Silly hats and Batman capes

Yeah, yeah, it's been a while. Blah blah blah.

I wanna start with some talk about a new plug-in for Photoshop that I just heard about called Exposure by Alien Skin. I heard about it over at MJR and it's capable of replicating the look of various colour and black and white films. Now, I haven't shot much film personally but I do know that I love the look and "feel" of images caught on celluloid over those created digitally. I can't really vouch for the accuracy of the results but I do know that one for Ilford HP5 is pretty good and I've heard that the Tri-X is pretty darn accurate too. What I do know is that it's made my workflow a lot easier and I love the outcome of the images at the end.

Until I can afford another 35mm camera, this has definitely made me a lot happier with the digital images that I shoot and I definitely recommend it.

Anyway, on with the photos. Slightly eclectic mix today:

Worked for a day at some posh toff farmer's fair in a town near where I live. I took a few shots during my lunch break. This man more or less sums up my sentiments regarding the event:
This is how he rolls with his homies in the hood.

This made me laugh. Shame there wasn't any live ammunition in there, the kid would have been knocked right on his ass.

Because I'm Cpt. Supercool, I made two frames.

This pooch was the only one not going crazy at all the kids running around

Yours truly in my friend's dorm room.

This is one random frame from my mate's police induction ceremony. The room was packed full of people and hot as hell. This woman's family somehow managed to rope her into fanning them for a good 30 minutes or more.
More or less the rest of the images coming up are from the graduation days held at my university recently. I was covering them as part of a project I was working on. Starting off with a detail shot.
I can't really take credit for the idea of this photo as it was heavily influenced by one of Mr. Weeks' photographs but I still like it. It was interesting getting the woman with the camera to pose as she barely spoke any English but I feel I managed okay.

I made friends with another pooch!

Every single area of campus was being turned into impromptu photoshoots . This is without a doubt a big part of graduation day and I wanted to capture it. It also saves me having to pose people myself ;)

This guy was staring me down the entire time I was walking in his direction so I made a frame just to annoy him ;)

Nothing says "You've Graduated!" like overpriced promotional alcohol.


I took some time out to shoot some of the non-graduates whenever things started to calm down because of new ceremonies starting. This guy had been here by himself for about an hour, as far as I could tell, and was on his second or third packet of crisps. Nothing like a healthy lunch.

I liked how oblivious this guy seemed of what was going on around him.

I could have made a side project simply of the interesting hair styles I saw that day

Sniped a friend of mine, Steph, as she came out of her ceremony.

She very kindly posed for a second just before she melted into the huge crowd of smiling, tearful parents.

I dubbed this girl "Marshmellow Lady".

Apparently Jesus was graduating today too

Around the lake there was a whole plethora of parents posing and bossing around their associated graduates for photo time. I decided to go for another session of "stealing" other people's photos while they took them.

Decisive.

I find it slightly amusing that I can pull off headshots of similar or better (normally better) quality in a fraction of the time, and without any specialist equipment or even the subject's notice, than the overpriced hacks doing the "official" ones.
This photo more or less summed up the entire graduation process for me. At the end of the day, it has nothing to do with the students, really. The day itself is all about the parents refusing to treat their children as adults for one last day, squandering them for one last day before they properly move out into the real world. All I saw throughout the whole thing was parents bossing their kids around, telling them where to go, where to eat, fussing over their appearance....and students getting more and more agitated over this almost forgotten level of attention. Anyway, I feel the expression and body language in this picture really sum that up. It's one of my personal favourites from the event.

Speaking of agitated children...
One of my friends gave me a little flak for this, saying it was cruel to take a photo of a disabled woman. My views on the subject are firstly: No. Just no. She's a person just like anybody else and I was there to make photos of the people at the event. I'm sure she would have been more offended had I treated her as if she were something to be shied away from rather than a normal person. Secondly, in the split second of making the photo I barely even registered that she was disabled. What caught my eye was the overwhelming sense of pride for her son that her expression showed.
I feel the same way about photographing homeless people, although disabled people are less likely to beat me up if they take offence to it :P

...I'm so going to hell for that one.


Some graduates really knew how to work those robes...


I knew I would love this the second I pressed the shutter, his laugh was awesome. Also, the more I look at this the more and more he looks like Chandler from "Friends".

Mischevious children were amok. Amok I say!
There was very little hat throwing, surprisingly. Apparently it was discouraged due to some health and safety bullshit but I was still surprised at how little I saw. I really had to hunt to find some people doing it, as I really wanted a shot of it for my project. Fortunately, these guys took a few tries at it.

Waiting on the ceremony to come out

I spotted this guy below me while I was waiting

And this guy to the left of me

Finally the procession started

Our elusive Vice-Chancellor



My mate's girlfriend Lucy making some adjustments.
And that's the end of graduation. The last few frames are more or less for the project.





Hipshot. I think I'm getting better at them.
And finishing with a frame of two of my climbing buddies

Thanks for reading, hope you've had a good week.

"Of course they hate us here, we're English"

So, I've been to Corsica recently to go climbing. This post is pretty much going to be some of my favourite shots from that, along with a very eclectic mix of other stuff. Most of the shots from the trip were climbing related so if that's not your thing, well tough luck.

Starting with a few random frames
We love our cleaning here

Pre-trip gear audits are boring and a severe cause of rope burn.
Went out for dinner

On the way to Corsica, we had to stay at Toulon, France for a little while. Sniped these two having a pretty noisy conversation

Lots of army and navy folk around the harbour.
We wasted time the only way we know on a beach: sunbathing.

Stopped off for the worst iced coffee ever.




A lot of this happened on the ferry trips.


Inquisitive babies make for endless entertainment. The mother looked ready to pass out

On with climbing photos!




Rock elves can be found around that region of the island



Apparently the entire island is full of militants that go around shooting the crap out of roadsigns and abandoned quarry vehicles completely unchecked. If you happen to be a rusty, old truck and find yourself in that area, fear for your very life.

More climbing.



Some of the expressions cracked me up during this.



It actually rained one day, which was depressing.


Hey look, more climbing

Probably my favourite climbing shot from the trip.

Teaching a kid with a serious rat-tail how to fish.
We climbed this in flip flops to watch the sun set. And who says climbing isn't safe?


Steve finally did this move after a good 20 attempts.

He was pretty stoked about it

A tribute to Bernhard

Expressions



And, of course, cheese.


Boredom on the ferry home

This guy was trying his luck so hard with these girls. Apparently French charm will only get you so far.




Back home, on the way to Cambridge for the day


Street buskers are getting more inventive these days.
Inspired by an obsession of Mr. Weeks.


And so that's it. Hopefully some more in the not too distant future. Hope your week's going well. Sorry for the lack of comments.

Exam stress is for people with not enough to do

Apologies for the lack of posts recently, exams have only just stopped their hostile takeover of my personal life. As a result, I've not been doing too much photography-wise which, aside from annoying me, means that this will probably be a relatively short post. I have had a little personal project on the go though that I'll post at the end of this entry so stick around for that. It's eye candy, like gum drops for your retinas.


Starting with some proof that we do occasionally get some good weather in Britain. We generally import it from other countries.
Then back to my second home: Casa del climbing




Cruel or not, I found the way she was fighting with the petrol pump pretty amusing.

I've been to see a couple of drama performances.

Creepy.

And back to climbing again, this time on sandstone in Kent at Harrison's rocks. It's a really nice area, although we don't get much chance to go down thanks to the temperamental weather.


Nothing says pure drama like lens flare.


Feet cropping: my other favourite activity.



This is probably the most precarious place I've ever take photos from. I was pretty much straddling a tree the grew out over the edge. Scary stuff.




Back home revision still has prority over everything, including getting dressed.



It's a tough life, being a student.

Uber decisive.

Still working on getting more involved in the scene with my street stuff.


Guess I'm not James Bond quite yet.


This turned out pretty well for a hip shot. Really wish I had some shallow DOF though.

Okay, here's the start of the project I've been working on. It was meant to be a series of pictures that represent student life and the campus in general. I'm hoping for this to be displayed in one of the venues on campus so here's hoping that works out. Oh, and sorry if you recognise some of these shots, I used a couple of old shots I had from around campus that fit the bill as well as taking some new ones.



















Thanks for reading. Hope you're having a good day.

Very little has been happening recently, beside a short trip to Amsterdam with my housemates, detailed later. I shot a couple of rolls of Hp5 with the Pentax shown in the last post and discovered that most situations I find myself in are either too light or too dark for it's limited exposure range. I did love shooting and developing film, and managed to make myself a couple of semi-decent prints from one or two of the negs too which was a bonus, not to mention a fun (and messy) learning experience.

I'm planning on picking up a rangefinder when I work up the money, most likely a Bessa. I doubt anyone actually reads this thing but if you do and you happen to have a Voigtlander for sale, drop me an email at demonic.rabbit at gmail dot com.

Anyway, photos.


Waiting for briefing on a climbing related job. The woman was 40 mins late.
Next up: Drive by street shooting.

These shots are from around the start of April. It snowed for two days after a week of sun. The weather here in England likes to keep you on your toes.

My first time in the darkroom on campus, which apparently hasn't been used in years. Busy developing my first roll of film. Excitement.

Waiting for the roll to dry.

And on my way home.


Trying out something after seeing a frame by Severin...

But to little avail.

Okay, now that crap is out the way, the next few are from a trip to London to try out a new climbing centre that's just opened.

If there were a photographic army, this guy would be a machine gunner.

Must be embarrassing to show up both wearing the same costume.
Lunch break at the climbing wall.

And then it rained. In England. The media was all over it.

Wish I'd waited a second here, but I still like it.

We went for drinks afterwards in what turned out to be a gay bar. It's not often that I'm the eye candy of an entire bar.


I challenge any street shooter to walk past a convex mirror and not make a self.

Some amount of time later, photo boredom.

Seems everyone but me is doing revision. I guess I'm cool like that.

Atleast it was sunny.



Start of the Amsterdam photos. Lady airport worker surveys her kingdom.
Getting drunk at the airport is standard fare.

Again, because I'm 5 years old.

You know you're in Amsterdam when the first bar you go into has this on the wall. Insectiality sure is big over there.


I got charged 20 cents for this shot so appreciate it.
This guy was a walking acid trip.

The view from the hostel was pretty nice.



If time were measured in beer, this would be around Lost-all-sense-of-balance 'o clock.

Finding something that even closely resembles flash sync in this state ain't gonna happen. I do remember this being pretty representative of how I felt though.

Apparently we met some sailors.


This was in a chinese place called Wok to Walk. I highly recommend it if you're drunk and in Amsterdam.


Probably around 1/8th. I'm really surprised that it's relatively sharp considering that my centre of balance was currently doing laps around the room at that point.

Next morning. Kitty gets on it early.

We hung out in 'Dam square for a while, partly because we were tired but mostly because the mushrooms we ate in the morning were kicking in. So, I took photos.

Possibly the cheesiest frame I've ever made.

I can only hope that one day I'm half the man that he is.


This guy seemed highly suspicious of the mayo on his chips. Probably a good thing he didn't see the logo for the chips company (which, by the by, was a cartoon baby masturbating onto some chips)

The next few shots I'm pretty proud of because what normally annoys me most about my street shots is how uninvolved and distant they are but with these I challenged myself to get out of my comfort zone and get a little more in the scene. They're not perfect, but I'm still happy with them.



Using flash in broad daylight on a subject 20ft away is serious business.


This is supercop. He's badass.


Had to leave this one in colour.

My favourite shot from the weekend.

There was nice light at this café.

Not so much a this one, but I made do.

And finally, an underexposed airport.

Back to gloomy England.

The climbing wall has new lights installed that are horrible for climbing but nice for photos. I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with them.



British humour.


And some actual photos of climbing.


Followed by a pretty dull committee meeting.

And then chilling.

There have been a lot of revision lectures, what with it being exam term and all.

10 minutes in and we all feel pretty much like this.

I have no idea what he's cooking but it looks good.

I'm not going to lie, there are some downright despicable things that go on in this house.


Love love love this frame.

Lazy weekends.

Sunny weather = Revision-bathing.

Not that I actually do any revision.

Also, the slightest bit of heat and/or sun = BBQ time.

Girl talk.

Decisive.

And we'll end on a self.
If that were a Leica, it'd be cool.

So, time to get through all the backlog I've had recently. This could be a long post. Atleast it's filled with witty banter to keep you going until the end!

So, this is my new toy. It's my dad's old camera, a Pentax ME. Apparently it's one of the first cameras to have an automatic shutter speed option and, as such through genius design, has no shutter dial at all. Unfortunately the light meter is also broken, and such the auto setting doesn't work. The only solution I and Random Employee Man at Jessops have been able to figure out is to set the shutter to flash sync and guesstimate my aperture settings, which is fine by me.

The lens also has a a crapload of dust trapped in it. I still love it though.


I've been taking a lot of shots on it recently, loving the ability to focus manually, which my crappy digital bridge camera (CDBC) can't do and being able to capture actual DOF in my photos, which my CDBC can't do either. Unfortunately I have no scanning devices of any description so there's no way for me to upload super exciting test shots that will be no doubt ruined when I try my hand at developing for the first time.

How unfortunate.

Anyway, onto CDBC stuff. Another jazz night with my housemate's girlfriend's band, the New Directions.





I really hate how the decent light falls on creepy troll man in the background. Way to steal the picture's focus.



Took this out of spite of a guy who came in and seemed horrified that I would bring a camera into a public toilet.

It had been a good night so we decided to have a BBQ. Very nice of the fire department guys to join us. They're cool.
That's the 13th car bombing to happen in this area in the space of 2 months. God I love this place.

Okay, skip forward a few days to a climbing social pub crawl.

Pouring beer is a very sensual act


See what I mean?

The evil "if you're taking my picture, I'm going to break you" finger. I smile everytime I see it.

Dragging the shutter = instant cool.




I love this expression

Dirty secrets

Somewhere between the last photo and this one my camera got stolen from me by various drunk people. I take no credit for the next few photos, even if they probably have more artistic merit than my usual stuff.


We stopped by Tescos for some party supplies. All the essentials.

At the party. Apparently someone worked out how to get the flash on.


Hey look: There's my camera!

Passed out and smiling, the best end to any party.

Couple of days later again. The weather was gorgeous and I thought that maybe it was the glorious beginning of summer. Turns out the weather is a lying whore but I made the most of the situation with some highly artistic in original photos.


Because I'm so super cool and ingenious, I took two frames.

Rain makes anything photo-worthy.

And now, a series on student lifestyle:



He loves the work.

Unfortunately, butch security lady does not and threw us out.

So, I made more super personal and involved post-rain photos.

As did this guy, though he had more fans than me.

And that's it for now. Future posts might be a little on the slow side since I'm shooting a lot of film lately. Have a good weekend, and take care.

Blogging does not help pass degrees

Lack of updates recently. University work is apparently the natural adversary of all blogging kind...

So, in some kind of loose chronological order...

I was asked to take some photos for Derby Day for my uni's newspaper so I went along to a practice session to get used to it, having never done sports photography before.

Now this is a game face.



If this frame had a caption, it'd be something along the lines of "Sucka!"

The anonymous protesters apparently have a foothold in computer science classes.

Then, lunch with the drama crew.


Went to a party that night, but no photos. Having a camera with a fixed 3.2 lens doesn't bode well for low light situations. This is the next morning. Making frames helps hangovers.

Another fine display of my fantastic artistic ability. Prints of this start at £350.

I've been in a car.

And a bus.

Did a portrait shoot for a poster for my mate's final year drama project in my studio (aka the bathroom). It's called "The Trip". In the final version of it, she looks like an evil clown. Sounds like a bad trip to me.

Workers doing what they do best.

Went out for a night of Jazz in one of the bars on campus. Lucy joined a new band called the New Directions (say it fast for instant humour). They were actually pretty damn good.


I love a bit of jazz


Derby Day at the climbing wall

We kicked ass by over 100 points, but I wasn't there to see it thanks to shooting netball instead.

Basketball on Derby Day

Love this frame.






The light in there wasn't amazing, but I think I did alright.

Bit of a small entry. More at some point in the future.

Hope you're all having a good weekend!

More photos, Huzzah!

England is grey. Grey and foggy. I hate this country sometimes...


I've been in a pub. Surprise.


More climbing. Now there's something unusual.


The following photos were 'commissioned' by Steve, the guy in the next 3 pictures because , as he puts it, "I'm vain and need more photos of me busting a nut on the wall".



Also: Cheese.

Lectures are boring, photos are interesting.


Went for a noodle break on campus. This frame is all about pretty reflections, I'm not going to lie.
This old man just struck me as interesting


Standard.

Because apparently I'm 5 years old...

I was apparently in a corridor mood today. That and I spent a good hour getting lost in the bowels of the university between lectures and decided to make good use of wasted time.


If this shoe were a Nike Air, this would make a good commercial. If there are any Nike headhunters out there who want to harness this untapped marketing genius, my email's in my profile.


There was also a contemporary Columbian photography exhibition on campus. Small, but ok I guess. The photos that this bloke is looking at are a series of diptychs where the photographer has taken a picture of torn seats etc. on public transport and then sewn them up with bright string and taken another photo. Cool idea but nothing amazing. There was also a series of street shots taken as people walk by. I can appreciate the bold approach but the execution could have been better. Looking at 100 photos of people with a "What the hell are you doing?" expression on their face gets dull. Fast.
At least the light in there was nice.