While on the road to the collodion workshop in Lacock, I decided to make use of my time and test the iPhone’s hipstamatic filter. And yes, it is rather fascinating. I do actually own both an Holga and a Diana but being a child of the digital age, I totally enjoy the filter’s instant results – please forget for an instant, that I am travelling to England to take an 19th century technique workshop …
To criticize the filter a bit: I found it unnecessarily difficult (if not impossible) to frame the image correctly – guesswork, experience and luck is needed – most likely the software is programmed this way on purpose. Annoying nonetheless. It is NOT a Holga after all, but a digital device. If I WANT a lucky shot, I can close my eyes.
After a couple of shots (= too few) my iPhone was sucked dry. So I switched over to the iPad to cover the actual crossing via train through the Eurotunnel. The dog was our main reason for choosing this means of transportation but it did not go half as smoothly as we had hoped for. Due to an incident earlier that day another train got stuck halfway through the tunnel, delaying everything. Nightmarish for the passengers, no doubt about this. But also for us. Instead of approx 30 min, we were in those coffin like carriages for way over two hours. Our only advantage was that we could still see the sky when we looked out of the small windows.
I will upload some images of that the next time. We just arrived at Lacock and I have not yet downloaded the files from the iPad.
I am thinking about covering the collodion workshop with digital hipstamatic. It would be so incredibly off, to actually be interesting again. Will ask if it is ok.
I took this image as part of a series in 2009 while Tone and I visited the small town of Lobo in Texas. It was totally out of fun. I wanted to see if I could get a U2 kinda feeling into them … Maybe because I was a bit tired to listen to Graceland Radio throughout the day.
It gave birth to an idea, Overtone, which I am working on since then.
There is nothing like playing around a bit to make you happy!
After I posted the last images here, someone asked me if I do a lot of landscapes. Well … not really. I generally do take “reminders”, as I call them, “visual notes” on places that I could revisit. My personal location scouting so to say.
If you look at the image above, which is such a “reminder”, that would be a place where I would stick around to get that “extra”, which is not in there now. Also I would prefer a different light situation. Not a sunny, but a more gloomy one. That has also to do with the camera I am using, which is a Canon G10, whereas a larger format would be desirable here, if you really wanted to get all the detail. So I am not after the detail here … not with my equipment.
Sure enough once in a while I get this itching to acquire a large format camera, although I would not do it without a project making this step necessary. I like to keep things as simple as possible and definitively not more complex than necessary. Same goes for my equipment.
I have my G10 with me for this form of visual notetaking. And that is fine. You never know what images will come along and when – the G10 is always ready to go for it. And I collect them all, if I have the chance and if they fit into my pattern. It is a bit like treasure hunting and just as exciting. Even if the only place where they might get shown is in this blog, which for me is not a tight place to “sell a style” but a place of loose conversations and brainstorming.
Both of these images were on the sd card that I uploaded today.
There is a certain type of landscaping that I like to use for myself and other type of landscaping that I would consider more suited for other photographers. A matter of taste and decision.
Nonetheless sometimes you stumble upon a certain image and – even if it does not feel totally yours, you take it, right? Right.
Although I was a bit too slow here. I just saw the boys when their mom called for them to come out of the water. In the picture you see the blond boy turning his head, and then off they went with the spead of light. Too fast for me to reposition myself to separate them better. But it is a reminder for me to get back to that place with more time and – most importantly – alone.
I can spend hours waiting at a certain spot for the right thing to happen or the right person to pass by. I do not mind at all. At the same time I always think that others would mind waiting with me (and they usually do), so it often happens that I go out with people and then separate from the group to pursue something I have seen. Guess my friends got used to it. Today it was not possible. And I got there too late anyway.
