Merry Christmas

Oi Olay! You've got Twiggy banned.

It's been on the news and is now doing the rounds of the virtual chatterers and I suspect Olay are lapping it up. One of their print ads has had to be scrapped as they used a little too much photoshop and youthified 60's icon Twiggy. In fact when you see the image at Guardian online you'll wonder how she could have been around in the 60s in the first place!
And YouTube will be happy too as everyone is viewing the various parody movies showing photoshop being used to age people. And if you want to see a beauty re-toucher in action then head to Christy Schuler for a tutorial. I particularly like the enlarged eyes effect. In fact I think it's time I went up to the attic and did some aging on my portrait.

The State of the Photographic Nation.

Many years ago, so many in fact it was well before my time, Noel Coward implored a Mrs Worthington to 'Don't put your daughter on the stage'. For him it was a profession full of pitfalls, dangers and vices. He sang the lines ' The profession is overcrowded, And the struggle's pretty tough, And admitting the fact, She's burning to act, That isn't quite enough'. Some, me included, would say the same about photography in the early 21st century.

If I see a blog post I really like I'll tweet a line or two about it on Twitter. I've never before reproduced someone's blog posting directly but today I'm making an exception (with his permission I hasten to add) as I've been touched by Glyn Davies' latest posing as The Anglesey Photo Artist.
One or two circumstances aside, what Glyn has written could have been written by me or maybe any established photographer. Photography is being hit by the double whammy of the global recession and the effects of the rush to become a photographer now that digital technology has opened the door for all. So we have an over-supply of photographers and vanishing markets. Having watched other industries implode I never thought it would happen to photography. Is digital technology is turning out to be a poisoned chalice?
I could go on but he says it so much better. Please read Glyn's posting and then head to his pages and explore his beautiful work and soak up a bit of his passion. A 'bit' I say because there's so much there and with his talent there is certainly more than 'quiet enough'.

Start:

'Is this the last of the light? A sad post.'

Latest seascape image from last weekend. It seems that escaping to see the light for an hour or so each weekend is the only real joy from all of this game at the moment. The gallery is too quiet, loads of compliments but people are really not putting their hands in their pockets these days unless their fingers are cold. The forecast for next year is just as dull and stormy and they promise more people will be out in the cold :-(

The general view of my career running a gallery, is that I am so lucky - taking landscapes, doing photography, surrounding myself with pictures, getting involved with large format printing and seeing my images nicely framed on walls. What they don't see is the damned hard work it all is, the endless hours of image manipulation, archiving, editing, preparing, printing, framing, ordering, sourcing, administrating, dealing with taxation, Custom's & Excise, accounts, PAYE, balancing books, juggling finance, switching suppliers, energy bills, rates, rent, insurances, overheads, renewing and repairing kit, updating software, learning new techniques and applications, troubleshooting, networking and finally getting that time for friends, family and ME time.

In the meantime, photographers are being accused of being terrorists or paedophiles, they are being stopped and questioned under Section 44 of the terrorism act, they dare not photograph many public places, landscapes or street scenes, they are the only ones stopped when photographing performances, even though everyone else will be using mobile phones and videos - and every family in the UK has at least one person who thinks they are as good as the pros and sets up their own website trying to flog A3 prints or play at weddings.

I have less time than ever to get out to do my own thing. I am getting more and more unfit as the business demands it's attention, and more and more mentally wiped by the sheer survival techniques that so many full-time professionals now have to adopt. I compound my problems because I want to stay true to myself and my art. I could easily knock out cheap canvas sunsets and flog off postcard snaps of iconic landmarks using grossly over saturated colours and cheap HDR techniques, but I refuse. There are too many of those sorts of snappers out there and I don't want to join their ranks.

I went into this nearly 30 years ago simply because I loved landscape and sharing my experiences through my photographic eye. My love is as strong as ever, but the public is presented with a bewildering array of over-cooked photographic nonsense. Prices are being constantly devalued by non professionals seeking vanity publication, and the professional image libraries have managed to create a commodity mentality whereby photography is equated with tins of beans, 'pile em high sell em cheap'.

For those of us still working in this profession full time, trying to put food on our kids tables, times have NEVER been so hard for us, nor has the competition from every man and his dog been so great. For those of us who also have integrity about what we do as artists, those who won't prostitute their art, it is even harder. Many of us never saw this profession as a way of making big money, it was an outlet for our creativity whilst living and breathing our subject, totally connected, intrinsic.

As I sit in my gallery on another quiet day, with stunningly beautiful light teasing me outside, I have to reflect on what is happening to me, to the profession, and what has been a way of life for many of us. I look forward to seeing another beautiful sunset but hope that the light of our profession doesn't go out too soon because more and more pros ARE going to the wall.

So if you've always wanted one of my prints or books, and want to beat the VAT increases in January, and help me out in the meantime, now is a very good time to give me a call :-))

All words and images are strictly copyright © Glyn Davies 2009
The Anglesey Photo Artist.

End.

St Andrew's Day - step aside Mr Salmond.

Well it's traditional to wish everyone all the very best for St Andrew's Day. And may I do so now?
And no doubt by the end of the day we will have had no end of reports of the success of the Homecoming campaign. I'll take the experts' opinion on its monetary and cultural value as I suspect I'll have little access to any data with which to argue one way or the other. But no doubt it's the SNP's White Paper on a proposed independence referendum that will steal all the headlines. Good or bad we'll be chewing it over for the coming months.
And to kick it off can I cheekily offer an outlandish thought? That the Chairman of Harrods, Mr al Fayed, might become the President of a Scottish Republic. He's even got the gear and the throne ready .. so why not?
Shot a few years ago for Scotland on Sunday this portrait is a consistent seller for me and proves the argument that even small creators should retain their copyright and control their IP.

Professional Landscape Photography on Flickr

Well I've gone and done it. Yes I've joined that great photo sharing site that lends it's name to so many comic interpretations of male on female lovemaking. And it's Flickr without the 'e'. And why join? To share? Well yes of course (fingers crossed and nose slightly longer). No it's another part of social networking and it's aim of driving people to my website.
And yesterday Glyn Davies set up a Professional Landscape Photography group and invited members of the Association of Photographers, Pro-Imaging and ProDig to join and add to the group.
My contribution is here. Yes it's meagre to say the least so I'll have to get back into shooting outdoors. But if you want to see more or even join then just head here.
PS Glyn also keeps a busy blog, Musings from the Anglesey Photo Artist, here on Blogger. It's well worth a visit.

Art? No sir, Blackpool.

Ever wondered what photographers do to amuse ourselves? Personally I like to take to a fast car at Knockhill but unfortunately the holder of the purse strings won't allow that right now. Instead, when I recently had a few quiet days, I took myself off to the fab and famous Blackpool during the Illuminations.
How fab is the place? Well very, if you're into the English seaside experience. Otherwise it's best to let the sun go down to hide the cracks and have the 'luminations' come up to distract.
And if you want to see a bigger choice you could hop to Alamy where I've just posted a small set.

It never rains but it shines.

Here's a sneak preview of my latest emailer to clients and would be clients due out on Monday... are you on my mailing list?
The rainbow shot came from a 'right place right time' moment. Actually I'd passed by here a day previously to a Turneresque scene of a clearing storm. A good enough image came from that stop but this one capped it by a mile.
But what to place with it? More landscapes or some food? Scallops or venison? None of that was doing it for me until I remembered this portrait of a far north crofter. Yes it's a couple of years old but now works perfectly with the castle and rainbow.
And where is the castle? What am I ... a location service?

Summer song or Going for a song?

I've haven't been giving this blog much attention of late so to get things rolling again I thought I'd offer you these frames from an editorial job for Conde Nast Traveller for their Room with a View pages. Just simple natural photography. Really? Well yes if you allow for 3 visits to one of the venues and computer time to blend exposures and then lots of time to touch out the builders muck caked on one of the glass windows.
Which brings up an issue I'm having with new clients (not this one)....... make images look natural, simple and easy and carefree and they perceive them as being low budget. Experience counts for nothing. Nor track record.
So when the accounts department next says they have a trainee with a camera I'll reply that I have a stethoscope/calculator/football boots but that doesn't make me a doctor/accountant/David Beckham.
Thanks to the Balmoral, Caledonian and Messoni Hotels.

Rain, rain but not a drop to be had.

We've had a fair amount of rain in the past few days but like buses and policemen when I was shooting this there just wasn't any.
So what to do? Well shoot the scene in broad daylight, push and pull it in HDR and add the figure from a studio shot.
It's a book cover for Cainnt na Caileige Caillte by Alison Lang, published by The Gaelic Book Council, design by James Hutcheson.
Now if they want bright sunny weather can I do it via the Mac or do I have to go to Spain yet again?

Make mine a ....

......... Bowmore. And I won't thank you for a small one.
Just hitting the bookshops is this tome on Scotland's other great export that I shot the cover for. Whiskypedia by Charles MacLean is an essential handbook for an up-to-date grasp of the Scotch Whisky industry and it's regional variations. Design by James Hutcheson at Birlinn.
Slainte.

How Long for a Photograph?

Well 3.07 times 2 for 9 minutes of shutter action. I was on the road once again for RBS Business Sense magazine. This time it was to HJS Helicopters just west of Aberdeen, which is 3 hours and 7 minutes from Edinburgh according to the AA Route Planner. And half an hour after arriving my subject, Sidney Simpson, presented himself. And exactly 9 minutes later (I checked on the metadata) he announced that was enough. No second shot. All over in a flash I suppose.
Still before our second 3 hour and 7 minute leg to Edinburgh we got to see a little of how these helicopters are built. They are basic to say the least and based on a 1950's concept but so meticulously maintained and rebuilt that it would shame even a nearly new car.

Pulling the Shutters down......

....on an Edinburgh landmark. Well many, me included, feel it's more an eye-sore than landmark and are happy that it'll be rubble soon. Luckily I got 2 hours in there recently and some of the resulting images are now on my website.

June

On the first of the month I usually post the relevant page from a calendar that I produced at the beginning of the year. Well for this month I was away and didn't have access to that particular file.
Better late than never as they used to say .... but as I'm about to do a bulk email I thought I'd post that image instead as it includes the June calendar image.
So it's a BOGTF rather than a BOGOF.
The portrait is from a series I shot for NHS Grampian through Leith, the healthy fish dish was shot for UrbanAngel and the road shot is from a reccie and is available at Alamy if you're looking to license something "just like that".

Client Vendor relationship

NHS portraits

Just gone online on my website are portraits for NHS Grampian through Leith. Shots over 2 days at 6 different locations, including my studio, they illustrate different ways to access the NHS. Run as a door drop and 6 sheet posters.
Production by Angela Moffat, Hair and Make Up by Julie Maguire.

Selling Yourself .....

.....too cheaply.

Great Rant.....

.....that I totally agree with. Now imagine that photographers didn't just give it away.

MAY and it's Salad Days

Well here in Scotland it's not exactly high summer or even spring for that matter. But we live in hope. And don't we need to boost that immune system?

"If you sell yourself cheap......

....you will never get out of that hole".
Great American Society of Media Photographers interview video with several members on negotiating with clients. And there's tons of other information and advice there too.
Also don't forget Copyright for Clients from the AOP.
Oh how I love laying it out upfront.

Photoshoot at the Chancellor's Highland Retreat.

Coming soon to a magazine near you is my photoshoot at Chancellor Alistair Darling's Highland retreat. Please email me if you'd like to see an extended preview.

Lens Production.

Ever wondered how that lens was made? Well then take a look at this YouTube video and understand why they cost so much. Thanks to Philip Chudy on the AOP list for pointing it out.


Shorpy Photo Archive

Another website, or blog to be precise, that I really like is Shorpy. It is as they say 'a vintage photography blog featuring thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1950s. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago.' Take a tour through it. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

Blog Feed.

Those who have visited PushPixels before will already know that I have a sidebar with a small list of blogs that I follow. With two or three exceptions they are photography related.
But I've never known if any of my visitors ever go there and click through to any of them. So in an effort to push you that way I thought I'd start an irregular summery of the past week's content in some of them.
This was all prompted bescause Conscientious covered Joel Sternfeld's new landscape book Oxbow Archive (pictured). Also mentioned is Adam Bartos on his Yard Sale photographs, Lisa Wiseman who was selected for 'PDN's 30 for 2009' and who has a great page on the iPhone as the New Polaroid, there's a pointer to an article in Frieze on the Art World in the Credit Crunch and another to the work of Finnish photographer Ismo Holtto. And there's also reference to a building collapse in Cologne where there's a subway tunnel being built by the very same people building out tram line here in Edinburgh. Which explains a lot.

Glyn Davies at Musings from the Anglesey Photo Artist tells of his interview for a Welsh Language Arts tv programme, individual prints selling and news of a print sale with lots of great photography including this shot.

Mrs Deane has a review of the work of Prix HSBC pour la Photographie winner Matthieu Guafso, muses on change, moving on and ruins and a piece on 2 found postcards one of which has very sinister overtones. Or does it?

Meanwhile LensCulture has a review of Look Me in the Eyes:Russian Photographic Portraits happening in Paris, the World Press Photo 2009 awards and a story on how the residents of a Kenyan slum are mounting photographs on their roofs big enough for Google Earth to see. And this site has a vast archive of photography to view and buy too.
And The Strobist has.... well tutorials and kit stories and .... well go there if you're after a How To? or 2.
And what of the non photographic blogs? Well my friends at Bohemia Life have kids clothes from Phister and Philine (which is a slightly odd name to choose if I may say so), The Little Experience Craft kits for Kids and lots and lots more for body and home including my nudes. Tom Morton at Beetcroft moans about ITV's Red Riding. I agreed with some of what he says about set design but I've sympathy with the designers who can't find all the necessary 60's tat as its all been chucked save for the really high end stuff. And that wasn't required in that film was it? But I thoroughly enjoyed the episode with the exception of the sound quality. Or is it my tv set? Or even my hearing? And finally my friend Mike Coulter at DigitalAgency relates a story on crap iPhone customer service from O2. How much longer will Apple allow this monopoly to exist? Great device. Pity about O2's grasp of our nuts.

Ahoy there! New Website!

ALL or At Long Last I've finished my promised re-building of my website. I've expanded it into a simplified format with 4 "Books" and "Info" and "T&Cs" pages. And rather than talk too much about it here I'd like you to go visit it HERE.

Hope you like it (and do please report any errors).

MARCH

March is here and it's time for some DIY. Also look out for my updated website later in the week.

Twitter Part 3.

One Phil Adams (of Blonde) and family are now proud owners of one of my Shadow Nudes. Phil won the print in the raffle run as part of the recent Twestival here in Edinburgh which raised £3500 for CHARITY:WATER. Enjoy it Phil.
The total raised from the Global Twestival stands at $250,000 USD on 18 February 2009 - confirmation from over 80 cities is still pending. Not bad for something conceived and delivered in just one month.
And what's this? A photographers blog page without a photo? That's a first.

Twitter or Twestival part 1

You'll have been stuck in a jungle somewhere or you'll have heard of TWITTER. It's one of the simplest and greatest of the Social Networking devices currently available. And at less than 3 years old it is having it's first global festival or TWESTIVAL next Thursday, 12th Feb, 2009. Moving from the virtual to the real, faces behind the avatars will meet and greet in person at over 175 different venues throughout the world and all in aid of CHARITY:WATER.
In Edinburgh it's happening at 19:00 at Hawke and Hunter, 12 Picardy Place, Edinburgh EH1 3JT.
And one part of the evening is an auction that I've been persuaded to contribute to. So if you want a print from my Shadow series (normally £150 at Bohemia, Dundas Street, Edinburgh) get on down there.
(Further images and info on next post).

Twitter or Twestival part 2

Here's what Bohemia Design have to say about me and the images:
This series of archival quality limited edition prints are made on a heavyweight watercolour paper with natural pigment inks.
An elegant play of light, form & shadow in gorgeous rich tones describe the enduring mystery of the female figure.

Brendan MacNeill is a graduate of London Central Polytechnic & now works from his studio based in Leith, Edinburgh.
With a portfolio of portraits which include David Bailey, Terence Conran, Mohammed al Fayed, Jimmy Boyle, Hugh Collins, Carol Smillie & Murial Gray, MacNeill's photographic skills are in constant demand. He shoots for a wide range of clients across the editorial & design industries.

Limited Edition of 25 copies

Image size: 53cm x38cm
Paper size: 61cm x 43cm

Supplied unframed

Printer's darkrooms

The digital revolution has certainly given us all a huge degree of added freedom along with a bigger and more complex workload. And just as the hot metal boys disappeared from Fleet Street (and Albion Street if you're going all Weegee) in favour of digital type setting, so too the darkroom giants are fast disappearing.
And to document these usually unseen working spaces Richard Nicholson has managed to gain access to many of the unique and personal spaces of top London printers to produce 'Last One Out, Please Turn On The Light'. Worth a look if you've too young to have been in one or you want to invoke the smell of hypo again. Featured here is Debbie Sears enlarger at Metro in Clerkenwell. And no that's not an early AppleMac.
And talking of another Weegee... he worked in 30's and 40's New York shooting crime scenes and victims and the dead. Frequently arriving before even the police (he had permission to listen in on their frequency) he shot fast with a handheld 5x4 inch camera and processed the film in his car as he drove back to the paper. Who needs digital?
Thanks again to JM Colberg at Conscientious - always available on the sidebar.

Remembering summer

Sitting in a drafty studio I started to dream of summer. And to remind myself of what I'd shot when I last wore a pair of shorts I hit Apple+F and found these timelapse movies. All a little over crunched by Bloggers processing they nevertheless make me yearn for a bit of heat. And the forecast? More snow!

FEBRUARY

That's January gone then!

Test

Tomas from the Stolen Agency. Sometimes simplicity counts.

Working for the Company Store

Well RBS actually. This was shot for a customer profile for RBS Business Sense magazine. The location was the Hub at Glentress near Peebles where Tracy and Emma run an amazing set up of forest trails, bike shop, cafe and bike wash. Well worth a visit if you're thinking of getting into off-road cycling.
Wonder if I can get a discount on my banking charges?

Interactive Panoramas

Early days yet..... Over the break I was shooting and putting some QTVRs together. See them here (will open in a full screen browser) GlenCoe, Cramond and Leamington Lift Bridge. As you see I've still one or two issues to work through. Look out for linked tours in the future. Quicktime required..... download it here.

Polaroid SX-70

Changed days according to the Lens Culture blog as apparently Polaroid cease production of instant film products this month. And thanks to them for unearthing this wonderful promotional film on the legendary SX-70 camera.. think Bowie's Camera in The Man Who Fell To Earth. Having viewed the corporate promo Lens Culture asked what's missing with current advertising. Admittedly it's from a bygone era but I'm left wondering how such a relentingly optimistic piece could ever be made these days.
The still is my take on the system.

It's 2009!

Happy New Year. Enlarge image.