A bit of a slow burner…

Posted on November 3, 2018 by Guthlac

Taking my time with this one.  I wonder where it will take me?

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Let me take you down…

Posted on November 1, 2018 by Guthlac

You should always have your camera at the ready.   This afternoon as I was travelling westward on the A14 towards the setting sun I took a series of photographs from the car – I wasn’t driving if you were wondering.   Anyway, all the other images were rubbish apart from the last one which, if you don’t mind the pun, seemed to click.   So you just never know where an interesting photograph is going present itself to you.  Fortunately nowadays most of us have a camera on hand in our phones – it wasn’t always the case.

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Answering my own question….

Posted on October 31, 2018 by Guthlac

Yesterday I asked the rhetorical question ‘Will the new Apple Pencil make me a better artist?‘.   The answer I came up with yesterday was that it wouldn’t and that skill, concentration and application was far more important.   Well I’ve had 24 hours to ponder a little more on the answer to that question and above is my answer which is exactly the same as yesterday.   Funny that.

 

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Three Davids….

Posted on October 31, 2018 by Guthlac

 

On Sunday we visited the Victoria & Albert museum in London – great institution appalling catering.   As can be seen I took a walk around the cast Cast Court where you can see full scale casts of some of the greatest western art ever created including the most famous sculptures of a young King David by Michelangelo and Donatello.   This does raise an interesting question as to what level of artistic merit do either cast possess?  They clearly aren’t the originals and yet standing in front of both I found myself full of wonder at the level of artistic brilliance they display as well as there clear sexual potency.  Another interesting point is that the copy of the Michelangelo sculpture is actually a copy of a sculpture that no longer exists – the original was damaged in 1991 in an attack.

I have no answer to this question as I have neither the art historical depth nor expertise to even try to attempt an answer.  What they both facsimile s do is provide a glimpse of the great heights humans can reach if they don’t spend all their time with heads up their own arses.

 

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Sometimes I wonder am I getting just a little long in the tooth?

Posted on October 30, 2018 by Guthlac

I’m so excited to write this blog I really am!   No wait this is the real world rather than the love in that was the Apple Special Event. October 30, 2018.   I suspect I am too old to understand why the people in the crowd have to get so excited about the fact that Apple are now using reused aluminium rather than freshly smelted aluminium.  Well they did and a lot lot more.   These things are cult meetings rather than product announcements by the world’s largest, by capitalisation, company.

So what do I think about the new products?   Underwhelmed I guess is the real answer and that is not because the products aren’t any good – they really are very good but there was nothing really really exciting.   Perhaps the best example of this is the new Apple Pencil – is that Apple Pencil 2 – not sure?   Anyway, it looks a great product which of course comes with a hefty price hike – nearly 50% – but isn’t any real improvement on the current Apple Pencil which I use all the time.   Of course I can’t buy the new pencil because it only works with the latest iPad Pro – also announced today.   As they were going through the new iPad Pro I kept looking at mine and thinking ‘should I spend the money?’ and the answer was no.   This morning I was in an Apple store looking at the latest iPhone x and yes they did look very nice and flashy but they weren’t that much better than my less than a year old 8 plus.

Will the new Apple Pencil make me a better artist?   Will it enable me to make a better little sketch of the current Dr Who?   The answer of course is no not one little bit.   The only thing that can do that is my own skill, concentration and application.  By far the most stupid thing shown today was Adobe Photoshop for the iPad Pro.  Now this is really personal choice but when I use Photoshop – which is almost every day – I need the acreage that the 27 inch iMac provides.  The thought of having the squeeze all that onto the tiny, in comparison, screen of an iPad  Pro is just bonkers.  Another example of old age creeping in perhaps?

So in the view of this aging fan boy – probably by decades on the young happy smiling face in the Apple promo shots and videos – the new products looked interesting but that was it.  There was nothing groundbreaking and I am sure if I bought one or more of the products I would be really happy with them.  However I doubt I will.

I will leave you with this thought.   They announced the latest version of iOS 12.1 was ready to be downloaded.   Yippee you might think and yes I am sure it will be great until a few days later when you will be told you will have to download 12.1.01 because of some bug or security lapse.   Everyone knows that this is what happens with the iOS release yet the crowds were yelping and shouting with delight at 12.1.   It is at times like this that I know that I am really am getting a little too long in the tooth!

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Things to do in a hotel room…

Posted on October 29, 2018 by Guthlac

Now come on please…this is a family blog, well sort of, so none of those smutty thoughts here!   This morning I woke early and sat down and knocked out this sketch before getting ready for breakfast.   This isn’t the first time I’ve done this at that particular hotel.   Last time this was the sketch I made.

 

Ok this is perhaps not as family friendly and proves there are always many many exceptions to the rule!   So it was either draw in the comfort and warmth of a hotel room or venture out in the first real frost of the year and explore the Hertfordshire countryside – I voted for warmth and comfort although the light was beautiful this morning!

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Continuing a theme…

Posted on October 26, 2018 by Guthlac

 

Two recurring and intertwined themes are running through my life at the moment:  When was a photograph made and mirrorless photography.   Both are nonsense and yet fascinating – much like life itself.   When was a photograph made?   This question moved from the slightly academic to the real this week as I was contemplating entering a local art exhibition.   When was the above photograph made?  Does it matter?   Of course it matters if you are trying to suggest that it shows something that it doesn’t but otherwise?   I’m not really sure as the photograph should be able to speak for itself.   This photograph was captured seven years ago but it the image above was created yesterday using the latest photo editing software – it does make a difference.

Again with mirrorless cameras – what on earth does it matter which camera you used to capture the image?   Clearly it does to some people.  For the record I am firmly in the mirrorless camp as I have been a Sony camera user on and off for the best part of 20 years.  Does this make me a ‘bad’ photographer?  Of course not but in the the internet fuelled opinion bubble that seems to have gripped everything it is somehow important.

Here we have a photograph captured using a Sony NEX 5N in 2012.   I was at the low point of my photographic practice when I bought this camera  and I soon stopped using it because, well I am not really sure why looking back on things as you can see I can wrangle a half decent photograph out of the machine.  Again, this image is only made possible because of the latest offerings from Adobe and was produced, not capture, just over a month ago.

So what can we learn from all this.   Well for me there is only real lesson.   Don’t get over precious that you only have X camera when ‘professionals’ use Y.   Capture the images, make the photographs by whatever means you wish and enjoy and learn from the whole process.  To misquote James Carville – It’s the photograph that matters stupid.

 

PS – My opinion is that Canon and Nikon have missed the mirrorless boat and will always be playing catch up.   Whether this is fatal to their business is far too early to say but if you want to use a mirrorless camera then there is absolutely no reason to buy a Canon or Nikon unless you already have a a number of Canon or Nikon lenses and accessories.   In short the mirrorless offerings from both manufacturers seems to be more about sureing up their current user base rather than attracting many new customers.   If this is the case then they are both in very serious trouble.   Only time will tell.

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The declining ebb before the plunge…

Posted on October 25, 2018 by Guthlac

So it is finally here, perhaps over a month late but Autumn has finally arrived.   I don’t think we’ve had a frost at all yet, although that is promised for the weekend, but fall is happening.   We still haven’t had much rain over the past few weeks and the ground is bone hard.   This is worrying but I’ll probably be the first to complain when the rains really do take over.

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When She’s Gone….

Posted on October 10, 2018 by Guthlac

There reaches a point when one has to say “…enough is enough!…”   I have reached that point with all my photographic reorganisation and so today I am just enjoying my time with my Apple Pencil – actually that doesn’t sound at all the way that it is meant to be but what the heck!   I am going to spend the day making what could be a very ambitious, for me, painting.  Lets hope it is worth the risk.

 

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Getting things in order…

Posted on October 5, 2018 by Guthlac

It is a really tedious trying to get one’s life or order.  As I wade through the many many thousands of images that make up my archive it does feel that I am sifting through my life or at least the last 18 or so year of it.   One of the few upsides of this exercise is that I find little gems that I had forgotten about.

As I believe I have mentioned before I have also started  watching vloggers bagging on about this or that development in camera technology.  They have been besides themselves with joy over the past few weeks as there has been an outpouring of new tech with image size this and stabilization that.   Whilst this is all very well it does rather miss the point of the whole exercise – to make images that you are proud of – if anyone else likes them I feel it is a bonus.  The camera is really secondary to the process, that isn’t strictly true of course but please allow me this conceit.  The image is all that matters.   So in an attempt to prove my point the images above were made with cameras and lenses which by today’s standards are little more than dinosaurs – not a mirrorless camera or IBIS close to them.  Yet I would suggest that they’re not a bad group of images I have found whilst wading through the archive.

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