Digital Lighting

The big problem with lighting is really the cost. Good flash set-ups are a small fortune and even if you go for continuous lighting it can get very expensive, so this is not really an area for home experimentation...or is it?
I tried using a couple of old Vivitar 283's with a remote trigger but was not able to control the power - and I have no intention of spending the rest of my life looking for the VP-1 varipower module for the flashes on ebay and was not that successful with diffusing the flash in any case. So experimenting with flash is, for now anyway, not an option.
I then thought about using a different sort of light - remember I'm on a tight budget here - and duly went off to machine mart and picked up a building site light for a fraction of the cost of a photo light- my cunning plan is to learn to use lighting with that and a couple of reflectors made in the best Blue Peter tradition out of an old cardboard box and some kitchen foil and in the meantime save the money I would have spent on film to buy a coldlight...so we shall see what develops*

*pun intended

New Beginnings

In spite of my previous assertion that I was not going to keep up this blog I have changed my mind. I am going to just use this space for all things photographic. A lot of people who know me are aware that I took a lot of convincing to go digital but I am glad that I did, although I am still to be persuaded by a lot of the manipulation that people use to 'improve' their images.
For me the image should be largely unchanged from the original that was taken with the exception of cropping and correcting the sort of errors that used to be carried out on the final print such as removing dust spots. After all the art is the creation of the image from reality, what does concern me is the way that software like Photoshop (tm) is used to alter reality -for example I saw an article in a photojournal on how to improve a landscape picture by moving some rocks in the foreground to make a more pleasing composition, surely this is something that is best done in the field by using a combination of choosing the right viewpoint and using the right lens to give the desired perspective. I just wonder how far it will go before someone starts to call this manipulation what it really is as to me it is not true photography but digital photomontage instead...

The End

I have been finding it more and more difficult to find the time and energy to keep this blog up to date. To be truthful it has served its purpose and I'm not going to be keeping it alive any more. There will be no more posts after this and I will probably delete the content completely in a month or so...but the bad news is that I have a new and different blog devoted to an entirely different set of circumstances.

So goodbye my friends Mister Squeaky thanks you

...and before I forget...

Mister Squeaky has been stirred into action by a judiciously placed peerage and says that if Mandelson can get back into the cabinet and be made a Lord then it's time for him to come out of his self-imposed coma and come to the rescue of the world as we know it.

End of Intermission

So there I am thinking I really ought to put this bloggy thing to good use again and have to admit to having felt more than a bit jaded and having nothing really that I can be bothered to put fingers to keyboard for when out of the blue comes something really extraordinary. I got a friend request from someone really very interesting and I've been chatting away with her happy as anything...the downside of this is that she lives in a land far far away but hey who knows what the future brings.
Anyway a while I was bemoaning my inabilty to get a decent self portrait - now I have a bit of inspiration but the equipment is lacking...spare us a grand for a small lighting rig guv'nor

Greater Depression

So here we are in the middle of the greatest financial meltdown since the great depression...or are we? After all the government seem to have plenty of money to shore up the failing banks and there has just been the merest hint that in part some of the instability has been caused by the media causing a panic. Of course this is nothing new - whenever there is a crisis of any kind the media frenzy results in panic and a degree of radicalisation of the politicians to such an extent that they suggest increasingly draconian measures to deal with the problem and because of the fear and uncertainty that the media have generated the solution is generally accepted by the plebs.
So here's my suggestion - strip the bankers of their grotesque salaries and plush offices - decentralise most of their operations so that they are in affordable parts of the country and stop them from lending money to each other.

The Body Politick

As you might have gathered there is not a lot going on in my world at the moment - other than people not staying in contact and not bothering to respond when you try to contact them. Still it's their great loss no biggie...
Anyway more to the point I am getting increasingly angry with our local wannabe labour councillor, who sent a message round saying that there were serious concerns about the antisocial behaviour on the estate I live on - but neglecting to actually tell anyone what the antisocial behaviour we should all be so concerned about was - this was then followed up by a highly offensive part II missive which essentially suggested that as we hadn't bothered to contact our deeply concerned local activist we were all complict with the behaviour - now that's pretty antisocial if you ask me. Still at least he's organised a carnival and been considerate enough to give sufficient warnign so that we can all stay away from it.