Tuesday 27 September 2011
Thursday 23 June 2011
Sunday 8 May 2011
Listening to Richard Brautigan - Trout Fishing in America
Richard Brautigan reads from his book, "Trout Fishing in America".
From "Trout Fishing in America" by Richard Brautigan.
One spring afternoon as a child in the strange town of Portland, I walked down to a different street corner, and saw a row of old houses, huddled together like seals on a rock. Then there was a long field that came sloping down off a hill. The field was covered with green grass and bushes. On top of the hill there was a grove of tall, dark trees. At a distance I saw a waterfall come pouring down off the hill. It was long and white and I could almost feel its cold spray.
There must be a creek there, I thought, and it probably has trout in it.
Trout.
At last an opportunity to go trout fishing, to catch my first Trout, to behold Pittsburgh.
It was growing dark. I didn't have time to go and look at the creek. I walked home past the glass whiskers of the houses, reflecting the downward rushing waterfalls of night.
The next day I would go trout fishing for the first time. I would get up early and eat my breakfast and go.
I had heard that it was better to go trout fishing early in the morning. The trout were better for it. They had something extra in the morning. I went home to prepare for trout fishing in America.
I didn't have any fishing tackle, so I had to fall back on corny fishing tackle. Like a joke.
Why did the chicken cross the road?
I bent a pin and tied it onto a piece of white string.
And slept. The next morning I got up early and ate my breakfast. I took a slice of white bread to use for bait. I planned on making dough balls from the soft center of the bread and putting them on my vaudevillian hook. I left the place and walked down to the different streetCorner. How beautiful the field looked and the creek that came pouring down in a waterfall off the hill.
But as I got closer to the creek I could see that something was wrong. The creek did not act right. There was a strangeness to it. There was a thing about its motion that was wrong. Finally I got close enough to see what the trouble was.
The waterfall was just a flight of white wooden stairs leading up to a house in the trees.
I stood there for a long time, looking up and looking down, following the stairs with my eyes, having trouble believing.
Then I knocked on my creek and heard the sound of wood.
I ended up by being my own trout and eating the slice of bread myself.
The Reply of Trout Fishing in America:
There was nothing I could do. I couldn't change a flight of stairs into a creek. The boy walked back to where he came from.
The same thing once happened to me. I remember mistaking an old woman for a trout stream in Vermont, and I had to beg her pardon.
"Excuse me, " I said. "I thought you were a trout stream. "
"I'm not, " she said.
Sunday 17 April 2011
QR image - testing
Just testing something here. If you have a QR scanner this should take you to my home page.
An obscure photography geeky coincidence - do you get it? #filmphotography
Friday 8 April 2011
Halfcamera
My wonderfully creative friend Bill introduced me to another iPhone camera app today, Halfcamera. This app imitates the concept of a half-frame camera, even to the extent of saving images on a virtual film strip. adjacent images can be combined into diptychs. You can even include a bit of text between the images. It has a bunch of effects too, mostly garish. I like the concept of the diptych output, but the clunky workflow takes a bit of getting used to. It'd also be nice not to be confined to using adjacent pictures. A fun app despite its peculiarities.
And of course to try it out, my ukuleles always make willing models.
Tuesday 5 April 2011
Maralinga - Paul Kelly
this is a rainy land
no thunder in our sky
no trees stretching high
but this is a rainy landMy name is Yami Lester
I hear I talk I touch but I am blind
my story comes from darkness
listen to my story now unwind
this is a rainy landFirst we heard two big bangs
we thought it was the great snake digging holes
Then we saw the big cloud
then the big black mist began to roll
this is a rainy landA strangeness on our skin
a soreness in our eyes like weeping fire
a pox upon our skin
a boulder on our backs all our lives
this is a rainy landthis is a rainy land
no thunder in our sky
no trees stretching high
but this is a rainy landMy name is Millipuddy
they captured me and roughly washed me down
then my child stopped kicking
then they took away my man to town
they said do you speak English?
he said
I know that Jesus loves me I know
because the bible tells me so
I know that Jesus loves me I know
because the bible tells me soThis is a rainy land
this is a rainy land
no thunder in our sky
no trees stretching high
but this is a rainy land
Friday 25 March 2011
Pavement circles
See also http://jayavant.tumblr.com/post/4074628909/pavement-circles
Thursday 24 March 2011
Playing around with Hipstamatic lenses
There are so many virtual lenses, films and even flashes available for the Hipstamatic app that I am bewildered as to which one to choose half the time. Lately I mostly shoot using the app's randomise feature. The results of this on-going experiment are here.
Except that some films are colour and some are black and white, the main difference to the image provided by the choice of virtual film is the frame. Most films have distinct border effects.
The choice of lens has a much stronger bearing on the image. The lenses have distinct optical and colour effects built in. The Salvador 84 lens is especially notable for having a kaleidoscope-like mirror effect.
I shot some images today using each of the lenses I have. The image is simply a view through the patterned glass of my front door. I used Blanko virtual film for every image as it has a neutral border. Here are the results.
7. Lucifer VI
Monday 7 March 2011
Cropping the monk.
I have mixed feelings about the result. It was fortunate that the last picture I had taken had been at a similar distance. It was a dull day but I had fast film and the aperture, focus, and, framing (almost) combine to give me the shot I wanted. Unfortunately I missed her foot. I cropped the photo down from 6x7 to a square, but I am still not totally pleased. So I copped much harder to give the closer portrait shot. Still not quite there... Anyway - here are the 2 crops and the original. Which do you prefer? Maybe this is why I prefer landscapes.
Camera - Mamiya 7
Lens - Mamiya 80/4
Film - Portra 400VC
Process - Unicolor 3 bath Korean Buddhist monks are not like the monks to which I am accustomed. No poverty for them. They often have nice cars and can be seen wandering around wearing headphones and making calls on their iPhones.
Tuesday 1 March 2011
70's fashion - not as I remember it.
Saturday 26 February 2011
Stages of a photographer - How good we think we are
Friday 11 February 2011
A nice piece of camerabilia
There is really no limit to the things one can collect. I resisted the urge to buy. I'll stick to real cameras.
Much more worrying, nearby were "dog staplers".
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