An ordinary life in an extra-ordinary place
Life
General ramblings
Way back in 2009, a professional photographer called Chase Jarvis published a book titled “The best camera is the one that’s with you”. There are many books available that are full of interesting and artistic photos; but this one differentiated itself by containing only photos that were taken by a phone; and damn good they were too.
Mr. Jarvis could have also called the book “It doesn’t matter what camera you have, it’s the photographer that makes the difference”; but maybe that would not have sold as many copies.
Back to the present and the world has adopted the Jarvis mantra. Flickr is one of the biggest photo hosting sites with more than six billion photos; and the most popular camera on Flickr is the iPhone. Point and shoot camera sales are falling as people use their phones instead.
A phone may not have the greatest camera; but it’s there in your pocket and, once you have taken a shot; it’s a trivial thing to share it with the world. Especially if you use Instagram.
Started less than two years ago, Instagram attracted one hundred thousand users in the first week. By January 2012 there were fifteen million users and two weeks ago that figure had jumped to twenty seven million.
The appeal of Instagram lies not in the photo taking application itself. The options are rudimentary; a set of retro-filters and a couple of processing options; other apps offer more. But finish processing your photo, add a title and your creation is automatically added to the presumably massive database of Instagram photos.
When you start Instagram, the latest photos taken by those you follow are displayed; and if you hunt around a bit, there is some spectacular work to enjoy. Other photo apps, such as Hipstamatic, have embraced the Instagram buzz and allow you to push your photos onto the Instagram database. It’s Twitter for photos and a little bit of genius.
Unlike many of the other photo apps, Instagram is free; which had people wondering about their business model. There was no obvious way for them to make money, unless they started charging for their arty filters. But after the launch of their product, their CEO was quoted as saying “Filters are not the billion-dollar business, it’s photography. The next network is people interested in sharing life visually.”
Eerily prophetic Mr. CEO (who is about twelve years old and fresh out of college); because today it was announced that Facebook had bought Instagram for one billion dollars. ONE BILLION DOLLARS, for a fifteen month old company with zero income. The CEO will pocket 400 million, and the extremely fortunate thirteen full-time employees will share 100 million.
Much debate on the wide wide world of web as to how Instagram could possibly be worth that much. That’s not the point. Instagram had the potential to become a threat to Facebook’s photo sharing and a billion is probably a small price to pay to own that threat.
So now I am waiting for The Son to invent the next big thing and be bought out after fifteen months for a similar sum. Cue that GT40 he has always promised me.
As everyone knows, or at least anyone who has used Google this morning, today is the birthday of the long dead Mr E. Muybridge (Muggridge? Muygridge?).
Notable for changing his names on a regular basis, he also found time to develop a method that proved that horses do indeed have all four hooves off the ground, and that they are tucked under the body rather than splayed out at either end as thought by those who worried about these things.
So well done there Mr. E., although nowadays readers of this site will have become depressingly familiar with how easy this is to illustrate with a digital camera.
Still, you will be pleased to know that yesterday marked the end of the Polo Season in Thailand. Cue much wine and champagne after the match and tearful hugs as everyone (apart from me) disappears to more pleasant climes for the summer.
As a birthday tribute to Eadweard, and to mark the end of the season, here is a hooves in the air shot this last weekend featuring a small Thai lady pushing a much larger opponent off the ball.
No more polo photos inflicted on you until October (unless I unearth something special); but my work is not done. A couple of thousand shots from last weekend to process, and then I have a commission for a polo book which will require several days trawling through photos, followed by a trip to Hong Kong next month to work with the client. Should be finished with the job by around September; just in time to clear the decks before the season starts again. Won’t even have time to change my name.
Just by chance, I found myself amongst assorted Thai ladies on the front row of a fashion show yesterday. The Thai ladies did not approve. They were there for the fashion, but it was clear to them I was only there to perv at the models. I tried to play this down by muttering “my editor at Vogue is going to love these shots”; but they were not convinced. Then a couple of male models hit the catwalk and I was not sure what to do. If I didn’t photograph them then I would reinforce my pervy image; if I did photograph them then I was obviously gay. I compromised by taking a couple of shots with an expression of complete disinterest; not that the Thai ladies cared. As soon as the guys turned up they whipped out cameras, phones and tablets and were snapping away enthusiastically; dirty old pervs.
The lighting was atrocious; spot lights of various colours firing off in no particular sequence, interspersed with periods of dark. The exposure reading on my GX1 was leaping around all over the place, and it was impossible to get any reasonable colour balance.
Still, here are some shots:
Panasonic GX1 with Panasonic/Leica 25mm and Olympus 45mm.
Whilst in Bangkok last week, she who must be obeyed expressed an interest in going to the cinema. When she is interested in doing something, I am fascinated; so off we went.
The only show in town was “The Hunger Games”, a hugely popular teen movie based upon a hugely popular trilogy of books. Set the future in what used to be America, a boy and girl from each of the twelve poor districts that once staged a rebellion, are brought to the capital for an annual televised event where they are placed in an area of land, and the last one alive is the winner.
To ensure a PG-13 certificate, shaky camera techniques and quick edits are used to ensure we are not exposed to too much bloodshed. To ensure the average cinema audience is not over-taxed, many of the themes and plots in the book are simplified, or ignored completely (allegedly, I have not read them).
But, in spit of that, I rather enjoyed it. It’s well made, the lead actress, Jennifer Lawrence, is clearly a future star; and the supporting cast including Woody Harrelson, Lenny Kravitz and the inevitable Donald Sutherland as the evil president do a solid job. It flags a bit in the middle, but as a no-brains required evening out it’s OK.
But this is not the first “last schoolkid standing” movie, and it is not the best. Honours for that have to go to the excellent Battle Royale.
I have a passing interest in Japanese cinema; first sparked by Mike Takahashi’s “Audition” (Kiri Kiri Kiri!) and rekindled lately by “13 Assassins” from the same director. My limited collection includes a special edition of Battle Royale.
Been a few years since I watched it; and what a joy after the somewhat sterile Hunger Games.
The Japanese have no problem with violence; even if those involved are not yet of a voting age. They also have no problem in ensuring that the majority of contestants in the movie just happen to be cute Japanese schoolgirls who spend their time prancing around in outfits containing insufficient cloth to qualify as school uniforms in the Japanese education system.
There’s buckets of blood, but I don’t think it deserved an 18 certificate. The violence never descends to unpleasantness and the whole enterprise is laced with a sense of humour; this is not a movie to take seriously. Good ending too.
But if you can’t see the enjoyment in spending a couple of hours watching inappropriately dressed young girls being slaughtered in a variety of amusing ways; well then Battle Royale is not for you. Maybe you would enjoy The Hunger Games instead; but for god’s sake stay away from Audition.
Still breathtaking after all these year and one of the many cars I never owned but wished I had:
The car was black and the colours in the background just distracted; so a B&W conversion was in order.
Panasonic GX1 with Panasonic 7-14mm lens.
She: You want to talk?
Me: Yes, we need to have a conversation?
She: What’s on your mind?
Me: I remember the day I first saw you. You were in a shop and I saw you through the window. It was pretty much love at first sight, you were so beautiful. I thought to myself; she is going to be expensive, but I didn’t care, I had to have you.
She: Yes, it was a magic moment for me too. As soon as I saw your credit card face, I knew I should go home with you.
Me: At first it was wonderful, we went everywhere together. I held you, caressed you, showed you to my friends; I was so proud that you were mine. But then your flaws started to appear. You were so hard to deal with. Even the simplest things turned out to be difficult with you; and to be brutally frank, you were just slow. Beautiful, but flawed. I have to admit I was attracted back to my old love. She may not have your looks, but she is so responsive to my touch.
She: Oh no! How can you say that?
Me: After a while I realised that hooking up with you was a mistake and now I want out of our relationship.
She: Please; give me another chance! Maybe they’ll update my firmware. But wait, what’s this packing box…..
Me: I just sold you on eBay; for almost as much as I paid for your sorry arse. Packing time!!
She: Nooooo! I don’t want to go! And what’s this black thing next to me?
Me: It’s the 7-14mm Panasonic lens I have been lusting after for some time. Sold you, bought that; result!
She: What? You’d swap my gorgeous looks and sweet images for that black lump of glass?
Me: Before you could say “Paypal receipt”. Now, get in the box, bitch.
Yes, the Fuji X100 is finally out of my life. Lovely looking camera, gorgeous images; but I just got sick of the interface. Plus the Leica Summilux 25mm F1.4 on the GX1 spits out photos of a character that the smoothly lovely Fuji could never match. Funds topped up; it was off to AV Camera for the fabulous 7-14mm Panasonic; thus completing my personal must-have lens collection for micro-four thirds.
Goodbye Fuji, it’s been emotional.
Made a return to the drift racing today and took a few shots. First one I reviewed on the computer seemed a bit drab, but it perked up when I converted it to black and white. So I did the same to all of them.
Panasonic GX1 with Panasonic 100-300mm lens
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