A little grumpy I suppose.

It must be the time of the year, the Winter just seems to drag on and on; and not getting out much with the camera an inordinate amount of time is spent at the computer, either tidying up all the rubbish and trying to get some order into things or reading posts on forums that seem to be put there by people who can't think for themselves! Or that's the way I see it.

People who ask questions like, "I'm visiting New York, what camera should I take?" For Christ's sake a black one of course! "That's a great view of the Mall, where exactly did you take it?" Err, in the Mall!

Surely the whole point of photography is to produce pictures for yourself, soon people will expect someone to accompany them and even press the shutter button.

Mind you, even more annoying are the people who can't wait to leap in and help. You can bet your boots any question will receive an immediate reply from a fairly restricted group with information about equipment and all its pros and cons carefully gleaned from magazine reviews, what are the latest industry rumours, who is developing what, how many pixels are available in whatever camera is the flavour of the day, and so on and so on....

They must sit by their screens just waiting to leap on their keyboards with help and information. The most annoying ones are those that opine incessantly about how the manufacturers have got it all wrong, or how the latest software is complete bollocks using erudite words that put them apart from us mere mortals.

You read how they use multiple layers, and curves with masks and levels and you think this bloke must some wunderkind so you look at his web site or Flickr stream and you find images that are about as interesting as a gumboil!

Mind you they are clever because they actually offer their work for sale and tell us their prints are going like hot cakes. They have obviously done their market research and found out where the visually impaired congregate on a Saturday morning.

Still each to his own, they are happy in their life's work imitating Harry Enfield's character, "Only me!"

Blimey my cocoa's got a nasty thick skin on it.

Here We are 2010 already.

Not one to make New Year's resolutions since the only one I've ever kept was to give up smoking in 1969, and I've kept it ever since. So that's 40 years without a fag and I think that should suffice as far as resolutions are concerned. What I will do from time to time, and not necessarily at the turn of the year, is to decide to try and go in a different direction with my pastimes. I've been known to completely destroy a well tended garden and alter it over a Summer to something that is diametrically opposite to what it was. That is however hard work and I'm not particularly keen on that now at my age!

Over the past few months I've been trying to branch out photographically. My pictures of people still are my first love, but trying a 'softer' approach with other images has been fascinating and restored my levels of satisfaction.

Using the scanner to create images from ordinary objects is another road I shall be going down during the next year, and I suppose variations on that theme will appear as I discover what can be achieved.

LOtS TO DO, BUT LITTLE INCLINATION.

ANGER

Haven't been out with the camera for over a month now, been somewhat occupied with more important things at home. However when the time allows I've been looking through all those shots I've kept that seem to have some merit and deserve some attention. Also been looking at those that I think are spot on just to see if they can be improved upon and tickling around with some colour stuff. Getting a little fed up with that now!

There's a whole host of exhibitions that are coming up early in the New Year that I want to enter prints for, so I'll have to get off my backside and get down to it. Stocked up on ink and paper ready for the fray'

WHAT IS THE SAYING,"SECOND PLACE IS THE FIRST OF THE LOSERS"

STANDARD BEARER

Apparently this picture that came close to winning the Portrait section in the Black+White Photography magazine 2009 POTY, which they kindly published in the December issue. A double page spread makes it look very good and I'm quite pleased with it.

Also had a print accepted for the Smethick International,. but it was a colour image, they didn't like the monos I entered. Ah well there's no accounting for taste.

HIT THE SPOT?

The image 'Two Minutes Silence' seems to have hit the spot with several people on Flickr after being briefly on the front page of Explore, (never quite sure what that means).
To date it has received 904 views been commented on 128 times and been 'favourited' 174 times. Now what this all means is a mystery to me but it feels very satisfying. It's a bit like a pyramid scam the more it's seen the more you are asked to post it on other groups, so whether its has any particular merit is open to question, but it will be interesting to see how far it goes.

Went to the monthly print and DPI judging night at the RTPS tonight, left at half time, WHAT A BORE!

A PLEASANT DISCOVERY

A couple of days ago I received the Autumn 2009 edition,No.57 of Ag magazine. I had spotted a link to it somewhere and looked at the web site in question. It looked interesting so I took the plunge and took out an annual subscription, not cheap mind you £37.50 for four editions. So I was somewhat anxious that I had not made a rash spur of the moment decision.

Not on your life, what a great publication. It oozes quality and is just the sort of magazine I've wanted for ages. It's about photography pure and simple. No masses of pages of advertising, no meaningless and interminable reams of equipment reviews, no infantile 'Your Mission for the Month' or 'Assignments'. Nowhere does it make un-keepable promises to make you a better photographer or allow you to produce 'stunning images', the things that ordinary magazines seem to rely on to get readers attention, just a couple of hints on how the photographer makes his/her images.

Apart from a couple of pages of exhibition and book snippets it concentrates on photography over its 96 pages.

Take a look at

http://www.ag-photo.co.uk

I think you will be impressed.

THAT SAD TIME OF YEAR AGAIN

THE TWO MINUTES SILENCE

Attended the local Remembrance Day parade this year. It was a grand turn out with many more people attending than usual, obviously the Afghan war has had an effect on people. More so this year because a local lad has recently returned from the front minus a leg and half a hand. Chris, a cheeky happy lad who played football in the same team as my eldest Grandson attended the service to pay tribute to three of his comrades who were killed in the explosion that has maimed him.



I became very angry at the end of the service, when after the British Legion M.C. quite rightly paid a tribute and thanks to Chris for his sacrifice, then in almost the same breath congratulated and thanked our local M.P. for attending the service and asked the crowd to show their appreciation for him representing the constituency over the years. The same M.P. who lives closer to Westminster than I do, which is 14 miles, and has claimed the full expenses for a second home in London for most of that time, and will be retiring at the next general election with a substantial 'Golden Handshake'.



There is no justice in this world.



Took a dozen or so photos one of which is posted above.

ALL DONE AND DUSTED

'A Double Take on Photography' at Osterley Park closed yesterday. The total attendance over the 10 half days it was open was 508, a result that pleased both Phil Drake and myself, immensely, especially when the total for the first two days was 19!

Comprising all age groups it was interesting to note that the visitors split roughly into three main groups, 50% casual callers, 30% photographers, and 20% self confessed Art Lovers, i.e.painters, and watercolourists. No one expressed disappointment that it was an exhibition wholly of Black and White images. In fact the reverse was true, it proved an eyeopener for some that B+W was still practised; that was mainly amongst the non-photographic fraternity, and quite often the remark was made that B+W had more impact than colour.

The fact that Osterley Park is a National Trust site meant that there was a good sprinkling of overseas visitors, with people from France predominating.

One or two other observations,

• Women look more closely than men.
  
• Non photographers ask more detailed questions than photographers.
  
• People are interested in 'where the photograph was taken'.


• The fact that no photographs were titled didn't bother anyone.


• Infrared fascinated most people.

For anyone thinking of mounting an exhibition of their work I would thoroughly recommend it, it's hard work and it can be expensive, but discussing your work on a face to face basis with an on the whole appreciative audience is as satisfying as it gets.

SEEMS AGES SINCE I'VE BEEN HERE.

Well it is really! Now let me see what's happened since the 50+ anniversary?

Had a day out with the old DCM group, now the CC group, at Speakers' Corner. I think everyone enjoyed it, and made them feel more at ease taking people pictures, mind you it's not difficult doing that there. So CC site was inundated with images from our visit there.

Strangely enough I had an Email from a gent who has been going there for the past 50 years and is collating a book on the history of the place and wants to include some of my images in it, looking forward to meeting him there in a couple of weeks time.

Getting ready for the forthcoming exhibition I'm sharing with Phil Drake at Osterley Park during the last two weeks of this month in a small gallery next to Osterley House called the Garden Gallery.

Publicity going well for the event, got a mention in B+W Photography, most of the web sites, local press and magazines, surrounding clubs and organisations.

One fly in the ointment was PhotoRadar who refused to list it in their news items, their excuse was I didn't have a gallery on their site, and no-one would know me, despite having a gallery on DCM with some 100 or so images generating over 2500 comments before I took it off. Still there is more than one way to skin a cat.

All the prints are done, mounted, and framed all by own fair hand. Just the titles and info panels to be finalised. Then it's the OFF!

50 +

Celebrated our 50th. wedding anniversary last weekend by taking the whole family for a few days down to Devon. The weather was great sunshine all the way, and having the kids and grand kids all together made it quite memorable.

Didn't spend much time with the camera, although having the free run of the farm presented plenty of opportunity to try and put a few landscapes in the bag. Resisted the chance to take a few back-lit sheep, but couldn't keep away from the fishpond.

Slap-up meals out on the Saturday and Sunday evenings, with a fair quantity of wine and beer finished it off perfectly. Here's to the Diamond celebrations. Perhaps I'll get the hang of landscapes by then!