29
January
2010

New Blog

Okay, the new blog is up and running. This'll be the last post here. TTFN.


25
January
2010

Blog Update

I'll be updating the blog tomorrow.
Or wednesday.
Ish.

New blog url: http://www.anotherdamnedthing.com/blog/
New RSS feed: http://www.anotherdamnedthing.com/blog/?feed=rss2


21
January
2010

This Here Blog

I, when I say that I mean Jonathan and Luke, will be switching this blog over to Wordpress sometime soon and the RSS feed will change. Everything will look pretty much the same, although I'll be adding categories and I think I'll allow comments to see how that goes - to be honest it's something I have reservations about. Just so's youse knows.


18
January
2010

Bits & Bobs VII

Photographers
Alex Koloskov goes through the lighting set up he used for a jewellry shoot. Michael Kenna's Hokkaido video, interview and insights from the highly regarded landscape photographer. A couple of photographers who may be somewhat well known: David LaChapelle, Rankin.

Photography
The World Press Photo site is always worth a visit, you could do worse than spend a while browsing their archives - though the site itself is badly dated and is clunky as hell. EnfuseGUI is an open source image blender, for creating better dynamic range. Comes highly recommended but I haven't tried it yet; never been completely enamoured with other similar apps. There's so much trashy HDR out there I simply can't be arsed to even step into that potential cess-pit of delusional creativity - aka personal visions, artistic expressions; usually produced by overly-sensitive fragile souls, pumped up on Flickr favs and righteous indignation, who think photography is produced by strangling pixels till they shit and vomit some festering, glowing arse bile. Collect.give is an idea I can relate to, buy LE prints from photographers who donate to specific causes - the collect.give Facebook page is here. BeforeIDie is almost a lo-fi version of 6 billion others (see below): Nicole Kenney and KS Rives use polaroids and one question to take a look at society.

Web Design
Pete Cashmore, CEO of Mashable, outlines 10 web trends for 2010 on CNN. Most of them are obvious and have already been trending, some for a few years now, but certainly the next 12-24 months a lot of time and a huge amount of money is going to be invested in these areas. For more near-future predictions, Trendwatching's consumer briefing is worth reading, designers get in on the act of guessing what's hot next, and trendhunter keeps you up to date on what's going on.

Design
Really like David Thorne's 'Dear Simon' correspondence with a grabby client - we all have them, to a greater or lesser extent, and it does feel satisfying when they've been told to go fuck themselves. Must be something in the water lately, because The Oatmeal has similar issues about what some clients expect and how they know best; so true. Lovely Package, fnarr fnarr, showcases packaging design, as does The Dieline blog. Dieter Rams, a remarkable designer of unfussy, elegant and intuitive products, offers up Ten Principles of Good Design.

Miscellaneous
A New York Times booklist for Art & Architecture with some titles of interest to photographers. 6 Billion Others is a project developed to show what we have in common, no matter who or where we are, by asking 5,000 people to contribute to a portrait on humanity. Society6 is another pimp your wares site for creatives.


17
January
2010

Books | 015 | The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest | Stieg Larsson

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest is the third book in Stieg Larsson's Millenium trilogy. After ending the second book, The Girl Who Played With Fire, with Lisbeth Salander being shot in the head this final book in the series picks up with her undergoing an emergency operation to try and save her life. There's absolutely no let up in pace, though the focus initially switches from Salander being the centre of attention to Blomkvist, the Millennium magazine owner, and others, investigating a secret security unit of the Swedish government.

What Larsson has done with these three books is similar in ways to the TV series The Wire: take a seeming small story of a disappeared girl, in the first book, and broaden things out over three books to encompass national issues: the role of the media, government ineptitude/corruption, collective social responsibility, corporate malfeasance, greed, and, of course, the abuse of power in pursuit of preserving it. Larsson, through Salander & Blomkvist, slowly peels back the thin veneer of lies and deception to expose the endemic rot of abuse - sexual, political, and corporate. Given his own background in journalism and his political activism there is an undercurrent of authenticity running throughout the books, and while the books are all exciting thrillers in their own right it is the accurate small details about running a news magazine while under pressure that grounds them.

As far as the final published book goes - Larsson had planned a series of ten, before his untimely death at 50 - it closes out the events from the first three books well. Salander faces down her enemies, the court case to have her re-institutionalised is great fun, with both brains and violence - as is her way. Blomkvist jumps into bed with women almost as much as he jumps into trouble with the authorities, while his colleagues undercover even more corruption. The cops fumble at first but eventually get to grips with how deep things go in terms of national security. And the bad guys are in a race against time to cover their tracks and limit their exposure.

There are a vast number of characters and threads to the story, but you never feel lost as to what's happening because the pacing makes sure all the twists and turns are kept fresh and relevant. Sure, a lot of the lesser characters are broad-stroke good or bad guys, but that's a necessity that helps drive the pacing of a thriller which spans three large books and covers so many tightly plotted angles.

At the end of it all there are a few loose ends, minor ones, but surely that must happen if an author had planned so far in advance. As it is, all three books are brought to a satisfying conclusion and leave you wanting more. And, in a way, that might happen as Yellowbird, the Scandinavian production outfit, is producing 3 movies based on the books. I hope they release english sub-titled versions before Hollywood gets its hands on things and ruins it all with 'faces', a dumbed down plot, crap explosions and cheesy one-liners. Ugh!


05
January
2010

Grounded






I said I was going to try and take far more photos this year than last, seems to be working out okay so far; though I never said anything about quality. Took a walk around the farm again the other day with the 50mm f1.4 and just had a idea to do some ground shots. I've always like not looking through the viewfinder, just guessing at what's in frame is sometimes more freeing and less calculated. Just by knowing what lens you're using gives you some idea of what could be in shot, but it can be extremely hit and miss. Usually if I get one or two images from a two gig card I'm happy with this approach. This lot are the best of what I shot the other day.


01
January
2010

A Walk Along The Beach




Every New Year's Day we try to go for a walk on the beach. This year it was just myself and Wee Man, but it was still fun. The roads across to Donabate were, for the most part, fine. But just as you take the right at the village to head up to the beach everything became like glass. Wasn't so bad if you just eased along at a steady pace, but a few cars lost it and did wee twirly dances. Luckily there were no ditches, or cars coming the other way, and everyone kept their distance. Didn't feel cold (+1C), there was very little wind which helped, just enough to give the few daft heads pottering about a beach in January a red nose or two. Felt great to get out, chase pirate sharks, hide from the dune monsters and generally run off some lard with Wee Man.


01
January
2010

2009 | 1 | 21812

I've damn all idea who you all are, but since launching this site in Feb there's been 21,812 visits. Since June it's been hitting about 2,400 a month - which, considering the shit I post, is flattering. I intend to carry on in much the same way, but hopefully I'll be doing more photography. Anyways, hope you all have a healthy and rewarding 2010. Now, fuck off and enjoy yourselves.