bikes and things

I found a few printed photos the other day, nothing special, just a few snap shots, but I really enjoyed looking at them again. This got me thinking about how I would never go back more than a week or two on my Flickr stream and ever look at any of my shots from the past – partly the whole reason for taking pictures surely? iPhoto doesn’t cut it either as it’s so bloated and slow and currently crashes constantly – it suffers from the same problem as Flickr I guess, I’m not going to sit there and go through them. However I have a shoe box of 6″x4″ prints (matt with borders) from the last few years beside my desk are all from film cameras I occasionally use like Dad’s OM20, my lovely LC-A, Nikon F801 or the Olympus Trip 35. A lot of the pictures are rubbish but they remind me of being somewhere or doing something which I’d probably forgotten about. I guess I find a bit more of a connection with the printed version

Flickr is obviously my main online store of photos (some people use Facebook or Picasa etc). I’m always uploading new stuff of course but this seems to only enhance the transitory nature of these images, it’s always about the next image. I’ve also become a lot more critical of what I upload, so snap shots of friends don’t always make it. Do these go on Facebook instead? Hard to say.

In terms of digital storage this lot all sits in a big folder on my external drive titled “The great JPEG dump”. Paid work is all organised neatly but it’s always been hard to know what to do with the personal images. I was going to use Adobe Carousel but I can’t see that working out.

So I’ve decided that I’m going to go back to printing out actual photos and buying a box for each year. Some physical objects that I can look back on – maybe at Christmas each year and remember what’s gone on. I’ve found a cheap online printers and will do a set each month, I’ve even found somewhere that does a nice shoe box (yes you can find anything with Google). A bit like the 365 project but longer, maybe one box for each year. I’m going to go back and do all of 2011 and keep going as long as I can.

Updated: It’s working out quite well printing all these pics. Just sorting out the 2011 box now.

About two years ago I went on the amazing Seb Rogers Photocourse with a cast of characters, some of whom I manage to keep in contact via the joys of Twitter. I don’t think I realised how much I learnt that weekend but now that I’m trying to make a part income from photography that I realise that almost all of what I saw that weekend was of use. Exposure, focus, RAW processing, histograms, basic camera technique etc etc. I’d read about all of this stuff on the web before but it didn’t really click until then. After putting it into practice afterwards things got a lot easier and allowed me to take a few more steps up the ladder. Plenty more steps to go but it really helped me on my way.

Anyway, the point of this is that the below photo is of Guy Parry who was on the course.

It also happens to be one of the most viewed photos on my Flickr stream, mainly due to being added to the Strobist group I’d imagine. This was a little plop into a stream that we both rode through it taking turns to light each other with a flash held by Seb (Voice Activated Lightstand). I’d always wondered what those photos turned out like and Guy uploaded a few today. Being the other side of the camera means that I don’t normally see decent pics of me riding. Nice to see a few decent ones at last. Thanks Guy!

Lighting test

Plop

Nice panning shot

Which is a good thing. She’s got a great eye for seeing amazing things to take pictures of (some are quite bizarre) and has now started uploading to Flickr also. Go and have a good look (and chuckle) at the pictures of toilets, people dancing at bus stops and shoes on pavements – amongst other things.

Just when I was thinking how bored I was of street photography I go and shoot this.

This year has been a good year for developing my photography skills, so what better way to finish it off than showing a few night shots I’ve just take around Peckham. Off to The Gowlett shortly but had to nip out to get my fix with the tripod especially now the weather is warmer.

Happy New Year!

Yesterday I went out to West London to do a shoot for a firm of Engineers I work with a fair bit at the office. They’ve been working on a large house that is having a sizeable basement being dug underneath it – about nine metres down or around two and a half storeys. They’ve essentially supported the whole house on columns (piles which have become columns) as they’ve excavated. Seriously impressive stuff and quite a feat to see in the flesh (or metal and concrete rather). I love a good bit if engineering and this really satisfies. Incredible what we can do and seriously impressive stuff.

After this I headed back into town to get a few shots of The Shard and see whether I had enough shift on the lens to be able to capture the top of it. I’ve been seeing quite a few shots of it on Flickr recently and thought I should really go and get some myself. Turns out I did have enough reach on the lens and I spent a few hours waiting on London Bridge freezing my arse off to get the following shot. Well worth it I think for that final one and just go the timing of the clouds right to get the moon in too. Also tried out using a Universal White Balance setting to get more dynamic range out of the D700. Seemed to work pretty well although the previews on the back of the camera come out all green, kind of cross processed.

Like seeing your life flashing before your eyes. Link to http://pummelvision.com/ (where you can create your own) Via @vaughan

I occasionally get emails from people wanting to use images I’ve posted to my Fickr account. I set all of my images with a Creative Commons license so that anyone can use them on blog, publications etc so long as they’re not for profit. I don’t see any problem with that as they’re mostly just for fun. Some of these emails are asking to use the images in books which publishers are putting together. I’ve donated a few mountainbike shots so far and usually they agree to send you a free copy of the book – I’ve never received any copies of these free books however.

The latest email came a few months ago though and I’m starting to think some of these people are out to take the piss really. The image in question is below – a picture of a tap which looks a bit like a face. The initial email asked to use the images, so I said “sure no problem”.

However with these muppets, the problem is that they haven’t actually chosen your image yet, they want you submit your image for consideration. Heres the email from the good people at Lark Books

So I’m GIVING you an image for FREE for you to make money out of and you want me to fill out all these forms on the off chance that I might get selected? Are you fucking shitting me? How about you choose the images you want to use and then make people fill out the forms and go through the hassle.

It really does take the piss. Needless to say I’m not quite as interested in licensing my images to people like this anymore no matter how crappy the image.

Edit: Gary just pointed me to two books on their site providing advice on running a successful photography business. How ironic!

Sometimes there’s nothing cooler than a robot, especially when it’s a 6 storey high one in Tokyo! Few more images on the Flickr blog.

IMG_7132, originally uploaded by hunyaga.

I recently found a little web service that generates, and updates, a ‘most interesting’ set on Flickr. It’s always interesting to see how it’s changed each morning depending on who’s added what as a favourite or commented on them. Quite pleased with the fact that it is populated with a lot of very recent photos, hopefully that means I’m getting better!