YesBut its the same but looks different

After blogging for a couple of months, thinking of subjects to blog about becomes more difficult.

Its the same with photography, you get a new camera and its click, click, click. Subjects appear to jump out at you shouting "photograph me". Everywhere you turn there are interesting shots to take. But with time those inspirational images seem to occur less frequently. Your left, camera in hand with nothing to photograph.

Suggestion:~ photograph the same thing! Familiar scenes can change dramatically with time and weather conditions. The light conditions are totally different at: dawn, midday and dusk. Also dramatic effects can be observed with varying weather conditions - storm clouds forming, blue sky and wispy clouds.

Have camera, will photograph.

Turbulent times

With reference to Reynold's Number, more a case of I come to bury Caesar not to praise him.

For the last three weeks Mrs YesBut and myself have been in the grips of a cough and chest infection. Despite four hourly onslaughts of codeine and paracetamol the virus remains stubbornly resistant. Having to remain in the apartment, I'm unable to take my camera out and about on the streets of London, and am suffering from withdrawal symptoms.

To prevent my camera from disappearing under dust and cobwebs and my brain from seizing from lack of activity, I've been experimenting with still life photography - or more accurately "I'm still alive photography".

Despite knowing, fluid flow is laminar for Reynolds numbers below 2000 and turbulent for Re > 4000, I haven't achieved the desired results. Last Saturday I posted the least objectionable on My Shared Images.

I'm now beginning to believe that the old brain cells are ceasing to function, and I can no longer judge what is or isn't a good photograph, nor take decisions on what is required to get a better result - I guess it is inevitable after three weeks of sleep deprivation. It wouldn't surprise me if I read this in a few months time (assuming I survive that long) and find it's a load of gobbledegook. If it is, I apologies for wasting your time.

And yes, Mrs YesBut has pointed out to me playing with smoke isn't the most conducive thing to do to clear a chest infection.

This blog is dedicated to Chewy's pebble paintings posted on her blog

Camera haiku

Narcissistic camera

keeps photographing itself

over exposed

Technical wizardry

What piece of high technology was used to obtain the image below.

I tell you the boffins feel a glow of success after last Friday's blog. They've been working all the weekend on a modification of the woolly hat.

Do you remember when back in the good old days when men were men and women looked like Doris Day. Those were the days when Cowboy films were shot in black & white - there was no confusion, the good guys wore white hats while the bad guys black. Roy Rogers rode Trigger and Hopealong Cassidy Topper. They would ride down to the crystal clear brook, dismount dip their stetson hat in the stream, fill it with water so their faithful horse could drink. What was it with those horses? Was it because they were stars, it was below their dignity to bend their neck to drink from a stream?

Well I've been thinking - an event that occurs less frequently these days, and here I must give credit to to Alphonse for asking "Do I ship for free?". I know your there before me - if hats can hold water then woolly hats can keep water out. So when someone places an order for a photographers ventilated pullover or IS / GPS string, they can be put in a woolly hat and floated to the purchaser. Just think of the excitement as each day the purchaser goes down to the beach to see if his or her parcel has arrived. OK I recognise delivery time will depend upon prevailing current directions. And like conventional postal systems the hat might finish up on the wrong beach - a parcel due for Nebraska might finish up in Fiji. But think of the joy when the Fijian sends the parcel on, and a new friendship is made for life.

But I've left the best to the last. If you go diving and want to take photographs of coral formations and fish you need a Camera Waterproof Case. All you will need do is wrap your camera in the woolly hat.

Now returning to my original question - What piece of high technology was used to obtain the image above?

Photographic gadgets test report & review

Last week I wrote about the difficulties encountered using a camera tripod around London.

Someone posted on Digital Camera Review
a suggestion to use string to stabilise a camera when taking a long exposure shot.

YesBut has had his boffins' working on the suggestion. And here are the results.

Rather than just using one length of string stretching taught from the tripod socket to the ground. The string 'A''A''A' is wrapped around the waist, threaded through the waist band and secured tightly to the camera wrist strap and pulled tight over the lens.

This image stabilization system retains the tripod configuration, providing longitudinal and lateral constraint - while allowing the user to pan the camera.

YesBut's boffins, the geniuses they are have come up with other world beating pieces of technology.

Firstly the piece of string marked 'B'. Unfortunately the top end of the string is out of view. It is tied to a Global Positioning System satellite - or rather it will be as soon as they overcome some minor difficulties. In addition to giving the exact location a photograph is taken, it can also be used to dry cloths. The boffins assure me it will be available for general release after July.

You buy a shoulder bag or haversack and it cost £5, may be £10 or £15. Sew a couple of straps inside, call it a camera equipment bag and multiply the price by a factor of 5 or 10 . YesBut's boffins reassure me they will not set exorbitant prices for their new range of purposely designed photographers clothing.

The Photographers Pullover incorporates unique ventilation ports 'C', these will ensure photographers arms are maintained within an optimum temperature range irrespective of camera settings.

They have also designed a photographers wo0lly hat 'D'. Naturally a SRL woolly cap will cost more than a point & shoot cap. Also the price must naturally reflect the model of SRL used.

The answer

In the blog on the 26 November I sought to address the question what am I trying to convey with my photos posted on My Shared Images?

Last Saturday evening while watching the final program in Channel 4's series "This is Civilisation" I had an epiphany, a realisation not only of the answer to my question, but the underlying intent of modern art.

Artists by means of the visual arts give a representation of perceived reality. In former times there was no ambiguity - we were made in the image of God, who we should worship. The Christian church was the main patron of artists, to represent the reality it wanted the populace to perceive.

With the, if not demise, certainly reduction in the role of religion in daily life; art now has to address a new reality. But what is that reality? There is no clear answer. In fact we live in a World of uncertainty - global warming, lack of a faith system, and in the Western World a life driven by consumerism. Modern art reflects that. For the first time ever the price of living artists work is greater than those of the Old Masters! Looking at a piece of modern art there is no obvious meaning being conveyed, other than ambiguity.

Through my photographs, I hope, I encourage the viewer to realise the multiple levels of meaning that exist, all of which are relative and not absolute. As in the above photograph reflections provide sufficient distortions to raise questions of what is being seen.

The camera does not lie, neither does it tell the truth. The viewer provides the label and judgement, of what they think they are looking at.

Am I succeeding in meeting that objective? Click here and judge for yourself.

YesBut its a load of . . .

Last week I attended a forum on "Framing Duration: Contemporary Photographic Art and the City". It was hosted by someone who was incapable of communicating other than in "academic speak".

You know the type of person, they get a Ph.D and then devote their life to proving to others how clever they are. The host spoke in strings of philosophic, psychological clichés "the primordial juxtaposition of images incongruously intones and dare I say contradicts Nietzsche's paradoxical supposition blarr blarr blarr blarr . . ." I could not take her observations of the work of the three artists participating, seriously.

She reminded me of a story told on the radio a couple of weeks ago by a artists' model who sat for many of Lucian Freud's nude studies. She was in a gallery looking at a painting of herself when an "expert" arrived with a group of art aficionados. He started to explain the profound philosophic meaning behind Freud's painting. Which was a load of drivel. As she said Freud's driving force was the desire to paint, his sole objective meeting the challenges arising while painting.

I go to the toilet to defecate, the host would go to contemplate the symbolic attributes of excrement.

For the analytically minded the image I posted on My Shared Images does not metamorphose the traumatic reaction to my first sexual experience. And I leave you ponder the deep meaning of the image posted above.