31
August
2009

First Day



Wee man's first day at big school today. Man, he's growing up so fast. Great to see him all done up in his uniform and looking forward to school, although he was a bit nervous about being in a proper school with lots of others bigger kids. Seemed to take it in his stride and he has plenty of cousins at the same school in years ahead of him. I'm sure they'll all have their little gang and look out for each other.

Still, kind of sad to see him leave one part of his life behind and move on. Guess you can't really stop that happening, nor would you really want to. And it is brilliant to see him learn new things, almost every day, and watch his character take shape.

All that said, this getting up early routine really sucks.

Christ, last year with play school it was fine: set the alarm for 8.30am and maybe make it in in time for 9.30am and sure if you were a few minutes late what did it really matter. Feel like I'm the one back in school with this 7.30am alarm start, just so wrong for someone like me who's not in the least bit a morning person - much prefer working till 2am or 3am in the morning, or later. We'll see how long I last. I'm sure I'll fuck up.

Wonder if a note from my parents explaining I've always been this way will help.

Maybe I can get a note from the doc.

Hafta figure something out.

Quick.

1am.

Time for bed.

So wrong!


26
August
2009

Exhibition Prints Part III






Last two. Couldn't really not put something from Donabate & Portrane in, they're only across the way and were the starting point of the whole project. I swear, next time I'm going to pick something simpler to work on. Something that doesn't involve so much walking for a start.

Photos will be printed on Hahnemühle fine art paper 30x24 inches, image area will be 26x20. They'll be strictly limited editions of 10 each and only at this size.

Suppose that's 12 down, only another 88 to process for the book.
Christ, feels like it'll never end at this stage.

Edit: Jack insisted there should be more waves, so the last three just added are his picks.
So, 15 prints is where we stand now.
Damn it!
Better get these done before someone else offers an opinion.



26
August
2009

Exhibition Prints Part II






Don't know if these are the best because there's others I'd like to include, but these 12 I enjoyed shooting. Hopefully I captured something of the Dublin Coastland that resonates with people. Ah well, we'll see.


26
August
2009

Exhibition Prints Part I






Man, it's not easy picking 10 images from this damned project. So I didn't, I picked 12. All processed this evening. Kept it nice and simple, easy on the photoshop. Just have to send these off to be printed tomorrow whenever I wake up. 4am now. Shattered.


26
August
2009

Castletownbere | Co. Cork | For Sean






Just a few snaps for the brother, Sean, of the town where our father came from: Castletownbere, Co. Cork. Back in the 90s Sean married an American, Miriam, and went off to live in New York. They now live in upstate NY with their fabulously beautiful daughter who Jack loves getting webcam vids from. Recently they've chatted via webcams on Skype although I suspect we had the better deal because our upload speed sucks, thanks to Eircom phone lines and the fact we live in a rural area they don't much give two hoots about.

Our father's family used own a shop in Casteltownbere, though he left at aged 16 to come to Dublin to work. I'm guessing, and working from vague memories of popping around the corner to Breen's as a kid, that the last couple of shots are the ones of the shop front. Well, that and the J Dwyer name over the door. I vaguely remember it being a drapery store, and having a musty smell, but I could be wrong on all counts if there was another family called Dwyer who owned a shop which wasn't musty smelling in roughly the same area. It's now home to the local library and the Beara Camera Club, which is nice to know. If I had the money I'd love to own a summer home over this neck of the woods, I love the rugged landscape around here.

Well, either here or somewhere like Achill Island.

Or Sligo.

Over west, somewhere.

Some day.

Maybe.


25
August
2009

Bits & Bobs III

Might as well start with Twitter and the fact I've given up on it after a few months. Well, not given up on using it as a newsfeed to follow companies and people I'm interested in, I just can't be arsed to tweet any more or trawl through endless banalities. It's a quick way to scan things I might be interested in and get links to articles, but unless you're family or friends (and sometimes even then) I'm really not interested in reading short messages, original or regurgitated RTs, about whatever the fuck strikes others as funny or interesting or even mildly diverting. I had thought following a few designers and photographers might be at least somewhat insightful, but no, the signal to noise ratio is only slightly better than spam. I still think it's a useful tool, particularly if you're in companies that deal with consumers and want to track, or respond to, what people are saying. It's also useful if you want to pull people towards your own site/business, but that comes down to having enough original and relevant content and the time to push it into Twitter. But for following people with the same interests, in my case designers and photographers, you can't beat a blog.

On the other hand I've started using Facebook again. Tried it a couple of years ago when I was looking at all sorts of social network sites and hated it. Still, a few friends persuaded me to have a retry and I have to say I'm finding it better this time around. Enjoying it more than I did Twitter but that may simply be because of Mafia Wars, an addictive wee game app. Again, aside from a few friends and family, and offing various people around the globe, I'm using it more to follow magazines and newsy bits I'm interested in. There are parts that annoy the shit out of me - why do apps always need access to profile data? - but not so much yet that I'll chuck it.

The other network I've joined is Behance which is for creatives, designers photographers, illustrators, etc. There's some stunning work on display at Behance, but there's a few other sites like it that are worth checking out too: cargocollective and Krop and indexhibit.

For inspiration there's always the Donut Project, NotForPaper, Styleboost, Oddcars, iPhonePhoto, MIT's Technology Review, NYT's Lens, fast Company's design topics, Carsonified, some web dev bits for Tripwire magazine and some data visualisation techniques to round things off.

Anyways, other bits and bobs this month that tickled my bits.

Words. You gotta love 'em. Michael Quinion at World Wide Words certainly does. Lots of stuff on the etymology of words and phrases and some interesting articles on the english language. Another place worth visiting is the Online Etymology Dictionary, though I think they need to update their work on the word 'feck' as it completely misses out on the way us lot use it in Ireland - a polite version of 'fuck' that even your sainted gran could use without blushing, though I'm curious as to how and why it came about.

Documentaries. Been browsing around documentary based sites earlier in the month - mainly beacuse while I enjoyed the Coastland and Farmland projects I'd like to do something a bit more challenging next time I set myself a project. Was thinking of doing something on Parklands, but it feels too similar. Dublin Documentary has some good stuff, well worth a browse. Documentary Films does what it says on the tin, and the International Documentary Association showcases work from around the globe. A couple of my favourite TV shows are Dispatches and Unreported World, they always seem to dig up some different slant on topical stories. Lastly, Guardian Films have made some terrific documentaries over the years and their clients include CNN, BBC, Channel 4, NBC, etc.

Transmission ends.


24
August
2009

Absolutely Cannot Get Out Of A Rut

So, I have this joint exhibition coming up in a few weeks with Gillian's mother - she's a well respected fine artist - for which I have to produce 10 or so images. The trouble is I've completely lost any wee smattering of confidence I had with the Coastland project. I've processed those images at least twice at this stage and each time I get to the last one I look back at the first and think it's shit, and then I go through the rest and think they're even shittier.

In the good old days, when everything I did was film and paper based I would have torn everything up and thrashed the film, and quite possibly the camera, but I'm a lot less temperamental these days. Used find that a great way to cleanse the soul, force a reboot and start all over again with absolutely nothing to fall back on. Sure, it sometimes made me regret things, but there's a certain cathartic buzz to be had in destroying your own work - after all, it's a tad impractical to go about destroying the work of others. Always been like that to a certain extent, burning bridges when it takes too much effort to maintain them or when others want to use them to force me into directions I don't necessarily want to go.

Anyway.

Exhibition photos.

Fuck!


24
August
2009

Books | 002 | Arthur & George | Julian Barnes

Just finished this t'other night and really enjoyed it. It's a novel based around true events: part biography of two people, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle & George Edalji, and part detective work which is an interesting mix. Everyone knows Conan Doyle wrote the Sherlock Holmes novels, but he had a much larger life than that of just being a novelist - he was also an adventurer, traveller, spiritualist, and seeker of justice. George, on the other hand, is the son of a vicar in a rural district who goes on to be a lawyer; his father is Indian and his mother Scottish. His life is in complete contrast to Arthur's, where Arthur is an extrovert and globe-trotting celebrity author of distinction George has always lived with his parents, is introverted and lacks social skills. The two come together when George is accused of random acts of violence.

It's beautifully written and covers a lot of social issues that are still relevant today: minorities being targetted, corrupt/inept police, politicians slithering around admitting errors, celebrity and fame. On top of that there's a really good detective story that weaves it's way in and around these lives. Really enjoyed it, as I've said, and it's given me a yen to dig out some Sherlock Holmes and read a bit more about Conan Doyle; seems to have led a full and varied life.


24
August
2009

Books | 001 | Home | Marilynne Robinson

I had high hopes for 'Home' as it came recommended and her novel 'Gilead' had won so much acclaim. I struggled through to 130 or so pages of the most turgid dialogue I've ever read. Every little nothing was stretched and spun out far beyond the limits of my patience, and all of it brimming with a stilted, false sense of contriteness by characters who aspire to being two dimensional.

The father is obsequious and shallow, a religious man on the verge of death who rarely leaves his room except to apologise for the burden he's become. A 'poor me' character who wallows in the joyless self pity of his home; I found it impossible to empathise with him in any way. Then there's the prodigal son, I forget his name already, an alcoholic who returns home and the black sheep of the family. Apparently he's the sort of wild-child loner his brothers and sisters both admired and resented to some degree, but there's nothing there. For some reason his hand is always going to his face - and no, I've no idea why either - as if that one tic imbues him with any depth. Finally, there's Glory, the daughter who came home to look after her dying father and about whom both men gravitate - a considerable feat given her character has no real substance.

I'd love to tell you more about the 'story' but after 100+ pages all that happens is the father wakes up, Glory makes some meals and the son waits for a phone call while fixing a car.

Life's too damned short to waste on such thin gruel.


23
August
2009

The Family Holiday



As Gillian doesn't fly we tend to take our family holidays in Ireland. This year we went to Killarney in Co. Kerry, and it pissed rain every day except the day we were leaving. This year we went with Gillian's sister, her husband and their two kids. it was good fun, especially for Jack as he gets on so well with his cousins - aside from the odd time they decide to get each other into trouble. Luckily there was plenty to do as fun days to the beach were pretty much ruled out because of the weather.

We rented a house at Inisfallen, about five minutes walk to killarney town centre, and it was a good size with four decent bedrooms - plenty of room for four adults and three kids without things getting on top of you. The house was clean and decently spec'd out, the only downside being the mattresses which seemed to be wafer thin; just lying on them you could count the number of springs.

We had trips to parks, play zones, an indoor aquarium with shark tanks, the circus, the beach (kids don't seem to mind the beach when it dull), and a swimming centre with big slides. Jack, being Jack, had to go on the biggest water slide with his uncle - even though he was a little scared. Didn't get nearly as much photography done as I usually would, but I didn't mind because it was fun watching Jack and his cousins having a blast.

I did manage to get a half day away on my own, and I suppose I could have driven and taken snaps around Killarney itself but instead I decided to pay a visit to Castletownbere. My father comes from the Beara Peninsula, his family used to own a shop in Castletownbere and it was great to see the family name still above the door even though it's long since passed out of the family's hands. I had a quiet chuckle to myself when I saw it was both a library and home to the Beara Camera Club these days. That was one of the personal highlights of the trip for me.

Anyway, I'll be putting a few snaps up in the Landscapes gallery. Might give you an idea of the scenery down that way.

As enjoyable as the holiday was it's always good to get back. When we got home Jack ran straight upstairs.

Me: Jack, where are you going?
Jack: Upstairs to hug my room.

Exactly.


03
August
2009

Google Bits

Been using Google Apps for our mail for the last few weeks in the office. Have to say I've grown very used to it in a short space of time - the virus and spam checking alone is worth the transition from Thunderbird. Like the way it threads connected emails too, very useful. The calendar is very handy too, makes it easy for everyone to see what everyone else is working on. Not that gone on the Google Docs, it's a bit slow and clunky, and haven't bothered with the video yet. The integrated IM and video chat is handy though, a couple of us work from home one day a week and it makes it easier/quicker than bouncing emails back and forth. It's an alternative to iChat, which I use at home (and falls over at times when using video), and Skype.

Looking forward to seeing how Google proceed with their Wave technology. I like the idea of typing in english and it being translated into another language on the fly. Google Voice looks interesting and I can see that being pulled into Wave. Plenty of potential there for making social network widgets, if and when we ever get the time. Also, the lads have been looking at Google Charts, it maybe something useful for a client or two - though we're quite happy with Fusion Charts. There's some very interesting stuff going on with data visualisation all over the place, another area we're looking at exploiting with some ideas over the coming months.

Of course, all that takes time and we're pretty much up to our nads at work, stuff blocked in for the next few months and more projects lined up after that lot clears. Still, given the way everything is with the economy at the moment I think we're in the right industry and working on the right type of projects.