How do I save my Favourites or Bookmarks in Google Chrome?

I have been using the Google Chrome web browser for about 2 months, I like it and I want to use it but it’s not totally convincing. It is very fast and I do like the nice clear page view.

I’m a big fan of Google, they produced some great free utilities and application programmes Gmail (or Googlemail as its known here in the UK) this online email programme is refreshingly different and good. I find Google Notebook very useful when I’m looking at galleries or other artists online presence, Google Analytics provides me with detailed information on visitors, Google Maps has blown Multi Map, the AA and RAC route finders away, and that’s even before we look at the free Word Processing and Spreadsheet programmes the equivalent Microsoft versions would cost you £79.99 and that’s a special offer this week. And of course I’m using Blogger to publish this blog. 

I have found Firefox getting slower and slower with each upgrade, and it has crashed more and more. I could list more good reasons, but you can see why I want to like Chrome and to an extent it does it for me, but there are some issues that Google needs to sort out.

1. The main reason that I used Firefox was because of the very good facility to backup and save my favourite links and furthermore organising these favourites is a breeze in Firefox. This is very important to me I use the internet a lot and therefore I’m always bookmarking sites and I will often want to organise the position of that bookmark on my browser. After finding no link or command in the Chrome programme I have searched and searched forums and websites trying to get the answer of a round about way to achieve this task, I’m sure that one day Google will provide it. 

2. As I do online banking I like to download a copy of my statement. In Firefox its no problem the data is downloaded to my PC as a spreadsheet that can be opened in Excel. At the moment Chrome just presents me with the data unformatted on a blank webpage, it doesn’t download the data in any format. I’m still using Firefox to achieve this. Although this would be the bank not yet optimizing their websites to browsers other than Microsoft Internet Explorer, I’m sure one day they will.

3. When I use Googles very own Blogger to publish a post in “You Will Never Look at Them in the Same Way Again” I have found Chrome is considerably easier to type in the text, and I don’t appear to have any formatting issues Have a look at my previous posts on this issue here and here.  You would say that should be a given: same company produces both products so compatibility shouldn’t be an issue. Should it? When I upload a picture this is displayed as thumbnail size and cannot be resized in Chrome. So first I type in my text using Chrome then close down the browser, wait 5 minutes while Firefox opens then re log into Blogger to upload any pictures. I’m not so sure this one will ever be sorted.

From the Chicago Tribune website a picture that caught my eye.

American Football is one sport that I can’t get enthusiastic about and of the North American sports only baseball can I watch and take an interest in, so while I looked for the latest baseball news from the Chicago White Sox I came across this great picture taken at the game between The Bears and the Green Bay Packers.

A trip to London planned to collect one of my pieces that is exhibited in the capital

The preparation work for the exhibition at Solihull Arts Complex is going well with the glass company and the printers able to deliver on time. I was worried because the Christmas break throws all routine out of the window companies close for the holidays so effectively this will cover this weekend through to 5th January, I have also known situations when individual workers will take addition holiday around this time, so consider if say Martin the operator at the printers who is responsible for the machine that produces my work goes skiing in January this would be a huge problem. I have 8 new art pieces to produce and Martin is central to my plans, he has worked with me over a period of time and is now able to interpret my digital photos and produces that image on the glass. Its taken time, trial and error and a great deal of sharing our respective expertise in print and photography to get our finished results, so imagine my relief when I was told that Martin had had a winter break last week.

I decided to use a large copy of one of the images as the focal point of the exhibition it is a one off never to be repeated edition of this image much larger than my usual prints,  I already have this printed but it is currently exhibited at “Art for Offices” in London,. normally I courier packages down to London, its very cost effective and saves me driving into the centre of the capital but this time I have decided to kill two birds with one stone by visiting Arts for Offices to meet the people down there for the first time and collect the piece, this will also ensure I can get it to the show without breaking it in transit, remember this is a unique piece that for various reasons can not be replaced.

After making this decision I worked out the logistics involved, I used to regularly drive through London from the M1 to the A23 when I used to live in Brighton, this was in the 70s and 80s when the M25 wasn’t even on the planners drawing board I knew the best times to travel to get that window of clearish road and also a little illegal short cut that would get me out of the heavy traffic in the West End rejoining the road signs for Hatfield and the North way past the Lords cricket ground, this could reduce my journey time by an hour.

 

My "London A to Z Street Map" purchased about 1984 still serves me well when I travel down to London on the train, from the stations I  just need to walk a few blocks down the road and of course I can use my reading glasses but driving from the M40 through to Tower Bridge, I don’t think so! I will trust to Tom Tom. 

No pictures to go with this post so I thought you might look at a photo I worked on last night this was after a few pints of Guinness at the Four Oaks Saints Christmas party so I got very creative.

Which way do you think is best this way or

This way?

Getting ready for my exhibition at the Solihull Arts Complex at the Touchwood Centre. Solihull

“You Will Never Look at Them in the Same Way Again” the Exhibition!!!

Venue:  Solihull Arts Complex

Address: Library Square

Touchwood

Homer Road

Solihull

West Midlands

Date: From Monday 19th January to Saturday 7th March 2009

Private View Thursday 22nd January 6pm to 7:30

Stand by for some unashamedly over the top self promoting of my upcoming show at the Solihull Arts Complex. As it’s a one man show there is loads of pressure:

How long will my glass suppliers be closed over the Christmas holidays?

What will happen if the pictures don’t come back from the printers in time?

What if no one comes to the Private View?

What happens if there’s a 10 foot snow fall on the afternoon of the Private View

There you are a typical Capricorn and it is also that time of the year. 

So far so good I had an amazing time with Jackie Mackay and Steph Adams two fellow members of the Solihull Artist Forum, we got together at the café Sainsburys Supermarket in Shirley Solihull and we put the World to right, had a great laugh and also found time to select the images that are going into the exhibition. Me I just throw them on the wall, nope these girls are serious, hardcore curators “will the streak of Alizarin Crimson blend with the Transparent Red Ochre on the picture on the other side of the room” I kid you not.  So now the pictures are chosen and the glass manufacture has begun ready for the printing process in the New Year.

We sat drinking coffee for about 2 hours and in that time loads of other customers looked at the portfolio so hopefully they will make their way down to the town centre and see the show. In fact the response was so good I might approach Sainsburys about taking on a franchise and aim to sell my work via these coffee drinking “sit ins” well with the credit crunch you have to explore all marketing avenues. 

Rowans Gallery in Brackley Northamptonshire

If your down in the Northampton, Oxford area you might like to pop into Rowans Gallery which is in the town centre of Brackley at the back of the Town Hall and by the side of the Red Lion pub, I’m not too sure of the landmarks there and at the moment I’m relying on the location pictures in Google maps. Its not far from Junction 11 of the M40 motorway, each time I have been down there I find I take a different route back to the motorway possibly because all the country roads look the same no problem it’s a pleasant area to drive around even at this time of the year.

It makes for a nice cosy court yard atmosphere to view artwork by artists coming from a variety of medias and arts disciplines. There’s a selection of my work on view which I change and update on a regular basis. 

of course it rained on the opening night

I popped along for the opening night a few weeks ago and had an enjoyable evening talking to other artists, I had taken my work there a few days earlier and at that stage it wasn’t far off still a building site, so it was great to see it all coming together on the big day. 

"Natures Play on Water" is in postion

Rowans Gallery

Market House Courtyard 

Brackley 

Northants 

NN13 7AB

The Burnt Out 4 x 4 and a cast of 1000s at Earlswood

Two burnt out cars to photograph in a week no wonder I have been grinning from ear to ear and singing happy songs all weekend. This year the dumped cars have been very thin on the ground with only five up to last weekend, its not a real problem because I have only just released my new catalogue (soon to be uploaded onto my website – now that’s putting the pressure on) and I have many many stock photos. But, its great to have the opportunity to get some fresh metal to work on.

Friday morning my brother saw this 4 x 4 while taking a short cut through the back roads of Earlswood on the way home from work. Earlswood is due south of the city boundary of Birmingham and famous locally for some excellent fishing at Earlswood Lakes. After heavy rain during the night I had to negotiate the flooded country roads and then stand in cold mud while I took the photographs. I decided not to let Sally the dog out of my car because the mixture of the mud and the remains of the fire all over the area did not make a good recipe for my car being clean on the journey home. Sally was not pleased.

The timing of the find was superb because it was very bright and sunny certainly one of the best days for taking close up often macro photos, I can also use the strong sunlight directed at different angles on the metal to produce some very creative effects.

As I was working the events of the burn out began to unfold: this chap lives on a canal boat and parks his car here just off the canal bridge at the entrance to the field, at 3pm on Thursday the farmer came running and shouting to the boat to get him to move his car which was right next to burning car 4 x 4 he managed to pull Ford Escort clear without any damage, being very selfish it’s a pity because I would have had 3 cars in one week which therefore would of set a new record for me.

The farmer who had been delivering a lorry load of manure to his field was then trapped in the field by the 4 x 4, fire engines and police vehicles.

I couldn’t at first understand why the burn out had these slash marks all over until I was told that the fire was originally up close to the gate and they got a tractor to move it. The fire had also damaged the box associated with the communications aerial in the field and after the battery power was used up the signal went down in the early evening.

All afternoon we played musical cars as this little picturesque country lane got more and more congested.

First I parked up – to take my photos

Then boat man to go home,

Then the man to inspect the aerial.

Then the police came to try and find some vehicle identification (no luck)

Then a visitor to the caravan site over the bridge.

Backwards and forwards came the farmer with his muck lorry, I don’t know what smelt worse the manure or the fumes from his diesel engine.

It was chaos. And don’t forget the traffic taking the short cut along the lane and even the joggers take no prisoners along the country lanes.

After about 3 hours of taking shots the recovery truck arrived but before they took my beautiful model away I managed to get some final pictures.

The lads took a break while I finished off.

I had taken as much as I could from the vehicle and by now the light was deteriorating

Photographing the Ford Escort Day 2

It is very unusual to find a car still there on a second day, but of course I will always pop along somewhat half heartedly just to put some closure on the car. But there it was untouched.

By now I have many (and I would say more than enough) photographs of the car and anything new would be generated by:

Change in the weather. (perhaps overnight frost on the metal)

Heavy overnight rain (creates puddles on the roofs, changes the surface colour)

Damage by bored kids (they create great bumps on the bonnet giving an effect of a mountainous landscape)

Different sunlight from previous day.

The sunlight proved to be the major difference from yesterdays cloudy dark sky to period of no more than an hour of golden Autumn sunlight.

I carried on experimenting from yesterday and even tried some flash photography once the small amount of sunlight dipped. It is difficult to extract anything different after a good long session on the first day, within 24 hours the metal becomes too rusty and its hard to transform the pictures into anything but a rusty surface and of course the aim of my finished images is to alter them far away from their originating base line.

There was no day 3 the car was still on the park until late in the afternoon but a typical November day with dank light and fine misty rain would not facilitate any sharp quality photographs.

Burntout Car in Tysley, Birmingham

I have often dreaded the thought of getting a telephone reporting a found burnt out car and for some reason not being able to go and photograph it. Well this morning it happened for real. About 9:30am I received a call from John the park cleaner about a car found off Cowley Road in Tysley, but I had to take my dog to the vet at 10am I had also arranged to take my dad for an appointment at 11 which meant the earliest I would be there would be 12:30 and by then the car could be towed away. A few years ago you would see burnt out cars left in the position were they were torched but nowadays they are carried away within hours so I was not confident this car would be there when I drove to the park.

The moment when I first see a car is full of anticipation, what condition will it be in is generally the most important concern but for this car I was just relieved to see it still there.

Sadly the arsonists had driven across and ploughed up the ground of the small football pitch. 

The car, a Ford Escort the make and model which traditionally produces some great scorch marks was in perfect condition and in an ideal position in the field which in the limited winter daylight is very helpful because it means there is a better chance of getting good quality sharp pictures.  I had plenty of room to move around the car and point my camera at the best angles, bear in mind that when I’m looking through the lens I aim to capture an image that resembles a landscape (either from outer space or the window of an airplane over a forest or sea or even a seascape below water) and during the manipulation of the image later on my PC I try to dissolve the picture of metal, plastic and glass. There is nothing more frustrating than seeing great markings on a car but that side of the vehicle is in shadow or to too close to a wall/fence and therefore I cant get access. The only problem I encountered here was the choking from the smoke of the still burning tyre.

I had been warned by John to lock my own car and watch my equipment and just be aware of what was going on around me while I worked (the inner city area of Tysley isn’t the best) but the burnout was on the edge of the park far away from the walking paths and Sally was on guard, nobody knows that she is so viscous she would lick them to death.

 Despite the warnings I experienced no problems and I was there photographing until it got dark, its unusual to have so much time to work (because the car would normally be towed away by lunch time) and once I had taken as many photographs using my usual method of lenses and camera settings I utilised the time to experiment not only with other lenses but I changed to my film SLR (Canon AE-1 Program) and used a few roles of film. Under normal circumstances I need to work quick and because of the time constrains I don’t like to use a tripod however, I was able to spend more time setting up the shot. I have often wondered what it would be like having a car in a photography studio with the perfect lighting conditions and being able control the shoot, one day it might happen but this was the closest I have come so far.

Hot of the press is a finished picture

The World Series Markes The End of The Baseball Season

You may have noticed that I post to “You Will Never Look at Them in the Same Way Again” at some crazy times during the night; the reason for this is my love of Major League Baseball. It all began when Five TV (in the UK) started live coverage of ESPNs “Sunday Night Baseball” from the United States. That programme begins at 1am (UK time) and indeed the majority of American baseball games begin either at midnight or 1am (7pm or 8pm Eastern Standard Time in the USA).  I would possibly video the show and watch it on Monday evening, but now as I’m able to be flexible with my working hours and for that matter sleep time I’m able to watch live.

I latched on to the Chicago White Sox as my team, I don’t know why, possibly because I didn’t want to go with the popular option of the Yankees, LA Dodgers, Boston Red Sox or even the Chicago Cubs. This is perhaps because I can’t relate to supporters of the big four Premiership football teams in the UK who don’t live within 200 miles of the ground. Why can’t they support their local team? Anyway because I was a fan I looked at all the Sox related sites on the internet and then began to follow games on line via the brilliant graphical representation on Yahoo sports and MLB.com.

This year I discovered the TV coverage on MLB.com. Via the internet I was able to choose from 15 live games every night from the 1^st of April through to the end of September, I was in heaven. So while on one PC I have been editing my photographs, building websites and blogging, on the other I was watching the Sox game. Because coverage of the days games across America begins about 8pm UK time and will finish as late as 6am the next morning I was able to watch other teams either before or afterwards. Furthermore, since I don’t live in Chicago (not even in the USA) I wasn’t restricted by the TV blackouts that they enforce for a game in the locality and therefore I was able to watch all 166 White Sox regular season games (in baseball they play every day). Taking advantage of the very favourable exchange rate in April this year it only cost me just £60.  

 People will say and its always the women in my life who have said it that there isn’t a sport that I don’t follow but that isn’t totally true I’ve got no time for horse racing, darts and loads of other sports, many such as tennis and perhaps golf I might watch for a short time if there was nothing else to do. I love football but not wall to wall on TV every night (TV coverage tends to be the Big Four) but I am passionate about playing and watching cricket. 

So what is it about baseball that will captivate me into the small hours of the morning?

I do like the break in the action between an innings although the commercials did drive me mad with their repetition, but this break allowed me to do other things while the game was on, a lot of Brits say this is one aspect of the game they don’t like and would like it to be more flowing.

 The visible pressure on the players and fragile balance between success and letting the whole team down because at certain times, generally towards the end of the game one bad pitch or error could loose the game.

There are so few errors: most of the play is brilliant and slick which means that the players have to do something or indeed be something exceptional to make a difference.

The policy of MLB to strive for an equal level between all teams: This was achieved in 2008 with Tampa Bay who this year are the beaten World Series finalist having gone from the team with worst record in baseball for the last ten years to the best. The governing body put rules in place to help the small teams, for example: they have first choice of the cream of the new young players that are breaking into the game, they either hold onto them and strengthen their squad or cash in and sell them to a larger organisation who have to give them star players and money to compensate, initiatives like this seem to operate throughout the game. While the teams in the big markets do attract the best free agents they have to pay hefty fines when they exceed the payroll ceiling, the success of this levelling is further illustrated when you factor in the New York Yankees (perhaps the richest franchise in sport) they could only finish a disastrous 3^rd in their division and couldn’t make the playoffs while the small market Tampa Bay won the division and went all the way to the big one. 

I often wonder how great it would be if the Premier League in this country applied similar rules, it would break down the top four monopoly of Manchester United, Chelsea. Liverpool and Arsenal.  But it aint going to happen. dream on.

A busman’s Holiday in Ireland

I suddenly realised I hadn’t had any time off this year. Certainly nothing more than the odd day here and there; this is one of the disadvantages associated with having a job that I enjoy doing, I really look forward to Monday mornings. So I decided to take a few days off and visit my sister who lives in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland. And what was I doing most of the time? Taking photographs.

A short drive from Birmingham up the M42 to East Midlands, a short cheap Ryanair flight to Derry and within no time I was drinking Guinness. It rained every day but what do you expect, never the less there was some periods of sunshine too. Although I spent most of the time on my holiday taking photos I missed a great shot during the flight, it was a very cloudy day and I thought it was pointless getting my camera out of the bag and left it on the hand luggage rack. Sure enough passing over Liverpool there wasn’t a gap in the white carpet but then during the descent into Derry the plane banked to approach the runway and at this precise moment the clouds parted and the autumn sun low in the sky lit up the landscape below, it lasted no more than 30 seconds. There was the incredible view from above of a farmer ploughing a field with a flock of white birds (I presume seagulls) following the tractor, this of course contrasted vividly with the dark brown soil. The one that got away!

I spent time in Enniskillen photographing and popped into the Buttermarket where local artists have their studios and galleries, 

I remembered the work of Frances Morris from the last time I was there about 4 years ago she paints and displays beautiful photography too. Francis assures me she doesn’t use any digital manipulation software such as Photoshop; all her work is “as taken” her photographs from Venice use the brilliant sunlight to enhance the colours giving the image a strong vibrancy. Frances doesn’t have a website at the moment (she should) but when she does I will link to it.

With my camera I walked around the town exploring places that are off the beaten track, during the 30 years my sister has lived in the area I have visited Enniskillen many times but because I’m no fisherman and not interested in boats I have never seen much of either the river or Loch Erne. 

While I didn’t find any Irish burnt out cars I managed to keep within the theme of cars with these two odd speed limit road sign pictures, I forgot that I was after all in Ireland.

Enniskillen is close to the border with the Republic of Ireland both to the south into Cavan and Sligo or strangely north east to Donegal and handy for day trips. We headed down to Mullaghmore, County Sligo. I really enjoy working with my camera here because within a mile you have the contrast of the rocks, cliffs and crashing waves of the Atlantic coast, a sleepy fishing village and a deserted beach not forgetting the mountains in the background.

 See more photos of my trip to Ireland at my Flickr site

Burnt Out Car at Kings Norton, Birmingham

Last week I was in a panic I had a sort of writers block or even bloggers block. I was thinking it’s about time I posted but without just posting for the sake of posting I couldn’t think of anything meaningful to write about. There are a few rants and raves and observations that I had jotted down on the back of a cigarette packet but nothing more than a few thoughts to work on. Then as if by magic: not only was my editorial dilemma solved with one phone call but also a temporary (at least) relief of my concern that there just isn’t the number of burnt out cars ready to be photographed that there used to be. More about this threat to my career on a later post.

I got a phone call from one of my many lookouts reporting a “burn out” over at Kings Norton. It wasn’t particularly early in the morning but as I hadn’t got to bed before 4am I was still half asleep when I arrived on the scene. I follow Major League Baseball on the internet, the games start around one o’clock in the morning UK time. After a season stretching from the 1st April to this final week and after 160 odd games the final standings are still in the balance and therefore recording the games is not the best way to view the season finish.
The car was in a beautiful condition in the best of urban grubby location so everything was ideally stage managed for action photographs for “You Will Never Look at Them in Same Way Again” too.

First let me introduce you to my lookouts: I have an army of dog walkers who cover the parkland in Birmingham and the surrounding areas, but I also try to make contact with people who work in these often off the beaten track locations where the cars will be found. They are in these areas for most if not all of their working day and therefore cover a large area. These guys have been my best source of burn outs this year; I don’t know their names so I can’t introduce you formally but they work for Birmingham City Council cleaning up the public parks. I originally made contact with them while I walked my 3 dogs down Trittiford Park and The Dingles. Sadly I found out today that one of them has been laid off work for the winter months (I do hate the current trend were companies/organisations no longer employ people for a 40 hour week, 52 weeks a year, but rota workers hours as required).

The lads took some photos of me photographing the car

Here they get my good side

Now this is really getting serious.

While I was working away the owner of the car turned up, she didn’t seem interested in what I was creating from her recycled pride and joy but didn’t mind having her picture taken with her burnout.

Of course there was the inevitable passer by, they always ask “Is it yours” “ are you from the police” etc but this cyclist although he was talking to me for some time he completely ignored the car and didn’t ask a single question about me, what I was doing, and why.

My photo of Hlavni Nadrazi is included in Schmap Prague

A bit of recognition this week when my Flickr photograph of Hlavni Nadrazi (Prague Railway Station) was included in the Schmap Guide for Prague


The picture was taken last June when I went to the Czech Republic with some friends we have been there a few times. Funny enough we talked only this week about doing it again next year, we fly into Prague but don’t normally stay there long and catch the train to Brno the second largest city, located in the South east of the country (far from all the tourists, stag nights and hen parties) last year we timed the visit to coincide with the Rolling Stones Big Bang concert.

Hlavni Nadrazi is the biggest and busiest railway station in Prague. It is also the most central, located just 5 minutes walk from Wenceslas Square. This Art Nouveau structure houses a lofty dome, stained glass windows and carved faces of women representing Prague as the 'Mother of Cities'.

See more of my photographs from the Czech Republic at my Flickr Site under the set Czech Republic

Well if this burn out car business ever comes to an end I can always put myself forward as a travel photographer, yes I fancy a bit of that.

Something Different – My attempt at Sculpture

A friend reminded me of some sculptor a Chess Set Comprising of Pieces Made of Coke Cans and Bottles that I did a few years ago and asked why it isn’t still on my website. I removed it along with other work because I wanted to focus on my art practise today – the dumped scrapped and burnt cars.

After I saw a funny video on You Tube were the Coca Cola HGV driver sabotages the Pepsi lorry so that he can deliver first I thought of a Chess Set, Coca Cola against Pepsi.

Cola Wars

This piece was accepted for a few open exhibitions noticeably the “Art Official” show at the Light House Media Centre, Wolverhampton in November 2004. When it’s on show people can’t resist moving the pieces around. I dabbled a bit with sculpture without being totally at home working in a 3rd dimension and sadly I found it hard to follow up this thought provoking work. It was a bit like following up “the” album or a Number One hit record, and I know how Thunderclap Newman feel, showing my age there. How about Chesney Hawkes “The One and Only” or one of the best one hit wonders 4 Non Blondes “What's Up” or even New Radicals “You Get What You Give”


One thing I like about this work is when the exhibition is over I don’t have to take it down with care wrap it in cotton wool which of course I do with my photographs on glass (even toughened glass breaks) I don’t even have to go and pick it up I just tell them to dump it in the skip.

Birmingham ArtsFest Weekend

Nice to meet a few “You Will Never Look at Them in the Same Way Again” readers amongst the big crowds at the ArtFest last weekend. This year the visual arts gallery show “Artspace” was situated in the Banqueting Suite at the Council House in Victoria Square. This was an ideal venue which allowed everyone room to walk around and view the work on show. Having learnt lessons from previous year’s events the organisation was superb although you can never legislate for the weather.

The rain falls, is anybody going to come to ArtsFest 08? What’s the forecast for Saturday and Sunday?

The rain seemed to draw people indoors to the gallery; perhaps they had left home without a look at the forecast or even popped into the preview show on the way home from work in the city.

After the show closed on Friday evening we went outside (in the rain) for the Light Night show. The spectacular display transformed the civic buildings with lights and images, it was so good I forgot I was drenched.

Drenched or not we headed off down to Aston University to the Birmingham Beer Festival, being a Guinness drinker I haven’t a clue about Real Ale but I can guarantee a good pint of the black stuff in any real ale pub because they look after the beer so well, on this occasion I had my mate Chris with me, he certainly knows his stuff and pointed me in the direction of some good stouts.

On Saturday the sun arrived, in fact it was too hot (we are never happy are we) and after the rain the night before it got quite muggy. The great thing about an event like this is you get chance to network with other artists, some new contacts and friends from previous events.

Of course I always have a camera to hand and click anything that moves and sometimes they don’t have to move

Andrew Bainbridge

David Pollard

David experiments with photographing objects trapped in ice and takes the pictures while the ice melts. He’s also got some great work from his extensive travels. Diverting from art for a moment David explains about his passion for fishing and the one that got away “this was the distance between his eyes”

Nick Williams

I met Wolverhampton based Nick at last year’s event and I we bumped into one and other through the year. I don’t know if Nick has a website, I did a search on Google but there is a load of Nick Williams around the world.

www.particlearticle.co.uk

Claire and Amy are sisters who make and I quote “Imaginary winged creatures created from abandoned, reclaimed and recycled objects". I was relieved to see that they are not in competition with me to discover dumped burnt cars because there work is far more delicate as they use pins, buttons, pen nibs etc, and nothing bigger than a light bulb.


Taking photos of exhibitions and my work hanging on the wall is very important for me it gives me a reference for my career as a working artist.


Its also part of a process that hopefully will illustrate my work as an art piece, I have found that when I explain my work to people somehow they miss that “look and feel” effect factor and its not until its seen on the wall does this become apparent. So there will be more On The Wall pictures on my website in future.



Hopefully by being a little bit creative with the gallery photos I can make these pictures less boring and repetative.

Birmingham ArtsFest 12-14th September

I’m getting my work together for the annual Birmingham ArtsFest weekend, for once I’m able to take the pictures from my own stock and not have to worry about will the printers deliver on time.

There is so much going on in the festival from all genres of live music from groups and artists such as
Baska (contemporary acoustic folk pop band) think I’ll give them a miss,
City of Birmingham Young Voices. Ditto
And loads of bands in the The Kerrang Unsigned Stage, that’s more like it.

Myself and other visual artists are in ArtSpace at the Council House in Victoria Square do come along and make yourself known.

The BBCs Test Match Special Flickr Site

As a keen cricketer and listener to the Test Match Special radio commentary I also click on the TMS Flickr site.

Aggers and Eric Clapton

Now you would expect that an organisation such as the BBC would employ someone to do this job who can actually take a descent photo and who has at least a beginner’s ability in Photoshop Elements. There is really no excuse for a consistent poor quality image especially as the BCC are linking to this Flickr/blog from the main News-Sport pages.

Comedian Mark Steel joins Jonathan Agnew at Edgbaston

They could (and probably will) in their defence say that the light conditions are not ideal. for example the contrast with shadow light in the studio and the bright summer sunshine outside through the large window create havoc but in this picture taken outside on the cricket ground the same heavy shadow applies.

Mark Pougatch interviews James Anderson in front of the Lords Pavilion

You don’t need expensive equipment in fact I have seen some great images produced from camera phones and cheap disposable cameras. I felt sufficiently annoyed about this site and I have sent an email of complaint. I’ll keep you posted “if” I get a reply.

Gremlins have hit again
Sorry to say that I'm having problems formatting the post in Blogger again. I thought I had found a work around after my previous problems. the links to the pictures just wont do what I want them to do. I dont think that I can add the offending images to You Will Never Look At Them In The Same Way Again because they are not available to download in the Flickr site, I do think that it is rediculous setting restrictions like that in Flickr because if you really wanted a copy of a pic there is a fiddley way by changing screen res and using a bog standard keyboard screen grab.

Lisa Marie Thompson’s Hands On Exhibit

When the development event was over I popped up stairs to the gallery to have a look at the Solihull Artists Forums “Hands On” exhibition and take some photos so that I can add them to the website. At first when I saw this work by Lisa Marie Thompson I thought what has a picture of Britney Spears got to do with Hands? And then I found out that the image is made of raised pieces like Braille, very clever.

The exhibition runs until 27th September.

Artist Development Day

We had an artist development day at Solihull Arts Complex, I wasn’t quite sure what it was all about but I decided to go because it was facilitated by the local artist Eva Bennett and Tessa Hills and that’s reason enough and I wasn’t disappointed.

Problem: Aimee Green the Artist Development Officer wants to support local artists and groups but she doesn’t know what we need. Indeed in the past she has organised events such as “Working Internationally” and the attendance has been poor; so is that what we need? It has also become apparent that perhaps we artists don’t know what’s available or the questions to ask: so it’s a communication Problem!

During the day we asked and answered loads of questions without knowing it, by being creative. This involved various exercises of making things to illustrate a scenario for instance I can now explain my art practise with the aid of an old jam jar filled with pieces of glass.

1. ) My work is printed on toughened glass.
2. ) Like the small glass and mirror particles the view changes with the moving daylight

and a whole lot more
By focusing on the jam jar (it was clean and no longer had jam in) it seemed a very powerful means of achieving the communication and extracting more information.

another piece of my creative endeavours

At the end of the day many questions had been answered and Tessa introduced us to a book called “The Artist Way” by Julia Cameron a Course in Discovering your Creative Self. I bought it on the net via Book Butler the cheapest book site I know of, costing less than £5 I can’t go wrong all I need now some time to read it.