Doll on a pole

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I was walking the dog around the lake yesterday when I came across this doll. It seemed like it would make a slightly quirky picture. Seeing it made me wonder about why it was there. It was pinned to one of the poles that carry the electricity wires. I guess it’s a child’s doll that had been dropped, or maybe fell out of a stroller. Perhaps someone had picked it up and attached it to the pole in the hope that the child, or a parent would return to reclaim it. I’d noticed the doll before when I didn’t have a camera so I know that it had been there for some time. While I’m sure that someone would have noticed that it was missing they may not have realized exactly when or where the disappearance occurred. I often pass this spot and I’ll keep an eye open to see if anyone removes it.

The Real Meanings of Common Photographic Words and Expressions

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This gave me a few laughs. I particularly liked the following:

Foreground interest: Bits of wood, branches, seaweed, shells and other readily available detritus that a photographer can drag from its actual resting place to a convenient spot just in front of what they’re actually photographing. Most commonly employed by coastal photographers who will cheerfully drag a six foot branch for half a kilometre if it makes their sunset composition look a bit less dull.

via The Real Meanings of Common Photographic Words and Expressions.

I’ve recently bumped into “The Real Meanings of Common Photographic Words and Expressions. Part II.“. I think my favourite from part II is: “Natural Light Photographer: Someone who’s never successfully worked out how to operate a flash. Also someone genetically predisposed to not be overweight”. The first part definitely applies to me. I’m terrible with flash. The second part definitely does not apply. I also liked:Photojournalist: Career path with similar prospects to that of installer of asbestos ceilings.”

Impressions of a pieta

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My wife posts old pictures on Facebook every Thursday. She calls it ‘Throwback Thursday’. My job is to provide the raw materials, which often requires scanning old prints and negatives. A recent ‘Throwback Thursday’ covered Italy – or at least Rome, Florence and Venice. So I set about scanning some old negatives, one of which was of the Michelangelo Pieta in St. Peters, Rome. This was a really bad picture taken many years ago when my technical skills were even less developed than they are now. It’s extremely dark, blurred because of the very slow shutter speed, and very grainy. I couldn’t include it in her ‘Throwback Thursday’, but it did give me something to play around with. By deliberately increasing the blur and bumping up the ‘graininess’ could I make this into something almost impressionistic. I also added some light streaks. So does this reflect a new direction in my work. Something more ‘out of the box’ going beyond my usual cliche’d images? Is this a more artistic Howard? Nah! Still just a lousy picture. Proves once again that “You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear” or in this case you can’t produce Monet from a digitally enhanced awful photograph. Although as I look at this again it’s starting to grow on me …..

Questions For Discussion

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From Blake Andrews blog. Gave me a laugh. I particularly liked numbers 6 and 7:

6. Were you at all put off by the mural-sized piece immediately beyond the entrance depicting a rusty sewing needle penetrating a drop of blood on white background, labeled Untitled #17 (For The Forgotten Seamstress) ?

7. According to the photographer’s artist statement, the show was intended to "transmediate a cross-pollination of historical imagery including personal scrapbooks and obscure FSA outtakes collaged with nonconsensual portraiture, exploring their currency while challenging the dominant patriarchy, but they could also be considered a response to terrorist reportage." Do you think the photographer achieved this? If not, do you think this objective could be achieved by hanging the images slightly lower on the wall

via Questions For Discussion.