually pulled out the Hasselblad, and shot 2 and a half rolls of film on the one spot.

The constantly changing light otherwise only served to slow me down, till eventually the clouds came over. The remainder of the day was spent in front of the box watching the rest of Bleak House and some other bits 'n bobs on Austar.

The unfolding spectacular weather pattern ocurring outside, was almost better than TV itself.

Day Four 23.09.06

Checkout day.

Slept-in had a lazy breakfast and packed up and headed home. I also re-jigged the playlist for the drive home.

…some ideas just aren't as good as they first seemed?

Was it my small camera's inability to really capture all the detail I wanted? Was it the moved tripod? I will sit on this one for a few days, we'll see…

Edit, here's all 34 shots

I have had an image used over on abbotsfordblog.com, one buried deep in my stream and like so many in 2005 hardly viewed or posted to many groups, thanks to trapped in a suit it gets to see the light of day.

Looking over my left shoulder as I sit in my study at home, this is the image I see…

I remember when I was at Uni, one of my peers claimed he could never make an image unless in a foreign or exotic place, bah humbug I say. I can't walk 10 metres some days without being bowled over by the visual cacophony that is around me. This image proves my point.

I hope.

I have had some interest in a open prac day using the labs at PIC to allow former attendees of my workshops. So now that the year is winding down I guess I better get off my backside and do something about it.

The idea:-
Open access to a Lab of Macs with Photoshop CS on them, access to a scanner, and a printer. I then drift around the room and help people when available.

Times/Costs:-
10:00am to 4:00pm, $50.00 per head, minimum of 6 attendees. Colour film processing [35mm and 120] $3 plus the Prac fee. Cash on the day.

Date
Saturday October 21 or Saturday October 28 2006.

E-mail me with your interest, I am prepared to accept Flickr contacts as well in this endeavour.

I will probably squeeze in one or two more workshops between now and December as well more info on my website.

As I approach my second anniversary of flickr addiction I am now in a position to revisit my flickr archives and post some images here. Surprisingly image making around these parts has ground to a halt, not counting the 4 rolls of unprocessed film sitting here on my desk, and several other projects tucked away on my hard drive [that I feel have question able merit]. I also still have 2 other online projects on the back burner and a 3rd slowly bubbling away, and I haven't organised my solo show for 2007 yet.

This image made on a photo stroll with ziz and AhlzMeh, was one of my such experiences, which ended up with us drinking free beer at an opening we stumbled upon down at the VCA. This image alone has had the power to evoke so many more thoughts and memories than I'm prepared to share, but it is for me a powerful reminder why photography is such an evocative and suggestive tool.

This is one of the projects I want to contribute to.

Discarded Object Poster Project

Have you ever seen a single shoe in the gutter, a beanie on the road,or a glove on the tram, and thought about whom the object may have belonged to, and how it got lost?

Embedded within the creases and stains of these objects is a human history that speaks of usage and ownership.

Discarded Object Poster Project involves photographing lost objects and making the images into posters that will be posted around the CBD. The shift in context of the object, especially in contrast to the expected advertising image, will reflect it as a trace of a person the remnant of an action or routine.

A map outlining the posters locations will be produced and launched at Bus Passenger Studio Space in early November. The map will help access the work and create a permanent record of the posters.

Discarded Object Poster Project invites you to submit an image of a discarded object, which will then be made into a poster. Next time you see a shoe/glove/sock (anything!) simply photograph it and send it to discardedobject at hotmail dot com (as a jpeg image, 300dpi or higher if possible) including the location of where it was found.

Thankyou for considering being part of this project!

This project is supported by CLUBSproject and Bus Gallery.

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australian Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

Here is the first image I submitted.

Peter Marshall over on about.com, had this to say about Robert Adams, one of my heroes and recent award winner, of the prestigious, Deutsche Börse Photography Prize

Adams pictures in some ways buck recent trends both in art and photography. They are relatively small and finely made prints, and in black and white. Shot of course on film. Of the four sets of work, his was the most traditionally photographic, and the kind of work that any new photographer would find most difficult to get accepted by the galleries today, neither commercial nor fashionable. It's good to see it recognised.

Now how to use this to get my solo show exhibited, in 2007?

The article also introduced me to this body of work, taken over a time frame of 5 years by Alec Soth. An eclectic and interesting series of images, with heavy religious undertones, a subtle reference to sleeping and some connections to some of the areas in and around the Mississippi river.

Here's a nicley distilled list of tips to help take better photos. I've just used the headings, the whole article is over on MSN. Aimed manily at people who like to wander the world at large camera in hand.

• Lens hoods, Use them Always!
• Steady your camera, if you want sharp images do everything in your power to make them so.
• Get outside more often, seeing what is going on around you is a good thing, learning to read light is a lifelong craft.
• Get outside when others don't. Capitalise on dramatic lighting situations.
• Find an unusual viewpoint.
• Keep the composition and the background simple.
• Use selective focus carefully.
• Hurry up and wait."Fortune favours the prepared"
• Don't get caught with your camera down.
• Think about different ways of framing your subject, try them out.
• Texture, kind of self explanatory really.
• Mood, use it to your advantage.
• Meaningful juxtaposition, even though I hate that word juxtaposition, it is so true, and in the urban environment everywhere.
• Always bracket [in the beginning, once you understand the intricacies of exposure, this is a last resort, see hurry up and wait.]
• Padded camera bag, handy but not essential.
• Supplementary lenses, handy but learning to see with one lens first only improves your ability to see all the time.

I offer these tips to stem the "oh I'll fix it in photoshop" attitude that is becoming more and more prevalent these days.

...how POMO!

I just realised today that, a while back I grumbled about the physical size of contemporary photographic art, in Melbourne in particular.

And 2 days ago, I was pleased to announce an award given to a photographer who's work I admire whose most recent body of work, is in fact small and finely printed.

*Cue spooky Twilight Zone type music*

On an unrelated note:-
Have a Polaroid?
Want to keep on shooting with it?
Want a Polaroid?
This is the website for you then

An online collaborative magazine has asked me to submit images for it's first publication, Metroblossom is:-

a collaborative space for exploring the interaction between humans and the nonhuman world. In particular, those presenting their work through this project are interested in the informal and undocumented life with which we are in constant interaction. Through these explorations, metroblossom argues that all life is meaningful, important, and more than worthy of our recognition.

They have chosen 4 images from my utterly urbane series.

The images have yet to be published and I had to submit an artists statement as well, which in itself was a good process to go through, as I re-discovered some old bits and bobs of ideas quotes text that had been piling up in various places that I put to good use.

...today.

..through my archives is a common pursuit these days, shooting seems to be more of a rarity than I'd care to admit.

By archives I mean both my flickr stream and my iView catalogues.

During a recent trawl, a handful of images caught my eye, that reminded me of Lewis Baltz's body of work from the 1970's called, "The New Industrial Parks Near Irvine, California". Baltz and Robert Adams along with Joe Deal are three of the main influences on me during my early years as an artist.

That recognition lead then to a search for more similar images, which turned out to be a fruitful one. Resulting in a new set. Sadly flickr won't let you create a set without a title so it's called "."

I am really starting to appreciate the benefits of the flickr site these days. It is a playground and place to experiment a place to bounce ideas off other folks. Part of me wants to treat this whole experience as a legitimate exhibition space, but part of me has trouble dealing with that idea too.

An offshoot to this trawling of the archives is that in those early naive days I went nuts uploading far too much, not being tough enough on myself. I was seduced by the speed and ease of digital.

All that has changed now, oh what a difference a year makes, [well nearly two actually].

Thanks to Streunerin on flickr for this heads up to a blog that is actually worth reading, by JM Colberg, I really like the title too!

Conscientious
Conscientious - a weblog about fine-art photography (and more)

So it seems that, in America anyway, some people have the same kinds of concerns now as, "The new Topographers" did in the 70's.

Jeff Brouws, is a photographer who looks like he is grappling with similar ideas and subject matter.

[edit]:- Jeff also has a new book out, check it out on Amazon.com

This then begs the question, "What is new?"

The way I see it these days, nothing, as we are all human and at some level we are still the same we could ever possibly be. Telling our stories in our own unique way is, I guess, what makes art new in some respects, a lesson learnt at Uni, but only now am I REALLY understanding it, exacerbated by the fact that I am about to hit the gallery proposal writing scene again.

Robert Adams in an essay in his book, "Beauty in Photography Essays in Defense of Traditional Values" discusses this issue far more eloquently than I ever could, if you live in Melbourne get in touch I'm happy to lend you the book.

Curious about the beginnings of photography? Start with this history of photography site by Dr. Robert Leggat.

Yahoo are asking for contributions to a time capsule they are putting together.

They are asking for submissions in several themes themes, Love, Anger, Fun, Sorrow, Faith, Beauty, Past, Now, Hope, You. They are also asking for media in a variety of formats, text audio video and of course photography which according to the flickr blog entry where I found this, is leading the pack in terms of numbers.

I had two goes at uploading something, didn't work so at least I can say I gave it a try.

This is the image I tried to up load.

I chose Faith as the category that I wanted to contribute to. [I originally wanted to choose hope but the artist's idea or maybe Yahoo's idea of what that meant isn't quite how I define hope, perhaps more on that later.]

Let me ask both of my readers this question then –
How do you define the word hope?

Sadly I have not the cash to visit this show currently showing at SFMOMA, in San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, but err if you know anyone who wants to throw some cash around, I'll gladly go there and give a full report on it. I guess though the best way to see a show like this is Google the names of the exhibitors and put together your own exhibition of work.

The body of work I'd most like to see is that by Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel who are best known for their book 'Evidence' (1977) which used images found from a 3 year search of files and archives of over one hundred American government agencies, educational institutions, and corporations, and published 59 of them re-contextualised as a work of photographic art.*

A view I've long held and felt fairly passionate about but never can quite articulate it as well as I'd like to.

I guess the closest I will come to seeing this body of work is owning the book now reprinted and available of course on Amazon.

*http://photography.about.com/b/a/257686.htm

On the Digital Photography School Blog in fact, in an article about using light to add impact to your photography.

Just when you think you've seen it all on flickr up pops another great image maker.

This set by akiruna, reminds me of the power to transform the world into something that simply re-affirms our existence, dare I say it it fills me with—hope?

New phone with increased resolution, the ability to blog to blogger from the phone, more features yet to be explored I'm sure. One thing though and I'm not sure if it's me or not, but the interface on this phone seems marginally more elegant than my k700i, wish I could make the text smaller though.

So I guess there's going to be a flurry of cheesy mobile phone shots in these parts over the coming days, unless the novelty wears off quicker than that?

There is talk afoot of a Darkroom session amongst some of the Melbourne Flickrnauts, in the Melbourne Silver Mine Pool. Interesting idea, might be fun?

Simon Roberts a European Photojournalist, has some powerful imagery on his site I particularly like the Polar Nights series. Sadly It's a flash driven site so you will have to go poke around in there yourself to find the series I'm talking about, yet another reason not to use flash [imho].

The weather patterns here in Melbourne at the moment are perfect for photography, a brief shower followed by, sunshine provides glorious colour as all the dust is washed off things and the moisture glows beautifully in the sunshine.

Small update here as I sip my first coffee for the day in readiness to head out and snap of off the odd shot or two, this little people project is intriguing and insightful, thanks to felix42 over at delicious

No doubt about these cameras and their ability to distort and misrepresent eh? I mean a mobile phone will record what is presented to it, but it has no option to selectively focus, a fixed lens that is usually wide angle in nature, removing the need for focus and foreshortening everything in it's path, I mean really?

Surely I don't look like this?

Joerg over at Conscientious, has finally told it like it is regarding the HDR fad that is/was sweeping flickr these days, I vaguely remember reading about in the New York Times too. Mostly it is obviously poorly done and simply reeks of poor technical skills and a poor understanding of what a real HDR photograph should look like. Some discussion of these issues has occurred on flickr as well

This is an example of what an HDR photo should look like

Apologies to Joerg, as I got his name wrong, since edited to reflect this, again my apologies.

Oh to be financially capable of travel at a whim, or at least short notice, another exhibition in the States that I would love to see, talk about a who's who of photographers.

Where We Live: Photographs of America from the Berman Collection

• Robert Adams
• William Christenberry
• William Eggleston
• Joel Meyerowitz
• Stepehen Shore
• Joel Sternfield
• George Tice

Just to mention a few.

About the show, from the Getty site itself:-
Bruce Berman, a film producer and head of Village Roadshow Pictures, hunts for photographic evidence of 20th-century American lifestyles—the homes, cars, churches, bars, and theaters that once comprised our national landscape. He channeled his respect for midwestern painters such as Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton and his love of the bold colors of Navajo weaving and quilts—not to mention his love of Technicolor movies—into a search for color photographs of the American landscape and built environment

Ah the dream of a bottomless pit of resources with plenty of flexible time to use it.

One contract has ended for the year, so time is now starting to free up a little, as a consequence I am going to attempt a series of articles on photographers I've encountered online at flickr, in the last couple of years.

In my, 23 months or so on flickr I have been fortunate to encounter several photographers, whose style and approach I admire, Barb is one of those people.

This image is one of hers and is one of those classic, formal street shots that speaks as much about the street it was taken in as it does about the photographer itself.

I particularly like the way the eye wanders around the image in a loose yet cohesive way. The sparseness of the image is actually a furphy, the image is rich in minor details that all add up to a wholeness that is rewarding in one sense and simply matter of fact without really being a documentary photograph in another sense. Not a single element of the picture plane has been wasted. Barb's stream is littered with these images, her sense of composition incredibly strong, and her colour sense is understated.

I'm glad to have met her in person and am happy to have her in my growing list of contacts on flickr.

In my, 23 months or so on flickr I have been fortunate to encounter several photographers, whose style and approach I admire, digiboy is one of those people, who I happen to have known before.

One of the aspects of digiboy's work is the way he uses the simplest of cameras to produce remarkably evocative images that are inherently dark and moody. If I was to ever wander the streets of Japan where a lot of of digiboy's work has been shot, I would be constantly looking over my shoulder.

Digiboy's understanding of light is superlative, his appreciation of the most mundane details outstanding.

Some people find this kind of bleak vision difficult, but I prefer images that I consume, to ask more questions than provide answers.

Even though I knew digiboy, before signing up to flickr, he is also one of my contacts who delights and surprises me on a regular basis.