The subject matter is old (in web terms) but well worth posting as the photos and subject are so fantastic. I’ve already posted about one of the iconic images by Iwaan Baan from when Hurricane Sandy struck New York, but he had access to a helicopter which is a little unfair on the rest of the photographers trying to capture the event. These images are based on slightly more accessible level of the city but still show the impact of the storm and the unusual black out which hit the city. Shot by a photo editor at MTV and part time photographer Colin Gray and found via this Wired article.
At the time, Gray had no idea that in addition to knocking out power to more than eight million homes in New York and 16 other states, Hurricane Sandy would kill more than 100 people, cause billions of dollars of damage and bring transportation to a standstill, with some of New York City’s subway stations filled with water from the tracks to the ceiling. All he knew was that he had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and needed to act fast.
I’d love to have the opportunity to shoot something like this. Must keep the camera and tripod in the van at all times I think, just in case.
Number ten in the series so far and this time it’s Brighton Jim or Jim Stephenson as he’s more often known. All round nice fella and talented photographer shown working on his latest shots in his flat in Brighton. It was great to collaborate on this one and come up with a few more ideas before shooting it. Although it seems like a simple image quite a bit of OCD went into it to get it just right.
Looking forward to shooting more for the project in 2013.
The whole Detroit ruin photography has been done to death really, with the best images coming from Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre in their wonderful book “The Ruins of Detroit”. It’s fairly hard to beat those images in my opinion, however these images offer a fresher take on the genre (if you can call it that) by contrasting the dereliction with a much happier point in the life of the building.
I still find it incredible that this situation exists at all but that’s for another post perhaps.
A while ago I wrote a bitchy post about Flickr bemoaning it’s lack of development in recent years. Following that I was contacted by a member of the Flickr team saying the following (slightly paraphrased).
Hope this finds you well. We saw your blog post about the new Flickr t-shirts and I’d love to send you one… Keep your eyes peeled for more from us. Thanks for your enthusiasm
I kind of poo-poohed this at the time but thought, hey a free t-shirt, why not? Then they released their new iPhone app fulfilling pretty much all of my requested features – most importantly of which is the notifications of new activity on your photo stream. So you can actually respond and engage with these rather than respond two weeks later when you remember to log in.
But yes my post was driven from frustration but also enthusiasm for the platform and the work that gets posted there. It seemed like it was drifting into irrelevance. However the release of the app seems to have changed that as it gives people an easy and intuitive way of engaging with content on their mobile devices iPhones. Yes they also released a set of image filters you can use when you upload to Flickr which various people bitched about, Twitter released similar filters with their app around about the same time, but I don’t think this is the key feature of the app. The filters don’t really interest me as I don’t upload those kind of shots there, even though I’m addicted to Instagram.
The layout and design of it is superb, just large enough to see decent quality images but not so big that you can’t see what’s next. Vertical scrolling through your contacts and then sideways to see what else they have if one of their images takes your fancy. Very nicely done. I’ve often wondered why this sideways scrolling wasn’t in Instagram. There’s even more nice things to find and they’ve done a little blog post pointing out some of the less obvious features.
One of the nicest is the ability to search other networks for people – I found about 60 people who I didn’t know were on Flickr. The personal homepage is also pretty decent too.
For a while though the biggest problem with Flickr was that it was seemingly irrelevant. It just wasn’t talked about. No articles were written about it in the tech press, even the ones about it dying a death stopped a while back. It didn’t arouse any excitement, people didn’t renew their subscriptions or if they did then just used it as bulk storage for shots from other services such as Instagram.
But then something weird happened a few days ago. Instagram changed their terms of service…
Some or all of the Service may be supported by advertising revenue. To help us deliver interesting paid or sponsored content or promotions, you agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you.
The change in terms essentially aligns a little closer to what Facebook has always had. They pretty much own any content you post there which is all a bit creepy. Anyway the change in terms has built up into the end of the world for some on Twitter – the Mayans and their end of the world have been completely out done this time. There’s been a great deal of furore with people even deleting their accounts so that they can’t have their images “sold” or “monetised” obviously completely missing the point that most images on Instagram are utter shite – many of mine included. Many have also reminded people that – if you’re not paying for it you are the product which is kind of true, but then most people don’t expect the pics of their cat to be sold on to someone else.
What has further transpired is that Instagram don’t own your images more than any other service and have rushed out a blog post to try and calm the storm.
Instagram users own their content and Instagram does not claim any ownership rights over your photos. Nothing about this has changed. We respect that there are creative artists and hobbyists alike that pour their heart into creating beautiful photos, and we respect that your photos are your photos. Period*.
*I hate it when American’s say period, it’s FULL STOP.
So, the net benefit for Flickr? Well it’s suddenly become relevant again and the timing of this couldn’t have been more perfect for them. All sorts of people have been posting about trying to find their password to login to the site after not going there in years. I’m seeing lots more activity and more people adding me as a contact as well as generally being more active there. It’s hard to say whether it’ll be the mass migration that will make it as popular as Instagram but the interface is there in the app (and filters) so we’ll see but early signs seem to be promising.
It’s kind of exciting to see a platform come alive again as I don’t think I’ve really seen that before. Most just wither and die and don’t really ever get a second chance – MySpace anyone? Fingers crossed they don’t squander it and keep investing in it.
And finally, have I deleted my Instagram account? No, not yet as I have a decent network of followers (and followees?) there. But I am starting to look at uploading more things to Flickr via VSCO Cam which has a nicer set of more subtle filters. I’ve left an image on Instagram pointing people to my Flickr and hope that takes off a bit more.
I used to be very strict on not uploading iPhone shots as I didn’t see it as proper photography. As the camera has got better the lines seem to have blurred slightly. Here’s an old shot re-worked in VSCO Cam which is along the lines of what I intend to upload in the future. Unfortunately VSCO Cam doesn’t have native Flickr uploading built in but you can email directly to Flickr from the app instead to do an upload to avoid using two apps. Got to yout settings in Flickr to find your own upload email.
You got a second chance Flickr, please don’t screw it up.
Updated:
It seems like they’re on a bit of a roll. Loads more activity on my stream and then this nice email arrived this morning. Free three months for everyone.
After recently re-engaging with Flickr (yeah I know I was wrong), I’ve been adding loads more shots to my favourites seeing as it’s so easy with the new app. I thought I’d share some of the amazing images I’d found. Click through and add them to your own faves.
Climate change seems to usually be described through graphs or charts along with number of degrees predicted and millimetres or even metres of sea level projected to rise. It’s hard to relate to that or even know where the science is on all of this as it’s communicated in a relatively abstract way. Yes it’s happening but we have no way to relate to it physically until it’s potentially too late. Photographer James Balog set out to describe this in more accessible ways and obviously in a visual way.
Balog became interested in photography while working on his master’s degree in geomorphology—the processes that shape landscapes. That interest blossomed into a very successful career as a photographer for the likes of National Geographic. Chasing Ice is the result of the Extreme Ice Survey project Balog started in 2007. The idea was to deploy cameras to a number of glaciers and compile high-quality, time-lapse imagery over long enough time periods to clearly see the glaciers melting back.
The kit and planning that goes into to something like this is staggering. A screenshot from the trailer shows piles and piles of Nikon D200s (current for the time) being prepped for use in the extreme environments of Iceland, Greenland and many more places. I also found a TED Talk which gives further background and the other kit shot shown below.
The result of all this footage is the film entitled Chasing Ice, the trailer is shown below. The scale of the change taking place is hard to contemplate but one clip hosted at The Guardian shows an area the size of Manhattan breaking of over a period of 75 minutes.
We popped down to see my Grandma this weekend in Weston-Super-Mare as she wasn’t very well. She soon perked up after seeing myself, Emma and my Mum. So much so that we all came away more tired after all her talking. Apparently Grandad used to say to her “Is your tongue not tired yet Mary?”
I have some wonderful memories of this place from going to stay there when I was very young. I was reminded of most of these with an amazing photo album she brought out for us all to see. Then I thought that I should record the place for all its amazing little mementos and memories from 50 or so years of living there. So I shot a few quick ones to get a feel for it and will continue to record it all next time I’m there and then make a photo book out of it.
This looks fantastic judging by the trailer below. Seems like it’s been around since 2010 and not sure why I haven’t found it before but nevermind. Looking forward to getting a copy in the new year. Shame the DVD is region 1 though.
Haven’t really published any of my proper work for a while for a variety of reasons – mainly being too busy I guess and I think people see enough of my stuff about now without me banging on about it. I’ve decided drop the separate blog for photography news and I think it’ll all go on here from now on – potentially infrequently though.
Earlier in the year I spent the afternoon at the offices of Moxon Architects to shoot a series of photos of their studio and also catch a quick portrait of the two directors on the roof of their office. The latter of which is set against the backdrop of the Westway just as the sun was setting. I find the portraits far harder than normal architectural shots but I’m pleased with this one. Great to see another Architects studio and see how they work too.
