Simon's Blog: February 2010

Moving on...

The pace of the digital revolution is increasing every day. It seems just like yesterday that CD were the latest greatest thing and now - well I am getting rid of my collection - replaced by iTunes/POD/Phone.

For those of us of a certain age I can still remember the first demo of CD technology on Tomorrows World - it was amazing they could smear jam over the little disk, scrape it off and then the disk would still produce the music again. Now this is something you could never do with LP. Of course what they didn't say was that the sound from a CD would be inferior to the LP but this was the latest and greatest and lest be honest they were very good - but we move on.

And now we are moving into a cloud world. I am thinking about visiting the States, the first time in 3 years, and now I am concerned about whether I will have the same 3G coverage as I do at home (I think the answer is no but that is another story). I must keep connected to the cloud at all costs. I now blog, share content cruise the highways and byways of the cloud and I see this as a right rather than a privilege. It effects where I stay, does the hotel have wi.fi ? is now a very important consideration. I must keep contact with the cloud.

I say I but my wife is the same. We text, browse and consume things through the cloud. The next will be tweeting - more of this next week I feel. In short life moves on and, in the first world, at an ever increasing pace. An yet some things are not better because of this just different. What next?

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Saturday 27 February 2010

iPhone Photos

These are experiments with the iPhone - just what type of photograph can you make with an iPhone. Should be an interesting project

St Aidens Dunes and Bamburgh Castle

Friday 26 February 2010

Nose update...

Things are getting a little better. I seem to have found a way of drawing noses a little better. The trick - practice, practice and practice again. The encouraging thing is that the more I practice I can see improvements everyday. Strange that.

Thursday 25 February 2010

Noses...

You know what it is like - there is just something that you want to get right but just can't. You practice and practice and nothings seems to go right. Well at the moment that's me an noses.

I know this sounds strange but I have been drawing faces for the last fortnight and slowly they have been getting better but now I have hit a wall - or should that be a nose. I just don't seem to be able to get noses right - try as I can they just come out all strange. This is really frustrating and when you are sketching a person it is important. I have no problems with noses in profile but when the person is facing me it becomes very difficult. I guess this is part of the frustration of learning a new skill and no doubt I will master it but just at the moment all I want to do is punch someone's nose - probably mine. No wonder Van Gogh cut his ear off - at least he could draw a nose.

Common Alder Catkins

Wednesday 24 February 2010

Facebook, mud and catkins....

So far so interesting. There is a huge amount of things to start to learn about facebook and I am just talking the first few steps. It is quite intriguing though. I have spent the morning working out how to link things to my account. The afternoon was for play - wellies mud and catkins..

One of the main things I have been working on is linking my web presence and finding ways of supporting each in the most efficient way. This is where Posterous comes in. Initially I used this service as an easy way to post blog updates from my iPhone. It worked really well - you write a quick email and post it to Posterous and bang the content flows to wherever. It was also posted to my Posterous blog site which, if I am honest, I never looked at as I was using Blogger.com. However, with the arrival of facebook I am now not so dismissive, indeed there may come a time when I stop working on blogger and just use support Posterous. This, though, is unlikely as blogger.com is part of Google and you would hope that this would give the service an edge when searches are made on Google. The second reason why this might not happen is that Posterous is so easy to use that I don't have to do anything and both blogs are updated.

Having spent the morning starting to understand facebook this afternoon I felt like doing something more creative. On came the wellies and I was out splatting through the mud in my local park. What is it with me and mud? Well there was a serious reason for this. I wanted to capture some catkin photographs and now is the right time to do that. Sure enough there was a great show of catkins and I will enjoy working through the images over the next day or so. Now do I publish them to flickr or facebook? Decisions Decisions.

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Blog: http://simonmarchini.blogspot.com

Testing the Links...

This is part of a series of photographs I have made in and around the Staunton Harold area. It's a view from Dimminsdale across the valley towards the main house...

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Hardhitting in Salford...

There are times when you realise that your life has been very easy, your troubles are really trivial and in the great shake of things not really worth worrying about. This is how the exhibition of Don McCullin's life and work at the Imperial War Museum North hits you.

The exhibition is more a theatrical stage rather than exhibition space. You walk through a maze of dimly lit passages ways, all the time surrounded by the images that made Don McCullin such a powerful and famous photographer and a continual loop of McCullin himself talking about his work in a very matter of fact manner. However, beyond the photography there is the small items that perhaps are as poignant; the telex from Lord Snowdon to McCullen when he was seriously injured in Cambodia; his light meter that must have seen some of the worst action any light meter may have experienced - just how do you take a meter reading which under fire?

Beyond the overpowering effect of the exhibition there were one or two problems with the exhibition - all associated with light - or lack of it. McCullin's world is very dark in presentation as well as its content. This makes experiencing the work more difficult in a dimly lit space. This leads to the next problem. Throughout the the exhibition there are illuminated advertising hoarding sized pictures that beam out in the gloom. These have a great visual effect and added to the atmosphere - however, they do make viewing the individual prints more difficult as they can be partly obscured by reflections of the hoardings on the glass cover of each print. One final point - McCullin's colour photographs are nowhere near as powerful as his black and white work. They have the same narrative subject matter but none of the punch - black and white is his medium and his mastery of it is superb.

All in all and great exhibition and well worth the trip to Salford to see it.

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Tuesday 23 February 2010

A Facebook new boy....

Well I have gone and done it - I've joined Facebook. At the moment I feel very much like a new boy at school - everything is very new and just a little frightening but I am sure over the weeks and months ahead this will change - I hope so anyway.

I have some help in this whole new endeavour - my son is a veteran facebooker - 4 years which I think makes him almost there at the start. I am trying to link all my updates into one place so I am using Posterous to publish this to face book and blog. If there was a photo attached then this would also go to Flickr as well. This should make things a whole lot easier - lets hope so.

Well here goes - I just about to test the system.

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Blogging about tweeting

This film is talking about the power of tweeting. So I thought it would be only fair to take a quick photo and then include it in my blog.

I'm on line at: www.flickr.com/photos/guthlac http://simonmarchini.blogspot.com www.simonmarchini.co.uk I hope you enjoy

www.flickr.com/photos/guthlac

Sunday 21 February 2010

The verb ' to Facebook...'

Actually I am not sure that Facebook is a verb - in fact I am sure it is not but this does capture what I am thinking about at the moment. Should I get a facebook account? I really cannot see the point - I suspect that this an age thing. After all I have enough to do keeping up with the other things going on in my life that facebook to me is just another layer of activity.

Now I know that there are some useful sites on facebook but I am not sure why I would want to see them within the facebook environment rather than on the wider web. In short what is in it for me? I just don't know. I suspect the only way to resolve this would be to take the plunge and have a look around and see what is happening. But not yet, I think.

Friday 19 February 2010

Snowdrops...

Well I have survived my encounter with Somme style mud. Actually this is a bit silly, well all right very silly but it was very muddy. It is half term at the moment so the woods at Dimminsdale were alive with parents and grand parents taking their respective off spring to see the snowdrops. The problem was that no one had told the snowdrops - so they continued to sit their without opening their flower heads. It snowed last night so this should have added to the romantic nature but instead it just added to the gloop.

There were quite a few photographers there trying to capture that illusive shot but I seemed to be the only one who was willing to get down and dirty with the pesky flowers - I suspect that this said more about me than the other photographers. I had planned ahead so had old waterproof trousers and jacket on. I also used an old show curtain to tray and reduce the mess - this worked really well considering but I still ended up getting very muddy.

A new problem from the last time I tried to capture the flowers arose this time. People insisted on crouching down near the flowers, I was lying down in the well worn footpath, this meant that many of the snowdrops were trampled under foot. It would be wrong to suggest that many flowers were destroyed as a result of this but people should be careful where they stand or squat.

It too early to say whether the morning was a success - but the early indications are that it went better than expected - lets hope this is borne out by the final photographs.

Mud mud glorious mud...

I am covered in gloopy mud - deep joy! Im after snowdrops again, this time against a covering of snow. Problem is the snowdrops still havn't come out and the snow is turning into slush and, well, mud. Oh the joys of photography.

I'm on line at:

http://simonmarchini.blogspot.com

www.simonmarchini.co.uk

I hope you enjoy

Tuesday 16 February 2010

LP....

Oh the its the small things - such as the click and crackle from a speaker just before the music comes out when listening to an LP. I had this small pleasure this afternoon when my son was showing off his new turntable he has just bought. A turntable - how retro - only is it? Or is it the way forward. For some one who grew up collecting LP's it was amazing to hear the sound quality- something we had taken for granted but now have lost with the world of downloads and 'digital' quality and its restrictions placed on 'sampling rate'. There is nothing like the full sound - even if the song itself is crap - you really don't know what you have lost until you are reunited with the real thing.

This is not a cry for the return to the 'old days' but rather an acknowledgement that there is a price to pay for convenience. I would not swap my iPhone for anything but you do have to settle for a second class sound - their is a price to pay and that price is the sound. Are well at least we now have the choice - we can still get vinyl if and when you want experience the quality - but for the rest of your life you can live with the convenience of the digital world. I guess this is the best of both worlds.

Monday 15 February 2010

Drawing....

I have been enjoying myself today - a total indulgence and probably a waste of time but anyway I have spent much of the day drawing. I have to say I don't think I have any real talent but I do have tenacity. If you fail then try try try again and boy have I been failing. It is so long since I have had any art training - well the last formal training, if that is what you can call it was when I was at school. I have no idea where this is going to lead me but it is enjoyable - and that is all that matters.

Sunday 14 February 2010

Internet

Well it just struck me that I have been at this internet game longer than most. I first went on line in 1995 - shortly after updating to Windows 95. Back in those days I had a MSN account - god those were the days - it was still trying to find its way - MSN was a closed environment that was difficult to break out of onto the World Wide Web - difficult but not impossible.

One of the first things I bought was a web directory - yes you could buy hard just the same as a telephone directory. Totally useless - but back then there wasn't Google nor Yahoo either - you just blunder around in the dark trying to make sense of the whole experience.

The next thing was to make your own web pages. My original site is still up and running and I must say I haven't been there for a long time - this back in the day that there was little to do with web pages. I used Microsoft Frontpage that had its own unique standards and things called bots, I think. These were not supported by many servers and so were next to useless on the web - however you don't know that until you find they don't work.

God this was only 15 years ago and yet it is several life times ago as fasr as the web is concerned. Back then trying to buy things from Amazon was almost impossible or very difficult as they only worked within the USA.

The first modem I had was 28k dial up. You had make sure you used it after 6pm as this was the when the cheap rate phone calls came in - it was after all a phone call you were making - none of this always on. Back then the hight of speed was an ISDN line that provided the unbelievable 110k speeds. This was extremely expensive.

So why all this pointless rambling about the old days? Well I have been following the excellent virtual revelations on BBC2. This week was about how the information you give the internet, either knowingly or passively is used to paint a picture about you and how these things could be used to compromise your privacy. The only thing is I have never assumed that anything I did on the internet was private - nothing. There were a lot of scary scenarios discussed to try and demonstrate that the Internet is watching you. Well the only thing I can say is And? This has always been so. The internet is worth far more to modern life and any suggestion that it should be more restrictive in order to protect your privacy is never going to work. After all only 15 years ago I could never have found out about the wonderful photographic styles from all over the world. The information available has changed all our lives - no longer is it the preserve of the knowing elite - now it is a few searches away - oops more information given away.

The dangers are far out weighed by the benefits - life is about managing risk and you can never be fully protected. If you get the chance watch Virtual Revelations - it is a wonderful programme - but don't have nightmares about big brother - life is too short and without the internet so much more boring and dull.

Friday 12 February 2010

History...

Change of pace today - Im back to my historical research. The record office appears in meltdown - too many request and not enough staff to deal with them. Hopefully won't have to wait too long for my map - only time will tell.

I'm on line at: www.flickr.com/photos/guthlac http://simonmarchini.blogspot.com www.simonmarchini.co.uk I hope you enjoy

www.flickr.com/photos/guthlac

Wednesday 10 February 2010

Snowdrops and Porn...

Not sure if these have gone together before, Snowdrops are the symbol of purity and innocents, the end of winter and the herald of better days ahead. Porn, on the other hand, is, by its nature, a reflection of the most base needs of humanity - certainly not purity and innocents but rather cynicism and exploitation. Nonetheless these two things came together this morning. Let me explain.

I went out this morning to capture some early flourishes of snowdrops in Dimminsdale and was very successful. As I did this I spoke to a number of passing walkers, all of whom had opinions on the snow drops and whether it was too early to take photographs.

So after about an hour or so I started to feel hungry so went to a local cafe for lunch. I had taken the latest issue of BJP with me to read over lunch. So I ordered lunch and sat down to enjoy my BJP and as soon I read the headlines I knew I was in trouble. This issue dealt with the impact of the new erotica. My heart sunk. Here I was sitting amongst respectful elderly middling folk, all women, and I had a magazine full of erotic photographs. I managed to read some of the magazine without going to the more explicit content but it wasn't the relaxing lunch I had expected. Tip to myself - always read the headlines before taking anything out in public.

I had fallen foul of this before when I was working in an office. I was looking at some interesting photographs of strippers, I know I know but it wasn't what you might imagine. This was an article about the exploitation of these women and they all had their clothes on, well enough to cover their modesty. A women walked into the office and accused me of looking at pornography, which was a big no no. I immediately responded that this was not pornography but art and I might have mentioned about there was far worse in the National Gallery - not a good idea. Anyway after a stand off I decided that to stop looking at the magazine would be the best policy - however to this day I regret this. One final thing. The BJP editorial make interesting reading - it takes a none judgemental approach to porn and - well read it and see what you think.

FlickR Fatigue...

Well I have had enough - two days I have tried to chase number on FlickR in a prolonged experiment to see what it takes to boast your hit count and I have had enough. This can become a full time job - the groups you join in a vain attempt to boast your numbers are a control freak's nirvana. To send your photograph to their group there are strict rules to follow - don't follow them and you are out. It is quite merciless - resistance is futile. Needless to say I have fallen foul of such rule making and been banned from one of the groups. All you get is the following email...

You have been banned from the *Platinum Peace Award*(w/

6+PeaceAwards)P.1.A.3 orTOTAL BAN Group

Now I could argue that there are reasons for this mistake that lead to the ban but who am I kidding. Two days of trying join in with this mayhem as made me realise that it is a mugs game. Photography is about photographs not about competitive number counting, as if this validates the photograph you have made. Don't get me wrong there are some incredible photographs out there, many with hundreds of hits. However, there are far more which may be of value to their creator but have limited wider appeal yet manage to garner hundreds of hits as well.

It is a free world on Flickr and you publish what you want. It also means that if you want to pursue hits then you can do and good luck to you in your endeavours. I am withdrawing from this mayhem and only publishing what I want when I want. Should they be found by people then fine but I am no longer going after hits - life is really too short and there are too many photographic opportunities going begging to be stuck behind a computer screen all day.

Tuesday 9 February 2010

Totally Self Obsessed...

Chickie Brickie 2, originally uploaded by fstop56L Marie.

I know this is an incredibly sexist photograph - reducing a women as a mere object for the gratification of men but this is not a photo by a man but rather by the women in the subject. Her profile states...

'...The main purpose of my photostream is just to have a little fun posing in front of the camera.

I do this with my life long friend "Sally" who is the one who takes most of my photos and helps me with my photostream and the reason (why?) I hear you ask is because basically she is an up and budding semi-professional photographer and just loves taking photos!

Along with the experience it gives us both the whole intention of my photostream is like I said having some fun...'

Now I am not sure if this post ironic feminism or what but you have to admire this women's confidence - she knows what she wants and is not too bothered what other people have to say. It is, after all, a free country and if she is comfortable with this then who am I to criticise? It is just sad that her fun is not shared by the some of the comments left - they clearly do view her as an object for their more, how can one put it - desires? (Since I wrote this I have revisited some of the comments and they seem to have been removed.)

Anyway if you want to see more of fstop56L Marie then click here - it really is bizarre - though not the most bizarre photo stream on Flickr (by a very long stretch!)

The first one of the New year...

Well another one bits the dust - no pun intended. I have just submitted my first collection for an exhibition - the RPS Nature Group annual exhibition. I have no idea whether I will be successful- but nothing ventured nothing gained. If you want to see the full submission then click here.

Following on from what I wrote a couple of days about getting carried away this photograph is a classical case. I was on a very bumpy boat taking this photograph - blasting away think about what I wanted the gull to do to make it just that bit better when it struck me what I had captured. This was the death of one animal for another's survival. I stopped once I realised this - however, most of the people in the boat kept taking photographs and videoing the event.

It is all part of the unemotional aspect of nature - it really is vicious. Yet within that viciousness there is also great beauty and tragedy. One final thought - the Herring gull is now subject to a red alert, its population is declining - so by taking this young kittiwake it is helping to support a suffering breed.

Monday 8 February 2010

Bamburgh Castle from Lindisfarne

I am slowly working through the photo shoot from last week - it just keeps getting better. By the end of the week I will try and put another slide show together.

Chasing numbers....

Cold and grey outside so I thought I would spend the day trying to work out how to improve my tactics on FlickR to improve the hits I have been receiving. The first thing to do was work out which of the groups I was a member of was effective in generating hits. This meant I reduced the groups down to a more manageable 60 in total.

The second step was to try and identify the groups that generate the largest number of hits per photograph. This is somewhat hit and miss but it would seem the best groups to join are those with strict post one/comment 5 rules. It is amazing how convoluted some of these rules can get and you have to take a moment to make sure you understand all the ins and out.

Once this has been done you then have to start posting your photograph. The one I chose was the puffin above. This had been on my Flickr site for some time but not generating any hits - an ideal candidate for the experiment. So I have spent the greater part of the day posting this to groups and placing the required comments on other photographs. What were the results?

Well spectacular - but not just for the obvious reasons. First the obvious result. As I write this I have generated 166 hits since midnight. Before this I had about 50 in over 6 months so I think you can see it has been a success so far - and the hits keep coming. Now for the less obvious result. I have found some outstanding photographs - which I have added to ever increasing list of favourites This has been really inspirational stuff. Flickr is a huge vat of bubbling photography. There is a thick crust of pornographic at the edge of the vat - some actually very unusual and almost Mapplethorpesque - however most exactly what you might expect. Another ingredient is the mundane. This is even greater than the porn. I just cannot understand why people take so many photographs of their cat - but they do and they are almost as popular as the porn. However amongst all these are the gems - the photographs that, for me, make Flickr worthwhile.

So what have I learnt? Well to have a successful Flickr presences you need to work at it, nothing surprising there. Quality alone is no guarantee of attracting hits you have to sell your wares. In the end Flickr is like life - the more you work at it the better things get.

One final thing. In the time it has taken me to write this paragraph I have had another seven hits.

Sunday 7 February 2010

Media Talk - ' Gagging the Press...'

I am becoming more political as I get older - perhaps it is the restrictions of my previous life has also contributed to this as well. Anyway, there was a fascinating podcast on the Guardian Media website about 'Gagging the Press'. This was a series of talks on the subject of gagging orders and press freedom by people with a varieties of views on the matter. Well worth a listen if you get the chance.

I'm on line at:

http://simonmarchini.blogspot.com

www.simonmarchini.co.uk

I hope you enjoy