from the yet to be printed book, Toowoon Bay.

Just a quick heads up, World Pinhole Day is coming, April 27. To participate head on over to http://www.pinholeday.org/participate/ for details.

I better get a move on and buy a pinhole adaptor for one of my cameras so I can join in.

So I have been thinking about the type of book I will be making for SoFoMoBo.

I am not totally new to the idea the of a book, it has been on my mind for a few months now. During 2007 I got to visit and stay on the central coast (Toowoon Bay) of NSW one night a week for work. During that time I amassed hundreds of pictures and sharing them with others seemed like a good idea and what better way than a book. The book is going to be 36 pictures in total, 36 being chosen because the Hahnemuhle photo albums were 40 pages in length. That allowed a title, introduction, index and colophon pages and 36 pictures.

The book size in this case was chosen by the default number of pages in the album, the layout and amount of pictures were chosen based on that as well. SoFoMoBo stipulates 35 pictures which is darn close to the 36 pictures for the Toowoon Bay book. So to quick track my decisions on the layout of the SoFoMoBo book I will follow the same layout as the yet to be printed Toowoon Bay book.

To share the book with everyone online there will be a pdf version made, it will be made first since that will be the only way you get to see it unless I ship paper copies to you. I was thinking of making the pdf version similar to the Lenswork pdf versions of their extended portfolios but those do not look like the printed version of Lenswork. It would work best if both versions had a similar feel and that if you read one version you get a very good idea of what the other is like.

Paul Butzi posted back in January the announcement of SoFoBoMo, Solo Photo Book Month. The idea carries on from similiar projects for novels and musicians.

I have known about this project probably since its announcement as I read Paul's site regularly. If it wasn't from there then many of the other authors of blogs that are on my daily web surf would have alerted me as many seem to have taken up the challenge.

Up until now the whole idea seemed a bit difficult, still does, but what the heck I'm taking up the challenge. What better time to take up a new challenge than when you have no time, many projects on for both work and home, no preparation, no plan, no idea. Should be quite a learning process!

Quite some time ago I worked within a company that got a new manager, nothing special about that but I remember him explaining why he asked so many questions. he said "I do not know what I do not know", a line I will never forget and is how I am feeling about this whole SoFoMoBo.

What will the 35 pictures be of that go in the book? what will be written in it? how will it be set out? what software to use? what format? what other questions should be asked when you start to create a book?

The project is a 31 day block starting April 1, 2008 and ends by May 31, 2008, There had better be some answers forming for those questions soon.

Mike Johnston on his TOP site has mentioned the book today as well under What Leicas Do.

"after half a century, it remains seminal, original, darkly lyrical, instructive, subversive, eloquent, heartbreaking, harsh, I hope no longer controversial"

There is nothing I can add to that except how much I enjoy the book.

I was lucky enough to be able to buy the book The Americans by Robert Frank recently, it arrived 2 weeks ago and I have been enjoying it so much. The pictures are fantastic, gritty views of American life in the mid 1950s.

An article on Robert Frank came my way today which I read enthusiastically wanting to know more about Robert and his pictures.

28,000 pictures taken from 1955 to 1956 while traveling across America on a Guggenheim grant, a final edit of 83 for the book. That is over 350 pictures taken for each one selected. I don't feel so bad now when I take many pictures only to have a handful that work.

And when it comes to the recent spate of stories of photographers being harrassed for just being a photographer, here, here and here and comparing it to Robert being jailed and run out of town for just taking pictures, sounds like not much has changed at all in 50 years.

After cleaning up the office last weekend I ended up with all of my prints in one spot which gave me the opportunity to go through them.

Amazing how much work you go though just to have a handful of decent prints. The prints I still enjoy are now on a large white board which is supposed to be used to organise my workload. A whole lot of magnets from the local businesses are holding them up.

Another wall of prints will be up soon as well. The new viewing area will be lengths of strong fishing line on the wall where pegs will be used to hang pictures from. Looking more like the old bathroom/darkroom all the time.

Taken during the same afternoon outing here.

Here is one I have always enjoyed looking at. Even when I took the shot I knew it was going to be set next to a picture of a fingerprint. For a while I thought I had overdone it, the idea, or I may be to close to it, remembering the cold morning the picture was taken and how that afternoon I took another of a fingerprint and then printed the two.

Sometimes the memory of how and where clouds your judgement of the result, it is hard to distance yourself from your own ego.

This still works for me almost 2 years later, but then maybe I am still clouded.

I am not sure why I keep coming back to this picture, I'll live with it for a while and figure it out, possibly not.

I've been using a Canon 10D now for about a year, maybe just over a year. It is not exactly the latest gear out there, release date was 2003 which was 5 years ago, that might just make it ancient gear in the digital world.

The whole time I have had this camera I have been shooting with only one lens on it, that is a Canon EF 50mm f1.8 II. Quite a good lens if you use it within its contraints, it does have issues with veiling glare and flare. Mike Johnston has a great article on using lenses without stressing them here, worth a read.

I enjoy using the 50mm on this camera because I can keep both eyes open while shooting without feeling dizzy due to differing fields of view. That is, the image within the viewfinder is the same size as seen with my unconstrained eye. This makes seeing things outside the field of the viewfinder quite easy. That is quite important to me and why I like shooting with a rangefinder camera as well, more on that later.

When you can see outside the frame of what will be captured by the film or sensor you can still see new compositions in front of you without moving your camera about everywhere. I find this especially useful when my children are running about and I can see a picture forming and can have the camera pointed that way when the picture has come together.

This is quite possibly not so important when you are doing tripod style photography, that is, landscape or still life.

After using the one lens for 12 months or so on this camera I am quite certain that the field of view of the 50mm on a Canon 10D is to tight for me. The 10D has a field of view equivalent to a 80mm on a 35mm film camera. Quite often while shooting I seem to be taking steps back to get more of what I see within the frame. Details tend to become what I shoot with this lens attached.

It might be time to sell the 50mm and see if I can pick up the 30mm f1.4 Sigma which is reported to be quite good. The other option is to purchase a Canon 5D or the new Nikon D3, actually, not a financially viable option at all.

So where will I scrounge up the cash, another selling spree on ebay no doubt. Anyone want to buy a print?

I did not realise I was on private property until I had left this area.

I didn't know it existed, no idea how it works but since I have received some automated trackbacks and posts that mean nothing I've had to moderate this blog. Sorry for any inconvenience if you happen to want to see you comments immediately and they are valid to whatever the subject is.
If you have a tool or advice on Blog spam or whatever it might be called, please leave a comment.

Here are a small group of sandstone textures, you couldn't really call this a project, to few pictures, not much variation and most importantly I am not exploring anything.
I really have to get my mind into a project, begin it and not procastinate, that means at some stage finish it.

I just read Mike Johnston's review of the Zeiss Ikon >and have to say it is the best camera review I have ever read, honesty throughout. Top marks to Mike.

A short series taken during a wedding in Toowoon Bay. These magic old cars and the light were just begging for shallow depth of field treatment.

Go here to purchase any as prints.

What do you do with your prints? I've wondered what I should do with all of mine, they are everywhere. I have a draw in my office full of prints, a plastic bag with more and a box in the garage as well. That is not counting all of those I have made that are hanging around the house.
A lot of them I have printed for local competitions, they may or may not have received an award, and then they are shoved in storage. I'm sure a lot I won't see again for a year or two, maybe more. That begs the question of whether they were good enough in the first place.
A fellow photographer I spoke to about the this subject suggested I pack them off to friends and realtives as surprise gifts. The receiver is happy because you thought of them and I regain storage space for some other dust collecting items.

Antique Jogger, 2007

This is one of my favourites from 2007. Is there anyone that does not need a soundtrack to everything they do?

On Douglas Stockdale's blog here he has mentioned a group he is involved with that exchange pictures.
I tried something similiar within a club here in Sydney but it was not an organised event and relied on an interested party asking a photographer for a print swap. An organised event sounds like a great way to get people together and discuss pictures and have the opportunity to own someone elses print.
If anyone in the Sydney region is interested in such an event I'd be happy to organise a venue and date, get in touch and let me know.

this is Ian, he lives across the road from me and is the kind man that let me stay in his holiday home in Toowoon Bay while I worked in that area. I found it easier to stay away from home one night a week than have to travel the 160km round trip two days in a row.
It was quite a good opportunity to walk along beaches and lakes collecting pictures, I have not done it this year but may do so again for that reason.

So why a blog? I don't recall seeing many new blogs, mostly I see them once they are established so I am not sure how they usually begin but I would imagine that many go through a stage of explanation. I'll tell you now why I am doing this blog.
I'm a photographer (even so my main income is from Electronics Engineering) and I'd like to get my photos out there, show them to people other than my family and immediate circle of friends.
My first attempt at publishing my pictures on the web was to put them straight into a store front so I setup Imagetank. As a store it works well, as a site to view pictures I find it is noisy, colours clash, text can be overwhelming, it just isn't the best place to do your browsing.
So recently I pondered on what sort of site might be more attractive and more inviting for return visits. There are so many attractive sites on the web so I initially thought that might be the way to go.
Unfortunatley after one month of having my own domain name and also server space I never seemed to get time to complete the site. This was the first dilemna, if I was taking so long to put a site together when was I ever going to have time to update the site.
After a few weeks of procastination I thought about the sites I visit and the ones I return to on a regular basis.
The sites that interest me the most are those that have new content on a regular basis, new material is a big draw card for me. It may be no surprise then that blogs are my most visited sites, picture blogs, art blogs and the occassional forum.
So which was it to be, a gallery type of site which may or may not get updated often, may or may not get viewers coming back. Or a blog which had the same problems but I could update on a small and regular basis while also allowing me to write when I had something to write. I let these thoughts go in circles for several weeks and I finally decided on blogs.
So if I enjoy visting blogs so much then maybe I'll enjoy my own blog, visiting it, updating it.
I hope you enjoy it as well.

Taken at Crestwood Fair 2007

I would like to open this blog with one of my pictures taken last year at Crestwood Fair, a small Fair in my neighbourhood. This picture has been entered into Head On.