Monday, August 29, 2011

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.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

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.

Saturday, August 20, 2011

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.