KT Lindsay Photography

The Other Side

2010-12-05T21:12:00.001+01:00

One of my portraits has been used as the coverspread of London culture magazine 'The Other Side'. In return they will be doing afeature on me for the next issue. nice.

It's been a long, long time....

2010-10-31T23:34:00.005+01:00

Motherhood, the past five months have been a blur. My posts to this blog have been shockingly few. But that's not to say I haven't been photographing, learning, contemplating my camera and our little relationship. Lots of developments that I'll try and mould into some more substantial posts. For starters my decision to focus on fineart landscape photography and the research I've been doing on the place of the female photographer in this particular field. Some possible London exhibitions. Setting up my own small local baby photography business - just because it makes me happy to give people pictures of the most precious thing they have, and also because it earns enough money to keep me in ND filters. My increasingly troublesome relationship with the Peak District National Park that refuses to be captured a way that expresses how it makes me feel. Some exhibitions I've been to. Some further iphone geekery....

Watch this space. Stuff will come.

2010-07-17T12:01:00.005+01:00

One of my self-portraits (Sundance) has been included in a photobook designed specifically for the iPad. Mirror Mirror features nearly 30 full screen self-portraits from 28 fantastically talented photographers who have made their work availble via creative commons. Unlike veiwing photosites (which look stunning on the iPad), this photobook can be viewed offline, as the editor states it's "something to view when I’m offline, something that I can keep in my virtual library to whip out whenever I want a high-quality photo fix." It's available to download totally free of charge from theLearningLight.com.

The Photographer's Daughter

2010-06-07T21:21:00.002+01:00

Darcey Rosetta. 26th May 2010, 7lb 14oz. Mum and baby doing dandy.

Graffiti

2010-05-20T10:29:00.003+01:00

Playing with my new retro hipstamatic app for the iphone.

Competition Success

2010-05-10T18:40:00.006+01:00

Back in December I blogged that I had been shortlisted in the Galapagos Conservation Trust's International Photographic Competition. I was thrilled to find out that one of my entries won a spot in the 2011 Calender (July). Thanks very much if you voted for me! You can see all the winning pictures on the website.

My winning photo: Sanderling

You can order the calendar online by visiting the GCT's website. All profits from the sale of these items will go towards conservation in Galapagos

KT Lindsay: "Photography Born of Purpose". Oxford Artweeks 8th-15th May.

2010-05-06T17:48:00.008+01:00

I have spent a huge amount of time recently preparing a collection for an exhibition I'm putting on for Oxford Artweeks. Artweeks is a brilliant annual visual festival held throughout Oxfordshire where local artists and crafty types open up their homes and studios to share their art. Over 400 exhibitions are made freely accessile to the general public, and this year I am one of them!

It's been an experience drawing together a themed collection and a lot of research was done on where best to get the prints from (Ilford) and how to optimize my prints for the best possible results. Mounts had to be custom measured and made (picturelizard.co.uk) for the frames I ordered (cargo.com), bios written and picture plaques authored and made (using foam board). It's all being hung tomorrow and I can't wait to see it!

The collection I have chosen to display is predominantly a series of black and white landscapes to illustrate the theme of conservation, the need to preserve and protect parts of our planet that have been and will continue to be under threat by our own actions. The collection is thus 'born of purpose', a compulsion to create images that tell the story of people and places in slivers of time that may be lost. Seeing the prints together, physically, for the first time will be incredible, and I hope to inject a bit of femininity into what is largely a male dominated area of photography.

All prints are available for purchase in limited edition of 10 from the exhibition venue or via my website.

My exhibition joins those of a number of my colleagues, other closet photographers, jewellery makers, and painters and will be on display from the 8th-15th May at 13 Banbury Road, Oxford.

-------
Photograph featured: Pine in Profile. Yosemite National Park, CA. 2009. 10 x 15 inches. £45.

Photoshoot: Hannah

2010-05-06T17:29:00.006+01:00

I spent a lovely Tuesday afternoon photographing my friend Hannah, an actress based in Oxford (she was actually in Never Tell Them, a play for which one of my photographs was used for the playbill). Hannah asked me to do some pics for her resume and website and I was happy to oblige, especially considering I'm not getting out much at the moment due to a rather well developed 9 month old bump.

Doing studio-style portraits at home is always a bit of a worry - I don't have much proper equipment beyond my camera, no fancy lights or backdrops, but I'm a creative type and enjoy coming up with Blue Peter versions. This photoshoot involved usage of my white dining room walls, a piece of black material taped with packing tape to said wall to give a black background, and a floor covered with tin foil to act as a reflector bouncing up the flashgun light coming down off the ceiling.

The remit was "headshots", you know the type you see in theatre programmes. But I can't help myself and did a few non-conventional types, artistic license etc. etc.

Auto

2010-05-06T17:25:00.002+01:00

Found this dilapidated beauty on a recent trip to a country pub.

Wise Old Bird

2010-04-13T21:02:00.002+01:00

I was lucky enough to meet some of these beautiful creatures in a recent visit to Longleat Forest. I have a bit of thing about Owls at the moment, may be I'll take some time to post some pictures of my recent owl-themed arts and crafts at some point!

So, it's nearly time for us to meet

2010-04-06T23:37:00.000+01:00

Change of T-Shirt

2010-03-26T17:15:00.003+01:00

ǝɔuɐʇdǝɔɔɐ | acceptance has been used by electro progressive house music producer Sonic Forger for a single cover (with a decent remastering of the slogan on my t-shirt).

Never Tell Them

2010-03-12T15:29:00.004+01:00

A play by Stuart Lee is using a piece of my digital art for its playbill and is now on show all over Oxford in the lead up to the 2010 OxFringe Festival.

Never Tell Them
Winner Oxford Playhouse Short Play Competition 2008
Wed 24th - Sat 27th March, 9.30-10.30pm, New Road Baptist Church, Oxford
Tickets: £8/£6 from http://www.wegottickets.com/ (search 'never tell them')
Part of the OxFringe Festival, 2010

February Photoshoot: Hotrods and Pin-ups

2010-03-12T12:27:00.003+01:00

A commission for a friend for something stylistically likened to David Perry's Hotrod Pin-ups. Vintag-orama!

Styling and Make-up: Gayle
Lighting and Photography: KT Lindsay

Let it snow

2010-01-07T23:45:00.002+01:00

(iphone + camerabag ap)

2009 Round Up

2009-12-23T19:56:00.005+01:00

Following last years roundup I thought it only proper to do one for 2009! I still have passion...it seems that photography is not one of my passing phases, despite being a bit off the radar the past four months, I think I have a good excuse ;-)

I have kept with my trusty Canon 450d despite some quite forceful nudges to upgrade following the death of said photographic equipment back in May - apparently I had used it too much in just over a year. On the household contents insurance though it was fixed and up and running again. However I have made friends with some other cameras this year - I was bowled over by some pieces of fine retro plastic goodness and had a play with film, and I've also been surprised by the possibilities afforded to my by my new iphone.

I said this year would be all about light....I've only really touched the basics. I have invested in a Speedlight 430 EXII, but I have to be truthful - I haven't really taken it off auto yet, I plan to conduct a serious investigation into how to use it properly over Christmas. My photographic focus this year however has surprised me, but may be it shouldn't come as such a shock considering the amazing places I have been the past 12 months.

Travel photography, especially landscape photography has dominated my portfolio this year. I have visited some of the most amazing places... Peru, the Galapagos, Istanbul, SW Ireland, and most recently Yosemite National Park and the Sierra Nevada. I ache to be in Ansel Adams shoes, or have a place on the National Geographic team. The world is so full of beautiful places and beautiful people, I want my photography to capture that and show people how important it is to preserve them.

Part of that is getting used to exhibiting and competitions, getting my stuff out there. Last year I said I'd like to get in a magazine. I haven't quite been there but I did have a photograph in a fantastic Flickr Group exhibition in the Jam Factory, Oxford
back in October. I also have some photographs short listed for the annual Galapagos Photography Exhibition. I have my own web site now and I've sold a few prints from it and I'm also getting a few commissions for work which I always really enjoy. In May I'll have my own exhibition in central Oxford for Arts Weeks - I haven't quite decided what I'm going to put in yet but it will likely follow the theme of conservation.

On top of that I've masted the 'M' mode of my camera and by investing in some ND Filters I really feel I am becoming more confident in this art. But there is always so much more to learn. Unlike last year I'm not going to put a list of aims and objectives for 2011 - really all I want to do is stay in love with this medium and still have time to explore it - "sustain my creativity" as a wonderful post by aliteralgirl describes. I hope I can still find that time when I'm wading through nappies (reusable of course). The internet enables me to communicate with so many wonderful creative people and be inspired by them I must be careful to keep in touch.

My favorite take of 2009...again it's difficult. The black and white of Machu Picchu was probably a turning point for me, my first raw conversion, and a place that meant a lot to me after a hard 4 day trek! I also like Turkish Leather for the reason that I mustered the guts to ask a stranger to pose for me in his environment. I do very much like "And I a smiling woman...." as I believe it was truly remarkable to get my cat to pose like that and my new flash worked really well. This year you liked my portrait of Kelly best, I love that one too.

My blog has nearly reached 50,000 visits! Thank you! Please keep visiting and commenting. Happy New Year!

Do you want to know a secret?

2009-12-23T19:53:00.005+01:00

I'm sorry I have been so absent these past four months inter-web-sphere - I do have a good excuse.

(Tag reads: Do not open until 26.5.10)

Annual Galapagos Photography Competition

2009-12-23T19:49:00.003+01:00

I have four photographs shortlisted in the Annual Galapagos Photography Competition. If you like please vote for me! (Numbers 14, 31, 41, and 43) Voting ends on January 4th.

Music Maestro

2009-12-06T23:02:00.005+01:00

My self-portrait "The Clown" has been made into a poster advertising a concert for the Swedish band Piroth.

Thanks to _martinik for sending me a high res version of the poster to print out!

Sunset at Tyne Cot

2009-11-20T23:04:00.004+01:00

I'm on the Western Front again with work. I've been to Tyne Cot Cemetery a few times now, but this time, on a cold November day, I saw the sunset bathe the rows headstones in a golden light. It was truly beautiful.

Photos taken with my iphone and camerabag.

On the road

2009-11-11T18:48:00.002+01:00

Break Dancer

2009-10-29T15:16:00.005+01:00

~ Fisherman's Warf, San Francisco

Alternative Port Meadow

2009-10-18T11:39:00.002+01:00

Graze

2009-10-18T00:06:00.006+01:00

version 1.

version 2.

Burning the sky and dodging the horses to add some drama

version 3.

Slightly subtler effect, as suggested by The Brentford Taylor. I made the sky into a new layer and adjusted the levels and curves, then blended it into the original using the 'multiply' blending option. Rather than use the dodge tool on the horses I brightened the foreground.

~ Port Meadow, Oxford

The Orchard

2009-09-27T23:35:00.005+01:00

Yesterday I found an orchard, I munched on a bag of apples and drank fruit juice. I couldn't resist snapping some of the produce on the heaving branches.

Things I noticed whilst sauntering up Abingdon Road

2009-09-27T23:25:00.004+01:00

Made in Oxford Exhibition

2009-09-18T12:21:00.003+01:00

Just over a year ago I blogged about a fantasy that someday one of my photos would be on an exhibition poster...looks like dreams can come true!

The Barrow

2009-09-09T02:21:00.000+01:00

The Photographers' Gallery

2009-09-06T10:43:00.005+01:00

Saturday morning, Regent Street, I was in the "rabbit in the headlights" zone after emerging from the jam-packed Apple Store after anxiously awaiting the results of the autopsy of my 4-week old iPhone (relief, death occurred in non-suspicious circumstances, replacement procured). I stumbled out onto the buzzing street. Shoppers on a mission crashed into meandering tourists, smart cars jetted in and out of side streets, motorbikes revved, buses rumbled. I stood still, breathing gently, trying prevent my over-sensitized lungs from launching into an asthma attack. London blurred before my eyes, I was not in the mood for busy.

In my dazed state I was led by the hand to a non-descript building tucked away on a narrow through-road between Regent Street and Oxford Circus, The Photographers' Gallery. Peace. White walls, white frames, wide mounts displaying black and whites prints. Airy, light, peaceful. Delight. A whole building dedicated to photography. The cafe served just the type of food that I liked, every single item in the bookstore I wanted, no, I needed, to own. Future talks and events were advertised which in my mind I have committed to attend. At present they are showing Andre Kertesz On Reading. An important photographer, 'the godfather of photojournalism', the collection is well worth seeing. As the title suggests these pictures must be read, sometimes between the lines. When done effectively you can trace the transgression from text-based culture to one that is primarily image-based, and one that has come to dominate the conveyance of happenings and movements in contemporary society, both welcome and unwelcome.

In the gallery as a whole I saw few pieces that made me go 'wow', however the price tags of some of the prints for sale certainly did....can I ever hope to sell a photograph fro £2000? But the venue itself is noteworthy, its commitment to independent photographers and emerging talent is welcome, as is its commitment to education and providing a place focused on visual interpretation. It's all free too. A rarity in the capital. An hour to spare? Seeking an oasis of tranquility, and tea and cake? Let your eyes lead you to the Photographers' Gallery.

Studies of SW Ireland

2009-08-29T20:41:00.004+01:00

The full set is now available in my Smugmug Project Gallery.

Through the Window

2009-08-23T10:56:00.001+01:00

'And I a smiling woman. I am only thirty. And like the cat I have nine times to die. '

2009-08-15T17:53:00.003+01:00

Listen.

NB: One of my fist attempts with my new flash bounced off the ceiling. The room was pretty dark with a red tinge because of the red curtains, so I think it worked really well!

It was meant to be all about light

2009-08-12T19:37:00.000+01:00

Shame on me, I am 8 months late. Back in December I posted that I wanted to play more with light this year, specifically flashes and studio lighting. It's only now in August that I've purchased my first external flash unit. The Speedlight 430 EXII already looks promising. Just sticking it on auto on my camera has produces some very nice portrait shots, I have to say it does make a lot of difference. As far as the settings on the back go though, am flumoxed, so I bought a book with pictures in it. Eventually I'd like to get a transmitter so I can fire the flash off the camera, and the Blue Peter girl inside me likes the look of these DIY light modifier kits.

First though I'll inspect my picture book! Look out for better lit shots!

This is not a phone: Photography Applications for the iPhone

2009-08-02T00:45:00.009+01:00

The other day I received my shiny new iPhone. The underlying reason for me getting Apple's finest was primarily because my two-year old Nokia N95 had been held together by sellotape for the past six months as the back and battery kept falling out at inappropriate moments and also because I was spending a fortune by being on the internet too much reading emails etc. The iPhone's high contract price was counterbalanced by free web access and there was no clip-on back to fall off! Plus it looked snazzy. I was happy.

But then I came to download a selection of Apps and I discovered that this wasn't really a phone. What it was was another tool I could use to better my photography. The Apple App Store is bulging with photography widgets from filters to create fun photo effects to more serious tools to get your shutter speed spot on. Here's a few I like so far:

Pre-Photoshoot Research
Not a photography app as such but GoogleEarth will easily help you scout locations before a shoot. More specific is FocalWare which promises to be a God-send. It calculates the Sun & Moon location, in relation to due North. This provides an exact means of researching and preparing to photograph a subject with specific lighting or placement of the sun/moon in the scene.

The Photographer's Notebook
Photographers tend to take notes. Often in a small leather bound or occasionally hard backed notebooks recording location data, camera settings used, and other bits and pieces to recreate good shoots or remind of the mistakes made in previous ones. Everytrail (free)is a geotracking application records your movements, takes geotagged photos, to which you can make notes and immediately upload it all to everytrail.com. Originally used as an online tool for travel storytelling, it also offers photographers the chance to take reference photographs, tagged with location data, and record and share the settings that they were taken in. These can all then be plotted on a google map.

Alternatively Photojot is similar to the above but with a nifty sunrise / sunset calculator. It has specific fields to fill in camera settings but doesn't have the sharing facilities as EveryTrail.

Calculators for those complicated things
Can't get your head around manual exposure settings? Use a calculator! ExposureCalc will let you select from a range of different light settings and will give you the different values you need to create a good quality photograph. Photocalc on the other hand is a bit more detailed, providing depth of field (DoF) and hyper-focal distance calculations, exposure reciprocation, and flash exposure calculations. If you want a good all round tool which also tells you when the sun will rise and set then PhotoBuddy is your, er, buddy.

Getting it straight
As in your camera on your tripod (if you are one of those people who don't like to straighten things digitally afterward). Use the iHandy Level Free. It's free, funnily enough.

Photo Editing
If you want to actually use your iPhone as a camera (and it's not a great camera but sometimes it's just easy) you can edit your takes directly on your iphone. There are tonnes of apps for this, but my favorites so far are Tiffen Cool fx, offering nearly 100 different filters which can be applied and saved as “virtual” layers and images are saved out as new files; Lomo and ToyCamera (don't think just shoot); MagicTouch - what it says on the tin, basic retouches such as blemish removal, change eye colour, clone stamp, lighten selective areas etc.

Don't believe you can do much with phone cameras and software. Believe. Check out Tony CeCe's and Greg Schmigel's work, as well as the iPhone Photography Awards.

The Cutler's Hands

2009-07-27T22:55:00.002+01:00

La Jetée (1962)

2009-07-21T10:57:00.002+01:00

If you haven't seen it this short 28 minute film by Chris Marker is worth a watch. Constructed almost entirely from still photos, it tells the story of a post-nuclear war experiment in time travel.

The Radcliffe Camra: Alternative Photographs

2009-07-11T15:24:00.002+01:00

Oxford Photowalk: Dept. of Biochemistry

2009-07-11T15:07:00.007+01:00

The new buildings for Oxford's Department of Biochemistry opened in 2008. They are architecturally stunning, designed to promote collaboration and interaction. It's adorned with funky leather chair clad group work spaces, glass birds hanging from the ceiling, futuristic lifts, and insect frosted glass.

KT Lindsay and the University of Oxford

2009-06-25T14:57:00.006+01:00

The photographs that you see adorning the University of Oxford's new look Web Services (e.g. It's Virtual Learning Environment 'WebLearn', it's new Webmail Interface), are indeed yours truly.

Due to my creative commons love and my sharing nature, they got em for free! Slowly dawning on me that I'm never going to make any money from this expensive hobby if I keep with this vibe! Anyway, I'm happy with the kudos!

My latest faves on Flickr

2009-06-24T22:07:00.003+01:00

1. Untitled, 2. Bullfrog, 3. Lu-ce, 4. Love.........., 5. Untitled, 6. monologue, 7. The Bridge, 8. Nature's Cotton Buds, 9. Untitled, 10. she is the sea, 11. Through these grassy tracks, we will walk away from the claws of poverty, 12. patisserie, 13. la petite fille aux coquelicots, 14. J, 15. Bon Anniversaire Monsieur Bratan!, 16. Orange Glow, 17. Drowning in History, 18. untitled, 19. waves, 20. yesterday. tomorrow., 21. We live on the leash of our senses, 22. .6917, 23. The El on Wabash, 24. .SeuJorge., 25. The Seduction of Silence

Get back on track

2009-06-16T21:29:00.002+01:00

Since my beloved Canon 450D died I have kind of dropped off the photography circuit. Despite plastic goodness and borrowed bodies, it's just not been the same as having old faithful by my side. I stopped purchasing my monthly batch of photography mags, and even perusing Flickr. I went into a digital depression. Oh the joy when last week my camera was returned to me as good as new by the good folk at canon. But..what! My mojo has gone! I have hardly touched him since he was returned. Perhaps we have been apart too long? Perhaps we need to rediscover each other again, tear down those walls that get built up when you have to deal with absence. We need a project, something creative that is slightly wacky, a theme, a topic, to re-engage!

Justine

2009-06-16T21:27:00.000+01:00

Symphony

2009-06-09T17:54:00.004+01:00

One of the photos I took on a recent trip to Sardinia, on the Costa Smerelda. Slowly uploading other photos from the trip can be found on my Flickr page and I'll put up a set on my web site when I'm done editing.

The Piano

2009-05-31T17:43:00.000+01:00

MeMe Time

2009-05-17T21:04:00.012+01:00

No posts for while. That's because my beloved SLR has had to be sent away to be fixed. I'm starting to develop a slight nervous twitch without all those buttons to play with and over consumption of chocolate and dolly mixturs to fill the void. So much thanks to Academic Hopeful for the inspiration to blog today. You have saved me from putting on at least three bad fat lbs by focusing my mind.

1. What’s your current obsession? My retro plastic-fantastic cameras, I just had my first films processed and I'm in love! Other than that the new Innocent banana-free (not that that fact bothers me) kiwis, apples and limes smoothie.

2. What’s you favorite color and why? Colour chops and changes. For me it's more about light. At the moment my favorite light is about 7.00am as it streams through the slats of the wooden blinds into my dining room. Oh ok, red. It shocks.

3. What are you wearing today? Oh I wish it was something worth shouting about. Fresh from pilates - 3/4 length black leggins, off the shoulder grey t-shirt, hair up in a purple stripey headscarf, and bare feet in my Uggs. Weekends are all about ugging.

4. Why is today special? I watched La Dolce Vita...how have I missed that for 30 years? And I sent some hand picked links to friends just to make them smile.

5. What would you like to learn to do? Develop my own film and use a studio!

6. What was the last thing that inspired you? The last photography book I bought Annie Leibovich at Work. I found her commentary on her photos really inspiring and it gave me some great ideas for group compositions.

7. What’s the last thing you bought? This afternoon I bought a piano. I've been dreaming about owning a piano ever since I moved out of my folks.

8. What are you listening to right now? The rain. Beautiful. It smells nice too.

9. What’s your most challenging goal right now? It has to be to earn some money from my photography and to stop accepting 'free' work. Not a money grabbing bitch though, I would love to have some photographs published somewhere to illustrate a theme I am passionate about such as climate change, deforestation etc.

10. What do you think about the person who tagged you? Academic Hopeful: beautiful, beyond intelligent, true friend.

11. If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where would you like it to be? I have always wanted to live in the wild in a tree house. It would be like Swiss Family Robinson. Warm and cosy, at one with nature, with all manner of ecofriendly devices to warm rainwater for showers and the like. Oh and it would be close to a honeymoon-esque waterfall and lake surrounded by wild flowers. Not that I ask for much.

12. What would you like to have in your hands right now? My camera all fixed and better. Sniff.

13. What would you like to get rid of? Some peoples' mindsets.

14. If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go? The Galapagos, the most relaxing and educational trip I have ever taken...or may be the Cafe de France to watch the sun set over Djemaa el-Fna in Marrakesh to indulge my senses.

15. What super power would you like to possess? It has to be the invisibility...the possibilities are endless.

16. What’s your favorite piece of clothing in your own closet? The pretty dress my girlfriends bought me for my birthday. It's mini, yet flowy and white with black roses around the neckline. How they knew it would match the curtains of the hotel photoshoot I will never know!

17. What’s your dream job? Photographer for Vanity Fair who dabbles in a bit of National Geographic work.

18. If you had an unexpected $1000, what would you spend it on? I'd splash out on a party in a cool bar for all the people I love in my life.

19. What do you find annoying? People with a complete lack of empathy, people who don't consider the impact their lifestyles are having on the environment (who wouldn't even think about the eco-friendlines of their new car or washing machine), national rail, ants, that kind of thing.

20. Describe your personal style. Pretty, slouchy, 1940s, ballerina on a break, hippy-chic, Audrey Hepburn, accessories, bare feet, polka-dots, Jackie O sunglasses, Uggy, curly, straight, vintage, eccentric, classic, eclectic....

21. What did you want to grow up to be when you were a kid? It was a toss between a tortured-artist-living-in-an-attic-flat-in-Paris (dressed all in black, smoking rollies and listening to Edith Piaf), or a costume designer for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Both were achievable but I rebelled.

22. Whose closet would you want to raid? Audrey Hepburns.

23. What are you most proud of? My perseverance and the love I have shared.

24. The beautiful bloggers I’d like to know about are: Tagging is so 2008, but I'd love to know about each and every one of you.

→ Now the rules of this tag:

1. Respond and rework: answer the questions on your blog, replace one question you dislike with a question of your own invention.

2. Tag 7 other people you would love to learn more about. (see no. 24)

Fisheye - First Attempts

2009-05-05T21:55:00.003+01:00

Plastic Fantastic!

2009-04-25T23:37:00.009+01:00

This year was meant to be all about light but I've been distracted by something a little more...er...retro. I'd heard of lomo and seen the photographs that it produces, but little did I realise how kitsch, sexy, and remarkably plastic fantastic the cameras actually were. I wish I could say it was the creative challenge of film that led me and my credit card to ebay today, but no, I am shallow - it was the great big retro flash on the Diana F+ model that made me cross that fine line between desire and require.

So meandering its way down the M5 to me this week is Lomography's faithful reproduction of their early ‘60s cult legend camera 'Diana' famous for its dreamy, radiant, lo-fi images. The remake has lots of cool new features including ability to take pinhole photos, a plug-it-in-and-fire-away immensely retro flash with colour gel filters (with horse shoe attachment so it can fit to my canon), multiple exposures, half-exposed frames, and a bulb setting. It can even be converted to take 35mm filmvia the use of lollipop sticks, a razor blade, and you you guessed it sticky tape.

But I couldn't stop there....not when I saw the Lomo Fisheye Camera. Fisheye. What more can I say...fishyeye rocks and this gorgeous piece of plastic is a hell of a lot cheaper than a £500 lens for my Canon EOS.

This is going to be a very interesting experiment for me. I am very impatient perfectionist. I will spend a good while thinking up an idea for a photograph, put aside a decent few hours to shoot it and be arty in photoshop. That is one of the reasons I use a digital camera. Composed, shot, in photoshop, and up on the web in the bat of an eyelid. I have complete control and can happily afford to make mistakes because I can see what I'm doing, if it's not right, delete and start again, it doesn't matter if it takes 100 shots to get the perfect photo - it is just adjustable storage space. With these guys I will have no idea if a photograph has worked until I get them back from the printers. Film is going to take some getting used to. Especially the 120 film for Diana....that has to be sent away somewhere special to be developed (Mr Fisheye takes standard 35mm requiring a much more acceptable potter down to Snappy Snaps 1hr service). Also, difficult to accept will be that the camera will have more of a creative input than me, with these guys I will not be spending many happy hours creating the lomo effect in photoshop, the camera will do it for me, it is lomography. But I am excited by this challenge. A new style of artistic experimental photography to play with. The approach: to take as many Lomographs as possible in the most impossible of situations possible and from the most unusual positions possible, and then have them developed as cheaply as possible. Colourful, crazy, off-the-wall, unfamiliar and hopefully brilliant snapshots.

----Picture Credits----

Diana F+ by Lomography

Lomo Fisheye No.2 by Bàrbara Ferrà on Flickr

My latest faves on Flickr

2009-04-22T22:08:00.000+01:00

1. untitled, 2. 90|365 ||| grow, 3. Julia Marcell, 4. light and dark, 5. I do not love you..., 6. Untitled, 7. Screaming Only Makes the Demons Thrive, 8. Untitled, 9. I Waited For You..., 10. Week Twenty Eight. This Is A Mans World, 11. I lost the inspiration for a lifetime, 12. Don't, 13. homespun philosophy, 14. IMG_0046_web, 15. doors, 16. Boulevard l’Océan *, 17. Buzzing, buzzing...., 18. red blowing in yellow wind, 19. The North Landing at Flamborough, 20. after all these years, 21. tempest., 22. ophelia, 23. recollection, 24. I'm easy...easy like Sunday morning..., 25. Untitled

Home sweet home: Photographing Sheffield

2009-04-19T16:13:00.011+01:00

Last weekend I went home to Sheffield. I am bias, I think it's the best city in the world. Not only did I grow up there but I also returned there as a student. Yup, I liked it enough to move back in with my folks for a year (no offense M&D)! Sheffield is a city of many sides. It has the somberness left by deindustrialisation of the steelworks but also the beauty of the Peak District on its doorstep. A lot of effort has gone into its regeneration and restoration, but a lot has also been left to crumble away. Touted as the 'greenest city in the UK' it has also been known as simultaneously the most educated and least educated city. Personally, I love the long rows terraces made from peak district stone, the fact that no matter where you go you always have to walk up a steep hill, that there are loads of trees, its sense of community, and that the water tastes reeet nice.

So, the purpose of this post. I've been asked for good places to photograph in Sheffield by the Oxford Photographic Society. I would say that because Sheffield is many-faceted it's great to photograph. Working on the theme of 'steel' could take you in so many different directions, from the existing and dilapidated steelworks to steel architectures and art in the city centre to the old millstones returned to their rightful place in the Peak District. Only a handful of photographs done by myself so far, but these are my recommendations for photographing Sheffield:

1. A walk along the Five Weirs to see the steelworks and the industrial/commercial landscape of the Lower Don Valley
2. A trip to Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet / Kelham Island / Shepherds Wheel, all Sheffield industrial museums and preserved sites that can show you steelwork practices of the past.
3. A meander around the city centre to see the sculptures that are starting to appear as part of Sheffield's regeneration (esp. the city train station, Millennium Galleries, and the Peace Gardens)
4. A trip out to the Peak District, specifically Stanedge Edge, Burbage Crags and the The Derwent Valley (HEADS UP: I have just discovered the fantastic photography of local photographer Stephen Elliot. To see how beautiful the countryside is I urge you to pay a visit to his web site at http://www.stephenelliottphotography.co.uk).

Picture Credits
1. Salt Cellar (Derwent Edge Derbyshire) by Stephen Elliot
2. 'And Quiet Flows the Don' by me
3. Balls of Steel by Zekizeki

Portrait of a Doll

2009-04-14T03:55:00.000+01:00

~Annabel

Never is an awfully long time.

2009-04-14T03:52:00.000+01:00

Peter: Forget them, Wendy. Forget them all. Come with me where you'll never, never have to worry about grown up things again.

Istanbul Dreams

2009-04-06T21:13:00.003+01:00

If one had but a single glance to give the world, one should gaze on Istanbul. ~ Alphonse de Lamartine

I've just uploaded a new set from a recent trip to Istanbul to kT LindSAy pHotoGrapHY. Enjoy!

Tender is the night

2009-04-01T01:19:00.001+01:00

"No, I'm not really--I'm just a--I'm just a whole lot of different simple people."
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tender is the Night, Book 3, Ch. 8

Los perfumes de primavera

2009-03-24T00:22:00.004+01:00

Por ti junto a los jardines recién florecidos me duelen los perfumes de primavera. ~ Pablo Neruda

I love Pablo Neruda, the poetry in Spanish makes me melt.

Full Text and Translation

Review: Annie Leibovitz at Work

2009-03-22T12:23:00.003+01:00

Annie Leibovitz has become one of the most iconic photographers of the century, her body of work recognisable and individual photographs iconic. This book takes you behind the scenes to hear Leibovitch talk about how she got there, her inspirations, the discourse behind each photograph and how it was actually done. Her words in many cases are quite comforting to the aspiring photographer, advising acceptance that a photograph can only be a moment in a life of a person and not capable of 'capturing' that person, that cameras are just tools of the trade and not to get hung up on brands and equipment. Some of my highlights from the book include:

* Taking the famous last photo of a naked John Lennon and clothed Yoko Ono before he was shot
* Photographing the Rolling Stones on tour
* Capturing the war in Sarajevo
* Photographing the Queen
* The last supper photograph of the cast from the Sopranos

My only criticism of this book is that it is not big enough to give justice to the photographs. It is nightstand rather than coffee table sized. Looking at the small reproductions is not quite the same as gazing at the glossy center spreads in Vanity Fair. Still though, what has impressed me most about this book has been the words behind the pictures. I have accumulated quite a few photography books over the past couple of years but this has definitely become one of my most treasured.

My latest faves on Flickr

2009-03-10T01:08:00.000+01:00

1. flooding the land, 2. Baby, it's cold outside..., 3. Golden Slumbers, 4. . smile, 5. . dreaming, 6. Cloister Light, 7. ., 8. SPT: 29/01/09, 9. twin., 10. red in green, 11. Untitled, 12. PCBL1058, 13. careless, 14. Untitled, 15. Untitled, 16. Untitled, 17. throw it all away, 18. tulips, 19. The Boop Troop, 20. Tinker Belle’s Forest, 21. Every Friend, 22. red line, 23. {Week seven}, 24. Follow Me, 25. IMG_4360b.jpg

Self Portrait: Being and Nothingness

2009-03-08T21:04:00.005+01:00

So this is my first (and may be my only) attempt at a self portrait for this week's DPO Weekly Assignment. Surprisingly I got stuck on what to do for a self portrait. I've done lots of self portraits before but I couldn't say that any one of them perfectly represented me, or were even close....so, just to give myself a headache, I decided to go existentialist.

Because I was contemplating what parts of me were not in my previous photographs, what sprang to mind was Satre's work "Being and Nothingness". Rather than being as the opposite of nothing, Satre considers them as contradictions. Nothingness is a state of non-being, logically subsequent to being. In my self portraits whilst a part of me is there, the portrait is also defined by what of me is not there. That's something that is very clear to me. In saying that “This is a photograph of part of me” means that I should also be able to say “This is not a photograph of part of me”.

Anyway....it's difficult to take a photograph to represent a phenomenological ontological discussion, I tried to make it as monochrome as possible but not as opposites but as part of the same condition. The white background fading into the self, a blur to blur the boundaries between being and nothing. It's an attempt!

How do I take a self portrait?

2009-03-07T01:19:00.003+01:00

Ok so I have taken lots of self portraits in the past....but now I am given the challenge of being asked to take a self portrait for a competition and I'm stuck! I think perhaps before I have used self portraiture to tell a story or to try out particular techniques but now that I am asked to take a photograph of mySELF rather than a character I feel a bit nervous....how do I photograph me?

2009-03-04T21:58:00.002+01:00

Recently, photography has become almost as widely practiced amusement as sex and dancing - which means that, like every mass art form photography is not practiced by most people as art. It is mainly a social rite, a defense against anxiety, and a tool for power.
~ Susan Sontag On Photography

Old Hunstanton

2009-03-02T22:54:00.004+01:00

Visual Plagiarism: The Strange Case of Rosie Hardy

2009-02-23T23:10:00.013+01:00

Last week on Flickr the floodgates opened when one of its most popular photographeress' Rosie Hardy was accused of plagiarism in a number of her photos. A person, know only as "Harry", brought it to light, posting RH's pictures on his/her own stream next to the DeviantArt and Flickr photographs that she was accused of plagarising (his Flickr account has been removed three times, but he's continuing on his blog)..he also mass posted comments in other peoples photostreams to make them aware of Rosie's crime....

What ensued was the opening of a gigantic can o' worms. Rosie mostly ignored "Harry", deleting his comments, "Harry" became more determined and rallied his troupes, discussion threads were started both on Flickr Central and the very popular Female Self-Portrait Artists' Support Group (entrance only to members) and soon contained hundreds and hundreds of postings veering from disappointment at Ms Hardy and calls for an apology, to sane discussion as to what merits visual plagiarism, to more stalker-type aggressive behavious towards the artist in question. And in return accusations of "natzism" and "bullying" hurled back by RH's supporters. The leading ladies of the FSPASG have produced (and I would like to add here rather fantastic) photographs in support of "Harry" with "I Love Harry" written across their naked chests (see Quizz... , :anna: kezzaroo ). Hardygate was born and things got kind of crazy. RH publically apologised with a suicidal type photograph and is now "taking a break" from Flickr.

Now, rather than sit on either side of the fence I put my anthropologist hat on, take a step back and look at it through my specs and say "that's interesting, I wonder why they are behaving like that" (I know, I'm so annoying). On a personal note I've been following Ms Hardy's stream for a while, and after seeing the similarities between some of the photos I have to say I am a bit disappointed, it would have been respectful to credit. I find this Harry person kind of strange, he seems to hold a personal vendetta here, and some of the posters in the forums clearly like to shout a lot (quite easily spurred on by Rosie's rather nauseating online relationship with Aaron). But what most interests me is the ferocity around this topic, akin to some kind of hysterical smear campaign that goes on and on and on....What is evident is that RH has become a bit of a scapegoat for something that has been bubbling around Flickr for a while...fear of having personal creativity or 'ideas' stolen. When does inspiration become plagiarism, where is the line drawn? And can it be drawn in cyberspace, a place that spans countries and cultures? For instance it is a misconception that plagiarism is a universal understanding. In many cultures it is regarded as a form of flattery and even encouraged. And are we now post-originality? Anyone who has any background in literary theory or postmodernism will understand the phrases 'everything is a tissue of quotations' and 'nothing is original'....In the age of the Internet is it possible to control plagiarism, is it time to move away from owning ideas to who can express it better? I'm mean...I saw a clone picture once, then I made one myself. I just searched clowns on Flickr and found some akin to my clown picture (you know people in make up and wigs).....shit!!! Am I in trouble???? Sure, I see in the case of RH there are obvious heavy influences that should have been credited, but some of the comparisons people have found are simply clutching at straws, like the paparazzi looking for anything to bring her down. Look hard enough and you will find something you could claim to be 'too' similar.

She's 18 years old, about to embark on A'level exams with hundreds of people calling for her withdrawal from a major part of her life, if I was her I'd be rock bottom, and her apologetic posting on flickr shows just that. Is it all a hoax....is it all a publicity stunt (Harry IS Aaron???) as some of her adversaries are claiming. I can't say for sure but I doubt it. It's just a kid who got it wrong in a very public way, but what do you expect if you make yourself a Flickr celebrity when plagiarism amongst artists is still seen as the ultimate crime...you are going to be sussed eventually. What has it achieved at the micro-level, they taught a young girl a hard lesson, made her cry, at a macro-level, it raises some pretty big questions.

So Harry....do I love you? In a sick way I love the chaos you have caused....am I about to take my top off for you.....no way honey.

---Disclaimer---
I would like to credit absolutely everybody in and not in my life for every photo I have ever taken...

Something Simple

2009-02-22T22:37:00.004+01:00

Creating Clone Images

2009-02-17T00:41:00.009+01:00

Some people have asked me how I put together "Breathe" - good news, the photo editing work is dead easy (climbing the tree itself...well that's another story)!

Clone pictures are pretty commonplace now on Flickr, there are groups dedicated to them or look at the excellent work of Miss Anelia. I guess you could say they are symbolic of the multiplicity of the self....I just happen to think they are quite fun! This isn't the first one I've made, but I prefer this one.

There are many ways I imagine that you could create one (more tutorials at the bottom) but here's how I did it:

1. Find a tree (preferably one you can get up and that isn't blowing in the wind too much).
2. Set the camera up on a tripod - I had mine on programme setting stopped down a notch, nothing too difficult here.
3. Climb tree
4. Either with the aid of a trusty other or a handheld remote take loads of pictures (I mean loads - I took about 150) of you in different positions (being careful not to fall out of said tree). The trick is not to move the camera a mm! Keep it set on the tripod. Be careful though, if someone comes up and nicks your equiptment you are not in a very good position to go after them in hot pursuit!
5. In photoshop choose one picture to use as a base image, then using the lasso tool select yourselves on the other images and paste them into position, each on a new layer on the base image. Works better if you feather the selection for each.
6. Use the eraser and blur tools to go around the edges and neaten up.
7. Flatten layers
8. I then used the Orton method on this image and played with the tone mapping and curves to create the 'look'.

...In total about 2.5 hours work, voila! Piece of Pie!

[The reflection in the pond was created by copying part of the image, flipping it round, distorting it horizontally using the lens distort filter, pasting into position and decreasing the opacity]

Oh did I mention I have a new website...http://www.ktlindsayphotography.smugmug.com

Other Tutorials
How to make clone pictures using Gimp

New Web Site!!!!

2009-02-15T21:07:00.004+01:00

I now have a website!! http://ktlindsayphotography.smugmug.com. This is my portfolio and a place to put specific projects I have worked on, there are password protected galleries for the commissions I get (and it also has an online store!)

This photo is in honour of my new website and is called "Breathe".

National Darwin Day

2009-02-12T19:32:00.012+01:00

It's National Darwin Day so I feel I must post seeing how I've just been to the Galapagos. There are some nice things on the web I've noticed. Firstly I'm very impressed with Darwin on Twitter, and there are some nice articles on the BBC website, including this one with pieces of footage from the Galapagos. Of course the Galapagos feature prominently, touted that it was Darwin's observations of the Giant Tortoises and Finches here that influenced his theory of evolution. National Geographic however have published an interesting article saying that really it was his experiences in Argentina and a trove of fossils which gave him his initial musings. One of my photos is even being used to illustrate a story. Amongst all this news coverage however there are articles warning of the threat of tourism on this beautiful archipelago. Whilst it is still the best preserved in the World, if the tourism it is attracting continues the uniqueness of the Galapagos and its species will be lost forever.

I now feel a pang of guilt. I was one of those tourists, having been my dream for years to visit the Islands. My experience of tourism in the Galapagos was generally very positive. The guides were very clear as to how we should act - pulling people back if they strayed from the paths or too near the animals, making sure that only one or two boats visited an Island at any one point. It certainly didn't seem very touristy. Many of the Islands remain uninhabited, no shops, no cash points, no restaurants. We were hosed down every time we returned to the boat to ensure we didn't carry anything between the Islands and given talks on preservation and the impact of people, how measures were in place to ensure they were protected. Eco-education was the aim of this trip. But the figures are there: a four-fold increase in visitors in the last 20 years, and most worryingly an increase from 112 recorded alien species in 1900 to over 1,300 today. The aircraft cabins are sprayed before landing on Baltra but evidently some insects are getting through and causing havoc.

Shutting off the Islands to tourists could cause serious economic problems for Ecuador, but now it seems that a new balance must be found to ensure that the Galapagos remain as they should. I shamefully feel so lucky to have visited such an amazing place and understand first hand why it should be cared for.

--------
Photographs
1. Hood Mockingbird
2. Cactus Finch
3. A tourist boat in the Galapagos

Annoyed

2009-02-10T23:57:00.007+01:00

It really pisses me off when I comment on a photograph on Flickr asking how the photographer achieved so-and-so effect and they just say 'it's magic' or 'it's a secret'. I mean it's not like without enough googling I couldn't find out, it's not rocket science. Stop being so precious and be a bit more friendly - gripe, gripe!

My latest faves on Flickr

2009-02-10T23:51:00.002+01:00

1. Vol 1.0., 2. I, 3. Poppies, 4. Gravity, 5. The Trailer, 6. Cotton Candy, 7. no reply, 8. gala., 9. black square sun hypeЯReally eclipsed by housing blocks, 10. Untitled, 11. tagged, 12. Cactus, 13. breathe, 14. yes, boss, 15. day three hundred fifty nine. a lady always dresses for her body type..., 16. if you'd just take off your mask

A curious spectacle to behold

2009-02-02T19:32:00.008+01:00

Near the springs it was a curious spectacle to behold many of these huge creatures, one set eagerly travelling onwards with outstretched necks, and another set returning, after having drunk their fill.
- Charles Darwin, The Origin of the Species

National Geographic has the most amazing photograph of Giant Tortoises in it this month (Go here http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/02/darwin then photo gallery and it's the last picture). It's the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin of the Species this year so the nature/science mags are falling over Darwin. I'll leave my lecture on Darwin and the Galapagos (or not so much the Galapagos it seems according to NG) until I get my mocking bird and finch photos together, but a quickie on these gentle giants. During his voyage of the Galapagos Darwin met the English Governor, Nicholas Lawson of Isla Floreana, who told him that he could tell with certainty which island a tortoise had come from by the shape their shell, supporting Darwin's view that a species had adapted to the habitat in which it lived. It took Darwin a while to get excited by this however as he failed to collect any of the tortoise carapaces in the islands he visited. Darwin and the crew of the Beagle simply ate the tortoises that they captured and threw away the shells.

National Geographic's NG's photograph made me go back to my tortoise pictures and look at them a bit more closely to see if I could salvage anything (I originally discarded all 104 of them as they were too bright, out of focus....), and on second look a few were pulled from the trash can. This creature was incredible, it is only really possible to see how big they are by looking at one next to me! They look ancient. Well I guess they are. The photograph below shows' a c.90 year old Lonesome George', he is the last known individual of the Pinta Island Tortoise, and is labeled the rarest creature in the entire world.

You can get the entire current issue of National Geographic online, free! And there are photo competitions!!

Galapagos: 'Imps of Darkness'

2009-02-01T22:16:00.004+01:00

The Marine Iguana is only found on the Galapagos Islands so I felt very privileged to meet them! They look so prehistoric and are a pretty scary sight, Charles Darwin himself on first encountering them wrote:

The black Lava rocks on the beach are frequented by large (2-3 ft), disgusting clumsy Lizards. They are as black as the porous rocks over which they crawl & seek their prey from the Sea. I call them 'imps of darkness'. They assuredly well become the land they inhabit.

These 'imps of darkness' warm up on the lava rocks all day to create enough heat to plunge themselves into the sea to swim to their daily supply of marine algae. I was so shocked to encounter one whilst actually in the sea that I didn't get a photogarph...it was like having a dinosaur swimming towards you!

Galapagos: Sea Lions up close and personal

2009-02-01T21:17:00.007+01:00

Wildlife photography isn't really my thing, but you can't help but get excited by what you find in the Galapagos Islands. Located in the Pacific Ocean about 1000km off Ecuador, the Islands are home to an amazing array of wildlife...sea lions, iguanas, blue-footed boobies, giant tortoises, albertros', sharks, sea turtles, and what's more you can get really close to it all (but of course don't touch)! So it's an incredible place to have a go at photographing birds and animals, they just seem to want to pose for you! This was my first real attempt at wildlife, I was incredibly lucky to be bale to practice in such an amazing location. Advice I had before i went was right, I didn't really need a supersonic lens, the Canon 70-250mm was just fine, although at max range it was a little hard getting everything in focus and sharp. Unfortunately because I couldn't really see my photographs properly before I got back I didn't really notice whilst I was out there. A lot went in the trash can.

I prefer my Peru photographs, but that's just me. If wildlife is your thing, have a gander (I'm not going to saturate my flickr stream with bird photographs) and there will be more on their way in my SmugMug website when I get that up - watch this space! To start with Sea Lions...naughty things, I nearly had my bum head butted quite a few times crouching down to photograph these fellas!

Inca Stone

2009-01-29T22:32:00.005+01:00

Funnily enough I think that this is going to be the photo that makes it into a frame on my wall. The large stone is named "The twelve angle stone", and can be found in the Hatum Rumiyoc street of Cusco. The wall it sits in is a famous example of Inca architecture, widely known for its fine masonry, which features precisely cut and shaped stones closely fitted without mortar.

The streets of Cusco

2009-01-29T22:30:00.001+01:00

Nr. The Plaza San Blas, Cusco, Peru.

Kelly

2009-01-26T20:11:00.001+01:00

Taken on the Island of Amantaní, Lake Titicaca.

The birthplace of the sun

2009-01-26T19:46:00.006+01:00

Lake Titicaca is situated on the border of Bolivia and Peru, lying 3,812 m (12,500 ft) above sea level, which makes it one of the highest navigable lakes in the world. Ancient myth has it that the first Inca, Manco Capac, rose from a crag on one of the Islands, and that the lake is the Sun's dwelling place.

Primarily Titicaca is known for the Uros, a group of 42 or so inhabited artificial islands made of floating reeds. However there are also natural islands on the lake, one of which, Amantaní, I visited, staying with a local family. The Island is truly stunning, with no cars or roads, overseen by two mountain peaks with Inca ruins, called Pachatata (Father Earth) and Pachamama (Mother Earth). The hillsides that steeply climb up from the lake from the lake are planted with wheat, potatoes, and vegetables, the fields still worked by the hands of the local Quechua speaking community. Cattle, sheep, and alpacas graze all around.

I don't have many photographs of the lake as I was on a moving boat most of the time, nor of the scenery of the Island I stayed on. But I do have photographs of the family I stayed with, who were wonderful smiley, warm people. My favorite is of Kelly, a little girl of 6 who wants to grow up to be a dancer, peeking through a door when I went off to watch a game of Islanders v Tourists high altitude football (tourists won, apparently a rare occurrence!). In my broken Spanish we got on very well, and I was showered with hugs and kisses when I left. Our 'Mama', Gladys, looked after us well, cooking amazing locro soup and vegtables and rice, with a ready supply of cocoa tea to help with the altitude sickness, all under the watchful eye of Grandmama (pictured in my previous post) and the solemn gaze of Kelly's cousin David.

Traveling

2009-01-25T16:09:00.007+01:00

It's been over a month since I last posted anything, reason being I took a month out to do a bit of traveling. I promised myself I would keep away from the interweb as much as possible to try and regain some sense of what it was like to experience things through reality rather than through virtuality, sick and tired of the emptiness of virtual conversations, emails with no body language, and viewing life through the computer screen. The effect has been that I now feel much more grounded with life, who i am, less preoccupied with presenting a virtual image of my*self*, more skeptical of those who do so (as you can see traveling was not just done in the physical sense!).

I think this traveling has had a bit of an effect on my photography. In the images that will follow over the next few weeks (I took over 2000, it will take a while to get the good ones which I imagine will amount to about 50, together!). I've tried to capture how landscapes feel rather than how they look, and get to personalities through portraits. Technically, I now know all about the my camera and I've even experimented with RAW (the image of Machu Picchu is a RAW conversion to try and get that Ansel Adams effect). I hope you like what I've come back with, I'll be posting a few of the best on Flickr but I'm also keen to build an online exhibition, probably in SmugMug. As always critical feedback means a lot to me so please do tell me what you think, how I could improve etc.

Stay tuned....plenty more to come!

----Photographs above----
1. Mach Picchu (Peru)
2. Grandmama (Isla Amantaní, Lake Titicaca, Peru)

ṃεɾɾÿ сhɾïṡτṃαṡ

2008-12-24T19:06:00.001+01:00

2008 Round-Up

2008-12-23T22:05:00.017+01:00

This is the year I fell in love with photography. Last year I had the initial flutters but this year I went head over heels. It's amazing to think how much I have accumulated in terms of knowledge and equipment (and how much I have spent)! I started out the year with my compact Olympus but when it got to my birthday, with the help of some very generous family and friends I upgraded to my first SLR. Then I was lost forever to a camera geek world of lens', filters and f-stops. I now have 5 lens', and other bits and bobs, and whilst I don't think I am necessarily taking better technical photographs, I feel as though there are many more creative opportunities available to me through having more flexible technical equipment.

In terms of my photos it is really difficult to select what I think is my favorite for 2008. At the Window was probably a bit of a turning point for me as I learnt some cool photoshop techniques in creating it, but I also like When Morning Comes, The Pier and more recently my Beach Huts in B&W. My Flickr Stats tell me that you all seemed to like The Clown the best.

Last week my Flickr photostream views went over the 100,000 mark with 4 photos reaching the top ten in Explore, and my blog has hit 30,000 visits (and no that doesn't include me). But it's really hard work trying to push my work on Flickr, it is so saturated, there is so much good stuff on there, and may be it's time to try and fund some of this expensive hobby of mine. So to get better and to get out there a bit more, to make it a bit more than a hobby, I have a wish list for 2009:

1. Next year is all about light, I need to understand light and how the camera can capture it better. Money next year will be spend on light things!
2. I need some more formal hands-on training. There are a few places that run photography workshops like the Royal Photographic Society - I'd especially like to have a go at the Studio Photography and Fashion Photography workshops.
3. I would love to get in a magazine!
4. I would love to sell some prints - SmugMug and Photobox Po Galleries look to be decent options.
5. I want to work towards the Royal Photographic Society Associateship Distinction
6. I will damn well master long exposures!

So, so far that's quite a lot for 2009. I do plan on doing other stuff too! 2008 was a funny year, I worked too hard, but achieved a lot, I made some good friends, nurtured relationships, but I also lost some people I loved. I grew up a bit more. In 2009 I think I'll just stay peaceful and creative.

I'm off to sunnier climes now for most of January so I'll see you all in 2009, hopefully with lots more to share.

Bad Firefox

2008-12-15T22:04:00.003+01:00

I noticed that when I uploaded a recent photo to Flickr that the colours went all funny. They were not as rich or deep as they looked in Photoshop or iPhoto. Turns out that the problem was with Firefox which doesn't yet support colour profiling. I upgraded to Firefox 3, which I read did support this function only to find out that it ships without this support by default...why? Anyway there is a plugin available for Firefox 3, and on installing it all looks much better. However it is annoying that most of those people using Firefox will not be seeing my photographs how I want them to see them.

Here's a nice blog explaining it all by dria.org

The Cat Lover

2008-12-15T21:53:00.001+01:00

"Heidi was struck by a sudden thought - what if Gordon wasn't a cat at all but a man under a spell? A man forced to don the disguise of a cat by some wicked enchantress? A man trapped in the body of a cat?

Heidi knew there was only one way to break that kind of enchantment...she lent over and warily kissed his downy cheek. Gordon's ear twitched and he stirred but instead of being transformed into a man he simply swiped her away with a sleepy paw. Heidi wasn't sure whether she was disappointed or not." (The Cat Lover by Kate Atkinson)

A woman and her cat

2008-12-14T18:43:00.007+01:00

I have been impressed by a number of photographers on Flickr who manage to get their cats in a photograph with them. As anyone who has a cat knows, cats can not be told what to do, in fact we humour them more than the other way around. They have enormous patience with the limitations of the human kind. So I love it when I find a good cat-owner photograph. Here are some of my favorites:

There's no place like home by Elle Moss (Above)
Untitled by Lenaah
A woman and her cat by MaryElise
Words fall through me by Reflecting Truth
Hey, you and me by Oladios

I also love the photo-montages of Mattijn , whose fantasy-esque images always feature his cat Pino. It's good to see a bit of man-cat love!

The most photogenic cat award however has to go to vaneska~tHOmz's cats tabitha and
charlie. How she does it I have no idea!

My cat is not one for being handsome in front of the lens. Every time I've tried something I end up with scratches all over my arms, so usually I have resorted to photo-montages too (see my blog on The Escape). Today however I was honored with some rare camera affection from my feline friend, and he even sat on my feet and kept them warm whilst I did all my photoshopping.

My latest faves on Flickr

2008-12-11T21:40:00.002+01:00

1. Untitled, 2. Untitled, 3. Maybe I'm Just Tired 20/365, 4. matinée, 5. A Clench of the Covers (Explore!), 6. .6545, 7. day three hundred eighteen. writing your tragedy., 8. Untitled, 9. Freak Out, 10. Suspiria, 11. LastLeti, 12. 'relation intime avec le monde', 13. swoon orchestra, 14. this big cloud..., 15. day three hundred fourteen. birds on a wire., 16. i didn't know you meant forever, 17. Breathe, 18. Untitled, 19. The lookout - Sardinia, 20. Clifford Sax bird texture, 21. Untitled, 22. Soft as silk, smooth as jazz, 23. There are two kinds of light - the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures, 24. There are as many kinds of beauty as there are habitual ways of seeking happiness., 25. Untitled

Love my bones..

2008-12-09T00:23:00.005+01:00

I've entered an alternative version entitled 'acceptance' for this weeks Digital Photography School Competition where the theme is "Happiness is...", although I imagine that this is perhaps an interpretation too far to be in with a chance! I think really that happiness is a sense of fulfillment or wholeness, and you can't rely on the external world (people, situations, or things) to provide that, it has to come from inside, right down to the depths of your bones. So happiness is, for me, acceptance and understanding, and being able to say to the world that they should accept me for who I am too. Happiness isn't a goal to be achieved by doing stuff or having stuff, it is being a peace with who you are, it's not easy.

...also a bit of a play on people always telling me I'm too skinny, well I'm content with the way I look, so naanas to you!

Pounds of Flesh

2008-12-08T21:13:00.006+01:00

Ok, so considering the bizarre places I've found my photos on the web I'm not overly surprised to find Mirror Mirror in a Jewish article about body image, entitled 'Pounds of Flesh' - The Merchant of Venice, Jewish, get it...! In once sense I'm, as usual, chuffed, for some reason I've been told a few times that I'd make a good Jew (?), however I'm not to keen on their colouration -hmmm maybe it's time to readdress that creative commons license. Photoshop is not always a good thing.

To branch away from Flickr?

2008-12-04T23:45:00.004+01:00

It's not a topic I'm happy to raise! I love Flickr, in Flickr I have found a supportive community which supports my views on open content and has provided me with the opportunity to get feedback on my photography which over the past two years has become my art, and a huge part of my self expression, even at times my therapy. Without Flickr I doubt I would ever have returned to art, a subject I gave up long ago because 'it would never get me anywhere in life'. I used to 'do art' with a 3B pencil and a brush, and now I paint with a lens. So let me be clear, I have no intention of leaving Flickr, however the more lean towards trying to make a bit of a profession out of what was initially was a bit of a hobby, the less Flickr can cater towards my needs.

First off, I like the idea of password protected galleries. If I branch into doing some paid for photographic commissions, it is kind of a service I need. Secondly, I've had a few requests for large prints of my work. I don't offer high res photos on Flicker at present, i.e big enough to print more than 6x4. I'm happy for them to be used under the creative commons licence that I presently stick on them (no derivatives and attribution) and splattered across the interweb. But to be hung as an actual piece of 'art' on someone's wall, or printed in a publication, well for that I want some wonga!! So my thoughts lately have been that I would like to find an online service that will let me create showcase galleries and also sell my prints for me at a price I stipulate, and print them, and post them - the moon on a stick basically!

You'd think this would be out there.....think again.

I've ransacked the web and it seems that there are really no UK based websites that offer the moon on a stick. There is Photobox, where I order prints from (and I have generally been pleased with the results), who offer pro galleries that do the above. However, the site is not taking any new pro users until 'the future', and the old interface left a lot to be desired for - to showcase fine art photography the website should really mirror that. But then I came across SmugMug, a US centric photosharing site that offers everything I dream of - it looks amazing, unlimited storage, is totally customisable down to the domain name, offers a sale service and multiple privacy and viewing options, but...is in $. But really does this matter? In the virtual world where space is not an issue? It's not cheap, at $149.55 pa, BUT I think that's not too bad for a high quality virtual hard drive with e-commerce capabilities.

There are many alternatives to Flickr - deviantART, ZOOMR, Fotki, Photobucket, to name just a few, they all cater for different types of user. I'm toying with the idea of setting up accounts on a few to see what happens and having a test run of e-commerce on SmugMug until PhotoBox gets it's finger out...that's if anyone wants to buy anything that is!

Can a photographer travel light?

2008-12-02T23:47:00.014+01:00

I'm not very good at light packing - you should see the contents of my everyday shoulder bag - I could quite easily find myself marooned in the Alaskan wilderness, and use what's inside to build a shelter, protect myself from the elements, rear and slaughter reindeer, set up a chanel no.5 beauty salon for passing bored Inuit women and live quite happily for a very long time.

On Christmas day this year I wont be sitting around having the usual xmas feast and frollicks as most people will be enjoying in this country, I'll be on an aeroplane heading off on an adventure to explore Peru and Ecuador for a whole entire month! I know my mind should be on the excitement of traveling, the amazing things I'll see, the new cultures I'll experience, the warmth of the sun on my skin, the gorgeous Spanish language I hope to finally master, a holiday that has been a long time coming...relaxation...but no, I'm kind of obsessed with the photographic opportunities that it will afford me. Wide angled landscapes of the Andes, Machu Picchu, the wildlife of the Galapagos, the faces of Quito. Worried that I don't have the photography skills to capture it how I want, the right equipment to do it, and most of all on my mind is that I don't want to lug heavy camera equipment around with me.

Right now I have my kit lens (canon 18-55mm), a macro lens that is incredibly satisfying in a phallic sturdy lens kind of way (canon 300mm), and my wide angled sigma which is a dream, but obviously, I need a new lens. Nothing new there, I always need a new lens! You see what I don't have is a decent telephoto lens to take. The kit lens doesn't really reach all the right places. Was wondering if I could get a good all-in-one I could take with me to lesson the load. I don't want a mega long ultra extending lens - I'm no wildlife photographer, but just something to give a bit more reach would be good (always left feeling a bit frustrated with the 55mm). Yes, I hear you, 'it's not how big it is, it's what you do with it that matters' ....*NewsFlash*...size...does...matter.

The friendly guys at the Station Camera Shop in Reading (one of those really great camera shops that let you try and buy) have suggested a Canon 55-250mm (c. £202.00) or a 55-200mm Tamron (c. £70) - unfortunatley my budget won't stretch to go down to 18mm or up to 300mm (sniff). So I tried. The Tamron was surprisingly good for the price, light as a feather but it does feel plasticy, and it doesn't have image stabilisation which means I may need a tripod at times. The Canon on the other hand does have the IS, has that extra 50mm and also the bit that connects it to the camera is aluminum, more durable. But to be fair the difference in image quality on a rainy day was pretty non-existent - and it is an extra £130 more...dream trips to S.America don't come cheap. Both lens' though won't go down to that 18mm mark which means I should really take the sigma and kit lens too, then there are the filters, the lens hoods, the memory sticks, extra batteries and cards....

Today on the DPS Blog popped up a post on 5 Tips to Travel with One Lens. It's traumatising enough I will have to leave the laptop con photoshop behind, no post-process playing until I get back. Can I really bring myself to travel with ONE lens in addition? Surely the psychological effects will be too much to deal with creating stress and anxiety which could easily be avoided by carrying an extra kilo or two. Perhaps I can justify taking the whole shebang if I just pack a change of knickers and my Lonely Planet.

The Beach Huts

2008-12-02T20:06:00.002+01:00

Craving to feel warm

At the National Portrait Gallery!

2008-11-22T15:57:00.005+01:00

Sigh, may be one day.....Fun little poster tool on the NPG Website.

3 London exhibitions I plan to see before xmas

2008-11-22T15:10:00.005+01:00

1. Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer's Life, The National Portrait Gallery, WC2
- Whilst there I'll also pop in to see the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2008
2. This Is War! Robert Capa at work, The Barbican Gallery, EC2
- Whilst I'm there I also want to see Gerda Taro: a retrospective and On the Subject of War: artistic responses to Iraq & Afghanistan
3. Francis Bacon, Tate Britain, SW1

The Dancer

2008-11-15T23:04:00.005+01:00

Black and White Set - click the image to view in detail

With a Feather Boa

2008-11-15T22:11:00.001+01:00

My latest faves on Flickr

2008-11-03T23:26:00.001+01:00

The Head Project

2008-10-29T21:48:00.004+01:00

Very excited! My application to participate in The Head Project has been accepted. For those of you who are not flickr addicts like me and haven't come across The Head Project, the basic jist is you get mailed a head and you take interesting photos of it and submit it to the project, then you mail the head to the next person. The Head Project Website puts it in slightly more academic terms:

The Head Project is a work of worldwide collaborative fiction. It is an ongoing experiment in social behavior, perception and creativity. It is an attempt to document the journey of seemingly inanimate objects as well as the lives of the artists and individuals involved through the use of photographs, videos, blogs or any other form of creative media. It is a testament to the power of the human spirit and the drive to connect with others on a global scale through the creative process.

So my head will arrive in the next couple of months. Some of the photos taken so far are pretty damn good, so I need the time to come up with some good ideas! If you have any, let me know!

North Devon Coast

2008-10-27T19:13:00.005+01:00

Nr. Croyde. View the colour version in Flickr

Stanedge Edge

2008-10-19T17:56:00.004+01:00

One of my favorite places.

Sometimes all you want to do is hide in a big tree....

2008-10-16T21:50:00.003+01:00

I think this tree is incredible! Serious lack of commenting on my recent photos... how can i improve if I don't know what I'm doing wrong :-(

The Escape: Part 2

2008-10-12T20:42:00.013+01:00

Continued from Part One.

Here's How...
1. Find a maze (I found the Malborough Maze in Blenheim Palace)

2. Take photos in maze

I dressed up for the occasion in what could best be described as gypsy-meets-hippy-meets-pre raphelite-meets-lady-in-waiting from the TV series 'The Tudors'. I got some funny looks but very nice comments about "my outfit" from three old men and the lad behind the checkout in tescos on my way home :-)

3. Take photo of cat (don't take cat to maze)

4. Bung all into photoshop
I used the extract tool to extract me and Mali and place within the maze. I had to play a lot with the exposure, curves, levels, and contrast and brightness of the different layer to get the lighting similar then I used Michelle Black's 'Even out and contrast' and 'Cool down' filters as a starting point to bring all the colours together. I played with the render lighting effect for "moody darkness", and used a slight orton-method to combine all three images even more and get the dreamy effect. About 2 hours work in total.

Nearly a winner

2008-10-05T00:34:00.002+01:00

My clown shot entered for the DPO competition on costumes was first runner up! :-) See the other winning entries here

Just clowning around

2008-09-28T19:28:00.007+01:00

This week's competition on Digital Photography School is 'costumes'. Being one who loves to dress up I thought I'd give it a go. I have a bag full of weird and wonderful outfits but a few weeks ago someone was telling me about the Clowns International and how their annual church service in Dalston, London (in full dress) is a great photographic opportunity. Made me think doing something clown-like could be interesting.

I surfed the web for info on clowns and there are many things to be said about them, but there is one thing that must come first. The clown face is not a mask it exaggerates features rather than hides them. The other thing I found out was that the clown's job is to cheer people, no matter how they are feeling. I also found lots of discussions of broken clowns, their clown lives takes them away from their gloom. I'm not sure if this is true but I thought it would be an interesting concept to work with. The idea is that the costume is brass and bold but the person wearing the costume can in fact be quiet and vulnerable, makeup fades into nakedness. Two become one, and this is actually how many of us cope with the difficulties that life can throw our way.

This was a scary thing for me to do but I'm probably fretting about putting it up too much, afterall, people I know plaster photos of themselves on holiday in their swimsuits all over facebook and blogger, and I'm not nervous about what the people I don't know think about me. Saying that though, I grudgingly haven't put up the 'best' one as I'm a bit too nervous about it and the one I have entered for the weekly competition is on my flickr page - it has more costume! It was nearly the one below though!

Her function is to sit and be admired

2008-09-15T23:00:00.002+01:00

Unseen Oxford

2008-09-14T12:14:00.008+01:00

It's not all dreaming spires. Yesterday I went on a photography walk with the Oxford Photographic Society. The walk took us through Jericho, by the canal down to Botley, and then to Christ Church. Whilst the splender of the Oxford colleges is always impressive I think I've become a bit immune to their photographic opportunities and I prefer the grittiness of the bits the tourists don't always see. I've blogged about Jericho before, it's not the first time I've attempted to capture it. I think the idea of 'unseen oxford' could be a good project to keep working on, one I started a while ago but haven't really pursued. More photos from the walk can be seen on my Flickr page.

See my That Sweet City Set for more Oxford Photographs