Friday 29 February 2008

Beauty

Well here we are, the second not really picture blog in a couple of days. never mind. I blame this post on Harriet because she reminded me just how paranoid she and her friend Lizzie get about ageing.

The daughter is, I assume, an attractive 17/18 Year old - I can't pass comment because I have never met the girl. H & L keep on about how they don't feel attractive/don't look pretty any more; in particular H tires to persuade Dan and myself to Photoshop pictures of her to remove the signs of age. We refuse, and tell her not to be so silly.

Anyway, to get back to the story, the daughter is no doubt pretty, pert and attractive in the way that young ladies are. I have no doubt she is causing problems for the male youth of her town with mutterings as she walks past - knowing the town I guess they may not mutter so much as shout out loud that they would rather like to get intimately acquainted with her in the way that uncouth youth are inclined to do.

I maintain that the prettiness/attractiveness doesn't go away with age; H & L maintain that neither of them are pretty any more.

As one ages, things change. There is nothing you can do about it so why bother? To my eyes someone who is relaxed about who they are is much more attractive then someone trying to be something they aren't. There is no way H or L will ever be 18 again, however what they are now is a pair of attractive, entertaining, women both of whom give the impression that they know what they are about. Are they less pretty than 10 years ago? I really wouldn't be able to say in Lizzie's case, but I have seen a photo or two of Harriet for times past and she looks just as pretty now as she did then. Different but just as pretty.

I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder - so my ramblings on the subject are just that. An attempt, if, dear reader, you like, to pin down the butterflies holding on to my thoughts on the matter.

B.

Thursday 28 February 2008

Books

March 19th 2008 is my wonderful father's 84th birthday. As a man who has everything and apparently likes nothing much any more it is quite hard to find suitable presents.

I thought long and hard, asked some advice and then decided that a hardback book of some of my better photographs would be a good idea.

Whilst self publishing is even more of a solipsism that this blog, I scuttled around a few publishing on demand type shops on the internet, and came across Blurb.

Blurb require the download of a rather idiosyncratic book composition programme which allows one to select predefined layouts - Page colour and contents can be chosen but page elements are laid out by blurb - look and feel can be altered but layout cannot.

I spent hours sorting out the format of the book; finally got a satisfactory layout of the dust jacket, spine, copyright page, introduction and even the contents, all of which are viewable on my Flickr page, and sent off the order.

10 Days later, a parcel dropped in to work with the two books exactly as I required them. Good quality - not glossy paper or very high specification printing but better than I could have done elsewhere.

I am one happy bunny. I am now off to create a Flickr set in my profile so that I know which pictures I have used before when I do the next book.

Friday 22 February 2008

Bondage


Bondage
Originally uploaded by Ben Mottram

This is a return to the more ben style of photo - artificial/natural brutality in juxtaposition.

I keep wondering what exactly is ben style - and this picture is it I think. Well an example of it anyway.

This week I have ordered a solipsist book - some of my pictures hardbound with a dust cover as well. One for me and one for my father who is 84 in march. Not many words but 30 odd of my best pictures.

When I get it (in a month or hopefully less) I will post and record my thoughts.

Saturday 16 February 2008

Sunset 2


Sunset 2
Originally uploaded by Ben Mottram

This is attempt 3 at trying to get the sunset, light on the water and people actually doing something interesting.

I can't really say that I 'do' landscapes, but this pic is quite good I think - the cloud/atmosphere provided an ND Grad filter for me, although I could still have done with a tripod.

There was another tog on the beach, bt he was expecting a brilliant sunset to illuminate the snuff box cliff.... he was well out of luck. If he is there today he may get lucky but we shall see. Perhaps I will go back...

Floating Daffodils


Floating Daffodils
Originally uploaded by Ben Mottram

At last I seem to be getting the hang of this shallow depth of field malarky. This was taken in the garden on a damp February morning - it was damp because of fog, rather than rain, which makes a change.
The focal plane is really shallow at this distance and f1.8 - tghe front two daffs are in focus, the back one is dropping out and the background of leaves and earth has dropped into bokeh quite nicely. No flash was used in the making of this shot.

Sunday 10 February 2008

Harriet Barber


Harriet Barber
Originally uploaded by Ben Mottram

Here is harriet being totally camera aware. Actually the shot I took after this and didn't put on Flickr is the one where she was aware of the camera. The main difference is you can see her almost looking at me even though she is taking a picture of something else in the photo I didn't post.

Regarding the lighing in this picture - todays sun was weird. Low and bright and very flat indeed possibly due to a significant amount of haze in the air left over from the morning fog.

Today I invented a new phrase to describe Harriet - not blonde, 'cos she is obviously a brunette, or air head because she isn't but butterfly head - her thoughts are carried around the inside of her skull by little butterflies flapping around. Sometimes they bash into her conscious mind and sometimes they wander past without interaction only to react at a later time or date - minutes or hours away. Harriet is now a butterfly head - at least in my mind anyway. YMMV.

Friday 8 February 2008

Oom-pah-pah


Oom-pah-pah
Originally uploaded by Ben Mottram

Morgwen is pictured here in her costume for the Oom-Pah-Pah song in Oliver Tiwst.

I used no tripod, just lent against the fridge. The only Post Processing was an auto levels click in Digital Photo Professional - the software for processing RAW files on the CD supplied with the EOS30D.

I am coming around to seeing that RAW + Post Processing can be classed as photography if the touch is light enough.

I like this shot particularly because it illustrates the wonderful sharpness of focus of the "Nifty 50" and also the shallow depth of field achievable at wide apertures.

Is it a good photograph? well I think it is above average. The other two of her on my photostream (1 and 2) are not as good compositionally or just for the "je ne sais quois" not being quite there

Wednesday 6 February 2008

Shadows


Shadows
Originally uploaded by Ben Mottram

Today Rhiannon and I went 'togging on the beach. We got there rather too early this time, for bright clouds anyway. However I managed to snap these fishermen, basking in the setting sun. Best viewed on a dark background, the pebbles have a nice golden tinge.

I took a shedload of pictures, of which only 6 made it to Flickr. I need more practice - luck for me this new fangled digital photography lark has happened along.

Sunday 3 February 2008

Sultry


Sultry
Originally uploaded by Ben Mottram

This is yet another picture of Morgwen.

She was waiting for me to fix her laptop, and saw me getting the camera out of the bag. I set the aperture to 1.8 on the Nifty, as you do, set the focus and pressed the shutter release. Nothing happened.

I had left the camera in Timer mode! I moved the camera and then put it back when I realised what had happened. Morgwen raised her eyes to see what the flashing light was and at that moment the shutter released. Hmmm. The result was a really out of focus picture so this one is an attempt to recreate the effect. I think it works.

Learning moment - always put the camera away in single shot mode. Then when I am trying to grab an opportunity the picture will be there in .6s rather than 10.6s...

Saturday 2 February 2008

Reflection


Reflection
Originally uploaded by Ben Mottram

This shot is one of the best I have taken with the kit lens.
The 'mirror' is a faded perspex window on the front of the cab of a blue, tracked, crane.
The reflection is intentionally the only bit of the photo in focus and, as you can see from another Flickr picture in my photostream, the sky really did look like that.
The other reflection (just visible) is that of an aircraft hanger given over to light industrial use.
The crane controls are visible through the scene ad provide a moody backdrop and mechanical contrast to the image of the sun.