Jane Bown (Audio)

Interview with Jane Bown

Jane Bown has been a photographer for over 50 years, spanning from the end of the Second World War onwards.

She is known for photographing many famous faces, and has a refreshingly simple approach to her art. She works in black and white, without special lighting and prefers to not know anything about her subjects. She became known for take portraits within ten minutes and sounds understated and appears the same, approaching most shoots with no other equipment than the camera. She has captured some really iconic images of really iconic people.

She was interviewed on Woman's Hour a few weeks ago, and I have uploaded the interview here as an .mp3 for you to listen to or download.

She's really interesting to listen to, and you can see more about her, and her work:

• Jane Bown Gallery (Observer)



• Jane Bown (Wikipedia)



• Jane Bown (National Portrait Gallery)

World-Wide Moment

This looks an interesting project, though the time zones thing could be confusing.

Anyhow, could be fun.

I thought that this might be of interest for some of you. More details and photos from past World Wide Moments can be found at www.worldwidemoment.com. I hope some of you will participate! Here's the gist of it:

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In 18 days I would like to host a new World Wide Moment.

The code will be:

00:00_01.01.08-YTZ

That's midnight_January 1st, 2008-Your Time Zone.

Simply put: World Wide Moment is a large-scale photo experiment where everyone takes a photograph at the same moment.

So if you believe in this project and have suggestions for how to spread this idea to people in other countries, or to new people in the U.S. who have not participated in WWM-IV, please let us know!

Thanks!
-Brett Brownell aka Benji
Host/Creator WorldWideMoment
worldwidemoment@gmail.com
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Local Newspaper Publication

The TJ Hughes 'Hug' photo I posted about here has been published in the Sheffield Star.

I missed it myself, but have been told by others who saw it. I'm rather pleased!

Supertram in Motion

DSC_4924, originally uploaded by incurable_hippie.

Taken in the early evening on Wednesday in Sheffield city centre, in the rain.

Ninety Smokers by Dan Donovan

Dan Donovan undertook an interesting project. To create a photographic documentary of smoking in the run-up to the smoking ban. He photographed smokers, smoking in places where it would soon become illegal.

I undertook this project with the aim of taking a series of portraits of smokers in locations that will be affected by the smoking ban; to archive the final moments of their freedom to smoke publicly.
This collection of work isn’t about either promoting or vilifying the act of smoking; it’s intended to capture an honest representation of smoking culture in Britain pre-July 2007.
The act of smoking has been increasingly demonised over the last number of years and these portraits take in individuals from all over England, from every walk of life, who were prepared to make a visual statement of their objection to being represented in this negative way.
The people here are law-abiding citizens who would be committing a criminal offence if they posed for a photograph in the same location today.

Interesting extra:

On my travels I met up with two people who work in the field of mental health, Kate Parry in Oxfordshire and Steve Thompson in Derbyshire. Steve says Nicotine has been shown to reduce the side-effects of psychoactive medication – more than 90 per cent of people with schizophrenia smoke, and nicotine is being used by self-medicating sufferers. Steve has been challenging attempts to try and outlaw smoking for patients.

You can see his collection of ninety smokers, and read the story behind it on his website.

TJ Hughes sends you a hug

TJ Hughes sends you a hug, originally uploaded by incurable_hippie.

with their faulty lighting, in Sheffield city centre tonight.

My Favourite Favourite

grace, originally uploaded by _rebekka.

Looking through my contacts' photos on flickr this evening, by far my favourite is this by Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir.

Amazing perspective, colours, composition and atmosphere.

NPR - Think Pink

America's National Public Radio blog has used one of my photos :-)



They used it in an interesting entry about the commercialisation of breast cancer research 'products' which is a concern I have shared. I'm wary of the 'spend, spend, spend' and branding issues when we often don't know how much money from any given 'pink' product goes to cancer research, and there are usually better ways to help. Not to mention many of the 'pink' beauty etc. products which contain untold numbers of chemicals, some of which have possible links to causing cancer!

So, very glad they chose my photo in the first place, extra glad that it's accompanying an interesting article!

What is NPR?
NPR (National Public Radio) is an internationally acclaimed producer and distributor of noncommercial news, talk, and entertainment programming. A privately supported, not-for-profit membership organization, NPR serves a growing audience of 26 million Americans each week in partnership with more than 860 independently operated, noncommercial public radio stations. Each NPR Member Station serves local listeners with a distinctive combination of national and local programming. With original online content and audio streaming, NPR.org offers hourly newscasts, special features and ten years of archived audio and information.

Dreams. Edited in Photoshop CS3

Dreams, originally uploaded by incurable_hippie.

Original image:

1. Select the statue using the magnetic lasso tool
2. Select > Modify > Feather > 5
   
3. Image > Adjustments > Black and White
   
4. Adjust the colours until the angel is how you want it.
   
5. Select > Inverse
   
6. Filter > Blur > Radial Blur
   
7. Adjust the settings until the background is how you want it to be.
   
8. Image > Adjustments > Hue & Saturation.
   
9. Adjust the 'hue' until the background is how you want it.
   
10. Select > Deselect
    
11. Filter > Render > Lens Flare
    
12. Move the lens flare to behind the statue's head.
    
13. Filter > Render > Lighting Effects > Light Type > Omni
    
14. Adjust all settings until it looks right. I moved the light to the statue's hands and adjusted the over / under exposure settings.
    

Free Burma

Free Burma, originally uploaded by incurable_hippie.

Burma

There are amazing people in Burma risking their lives to take, and spread, word, photographs and film of what is really happening there at the moment.

Two of these people are gmhembree and NaingKo on flickr.

Looking at these photos, direct from the people witnessing these events is powerful, and brings to mind the huge risks being taken for truth and democracy.

Surveying the Scene

Cats

Some work I've done in the digital darkroom today.

Look What Happened Last Night.

Amazing!



Not at all edited (yet!).

T189 Submissions B.

I have recently completed the Open University's T189 Digital Photography course.

As part of the final assignment, we had to submit 10 images. The ones I submitted are below (6 - 10)



Manor Lodge under a Moody Sky


Angled Red Brick Building and Clock on a Sunny Day


Capturing the Parenting of a New Chick


Brightly Coloured Market in a Park


The Bride Was a Vision in Scarlet

T189 Submissions A.

I have recently completed the Open University's T189 Digital Photography course.

As part of the final assignment, we had to submit 10 images. The ones I submitted are below (1 - 5)


Birds of Paradise in the Winter Gardens


Flower Standing Out from the Crowd


The Golden Glow of Tulips


Julia's Arrangement of Flowers


Two Gravestones and Their Overgrown Companion

Photography Links: social change and political change, photography blogs.

Social / Political change through Photography:

Photography contest promotes healthy image of aboriginal peoples

Lesbian Photography - Blatant Image

Tee Corinne, Photographer

Discussion on Representation of the Female Form in Photography

Photography blogs:

FEM Photo Blog

mjau

Silly Photo Stuff - Celebrity Lookalikes!

http://www.myheritage.com

BBC Britain in Pictures

The BBC had a recent series on BBC4, called Britain in Pictures, where photographers were encouraged to send in their photos of Britain's buildings. For recent weeks, a 'red button' channel on the BBC's digital network has been showing some of the pictures, in rotation, that members of the public have submitted.

I was rather overjoyed to find that (at least) 3 of my photos were shown on TV.

These were:

Manor Lodge, Sheffield


Hutton's Buildings, Sheffield


and Scarborough Castle

Interesting Links

Been gathering these for too long, without posting. Apologies, therefore, for length and lack of form!

The Center for Fine Art Photography

Kiyoji Otsuji's photo art : Arts Weekend : Features : DAILY YOMIURI ONLINE (The Daily Yomiuri)

San Francisco Sentinel » Blog Archives » HIROSHI SUGIMOTO – Retrospective of photographer’s work at the de Young Museum, July 7th – September 23rd

Photographs of Photographers. Shame that pornification gets everywhere though >:-(

'Real Photographer' Keith Arnatt At The Photographers' Gallery - 24 Hour Museum - official guide to UK museums, galleries, exhibitions and heritage

Royalty free photography on SnapVillage | Digital Camera Review

Teaching photography just one part of Greg Spira’s plan to help indigenous Bolivian women find a political voice

Understanding Histograms

Introduction to Filters for DSLRs

northjersey.com - Montclair Times Community

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Photos bridge Arab-Israeli divide

How to love photography | Reviews | Visual Arts | Arts | Telegraph

Your majesty, you were one of the luckier subjects . . . - Times Online

TrustedReviews - Photography Tutorial – Dynamic Range And How To Fake It

Making a Modern Photo Look 'Vintage' using Elements.

Turning this:

into this:

1. Open the image you want to work on


2. Check you are working in 'RGB' mode (Image > Mode >RGB)


3. Duplicate background layer


4. Window > Artwork & Effects


5. In the Artwork & Effects palette on the right, choose the third icon along, then below, choose Photo Effects and Image Effects


6. Highlight 'Tint Sepia' and drag the highlighted icon onto your image


7. Filter > Noise > Add Noise


8. Alter this as appropriate


9. Bottom left - set foreground colour to a cream colour


10. Layer > Fill Layer > Solid Colour
    
11. Select the cream colour you chose. OK


12. With your Colour Fill layer highlighted, but its 'eye' icon deselected (so you are working on the fill layer, but can't see it), use Elliptical Marquee Tool to draw an oval around the part of the image to be framed. Use the arrow keys to move the shape around


13. Select > Feather > 25 (or so, experiment!)


14. Make sure the Colour Fill layer is selected, and select the 'eye' icon to its left, then Edit > Delete


15. This will show you the image in sepia, surrounded by a cream frame


16. When you are happy, Select > Deselect


17. If the framed image is off-centre, then Layer > Merge Down will merge the frame and sepia layers


18. Highlight Background Copy layer and Fill Layer as before, using exactly the same Foreground colour which should still be selected


19. Reselect sepia framed layer and select the Move tool. Move the image to a central point, then deselect


20. Layer > Flatten image

Sheffield Pick of the Week

Flickr Sheffield POTW #54 - andy2boyz «

Andy2boyz has made my night by picking one of my pics for the Sheffield Flickr blog.

He has also posed questions about whether the colour is manipulated... make your own mind up!

Long Exposure Photography - ThinkCamera Features

Long Exposure Photography - ThinkCamera Features

How to: Painting with Light

Warholisation - How I Did It in Photoshop Elements

1. Open a portrait, ideally a head or head and shoulders shot.


2. Layer > Duplicate Layer


3. Filter > Stylize > Solarize


4. Filter > Adjustments > Invert


5. Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Brightness and Contrast


6. Play around with the brightness and contrast settings until you are happy.


7. Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue and Saturation


8. Play around, especially with different hues, until you are pleased with the resulting colours


9. Using magnetic lasso tool, draw around the shoulders, neck, hair, head etc.


10. Right click on the image and choose 'Select Inverse'


11. Right click on image, click Feather


12. Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Colour


13. Pick your Colour. Press OK.


14. Crop the image if necessary


15. Layer > Flatten Image


16. Save your image

BBC Britain in Pictures

The following of my photos are on the BBC Britain in Pictures website. How excited am I?! (I can't view that page with firefox btw).

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Park Hill flats, Sheffield.






Jessop Hospital for Women, Sheffield


Claywood Flats, Sheffield - Demolition by Nibbler


Weston Park Museum, Sheffield




Firth Court, University of Sheffield


Sheffield Town Hall


Winter Gardens, Sheffield

Self-Portrait Challenge - Online Tools 2.

Following my first of the online tools self-portrait challenges, here is my second.



It was created using the warholizer from fd's flickr toys.

My flickr page is here, and visit also the self-portrait challenge homepage.

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Technorati tags: self-portrait challenge; andy warhol; incurable_hippie; self-portrait; digital imagery.

Self-Portrait Challenge.

texturised mini me
Originally uploaded by incurable_hippie.

Using the very clever textorizer tool, I created this self-portrait of me long ago.

Cool tools they suggest:


• Queeky - drawing tool.
  
  
• offtype - drawing tool
  
  
• artpad - painting tool
  
  
• scribbler
  
  
• flashface - make a face using many variables
  
  
• typedrawing - draw an image with letters
  
  
• websketch
  
  
• Mr Picasso Head - fun make a face tool
  
  
• textorizer - turn your photo into a text image
  
  
• face transformer
  
  
• polaroid-o-nizer - turn your photos into polaroids
  
  
• typorganism - turn your photo into type
  
  
• pikipimp - change your photos
  
  
• movie poster - flickr tools
  
  
• hockney-izer - flickr tools
  
  
• million masterpiece - image community.
  

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Technorati tags: self-portrait; self-portrait challenge; incurable_hippie; textorizer.

Cool Photography and Flickr links

Top Ten Hacks on Flickr

How to Photograph Smoke

M.I.L.K.

fd's Flickr Toys



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flickr; photography links; photography; incurable hippie.

January Competition Winner :)

My photograph, Glow Sticks, won the Digital Photography UK January competition, theme Twisted, and will be their homepage photo throughout February.

I'm made up!

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competition winner; glow sticks; photography; incurable hippie; digitalphotographyuk; photo.

'Movement Photography' Assignment

Passing Traffic


Zooming to Hospital


Ghostly People


Morris Dancers


Fire Spinning


Seagull Takes Flight

The six photos I submitted for my Motion Photography college assignment.

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Technorati tags: photography; motion photography; incurable_hippie; movement.