Causeway

Causeway
Originally uploaded by Ben Mottram

Actually this is to explain a new tag I have on some pictures. All this assumes one is using Firefox to browse Flickr... and that you have Greasemonkey installed. I installed this greasemonkey script, which changes the background of a flickr photo to a user selectable value. More later when I have explored it a bit.

Senility

I forgot to mention, in my last post, that my good friend Harriet now has a blog to go with her Flickr account. I left a comment, but as comments have to be moderated (understandably) it hasn't appeared yet. Hopefully these links will help bump her blog up the google links page. We shall see.

B.

Changes

Something one has to get used to when reading my blog is that it may well change its look and feel on a whim. There is no big reason for this, just that I like to play with the settings.

Like it or loathe it - let me know and I may pay attention!

The 10th Blog Post

Well here we are, the 10th post in a fortnight. It is time for a question "When does a photograph stop being a photograph and become a digital image?"

What is the dictionary definition of a photo?

Chambers Online Reference gives

"photograph noun a permanent record of an image that has been produced on photosensitive film or paper by the process of photography."

Given that the photosensitive film or paper element is removed these days and replaced, largely, by a photosensitive silicon chip, does the definition hold any more?

Back in the day, one could see Snaps - taken by anyone on a box brownie or equivalent or perhaps portraits taken by a professional photographer or art, where liberties were taken with processing - cross processing in later years, but the fine art of dodge and burn applies equally well.

All of these, I would propose, were photographs. Honest images, produced from a film negative, plate or other sensitive medium.

These days we have Photoshop with which to tone blend, layer, merge, over or under expose, bend, twist, mash up, smooth, heal, dodge, burn, selectively colour and any other process imaginable - and some unimaginable in days of yore.

Does the output from the post processing workflow qualify as a photograph?

When hours spent at the PP desk, fiddling and tweaking, result in an image almost but not quite entirely unlike the original isn't the output more digital art than photography?

I am not decrying the skills or effort involved in producing the image, although effort involved alone doesn't always qualify an image as having any merit at all - I just want to get straight what is and what isn't a photograph!

With an artist, such as Harriet Barber, it is obvious that what she is producing are paintings - digression alert and, in my opinion good ones at that; your wallet has to be deep to afford a full size landscape, and if I had deep pockets I would have many more Harriet barber paintings than I do.

However with modern 'Photographers' much of their output, whilst artistic, is arguably not photography, rather something else - digital art perhaps? This is as true of "Page Three" type images as of classic landscape and waterfalls, evidence of this classification can be found on every 'photography' based website on the internet.

I dunno - it is a question that has been trundling through my head for a few months now. I am no closer to finding the answer, but as thoughts condense from the aether I will try and post them here.

Comment or not, the choice is yours - assuming anyone reads this drivel!

King's Street

King's Street
Originally uploaded by Ben Mottram

Well this was my first attempt at the incredibly popular digital past time of taking long exposure night shots of traffic.

There were several pictures in this sequence, some with no traffic (yes even in Weymouth!) some dominated by oncoming headlights and one with an invisible scooter!

I think next time I will try to take the camera out of the car and hence loose the excessive flare around the lamps; the suspension on the car was a bit wobbly so there may be some shake evident.

Big Mirror

Big Mirror
Originally uploaded by Ben Mottram

Well, the first mirror picture of me.

There are lots of problems posing and taking pictures in the mirror - notably finding the right bit of the image to focus on. If you point the camera straight at the mirror it will tend to focus on the reflection of the lens. With a wide open aperture this makes everything else of of focus.

Composition is another problem. Having to remember what is going to happen when the shutter release goes is part of the fun of photography.

Creation

Creation
Originally uploaded by Ben Mottram

This is a picture of Harriet, painting on Ringstead beach. I like it for several reasons:

Bokeh
Composition
Subject
Lens

Addressing each one in turn:

Bokeh - this is good in this picture - the 'confusion' is arranged in a halo around the subject and because I had the lens on AF it wasn't going to go all hyperfocal on me either, leaving the foreground in the confused zone.

Composition - The rule of thirds - I actually did think about it when composing the shot, even though there was a strong to gale force wind blowing from the left of shot. Harriet is about 1/3 away from the right edge. Ideally the bottom of the shot should have been higher but that would lose some of the perspective and solitude present.

Subject - Harriet is always very intense about her work. The world outside of the task in hand is irrelevant - she even ignores the weather to a large extent. Harriet also doesn't really like people around her when working and is very camera aware so the long lens helps capture her at her best.

Lens - This day Dan lent me his 75-300mm EF lens. This is the first serious shot I took with it. I am surprised at its performance with respect to the bokeh, and also at my ability to keep a distinctly 'Ben' feel to the photo even though I am peering through the equivalent of a 480mm telescope!

One Candle

One Candle
Originally uploaded by Ben Mottram

Here is one candle, taken with the EOA30D and a Rowi table top tripod. I am amazed at how much clarity there is when you use a tripod; now I know what I have been missing all these years.

I did take some other pictures with two candles next to each other, but there was so much parallax that they are not worthy. I guess a T&S lens would have fixed it, but really I can't justify £700 for the Canon lens.

Important!

Important!
Originally uploaded by Ben Mottram

Ok, so why does a picture of a thong get so many views?

It is not as if it is being worn by a seductive beauty (though I can think of a few who would look nice in it!)

Technically this picture is not good - White Balance all to pot, DoF very shallow - mind you there isn't much detail on the scrap of material :)

I would have liked to get the Important! notice in focus as well as the thong itself, as it makes a statement about thongs and fluff... which reminds me I haven't cleaned the fluff filter since we got the machine. Doh!

Silly Hat

Silly Hat
Originally uploaded by Ben Mottram

A silly hat made much more silly by playing with the colour curves in Canon Digital Photo Professional (DPP). Posted really as an ironic comment on people who post process photographs to death.

Rain

Rain
Originally uploaded by Ben Mottram

Nearly the first picture I took with the EOS30D and the Nifty Fifty lens. It was hard to persuade the machine to focus on the rain drops, I guess that is an improvement over point and shoot cameras which tend to focus on the nearest thing to the lens.

Any Port in a Storm?

Any Port in a Storm?
Originally uploaded by Ben Mottram

This is the first photo I took with my Point and Guess Olympus C4040Z which had much merit. It inspired me to get a deviant art account, which has lain dormant for a while now because I can't be bothered to tweak photos to make them art - get them right in the camera.

The First Blog Post

Well, they say that the first stoke on a canvas is the hardest, so here it is. I have decided to create a blog to act as an electronic diary for my photos, as posted on Flickr.

People can come here if they are interested to find out more about each picture they view; I hope visitors don't expect a work of literary genius; mind you going by the quality of my photos...