Bugle Blog - maxblackphotos.

Now then.

5/30/2013

don't think I'm going to ignoring you but some, well most of the places I'm off to just don't have wi-fi and even though I've finally got my infinity BT wi-fi sorted...thank you Mina over in India and your chat based online help there appears to be not a jot of wireless or much else over on the Outer Hebrides So will load Elvis up again and banter off to Uig on friday..450 miles have a kip on the harbour hop on the ferry and zizz across to Harris...yep that simple....ha...so if wifi works at any point I'll keep you up to date in the new images section. As I've already mentioned I'm going to give bracketed exposures a big wallop...I've learnt a new trick which involves LR and CS without things going a bit Barbara Cartland Make-up HDR...I suppose I'd better have a faff in LR5 before I go just to see whats new. So if I don't post then I'm not ignoring you dear reader it's all about the wifi...
Couldn't get out to do three tutorials this week because of the accursed dribbly grey fugg weather.... June it is then when all will be billowy and sunny....yeh right....

Arty..one of the ever increasing list of Grandsons.

Stuff

5/29/2013

No I havn't been away yet...just had all the family here for the last 5 days.....I begin to feel my age when these events happen...lovely that they are. Lots of images to process, went to the 1940's weekend at Ramsbottom and took a select few, Tatton, Dunham....you know you can post but not tag images with ; national trust; as a tag.....they own all image rights....
Okay brand spanking new laptop...after a decade of Dells I am now a Samsung basher...nice springy keyboard big 17" screen 1TB of hard drive and 8gb of ram...so what's not to like...now I may be a bit late getting on the 'Windows 8 is a jolly old big bag of compost' bandwagon but I've jumped on board. Now I like Windows 8 on a mobile...the Nokia 920 was a delight..swiping, tickling, squeezing and the like...but on a non touch screen laptop...welll it dosn't work...so I'm unpinning all the tiles that i'll never use...and just using chrome to run most everything...oh and Adobe..... CS6 all loaded...Lightroom5 coming downstream as I type CS6 hopefully will switch over to CC in the next couple of weeks..images uploaded pretty quick as well so I'll try a bit of mashing later.... so Windows 8....poop springs to mind...very nice appy colourful poop ,but poop.
Okay for the last week I have been, yet again battling the weather to get out there and do some one to one work with folk.....meh...climate stuff, not condusive to photography tutorialso a bit different again but s and I'm off on a jolly to bonny Scotland on Friday... I'll be trying out some bracketed exposure work as well as time lapse stuff but it needs to be done,,,,,,

Cepic

5/23/2013

So here's a link to the images I've chosen to be featured at Cepic , just follow this link http://www.fotolibra.com/gallery/lightbox/?lightbox_id=17000
and you will see a set of images which are a bit more restrained than my usual fare. Had to think of the market they were being shown to...I didn't want to frighten the horses with some of the waccy baccy stuff I pump out....anyway..middle of June lets see what kind of doors open following this then.
Websites....portfolios...lightboxes..there seems to be an explosion of updated , upgraded, reworked, new pricing structure web presence things out there at the moment I was glad flickr actually did something and on first look I thought ..Wow...but after a few days I find I'm actually yearning for a return to the old interface...okay I don't look at flickr on mobile devices...which , I think, was the raison d'etre to get the decorators in...it's not tempted me to fork out on a Pro account though. Now 500px has got a new 'Portfolio' thingumybob interface thing...as long as you pay.... and then I go and discover that, as I am a fully paid up and card carryying member of that there Adobe CC ...well they have given me a Behance Prosite for free...free...okay as i always tell the kids if they tell you it's free then somewhere along the line you pay...so it must be coming out of my monthly dibs to Adobe... but hey it's a freebie it looks quite nice and clean and it's somewhere else to snag some interest.... what's not to like. have a look...okay not much in at the moment.. http://maxblackphotos.prosite.com but check out Behance as well..big old mixing pot of creatives and some great 'pro' image makers to follow...

Crossing-Shooting into the Sun up in Oldham.

Rubs eyes..what's all this...

5/21/2013

Well all before the caffeine has kicked in first up flickr, was it only the other day that I was wondering what on earth happened to all the 'new updates' that were coming, big well done to them for making it look great...well they appear to be here..check it out flickr
Then Weebly goes from beta to full on new interface and then youtube launches it's new channel academey and I get another invite to join another library, I finally get all my images off to cepic Zip filed a big batch of images for one of the book publishers I do covers for, checked my getty account...meh..tumbleweed again.. got paid for some other jobs though...... already I think it's time for a lie down...oh and actually learnt something new about Photoshop CS6... it's only 10.30 for chuffs sake.... I think I'd better go and do some domestic tasks and see what else might happen later...oh yes new cover images for some German publications already optioned....you've got to love the internet and got some 'Oi, old man, those shoes are for trendy funksters' shoes off of that there amazon... caffeine and domestic tasks to follow.... here's one of the new book cover images just sent off never before published anywhere...you know I have loads of stuff like this...

On the coast at Dumfries and Galloway...I know it's a Sunset.

Going...

5/19/2013

Got a personal and really, quite sad email from one of the image libraries that I subscribe to. Jane the owner is having to close it down and a consequence of this is that she will lose everything. Now I've been with them for 5 years and although I've sold some I'd hardly say that the effort of getting images up, online, keyworded and for sale has been reflected in the amount of money I've earned. problem being is that I was one of the major contributors, now if I'm not selling then heaven help the smaller subscribers, the trade off of course is that they only make money if I make money and in this overstuffed, far too much, images coming out of every orifice virtual world in which I and many others inhabit is ease of choice, image snatching and low prices - and the sheer volume of images out there. This isn't the first online image seller I've had close down and I'm sure there will be more and more casualities. But in this arms length, vitual world of dealing with business that we inhabit, it's always sad that on a personal scale, loss and business failure will always be part of trying to earn a living. Look at the High Street and the amount of empty property, okay difficult to define what real estate there is on the internet but I'm sure if you rubbed Googles tummy enough you'd be able to find that business failure on the web is probably very similar, we just don't get left with a shuttered property, maybe a vacant address. Behind each one will be people like Jane, they've put everything into making something work and find that ultimately, it dosn't

Training courses back on the site.

5/18/2013

This time I've indicated which ones are weather dependant...have a look through, these are suggestions, if there is anything you would like to do, just let me know and I can put together a module just to suit. I'm just doing these in the Greater Manchester area this year, really so that we don't end up in Blackpool to do ICM's and find the weather has shut down....
I am also doing mobile Adobe Photoshop CS6 for Photographers training, I can get to anywhere in Greater Manchester and help you with any CS6 issues, show you the what's and why's and really anything in CS6 that can maximise the content of your image files, just email me at [email protected] and outline the areas where you want to work in, in CS6...okay CS6 will soon become CC so as I'm already a card carrying Adobe subscrpition member I will have CC when it releases in mid June. It dosn't matter what version of Photoshop you are running though as I will tailor things to what you want Check out the training page here

Cepic...

5/14/2013

Whoa...where did that one come from...I've just got an email asking me to choose and submit 20 images for showcasing at http://www.cepic.org/ in Barceloan of all places, they've got to be my choice and have got to be of a similar subject matter, that's really got me thinking....sheesh...I think I might have to run this up the flagpole and see which way it flies but I have to do it by tomorrow.... I can already feel my 2 active brain cells starting to overheat...anyhow i'll post the images on here tomorrow once I get my head around it all , what an honour, okay no money is changing hands but this is one of the biggest image conference/sales/ library things this summer, something good may happen or it might just be, well sort of meh...who knows...waheey certainly good for the old confidence I can tell you...
So I'm providing the image files and they are doing all the rest...nice, lets see if this really can fly....on other business matters....
Yes I will get all the one to one courses back on here befoe I zip off up to Scotland from the end of May to mid June...surely the weather will have relented and some nice balmy fluffy clouded days will fill our summer months....surely?????
So over the next few days I'll get the courses up on a dedicated page again, i've expanded the range and most, if not all will combine a bit of post processing tips on the old laptop, so it will be more along the lines of shoot it and process it and learn a new skill to stick in your photographic quiver, yep quiver.....until then I need to get these 20 images sorted and sent off......

Individuality

5/13/2013

I wander around the webiverse, like a demented grey haired old bee,buzzing about different styles and genres of photography...sometimes I even draw conclusions about things. I'm not a great thinker, more doer and procrastinator but when I want I'll stop and investigate until sated and I'm off again,flitting around some Daisy's masquerading as images.... okay I'll get to the point. Landscapes... now it's either me being a dokus or there are a lot of 'award winning' photographers doing , well as far as I can see the same blooming picture ad infinitum, type in 'award winning landscape photographer' into Google (other lesser search engines are available) and start having a rumble through the 33 million(at least) hits that it will throw up.. yep I know, you have your established stars, the thrusters jostling to be established and then 32.99 recurring million others who ..well are basically doing the same thing..... all I'm trying to boil this down to is one thing. Individuality, for the poor souls who have followed my blog over the last couple of years will have noted that one of the things I like is an individual eye, it really has nothing to do with the gear you use, seriously..., more attitude and maybe questioning the genre, bringing something new to the table, sitting down with your gear all packed away and maybe thinking about how you can approach and present something that reflects your thinking....meh...probably the trickiest thing there is in photography that. It could be defined as style, I prefer to think of it as individuality..maybe even personality and I will always cleave to a photographer if their individual vision shines through in their images...here's a couple who see things in different ways and go beyond just going to a location and pointing and clicking....

http://www.mbcreativephotography.co.uk/portfolio

http://www.chrisfriel.co.uk/water

So...there are and always will be millions of nice sunrisey, nd filtered dreamy seascape images with a bit of sun poking over the horizon, all I'm asking is that for me, yes do it for me ...you put some of yourself into your images, face the twin imposters and climb past those 32,999,999,999 other 'award winning' landscape photographers by having a singular view...in fact...some Individuality.

Ailsa Craig...oh lord it's a chuffing sunset....

That Internet rash...

5/10/2013

That'll be me then...spread out over the surface of the web, lots of sites hosting my images, most with the vague hope that some will sell, All quiet on the Getty front at the moment, Redbubble..lots of cards and the odd print but it keeps on ticking, imagekind print sales every now and then, fotolibra, the steady Eddie that sells most of the time and then I have stuff on specialist sites, no , not that kind!! So I get an email from one of my book cover publishers giving out the blah that 'although we like selling images with lots of women on them', and they do..'well for chuffs sake send us something interesting like these that have sold recently....' so I thought I'd have a look and blow me there's my stuff...hmmmm maybe they hadn't got around to telling me that they had gone and then I remember that they pay quarterly...thank the lord...as when these sell they usually have a multi area licence attached to them which means each time they get published in a new country the old virtual till goes kerching...now I'm not one to go on( oh yes you do...) and on about stuff published hither and thither but every now and then, like my stuff being used for Ordnance Survey map covers and Scandanavian Crime novels it's nice to get that virtual pat on the back that comes with the moderate sales generated. Ah, I think the 3 for a fiver beer shelves at Tesco beckon.
New harsh mono stuff from Southport here.... Southport

Southport Pier and Boating lake Bridge.

CC

5/9/2013

Adobe CC, it will be here amongst us very soon. I watched the Adobe Max keynote speech, it all looks, dare I say, exciting.....
Now I'm already signed up, got the old Adobe ID and am just running things on this old steam powered Dell, if you are signed up you can run Photoshop on 2 machines, they check your IP address and you can delete one machine and load onto a new computer if you upgrade. If you sign up you'll also get a Behance website and 20gb of cloud space and access to Adobe Exchange and all the Adobe creative cloud forums and probably loads more... ACR 8 seems to be loaded with all the tools that Lightroom 5 is getting and Adobe Raw now gets popped into Photoshops filter menu as well, which is very nice although , some of you may go a bit shakey at this point...work with Smart Objects... I use Smart Objects for all my filter work...it's like putting your image file into a graphene envelope..you can smash , stretch, faff, twiddle, scribble and generally do all kinds of naughtiness to the envelope whilst inside your image file inside remains pristine, unsampled and in the state in which you stuck it into the envelope.....yes... so start thinking about Smart Objects...I'm thinking that this is one way of getting the most out of Photoshop CC So it all looks , and forgive me for typing this, ....awesome.... (I feel dirty now) but check out Adobe TV and spend some time on the keynote speech, Photoshop is the first product up but worth spending time seeing how 3D and Video in CC work....
Some new images in...er...New Images bit more cameraphone work but produced using a lot of free stuff from Adobe Exchange which Adobe ID members have access to, I'm not here to sell it to you but if you are serious about your images then subscription seems to be the way it's all going forward...here's one from the new images page...

Lowry..Nokia N08 mobile and a couple of free textures from Adobe Exchange.