Flickr is AWESOME!

The second picture that I uploaded to flickr in 2004.

I have been a  flickr.com pro user since 2004.* I have invested heavily in its service for my own creative needs and to share with a larger community. Now with the NBN I also backup all my jpegs and  tiff files. I have unlimited storage and bandwidth for about $75.00 AU per year. It is worth every cent. If you care about your photographs and want to keep them safe and not be used as some kind of ad or artificial intelligence fodder then consider using flickr as a minimum to store your work, but consider getting involved as well. Smugmug as the new owners are doing a great job with flickr. I see no reason why SmugMug would allow this great service to fade! Don't just listen to me I am biased after all; 16 years of biased in fact, Read this article if you need some clarification.  Ferdy Christant says it in much more detail, more eloquently and logically than I ever could. Follow me s2art. Or not. Flickr is still the best place in the world to share and store your photographs!

* This is not a paid endorsement, although I have used flickr daily since 2004. I continue to enjoy it and use it creatively and socially and now as a secondary backup service.

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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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Yarraville 2009-04-24

2009-04-24 15:05:01

In May 2009 I was wandering with my Nikon camera chasing that killer shot of some of my favourite subject matter. I have always been interested in pictures of infrastructure. Gaining access to these paces is very difficult so making pictures from outside and using the external elements as an aid to composition is all that one can do. I got extra lucky on this day, a Sunday. A worker wandered through my scene adding a scale element to the picture.
Looking at this picture so many years later I realise how much my technique has changed. Software has moved forward too. The commonly held wisdom in the 2000s was, underexpose. The idea being to not overexpose your highlights. Now with RAW file formats on almost every camera I use this is no longer the case. I now expose to the right, ie overexpose. This then captures as much data as I can in the low values. If the subject brightness range is too large care still needs to be taken. I have overexposed up  to 1 1/3 stops on overcast days, but usually on 1/3 of a stop on days with too much contrast.

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Software?

ON1 Software screen grab, 2019-05-08

I download a demo version of this software as I'm always looking for alternatives to Photoshop/Lightroom. Initially the interface looked promising but then the program just hung there. I eventually force quit it.

I circumvented the network using my own device and now it works. I will watch some tutorials now and see if I can get my head around it.

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