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May 20, 2012 by graham

Shoot, shoot something simple

It’s lucky, I suppose, that I’m not very good at particularly regular blogging. It means that you folk, who have foolishly stuck my RSS feed in your Google Reader (or whatever software you use; does anyone use anything other than Google Reader these days?) don’t actually expect that much of me. As a result, anything I do post comes as a pleasant surprise to you. Q.E.D. Still, I feel I owe you an update, because I’ve been away for a bit in the physical as well as electronic sense.

Those of you who have followed me for a while will know that when I’m not photographering I do software development work for Canonical, the commercial backer of Ubuntu (incidentally, Ubuntu rocks, you should use it). Recently I was asked if I’d attend the Ubuntu Developer Summit for the next release of Ubuntu, Quantal Quetzal. When I found out that it was going to be held in Oakland, CA, I jumped at the chance – the Bay Area is one of my favourite places in the world, and I could hardly refuse such a polite request.
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March 18, 2012 by graham

The Camera Looks Both Ways

Oops. I promised on my Facebook page that I’d have this done yesterday. Mea culpa; forgive me.

I wanted to let you all know about a project that I’m starting. Normally, when I start a personal project, I don’t shout about it from the rooftops. That’s for the simple reason that many personal projects wither on the vine, and there’s little point in me talking about them until they’ve established a foothold and actually started to grow legs.

Er, I’ve mixed up some fairly disparate metaphors there. Let’s try again.

The point is that I don’t usually shout about things until I’m well on the road with them, mostly because I don’t know if they’re even worth pursuing (but I can’t know that until I try).

The Cobbler’s Children, and All That

It’s often said that the cobbler’s children have no shoes. Similarly, photographers’ families don’t necessarily have many photographs of themselves. More specifically, photographers rarely have great portraits of themselves hanging around. How many times have you seen a photographer’s page on Facebook, only to see them hiding behind the camera in a mock shooting pose, or standing with the camera in one hand*, looking fake-smiley.

It occurred to me that I’d quite like to shoot portraits of photographers, make them look great, and get to know some of my fellow shutter monkeys in the process (for all too often we find ourselves talking about ISOs and shutter speeds when we get together, rather than what actually makes us different as artists, which is who we are).

I Shoot  You and You Shoto Me**

An added dimension to the project, which came up when I was looking for volunteers on Friday afternoon, was that if I’m going to be running around making portraits of photographers, it’s only fair that they should get to make portraits of me, too. That way, they all get to have my take on them, and I get numerous versions of myself in return. Stands to reason, and I quite like it.

And Then What, eh?

Naturally, when one’s daydreaming about a project like this, one wonders where it’s actually going to go. Here are my thoughts so far:

  • The images I shoot will go online somewhere - either on a dedicated Tumblr or here, depending on volume.
  • The portraits that other photographers make of me will also go online in the same place, with their permission. All photographers will retain copyright over their work, of course

So how do I get involved?

If you want to be involved in the project (and hells, why wouldn’t you?), there are several ways to let me know:

Whatever the medium, let me know who you are, where you’re from and what kind of photography work you typically do.

And it’s important to note here that you don’t have to be a professional photographer. I want to hear from you whether you shoot £5000 weddings for a living or love making Instagram images of the world around your front door***. The point is for us to meet, interact, get to know each other and maybe, hopefully, learn something from each other in the process.

So, who’s with me?

*There are exceptions to this rule. Arty self portraits, mostly.
** Bonus points to anyone who gets this reference.
*** It’s important, too, to realise that these aren’t mutually exclusive pursuits. 

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September 4, 2011 by graham

Things I say sometimes…

Over on my Facebook page, I did just quoth:

Two things that keep occurring to me this week:

1. I love shooting drummers. Seriously. Could do it all day. Nutters, the lot of them.
2. I love that the Bay area has such a great local music scene.

… which leads onto a third thing…

3. It could be quite cool to do a book of portraits of local musicians.

Just a thought…

 

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August 28, 2010 by graham

The best camera

It's nice to be able to buy fresh fruit in your local supermarket, isn't it?

I recently came into possession of an iPhone 4 after my Palm Pre, which was an okay but not particularly brilliant device came to a smashy end whilst I was on holiday. Let’s just skip past the whole “you should have bought an Android phone” thing right now. I didn’t, for a whole bunch of reasons, none of which – I’m guessing – matter all that much to you.

Anyway.

Chase Jarvis is fond of saying “the best camera is the one that’s with you,” and it’s becoming an oft-echoed phrase across the industry. He even produced a book of iPhone-shot images based on – and named after – that principle. And the book spawned an iPhone app, which I’m now trying out (along with Camera Plus Pro, which belongs in a post of its own).

Sunflower at night

The great thing about the Best Camera app is that it lets me produce an image that’s close to the one in my head. It might not always be the exact image that I wanted, but – rather like my experiment in shooting film (which I need to blog about sooner rather than later) – the restriction helps to free me from the need to try and perfect something – and the frustration that comes with not being able to get something perfect in camera.

All of which is bringing me in a rather rambly fashion to a simple but crucial point: I’m not shooting enough. Seriously, I’m not. Since I came back from holiday three weeks ago I’ve barely shot a frame with an SLR of any sort. And that’s not a nice feeling. It itches, a bit like when I’ve let my beard grow too long. I need to be shooting; it’s what I do.