iOS 13

Screengrab, iphone XS, iOS 13

I upgraded to iOS 13 this morning. Lots of cool new features. The photos app has had a major overhaul. For the average user these can be useful. I personally don't use them much. I use professional desktop tools to manage my photographs. Unless the function is a 'snap' such as our new kittens or some other personal memory related event. Think weddings, birthdays and parties. Some features such as liking/hearting/favouriting adding to albums and sharing has moved and wasn't immediately intuitive. Once I found it it made perfect sense. People who don't like these kinds of change will of course complain. Here's the list of all the changes from the Apple site.

All-new Photos tab
The all-new Photos tab lets you browse your photo library with different levels of curation, so it’s easy to find, relive and share your photos and videos. You can view everything in All Photos, focus on your unique photos in Days, relive your significant moments in Months or rediscover your highlights in Years.

Auto-playing Live Photos and videos
Throughout the Photos tab, muted Live Photos and videos begin playing as you scroll, bringing your photo library to life.

Smart photo previews
In Days, Months and Years, photo previews are larger to help you distinguish between shots. Photos uses intelligence to find the best part of your photo in photo previews, which means you get to see the uncropped version of your photo when you tap to view it.

Contextual transitions
Animations and transitions keep your place in the Photos tab, so you can switch between views — like Days and All Photos — without losing your place.
Removes similar shots and clutter
Duplicate photos, screenshots, whiteboard photos, documents and receipts are identified and hidden, so you see only your best shots.

Significant events
Months presents your photos by events, so you can rediscover the moments that matter most.
Event titles
The Photos tab displays the name of the location, holiday or concert performer to provide helpful context for your significant events.
On this Day
Years is contextual, so it shows you photos taken on or around today’s date in past years.
Birthday mode
If you have birthdays assigned to people in your People album, the Photos tab will highlight your photos of them on their birthday.

Zoom in and zoom out
View your library in All Photos however you’d like. Zoom in for a closer look, or zoom out to quickly scan through your library and see all your shots at once.
Screen recordings smart album
All your new screen recordings are now in one place.

Search enhancements
You can combine multiple search terms — like “beach” and “selfies” — without tapping each word in Search.

Music for Memories
Soundtracks for Memory movies are selected based on what you listen to in the Apple Music app.
Extended Live Photos playback
When you press and hold to play a Live Photo, Photos will automatically extend the video when you have Live Photos taken within 1.5 seconds of each other.

Preview intensity
As you apply an edit, each adjustment displays its intensity, so you can see at a glance which effects have been increased or decreased.

Individually review each effect
Tap each effect icon to see what your photo looked like before and after the effect was applied.

Filter control
Control the intensity of any filter, like Vivid or Noir, to fine-tune your look.

Enhance control
Enhance now lets you control the intensity of your automatic adjustments. As you increase or decrease Enhance, you’ll see other adjustments — including Exposure, Brilliance, Highlights, Shadows, Contrast, Brightness, Black Point, Saturation and Vibrance — intelligently change with it.

Video editing support
Adjustments, filters and crop support video editing, so you can rotate, increase exposure or even apply filters to your videos. Video editing supports all video formats captured on iPhone, including 4K video at 60 fps and 1080p slow-motion video at 240 fps.1
Nondestructive video edits
Video edits are now nondestructive, so you can remove an effect like a filter or undo a trim to return to your original video.
Vibrance
Boost muted colours to make your photo richer without affecting skin tones and saturated colours.
White Balance
Balance the warmth of an image by adjusting temperature (blue to yellow) and tint (green to magenta).
Sharpen
Change photos by making edges crisper and better defined.
Definition
Increase image clarity by adjusting the definition slider.
Noise reduction
Reduce or eliminate noise such as graininess or speckles in photos.
Vignette
Add shading to the edges of your photo to highlight a powerful moment using Strength, Radius and Falloff.

Updates to auto adjustments
Straighten, crop and adjust the perspective of your photos automatically.

Pinch-to-zoom support
You can pinch to zoom while editing to review your changes on a specific area of your photo.

Image Capture API
The Image Capture API lets you import photos directly into an app when a camera is connected to your iOS device.*


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Martin Parr on selfies!

I welcome all these trends. I love things that are ephemeral, things that are changing. As a documentary photographer my job is to understand the way the world is changing and to document that. So how could you not include this in such work? It’s such an integral part of who we are now. And it’s all new! Ten years ago this didn’t exist, and I can’t see their demise.

source 

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Inbox?

Today in my inbox I received this email, for a service I showed interest in in 2014! I know have a page at this uri, https://tilde.club/~s2art/ . I still need to work out how to use it?

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Szarkowski on Atget

Watch this short video of Szarkowski talking about Atget and his work.
From Britannica online

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iPhone 11 etc...

Shot on my iPhone XS using CameraPro in RAW, processed in Lightroom.

Unless you have been living under a rock this last week you would know that Apple, at its annual event announced some new iPhones. They are iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max. The two higher end models 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max boast new chips that Wired claims will make significant differences to pro level photography. The changes in software and hardware make sense. However the software changes for me make little sense. All I need in a smartphone camera is the ability to capture in raw, and to make some exposure adjustments as needed in-situ. A live histogram helps too. Apple’s new phones make multiple exposures and use software and neural networks to composite a single image from up to 9 pictures. Here’s Wired description of the computer hardware changes.

Under its glass and metal exterior, each iPhone has a new A13 Bionic processor, which should offer a decent speed upgrade. Apple claimed that the new chip has the fastest-ever CPU and GPU in a smartphone, and wowed the crowd at Tuesday's event with a show of big numbers to back up the claim. Per Apple, the new chip is capable of 1 trillion operations per second, and holds 8.5 billion transistors.

What this means for photographers is the ability to use more computational photography. Useful in a tight situation, say a war zone or wedding where experimenting with 3rd party apps features or exposure settings, like the ProCamera  and Halide are not feasible. Still for me I make most of my digital images by exposing to the right and correcting in post. So this superpower of computational photography is a bonus but not a feature that my images would live or die by.
Still computational photography has been a thing for some time now. It’s not going away any time soon so it will be interesting to see where it goes from here.

The above raw file in Lightroom, left before right after processing

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Clouds

2019-09-12 07:44:09

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Sometimes I dabble in Video

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Spring is on its way

2019-09-03 17:29:44

Driving though the CBD on Tuesday night the light was resplendent.

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Hong Kong?

I have visited Hong Kong on and off since about 2005. It is my most visited international city. I like it because of its proximity to Australia,  and the feel of the streets being somewhat foreign, yet it is or rather was until recently a safe city. A city where wandering the streets in Kowloon or one of the territories would not alarm anyone. Nobody would bother you except of course for the "copy watch" "copy suit" spruikers. Here then are a handful of pictures I made on a 2009 visit.

The view from the hotel window, reminded me of a scene from Bladerunner

Sitting insde a cafe near the hotel, probably using their wifi

I walked around a lot on this trip.

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National Library of Australia

NLA site screengrab 2019-09-01

I have over 900 images in the National Library of Australia's database. Another reason to like, enjoy and use flickr. Adding my picture to the group called Trove allows this. All images included in this group are also made searchable in Trove, a service hosted by the National Library of Australia but built on the collections of thousands of organisations and individuals!


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BIFB 2019 impressions

Interior National Centre for Photography

2019-08-25 15:05:00

I had my first visit to this years Ballarat International Foto Biennale. It was a Sunday. It was a typical cold winters day in Ballarat. Which is often colder than Melbourne being at a higher altitude. I was surprised by the lack of crowds, given it was the second day of the festival. I focused on the core program.

I was also very interested to see the new National Centre for Photography as well. The exhibition there titled Capital was engaging thought provoking and several works stunning visually. Sadly one projection/movie wasn’t running,  but overall the work was professional and worth exploring. The rest of the work on show at the new National Centre for Photography required a return visit two days later. The second visit revealed work that was eclectic and engaging even if some of the subject matter was difficult to encapsulate in one exhibition. The building so far is well fitted out and the exhibition spaces a mixture of sizes and scales making them a great venue for small photographic exhibitions. One exhibition I visited 2 days later had large scale prints.

As I do every Biennale, I photographed the wall in Police Lane, I have an ongoing album on flickr as well. [The image below will be uploaded when the time is right.]

 Police Lane, Ballarat  2019-08-27 13:51:51

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New Project

Anannadale Road Tullamarine 2019-08-24 16:23:33

I have begun a new film project based around the edges of Melbourne International Airport. Locally known as Tullamarine or just Tulla. I will be exploring the intersection between agriculture, urban landscape and international jet travel with its related infrastructure.

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This morning on flickr...

Sunshine Station,Sunshine, Melbourne, Victoria,Australia 2014-05-14 13.01.33

Part of a larger project over on tumblr as well.


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Wandering with a purpose...

2019-08-16 16:44:36

I spent a pleasant afternoon on a tour of Flinders Street station recently. With friends visiting Melbourne. I learned many new things about its design and construction along with some other information about the City and its design as well.


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This morning at work.

2019-08-19 08:19:01

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New Project on Tumblr

2019-07-13 17:17

2019-08-10 17:17

I am about 12 months into this project. I never anticipated the changes that are now going on.

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Meanwhile on Flickr...

Footscray, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. 2014-01-06 18:58:34

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Everything in photography is a tradeoff

Testing Grounds an experimental ARI near the NGV City Road Southbank
2019-08-01 11:01:56

When I teach students photography I try to stress that there is no perfect fit technically, especially when dealing with natural light and analogue materials. Studio lighting can be “perfect”, but I personally prefer natural light. Of course ideas and concepts go though all kinds shifts and changes as they evolve.

This saying gets trotted out at least weekly. The students enjoy it and by the end of the school year it has been known to illicit groans from them as well.

I originally got the saying from one of my teachers way back at University. In those days making analogue pictures was the only way to get your ideas into a concrete form. Which were usually them exhibited. Although if you were a commercial photographer they could end up as advertisements or billboards or any other form of visual communication.

Analogue photography has many compromises attached to it. Film choice, film format choice, speed and ease of use of cameras based on anticipated outcome, and on and on.

Digital has broadened the horizon somewhat, as you now can for example just ramp up your ISO on your digital camera to achieve a successful result in low light situations. Then use contemporary software to reduce the noise in the file. Still digital sensors are no match for the human eye or brain so some compromise will always occur when making pictures when using a conventional camera and especially when using a smart phone camera.

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The power of images?

Looking South along City Road Southbank from the NGV. 2017-08-01 13:18:11

An op-ed piece in todays Age, by Waleed Aly argues we are being desensitised by imagery, generally. In his argument he specifically mentions climate change.

As an artist this is one of my own biggest concerns. Yes images can move us from stasis to action. Pictures however are not always designed for this. Robert Adams talks about hope and how art can provide this in many of his essays. It is a driving factor in my own work and one that is difficult to articulate both in words and pictures.

Instagram gets a mention in his article. Another discusses its impact on young tweens and teens. Sadly the link is broken but he rightly claims I think that the sheer volume of images we are exposed to on a daily basis makes these kind of responses difficult. This could also be an argument for a bigger return to film. As these images are time consuming to make and difficult to propagate as analogue objects.

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Winners of the 2019 iPhone Photography Awards Announced

NEW YORK – July 25, 2019 – The iPhone Photography Awards (IPPAWARDS) is proud to announce the winners of the 12th Annual Awards. This year’s winners were selected from thousands of entries submitted by iPhone photographers from over 140 countries around the world.

The Grand Prize Winner and Photographer of the Year Award goes to Gabriella Cigliano of Italy for her entry Big Sister.  First, Second and Third Place Photographers of the Year Awards go to Diogo Lage of Portugal for his image Sea Stripes,  Yuliya Ibraeva of Russia for her entry of Sorry, no movie today and Pend Hao of China for his image Come Across.

The 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners in 18 categories were awarded to photographers who represented many countries around the world including Australia, Bahrain, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Peru, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Cary Hazelgrove, one of this year’s jury members, says, “The 2019 entries were off the charts great. Astounding work that pulls the planet together through photographs.”

2019 Winning Photographs

2019 winning Photographers.

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Why I photograph the urban landscape?

Winter light prompted me to get my 5x4 inch monorail camera out.

The subject a pile of rocks in my backyard

I take and make photographs for a variety of reasons, some pleasurable, some emotional, and some intellectual. I also am the kind of person who enjoys working on tactile objects and the way using my hands can be closely aligned with using my mind.

I have been interested in making pictures in the Urban Landscape since 1988. I began my photography studies in 1987. After 2 years I realised I was mostly interested in photographing the landscape and in the context of art. I spent the next 3 years undertaking a fine art degree. This allowed me to think about the what the why and how of art making and could I try and make art this way?

In the beginning my career I was influenced by Ansel Adams, and the idea of a sublime landscape. Images made in his style of similar subject matter were the kind I initially sought to make. As an urban dweller most of my life trips to the ‘wild’ were infrequent and determined by my free time or the weather. But mainly time.

What this meant was it was difficult to really capture imagery that was truly ’sublime'. Free time to travel was also a hindrance to making the kinds of pictures I aspired to. This was is in part due to light. Light in Australia is at its best in the shoulder periods leading up to autumn and spring. Winter light when it shines is also wonderful. Of course light is often best in the magic hour an time of the year. Magic hour in the suburbs is easy to chase, in the outback, not so easily. Most ‘wild or sublime’ locations in Melbourne are at a minimum one hours drive away. So getting to this kind of location is time consuming and can be difficult, even with a car. The urban landscape is all around me. I can catch public transport there if I need and even on occasion walk.

While at University I was introduced to Joe Deal’s work. In particular the San Andreas Fault series [see image from sofomoma.org below]. The idea that images of a constructed or altered landscape could be valuable and interesting helped me look in other directions and think about my own story. Other Photographers and Artists I was introduced to in this period included, Robert Adams, Frank Gohkle, Hille and Bernd Becher, Lewis Baltz, Henry Wessel Jr., No urban landscape photographer worth their salt can neglect to mention the pivotal 1976 exhibition at George Eastman House, “New Topographics, pictures of a man altered landscape” either.

Joe Deal, Brea, California,

from the portfolio The Fault Zone, 1979, printed 1981

I go to a place internally in my mind. A place that is hard to describe but very beneficial. It engages my brain in a way where I focus on the moment like no other activity I engage in. Time disappears. Time becomes just a series of small decisions. Left? Right? Up? Down? More exposure less exposure, wait; lots of waiting. Looking without thinking and at the same time only looking and thinking?

Projects? Everyone has a project. Pictures however are only ever pictures. We attach meaning and substance to them as a consequence. one day early in July the light was magnificent, as it often is in Melbourne mid winter. I went outside and made some pictures with both colour and black and white film, in 120mm and large format. Because the light struck me as well as the mood , and because it felt right. Is this a project? Does it not being a project make it invalid work? How do I take years worth of these images and make then into a valid narrative?

People are talking about surveillance capitalism a lot these days. The places I like to go are often bereft of security cameras, but can also be bristling with them. I’ve been asked rightfully and wrongfully to leave several areas in and around Melbourne over the years. If there are no cameras around I am truly alone in a large city. Something that means more to me s I get older.

Making pictures using  camera, especially a film camera gives a level of purpose that very little else in life gives me. The entire process is somewhat meditative. From exposure in camera to final prints.

In the end I make images of the urban for several  reasons. 

For the geography.
As Autobiography.
As Metaphor

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Visibility on flickr?

My flickr stats for the 21st July 2019!

Last week saw another new record for my views on flickr, with my most viewed picture being one that I had uploaded only a day or two  previously. As of today, the image is the most viewed in my entire stream sitting at a figure north of 70,000 views!

Sadly there is no real info on the traffic and where it comes from or why. All I can say is, the majority of the views came from mobile devices and were split evenly between Android and iOS.

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Swanston Street

SLV, Swanston Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. 2019-07-26 11:52:04

The sculpture outside the SLV.

State Library Victoria is the central library of the state of Victoria, Australia, located in Melbourne. It was established in 1854 as the Melbourne Public Library, making it Australia's oldest public library and one of the first free libraries in the world. The Library's vast collection includes over two million books and 350,000 photographs, manuscripts, maps and newspapers, with a special focus on material from Victoria, including the diaries of the city's founders, John Batman and John Pascoe Fawkner, and the folios of Captain James Cook. It also houses some of the original armour of Ned Kelly. The Library is located in the northern centre of the central business district, on the block bounded by Swanston, La Trobe, Russell, and Little Lonsdale streets.

I photograph here on and off and find winter is the best time for this particular picture. The sun is usually lower in the sky, the trees have no foliage and signs of rain help too. The concrete blocks in the middle ground right are a new addition to the scene since there has been one instance of a car being used as a weapon on the streets of the CBD recently.


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Meanwhile; this morning on flickr

I used to make pictures of all the abandoned shopping trollies in Sunshine, as I stumbled upon them. They reside on flickr

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Wandering around...

2019-07-20 15:03:12 [37°41'35.621" S 145°0'22.692" E]

I was drawn to the incongruous nature of this image in a commercial plant nursery in front of barb wire.

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TYAT & TBT [Lake Mungo Sunrise]

Lake Mungo Sunrise 2009-07-18 07:48:54

Tens years ago today I was on an extended field trip with Latrobe University and a group of American exchange students, touring outback New South Wales.

I was also about to realise I was at the darkest point in my life. I survived thanks to my gorgeous wife and my Doctor.

This spectacular sunrise was only a handful of pictures I made on this trip.


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Emmet Gowin on Ralph Eugene Meatyard

A quick image search on 12/07/2019 at 11:00am

produces a plethora of  images by Ralph Eugene Meatyard

I recently purchased a book/catalogue of an exhibition of Ralph Eugene Meatyards work. The exhibition was held at the University of Kentucky Art Museum, from the 8th of September to the 9th of December 2018. The book contains images of his work that I had not seen before. It also contains short pieces of text by other artists who respond to or knew him. Emmet Gowin is one such artist.

This is the image from page 103

and is the one refereed to by Emmet Gowin

He is one of the few modernist photographers from America who I have the good fortune to spend a little time with. He came to Australia in the mid 1990s, and ran a seminar and gave a lecture. I was privileged to be able to attend both.


Here is his quote from page 102.

“This time the mask is in here hand. This tie the mask isn't needed, nature has provided the transformation.

Normally, the female adult in Gene’s pictures is his wife Madelyn. This time I’m unsure. And still, i think it is. For there is a rare level of intimacy in this image, of warm flesh, the whole body is ready and moving forward. And there is a ripeness, a willow thinness, and the sensuous curve of her jaw and chin and the fullness of her breasts. Thisis a real women fully alive.

In 1966 when this image was made, Gene was at the height of his visionary powers. We first mt the next year. I had just finished Graduate school and was beginning to teach in Ohio. Even before we settled in, a postcard arrived from Gene: “We hear you are ging to be good, send me your thesis, I want to show it at Eyeglasses of Kentucky.” Happily, I already recognised Gene as one of the three most important visionary photographers in America, so I did not hesitate.

Over the next five years we met at least a dozen times. In 1970, Gene travelled to Dayton to meet photographer-philosopher Frederick Sommer. Each recognized the other as a Master Artist. In spite of the many differences there was a genuine kinship. Both were visionaries of the fist order.”Life itself is not the reality. We are the ones who put life into stones and pebbles.” Sommer tells us. “If we did not dream, reality would collapse.”*

The work of Ralpg Eugen Meatyard is the work of an American original. Everything about his photography speaks for and of the right and importance of human imagination,If we did not dream, life would be less interesting.
*Frederick Sommer, “Frederick Sommer: 1939-1962 Photographs: Words Not Spent Today Buy Smaller images Tomorrow,” Aperture 10, no, 4[40] (1962): 163

The images in the book are finely reproduced even though many I have never seen before.

To hear a story about the relationship between two of my favourite photographers being described in such glowing terms make me glad I do what I do.

Roger Ballen also has a quote, along with Duanne Michals & Marvin Heiferman.

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Ways of Seeing Algorithmically

Lewis Bush is going to republish John Berger's seminal work Ways of Seeing to include and examine AI and machine vision. Excited!

"...I am currently in the progress of reworking and updating ‘Ways of Seeing’. Just as Berger’s book sought to educate audiences about the ways we perceive and interpret art, my project ‘Ways of Seeing Algorithmically’ aims to do something similar for the new visual system of algorithms and artificial intelligences, helping audiences understand how these technologies see and understand the world around us. 

To do this, material drawn from my research into artificial intelligence is overlaid on to the pages of ‘Ways of Seeing’ in a way which creates contrasts and juxtapositions between Berger’s text and images and my own. In doing this I will also collaborate with Richard Hollis, the original designer of ‘Ways of Seeing’, in order to ensure the update remains true to the original."

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Uber?

I've long had my reservations about Uber and their ilk. I used to drive Cabs while I was at University. But Uber eats is so convenient. Until things go wrong, which they did recently. I am awaiting some response to my query about the outcome of a recent order that went pear shaped. In the process of trying to wok out how to complain using a desktop computer, I found this site.
It's a place for Uber workers to hang out and "network". Interesting reading. Making a complaint on an iPhone is dumbed down to an FAQ. If the FAQ does not have a suitable respose you can then submit a query in a form with a single input field.

The Uber app itself is an app that works well on a phone, provided things go well. When unexpected things occur, mysteriously cancelled orders for example, the ability to find some recourse is impossible. The app designers make the arrogant assumption that everyone always knows how to use the app and never consider something may go wrong. Even getting help on the phone app is truncated to a single field input value. This field does not allow for a long and complicated explanation. I wrote my complaint in an email. I then to tried email it with no luck as the email  bounced. Then I just cut and pasted the complaint in the single form field on the website version in the FAQ section. Try doing all that on an iPhone!

A single input field, no clarification on how many characters

or any way of reviewing it

Edit 12:38
I have had my issue resolved. Still the process was not as easy and intuitive as it could be. I also didn't get the real reimbursement I felt I deserved. The first cancelled order had a discount code applied. The second was full priced. I was reimbursed the cheaper of the two meals.


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It's all about the light!

Kensington, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. 2012-09-26 15:18:03

This picture was made on a solo photo-stroll in 2012 using only my humble iPhone. It was a pleasant surprise, as I trawled my archive looking for something to upload to flickr on Saturday morning. This is how I treat my flickr stream as a reverse order gallery hang. A stream of consciousness approach to displaying imagery in a screen based context.

What struck me as I looked at it was the delicate play of light and how the scene was almost luminous. A rare treat in the southern hemisphere and a real technical bonus for digital capture devices.

Software like Lightroom means that I can locate and manipulate these kinds of picture easily. As software improves then our ability to find and edit them also improves. Archives have always been important to me. Digital ones are easy to search and keep organised with a minimum of fuss.

Another reason I like to use flickr to upload and share work is the way I can draw connections between images. This image for example is in several 'albums'. Albums are a way to organise your photographs into larger ideas, from the most simple like date, to camera, or some other idea behind the image. The albums this picture is in are, 2012, psychogeography, still life, vertical, iPhone/s, it doesn't get any bigger than this.

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