Took a little break from the blog and writing over the summer. I’ve been a little busy on the work front and needed a sort of creative break before the college term starts in October. Although I’ll only be at college one day a week I expect at least another day a week [...]]]>

Took a little break from the blog and writing over the summer. I’ve been a little busy on the work front and needed a sort of creative break before the college term starts in October. Although I’ll only be at college one day a week I expect at least another day a week to get the required assignments in on time. Even with this commitment, I’m really hoping to be able blog about what it’s like to be back at school.

I don’t consider myself a “photographer” just a keen maker of photographs. I’m sure the course will change the way I perceive my photography, my photographs and my attitude toward art and whether or not I call myself an artist. One of the things that drew me to this particular course is that it’s not all about the latest technology. It’s about the art of photography and print making. So I’ll be shooting film and spending a lot of time in the darkroom. You could argue that we have moved on, that in a digital world we don’t need to know about developer, stop bath and fixer. Well, that would be too easy. There is a still a market out there for handprinted, fine art photographs and even if there was not, someone should keep the skills and techniques of traditional photography and print making alive. Skills, arts and traditional methods are being lost every day all over the world because people don’t want to invest the time or the effort to keep them.

I love digital photography and the gadgets and toys that surround it. The fact that it is so easy, the fact that cameras are cheap and you can great results. Those things all bring image taking to the masses, but is it photography? Yes, of course it is, but it is not a reason to forget how we got here. Photography has not been around that long, and in the last 10 years it has seen more advancement and changes than in the previous 160 or so years. So I’m taking some time to look back in order to move my skills forward.

View from my Croydon hotel window !

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Hanging out at the seaside. A beautiful place. Would have been so much nicer if people would take their trash home with them.

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You might have noticed more and more pictures turning up here in the blog and a general bent towards all things photographic. Well that’s likely to continue, and there’s a reason.

I’ve always had an interest in photography and it’s always been something I’ve enjoyed. I would never call myself a photographer and I find [...]]]>

You might have noticed more and more pictures turning up here in the blog and a general bent towards all things photographic. Well that’s likely to continue, and there’s a reason.

I’ve always had an interest in photography and it’s always been something I’ve enjoyed. I would never call myself a photographer and I find the majority of my work lack lustre, on the one hand that’s fairly depressing, on the other it drives me to try and improve. When I finished on the Nautilus Explorer and returned to the UK, I promised myself I’d spend more time behind the camera and make a real effort to take my photography to the next level. Well 6 weeks or so ago I went on a weekends long photography course at nearby Dillington House. The course was run by a charming, mild mannered gentleman by the name of Ron Frampton. Ron is a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society (FRPS) andhas a number of books and other credits to his name. He’s down in Somerset for his whole life and has a wealth of local knowledge. He has been running the course at Dillington House for more than 25 years and is still passionate about teaching. The course that Ron runs at Dillington House is unique and only takes around twelve students a year. It runs on one day week and is very traditional. There is an emphasis on film photography and a lot of time spent in the darkroom. Now, despite being a total geek this really appealed to me. So when Ron asked if I’d be interested in joining the course in October I was totally going to say yes. Only one small problem, I have to work for a living and the course is on a Monday.

Fortunately, my employers are pretty forward thinking and were good enough to allow me work a flexibly. So in october 2010 I’ll be going back to school and I’ll be getting the chance to something I’ve always wanted to do. To spend lots more time taking photographs.

I’m particularly interested in, how using film based cameras and darkrooms affects how I work digitally. Scarily I’m already developing a serious passion for all things celluloid. I think it’s the engineering and solidity of the older cameras. Whatever it is I’m really looking forward learning and working with Ron and the other students who’ve been on the course for 2, 3 or 4 years.

Driving around the Southwest came across this nice church. Could not resist taking a look inside and making a few pictures.

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A glorious Friday down here in the South West of England. Thought I’d pop into the garden and grab a shot or two so that I could show off my new favourite photo app on the iPhone; Plastic Bullet. It applies random filters and sliders to your [...]]]>

A glorious Friday down here in the South West of England. Thought I’d pop into the garden and grab a shot or two so that I could show off my new favourite photo app on the iPhone; Plastic Bullet. It applies random filters and sliders to your shots and comes up with some fantastic results. Here are a couple of examples.

Enjoy the weekend.

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Much like Marmite, Apple has its lovers and haters. Me, I’m a lover, a total fan boy. I’ve worked in IT for about 15 years and for the whole of that time I’ve used and worked with Microsoft products. About 4 years ago I began using Apple products. It [...]]]>

Much like Marmite, Apple has its lovers and haters. Me, I’m a lover, a total fan boy. I’ve worked in IT for about 15 years and for the whole of that time I’ve used and worked with Microsoft products. About 4 years ago I began using Apple products. It was a way for me to use a computer and not feel like I was at work. I spend a lot of my working life in and around Microsoft products and when they work I’m happy, when they don’t work I’m even happier ! People pay me to go and fix the stuff that fails.

I’ve not succumbed to the iPad yet, I know it’s only a matter of time and I’m looking forward to the day I finally cave in and go and get one. Once I get it home I know I’ll like it. I know I’ll spend time thinking of all the great things I can do with it and how I can integrate it into my life. I know that it will just work and I also know that I will somehow instinctively know how to use it. That could be because I am total geek and I seem to be hard wired with certain things or just great design and the Apple secret sauce.

Secret sauce or not I could never like Marmite, it’s just morally wrong, an aberration, a cunning trick played on us by advertisers to rid one of their clients of an annoying by-product (it’s the scrapings from the bottom of beer a barrel). I have of course tried it and after I’d finished retching and pumping my own stomach I burnt the offending material and buried the ashes. Not something I’m likely to do with the iPad.

Anyway, here is picture taken with the lovely iPhone using the Hipstamatic app. Hipstamatic , like a few other iPhone photo apps is fuelling my current love of lo-fi photography. Which like Marmite, you either love or hate !

Cross posted on www.phototulip.com

British engineering at it’s best. Thanks Issy.

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Taken whilst walking between sites in London

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You can never have enough camera bags, fact! Actually it may be more of a law than fact, at least that’s how I justify it to my significant other. We do have a rule in the house for stuff like this though, one in, one out.

So when I needed a new bag (need, want, whatever) [...]]]>

You can never have enough camera bags, fact! Actually it may be more of a law than fact, at least that’s how I justify it to my significant other. We do have a rule in the house for stuff like this though, one in, one out.

So when I needed a new bag (need, want, whatever) recently I made sure I found the scabbiest old backpack I could to be the sacrificial “goat” that got tossed into the recycle bin.

So anyway, I “needed” a new camera bag as my current and trusty Lowepro Trekker AW does not have a dedicated space for a laptop. I do like the Trekker, and it has been around the world and climbed mountains and stuff with me. However, I find that it lacks a few niceties for “walk around town” or use it everyday type stuff. The key feature I wanted was somewhere to safely store my laptop. I didn’t have a lot of time to look around as I’d been dispatched to the outer regions of Scotland by my employer and thought it might be nice to able to safely carry my 7d and a spare lens as well as the work issue laptop. I’d need to carry the works laptop and not my hackintosh as unfortunately I’d be configuring some equipment which was not compatible with OSX. Tough life. I found a nearby Jessops store and made a beeline for the bag section. There was not a huge selection but I did find a bag that seemed like it would do the job. Yet another Lowepro, this would be my third one.

The bag I picked up is a FastPack 250, it will easily accommodate a 15″ laptop in the large padded zip slot in the back of the bag. I’m also sure that it will be a safe place to put my iPad, once they land officially in the UK. The bottom half of this backpack is accessed by unclipping a couple of plastic clips and unzipping the U shaped zip. This reveals a nicely padded area which is sectioned off with the standard removable velcro dividers. In it’s standard layout this gives five compartments plus another which is obviously where you put your DLSR body with a short lens attached. Just by removing a single divider you could comfortably fit in a 7D or similar and a 70-200mm lens.

I have easily fitted a 7D with 50mm lens a spare 20D body a 100mm lens, 10-20mm lens and a 580EX flash, as well as spare batteries and a card reader. There are a couple of small velcro pockets in there which are better suited to SD cards but will take a CF card too. Once zipped up there is another zip pouch on the outside into which you could put a small notebook and pen or a bunch of cables. The outer flap then closes over this and clips into place. You can easily access the main camera storage area just by unzipping the bottom of the U shaped zip. Your camera body is right there to pull straight out.

This may sound great, and sure, it allows quick access, but it has two potential problems.

Problem 1; with a short lens like a 50mm you could open the zip and have the camera fall out, this would not be big deal if you fitted a longer lens.

Problem 2; if you have this pack on your back in a crowded street it would be very easy for a thief to walk up behind you slide the zip open and have the camera body fall neatly into their hand. I generally try not to have my bag on my back in such situations, but it’s worth keeping in mind, you could also zip the bag in such a way that the ends of the zip are concealed underneath the outer flap. That does rather negate the “quick draw” capability of the bag.

The upper section of the bag has a smallish outer zip pocket which would be a nice place to store a bunch of cables or a couple of healthy snack bars. The larger top compartment has a lot of space and contains pockets for mobile phones, pens and business cards. There is plenty of room in there for another camera body or sandwiches, maybe even both. There is mesh pocket for a water bottle on the righthand side of the bag.

The two shoulder straps are comfortable and there is a waist strap which has some padding for the hips. The back is nicely padded and has an “airtex” type material which helps to get some airflow around you and the bag. Even with the couple of issues I have mentioned above this is a great day pack for photo walks or guerilla type photography and video. It’s pretty unassuming and does not scream photobag. It’s a great addition to my luggage arsenal and I find myself using it more and more.

Cross posted on PhotoTulip.