Sad Week

I was on holiday last week but it was far from the relaxing week I anticipated, work was very intrusive with lots of calls and mails which I had to respond to, but far more significant was the call I received early in the week to say that a young colleague in my team had been suddenly taken ill and had died early that morning.

Very hard to understand how something so tragic could happen so suddenly.

This event totally dominated my thinking and behaviour during the week.

In my photojournal post for 2 April I wrote

Today has been a very sad and emotional day. I learned early today that a young colleague in my team had been taken ill and died this morning. Sudden, unexpected and absolutely tragic.

I have spent some time deciding if I should post today and if I did, what could I use that could in any way represent my feelings and immense sadness.

When I got the news I was already out walking so faced the dilemma of whether to turn back or continue. There is no right answer.

Todays image shows a view into the distance, a reminder that none of us knows really whats to come, we think we can see ahead, we plan for the future, but the unexpected is always just around the corner.

I have tears in my eyes as I am writing this and the only thought I can leave with you is to forget the small things and live every day to make today the best day of your life so far.

Despite this sadness life does go on for everyone else, so I spend time walking, photographing and reflecting on life, particularly the balance between work and personal life.
Why would i continue to work when I could spend my time walking and photographing in the landscape

My question is whether what is now a pleasure, at least partly because its different from what I can do most of the time, would become less interesting if I could do it all the time?

In the photograph, taken in the early morning on a cold bright day, you can see just see ice on the surface of the lake, standing on the shore you could see the ice being blown to one end of the lake by the slight breeze, and listen to the crunching noise as it slowly piled up on the shore of the lake.

A fleeting moment, with just an hours more sun most of the ice was gone, the lake surface was rippled by the breeze as the lake and the land around started to warm, a totally different scene.

This second shot, taken on a different day shows a colder view with the broken ice clear in the foreground.

Each morning we were woken by the sound of a bird knocking against the window. Again and again this little bird flew at the glass trying to get inside the building. I think this is a house martin, trying to get inside to build a nest with some shelter from the weather. Day after day this bird tried to get inside.

On returning from the UK To our home in the Netherlands I immediately left again for a few days meeting and team building in the Swiss Alps ski resort at Les Closets, another strange week as today we fly back for the funeral of my young colleague.

Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss, ends with a tear. When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling. Live your life so that when you die, you're the one smiling and everyone around you is crying.

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Not Quite Spring

Its Easter Weekend, the beginning of April, its really cold outside and there are still patches of snow on the ground.

I have spent the weekend in the UK lake district walking and photographing in the hills and lakes around Grasmere.

Today it was sunny and bright but the other days were rather grey and cloudy, which overall I don't find very inspiring to photograph. I prefer to photograph in 'bad' weather, generally i find this provides the most interesting light and sky.

Of course there are always some interesting shots - like the shot below of Alcock Tarn with the tarn completely frozen, and the snow lying on the hills beyond.

This is a shot at ground level on the bank of the tarn showing last years grass stems poking above the snow drift

And this vista which shows the view on the climb from Grasmere up to Alcock Tarn

In a completely different style below I have a couple of iPhone shots, minimalist sky dominating the image with a strip of the landscape at the bottom. I really like this type of shot, but other people who have looked at don't always agree. What do you think ?

How long are your shoelaces ?

How long are your shoelaces

When I put my shoes (trainers) on this morning I noticed that one of the laces was looking a bit thin and ready to break. I was going out shopping so easy to get a new pair, but how long did I need - the ends of the laces were already frayed so I did not want to take the laces out to measure them so of course I asked the internet - thinking I would just get some average lengths or similar - Instead a found a web site which can tell you everything you could ever need to know about laces - and some more as well. you can see it here -  Shoelace website

Not just what length you need but also more ways of lacing your shoes than I knew existed

So after a bit of calculation off I went to the shop -
and typically found they did have any suitable laces anyway !
  














Yesterday I visited the Hand Made exhibition at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam
This was a great exhibition with a wide range of objects on display, from hundreds of years ago right up to today.

 These were some of my favorites, on the left a knitted or crocheted pair of people, and on the right a imitation of a under sea coral made from pottery and woven steel wire.    












There is also a live demonstration of crafts which changes each week, yesterday there was a person painting trays and things in what I think of as canal boat style, and a demonstration of taxidermy.  This did not sound too attractive but in fact it looked more like making cuddly toys out of animal skins rather than putting their cleaned bones back together

 

You can have a look at the museum web site Here

Panorama of the week 

I was on a business trip to Sweden this week and to get back I went on the train from Malmo in Sweden to Copenhagen Airport in Denmark. 

The Öresund Bridge is a double-track railway and dual carriageway bridge-tunnel across the Øresund strait between Scania (southernmost Sweden) and Denmark.

The bridge runs nearly 8 km (5 miles) from the Swedish coast to the artificial island of Peberholm, which lies in the middle of the strait. The remainder of the link is by a 4 km (2.5 mile) tunnel from Peberholm to the Danish island of Amager.

The Øresund Bridge is the longest combined road and rail bridge in Europe, and connects two major metropolitan areas: Copenhagen, the Danish capital city, and the major Swedish city of Malmö. It connects the road and rail networks of Scandinavia with those of Central and Western Europe.

When you are on the bridge you cannot see much but the sea and horizon in the distance and the steel work of the bridge flashing past the window. Using my iPhone to try and take a panorama produced the image below which is a chopped up version of the bridge which gives a modern art or abstract image.

Still Life - controlling light (and more dust)

Still life and vintage

I really love still life pictures and increasingly so in black and white, or with a vintage sepia like atmosphere.

I have tried making some for myself using fruit, vegetables and other objects I have found around my house.

I also  have seen some still life photographs set up to look like old paintings - you can see some great examples if you click here

(although these make my early attempts look quite simple - but something to aim for in the future)

Pears

Woodworking tools

Pewter jug with lemons

Pewter jug with apples and wine

Only 1 new panorama this week, and this time with a camera not an iphone
Top image is mimicking Fuji Velvia film, the lower image is a more vinatge style again - I am always amazed by how easily these effects can be applied in modern post processing, and even more amazed by how they change the whole atmosphere of the photograph

Modern house in the Dutch landscape

The Dust Demons

Last week I described how I managed to get a blob of something on my sensor, and while I succesfully cleaned that off, I ended up with a smear across the sensor. I ordered some visible dust smear away solution from the internet, next day delivery - but days passed by and nothing showed up. The order details just said approved so eventually I called the customer service line - the smear away cleaner was out of stock (despite that the web site still said they had it available), they could not get any more so that part of the order was cancelled, the othet item - a dust brush - was also out of stock but don't worry they will send it when one eventually arrives.  Not very impressive.

As the web site still said that they had some in their nearby shop so on Saturday I called in to see if tis was really true, but no they did not have any, and also said they could not get any more - I must have looked very dissappointed because the shop guy went and had a look in their workshop and came back with a nearly full bottle that he gave me for free - very impressive service now. 

I bought some cleaning swabs and came home and presto the smear dissapeared with just one swipe across the sensor.  So finally back in business without any tell tale blobs in my shots - but a lesson learned in keeping dust and the camera as far apart as possible.

Cleaning the sensor itself was very easy - in my opinion nothing to be worried about so long as you are careful.

Would be interested to know if anyone else has had a try at sensor cleaning  
  

iPhone Panormas and Dusty Demons

I was working in Finland for a few days this week, unfortunately no real time for photographing the beautiful scenery, maybe this was just as well, there is still a lot of snow around which is great to photograph, but the temperature was -15C so not very comfortable to be outside for very long.

We did have a 90 minute car ride from the airport and I spent some time trying to take photographs through the car window using my iPhone.  Then I started using the panorama feature on the phone.

The usual way to use this is to set up the phone, press the start button and then slowly move the phone to take in the panorama you want, doing it from the car offers an alternative technique where you simply hold the phone still as the scenery moves along past you.

For photographs where you have only the distant scenery this gives a pretty nice picture from a distance looks pretty neat in fact, but if anything more close by pops into the picture - like a passing car or truck - this gives a different effect entirely, you can see what I mean in the examples below - (tip have a look at the cars in the pictures and you will see the effect I mean)

 

 

  

This last picture was made in the more conventional way of standing still and moving the phone

 

This week I realised that the marks I could sometimes see on the photographs taken with my little Sony NEX camera were caused by dust on the sensor.  You can only see this on the sensor using a strong magnifying glass.  I expected just one or two specs of dust, it actually looked like someone had emptied their vacuum cleaner on to it.

Dust marks in the senor= marks on the photo

No problem I thought, just blow it off with a blower brush.  This did not seem to have much effect so I tried with my little can of camera cleaner compressed air.

I had seen a guy in the camera shop do this, just check first on the back of your hand that its not too powerful and then in you go.

All went well for about one second then a big blob of water (?) came out of the compressed air can and landed - yes you've guessed it - right on the sensor.

So now not only has the sensor got dust on it - now it looks like a my car windscreen in summer - that is as if a fly has been squashed on it.

Senor after cleaning (Really the desert in Morocco)

So onto the internet and order a cleaning kit, which promptly arrives the next day.  Looks simple enough - has a little swabbing tool and some cleaning fluid.  Set it all up and manage to clean the gunk off the sensor.  Problem solved - until I decided one last swipe just to finish off - and suddenly I have a big smear of oil (?) from something at the edge of the sensor.

Back on the internet and order some extra special smear cleaning fluid - promised for delivery next day but so far I am still waiting .... so more to follow next week 

Again and Again

You may remember that since the beginning of 2013 I have been taking and uploading a photograph each day to the Blipfoto journal website ( See Blipfoto )

This means that everyday I have to find and take a photograph, some days this is very difficult, particularly if I am busy at work, or travelling on business, other days it is easy and I end up with a choice of possibilities.

The other realization I have made in this process is that I return to and photograph the same locations again and agian, and it is remarkable how the the whole mood and atmosphere of a shot can be altered by the lighting conditions, and also just how short your memory can be of how the waether chnage sin just a few days or weeks.

The two images below are a good illustration, the top image was taken on a bright day (10 Feb) the lower image just 2 weeks later on the 24th February when winter had temporarily returned.

 

Another return location is one of my ' favorite' trees near Grasmere - I have this tree in many of its clothes and disguises.

The top version shows the tree and a lot of background with the mist still boiling off the lake, and for me looks a bit busy and messy.

The middle misty version isolates the tree from the background giving a more atmospheric feel.

The last example includes the lake and two fishermen in a small red boat giving yet a different feel to the image

 

 

Having photos which I cannot choose to use in my daily journal is also forcing me to consider why one image ' makes it' and others are left out.

Sometimes its a clear choice, sometimes very close, and its not always the best most in focus picture that I choose, sometimes its just the right mood for the moment.

Left below is an image I did not use, while the right shot is an iPhone image that I took in Amsterdam walking back from a restaurant, which I thought captured the mood of the city just after midnight and which did go in my journal. 

 

Metallic Lambda Prints

A couple of weekends ago I visited the Art Warehouse - part of a week of special art displays in Rotterdam, in layers of (supposed) sophistication starting with Art Rotterdam in the cruise terminal, Raw art and then the Art Warehouse in the old port warehouses.


This year I did not visit the main Art Rotterdam exhibition, in recent years I have found this too unusual ( allegedly avant-garde) for my taste.
Many of the items in this exhibition I find impossible to like or understand, as well as wondering who can afford to pay thousands of Euros for a piece of art which looks to me like it was made by a careless 2 year old, as well as wondering who would have the nerve to put these items in the exhibition in the first place.
Even in the Warehouse there was one wall hanging maybe 3 meters by 2 meters high, which looked as though it was made from old cardboard boxes which had been torn up, glued together and painted brown.   Maybe its just my lack of artistic understanding but for a few thousand Euros I just don't get it.

I do like that you sometimes find some very high quality work displayed in a new way.

Which was why I was looking at some very high gloss images displayed in the Art Warehouse which were described on the name plates as metallic lambda aluminum dibond prints.  The pictures looked great but I did not know what this print system involved.

Back home and checking on the internet I found some confusing descriptions but this seems the most complete,

- Lambda printing, or LightJet printing, produces the highest quality photographic prints available for large format printing display graphics from digital artwork. Whether the prints are onto photographic paper, film or Duratrans, Lambda printing gives sharp photographic images, continuous tone and high-impact color photographic prints. Lambda is the name and common reference to the process, equipment and product which has taken over from the traditional photographic process.

Lambda printing gives the highest resolution display graphics on the market today for high-impact trade show and retail displays or essentially anywhere that the highest quality and resolution is required. Using continuous tone digital technology, photographic display graphics are produced by transferring images directly from computer generated digital files to reflective or backlit photographic materials without the need of a negative. Within the equipment, there are three lasers, red, green and blue, which are merged into a single beam that simultaneously exposes the photographic material, producing the image in a single pass. The photographic material is then processed in the same manner as traditional photography by developing the photographic material in a "wet" film processor. By using the lasers, the total image is crisp and precise edge to edge, with no distortion. All of this means that the quality of a Lambda print will be much better in terms of clarity, sharpness and in color saturation than other large format printing processes.

In simple terms you seem to end up with a very high quality photographic print bonded between 2 sheets of high gloss plexiglass or a sheet of aluminum and plexiglass. This creates an extremely high gloss looking picture, and needs a very complicated looking machine to make.

Not every image would look good printed this way but for some subjects it clearly adds a very sophisticated finish. These were all big pictures of more than 1 metre wide so already quite striking and selling for high amounts in the 5 to 10 thousand Euros each.

The most interesting thing was that a lot of these of photographs were not of real subjects , that is you could not just take these with a camera, rather they were composed of many cut outs of other images, built together in many layers in a kind of a digital collage. Sometimes you could tell this in the image immediately, in others the manipulation only became apparent after you had been looking for sometime, very cleverly done because once you saw it -  then the technique was suddenly apparent all over the image, leaving me surprised that I had not seen it straight away.

I took a few sneaky pictures with my iPhone when the security staff where looking the other way, but although the pictures are ok they are not able to bring out the detail and depth of the originals. I include some website images and links so you can go and look yourself at some better versions and some more of their images


Ysabel Lemay

These were truly stunning images giving a depth of image and subtly which is impossible to describe in words, made from multiple layers of image these appeared absolutely true to life but as you looked you could see things which could not possibly be there in a simple photograph

Copyright Ysabel Lemay

Joseph Klibansky.

In these images the technique is more apparent - but only once you spot what's going on - looks like its a typical if rather busy street scene somewhere in Asia, but as you look closely you realize that the plants on the front of  the building are actually pictures of houseplants over-layed on the front of the building.

Copyright Joseph Klibansky

Christian Voight

Christian's pictures were more real life subjects (at least I think so !)  shown in a different way, the depth of feel and color in these images is amazing. The sample image is a shop / market stall in the middle east but if you look on his web site there are some really fantastic images of sand dunes in the dessert - take a look and just try and imagine these printed 2 meters wide

Copyright Christian Voight

I am now looking for a print shop where I can have one or two of my brighter images printed in this style.

Footnote - I have used some images whose copyright is owned by others to illustrate my admiration of their work, and in the hope that you will also like it and go and look at their websites
  

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