Walking Commentary
Manchester to Rome 2022
I’m fascinated by how one image can be manipulated to shape different stories. What is the essence of a shot given that there are an infinite number of photographs you can take from where you are reading this? Are there an infinite number of stories to be found in one shot?
‘Don’t you like landscapes?’ someone once asked during a Tadaa challenge in 2012. Tadaa was an Instagram kind of app very popular with iPhone users in the time before Instagram took off.
Of course I like landscapes. The question came at a time when I was learning how to capitalise on the tiny lens in a phone. I spent several years on an iPhoneography mission while learning how to spot ‘the decisive moment’. Things have changed but here are five iPhone photos from 2009 that were ‘published’ on Tadaa in 2012.
First coffee in hand, looking out at the 7 am mist, I noticed the trillium was bejewelled by droplets. Bescented and bejewelled, suffused and saturated.
Saturated, a word that rang a bell. A theme with seven photos posted this week two years ago, amidst a personal iPhoneography challenge to hone my skills and learn to minimise compositional distractions. In this case, a series of desaturated pictures offered up in daily posts on Instagram.
[Read more…] about Desaturated Circles30 March 2020 – 20:29 GMT – 7°C Mostly Cloudy – Co. Dublin, Ireland
You’ve met our dog Gus in a previous post. He suffers from separation anxieties yet still looks to the bright side of life. He does so without the concept of zero, suffering no anxiety for its absence. Now, I only have one olfactory bulb. I know I lose more by my limitations than does Gus for his.
Dog bowls don’t need zeroes. Empty. Full. Is. Isn’t. Now. Later. Happy. Sad.
[Read more…] about Learning from the dog.13 Mar 2020 – 19:48 GMT – 6°C Light Rain – Co. Dublin, Ireland
I plan to bring a camera towards Rome. Weight is a major consideration and things have improved in that regard. In years gone by, I brought an iPhone on my walks because my DSLR kits were too heavy and unwieldy for use by brain tired, wet hands. So I’d bought iPhone battery extenders, lens kits for telephoto and wide angle options, specialty tripods and my favourite, a grip that also acted as stabiliser. These all coupled nicely with iPhone earphones, cleverly designed so the volume control also acted as a remote shutter release. Except I’d walked the batteries dead with Walkmeter and other mapping apps on iPhone versions 3, 4, 5 and 7 and wouldn’t you know, the camera kits tended to change from one generation of phone to the next.
[Read more…] about Fuji Wabi Sabi