Arts and Photography
There are 12 posts filed in Arts and Photography (this is page 1 of 2).
Adventures in Video
Please turn off/ pause/ rest your camera while you are walking around. Bouncing images make me wish they were all still photographs.
I can’t read in the car. Each time I get car sick, or nearly so. So I don’t read in a moving vehicle. I can listen to music because I don’t have to look at anything to hear it.
Sometimes I get that swimming inside my own head feeling when I watch urban exploration videos. The bouncing images are hard to follow, often not in focus and move onto something else before I have seen as much as I want to see.
I haven’t tried making videos, more than twice. None of them were exploring videos. One was a woodpecker we watched in Orillia. Another was a video of family and that’s when I discovered my camera doesn’t auto correct direction when I take video. So I am not going to offer advice on how to take better videos based on all my years of experience.
I will say… one thing you can do is stop filming while you walk around. Turn the camera on when you are standing at the location you want to be and can take a moment to focus yourself and the camera.
Eventually I may be lured into trying exploring video making. I’m not keen on it. I really prefer a photograph I can take my time looking at. There are so many details I want to see and so many things I missed in the moment I was taking the photo but see later when I upload it.
Tom Carter – Art from Vancouver
Tom Carter, artist, Vancouver, BC. His style reminds me of the old postcards, hand drawn looking with that sort of range of colours. I would call it muted, for lack of a better word. They look like something you could find (if you were lucky) in a thrift shop, a little time worn and dated but a treasure still.
I made screenshots of two of his set of Christmas cards, posted to Facebook, this year. I am far too late to order a set of cards. If I can afford a set, they would be great for next year.
Ghostly Sighs in Cemteries
I don’t know if ghosts hang around cemeteries. I would think not. If you were deceased, there would be better places you could spend your time, if you were hanging around. But this illustration caught my attention today. Maybe a ghost would be sad, just about being not alive and not feel like being among the living. There have been stories about jealous ghosts, those jealous of the living. Not for any particular thing just the fact of being alive at all. So, ghosts might hang around cemeteries and graveyards. Maybe they would find friends there, those they had known before and those who they have things in common with now.
Image from The Gorgonist on Etsy.
The Camera as a Divining Rod
I found this description on a site, Worksongs (now 404) by Andrew Emond.
I had just been talking to my nephew yesterday about that feeling of talking photographs without looking at every detail not relevant to the photograph. While I’m photographing, my mind goes into a different place. I’m seeing everything as light, shadow, angles, clear versus blurred, and so on. I don’t catch the words on a gravestone but I see that they will (or won’t) turn out clearly enough to read in the photograph. I walk around to find the angle that catches the mood, without taking the time to decide what the mood actually is. At least not in words.
It is a different connection to your surroundings when you look at everything a little distanced and yet more connected in other ways. I liked the analogy of the camera as a divining rod. So I have reposted Andrew’s description, as a quote. He has another site: Andrew Emond.
Worksongs Photography
Name : Andrew Emond
Location : Toronto / MontrealIntent : Worksongs is basically the end result of me trying to gain a better, more direct connection with my immediate surroundings. I look at the camera as a sort of divining rod. It helps lead me to things I wouldn’t normally consider examining or give much thought to, like industrial processes or the way communities are evolving. I’m particularly interested in how elements of the old world are fitting in with the modern world, or in some cases aren’t fitting in at all — essentially where our society has come from and the directions we might be headed.
The Drama and Dilemmas of Posting Photographs Online
I did not know, or really think about, all the drama with the technology of adding images to a website. I started by adding several photographs I had taken from one location. Then I thought it would be a good idea to add a watermark. Not so much about copyrights and theft but to at least give my name and website link so people could know I took the photo and find more of my photos. Somewhat keeping credit on the photo but also to build traffic and maybe in some other year consider selling photos or making a calendar or related idea/ plan.
But, watermarking was just the start of it all. I did figure that out. I bought software which I can figure out and I have gotten through one small batch of images as a test of my competence.
Then I realized my site is loading very slowly and sometimes not even loading at all. I thought, just bad luck today. Then I thought, well my connection just isn’t that great and maybe I really should change ISPs (Internet service providers) again. Then… it clicked in my brain. My photographs are big. Not just in physical size but density too. Well, I just don’t like thumbnails and I don’t want the software creating a dozen copies of various sizes of every image I post. That seems pretty useless.
So, now I am looking at image optimization.
Still on my list of things to do with my photographs is to create a place which I can have more of them posted. I don’t want to post more than a couple of images/ photos with each post here. The best few should be enough. Most people aren’t likely to care about all the same little things I care about when I look at the old places. Every doorknob, wildflower, and bit of odd looking peeling paint probably isn’t necessary. But, they could be available elsewhere. Again, the dilemma of giant file sizes and a huge trove of images over the years. But, that can wait until I get this site sorted out. One day… well, one week or so, at a time.