Okay, time for more. experimental photography, or faffing as it is known. This involves taking your lens off of the front of your camera and holding it in a kind of 'Christ...I hope I don't drop it' manner in front of the gaping hole . Early days...early days and as the heavens have opened I wont be toddling into Manchester to do any of this. I'm using an 80mm Nikkor off my Bronica S2a as the lens, if I drop it, well, it will just crack the pavement..I'm sure after a bit of tugging and pulling I'll be getting some waccy results but here are a few from the back garden before 'rain stopped play' So.....it looks like you've had a play in LR/Pshops blur filter thingys but actually it's only a question of holding the lens and moving it about by small degrees to get this, well almost titl shift look to your image files, All have just had an 'Auto' button waft in LR5 and that's it....I think there are some legs in this and , on behalf of all of you,I will faff away with it until the wheels fall off..
So something a bit more in depth on the do's and dont's tomorrow, camera settings and stuff...
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,,done the ironing, got a wash on, fed the chickens and fish and watered all the hanging baskets..which gives me some time to write some more of this drivel... There maybe movement on the Worldwide Photowalk front as I had an idea...that's right one of those once a year moments has happened..so I will be talking to a nice lady today about doing something a bit different, keep you posted as ever. Mwaaaahhh I sent the Nokia 925 back..whoever gets next use of it will have a proper little compact camera to fidle with (little is used in it's loosest sense).... If I can give a modicum of photo advice for the coming weekend that would be try shooting at your lenses max aperture F1.8 or whatever and go manual on the focussing..just bloody try it okay! Feel the force and switch off your targeting computers and ...well you should know the rest Lunchtime with Grandad...................
Right , I'll be off to shovel some manure rather than type it in a short while..better and cheaper than going to the Gym. Some of my images are going to be used for the reprint of Richard Laymons crime thriller novels in Germany...( yep...me neither...) http://www.amazon.com/wiki/Richard_Laymon/ref=ntt_at_bio_wiki . Just nice to know every now and then where your images end up, that is the ones that are bought legit not the ones half inched off site..there is a little reverse search engine you can use to track images you may think are off on a jaunt without your knowledge http://www.tineye.com/ ....that is if the little monkeys havn't stripped out the metadat from your file... ah well Anyway oh yes, nice to get some work out there published albeit under a blanket of type, that's where I seem to be at the moment, on Ordnance survey maps and Paperback covers...I'd lke to say it's a living...no I really would but.... If you havn't made it across to my Behance site then here are the latest images of Manchester, I like this style ...well for the moment so expect more or completely ignore, we still live in a free world apparently... oh TFI Friday folks, big hello to you hundreds...yes I'm not making it up..hundreds of newbies who have dropped in this week for a look. No these arn't shot with the Nokia Lumia 925 but these are
It's summer so that means summer shows and to be more specific summr car shows, always good for photo opps especially when the sun gets in on the act and gets to work on all that chrome. Chucking it down today so chance to get stuff on ebay and gumtree, i'll post some links later.
First off..it really is a lovely piece of kit thinner than the 920 but I did like, no really like the Ferrari Red of that one. Still this has an understated feeling of quality, if it were mine I'd have to get a tough as boots case for it as it would join the rest of my kit in a 'chuck it in the bag' style that I usually adopt when out taking snaps. So lets have a look at few snaps from the dear old thing. Down on the allotment as I had a lot of manure spreading to do before this interminable sun dried it all out. Now the only thing I've found that could be a slight annoyance is focus hunting in close up macro shooting, there is a slight amount of vignetting, f2 and close up work gives a nice soft fall off, just make sure you hit that focus sweet spot..and of course they are Jpegs...... so if you blow things out ..well there really is nothing to bring back in any PP work. Even in bright sunlight the screen gives a really good image although the focus indicator can suffer a bit. Of course there are all the lens apps that come with the phone and I'll have a fiddle about with those later
Charging was straight forward and fast and image download was very speedy. If you have skydrive then you can get your images synced and the whole process is fast and easy> So first impression, fast, keep it in auto and you can snap and snap and.... clear screen even in challenging conditions, camera access even when locked, a useful bunch of tools pre loaded....hmmmm what's not to like as a point and shoot replacement...point and shoot is a disservice..it is a creative tool and I hope to show over the next few posts how you can push things and create some different and creative images...... You know that thing you do, yes you do, that thing,........ you get so excited about unboxing and getting playing with a new toy that the instructions stay in the bottom of the box unopened.... well I read them and went online and ...here's a shocker..learnt how to use the lens menus...and above you can see some of the results from some very low light level close-up work last night.
Makes me start to wonder why some of the DSLR big guns sell and manufacture big dobbing tubes of metal and glass (and plastic) when in a teensy weeny grouping of Carl Zeiss wonder you can get quite startling image files. Okay get up close and personal with these image files and things look a bit shakey, but that really is up and very close, say 300% viewing scale...now I'd say it's sensor resolution rather that lens so I'm pretty keen to take a look at the 'EOS Phone...the Nokia 1020 with it's 41 megapixel light harvester that , I think will probably make camera manufacturers start binning all their point and shoot cameras, or at least get their cameras to accept phone calls...no ..that would be silly...imagine having a high spec camera that also is fully connected to this old interweb universe...imagine!! Hmmmm starting to ramble..so for most of us the 925 will give you image files that in close up mode will give you a pretty decent A4 print...if anyone actually prints from their phones and of course sparkly crispy images to flaunt around the internet and send to your virtual social media buddies. I'll leave you with one shot this very morning in my front garden Well if I'm reading this DHL tracking widget correctly this Nokia 925 will be with me anytime.....now....now...okay maybe a bit later but in time to catch some of this weather. If you are my reader, yes you, then you will have noted that not too long ago I had the pleasure of having the Nokia 920 for a month to go forth and shoot 'til exhausted....both me and the battery. Now I really liked it, a very useful tool for street photography as opposed to shoving your DSLR into the great British publics faces...I know, I know there is shooting from the hip and great dobbing 200mm but I like street shots that are wide or standard in their focal length shooting and that there is some kind of engagement with your subject matter. I'm also going to be putting the 925 to the test in low light conditions, so that will be evenings in Manchester, maybe weekends and maybe with people having a good time. I hope this time I can unlock all the lens apps, seems to be some stuff in there that demands you get creative with. Follow the link above to see what it can do. So ...phones..don't think of them as 'point and shoot' look on them as a way in which you see things, if you know me you'll know that I believe it dosn't matter what you use to capture your images as long as you see things in your way....... Well it's 11 and the Nokia 925 has just been dropped off...time to charge...learn about the camera apps and twiddly bits and get out there snapping....
A very long time ago I trained as an Architectural Photographer on 5 x 4 and 10 x 8 swing tilt cameras. Now I've photographed many a building since , during the early years everything that I shot was Mono, vertically correct and sharp as a pin..that was then. Now I still love architectural shapes and how i would have loved all those years ago, was Photoshop... Because now I want to look at buildings as being part of the image not the central focal point...maybe better to show you what I'm on about...here are some images from Glasgow down on the Clyde. So the images are part architecture, a bit of texture and reworking the sharpness/blur. For me it's a question of creating an image as opposed to recording a photograph and in many ways imposing a look and maybe my own 'style' ...here's a few more In this over image saturated world that we inhabit it can be difficult to get acknowledgement for your creative talents, especially if you are shooting things that are' scenes that everyone has to shoot' So experiment, do that thing...you know...put the camera gear down and think about what you want to show people and how you want to present things. If you are working an image file then get in there and play...don't save it but keep working it until you develop a 'look' that you like....important point of course is to remeber how you got there...take notes save a layered psd, create an action and save any adjustment layers as presets...and then you are well on the way to using your photography to create images, not just take photographs
Yummy....okay not a comprehensive technical rundown of the photographic wurlitzer but....yummy. Can I just say, the techie who thought of adding camera raw to the CC filter gallery should be getting a medal, this has made the processing and Thunderbird 2 work on some 'chuck it in the bin exposures...just do it....and do it now' files such a fizzing whizz. I've got some ICM shots from late last year that were not shot in ideal ICM light and ...holy moly...there's actually an image tucked away inside there..just jumping back and forth from CC to Raw filter..... Okay not everyone's cuppa or Marmite but I can't tell you how this has appeared from the very depths of histogram hell..so I had a faff with a linear light color overlay as well....fini
So for the rest of the day I will batter away and see if this wunderkind of a programme can do things to things ,,,hmmm,yep, time to stop. Happy July btw,,, ..tomorrow. It's going to be on the lines of 'Don't just sit there....' So I'll be talking about showing and processing wide angle panoramas from Blackpool promenade...how to shoot and produce Mash ups with a Blackpool twist...going through shooting shadows and looking at things in a different way...same subject matter different style... so if you are about get along to Poulton Photographic society tomorrow and see if there are some techniques you might add to your quiver.... So last talk for a while and I won't be doing any more group tutorials (well until July) for a while as I chuck my efforts behind my new retail adventure..if this Manchester one works then I have a blueprint to apply to all the other Cities where I have shot far too many images in.... fact of the day...I've never been to London on a photoshoot.... will rectify this soon.....anyway So if you are in the Castlefield region of Manchester on Sunday bob along and see some new images and my take on presentation..I think it's different and feedback has been good...ah but those twin imposters....It'll be a double trouser glove and hat day but I'll be under the arches..come and say Hi..... there may be a give away.......! now there's me giving up on selling stuff through other websites and this week it all goes a little potty over on Redbubble where all manner of stuff has gone topped off this morning by a monster sized framed print of this http://www.redbubble.com/people/maxblack/works/7301710-water-lily?utm_campaign=artist-notification&utm_medium=email&utm_source=RB
Maybe I was too hasty in my assesment of the online market... resumes during this week, well my kind of normality, shooting with a DSLR and getting stuck into all the projects I've had brewing over the last few months.. But first, catalogue and handouts to get together for my return to the outdoor market flogging pictures thing that I last did 28 years ago.... my regular reader will already know that I used to zip all over the country selling mounts, pictures and frames I used to make and kept doing until I opened my first shop.. but back on the streets and although I have a lot of stock and a part finished display stand, I've nothing that folk can take away ponder and maybe order from...hmmmm the website will probably have to change again , I havn't got any of the big images of Manchester that I'll have on sale So , after I've gone and picked up Di from the hospital with her shiny new porcelain hip I'll be getting stuck into handout creation...oh and the final talk of this seasons camera club chats...this one is along the lines of 'Don't just sit there....' but with a view to alternative shooting in Blackpool as ever I'm looking forward to it
It really is a very easy to use piece of kit...well seeing as there is no sim card and my Nokia sim is too big I will be using this as a point and shoot and as such it does a really good job.
Autofocus is snappy although I blew it's brains a bit by shooting into the sun. Good range of ISO settings although for point and shoots sake I'll leave it on auto.The image you've captured swipes off screen, good reminder that you've taken a shot. The large bright screen is nicely saturated although I found, for my taste that a gentle tickle in CS6 popped the images a bit more. Shoots in a default 16-9 format which looks great on the screen As I can't download the Nokia software I've had to go on a convoluted route to get the images into CS6. Dragging from the Windows image file into CS6 just won't happen, neither does clicking to open in bridge...for a start it dosn't recognise the file type and I had the same problem with Bridge in that the file type wasn't recognised. So...open in Windows Viewer and then in the drop down click open in Photoshop...click off the 'windows drive' screen and , after a pause it's there in Photoshop...okay if you have a sim card and are fully connected this will not be a problem, it's just how I've had to sort out getting images off the Nokia by treting it as a new drive. Odd that Photoshop dosn't recognise the file type.... Now there are a lot of toys available once you can access and download from the nokia app site but this will be point and shoot, got to say it really is a lovely, but big piece of kit and in Ferrari Red...hmmmmmm..I like it. Okay here are the first snaps from a walk through the Heatons shopping on saturday... I know ...the bugle has been a bit neglected of late...Just producing images by the bucket load and trying to figure out a way to best show them. This all takes me back to the early 80's when I first did craft fairs around Manchester, things when mad then and it wasn't long before I was doing the big consumer shows at Harrogate and Birmingham..that's not going to happen this time. I'm keeping it small, well me and close family but if the image styles work then I have so many cities that I could transpose this type of imagery onto...no I've not been on the mushrooms again...just the aspirin, but I'm already liking this step back into retailing again. Right , I have a pile of A5 art cards to print and if i don't do them...well no one will
Yep, been working hard to develop a range of framed images that are now looking good, well I think so and my fiercest critic but finest champion , Mrs Max that'll be, quite likes them too. Start retailing at the beginning of April in Manchester, exciting times I can tell you, it's like stepping back 30 years to when I had my first stall at Styal Mill, where basically, I had no idea about anything but bags of enthusiasm...other way round now... Still I've so many images I can make up so many different styles of taste, just got to work out how to display them best...head scratchy time....
So not taking many shots at the moment but delving into my badly organised archives and pulling out stuff from days gone by...well 4 years ago and then there's all the stuff from 2007 to 2009 that had far too much Photoshop on it....ah well we all learn and grow... and the talking at Photographic clubs season starts again soon, blimey I may even put some courses back up on the website... ..I'm going through a cyclical process of man flu, colds and chesticle infections that has medical science on the back foot...still here if not in some drug addled state...still managing to sit up and put coherent sentences together like
" Yes some malt whisky in the lemsip would be nice..." Colds...what are they good for???? All stems from my trip to Spain and Gibraltar...foreign germs coming over here... So, I'm trying to get this place sorted and more retail based, almost there. We'll be saying tata to my Photodeck site as I put more stuff up on my other Image library site, you can have a browse through all the old stuff on there and buy downloads either as RM or RF licensed... So as I now have the Adobe creative cloud at my fingertips I thought I'd go through all the very old stuff that proved a challenge in CS3 and CS4...so they may not have seen the light of day but technically I'll consider them as new images and I'll be having a play with layering stuff again, yes I know not everyone's cup of tea but if I don't mash about and do it...who else will???? Here's one from the Black Mountains... Morning all, another week and i need to send out a bucket load of marketing emails, or maybe eat toast and drink coffee instead....hmmm anyway well into the latest batch of CS6 youtube tutorials and here is another new one. I won't say this will change your life but it might give you an idea of how powerful CS6 is when it comes to working on your images. I'll be getting stuck into Portrait work this week so I'll keep you posted and maybe get the courses back out there seeing as we are just about getting to the back end of the really grim weather.
Well here we go then, on the cusp of ditching buying software and flopping some cash over to Adobe to join in their Creative cloud. Why...well it does make a bit of financial sense and gives access to all of Adobes software...yes all of it. Any student nipping off to do Photography, Film or design at college should have this before they set off...I couldn't survive without having Adobe on hand to tickle things up and you are always up to date..no patching and it seems CS6 has a raft of doohickies only available to Cloud members... I will have to root them out and post some online toots. Been a bit lax on that front as I knock the retail stuff into shape but getting there. Still getting between 150-200 views a day over on Youtube so some folk appear to be learning something.
I'll be putting the outdoor tutorial stuff back on line at the end of this month and all the dates for this years class based stuff, just really need to get the prints sorted and I think it's going to take the next 3 weeks to achieve that. This place will become the home for everything from now on. So that'll be new stuff, prints , training, give away's and info..I did that crazy thing and went to 123 Reg to see what names are up for grabs with a view to more web sites...I must have been slipped a mickey and I banged my head on the keyboard and came back to my senses..so here is home..for now and forever...... Fuggy flatness in the light department means a day in the workshop and on here today with Radio 6 and then 5Live for the footy.
I take groups and individuals out for training in and around Manchester and one of the things I try and impress on folk is to...slow down ..and do that thing that money can't buy..think....yep think..as a concept it's not too hard to grasp but in practice it can sometimes prove elusive..I'm talking about thinking about your Images..not photos or snaps but images... and in many ways once you've cracked the thinking about image creation rather than posting a succession of photos out on the web you suddenly find that you are developing a style..your leitmotif...the way in which other folk can see 'you' in your images and in this overdosed digital world a personal style is probably the only way your images will stand out..okay I'm no stranger to the 'Twin Imposters' so developing a personal style is not the singular way to fame and fortune, loads of great snappers out there who have an individual take on image creation and have tumbleweed blowing about in their comments boxes but here's part two of this little article...thinking and creating images is the first part the second being...are you creating images so you can accumulate reams of comments and virtual love????or are you drawing something out of yourself..stopping thinking shooting creating; creating personal satisfaction from the image itself rather than the virtual love of 'friends' ?? I'm not saying there is a right or wrong a Black or White side to this but one of the things I always question myself on is why I'm shooting something in a certain way, most times it's for the personal challenge. I like seeing things my way and more often than not the image is in my' head' before I'm out there shooting it..I know I've probably just taken a left turn towards pseuds corner but all I'm trying to put over to you in this blog piece is just to stop, think and question...then get creating the best image you've ever done..and never fear the tumbleweed.......... ...and the light is even worse..off to IKEA to grab some frames and see what these new multi window mounts look like in their natural environment and then I'll be posting them up on ETSY and maybe a few samples here on the mounts and cards page.
The new mount cutter has taken a lot of the guesswork out of where the blade enters the board...so no over cuts then....hmmmmm I'm jumping into my Lightroom catalogue and rooting around for all my macro and nature stuff that never really gets an airing and I think I need to get them together into a coherent set. That after all is what I seem to be doing with all the other disparate strands of image making. I fancy a bit of ICM landscape and woodland work as well so hopefully when the sun pops out there will be snow on the ground...ice on the trees and a bit of colour in the sky...yeh..Pigs and aviation exploits... So I'll get cracking on the macro stuff and then , if I time it right off to IKEA for some frames a Dog and a Coffee.... day sorted then... ..I should just sit on my hands and stop trying new stuff...not the image making as I quite enjoy that..but making new products/categories of stuff to sell...it's almost like having a proper job...I mean I woke up at 4 this morning head buzzing with a product problem that got me to 'grape squeezing' anger yesterday..and the solution in the end was pretty simple. I suppose that's the moral..nothing is insurmountable if you put your mind to it and even with my alcohol depleted grey cells I figured out a 'way around the problem' instead of crashing my head against the keyboard and growling at folk who came too close to me... yep I was 'peeved' yesterday but today...meh...full of the joys...
So I'm working through all my sites and getting them all lined up in a non OCD kind of way, there is and will be crossover of products as I get my head around everything and I may even drop some more sites as things progress I just need to be finished by the end of the week and get my marketing act together ......act it may well be as I fluff my way through these opening nights. I'll be out and about flogging stuff this year as well, getting it into peoples hands I actually miss that and here's today's little anecdote to end things off. I've been in the cellars a lot, clearing space for stock and equipment and I came across a drawer with all the stuff from the early 80's when I did...well..basically what I'm setting up now.a picture and mounting business..well I found a stack of old price lists and catalogues and sales receipts...all still as clear as a bell so anyway I made my way down to the far end of the village on Saturday and there in all it's pristine glory was a fully mounted 50 window framed cigarette card picture...Uniforms of the British Empire glass both sides and unmarked..for £40.00..no I didn't buy it but I gave the Manageress the background to it and when I'd made it...1983...30 years ago...lawks....I sold loads to America and Germany...I think Cigarette card dealers should give me an award for single handedly raising the price of Golf, Film Star and Motor Car ciggie cards during the 80's......and here ends the anecdote for I must away and continue designing ranges of Art Cards..... |
What's all this then????An unyeilding torrent of Photo babbel full of unconfirmed facts and manufactured photo drivel.. take from it what you like, it won't change the world but may leave you feeling nauseous... Categories
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