A blatant plug

My friend Caroline le Barbier is having a photo exhibition in London of some of her photos from Nepal and Ecuador. Below is the flyer. A bit of self-interest in this one as I helped prep the originals for print (so if the prints are rubbish, it's probably my fault).

Prints are for sale, too, in aid of Medecins sans Frontieres.

Caroline ran an interesting process for the edit - she invited a large group of her friends from around the world to vote on their favourites, and so the resulting collection is something of a group selection. Only a couple of my picks made it (and I voted for all black and white). But it's a pretty good selection, nonetheless.

There will also be a couple of more opportunities to see the pictures later in the year.

So, if you're in London, drop by and take a look.

Floating leaves

Floating leaves 1, Manila, February 2010

This is a subject that is likely to become a regular feature of my picture making in the Philippines. There is an endlessly fascinating selection of leaves floating on the pool which, due to the forces of wind and surface tension, form interesting clusters around the edges. And as they get cleared away and replaced on a constant basis, there is a continual replenishment and variation in the subject matter.

Some of the pictures might actually turn out quite good, too, with some practice.

On film cameras

I'm sure you read the recent TOP post from Ctein and Mike J himself. interesting how so many comments flooded in about film being the real thing, digital's not all that etc etc. Phooey. And I'm still a film shooter.

I've never done any darkroom work and quite frankly don't really want to try. Too much faffing with chemicals in the dark for me and I'm perfectly happy with digital printing. but i do use a couple of film cameras regularly purely for the camera-ness of them. The large format does the movements that are not readily (or cheaply) achieved with a digital solution, and the rangefinder is a great camera for fast, light shooting (I'm still dismayed by the short battery life of the M9). If I felt I could get the same function out of a digital camera, I'd switch in a heartbeat.

Finally back online

So the cable guy called this week and I'm back on the interweb. Woohoo. Interestingly, I've not been missing the TV, found a decent local radio station in the meantime, but I seem completely isolated from the world without an Internet connection at home. My how times change, I remember when etc etc etc.

Expect a bunch more posting, more pics and my photo a day will catch up, too.

All about books

For those of you who are into the whole photobook thing, as I am, or have been contemplating putting one together, there comes this from the excellent Idiotic Hat. If you've been contemplating the notion of what a book is, go read that post.

Other side of the lens

Things have been slow here of late as I'm still not online after moving into my new house, as evidence: this coming to you from my lunch hour. Neither has the camera been out of the bag. At least I'm 90% through unpacking.

Yesterday, however, I had an interesting photo experience being on the subject side of things - for it was giant coporate photo-shoot day. Mug shots of all, cheesy coroporate poses, pubilicity shots, groups shots etc etc. A large team set up shop: couple of photogs, couple of assistants, make-up and others. Must have been a team of about 8. Three studio sets. Piles of gear. So much, so typical, I suppose. (They seem to like their photographers here - the weddings I saw going on at the hotel all seemed to have large teams for the photography.)

The interesting thing for me, hoever, were the skills demonstrated by the photographer doing our team. Kathy, judging from the name on her shirt. A very engaging young lady - chatty, lively but professional. And she had an ability to remember names - first time out and then it was personal address from there on in. Even remembered all the names from the last time (which was a couple of years ago, I gather). A little thing that seemed to make things go so much smoother and a nice touch of personal engagement to keep us unwilling victims in the right frame of mind.

Continues to reinforce how little the skills of photography are about cameras.