A News Item like This Brings a Tear to My Eye

I often see news pictures from war zones and see burnt out vehicles and realise that it would be a bit dangerous nipping over there just to get some fine art photographs, although as everyone tells me it would certainly put more value on my work and make them very collectable if I was dead. I don’t think I will consider that business development route in the near future.

While on the BBC news site I came across this story of a mansion in Shropshire that had been destroyed by what the police believe as an arson attack.

I looked at the picture closer and noticed the vehicles that are burnt out in the grounds.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/shropshire/7585338.stm

reading the article I found out the family owned amongst others 2 Range Rovers (always get good surfaces from them something in the type of steel they use) and a Ferrari. I have never photographed a Ferrari but I certainly would like the opportunity. Sadly there is no chance of getting anywhere close to these because obviously the police forensics will be thoroughly searching for some time and I presume they will be quarantined and even if they are sent to a recovery yard that will be well after the time when the surfaces are suitable for my photography work.

Massive up surge in clicks to the blog today

“You Will Never Look at Them in the Same Way Again” has chugged along on the www for 3 months and the number of clicks to the site has steadily been growing, I notice from my stats programme that I get quite a few visitors from China and the Far East I often wonder how? and what triggers them to find it (just a thought), everyone is welcome.

Today I had a shock to notice a massive rise in visitors and this was down to a mention on the highly esteemed Created in Birmingham blog which reports on all things Art and Arty in Birmingham. A big thank you to those guys for the plug I feel like an overnight discovery with the recognition.

“You Will Never Look at Them in the Same Way Again” has managed to build up some content and I have decided that it could now stand up to being promoted and I therefore registered with Technorati so when I saw all these clicks I thought it was as a result of that work. I have also made applications to some Photography Webrings but the setting up on these seems to take a little longer because you have to wait for the Webmaster to ok your site as suitable and not just a way of gaining random links. You should see the various buttons and logos appearing soon.

Watching You Watching Me
Been using Google Analytics since it was released on the World about 2 years ago and been happy with this product even more so when you consider it’s a freebie like all the Google goodies. Recently came across another website tracking tool which really is good Statcounter.com again is free, unless you’re running a site or group of sites that is generating huge traffic that fills the limits of the free version within a few day. I have been very impressed with the features and the almost real time availability of the data.

Towcester Open Art 08 or Birmingham Artsfest08

Sadly I had to pull my application for the Towester Open08 Exhibition. The annual Birmingham Artsfest runs the same weekend and although I toyed with idea of attending both I think it would be unrealistic. My mainly reason is because the ArtsFest event is so big with the whole spectrum of the arts featuring throughout the weekend of Friday 12th to Sunday 14th September there are so many artists, bands, dance troupes and of course the general public converging in Birmingham City centre that it’s a logistical nightmare for the small team of organisers and because of this there will be the inevitable slip in the timetable. So I anticipate delays of some kind while I am setting up my work on the Friday afternoon or taking it down on Sunday evening, last year the installation wasn’t completed until about 6 hours after the planned time slot, I got blocked in the car park and had to delay taking my work from the Council House because of a storm. If I have to travel 50 miles away to the Towcester and be there for narrow time slots I just know something is going to go wrong. Sad because I really wanted to support the Towcester event after a great experience last year, but Artsfest is not one to miss.

www Solihull Artist Forum

It’s been a very busy week, so much so that I forgot all about “You Will Never Look at Them in the Same Way Again”. The extra workload also meant that my three dogs have had shortened walks, they don’t seem that bothered 2 are a little off colour at moment and the third one hates going out in the rain, and we have certainly had loads of rain. She has something of a sixth sense that tells her that it’s raining outside so she then goes hiding when I pick up her lead.

The Bank Holiday weekend naturally interrupted work, and family and life in general have inevitably interrupted “You Will Never Look at Them in the Same Way Again”

So here goes with a catch up.

Main project of the week has been building a website for the Solihull Artist Forum, it proved to be more difficult than I first anticipated because there are 18 plus artists each with different styles of work with a mixture of textures and colours and art disciplines, it was therefore like designing 18 different websites within one. I decided to make the site plain, white and bland so that there is nothing to confuse the different art work colours and shapes.

The Solihull Artist Forum is for all professional artists living or connected to the Midland borough, we have regular meetings and at moment we have a group exhibition “Hands On”

Venue:
Solihull Arts Complex
Library Square
Touchwood
Homer Road
Solihull

The show runs until the 27th September

Changing the habits of nearly a lifetime

I was in Birmingham City centre today and to kill time between appointments I popped into Waterstones book store, when I came out I realised that I only looked at photography books and didn’t go anywhere near the computer books.

Also I think this is the first month since about 1983 that I didn’t pick up a copy of Personnel Computer World magazine and instead bought a photography monthly instead. First off I went for Digital Photographer but I will probably chop around until I find the one that looks right. So 6 years after leaving the computer industry the change is complete.

The Joys of Blogging

Before I started “You will never think of them in the same way again” my view of blogging was of someone jotting down their thoughts on a word processor on their laptop adding a few relevant pictures, connecting to the internet and uploading everything in a click. Then off they go getting on with life and finding more to blog about. Simple yes? NO!!!!!.

My previous post took ages to get posted, first using Bloggers own create and publish facility I couldn’t format text from large size to small and then the Bold and Italic format settings got mixed up, even when I went into the html code the formatting would not save. I’m really surprised because I have always found that anything associated with Google is generally easy to use and works very well.

I also find Bloggers editing/creating interface is cramped with a little window to type.

When I tried to introduce the images I got another error

So I then decided to use BlogJet which I downloaded on a months trial, I haven’t been that impressed and cant see what features justify paying £24 for the same functionality that I get for free with Blogger, don’t get me wrong I don’t mind paying for software but I can not see a justification in this case.

Again I got an error when I tried to publish the post with images.

Eventually I gave up and left the post on “You will never think of them in the same way again” without any images. Surely, that’s not right images are a vital ingredient to illustrate my story, am I the only Blogger who has problems? I get the impression that there are many bloggers who have a limited knowledge of html etc and successfully blog each day.

This morning I edited the post and managed to upload the images too, why couldn’t it work right last night?

When I first thought about blogging I looked at the options between Blogger and Wordpress, it could well be my background in database programming that I was leaning towards the more flexible Wordpress but looking through the Help and tutorial files it seemed far too complicated, what was the point in spending time learning a new software package because I had left the thrill of doing that a long way behind, all I want to do is type out my posts and get on with my art work. But now Wordpress does look like a serious way forward.

Rhubarb Photo Festival in Birmingham

Saturday I attended the internationally renowned Rhubarb Festival which this year took place at Aston Business School. Now if you’re a regular on my blog you know the Aston Business School have bought some of my work so its something of a lucky building for me, that’s taking superstition too far but you know what I mean.

In brief what it’s all about (move to next paragraph if you know):
the organisers of a festival get all the top buyers, movers and shakers of the photo industry in to one room, these reviewers are gallery owners, agents, magazine photo editors etc etc. from all over the World. We as photographers select who we want to see and book a time slot with them to show our portfolio of work, this selection process is achieved by looking at the reviewers profile which might state “I’m looking for documentary photographyusing film not digital” (therefore this reviewer would not be interested in my work). With further assistance of links to websites you can be extremely accurate in targeting who you want to sit down with and show them your portfolio to. Its important that you get this process correct because time is precious in this situation, and as you have to pay to enter the review you want to maximise your investment. Having done your research you have 20 minutes with each selected reviewer to show your portfolio and talk about it.

One of my reviewers Fred Baldwin Chairman of Fotofest, Houston, USA

The reviewers tell it like it is bad or good they are professionals in a hard business, suggesting anything from printing processes to taking the work forward with new approaches to the image making. In the main I had a very successful day and made some great contacts and in generally had a good response to my work.

I am extremely fortunate because living in Birmingham I didn’t have to c atch a plane or incur hotel costs; I spoke to several UK photographers whom had to start the day at 4am and others from the USA and Europe. Me, I rolled out of bed at 8am to arrive by 8:45 but that’s not to say I had a good nights sleep. No I was too nervous for that. Being a local was handy when it comes to sourcing free car parking although it wasn’t any advantage for finding somewhere for lunch because the facilities at the venue were reasonable, well done Aston Business School.

As well as the festival, Rhubarb provide mentoring to photographers, again I’m lucky living on their doorstep, because I have attended countless workshops that have prepared me for situations like the festival. Perhaps the biggest value of all was a two day workshop about assembling and packaging my portfolio, many of the reviewers complimented me on the presentation, it stands to reason if there’s nothing bad to distract then they are more focused on the images.

Rhonda Wilson MBE , Creative Director of Rhubarb popped over for a chat

In the evening we had a Portfolio Promenade were each artist sets out work for sale on a table 4ft square. So there you are lined up with loads of other photographers and invited guests file past looking at the work, it also gave us photographers a chance to network and discuss work, techniques and marketing experiences. Have a look at their sites: Richard Foot, John Maclean, Joe Ford, Michael Marten, Kelly Hill, Richard Fear, Kurt Tong and Jon Tonks.

This lady (sitting down) flew in from the USA that morning, her work was amazing really detailed close shots of wild animals, each time I tried to have a chat with her she was talking to someone and I never got around to finding out her name or get a business card.

Harry Palmer the driving force behind the The Worlds First Dedicated Eccentric Newspaper "The Eccentric City" cycled across Birmingham to have his photo taken by me.

About 9pm we finished and made our way across the courtyard for a few drinks I got home about 11:30pm I was so tired that I pulled up outside me house too exhausted to get out the car, and then I realised I still had to take my 3 dogs for a walk.