Bugle Blog - maxblackphotos.

Photowalk update..

11/6/2013

So well done to Matt , still think it's better than half of the top ten ones but he does get a name check and honorable mention from Scott Kelby and RC Concepion If you click here and scroll forward to 8 min 15 you'll see his great shot from the day. Still think it should have ben up there as a top tenner...ah well. So the leaders comp opened yesterday and I sent in this one, full of wackiness... probably 'too much' to be a winner but you never know, if you don't buy a ticket you'll never win the raffle... it's got a few more views overnight so someone is watching..
Well the weather looks like it will be whipping up the channel into a frothing maelstrom...bugger, getting the overnight from Plymouth to Roscoff and it's 8 hours in the dark... still will plop off on the other side for a coffee and croissant before stopping off in Morlaix at the market,, I love Brittany to pieces but have never had a decent camera to give it a going over, we'll skate over the Fuji S3 as I changed lenses on the beach and sanded up the sensor good and proper...doh!!!! So unless there is some wifi freebie going on over there then I'll be just concentrating on snapping for 10 days...hmmm autumn in France...leafless Poplar avenues..hmmm empty Chateaux... probably pleut tojouring as well but will be fully wet weather geared up... now then back to youtube and the next part of conversational French for Dummies...

Mirror Mirror...on the banks of the River Clyde.

That went well...

10/8/2013

...... at Frodsham camera Club . Really nice venue and a great welcome from one and all. Big thanks to Ian Stanley for the booking and from the club members, their attentiveness and questions from the floor. As I tell everyone...any questions or clarification over all the techniques on show..well just email me and I can explain it all...
So , dare I ask...are there really greenshoots, that flickering stirring of light at the end of the tunnel, the return to the 'bubble'. Just curious as for, not the first time in recent weeks, I've woken up to an inbox of emails from people wanting to buy things, image libraries having sold stuff and other sales based enquiries..pleasant change from Solar panel, Retirement annuity options and short term loan companies that my profile seems to attract. Could almost be 2008/9 all over again...ah...Golden Days.... but I've watched this roller coaster for a long time so I'll chalk this up as a blip....if it keeps going ..well that could be another story.
So I can tell you what I'm doing for the next few weeks and that's uploading and keywording (oh lord he's not on about keywording again..) no just what I've got to do,and as the weather dial seems to be turning towards the cacky part for the next month or so, parking myself in my office and watching the outside turn brown and wintry is quite appealing. Could be time for a dose of wacky 'studio' portraiture as well...we'll see... okay one from the weekend.

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No fatalities...

10/7/2013

..always in the back of my mind that maybe, well just possibly the worst could happen and someone could fall trip over someone's gear or just hurt themselves in the process of taking some photographs...but we all survived and I think the vast majority had a good time. We really were all blown away by the scale of the Victoria baths...what a building and if you nip over to the Manchester Photowalk flickr group you'll see all the different intepretations of it...including some of my finest 'marmite' wtf type of image creations.... I actually managed to shoot some this year which will help as I want to enter the 'Leader' competition..how my interpretation of image making goes down..well, we will have to wait and see but I'm braced for a crash and burn. Spookily I bumped into one of my old colleagues from Photographing Rights of Way and Traffic snapping... they all seem to be doing the same but with clip boards stopwatches and sharp pencils... meh I liked that job but it all ended when the apocalyptic 2008 crash turned up...
Good company during the day and some joshing and socialising later meant it was a very good day. How Gary and I ended up in the Car Park of a Vets at the end of our Taxi home I'll never know but seemed to round of things on the right note...... some images then

6 shot in camera multiple exposure.

Back arching 6 shot in camera multiple exposure..again but of the overhead rooflights.

No surely it can't be

10/4/2013

..40 years ago...yes 40 years ago that I dropped out of that Lorry on the M6 at Wednesbury, staggered up the road under the weight of all my worldy possesions gathered together in a US Navy drawstring kit bag and turned up at West Bromwich College of Art to begin my education in all things Photographic.. There was a studio of all manner of folk wiffling about with these strange wood and brass contraptions with what looked like the inner parts to an accordian swaying about in the middle..... and so it all began. Really I suppose it's only these last 5 years that I started taking it all seriously again(intervening years had galleries, picture framing and a crazy spell photographing anything traffic and pedestrian related around Greater Manchester) and it was all started off by entering the 'Britain in Pictures' competition run by the BBC .. you had to enter things through their flickr group...what the chuff is a flickr group I remember thinking so I joined and blow me out of the 100's of thousands of entries I actually got 10 in the top 100 and 2 in the top 10...blimey I thought this is great!! So I ended up, still wet behind my digital ears, being exhibited at the National Media Museum in Bradford...okay they were tucked away in the cafe but..heck... it was all new, shiny and a bit bewildering and I suppose I was hooked from there on.
So here we are, on the verge of another Worldwide photowalk here in Manchester. We are at the Victoria Baths and all its crazy detailed and hopefully photogenic fixtures and fittings..there will be a model, there will be some death defying 'live' demonstrations by me...yep, it'll be alright on the night.....and hopefully 50 photographers will have a good time, meet new people, maybe learn something and possibly in 40 years time look back and remember the moment that photography was worth immersing themselves in.
Hey TFI Friday looks like a day uploading to redbubble once I've stuck down a pile of textures and cut up some bits of material...oops giving it away here's one from my new Glasgow gallery

Early morning Autmnal sunlight at Glasgow Botanical Gardens

Photowalk is almost upon us...

10/2/2013

...and a big thanks to Diane Seddon at Oaktree as we now have a great model to photograph https://www.facebook.com/mrslauranorrey?fref=ts had a nice chat with her last night and we look set for a great day at the venue...inside as well so this cacky autumnal weather will be held at bay.. I've just had a cancellation so one place has opened up on the walk just go to the worldwide photowalk page and register....servers are down as I speak but be patient. should be a good day for one and all. Great mix of folk coming and levels of experience.
So I have yet another busy day getting the final prep together for the walk, last Photographic club talk of the season at Frodsham where I will be looking at the Urban landscape and from my point of view it's many iterations, so lots of camera technique and the thought behind some recent projects...should be a good night....
I'm all set for a play with the sparkly 105 F2.8 Micro that has been in customs for the past 2 weeks but now released back into captivity..I really have got my eye on some 300mm F2,8's that are on ebay...even with the carriage and customs charges it does work out cheaper than a Europen sourced one...seriously If you are thinking of buying something non EU then here is the checker I used to work out import duty... http://www.dutycalculator.com/
Right back to all those 'sleepers' that are dozing on one of my old (old means about 2009) Freecom hardrives that is stuffed with shots yet to be seen by the public at large..... 2009 and I'm on the Welsh coast in the sunshine.... but oh my the D700 was pretty new then but all those oil specks on the sensor..praise be to content aware spotting.....

Oil and Gas industry on the North Wales coast.

Photowalk.

9/28/2013

This time next week we will all be joshing and jostling ready for the start of Manchester's take on the Worldwide Photowalk as I type it appears we have an opening of 1 place.... Just finding out if the model is coming along as well and we should be all sorted...I'm running through 'my bit' which will be some live demo's of some techniques some of the photographers may want to use.... You'll start seeing the fruits of everyone's labours soon afterwards....
I'm giving this place a bit of a once over with a big feather duster, some new pages on here now Piers , Salford Quays and Footbridge

I'm also putting links on to all the libraries and retail sites you can download and buy from...yes it's all getting a bit joined up. So short one today but full of stuff to have a wander through... I'll leave you with this today

Revamping

9/27/2013

Slightly modified the site so pages look a wee bit better but I'm also adding and upgrading pages as I go so worth having look at this one and maybe this one as well. Tidying things up as I go as well as putting project work under my behance site roof. Been a really good week as I seem to have come to terms with the QC bots at alamy and Getty have come calling for another batch of images. So just in time for the autumn chill it looks as though I will be sitting here keywording and uploading until despair overtakes me and a lie down in a dark room beckons..
Only one week to go until Worldwide photowalk day looks like half of you have opted to do a bit of model shooting, tomorrow I'll be testing out the 'analogue' bit of my stuff to include on the day and I'll be doing some impromptu tutorial stuff as we have a wander around, requests for WAP and ICM have been duly noted...
So sun is out and it looks like we have an Indian Summer on our hands...don't sit there reading this drivel get out there ...get snapping... oh..TFI Friday...

Photowalk

9/17/2013

Not long to Photowalk time and the last couple of places left, well done everyone especially those coming back for a second helping, you were warned...
Instead of all the mini tutorials I did last year (yes I did half kill myself and took no photos either) we have the Digital projector room so we can do a bit of digital and for this year only analogue manipulation techniques...intrigued, well so am I as I havn't checked if it will all work...meh...it will I promise. let us not forget that this is also a competition and there is a socking great amount of prizes on offer as well as me giving out a Lightroom 5 ebook so a fun day and one to test your competitive streak as you jostle with 50 other togs...So I will be on hand to dish out any advice or do impromptu tutorial stuff during the session. I suggest that we all head off to Oxford road as there are some big old bars ideal for a bit of joshing and socialising
Well I'm looking forward to it..should be good.

New Images..

9/11/2013

Over in my New Images you'll find some of the shots I took 'Down on the farm'. Mixture of daylight and flash with the emphasis on wide open apertures and looking for the natural light in the subject matter.
Worldwide Photowalkers still a few spots left..we will be taking in all the delights of the Victoria Baths in Chorlton on Medlock with it's steam rooms, Victoriana and cubicles, lots of photo opps
Film buffs, especially the 120 roll variety might be intrested in the fact that I've got a lot of expired 120 roll film going up on ebay at 7 tonight..fuji, kodak, mono and pro colour, mail me and I'll send you a link if you want. Right lots to do...studio courses, selling stuff and the like , back soon.