My Life on the Net

In my ever increasing drive to get better at all things, I realised that since my move to uni my photography has been stuck in a rut.

So, what are these two simple things I can do to become better?

1. Take Your Camera Everywhere

This seems simple, but it’s something I always forget or can’t be bothered carrying about with the rest of my tech for classes.

The more you take your camera, the more you will take pictures - and with each picture a step closer to finding something amazing. Also, it will be a great conversation starter - with your camera over your shoulder, you’ll always get a question like ‘are you a photographer?’… It might go somewhere interesting, or you might even get a picture out of it!

2. Make an effort.

I have found myself victim of this essential task. Since my move to Dundee, my only excuse for lack of photography was “there’s no good locations to shoot”. Sure there are! You’re just not looking hard enough! Look for events in the area, ask small shops if you can photograph for an hour or so (you could get some good photos, a story and even some of the final photographs sold if you do!) or take a trip to somewhere you’ve never been before!

It’s cold is it? Raining? Unless it’s gale force winds, try to get out… Seeing people shivering on the streets, running through the rain and seeing reflections from puddles on the road are small, but interesting concepts that you would not be able to achieve when it’s sunny out. Just make sure you dress warm and ensure your camera is protected from the elements.

The more that you get, the more that you will receive - remember it’s the same with photography. You don’t get good at photography by playing Dead Rising all day (it was either that or Pokemon Snap) - take your camera everywhere and try to make an effort to find new ideas and new photos that will impress everyone. It’s not just point and shoot!

A dear friend wanted this on a t-shirt….

Should I be scared?

This post was created for Blog Action Day 2007.

I miss them. I miss being able to look at the sky and see white light instead of orange. I have to venture to the country to see anything reasonable. Why?

Light pollution has done it all. The streets need to be lit to keep the people safe, but what else is it doing?

It disrupts ecosystems, cause adverse health effects, interferes with astronomical observatories and wastes energy.

Do we need all of this? I don’t think so - lights from homes, workplaces and overpowered lamps on the streets. What can we do about it?

The easiest thing to do is to close your curtains, but the orange glow from street lamps will always be a problem unless radical changes are made by city councils or government. Buildings which are lit up for aesthetic reasons should reduce or remove lighting and then hopefully we’ll all be able to see a few more stars, even if you live in the city.

Do your part, it’s not hard - and make sure you view other views on the environment on blogactionday.org

I got into a discussion with a friend today about the idea that we’ve always wanted to make our own t-shirts. Here in Dundee it costs a grueling £75 for a screen print session for beginners - not exactly nice on my student budget. But why not do it ourselves?

The materials are relatively cheap (a cloth store nearby as well as a Primark round the corner). I found this tutorial extremely useful in fuguring out what I’d need. I’ve used acrylic and acetate before in creating a deviantART tee a few years ago but this method ensures that the design will remain useful a lot longer (and without any nasty bleed).

Here’s my first intended design :-

I’m really interested in this - has anyone else ever done screen printing? How successful was it? Was it a DIY project gone mad? Any tips?

Dundee Docks (Sunday 30th September)

Dundee has been great so far, and loads of interesting photo locations. My main photographic theme i’m going to be working on this year is decay - and hopefully self-publish a small book for friends, family and whoever wants one.

Looking back at all of the last series of Dr. Who…

Wouldn’t the Cybermen race be a little more appealing if they just used better text-to-speech software?

I definitely wouldn’t do anything with someone like Microsoft Sam, but with with some nicer third party voices - I might just consider that upgrade…