My Photo Catagories

I remember reading a blog post once about the way we photographers collect, collate and display our photos.  The point was that we tend to be pretty boring, catagorising our shots by time, or place or camera or gig.  All useful, all really sensible, all really, really boring.

Now that does make sense for working pros that need to find their images quickly and easily.  For pros that have clients to service etc. But that's not me.  I'm like Rob, the lead from the movie High Fidelity organising his private record collection.  How did he do it? Alphabetically? No.  Chronologically? No.  Then how? Autographically.

So I've come up with a set of catagories for my work.  Its not really that obscure, not that insightful, not that rigorously applied and perhaps not that effective but its mine.

So here are my catagories: (in no particular order)

time of our lives.

searching for the filthy lucre

us, people that is

all things bright and beautiful

built or made

going places

planes, trains and automobiles

ephemera

promises of happiness

harsh realities

Next post I'll start running through each of these and what they mean.

I am a cotton headed ninny muggins

Film is an unforgiving mistress.  There is so much to consider that digital doesnt require.  On top of this there is no ability to review your shots so you simply have to trust in your settings and what you know should work.  But I was ready for all of this, I was prepared.  I paid attention to my settings, to the light, I was really careful to ensure I wasnt over exposing etc etc.

What I forgot to check was that I had loaded film in the first place.  An hour of magic conditions that I'd never seen before in a place that was usually packed all to myself.  I am an idiot!

My success in not spending in 2011

At the beginning of 2011 one of my desires was to stop being so gear focussed in my photography.  I am happy to report that I suceeded, however, I cant really claim a victory of willpower over marketing. The truth is my desire for restraint was assisted.by three things:

1. Sony was really late releasing the A77 and/or the NEX7 I wanted.
2. I got really into triathlon so let all my photography slip somewhere between a little and a lot.
3. Whenthe A77 and NEX7 did finally turn up the Thailand floods made them impossible to get.

Anyway, I'll take a little help from the universe sometimes.

Nikon D4 - Really? So thats it?

So, Nikon has a new camera, the long rumoured D4.  And to be perfectly honest when comparing this to the Sony NEX7 all I can really manage to think is really? Years of work, tens of thousands of manhours of some of the best engineers time and thats all you can manage.  Man, your company is in trouble.

just stay down

just stay down, originally uploaded by PMac Imagery.

Last weekend I, and a bunch of other photog mates, took off for Gresford in the north of the Hunter Valley in NSW for a local rodeo. Rodeos are, I've discovered, brilliant photo opportunities.

But despite all the spectacle, this is my favorite shot. I love this photo because this shot catches the pain, the hurt, the damage rodeo can cause. However, lets be clear about this, I dont see this as a reason to stop rodeo.

This shot shows that these guys and girls have real courage. They know they could (or even will) get hurt but they go on and mount those bulls and broncos. They get thrown, they get trapped and dragged, they get stomped on and charged and driven into walls. But just when the sane thing would be to stay down they dont, they get up.

I'm a city boy not a country lad. I dont know these guys and girls and if I did there's no guaranteeing I'd like them but I wont deny I respect them.

GPS - Why I want it.

Well the A77 and NEX7 have been announced to an unexpectedly positive response. One thing that has drawn a few (well deserved) arrows is the apparent decision to leave GPS out of the NEX7. OTOH others have questioned the need for GPS at all. Well this is why I want GPS in all my cameras.

I am fortunate in that I get to travel alot for work and even more fortunate that I regularly get a day or two to squeeze in a little photography.

However, the down side is I now have tens of thousand of photos that I can sort of label but not really well. Yes I know that temple was in Colombo, Sri Lanka, but exactly where? what temple was it? what was the status across the street? Exactly what bridge is that across the Danube?

But its not just the exotic stuff. Five, ten, fifteen, fifty years from now do you think you, your kids, your grand kids are going to remember where mum and dad or grandma and grandpa were in that photo of a summer holiday, or a christmas, etc. As someone who just collected all my dads photos after his death and am trying to piece together a photo history of his life I'd kill for some decent exif and gps co-ordinates telling me exactly where that photo of he and my mum was taken on on their honeymoon.

We tend to be very short sighted with our ideas of what information is important. Years from now no one is going to care a jot what shutter speed, f number or iso you used for a shot. But where the shot was taken and when, that will be gold. (not to mention tags for faces - trying to get family members to even remember who was in a parents wedding party 50 years later is a nightmare).

Every camera I buy from now on will have GPS and it will always be on. I might strip that data from photos I make public but I will never run the risk of losing it for my purposes.

Almost a year on. What happened.

In short I got busy doing other things. First, my paying job just kept getting more and more demanding, leaving me less time to photograph, less time to process and certainly less to to think and no time to type. Secondly, as I got more stressed my response was unhealthy. I veged out when not at work, I mindlessly surfed the net, I ate, and generally sulked. Finally, I woke up. I mastered my workload, concentrated on the essential and picked some goals.

The first of those was to finally get my body right. And while this is still a work in progress it is well underway. Ive lost 15 kilos (15 to go) am riding to work regularly, running most days and feeling fantastic.

Thats where I've been. But now its time to spread my wings further still and return to my other loves, such as taking, printing and talking about photographs.

So hopefully, I'll be able to keep my head together,keep this blog going and you never know, say something to help some one.