The reflection alone makes this. The encroaching tree on the right, rather than distracting, gives a feeling of the image emerging. But what really makes it is that small yellow dot. You want to look closer don't you?
I quite like photographic slideshows done as videos and I've dabbled with them from time to time. However, I've never published any because, ideally, they work best with some music to back them up and as far as I'm concerned that can create all sorts of copyright issues.
This morning I read this RedBubble journal entry by Grant Bissett and decided to create an Animoto account and have a quick play. The thing that most attracted me was the fact that they appear to have a library of licensed music, thus solving the copyright issue I tend to worry about.
It's pretty clever too. You start a video project, you either upload a bunch of images, or download them from a small selection of supported image-hosting sites (in my case from Flickr), you make the final selection, you select the backing music, and then wait a (very) short while. And then you've got a video.
There are options for sharing and embedding the video, and there's also the option to upload to YouTube:
I often find myself shooting lone objects against the sky. Sometimes with a perfectly clear sky, often with quite a busy sky. I love to look out for examples of this style of shot from others. Here's one I like:
I try and carry a camera with me everywhere I go. Even when I'm doing something as mundane as popping into the local town (Grantham). Most times the camera never gets used, but at least I've got it there in case something catches my eye.
One such "eye catching" moment happened this morning. It's raining, I'm sat in the car waiting for my wife while she was in a shop, and I notice how cool a sign in a shop window looks as seen through the rain on the windscreen. So out comes the Canon PowerShot G9 and I have a little photography session, the result of which is this:
I like this one for (at least) three reasons. First it's the whole "black and white in colour" thing. Second, it's the use of lines and symmetry. Third, it's the fact that the "dark side" of the image is the one where the bulb is missing. Accidental or deliberate the last one is a really neat detail.
Sunset. Leading diagonal. Reflection. Background detail. What's not to like?
Because it reminds me of some of the images from the very early days of photography:
Yesterday was Father's Day and, as a little treat for me, I got taken out to somewhere while I could be let loose with my cameras: the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre at East Kirkby, Lincolnshire.
As luck would have it there was also a model aircraft flying display on too so there was more to photograph than just the centre itself (which, if you're in travelling distance, is worth a visit alone — especially if it's a weekend when Just Jane is doing one of her taxi runs.
The weather was a bit mixed, with plenty of stormy-looking clouds hanging around, but that's often a good thing as it means the sky looks far more interesting than if it had been clear blue.
It was a great day out and you can see the final album of photographs over here.
And, to top it all off, I also got a copy of Martin Parr's Think of England as well as a book about Martin Parr (which includes a wide selection of his work). I also got a copy of A Pig With Six Legs from The Cloud Appreciation Society. :D
I've got quite a soft spot for Through the Viewfinder shots, either the real thing or the post-processing effect. It's one of those things I keep meaning to have a play with myself (I could probably do something using a combination of the Lubitel 166B and the EOS 400D or PowerShot G9).
I think this is a nice example of that style:
A nice example of working with a painting with light technique:
There's a lot of quality digital photography and film photography on RedBubble and, more than once, I've had the urge to mumble about the works I really like. Thing is, it can be bad manners to display copies of other people's works if they don't explicitly allow it so I've generally stayed away from the idea (I could, of course, have gone seeking permission but, well, I guess I'm sort of lazy).
Recently a new group has been created where membership indicates that you're willing to let people display copies of your work elsewhere (with proper attribution, obviously). Because of this I've decided to start a series of "RedBubble Find" posts where I highlight a work I really like. I'm not sure how often I'll do this but I'm aiming for at least a couple of times a week.
Here's my first:
Just up the road from where I live is the village of Donington. The village's main claim to fame, and one they're pretty proud of, is that it's the birthplace of Matthew Flinders.
Recently there's been a lot of work to turn a small field into a park that all the village can enjoy and, yesterday, an event was held there to mark the fact that it's almost finished.
Given that it's just up the road, and that we've got relatives who live there, we decided to pop along and join in the fun. Of course, I took a camera with me.
No website is perfect, that's probably even more true for the more "social" type sites where you tend to spend a lot of time working with them, and I've found that RedBubble is no exception.
A while back I took a look at Greasemonkey (something I'd been meaning to do for ages) as a method of fixing one little RedBubble niggle and, since then, I've "fixed" a few things that have bothered me.
Given that I've got a few RedBubble hacks kicking about now I thought it might be an idea to list them here:
