Photoblabbing...: February 2010

Sunday, 28 February 2010

Dear Facebook Users...

Dear Facebook users...stop telling me that I've broken lent. I've linked this blog to my Facebook profile.

So there.

Saturday, 27 February 2010

Photography From a Moving Car!

I've discovered my new favourite hobby: Taking photos from a moving car. Its not as dangerous as it sound. I simply tie the camera to my arm with the strap and click. I have set some rules, in order to achieve the most surprising results.

The camera must be a point-and-click with no shutter speed options on it, or any other manual camera options for that matter. That would be cheating, and completely stupid - I mean what fun is it when you can get your shutter speed to be as fast as the car is moving?
The car must be moving at least 30 mph
The heating in the car must be turned on (this is to prevent the driver getting narked off at your open window)
For safety reasons, you cannot be the driver, thats just stupid. Unless you were to tape the camera to the wing mirror with a timer/remote control (hmmm...)

Tuesday, 23 February 2010

Photography Rant

Ok, I know I seem a little young to be ranting about this, but I've been doing photography (at a very amateur level) since I was about 14, and I'm twenty-something now (I haven't forgotten my age, yet, I'm just not telling you!)

Photography has become lazy, laazzeeeee, now its point aaaaaand... click ... point aaaaaand ... click, whereas when I was younger, I took my SLR (a very generous birthday gift from my parents) and took my tripod and my extra rolls of film (for anyone younger than me - thats what the picture was "saved" on in those days) and went out on location. The camera was set up; aperture, shutter speed, etc, and photography began. Now I know that people still use tripods etc etc but the digital era has erased that learning experience I gained from taking 3 rolls of truly terrible photos before I learnt exactly what settings my camera should be on. I must admit to loving being able to take 500 photos and choose my favourite - mainly because I have given in slightly to this lazy generation where everyone gets everything now!

The best part of photography back then was the Dark Room (I did exclusively Black and White photography), and my school had one sitting vacant, calling out my name. There really is no other feeling like being in a B&W dark room developing rolls of film, the sense of achievement you gain is incomparable, especially as a teenager. The smell of developer, the infra-red light, the sense that you have lost all time are experiences that are lost to everyone but those who cling on to the nostalgia and the experience. Opening and editing on iPhoto can send you into a place where time stands still, but sitting in front of the computer will never replace the real experience, don't be fooled into thinking that it can!

In saying that, I do quite like the digital age, I can create pieces of art using my computer (which is what I started getting into years ago at A-Level Art, along side my developing in the Darkroom)

I love being able to "tweak" them on the computer, make them look more abstract, more intense, more "arty", softer, whatever it might need.

Ahh...and here comes potentially another rant....the "Photoshop" effect that leaves us with this empty feeling that we could never take a photo like that, when all we need to learn is how to take a ordinary, bland photo and transform it into a piece of art, because it can no longer be called a real photo, it has been altered, its now art. The same goes with those magazines that show photos (ha!) of models, real life captures (ha!) and front covers where the same message screams out and you're left feeling ultimately inadequate and rejected for not quite reaching that level of, what, normality?

Wednesday, 17 February 2010

No Facebook For Lent: Day 1

So far so good....its been 9 hours and 8 mins since I gave up Facebook for lent, and 8 hours and 30 mins of that have been spent asleep. I feel the need to aimlessly wander about the internet, and I have a feeling I may turn to the BBC website.

Part of the reason I am off Facebook for lent is part of a general growing problem where talking online replaces real-life meeting up, instead of providing a means for keeping in touch with people you no longer see/live near. That's not to say its not fun to update my status and have some fun exchanging comments on other people's status.